The Server is on a Permanent Break?

    Like an alkie's or druggie's worst nightmare, the worst possible attack on an addiction happened yesterday at work. The cyber power WENT OUT! Yes, the entire Internet system went down for the whole school district in Las Vegas! All 600 something square miles of tech-dependent education were forced to rely on...gulp...TEACHING SKILLS!

   And was I exhausted! I actually had to do something so demonic and 20th Century as work directly with my kids using my long dormant teaching skills...and did it feel great!Well, there was one tech involvement but it wasn't using the Internet, it was projecting a quiz we were doing.

   I've been doing this for 22 school years now, and I have to say the first ten years were pretty techless in terms of actual teaching. Sure, we had overhead projectors,but we did a lot of board writing, too. The kids used books to read and books to practice math and books to read about social studies and science. Only in the past few years did the tech  not only become a part of teaching and learning...it became a REQUIREMENT! Independent reading and math practice were put into computer apps instead of old fashioned learning centers we used to put together.

   In that sense, yesterday's service break was welcome. I had to think on my feet to get stuff going with my kids. We had fun. I could do it again, but I suspect our district will not let such human engagement continue.

   How in the world did we get to this point of such tech addiction and dependence in the field of education?

**READER BEWARE!! IF YOU EXPERIENCE ALLERGIES TO MOORE TRIPS DOWN AMNESIA LANE, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM**

   In the 1983-84 school year at Whitfield Elementary School, we were introduced to an Apple 2 computer and a typing program that taught us the basics of a keyboard. It even had a little game where we could use the arrow keys to direct a mouse to a piece of cheese! There was no touchscreen, no mouse. Just a keyboard. It was not part of our general education, more of an occasional tool to use if we wanted to type something.

   You want to know what technological advancement really got our attention? A TV rolled in on a cart to watch a space shuttle launch or Presidential inauguration. Films on a movie projector and film strips that had accompanying tapes were used often as well. Any audio visual opportunity to learn was welcomed.

But the teacher was the main educator always.

And shame on me, I started a sentence with butt, it's my blog, I don't care.

We played when we got to school before the bell rang, we played at morning recess, we played at recess after eating lunch.

We ate using plates and real utensils on a tray. If we dropped it on the floor, we were humiliated by a cacophany of OOOHS from all in the multi purpose room.

We used books for ever subject: language, spelling, social studies, science, and health. Reading was not a grade, as it was developmental. The only standardized test was the Iowa Test of Basic Skills given early in the school year. As far as I know, those tests didn't penalize teachers. Those were the good old Scantron tests were you wanted a good dull pencil point to fill in the rectangular bubble.

Above all, the teacher reigned as main educator. 

Even in junior high and high school, this remained so. 

***AMNESIA LANE ENDED. YOU CAN READ ON NOW***

What happened?

Cell phones and tablets more powerful than most home computers created a new addiction we can't seem to escape from. Educators in the form of think tanks who never spent quality time in classrooms likely decided to feed into this tech need created at home. 

Soon, I suspect, kids will be given phones at school to zone out.

I hope not, for the role of the teacher will then be relegated to babysitter.

Then again, perfect: at a rate of $10 per hour per kid, at 25 kids...$250 per hour times 6 times 5 is $7,500. Multiply that by 36 weeks is $270,000.

As an alternative, let that Internet server and Wi Fi be on a permanent break, we can adapt. I'm sure we can. 

   

What's the #2 Point?

    Having been in the education biz for a little over half my life now, I really have to ask this honestly...

   What is the point of us teachers being there?

   I know what many of you will say, so I'll say it while rolling my eyes the way my teenage daughter does when we say her name: BECAUSE WE ARE DOING AN IMPORTANT JOB OF EDUCATING THE CURRENT GENERATION OF KIDS.

   Oh are we? I have to say that in my almost 26 full years of either substituting or having my own classroom, I have found that to be almost completely horse hockey, as Colonel Sherman Potter would say.

   Let's take a step back, say 40 years. 1983. Reagan was in full swing in his first term. The music was great. Prime time TV was smoking hot with its action shows and sitcoms. I was at Whitfield Elementary School in the 5th grade. We had a book for each subject, got a lunch made in an actual kitchen and we used plates and real utensils when eating it, and went outside twice during the day for a healthy amount of time. We also had time to learn what was needed to be learned. 

