An Atta-boy and an Anagram For Otto

In the Tribune today, we find:

Did District Belly-Flop Off SpringBoard?

and there is this:

Tampa Tribune 09/08/2008, Page M02
Column Is A Springboard Revealing Depth Of Teachers’ Dissatisfaction
FROM THE BLOG


Funny how this works: You ask a simple question, and you don’t get a simple answer.
The question I asked last week was about the new $30 million math and English teaching program known as SpringBoard now in effect in Hillsborough County middle and high schools. I had heard a few complaints from just a few teachers, and so I asked whether anybody else had any thoughts.
The response was sort of like that stampede you get when the school bell rings. There are problems out there. Most of the teachers responding didn’t want their names used.
Some even said they had been warned not to say anything negative.
In fact, the program managers are so uptight they sent out a memorandum to teachers: “Since Steve Otto is only hearing from the anti-SpringBoard folks, it would be nice if he also heard some of the positive aspects of the program. If you have any teachers who have positive comments to share and are so inclined, please ask them to send in their positive thoughts. We would like him to be inundated with the other side. Maybe things kids are saying about their English classes this year.”
The memo was from a SpringBoard program coordinator, who naturally ended with an incomplete sentence. So far, I have been inundated with one positive letter. It’s a little long, but I’ll share it in a moment. It’s from a Plant High English teacher, certainly one of the strongest programs in the county.
Dogg Tired … And Retaliation Worries
Most mail has been more like this: “The premise of SpringBoard requires you to accept this generation’s inability to be successful in the culture that expects a certain entry level of understanding. I guess we have given up on a common culture. Diversity reigns. “I want my kids to understand Shakespeare, not Snoop Dogg. I want my kids exposed to the greats, not the celebs. I want my kids to be comfortable with the upper end of society and the experience it provides.
They’ll be able to rap, note camera angles, watch pop culture movies and understand street slang on their own. I will encourage and help them with the hard stuff. It will be done in and at a private school. There is now a two-tier educational system.”
This one came not from a teacher, but from someone not sweating losing his or her job.
“The article you wrote on SpringBoard has touched a sensitive nerve.
My fiancé is a Hillsborough County high school teacher. I have had her tell me of the new curriculum, and I am nauseated. As soon as your article was published she showed me e-mails from the district asking for teachers to write to you. I am writing to you because she is afraid to write because of possible retaliation.
“She tells me other teachers feel the same way. Thanks again, Stanley M. Thomas, M.D.”
1-Man Glee Club For Pedagogical Trends
The lone letter for the defense of SpringBoard comes from Derek Thomas, the Plant instructor.
“I am extremely disappointed by the one-sided coverage you gave the SpringBoard program in your article.
“…Let me clarify a few things.
SpringBoard does not, nor was it intended to ‘replace the old math and language arts programs’ in place in our middle and high school programs. It is designed to provide a foundation for teachers to utilize in their classroom.
“…Personally I use SpringBoard activities about 50 [to] 60 percent of the time. I have the flexibility to pick and choose the activities that I think best prepare my students for the more demanding language arts classes in their remaining high school years, college and beyond.
“The activities in SpringBoard are fantastic, and any language arts teacher who follows pedagogical trends and student interests would be hard-pressed to argue against its effectiveness. Yes, SpringBoard uses music and film. Today my students studied the lyrics, rhyme, and meter of a rap song to learn about voice, incident and persona. Guess what?
They were engaged, reflective and willing to discuss both their opinions and mine.
“Finally Mr. Otto, I’d like to address the unnamed English teacher who has spent over 25 years developing a solid curriculum with ‘results.’ I raise the question, ‘Isn’t it part of our job as teachers to continue to modify our curriculum to meet the needs of our students?’ Shouldn’t we embrace new strategies and mechanisms that might help our students become better prepared for college?”

And One More:
“Please don’t use my name, as I may need to get another teaching job to supplement my retirement. I am a National Board-certified teacher. I taught in Florida for 23 years. …After four days of training in July, I retired three years earlier than I intended to. “Why? Because the seventh-grade curriculum teaches no content. It is ‘choices,’ and seventh-graders don’t need more opportunities to sit around discussing which fast food place is better or which sneakers are better or what foods in a clip from ‘Hook’ were being tossed around in a food fight. They need to learn literature and grammar and how to read more thoroughly and express themselves correctly in writing.
“When I asked questions in the training concerning how to implement this program in my school and how it fit into differential instruction and how it would impact what I knew to be effective with my students, I was called out into the hall and chastised by my middle school supervisor and told there was no option over what I would be teaching. SpringBoard was the curriculum and deal with it.”
Keyword, Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto’s blog.

OTTO GRAPHS

WITH STEVE OTTO

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©2008 Media General Inc. All Rights Reserved 09/08/2008

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What does this have to do with an anagram, you ask?

Otto and Toto.


Both of them are pulling the sacred curtain that hides the "great Oz". For me, the system is the "Oz". While there are indeed people who run the system, they have created something bigger than themselves for different reasons. "The system" must now deal with "this creation" instead of education.

"The system", and it's creators, must now deal with a paranoid work environment.

And the word "retaliation" is nothing new. Read the "first Whitehead Case" and read the history of Doug Erwin. It's all there.