Mrs. Ramsey, you really should visit any Dothan City School you like and observe what actually goes on there. After looking at your blog, I would like to reassure you that “progressive/whole language” instruction, as you call it, is not what’s going on in Dothan’s schools. Go visit and educate yourself.

Posted by janna on March 05, 2010 at 10:40 am

What DCS releases in publicity blurbs is all I need to see to know that nothing has changed...except perhaps the labels.  If I visit I will see hardworking teachers (my friends and neighbors) doing the best they can with the tools they have been given.  Yet, as hard as they work, are there still classes in remedial reading at Wallace Community College.  Are students still dropping out of school because they cannot perform well?  How sad for everyone to be cheerleading a book and reading and still be locked out of the party because you cannot decode the words!

My argument is with the Colleges of Education and the ideas they have passed off as effective education.  If you step out of the "circle" of wagons you will be fired.  We as teachers are a rather gullible lot.  We want to believe that the tools we have paid good money to acquire and studied hard to master in order to get our diplomas have really been proven effective through replicable research and not affective criteria.  I have been disillusioned time and again when I searched for that replicable research and could not find it.

Oh, yes...don't rock the boat...tenure is mighty comfortable.  Put blinders on, just believe, and count out the days.

It is unfortunate that Mrs. Ramsey’s rant fairly drips with contempt for her fellow teachers. She should give them the benefit of the doubt. They’re not stupid and they do truly care about their duty to Dothan’s children. It was not necessary to insult them this way. It is also not clear if Mrs. Ramsey’s primary target is the schools or the Yes We Can movement. Given this ambiguous aim, and the generous use of “scare quotes”, I will assume that Mrs. Ramsey was upset when she wrote this, and perhaps deserves the benefit of the doubt herself.

Rant?  Sweetheart, that was not nearly the depth of my feeling.  Our children do not have time to give this curriculum any further "benefit of the doubt."  Guess what?  The schools are not operated for teachers to have jobs.  They operate to educate children. 

"Scare quotes?"  Those are directly lifted from the article. 

Upset?  Your lack of understanding of the real problem is truly upsetting. 

Don't rock the boat, honey.  You've got tenure and a wonderful retirement ahead.  Don't bother your pretty little head about all those illiterate children that will be standing on the street corners as the result of your happy talk and the kumbayah-like YES WE CAN movement. 

The YES WE CAN movement is led by good hearted people who really want the best for our children.  Unfortunately, they want to believe in this newest push of old ideas now called "Education for the 21st Century" but even if we all believe like we did for Peter Pan when he told us that if we did we could bring Tinker Bell back to life...it won't make these foolish ideas for education effective...at least by my standard of effective and I think that is the standard most parents have for effective schools.  I do not trust the vague fancy talk of that movement.   

Just what are the details...have they actually produced what we want in our schools?   What does preparing students to be "globally prepared for work" mean?  I would hope our standards were higher than those of the Sudan, but maybe not.  Do you know?  Perhaps having twelve year olds march through schools dressed as the Cat in the Hat is sufficient for that standard.  I just know the year I was twelve I asked for and received: Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Peyton Place, and Lady Chatterley's Lover, and that was after I had read all of the books in my Mother's library (which was extensive).  Of course, I do not recommend those books for every twelve year old and certainly not for the schools to endorse.  But, as I have said repeatedly, the schools should have a higher standard for the books they use.  Censorship at home should be left to a child's parents.  I could read.  And the world was open to me because of it.  I do not want one single child shut out from that wonderful, wonderful opportunity.

My point is...we Americans once set the highest bar for excellence.  This United Nations movement...Education for the 21st Century dumbs us down.

 I do not think my critical thinking has suffered from not having been taught critical thinking.  And personally, I want my children and grandchildren to be patriotic Americans, not good global citizens (especially if that includes buying trees in the rain forest).  My perception of their version of "critical thinking" is merely to challenge patriotism and established standards of morality, and inculcate a loyalty to the environment and international institutions above our own. 

I'm sure you made friends in high places with the "courage" of your stand against a white haired (if I didn't dye it) old war horse (some might say battle axe). 

I am nearly sixty years old.  Will it bother me if you walk on the other side of the road because I dared to challenge the wisdom of a system that continues to fail?   Yes, because I am sure I would really like you...and truth is, you would probably like me.  But I have grown a few callouses since I ran for the school board in 1992 and saw the opponent's campaign run out of the central office.  You and I have a difference of opinion...professionals with ideas...that should warrant debate and not the tyranny of the circle the wagons instinct of DCS...if you're not with us...you're against us. 

When one's family is a potential client of an institution (and mine is) and one's tax dollars go to support it (I was born here and will be buried here) one should be involved and knowledgeable.  Selecting the teachers for our child's education is like selecting a doctor for our child's physical health.  We should have the opportunity for choice and a second opinion as well when one is unsatisfied with the treatment...like with medicine.  The health and well-being of our children is the most basic concern of a parent.  Unfortunately we cannot inoculate our children against illiteracy.  And that is why I speak.

My grandchildren deserve schools that work.  I also "care" about children.  I was motivated to go into education because of the super teachers I had at Dothan High School where I was a cheerleader.  I want to cheer for our schools!  But, I was appalled at the illiteracy I saw in students I taught when I became a teacher.  I watched my own little brother struggle (12 years younger and the recipient of a different philosophy of education that came in during the late 60s)...and I could do nothing to help.  That is why I started studying what was going wrong with education...and why I was so inadequately prepared to deal with it...with two degrees!  I stumbled upon a school that really works in a private school my children attended with the ABEKA curriculum.  Even my hyperactive son learned to read and write with excellence.  I can assure you his critical thinking did not suffer from Mastery of basic skills

Do I care about children?  Enough to stand up for what I believe in, Honey.  And I will tell you it costs.

Children are my inspiration.  Eager bright-eyed children with open faces can be changed to hunched shoulders lifted in discouragement and dulled, saddened, confused eyes.  Hurt feelings don't really matter in the scheme of things...mine or yours.  We truly have the same goal..

But, I challenge you to truly KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SUPPORTING.