   So what changed? Whatever it was, it seems to have taken place in the mid to late 1990s. According to my 4th and 6th grade teacher (same person), it started with changing how writing was taught. If I am thinking right, kids were having too much fun writing what they wanted so some think tank jerks decided to create STRUCTURED writing for little kids. Now, I learned how to write a structured 5 paragraph essay in high school, but in elementary, we did journal writing and small 1 page focused pieces, generally 1 paragraph.

   Soon after came this little not so cute law called No Child Left Behind. This was right around the time I began with a class of my own...in fact, just 5 months after I began. It was a complete disaster that was based on a recipe probably created by the aforementioned think tank:

Give the teachers a program to teach from for reading and math

Have the teachers administer a test created by DIFFERENT companies than the ones used for teaching.

Blame teachers if they didn't "supplement" enough by using other resources they had to find on their own if the kids scored poorly.

   Folks, this recipe was deliberate and was intended to start a "war" on educators. I can never prove that but school "ratings", at least where I teach, were created and test scores were a major factor for a while. I remember meetings when the ratings were unvewiled. We teachers who tested the kids felt like shit because our scores were low. After all, it was our fault wasn't it?

   No, it wasn't. It never was. But then came more abuse.

   Common Core came next, with everyone expected to teacher the same thing nationwide at each grade level. Heaped on to that was a new paradigm (sounds like paraSITE) where teachers were to blame for the students' poor grades and poor behavior. 

   Add into that a fierce media campaign to make teachers villains as "indoctrinators". A philosophy teacher once taught me that there is in essence a 3 level theater of power. At the bottom level were regular folk who saw only images, like shadows. Then there was a middle level controlling the bottom level, these knew what the shadows were made of, so they were in on part of it, but the top level were the real bosses who knew all and why it was being done.

   That system of power is still quite in place, and social media has expanded it big time, with a small difference...the bottom level has broken off into 2 parts: those who suspect bullshit and those who just believe all they see and hear. The ones who suspect bullshit are those who are targeted because they are not "team players" or "refusing to follow protocol"...whatever nonsense term is put out to eject those who could pose a threat to that middle level...and we have in a sense learned to hate that middle level  because that is who we as teachers "report" to.

   But wait, let me throw in a gorilla wrench...pirncipals are bullshitted just as much and the district leaders are more of that middle level, for they are fed data and orders from a higher societal power and make their edicts.

   It wasn't always this way. Sure, teachers have always fought for better wages to combat the rising cost of living and better compensation for the increasing heap of responsibilities thrown at them outside of the teaching and grading they do. However, there was once an easy curriculum to follow that catered to the students' cognitive abilities and because of that, there wasn't an expectation of over-rigor. 

   I didn't know what a noun, verb, adjective, or pronoun was until the third grade. Now I find myself teaching it to my first graders. Just this week is was PREPOSITIONS! 

   If you recall, there was something in the 1950s when the Soviets (remember that term?) got a vehicle into space and the teachers of America were pressured to teach more math and science...because the Soviets were not allowed to beat us in any race be it space or nukes.

   Who are we competing against now? China? Finland? Japan. Hate to tell you folks this but those countries have  long gone beyond us. We're not making anything of note in America anymore, the auto industry and steel industry and coal industry are not what they were, and as long as this eco friendly wave continues to flow, they won't be up top anytime soon. 

   What do we make? We make addicts and dependents and debt. That's what drives this country right now. I am not immune to it. If I find a fun little game app and enjoy it, you can bet I'll be spending lots of spare time on it. I'm also addicted to carbs. The apps and carbs make a dangerous combo when I am in periods of high stress.

   Let's go into the debt bit. All kids are encouraged to go to college, even attach a little beginner stipend for many, but one they're in, the student loan racket kicks in and sucks up many poor souls for life, especially if they choose a major that isn't economy-contributing. Credit cards are also a problem and those banks running them love it that way. People run up high balances and then figure out too late that their income to debt ratio isn't working in their favor...and viscous financial cycles abound from that. I've been there, too.

   And then there's the dependents. Some are from life circumstances and others because they feel something is owed to them for being alive. But they rely on government assistance or alcohol or drugs or a combo of 2 or 3. Not exactly a contribution to society, just putting their government-sourced funds back into the system. Wheel cogs like many others, I jsut wish they'd stay off the road.

   I've strayed to be sure, but not so much. My point was why are teachers staying in the teaching business? Could it be that there's a hope for some sort of societal redemption? Maybe we just enjoy working with kids despite the hell we go through? I'd like to think it's the latter, at least for me. Whatever that redemption or pendulum swing may be, I don't think it will happen before I retire.

   In the meantime there will always be coffee.