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Bob Villa Excorcism

By Nathan | July 5, 2008

Here’s the slideshow of our backyard and frontyard transformation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54527159@N00/show/

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Remembering…

By Nathan | July 5, 2008

I often stream Napster while working.

Today, the kids and wife went to the zoo so I could get some needed work done with both Walden and Christ. I decided to stream Yanni. I am a closet New Agey type. But, the particular album called “In My Time” has a series of pieces that bring back the memories of my first two years in doctoral school when I had the fortune of staying home with my daughter who at the time was just around 1.

I would frequently play the album “In My Life” and repeat the song “In the Morning Light” while rocking Miss Simone in the afternoon. We had a two-bedroom apartment that was cheap and absolutely to die for. Her bedroom was nestled by large oak trees and in the late afternoon, we would get a good stream of sunlight through the trees and often a nice breeze that would make for quite the cozy environment to lull a little one to sleep. Rocking her in the afternoons was and is perhaps one of the most reassuring and love-filled moments I have had as a father; during those long rocking sessions, I often reflected on how beautiful this little human being was, and while wanting her to stay little forever, I knew that one day she would grow up and become her own woman, making her way in this insane world. I also thought about what is life was all about.

The entire album brings me back to those days as a stay-at-home dad, days I strangely yearn for again. The power of music - even Yanni - is amazing.

To Simone…

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Bush Tours America in Wake of Devastation

By Nathan | July 5, 2008

[youtube
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency]

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Hiatus

By Nathan | June 27, 2008

It’s been over3 months since I last updated the blog and there’s so much to write about and so little time.

Of course the no-news news is that history has been made with the almost-sealed nomination of Senator Obama. I have supported him from the start and believe his candidacy is not only necessary, but vital to our overall survival as a country. The failed politics of Mr. Bush and company and lack of visionary leadership has created a sense of desolation and isolation. I am not an Obama-maniac: I do not believe that one person can be the answer to all of our problems; however, recognizing his gifted leadership abilities and vision, I believe his message will gain traction.

Today marks the end of a long process. 4-plus years ago, The Christ Hospital School of Nursing began conversion to a degree-granting program. Tonight, we graduate our first class. It is a moment of excitement for the institution. I will admit that I have grown increasingly tired with the long hours devoted to nurturing (I know - whine with cheese, please), but there is a large element of satisfaction. While I can certainly not take credit for all of this, I am proud that I laid the foundation for a program that in my view has deep integrity and academic rigor, a phenomenal writing across the curriculum program, signature courses, and a host of terrific teaching faculty. At some point, it will be time for me to move on and allow someone else to bring their leadership to the table and nurture the general education program. Tonight, I am reveling in the graduation, proudly watching our first class move onward.

Since March, Walden has kept me busy as well. I have happily watched several of my students move on from doctoral candidates to doctors. Their contributions to the scholarly field have all been quite rigorous and substantive. For those that are skeptical of online education, Walden - while certainly having issues like any institution - has found stability in large part through ensuring high-level quality of its graduates. And, I must say that I have been fortunate to have some amazingly competent advisees. Here’s the listing so far:

The family is doing well. As I type, Leo is staring forlornly into the dark recesses of our bedroom hoping beyond hope that his sister returns home soon as she has been gone for 2 weeks visiting both sets of grandparents. Kim’s photography business is taking off and her artistry continues to amaze me. My niece, Amanda, recently graduated from high school, a moment I am quite proud of for her given the struggles she faced. Her future is exciting and I can’t wait to see what she does with her life.

And then there’s my dear friend Dawn Bellinger - the woman who cajoled me into doctoral work in educational foundations. While never graduating herself, her intelligence and compassion are unmatched (with the exception of my wife, of course). At 50 years, Dawn is getting married for the first time to a man who sounds like a prince.

Life has been full, yet satisfying. My hope is to maintain a presence on the blog. I really find it to be a therapeutic source. My original schedule may prove daunting, but I will try and adhere to it.

At any rate, it’s good to breathe again.

