[Applause]
I’ve always had a love hate relationship
with school it when I was in third grade
it was because I loved school supplies
nothing better than the smell of a gummy
racer we’re cracking open that new box
of crayons and don’t even get me started
on the Elmer’s glue but I hated math
didn’t like math well now I’m a teacher
and I’m really fortunate to be able to
work with young people like Kyle who
will be part of the next generation of
teachers I’ve been teaching since 1984
and I still get very excited at the
beginning of the year about school
supplies and now I’m a department chair
and I have a budget I still love the
school supplies and there’s still some
things about schools that I don’t like
especially those things that get in the
way of a child’s experience and they get
in the way of learning I’m a teacher
candidate and I also have a love/hate
relationship with school but clearly
enough to love it to do it for the rest
of my career and as a teacher candidate
it is my hope that I can instill a
Democratic citizenship mindset into the
students that I was changed for years to
come one of the things that I currently
about schooling I’m going to show a
slide here and I just want you to say
out loud what you think it is we can do
that
not pencils not number two pencils
testing but not all testing testing good
testing Florida so assessment is a
necessary part of learning but the
high-stakes standardized testing that’s
being foisted upon communities in
children by for-profit corporations and
state and federal government this number
these numbers represent the number of
tests that right now in the United
States students take between
pre-kindergarten
and 12th grade 112 other countries that
typically do better than us on
assessments take 3 so as one scholar put
it if we can test our way to excellence
we would be the most excellent country
in the world but that’s just not how it
works
to be sure many parents in New York are
catching on that something’s not quite
right with all of the testing and
they’re beginning to opt out in fact New
York State has the highest number of opt
outs in the country
hey go New York alright
but in the debate about testing the one
thing that is left out which is
invisible because we hear about students
are stressed parents are stressed but
the one thing that gets left out of this
debate is a discussion of citizenship
and in particular what state mandated
corporate testing is doing to
citizenship instruction in our schools
and thus to citizenship in our society
Horace Mann many of which considered to
be the father of modern public school
movement once said education them beyond
all other devices of human origin is the
great equalizer of the conditions of men
the balance wheel of the social
machinery and so this shows us that this
idea of the school teaching citizenship
and what’s necessary to become a good
democratic citizen goes back to the very
foundations of our public school system
it’s not the other part of the 3 R’s of
instruction we’re not talking about the
grantee making civics or the grade that
you make even in social studies all
those those are important we’re talking
about the often invisible hidden social
function of school and social function
of schooling is just as typically hidden
it’s the way the school is organized
it’s who gets to talk and who doesn’t
it’s who has power and who doesn’t it’s
all of the lessons that are implicit in
the organization and running of the
institution and these lessons are deeply
ingrained in us by the time we’re 12th
graders and we leave school and go out
into the society it’s important at this
point to talk about at least two
different kinds of citizenship however
there is what we call passive
citizenship which tends to be a little
authoritarian a little bit about rules a
little bit about standardization
sameness and then there is more of an
active or participatory citizenship
which is really more in line with
democratic values because it teaches
students to ask questions it tells them
that in fact there might even be more
than one right answer to some questions
it also tells them that multiple
perspectives are important and says hey
stand up and be heard so when we think
about these two different kinds of
citizenship and we look at what’s
happening in classrooms because of
high-stakes standardized testing what we
see is that the active Democratic
citizenship pedagogy in ways of doing
things are being shut down or being
undermined by the testing because
students are sitting quietly being told
there’s one right answer and it’s very
rural balance at the mind and at the
time I was a high school teacher in
Walled Lake Michigan and I had a
colleague an English teacher and video
cameras were kind of just coming out and
they were getting smaller so you could
use them in schools for getting them and
he gave the seniors in his English class
an assignment he said I want you to make
a video that shows what school has
taught you about life right your 12th
graders you’re about to go out and we
prepared you for life so this one group
made a video I’ll never forget which I
think illustrates this hidden social
function of schooling in this point that
I’m trying to make about citizenship and
the kind of citizenship we want me
imagine a car pulls up to the
kwik-e-mart students get out they go
into the kwik-e-mart
and go up to the clerk then they say can
we use the bathroom in the clerk just
watch
he reaches for the key and he hands them
