Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Light at the End of the Tunnel

12/1/2020

 
Picture
For the past 25 years there has been a national war between so-called education reformers and public schools.  Education historian and indefatigable blogger on the topic, Diane Ravitch, has been chronicling the attacks, losses and now, finally, victories through her blog, where she posts up to ten times a day, every day, since April of 2012. In her new book Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools, she pulls the disparate threads together and writes a brilliant,  page-turner story of this war against public schools for a period that included my 5 grandchildren.

Who are the bad guys?  Millionaires and billionaires who come from a business background where forces of free-market choices,  competition, and new standards create disruption in the market place allowing the best products to rise to the surface.  Ravitch names names.  We know who they are and they include Bill Gates, Betsy De Vos, and the Walton (Wallmart) families.
Ravitch aptly changes their names from education "Reformers" to education "Disrupters." Measurement is key to determining educational success in the form of high stakes testing that occurs every school year for grades k-12.  Right out of the starting gate the Disrupters' premise was wrong-headed and untested. 

The methods of this warfare included slamming public schools as "failing" and demonizing teachers while supporting the creation of brand-new charter schools and vouchers to pay religious schools using  tax payer money and selling the concept that now parents have "choice."  If you knew what it takes to create and sustain a good school, you would know that non-educators with dough  are not the people who should be starting one no matter how pure their motives. (I served 18 months on the board of a charter school that is now shuttered.) Politicians from presidents, G.W. Bush and Barack Obama, to local school board members jumped onto the shiny new Disrupter bandwagons.  It never occurred to them that America's children were  Guinea pigs.  Disruption is not healthy for children. Using children to experiment with the profit-motive in education is an insane idea.  Where can the profits for investors come from?  Real estate (the new schools need space to rent, build or buy), using cheap, young and untrained teachers from Teach for America, and the selling of technology.  Education doesn't produce a product that you can sell for a profit.  You can't garnish the wages of a state-educated worker.  But every time money changes hands, someone's pockets are lined, often illegally, since there is no mandated oversight for charter schools and many opportunities for corruption. Less that 40% of the funding for these new ventures are used for what happens in classrooms. And the Disrupters did not like to discuss that the funding not only came from the wealthiest Americans but also from the local public school budgets, thus short-changing  resources for more than 85% of American students.   

The collateral damage of this policy of disruption was the destruction of teacher morale and the anxiety that the high-stakes testing put on children.  Test prep robbed children of the joy of learning. It made them fearful that if they did not do well on the test, their teachers would be fired.  Ravitch's book meticulously cites the damage done in cities and states over the years.  It's enough to make your blood boil!  About ten years ago, I was invited to speak at Southern Florida University's Education Department.  The faculty were steeling themselves to greet the first entering class of FCAT babies, who had taken assessment exams at the end of every one of their 12 years of schooling.   Now they were to be trained as teachers. Their professors found them to be  passive, docile, and answer-driven, fearful of questions for which they had no answers and tied to using boring texts and worksheets as their main pedagogical tools. 

Another example:  My grandson, Jonny, who was a very serious student didn't do well on tests.  (Currently he is the top student in his electrical engineering class at Buffalo University but still worried about the Graduate Record Exam).  He attended a small public school in Western NY state which was not overly scrutinized by the powers-that-be and had a staff that cared about their students. But still they had to adhere to the standards and the testing.  When Jonny was in seventh grade I asked him how many of his teachers were having "fun" teaching him. By "fun" I meant that they enjoyed being in the classroom and were present for their students. He thought for a long time before he came up with his sixth grade Language Arts teacher.  I concluded that none of his seventh grade teachers were having any fun and I had a follow up question:  How did he know they weren't having fun?"Because," he responded, "I'm not learning very much."  

Ravitch is very careful to let doubters know how she  knows every fact in the book with 30 pages of citations in very small type at the back of the book.  In her final chapter, "Goliath Stumbles," she cuts loose with a passionate summation of how the tides are finally turning due to the grass-root rebellions of teachers and parent activists who defeated referendums, politicians, and lobbyists with their strikes, protests, social media organizations and most importantly, their votes.  I can imagine how fast and hard she hit those computer keys as she wrote these first glimmers that the tide is turning and humanity and sanity are finally returning to American public schools.  

