Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
His Profession Left Him
I found the letter below on the Washington Post website. It's from a teacher, a teacher of 40 years, who decides the world of education as it exists today is not what he signed up for. I applaud him, and I bet there are many, many more teachers who feel exactly the same. And trust me, there are many parents who agree.
Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219
Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:
It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.
As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest students and educators on the planet.
I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely clich with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy," working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and particularly not at Westhill.
A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass. In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our children?
My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic "assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and "artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America, which seems doubly appropriate to this case.
After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered.
For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and "Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean.
Sincerely and with regret,
Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe
My little Zu
Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219
Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:
It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.
As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest students and educators on the planet.
I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely clich with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy," working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and particularly not at Westhill.
A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass. In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our children?
My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic "assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and "artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America, which seems doubly appropriate to this case.
After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered.
For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and "Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean.
Sincerely and with regret,
Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe
My little Zu
Monday, April 8, 2013
A Step In The Right Direction?
Remember a week or so ago, I told you that the hematologist/oncologist reviewed Ashley's cat scan and ultrasound results and said the problem was an abnormal external iliac vein. She suggested we see a vascular surgeon. And although we have seen many, many specialists over the years, a vascular surgeon is not one of them.
I asked the pediatric group that sees Ashley to recommend someone. It took them a couple of weeks to come up with a name, but at least I have one now. I did a little research on the person they suggested, and he at least as the credentials and experience I am looking for. Later today, I will call for an appointment, and hope that it doesn't take forever to get one, like is sometimes the case with specialists. Then we'll check out his bedside manner and find out if he has ever dealt with a person with significant special needs...
Keep your fingers crossed! I'm really hoping we get some answers sooner rather than later. And oh yea, her leg, ankle and foot are still very swollen.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Easing Into Transition
Transition is kicking my butt. Transition, as in the things that schools should start doing when is student is 14 years old but wait until they are 18 or even older...Transition, as in putting families and students in contact with agencies that will provide support (or not) once the student leaves school. I've been through this twice already, so you would think I might have an easier time with it now. But that just isn't true.
Both Ronnie and Ashley are of the age to begin transition planning. Their school is doing a decent job holding up their end of the deal, and I haven't really pushed yet on the other agencies, so I can't complain too much about them just yet. The part that is kicking my butt is the realization that so very much is about to change.
People always say that children with special needs don't handle change well, especially a child with deafblindness or serious medical issues and deafness. But I think the main issue is that I am not handling change well.
When children approach this time in their lives, parents are forced to accept a future they may fear or dread. Everything is going to change - the security of going to a school setting each day, my knowing that my children are in school; as I've mentioned before, their peers are their same age, not much older adults; and the hardest thing of all for me to accept - my own mortality and wondering what will become of my children who currently depend on me so very much.
Yes, yes, I am doing all I can to make them as independent as possible. Yes, I have made financial decisions for their future. And yes, I will ensure services are in place as they enter adulthood. But then I see Ashley who starts signing 'Momma' whenever I just leave the room for a minute. And Ronnie who has already endured so much abandonment in his life will one day face it again. Will they understand? Ronnie, yes...Ashley, not so much.
And yes, I am an obsessive compulsive person and I make sure everything is how they need it to be. Who will do that for them when they are 30, 40 and 50 years old?
The reason I am sharing all this is that I want school staff and staff from other support agencies to understand that transition is more than just putting services in place. It's also managing change, response to change, and fears about that change. Try to be more sympathetic. Try to couch your discussions less clinically and more empathetically. Try to understand that transition affects more than just the student, and try to know, really know, how life-changing things are going to be for everyone in the family. The student that you show up at an IEP meeting to discuss options with is more, much more than just a student. He is a son, she is a daughter, a brother, a sister, a niece or nephew. Part of a whole, a whole which needs support during times of transition.
Both Ronnie and Ashley are of the age to begin transition planning. Their school is doing a decent job holding up their end of the deal, and I haven't really pushed yet on the other agencies, so I can't complain too much about them just yet. The part that is kicking my butt is the realization that so very much is about to change.
People always say that children with special needs don't handle change well, especially a child with deafblindness or serious medical issues and deafness. But I think the main issue is that I am not handling change well.
When children approach this time in their lives, parents are forced to accept a future they may fear or dread. Everything is going to change - the security of going to a school setting each day, my knowing that my children are in school; as I've mentioned before, their peers are their same age, not much older adults; and the hardest thing of all for me to accept - my own mortality and wondering what will become of my children who currently depend on me so very much.
Yes, yes, I am doing all I can to make them as independent as possible. Yes, I have made financial decisions for their future. And yes, I will ensure services are in place as they enter adulthood. But then I see Ashley who starts signing 'Momma' whenever I just leave the room for a minute. And Ronnie who has already endured so much abandonment in his life will one day face it again. Will they understand? Ronnie, yes...Ashley, not so much.
And yes, I am an obsessive compulsive person and I make sure everything is how they need it to be. Who will do that for them when they are 30, 40 and 50 years old?