NAL

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Topics: Family and Friends, Education, General | 2 Comments »

Family Photo Update

By Nathan | March 6, 2008

Some recent pics…

Topics: Family and Friends, General | 1 Comment »

The Pendulum: K-12 Education in Perspective

By Nathan | March 6, 2008

The following piece titled “My Pedagogic Creed” penned by John Dewey served as one of the primary scholarly foundations of the early Progressive movement in education. Dewey’s composition serves as an excellent springboard with respect to the pendulum effect in education. Throughout the early 20th century, education went through what is called a progressive period in which experience and education were construed as necessary elements to the effective education of a child. As the century wore on, traditionalists or back-to-basics advocates maintained that such progressive elements negatively impacted knowledge acquisition among children. We have seen this pendulum swing back-and-forth even more aggressively throughout the tail-end of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st century. Educationalists have seemed to swing back towards a reactionary Deweyism (not that I disagree with all of his tenets), embracing a mold of Postmodern Constructivism seemingly born out of the post-industrial era we find ourselves in now.

Below is Dewey’s entire tract thanks to Informal Education.Org (www.infed.org).

Dewey, John (1897) ‘My pedagogic creed’, The School Journal, Volume LIV, Number 3 (January 16, 1897), pages 77-80. Also available in the informal education archives, http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/e-dew-pc.htm

ARTICLE I–What Education Is

I believe that all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. This process begins unconsciously almost at birth, and is continually shaping the individual’s powers, saturating his consciousness, forming his habits, training his ideas, and arousing his feelings and emotions. Through this unconscious education the individual gradually comes to share in the intellectual and moral resources which humanity has succeeded in getting together. He becomes an inheritor of the funded capital of civilization. The most formal and technical education in the world cannot safely depart from this general process. It can only organize it or differentiate it in some particular direction.

I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself. Through these demands he is stimulated to act as a member of a unity, to emerge from his original narrowness of action and feeling, and to conceive of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs. Through the responses which others make to his own activities he comes to know what these mean in social terms. The value which they have is reflected back into them. For instance, through the response which is made to the child’s instinctive babblings the child comes to know what those babblings mean; they are transformed into articulate language and thus the child is introduced into the consolidated wealth of ideas and emotions which are now summed up in language.

I believe that this educational process has two sides-one psychological and one sociological; and that neither can be subordinated to the other or neglected without evil results following. Of these two sides, the psychological is the basis. The child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education. Save as the efforts of the educator connect with some activity which the child is carrying on of his own initiative independent of the educator, education becomes reduced to a pressure from without. It may, indeed, give certain external results, but cannot truly be called educative. Without insight into the psychological structure and activities of the individual, the educative process will, therefore, be haphazard and arbitrary. If it chances to coincide with the child’s activity it will get a leverage; if it does not, it will result in friction, or disintegration, or arrest of the child nature.

I believe that knowledge of social conditions, of the present state of civilization, is necessary in order properly to interpret the child’s powers. The child has his own instincts and tendencies, but we do not know what these mean until we can translate them into their social equivalents. We must be able to carry them back into a social past and see them as the inheritance of previous race activities. We must also be able to project them into the future to see what their outcome and end will be. In the illustration just used, it is the ability to see in the child’s babblings the promise and potency of a future social intercourse and conversation which enables one to deal in the proper way with that instinct.

I believe that the psychological and social sides are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other. We are told that the psychological definition of education is barren and formal–that it gives us only the idea of a development of all the mental powers without giving us any idea of the use to which these powers are put. On the other hand, it is urged that the social definition of education, as getting adjusted to civilization, makes of it a forced and external process, and results in subordinating the freedom of the individual to a preconceived social and political status.

I believe that each of these objections is true when urged against one side isolated from the other. In order to know what a power really is we must know what its end, use, or function is; and this we cannot know save as we conceive of the individual as active in social relationships. But, on the other hand, the only possible adjustment which we can give to the child under existing conditions, is that which arises through putting him in complete possession of all his powers. With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judgment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work, and the executive forces be trained to act economically and efficiently. It is impossible to reach this sort of adjustment save as constant regard is had to the individual’s own powers, tastes, and interests-say, that is, as education is continually converted into psychological terms.

In sum, I believe that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual and that society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor from the child we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the individual factor from society, we are left only with an inert and lifeless mass. Education, therefore, must begin with a psychological insight into the child’s capacities, interests, and habits. It must be controlled at every point by reference to these same considerations. These powers, interests, and habits must be continually interpreted–we must know what they mean. They must be translated into terms of their social equivalents–into terms of what they are capable of in the way of social service.