​Thanks for the lesson, Diane Ravitch.  Many still need it.    








Uncovering the Truth in a Post-Truth Era

30/4/2018

 
Picture

Yesterday, there were a couple of opinion articles in the New York Times on the amount of lies foisted on the public.  In 2016, Oxford Dictionary's  new word of the year in 2016  was "post-truth." So I guess that means we're now living in the post-truth era.  Daniel Effron wrote a piece Why Trump Supporters Don't Mind His Lies..  He claims that fabrications are acceptable to some people if they "could have been true."  Michael Hayden's The End of Intelligence discusses the normalization of lying during presidential security briefings when facts don't seem to matter. The danger is that we are losing our moral compass  as a "Nation of Lies" overshadows our cherished  "Nation of Laws." The erosion of trust is ubiquitous.   My email box is bombarded with requests to sign petitions,  join rallies, give money.  Who are all these people?  I distrust them all!  I even get phone calls from young men purporting to be my grandsons, some of them with foreign accents.

Truth is primary to those of us who write nonfiction for children. We take the word "nonfiction" seriously.  It means, "nothing is made up."  We don't even allow invented dialogue.  We must cite our sources.   I once figured that besides the fact checkers, an iNK manuscript was read by people with prior knowledge and critical thinking at least 18 times before publication, not counting that times it was  reviewed by the author.   We children's nonfiction authors DO NOT LIE! So I put out a message to my  iNK colleagues of truth-tellers asking for help; where could we find instant fact-checkers. Laurie Thompson  and Susan Schulman sent back the following sites so that you can ferret out a lie when you get suspicious:

Media Blast/Fact Check
“Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC News) is an independent online media outlet. MBFC News is dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.
“MBFC News’ aim is to inspire action and a rejection of overtly biased media. We want to return to an era of straight forward news reporting.
“Funding for MBFC News comes from site advertising, individual donors, and the pockets of our bias checkers.”

Factcheck.org
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.

Politifact.com This Pulitzer Prize-winning site goes to great lengths to explain their process to root out facts from fiction. It is worth reading about here:

Snopes.com focuses on smoking out rumors. They have a search box where you can insert something you’ve seen or heard from the media and they check it out.

Washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker If you trust traditional media, then the Washington Post is your source where reporters adhere to journalistic standards. Nothing is reported without three independent sources. They give out Pinocchio’s as a rating for falsehoods. Interestingly, one of our Board members, Karen Sterling is a school librarian. She was amused at the furor of “reply alls” as we sorted this out. Her take?

'What fun to see you all performing the librarian’s job of fact checker! We all suffer from the great malaise - confirmation bias. Someone needs to write about this... 
Thanks for providing a bit of levity today - I really needed it! And thanks for the nice list of fact checking sites. I will share them with students tomorrow giving Laurie and Susan full credit.”

Yes, whenever we can, we should cite our sources.




The Empowerment of Children

15/4/2018

 
Picture
What happens when you take a group of minority kids after school and give them the resources to tell a story through video and their own music (hip-hop) about a problem that they and children and teenagers live with everyday, everywhere? This is the question Ray Thomas Jr. and his Xposure Foundation have been working on for the past nine years.  Unfettered by test prep, standards, and curriculum goals, Xposure's  programs give kids a voice and the tools to address issues that impact  them the most.   One of their latest products is a 51 minute film "Dear Bully: The Tables Have Been Turned," which was premiered at a local Multiplex yesterday here in the town of Greenburgh, NY, where I live. Note, Xposure has received 5 NY Emmy nominations for earlier films. 

It is not without irony that I viewed this insightful film by and about children and teens addressing this problem while the oval office is currently occupied by a bully, whose bully pulpit is Twitter and television; reality media that expose his total lack of empathy.   