the key and immediately they all take
their school planners and shove them in
his face he looks very confused they
said we’ve been taught that before we
could go to the bathroom an adult has to
sign our planners and that was true I
was a teacher in that school that’s
that’s what you have to do go bathroom
even if you’re 18 years old so so the
social function right and sometimes we
don’t see it you don’t realize it and
sometimes we certainly don’t get it
right
anybody have to do that
in a society based on participation on
empowerment and democracy shouldn’t
education be participatory empowerment
and democratic
in Kentucky they learn this in 1990 they
decided they they wanted a more
democratic active type of curriculum and
so in the Kentucky education reform act
they really were able to put together
all the necessary ingredients were
feeding a democracy that’s what they
said and they begin doing their if you
talk to him today though what has
happened since 1990 is not pretty
standardized testing has become the norm
in all of those innovative empowering
inquiry-based critical thinking kinds of
approaches that empower teachers and
empowered students have been replaced
they’ve been pushed out because of the
testing and teaching to the test in the
concerns that our test grants high
enough we get in trouble with the
government we be put on the list if we
don’t do well the local schools the
parents teachers it was all power pushed
away from them in tort corporation and
the state and the federal government now
recently I become very interested in
book banning and censorship within
schools especially within textbooks and
I think it’s safe to say that as
Americans we pride ourselves on the
democratic nature of our society but as
an education major hearing about some of
these practices that are put in place in
the classroom makes me question that
exact philosophy how can an institution
who preaches such authoritarian
practices teaches anything about
democratic citizenship in history some
of the most authoritarian regimes have
had very strict censorship rules on the
literature and the knowledge that their
citizens can have so why is this a
problem because this kind of censorship
offers a a jaded knowledge of the past
of our country and whether you like it
or not the events that have happened
our pasts are what we have to learn from
so that we can improve upon our society
and this hasn’t been happening just
recently either since 1980 there have
been special interest groups approaching
superintendents and talking to them and
hoping that the issues that they find
are too sensitive or too controversial
for our students to learn about they
hope that that would be taken into
account so that they can be taken out of
our textbooks think about that free and
uncensored literature and knowledge for
the next generation of students breeds a
type of independent thinking that is
deadly to authoritarian regimes
authoritarian regimes would like to
suppress that knowledge and so that we
can only view our homeland in the best
light possible behind me you can see the
20 some of the books that are examples
from the 2017 bans banned book lists and
the crusade against messages in book 7
has recently reignited in a school
district in Mississippi who has
challenged the ideas of Harper Lee’s To
Kill a Mockingbird a book that I assume
most of us have read at some point in
our lives their reasoning behind it is
that the racist language that was used
throughout the entire book was making
some students uncomfortable which is
fair
however this is the reality that we live
in this was the norm in the past and to
learn from our mistakes we have to
accept that and accept that the ideas
and the words that were used 30 40 50
years ago they happened there is a
difference however between challenging a
book and banning a book a batting takes
it completely out of libraries and out
of the hands of students but challenging
it just says that you disagree with the
ideas and the messages of the book
exposing our students to challenge books
and uncensored our text books is an
incredible way for students to become
motivated to learn about learn more
about these topics so that they can be
the positive societal change that we
need to see we live in a politically
correct world and in 1992 this was
already starting to be discovered a book
was written called
what Johnny shouldn’t read something
that just for researching for this talk
I found and became very interested in
and the author quotes this and I thought
this was one of the most important books
that I could find textbooks are not
being written for a well-rounded
knowledge of the subject that the
students are saying they are instead at
being written to avoid controversy think
about
we are teaching our students to avoid
conflict and avoid comical controversy
through the censorship of their
knowledge and in order to breed positive
societal change in the democratic ideal
into the next generation of students we
need to stop that because now everything
has to be politically correct
educational philosopher John Dewey said
education is not preparation for life
education is life
if living in a democratic society is
committed to human rights creates well
VIII and if people learn primarily based
on the people and the environment that
surrounds them and if culture is
transmitted from one generation to
another and I’m going to leave you with
this then
thank you for listening to our talk
[Applause]
I’ve always had a love hate relationship