ARTICLE II–What the School Is

I believe that the school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends.

I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.

I believe that the school must represent present life-life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground.

I believe that education which does not occur through forms of life, or that are worth living for their own sake, is always a poor substitute for the genuine reality and tends to cramp and to deaden.

I believe that the school, as an institution, should simplify existing social life; should reduce it, as it were, to an embryonic form. Existing life is so complex that the child cannot be brought into contact with it without either confusion or distraction; he is either overwhelmed by the multiplicity of activities which are going on, so that he loses his own power of orderly reaction, or he is so stimulated by these various activities that his powers are prematurely called into play and he becomes either unduly specialized or else disintegrated.

I believe that as such simplified social life, the school life should grow gradually out of the home life; that it should take up and continue the activities with which the child is already familiar in the home.

I believe that it should exhibit these activities to the child, and reproduce them in such ways that the child will gradually learn the meaning of them, and be capable of playing his own part in relation to them.

I believe that this is a psychological necessity, because it is the only way of securing continuity in the child’s growth, the only way of giving a back-ground of past experience to the new ideas given in school.

I believe that it is also a social necessity because the home is the form of social life in which the child has been nurtured and in connection with which he has had his moral training. It is the business of the school to deepen and extend his sense of the values bound up in his home life.

I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be ]earned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparation. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative.

I believe that the moral education centers upon this conception of the school as a mode of social life, that the best and deepest moral training is precisely that which one gets through having to enter into proper relations with others in a unity of work and thought. The present educational systems, so far as they destroy or neglect this unity, render it difficult or impossible to get any genuine, regular moral training.

I believe that the child should be stimulated and controlled in his work through the life of the community.

I believe that under existing conditions far too much of the stimulus and control proceeds from the teacher, because of neglect of the idea of the school as a form of social life.

I believe that the teacher’s place and work in the school is to be interpreted from this same basis. The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences.

I believe that the discipline of the school should proceed from the life of the school as a whole and not directly from the teacher.

I believe that the teacher’s business is simply to determine on the basis of larger experience and riper wisdom, how the discipline of life shall come to the child.

I believe that all questions of the grading of the child and his promotion should be determined by reference to the same standard. Examinations are of use only so far as they test the child’s fitness for social life and reveal the place in which he can be of the most service and where he can receive the most help.

ARTICLE III–The Subject-Matter of Education

I believe that the social life of the child is the basis of concentration, or correlation, in all his training or growth. The social life gives the unconscious unity and the background of all his efforts and of all his attainments.

I believe that the subject-matter of the school curriculum should mark a gradual differentiation out of the primitive unconscious unity of social life.

I believe that we violate the child’s nature and render difficult the best ethical results, by introducing the child too abruptly to a number of special studies, of reading, writing, geography, etc., out of relation to this social life.

I believe, therefore, that the true center of correlation on the school subjects is not science, nor literature, nor history, nor geography, but the child’s own social activities.

I believe that education cannot be unified in the study of science, or so called nature study, because apart from human activity, nature itself is not a unity; nature in itself is a number of diverse objects in space and time, and to attempt to make it the center of work by itself, is to introduce a principle of radiation rather than one of concentration.

I believe that literature is the reflex expression and interpretation of social experience; that hence it must follow upon and not precede such experience. It, therefore, cannot be made the basis, although it may be made the summary of unification.

I believe once more that history is of educative value in so far as it presents phases of social life and growth. It must be controlled by reference to social life. When taken simply as history it is thrown into the distant past and becomes dead and inert. Taken as the record of man’s social life and progress it becomes full of meaning. I believe, however, that it cannot be so taken excepting as the child is also introduced directly into social life.

I believe accordingly that the primary basis of education is in the child’s powers at work along the same general constructive lines as those which have brought civilization into being.

I believe that the only way to make the child conscious of his social heritage is to enable him to perform those fundamental types of activity which make civilization what it is.

I believe, therefore, in the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the center of correlation.

I believe that this gives the standard for the place of cooking, sewing, manual training, etc., in the school.

