No!

 

Some readers may notice that I sometimes post the same or similar things on both Facebook and this Blog. It’s a way to get the things that I think need attention out to larger audiences, while such Free Speech venues still exist. Today’s post is an excerpt from an upcoming Podcast. Again, I'm grabbing all the microphones I can while I can, even though the books, Blog, Facebook posts, Podcasts, talks at workshops I give are the tiniest blip compared to mainstream media. 

 

How do we shape our character, our values, our vision? Each day we’re awash in experiences, ideas and invitations from the world to participate. Buy this! Join our club! Fill out this form! Sign this petition! Sign up for our class! Come to my concert! Be my friend! Go out on a date with me! What we choose to say "yes" to and what we choose to say "no" to is a big part of what shapes us into the people we become. 

 

As with people, so with institutions like schools. Get our must-have textbooks! Buy the new Smartboard! Don’t be left behind—AI is the future! Get our program now! Sign up for our training in sexual harassment policy/ diversity training/ gender issues/ differentiated instruction/ design thinking/ risk assessment/ lockdown drills! So many people from the outside knocking at the school gates like the traveling salesmen trying to persuade you to buy their wares or the government inspectors insisting you must comply with the latest rule and regulation they dreamed up sitting around in windowless rooms drinking bad coffee. Who do you let in? Who do you keep out? 

 

I was lucky to teach in an independent school that for at least the first 40 years or so had a unified vision of what it meant for teachers and children to gather together in a vibrant learning community. We trusted our intuition and followed our instincts, always watching the children to see what worked. Our mistakes were many, but all small and fixable and the way we grew and evolved into constantly better versions of ourselves. We had the clarity and conviction and courage to understand what to say "yes" to and what to say "no" to and what to agree to on the outside, but do something different (wink, wink) on the inside.  When the building inspectors came, we got the staff dog out of the kitchen and spruced things up a bit. 

 

Some battles we lost. Like re-building the entire preschool swing set because some inspector insisted it was two inches off the standard spacing and dangerous, even though there hadn’t been a single problem in 25 years. I think we stopped spraying the preschoolers on hot days while they were running around naked. Some outsider insisted on bathing suits.

 

Some we won. Like when another inspector came and insisted we take down the artwork from the hall because some kid in Ohio has set fire to the paper drawings. Knowing that this displayed artwork was central to the feeling and character of the school, and that we weren’t going to frame each picture and put it behind glass or spray it with fire-retardant, we somehow were able to refuse to comply. 

 

In short, we were clear about who we were and who we wanted to be and didn’t need these outsiders coming in to tell us what to do. We were united in our determination to say no to anything that threatened our values and character. But with the changing times and a new school head and lawyers advising us to watch out, all of that began to change and not happily so. Suddenly the Board had a risk committee and there were “norms” at the staff meeting and though we held out longer than most schools, the computers came swarming in not because we felt the need for them, but because everyone else had succumbed to the marketers who were in it not for the kids’ growth and intelligence, but for —well, you can guess—money, money, money. We were supposed to figure out how to use them creatively. 

 

All of this was so minor compared to the greater world of education. When I wrote the ABC’s book in 2006, schools had started putting vending machines with junk food and sodas in their hallways because the corporations promised to buy them a scoreboard. Mandatory testing that cancelled recesses and arts programs ramped up, stupid ideas like pay-for-performance that pitted teachers against each other by basing salaries on a teacher’s students test-performance. Dunkin’ Donuts offered money to schools if their kids would make a one-minute video about the importance of homework. Oscar Meyer Weiner promised money to the winning interpretation of their jingle. Nestle offered $10,000 for the best piece of art made from its Sweet Tarts candy. Math textbooks were appearing with problems like how to divide a pizza bought at Pizza Hut. And teachers were buying into it all, claiming things like “The Oscar Meyer contest is great for the kids as well as the school because they have to use their creative-writing and performing-arts skills, not to mention all those good social skill…”  The list of things to say no to was growing exponentially.

That was almost 20 years ago, but our confused culture was just getting warmed up. Now the autonomy a school needs to truly educate children is virtually an endangered species. Books are being banned, truth told in history class is forbidden, the solid line between church and state eroded by the so-called “Christian” right, AI is swooping in to further shut down all independent thought, some are calling for teachers to be armed because of the epidemic of school shootings and recently, Texas is now firing teachers who are questioning in their social media posts outside of school the canonizing of Charlie Kirk, a man who spewed hatred  and was killed by one of his own tribe of hateful MAGA people. 

 

So here I am, trying to get folks to consider the details about what might make our schools more effective, inclusive, nurturing and loving in the midst of all this chaos and confusion. We’ve said yes to so many of the wrong things and refused to say no to the things we should keep out. 

 

And yet. I still meet most every day of my life dedicated teachers and visit schools doing wonderful things. So I’ll end with saying NO! to hopelessness and YES! to my conviction that we can and will do better. Share this with other teachers, friends, students so we all might choose to resist together! And speaking of resisting together, please put October 18^th on your calendar and take to the streets with millions for the National No Kings rally.  That’s how we build hope and resist tyranny, say No! to the dismantling of democracy.