with school it when I was in third grade
it was because I loved school supplies
nothing better than the smell of a gummy
racer we’re cracking open that new box
of crayons and don’t even get me started
on the Elmer’s glue but I hated math
didn’t like math well now I’m a teacher
and I’m really fortunate to be able to
work with young people like Kyle who
will be part of the next generation of
teachers I’ve been teaching since 1984
and I still get very excited at the
beginning of the year about school
supplies and now I’m a department chair
and I have a budget I still love the
school supplies and there’s still some
things about schools that I don’t like
especially those things that get in the
way of a child’s experience and they get
in the way of learning I’m a teacher
candidate and I also have a love/hate
relationship with school but clearly
enough to love it to do it for the rest
of my career and as a teacher candidate
it is my hope that I can instill a
Democratic citizenship mindset into the
students that I was changed for years to
come one of the things that I currently
about schooling I’m going to show a
slide here and I just want you to say
out loud what you think it is we can do
that
not pencils not number two pencils
testing but not all testing testing good
testing Florida so assessment is a
necessary part of learning but the
high-stakes standardized testing that’s
being foisted upon communities in
children by for-profit corporations and
state and federal government this number
these numbers represent the number of
tests that right now in the United
States students take between
pre-kindergarten
and 12th grade 112 other countries that
typically do better than us on
assessments take 3 so as one scholar put
it if we can test our way to excellence
we would be the most excellent country
in the world but that’s just not how it
works
to be sure many parents in New York are
catching on that something’s not quite
right with all of the testing and
they’re beginning to opt out in fact New
York State has the highest number of opt
outs in the country
hey go New York alright
but in the debate about testing the one
thing that is left out which is
invisible because we hear about students
are stressed parents are stressed but
the one thing that gets left out of this
debate is a discussion of citizenship
and in particular what state mandated
corporate testing is doing to
citizenship instruction in our schools
and thus to citizenship in our society
Horace Mann many of which considered to
be the father of modern public school
movement once said education them beyond
all other devices of human origin is the
great equalizer of the conditions of men
the balance wheel of the social
machinery and so this shows us that this
idea of the school teaching citizenship
and what’s necessary to become a good
democratic citizen goes back to the very
foundations of our public school system
it’s not the other part of the 3 R’s of
instruction we’re not talking about the
grantee making civics or the grade that
you make even in social studies all
those those are important we’re talking
about the often invisible hidden social
function of school and social function
of schooling is just as typically hidden
it’s the way the school is organized
it’s who gets to talk and who doesn’t
it’s who has power and who doesn’t it’s
all of the lessons that are implicit in
the organization and running of the
institution and these lessons are deeply
ingrained in us by the time we’re 12th
graders and we leave school and go out
into the society it’s important at this
point to talk about at least two
different kinds of citizenship however
there is what we call passive
citizenship which tends to be a little
authoritarian a little bit about rules a
little bit about standardization
sameness and then there is more of an
active or participatory citizenship
which is really more in line with
democratic values because it teaches
students to ask questions it tells them
that in fact there might even be more
than one right answer to some questions
it also tells them that multiple
perspectives are important and says hey
stand up and be heard so when we think
about these two different kinds of
citizenship and we look at what’s
happening in classrooms because of
high-stakes standardized testing what we
see is that the active Democratic
citizenship pedagogy in ways of doing
things are being shut down or being
undermined by the testing because
students are sitting quietly being told
there’s one right answer and it’s very
rural balance at the mind and at the
time I was a high school teacher in
Walled Lake Michigan and I had a
colleague an English teacher and video
cameras were kind of just coming out and
they were getting smaller so you could
use them in schools for getting them and
he gave the seniors in his English class
an assignment he said I want you to make
a video that shows what school has
taught you about life right your 12th
graders you’re about to go out and we
prepared you for life so this one group
made a video I’ll never forget which I
think illustrates this hidden social
function of schooling in this point that
I’m trying to make about citizenship and
the kind of citizenship we want me
imagine a car pulls up to the
kwik-e-mart students get out they go
into the kwik-e-mart
and go up to the clerk then they say can
we use the bathroom in the clerk just
watch
he reaches for the key and he hands them
the key and immediately they all take