I believe that they are not special studies which are to be introduced over and above a lot of others in the way of relaxation or relief, or as additional accomplishments. I believe rather that they represent, as types, fundamental forms of social activity; and that it is possible and desirable that the child’s introduction into the more formal subjects of the curriculum be through the medium of these activities.

I believe that the study of science is educational in so far as it brings out the materials and processes which make social life what it is.

I believe that one of the greatest difficulties in the present teaching of science is that the material is presented in purely objective form, or is treated as a new peculiar kind of experience which the child can add to that which he has already had. In reality, science is of value because it gives the ability to interpret and control the experience already had. It should be introduced, not as so much new subject-matter, but as showing the factors already involved in previous experience and as furnishing tools by which that experience can be more easily and effectively regulated.

I believe that at present we lose much of the value of literature and language studies because of our elimination of the social element. Language is almost always treated in the books of pedagogy simply as the expression of thought. It is true that language is a logical instrument, but it is fundamentally and primarily a social instrument. Language is the device for communication; it is the tool through which one individual comes to share the ideas and feelings of others. When treated simply as a way of getting individual information, or as a means of showing off what one has learned, it loses its social motive and end.

I believe that there is, therefore, no succession of studies in the ideal school curriculum. If education is life, all life has, from the outset, a scientific aspect, an aspect of art and culture, and an aspect of communication. It cannot, therefore, be true that the proper studies for one grade are mere reading and writing, and that at a later grade, reading, or literature, or science, may be introduced. The progress is not in the succession of studies but in the development of new attitudes towards, and new interests in, experience.

I believe finally, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the same thing.

I believe that to set up any end outside of education, as furnishing its goal and standard, is to deprive the educational process of much of its meaning and tends to make us rely upon false and external stimuli in dealing with the child.

ARTICLE IV–The Nature of Method

I believe that the question of method is ultimately reducible to the question of the order of development of the child’s powers and interests. The law for presenting and treating material is the law implicit within the child’s own nature. Because this is so I believe the following statements are of supreme importance as determining the spirit in which education is carried on:

1. I believe that the active side precedes the passive in the development of the child nature; that expression comes before conscious impression; that the muscular development precedes the sensory; that movements come before conscious sensations; I believe that consciousness is essentially motor or impulsive; that conscious states tend to project themselves in action.

I believe that the neglect of this principle is the cause of a large part of the waste of time and strength in school work. The child is thrown into a passive, receptive, or absorbing attitude. The conditions are such that he is not permitted to follow the law of his nature; the result is friction and waste.

I believe that ideas (intellectual and rational processes) also result from action and devolve for the sake of the better control of action. What we term reason is primarily the law of orderly or effective action. To attempt to develop the reasoning powers, the powers of judgment, without reference to the selection and arrangement of means in action, is the fundamental fallacy in our present methods of dealing with this matter. As a result we present the child with arbitrary symbols. Symbols are a necessity in mental development, but they have their place as tools for economizing effort; presented by themselves they are a mass of meaningless and arbitrary ideas imposed from without.

2. I believe that the image is the great instrument of instruction. What a child gets out of any subject presented to him is simply the images which he himself forms with regard to it.

I believe that if nine tenths of the energy at present directed towards making the child learn certain things, were spent in seeing to it that the child was forming proper images, the work of instruction would be indefinitely facilitated.

I believe that much of the time and attention now given to the preparation and presentation of lessons might be more wisely and profitably expended in training the child’s power of imagery and in seeing to it that he was continually forming definite, vivid, and growing images of the various subjects with which he comes in contact in his experience.

3. I believe that interests are the signs and symptoms of growing power. I believe that they represent dawning capacities. Accordingly the constant and careful observation of interests is of the utmost importance for the educator.

I believe that these interests are to be observed as showing the state of development which the child has reached.

I believe that they prophesy the stage upon which he is about to enter.

I believe that only through the continual and sympathetic observation of childhood’s interests can the adult enter into the child’s life and see what it is ready for, and upon what material it could work most readily and fruitfully.

I believe that these interests are neither to be humored nor repressed. To repress interest is to substitute the adult for the child, and so to weaken intellectual curiosity and alertness, to suppress initiative, and to deaden interest. To humor the interests is to substitute the transient for the permanent. The interest is always the sign of some power below; the important thing is to discover this power. To humor the interest is to fail to penetrate below the surface and its sure result is to substitute caprice and whim for genuine interest.