"Dear Bully" works on many levels.  First there is humor.  A music video of "Big Bad Butch the Bully Johnson" is a cartoon depicting a hulking monster with an evil eye who is so bad "that when he looks in the mirror he scares himself."  
Picture
"JUST HOW BAD IS BUTCH THE BULLY JOHNSON?" is the question asked and answered in this over-the-top poke-in-the-eye catchy rap.
Live action shows the many deeds bullies do: tripping, shoving, knocking books out of their  victims' hands, helping themselves to lunch money.  The camera focuses on the victims while the audience sees the backs of the bullies, their faces obscured for the most part, slightly dehumanizing them.  The hero of the story, "Ace" is so authentically played by Malcolm Small, now in high school, that they have footage of him when he actually was in grade school in a flashback showing his apprehension as he entered his new school (at the urging of his mother) anticipating an unwelcoming response from his classmates as the "NEW KID, " a common target of bullies.  

Ace is a leader and he organizes other victims to figure out how to fight bullies. He encourages   the others to give vent to their anger and their natural desire to hit them back harder.  But Ace tells them that "violence begets violence" so they must find another way. Since Ace is a good student, he is bullied into revealing his test paper for the bullies to copy.  His vengeance is sweet and satisfying (no spoiler from me!)

In his dreams, Ace becomes president of the US and is about to sign an anti-bullying bill, having grasped the concept that when it comes to bullies vs. victims "we have the numbers."  I couldn't help but think of the post I wrote last week, Putting Citizenship Back into the Curriculum where Dr. David Liu spoke of the enormous surge of civic engagement as a reaction to our Bully-in-Chief. Xposure kids are manifestly in the spirit of the times.  

The live action is interspersed with fully-rendered music videos that are at times poignant, at times joyously uninhibited, and always full of youthful energy.  Ray Thomas's fingerprints are all over every part of this production so it has the personal integrity that connects with humanity at large.  The film's anti-bullying law requires that victims write their bullies a letter, which bullies are required to read before they enter mandatory "empathy training for bullies."  Here's a sample of the verse:
Picture
My take-away of "Dear Bully" is pure empowerment: "If they don't like you for being yourself, be yourself even more," so say the students of BeYou High. This is must-see for kids everywhere; it is a non-polemic, non-didactic, non-preachy communication that is guaranteed to transmit its potent message to a rapt audience.

Putting Citizenship Back in the Curriculum

8/4/2018

 
Picture
Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University and Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American identity program. Photo by Vicki Cobb
On April 7, 2018, I returned to Teachers College, Columbia University for their Academic Festival, a celebration of the mission of this premiere graduate school founded on the principles of John Dewey as stated on the wall over the  TC reception desk: 
Picture
photo by Vicki Cobb
The title of the keynote address by Eric Liu was "Teaching Civic Power." It was a rousing reminder that, as Dr. Liu quoted Sandra Day O'Conner: " 'Compulsory public education was instituted in the country in the first place to create citizens,' not wage workers, not customers, not capitalists, but citizens capable of governing themselves and their country." He believes that all teachers, no matter what subject, are also teaching civics through their own behavior.  He also recollected that in 1814, 25 years after the founding of the United States, John Adams said, "There never has been a democracy yet that has not committed suicide." 

On the up side, Liu said,
 "The United States today is not quite suicidal but it is definitely in a state  of self-inflicted fragility."  This is not a recent phenomenon but has been growing over the last forty years  "of erosion of common purpose of the leaders of both parties and .....of devaluation of public education in general and civic education in particular." 

We the people have ceded our collective power (the capacity to make people do what you would have them do)  over the years to special interests, to those who have wealth and to corruptive influences.  According to Liu, "Power doesn't so much corrupt as it reveals character."  The good news is that Eric Liu is optimistic about the future:  

 "Despite the sickness of the body politic right now, let me tell you why I am so hopeful.   In part, to be honest, it is because of the man who currently occupies the White House. After all, he alone, as he likes to say, he alone has sparked the greatest surge of civic  engagement this country has ever seen. Millions of Americans are stepping off the  sidelines and participating. .... People are swarming like antibodies to a virus … the immune system of the body politic is now kicking in.  The goal now has to be civic renewal—we need a new network of mutual aid, civic, social and moral character."  