their school planners and shove them in
his face he looks very confused they
said we’ve been taught that before we
could go to the bathroom an adult has to
sign our planners and that was true I
was a teacher in that school that’s
that’s what you have to do go bathroom
even if you’re 18 years old so so the
social function right and sometimes we
don’t see it you don’t realize it and
sometimes we certainly don’t get it
right
anybody have to do that
in a society based on participation on
empowerment and democracy shouldn’t
education be participatory empowerment
and democratic
in Kentucky they learn this in 1990 they
decided they they wanted a more
democratic active type of curriculum and
so in the Kentucky education reform act
they really were able to put together
all the necessary ingredients were
feeding a democracy that’s what they
said and they begin doing their if you
talk to him today though what has
happened since 1990 is not pretty
standardized testing has become the norm
in all of those innovative empowering
inquiry-based critical thinking kinds of
approaches that empower teachers and
empowered students have been replaced
they’ve been pushed out because of the
testing and teaching to the test in the
concerns that our test grants high
enough we get in trouble with the
government we be put on the list if we
don’t do well the local schools the
parents teachers it was all power pushed
away from them in tort corporation and
the state and the federal government now
recently I become very interested in
book banning and censorship within
schools especially within textbooks and
I think it’s safe to say that as
Americans we pride ourselves on the
democratic nature of our society but as
an education major hearing about some of
these practices that are put in place in
the classroom makes me question that
exact philosophy how can an institution
who preaches such authoritarian
practices teaches anything about
democratic citizenship in history some
of the most authoritarian regimes have
had very strict censorship rules on the
literature and the knowledge that their
citizens can have so why is this a
problem because this kind of censorship
offers a a jaded knowledge of the past
of our country and whether you like it
or not the events that have happened
our pasts are what we have to learn from
so that we can improve upon our society
and this hasn’t been happening just
recently either since 1980 there have
been special interest groups approaching
superintendents and talking to them and
hoping that the issues that they find
are too sensitive or too controversial
for our students to learn about they
hope that that would be taken into
account so that they can be taken out of
our textbooks think about that free and
uncensored literature and knowledge for
the next generation of students breeds a
type of independent thinking that is
deadly to authoritarian regimes
authoritarian regimes would like to
suppress that knowledge and so that we
can only view our homeland in the best
light possible behind me you can see the
20 some of the books that are examples
from the 2017 bans banned book lists and
the crusade against messages in book 7
has recently reignited in a school
district in Mississippi who has
challenged the ideas of Harper Lee’s To
Kill a Mockingbird a book that I assume
most of us have read at some point in
our lives their reasoning behind it is
that the racist language that was used
throughout the entire book was making
some students uncomfortable which is
fair
however this is the reality that we live
in this was the norm in the past and to
learn from our mistakes we have to
accept that and accept that the ideas
and the words that were used 30 40 50
years ago they happened there is a
difference however between challenging a
book and banning a book a batting takes
it completely out of libraries and out
of the hands of students but challenging
it just says that you disagree with the
ideas and the messages of the book
exposing our students to challenge books
and uncensored our text books is an
incredible way for students to become
motivated to learn about learn more
about these topics so that they can be
the positive societal change that we
need to see we live in a politically
correct world and in 1992 this was
already starting to be discovered a book
was written called
what Johnny shouldn’t read something
that just for researching for this talk
I found and became very interested in
and the author quotes this and I thought
this was one of the most important books
that I could find textbooks are not
being written for a well-rounded
knowledge of the subject that the
students are saying they are instead at
being written to avoid controversy think
about
we are teaching our students to avoid
conflict and avoid comical controversy
through the censorship of their
knowledge and in order to breed positive
societal change in the democratic ideal
into the next generation of students we
need to stop that because now everything
has to be politically correct
educational philosopher John Dewey said
education is not preparation for life
education is life
if living in a democratic society is
committed to human rights creates well
VIII and if people learn primarily based
on the people and the environment that
surrounds them and if culture is
transmitted from one generation to
another and I’m going to leave you with
this then
thank you for listening to our talk
[Applause]
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