4. I believe that the emotions are the reflex of actions.

I believe that to endeavor to stimulate or arouse the emotions apart from their corresponding activities, is to introduce an unhealthy and morbid state of mind.

I believe that if we can only secure right habits of action and thought, with reference to the good, the true, and the beautiful, the emotions will for the most part take care of themselves.

I believe that next to deadness and dullness, formalism and routine, our education is threatened with no greater evil than sentimentalism.

I believe that this sentimentalism is the necessary result of the attempt to divorce feeling from action.

ARTICLE V-The School and Social Progress

I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.

I believe that all reforms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile.

I believe that education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction.

I believe that this conception has due regard for both the individualistic and socialistic ideals. It is duly individual because it recognizes the formation of a certain character as the only genuine basis of right living. It is socialistic because it recognizes that this right character is not to be formed by merely individual precept, example, or exhortation, but rather by the influence of a certain form of institutional or community life upon the individual, and that the social organism through the school, as its organ, may determine ethical results.

I believe that in the ideal school we have the reconciliation of the individualistic and the institutional ideals.

I believe that the community’s duty to education is, therefore, its paramount moral duty. By law and punishment, by social agitation and discussion, society can regulate and form itself in a more or less haphazard and chance way. But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move.

I believe that when society once recognizes the possibilities in this direction, and the obligations which these possibilities impose, it is impossible to conceive of the resources of time, attention, and money which will be put at the disposal of the educator.

I believe that it is the business of every one interested in education to insist upon the school as the primary and most effective interest of social progress and reform in order that society may be awakened to realize what the school stands for, and aroused to the necessity of endowing the educator with sufficient equipment properly to perform his task.

I believe that education thus conceived marks the most perfect and intimate union of science and art conceivable in human experience.

I believe that the art of thus giving shape to human powers and adapting them to social service, is the supreme art; one calling into its service the best of artists; that no insight, sympathy, tact, executive power, is too great for such service.

I believe that with the growth of psychological service, giving added insight into individual structure and laws of growth; and with growth of social science, adding to our knowledge of the right organization of individuals, all scientific resources can be utilized for the purposes of education.

I believe that when science and art thus join hands the most commanding motive for human action will be reached; the most genuine springs of human conduct aroused and the best service that human nature is capable of guaranteed.

I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life.

I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth.

I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God.

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Topics: Teacher Education, Education, Higher Education | No Comments »

General Whatever

By Nathan | March 5, 2008

Dispatch 1: March 5th, 2008

I am in mourning. Early results showed a possible trouncing by Obama. Now, we’re in a situation that will possibly likely result in a Clinton-Obama ticket since she trounced him in Ohio, Rhode Island, and to some extent in Texas. I know, I know: he still has more delegates, but this is a huge change in dynamics that those on the Obama side were desperately hoping against (HA! The audacity of hope). It’s so typical of Ohio to simply go with what’s comfortable.

I can’t handle another 4-8 years of Clinton. I may need to vote for Nader. Someone give me 10 good reasons (viable ones, only) to vote for her should she be the nominee?

To add insult to injury, some idiot stole my two Obama yard signs. Moreover, I was disappointed to see the Hamilton country ballot stacked by the two parties…I would like a bit more choice in my election soup, thank you very much.

On the upside, Wulsin won and the school levy passed, though barely.

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Topics: News, Politics, General | 2 Comments »

College Professor Mailbag

By Nathan | March 4, 2008

3.4.2008

No entry for this week. I will begin this next week.

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Thoughts of a College Administrator

By Nathan | March 3, 2008

Dispatch #1: March 4th, 2008

I thought I would deal with one pressing issue that often comes up when talking about college administration: the we-they phenomenon.

In my time as a dean, faculty member (full- and adjunct), and student affairs administration, the we-they phenomenon has been something I have taken particular note of. Indeed, I have participated in the ‘we’ side and the ‘they’ side and I have wondered how higher education organizations can best eliminate much of this.