How this can be done is by returning to the principles of John Dewey who believed that learning comes, not just from books, but by doing.  Eric Liu embodies these principles and he is speaking to wake us up. Thus the teacher, the writer, and the citizen of a democracy are all  practicing acts of faith, where learning and the thriving of a democracy become true through our best practices.
It will come, according to Dr. Liu, with the "savvy realization that we're all better off when we're all better off."

 
Picture
I'm expressing my gratitude to the inimitable John Dewey.

     Vicki Cobb

    *Award-winning author of more than 90 nonfiction books for children, mostly in science.
    *Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
    *Founder/President of iNK Think Tank, Inc.
    *Passionate advocate for the joy of learning for every child and teacher.


    Disclaimer: All opinions, typos, and grammatical errors are my own,  especially small word omissions which I often don't notice in my fervor.  

    RSS Feed

    ​​​​Archives

    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    ​Categories

    All
    Abuse
    Achievement Gap
    Adkins Jan
    Albee Sarah
    Anti Bullying
    Anti-bullying
    Art
    Author Driven Nonfiction
    Author-driven Nonfiction
    Authors On Call
    Biology
    Birds
    Black History
    BLC2018
    Book Review
    Child Abuse
    Children As Political Pawns
    Children's Nonfiction
    Citizenship
    Civics
    Civil Rights
    Class ACTS
    Climate Change
    Clinton Chelsea
    Collard III Sneed B.
    Common Core State Standards
    Conversation
    Coronavirus
    Costaldo Nancy F.
    Covid-19
    Critical Thinking
    Data-driven
    Definition
    Democracy
    Dewey John
    Dogs
    Dunphy Madeleine
    Ecology
    Education
    Educational Standards
    Electron Microscope
    Empowerment For Children
    Endangered Species
    Excellence
    Extinction
    Fact-checking
    Fleming Candace
    "flow"
    Galileo
    Girls' Education
    Global Warming
    Greenberg Jan
    Grit
    Gun Violence
    History
    History Of "school Reform"
    Home Libraries
    Hurricanes
    INK Database
    INK Database Of Books
    Insects
    Interactive Video Conferencing
    Isaac Sally
    Jeopardy Winner
    Learning
    Lesser Carolyn
    Leveled Reading
    Levinson Cynthia
    Lexiles
    Listening
    Literacy
    Literature
    Liu Eric
    March For Our Lives
    McClafferty Carla
    Mentor Texts
    Montgomery Heather L.
    Montgomery Sy
    Motivated Reasoning
    Motivation
    Munro Roxie
    Nathan Amy
    Nonfiction
    Nonfiction Minute
    Nonprofit And Education
    Opening Schools
    Patent Dorothy Hinshaw
    Pedagogy
    Picture Books
    Podcasts
    Primary Source
    Pringle Laurence
    Pundits Of The Pandemic
    Rap Music
    Reading
    Rules
    Rusch Elizabeth
    School Choice
    SchoolTube
    School Visits
    Science Experiments You Can Eat
    Science Teaching
    Semple Heidi E.Y.
    Social Skills
    Socrates
    Speaking
    Spring Fling
    Standardized Testing
    STEM
    Studies On Education
    Swanson Jennifer
    Teaching
    Technology And Children
    Thomas Peggy
    Trump
    Truth
    Voting
    Warren Andrea
    Washington George
    Weatherford Carole Boston
    Webinars
    Work With Us
    World War II
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Links

The Nonfiction Minute
​

​iNK Think Tank website

​Vicki Cobb's Kids' Fun Page

We Dare You Videos


Company

iNK Think Tank, Inc. is a nonprofit with the mission of using nonfiction children's literature in classrooms

Contact

vicki@inkthinktank.org
​

© 2019


© COPYRIGHT 2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.