The reason I am sharing all this is that I want school staff and staff from other support agencies to understand that transition is more than just putting services in place. It's also managing change, response to change, and fears about that change. Try to be more sympathetic. Try to couch your discussions less clinically and more empathetically. Try to understand that transition affects more than just the student, and try to know, really know, how life-changing things are going to be for everyone in the family. The student that you show up at an IEP meeting to discuss options with is more, much more than just a student. He is a son, she is a daughter, a brother, a sister, a niece or nephew. Part of a whole, a whole which needs support during times of transition.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Special Exposure Wednesday
There's nothing better than a birthday lunch at your favorite pizzeria! For a child that started life with a G-tube, followed by years of feeding therapy, this is a wonderful sight!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Choices
I need someone to tell me what to do. I have to make what I feel is a very important decision for Ashley, and I am having a difficult time doing that.
Ashley got a slot on our state's Medicaid DD (developmental disabilities) waiver at the end of last year. Having that slot means she can access more services than in the past. I'm trying to decide which of the new services to access, and it is not easy.
In addition to still having access to personal care aide services, one of the new services Ashley qualifies for is Day Support. Our area has several day support programs - some geared specifically towards adults with disabilities and some that include children. Their definition of 'children' is any child that is still in school (up to age 22). Because Ashley's personal care aide is leaving at the end of the school year, and because it is very, very difficult to find good PCAs, I decided to look at the day support programs.
I've narrowed the acceptable day support programs to two. One supports a population of people who are older, in some cases significatly older than Ashley. They don't have what they call an after-school program, and that is probably why there are not many people Ashley's age there. On the positive side, the staff seemed very caring and committed. Their facility is in an office complex not too far from our home and in the county in which Ashley attends school. The office complex means there is not a lot of wide open space, but rather lots of different rooms (formerly offices?). Their hours are 9am-4pm, times which really don't work for me to get an 8 hour work day in.
The other program is one that my daughter Jessica attended many years ago, and I didn't like it at all back then. But I toured there on Monday, and the facility is new (just two years old), and it's much better. That program does have an after school program, so at least for the next four years, Ashley would be with same-age or younger peers. The facility was designed and built specifically for the people that it serves, so the flow is better than the first program and there are lots of open spaces. Their hours are 8:30-4:30, closer to getting my work day in, and when school is in session, their school age program is open until 6pm. But the catch with this program is that it is not in my county school district and getting the school bus to take Ashley there after school might be a battle, and a battle I may not win. Medicaid offers transportation services but they are TERRIBLE, and the only time I did try it for Ashley, I strongly believe she was abused. So, we're not going there again.
The second program also offers vocational services for adults, so it might be something to support her throughout adulthood.
I think just by writing this all down, I am leaning more towards the second program, but that still means I have to work out the school bus issues.
What would you do in this situation? Which way would you lean?
Ashley got a slot on our state's Medicaid DD (developmental disabilities) waiver at the end of last year. Having that slot means she can access more services than in the past. I'm trying to decide which of the new services to access, and it is not easy.
In addition to still having access to personal care aide services, one of the new services Ashley qualifies for is Day Support. Our area has several day support programs - some geared specifically towards adults with disabilities and some that include children. Their definition of 'children' is any child that is still in school (up to age 22). Because Ashley's personal care aide is leaving at the end of the school year, and because it is very, very difficult to find good PCAs, I decided to look at the day support programs.
I've narrowed the acceptable day support programs to two. One supports a population of people who are older, in some cases significatly older than Ashley. They don't have what they call an after-school program, and that is probably why there are not many people Ashley's age there. On the positive side, the staff seemed very caring and committed. Their facility is in an office complex not too far from our home and in the county in which Ashley attends school. The office complex means there is not a lot of wide open space, but rather lots of different rooms (formerly offices?). Their hours are 9am-4pm, times which really don't work for me to get an 8 hour work day in.
The other program is one that my daughter Jessica attended many years ago, and I didn't like it at all back then. But I toured there on Monday, and the facility is new (just two years old), and it's much better. That program does have an after school program, so at least for the next four years, Ashley would be with same-age or younger peers. The facility was designed and built specifically for the people that it serves, so the flow is better than the first program and there are lots of open spaces. Their hours are 8:30-4:30, closer to getting my work day in, and when school is in session, their school age program is open until 6pm. But the catch with this program is that it is not in my county school district and getting the school bus to take Ashley there after school might be a battle, and a battle I may not win. Medicaid offers transportation services but they are TERRIBLE, and the only time I did try it for Ashley, I strongly believe she was abused. So, we're not going there again.
The second program also offers vocational services for adults, so it might be something to support her throughout adulthood.
I think just by writing this all down, I am leaning more towards the second program, but that still means I have to work out the school bus issues.
What would you do in this situation? Which way would you lean?
Monday, April 1, 2013
Tee Hee!
Ronnie's annual IEP meeting was last Thursday. Besides all the normal glowing reviews of his performance, his teacher mentioned how well he was doing with their greenhouse and garden project. She said he was a great weeder. That was music to my ears! Friday after school was sunny and warm, and I decided Ronnie needed a little more practice on those gardening skills!
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