The ‘We’ Side

From the ‘we’ or faculty side, administration is seen as obsessed with numbers. From enrollment counts to revenue sources, the faculty see deans and directors as mere bean counters who thrive on Excel spreadsheets, parsing out mean scores on evaluations, and using as few faculty members as possible to accomplish a task. I will admit as a faculty member I fell into this argument and there is a lot of truth to what is observed. Yet, until filling the role of an administrator, I never did see the complexities that exist; as a dean, I have also witnessed this near obsession in my own practice and how, unless one is careful, it can consume you (more on this in a moment).

Another criticism faculty have is the nauseatingly endless ambition that drives many administrators. We call this (or at least those I have known call it) the “upward trajectory phenomenon”. Few deans and directors ever stay in a position long enough to impact change and see it through. Instead, administrators are often working on the next resume entry, demonstrating to future employers their worth. Often, faculty have a right to criticize these obsessed administrator creatures, some who seem to thrive on Machiavellian principles and whose decisions are driven solely on how such decisions will positively influence the next job hunt. This nomadic drift and focus on upward trajectory is common, but sad, and creates instability, distrust, and a sense that the goals of education are lost on those constituencies administrators have been asked to serve.

Bloated salaries never seem to help, either. When faculty here of deans and directors making in some case two or three times what they make, there is a natural visceral response. What is it that these administrators do that requires larger salaries, bonuses, cars, special parking spots, dining privileges, and the like?

The ‘They’ Side

As administrators, we do obsess over numbers. In my own practice, I try to gear my obsession with numbers, revenue, et cetera, towards the mission and vision of the school. For example, we say at The Christ College that we want our students to have a values-based, broad-based education that inspires life long learning. To do that, it was and still is my belief, we need full-time general education science and liberal studies faculty that can ensure a thorough execution of the curriculum. Nevertheless, money is also a driving force. Without it, we can’t begin to offer the curriculum we want to deliver. We can’t maintain a workforce without it. In our case, we have and continue to take risks to press forward the issue of quality. Again, this requires enrollments and revenue. It’s an ugly position to be in and I don’t relish the day - which I hope never comes - when monetary trumps human capital. But,the key point is that I work to consistently apply the values of the institution to my strategic planning processes.

As for the second issue, we are short-term creatures. Administrators find themselves needing to impact change. In doing so, such change can be a painful process. As with any catalyst for change, periodic leadership shifts and changes seem necessary to ensure that faculty and staff have the opportunity to re-engage. Perhaps that’s tortured logic. But, let’s put it this way: If I were to stay in my role at Christ for more than a decade, would that help or hinder the division of general education? Depending on the person you talk to, the time spent there is critical, but so to is the time NOT spent there. Allowing the changes to work under new leadership can have the effect of helping said changes to thrive. Of course,  these changes have the potential to die as well, but if the program is designed effectively, the desired result is that personalities and styles will change, not the essence of the actual program.

So let’s deal with the issue of salaries. I am a class conscious fellow and recognize that salaries are often out of whack with the reality of typical jobs. In educational administration, however, the one “protection” given is that of a higher salary to off set firings as a result of budgetary constraints, new administrative leadership, or grumpy faculty itching for a change. Think of it as a monetary-based “tenure” system. While an administrator doesn’t have the job security that say a professor of sociology has (with tenure), the higher salary - if properly invested - can serve as a cushion when (not if) the fall occurs. This of course does not take into account the trending towards clinical and part-time faculty in institutions of higher education…that’s for another sermon on another day. I think it’s also important to note that along with that administrative salary comes a great deal of responsibility in terms of curriculum planning, faculty evaluation, strategic planning, budget, alumni relations, community engagement initiatives, and the like. Failure on some or all of these fronts is typically not an option. Given this, while it may seem to some that salaries are bloated, it is necessary to consider the risks and pitfalls and responsibilities associated with administrative positions.

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Topics: Teacher Education, Education, Higher Education, General | No Comments »

Education News: Politicians Lack Spine to Improve Education

By Nathan | March 2, 2008

In the February 26th, 2008 Education Week article titled Education Gets Short Shrift at Governors’ Winter Meeting, we are treated to more of the same garbage coming from politicians, especially ignorant Republicans. While the thrust of the article’s focus is to emphasize the lack of attention governors are giving to education at their national meeting, what should be more apparent is the agenda Governor Carcieri is proposing. This agenda continues to demonstrate a continued lack of real understanding related to education. These politically spineless blowhards fail to really comprehend issues that exist in K-12 education, other than using such issues as the occasional football or perhaps more aptly, sledgehammer.

