V
irginia
C
apitol
C
onnections
, S
pring
2013
19
In recent memory, academic testing and holding educators
accountable for students meeting academic achievement standards
has been the cardinal impulse of public schools. Teachers and
administrators continue to face increasing pressure to respond to a
high-stakes accountability movement that often forsakes much of
what else is worthwhile in the curriculum. Accountability policies
so narrowly conceived and implemented with a “blame and punish”
mentality, reduce the education enterprise to a process that, in many
instances, has become mechanical and cold. Such a pressure-driven
enterprise fails to appreciate the inequitable impact of schooling and
society itself on increasingly diverse child and youth populations.
While it is necessary for schools to improve the academic
achievement of students, necessity quickly becomes vanity when it
threatens to deprive students of the ecstasy of the arts, the wonder
of scientific inquiry, and the grace of civilized discourse; when the
academic agenda is advanced in a climate in which there is little
time or regard for matters of character, conscience, and interpersonal
consequence.
In a perfect world, there may be little need for schools to address
anything other than academic standards. Sadly however, incidences
of violence, poverty, family dysfunction, and social injustice serve as
constant reminders that it’s not a perfect world.
Over 700,000 Virginians live in poverty, over 39 million youth
nationwide; almost a million American school children are homeless.
Among western nations, America has the highest teen pregnancy,
birth, and legal abortion rates. Three million American children are
victims of abuse or neglect. Because it is such a dominating theme
of so much of popular youth culture, violence has become a primary
language of the current generation of young Americans. Bullying and
gang activity has reached epidemic proportions, and nearly 20 million
youth report having experimented with illegal drugs. The majority
of adolescents who suffer serious emotional or behavioral problems
receive no treatment—over a million of them enter the juvenile justice
system yearly.
Simply put, not all students arrive at school every day well-rested,
well-nourished, fit, emotionally secure, in good health, and ready to
learn. With countless young people struggling to manage deprivation
and stress in their lives, professional educators step forward to provide
support and guidance, not because it’s on some performance test—
caring isn’t tested—but because it’s the right thing to do.
Striving to connect in meaningful ways with every student,
teachers perform small miracles every day. Surrogate parents to 15,
20, 25 or more students, teachers coach, counsel, and console—
whatever it takes to help instill in students the ability and will to think
through what they care about most, to deepen their understanding of
themselves as human beings, and to develop their capacity for moral
deliberation and action.
Teaching students representing richly diverse backgrounds and
socio-economic circumstances is uniquely rewarding and challenging.
The three R’s don’t make a life, and teachers should be recognized
for helping to strengthen children’s resiliency as much as they are
for raising children’s test scores. Just as we expect teachers to help
students improve academically, we should encourage them to help
students learn to think critically and creatively about events and
circumstances that imperil our relationships with others and with the
earth that sustains us.
Teachers make easy targets when one is looking for where to place
blame for why every student isn’t meeting or exceeding academic
standards. Teaching has become increasingly stressful as teachers
bend to the weight of fresh concern about slashed budgets, limited
resources, reductions in compensation, school safety, threats to
contract status, and erosion in the level of respect they once received.
True, no teacher is perfect and some underperform. However, the
small percentage of ineffective teachers should not indict the majority
of educators, any more than the small percentage of ineffective
employees in other professions, trades, or businesses should cast
doubt on the vast majority of their peers. Persistently struggling
teachers should be offered support with professional improvement. If
adequate improvement is not demonstrated, a career transition plan
should be implemented.
For one inclined to offer teachers a piece of one’s mind they’re
easy enough to locate. When not in their classrooms or homes
planning lessons or grading projects teachers can be spotted at the
discount store spending personal funds on materials to supplement
classroom resources. Look for them after school at the park and ball
field supporting their students’ teams, or at the car wash helping with
school fund-raisers. Locate them in the audience supporting students’
performances, or volunteering with afterschool clubs. In the evenings,
onweekends, and in the summer they can be found attendingworkshops
and classes polishing and renewing their professional skills.
Schools should undertake a more heightened and consequential
role in heeding Eudora Welty’s lifelong plea to humanity: helping to
lift “the veil of indifference to each other’s presence, each other’s
wonder, and each other’s human plight.” Renewed devotion to such
a cause enriches human experience, and is as good for business
and the workplace as is command of any academic subject. Along
with all that we demand of teachers, we should urge them to remain
dedicated to helping prepare our students for a civic life in which
they will engage with fellow citizens with differing views to develop
policies and institutions that can advance shared aspirations. For
their efforts, extending teachers a little gratitude on occasion would
be nice, but unfortunately of late, doing so is something that is not
altogether expected.
Renewing a Cause for Public Schools and Those Who Teach
By Dr. Diane Simon (Virginia Association of Colleges of Teacher Education) and Dr. Jane Huffman (Association of Teacher Educators in Virginia).
During the 2013 General Assembly session 36,000 people came through
security at the General Assembly building (GAB), compared to 24,000
in 2012. Most visitors to the GAB were greeted by Jane Sparks
(pictured above), fondly known as Sparky, a dedicated member
of the Capitol Police Force.
More visitors came to the GAB on January 31 than on Lobby Day. On
January 31 the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources
planned to vote on lifting the uranium ban and fox penning, two of the
most controversial issues from this past session. The Capitol’s visitor
entrance on Bank Street documented 25,528 visitors during the session.
Increase in visitors to
the General Assembly
during the 2013 session
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