Rhode Island Governor Carcieri proposed three meetings, continuing to address how to Band-aid the educational system (I am sure he would not characterize it as such). Let’s consider what he wants our illustrious governors to focus on in these three meetings:

Turning around struggling schools

How will this occur given the current funding and organizational structures? No one has truly, seriously, or honestly addressed these structures. Like government entitlement programs, changing the way in which schools are funded and organized (locally) is akin to political suicide. Nevertheless, we are treated to more rhetoric, indecision, and Band-aid policies as a result of political cowardice. So what do we do? Well, like massive change in Social Security, in the end we still have to address what schools are for (other than or in addition to supporting the capitalist economy) and once we do this, we might - stress, might - resolve this crisis of struggling schools. Until we become intellectually and socially honest about this very piece, our educational system is not going to evolve. Why? Funding and organization requires unity of mission and purpose which drives organizational and funding structures; we have no such unity. Moreover, when schools are locally controlled, yet hamstrung by federal and state regulations, there is a fundamental disconnect that will occur. Thus, to all my postmodern pals out there, this continues to be a structural issue that will not be resolved until we have structural solutions. Two key pieces come to mind: defining the mission and purpose of education, effectively; and centralization of K-12 institutions, removing or drastically reducing local control, thus effectively changing the organization and funding of schools (assuming of course our mission and purpose align with such an action).

Improving college and work readiness

Here we go again…structural issues need structural solutions. What do we WANT from our primary and secondary institutions as they prepare young people for post-secondary readiness? To reiterate, what IS education, exactly? My friend Wes had the fortune of having an integrated curriculum in a small school environment. In a large urban school (where I attended) the curriculum varied from pathetically reinforcing the status quo to ensuring a unique college pathway for the “smart kids” (AP classes, etc.). One need only look at Cincinnati Public Schools and even the surrounding suburban districts to realize that improving college and work readiness relies on improving K-12 education. This starts with the same processes mentioned above in terms of funding and organization. And, to reiterate, until our politicians receive cojones from on high, there will be no change or improvement.

Examining teacher quality

Here we go AGAIN! A pattern is beginning to emege. If we don’t change the funding and organization of our schools, teacher quality becomes a moot issue. We must ask, again and again, what are schools for? The largest concern of/for the American public school system is rooted in this very question. Are schools designed to reproduce workers for the capitalist economy thus ensuring future workers with core competencies that translate into job skills and behaviors that ensure individualism and competition trump community and collaboration? Or, do we want schools that develop intellects who can fluidly move in and out of diverse environments? Or, do we want a combination of both that ensures skill development relevant to the mode of production (in this case, a post-industrial, service economy) and intellectual development that can easily move between and among the various means of production and processes? Coming to some understanding as to WHAT we want will help to identify what kind of teachers we want. It’s easy to say we want GOOD history teachers, but in the grand scheme what does that mean? When I was working with pre-service college graduate teaching assistants and professors, their view was that content, while important, was not as vital as classroom management. According to them, it’s all about control and process. Content is really the last thing that needs to be addressed. Which leads us to the point: what do we want from our teachers if in fact teaching is really not going on, rather behavior management is the raison d’etre of their daily work? Consider that a feather in the cap for the skills-based educationalists and a negative point allocation for those of us who believe education has more to offer than job skills and behavior management.

Part of this whole behavior management piece revolves around young people that lack supervisions/direction and stability. It is an increasingly well-documented fact that parental involvement is a key ingredient to helping ensure a good learning environment. As importantly, schools need adequate support structures in place that include good social work and counseling, adult and continuing education - including parent support and education courses, and a place in the heart of the community that includes events, political education, and so forth. (Think college on a much more practical, useful level).

Improving teacher quality cannot be done without changing - yep, you guessed it - the structural issues that persist.

Governor Carcieri can continue his efforts to have three meetings by this summer to address these three concerns. However, his efforts are merely window dressing and Band-aids. Until our politicians (and educators) find their spines to initiate structural changes akin to those made during the Progressive era, we are bound to continue revisiting the same issues again and again. I count myself in that crew that needs to get with the program.

NAL

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