Posted on by Fred

The Teacher Shortage

Mallory, education is the silver bullet.  Education is everything.  We don’t need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes.  Schools should be palaces.  The competition for the best teachers should be fierce.  They should be making six-figure salaries.  Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That’s my position.  I just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

— Sam Seaborn in The West Wing, Season 1: Episode 18, “Six Meetings Before Lunch,” written by Aaron Sorkin

Teaching is the most important profession in the world. 

I understand one could say that doctors, soldiers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters all save lives, and that saving lives is more important than standing in front of a room full of kids talking for several hours a day.  They’re all certainly more important than making sure a 6-year-old is wearing her coat before she walks home on a winter’s day.  Astronomers are discovering the secrets of the universe.  That’s infinitely more important than lunch or recess duty.  Members of the clergy are, many people believe, saving souls.  That makes vastly more difference than grading essays.  How can I say teachers are more important than any of these people?  Has my arrogance at having been one for 29 years finally exploded into narcissistic nonsense?

No.  I don’t think so. 

No profession exists without teachers.  Until we abandon public education entirely, every profession exists because someone taught its practitioners to read and write, to calculate, and, to a greater or lesser extent, to deal with other human beings.

Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman is presented with the Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his actions to protect lawmakers and others in the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack in Washington D.C., Feb. 25, 2021. Goodman, a former Army infantryman who served in Iraq, is credited with warning and directing members inside the Capitol building to safety. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)

By Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Washington D.C, United States – 210225-D-WD757-1523, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106298519

Eugene Goodman, the police officer who redirected rioters on January 6, quite probably saving the lives of the Vice President and many members of Congress, began his career in 1985 when a kindergarten teacher, probably in Southeast Washington, taught him to sing the alphabet.  The doctor who delivered me into this world started in a one-room schoolhouse, filled with children from 5 to 15 years old, in Hampton, Nebraska at the turn of the last century.  The first responders on 9/11 were taught how to put out fires, ascend dozens of flights of stairs carrying heavy equipment, and treat injuries by hundreds of others, all of whom sat in classrooms all across this country.  Teachers made all this possible.  And they made frighteningly little money for their efforts. 

It can certainly be said that public education is failing.  If test scores are any indication (and I don’t think they’re remotely valid), we are doing very poorly indeed. 

Better evidence of its failure can be seen in the ever-growing number of people who are willing to believe things that make no sense.  Some estimates suggest that fully a third of the country’s population believes that the 2020 election was stolen, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  Anywhere from 4 to 15% of Americans believe QAnon’s conspiracy theories are reasonable.  There are as many as a million Americans who honestly believe the Earth is flat, or that’s it’s a disc beneath a dome. 

This is a failure of critical thinking.  It’s the fulfillment of a desire to believe that nothing is as it appears to be, and we are, therefore, not responsible for the bad things that happen to us.  And while I agree that we are often not responsible for the bad things that happen to us, it’s unreasonable to believe there is some cabal of pedophiles in a pizza shop that is. 

This could have been stopped before it began.  One of the tools we could have used was the actual literature that is now being banned from schools more and more frequently.  Reading books that require us to look at things from more than one angle allow us to use those skills in the real world.  One cannot read To Kill a Mockingbird without recognizing that Tom Robinson is innocent, that Boo Radley is not a monster, and that racism and prejudice are dangerous and difficult-to-defeat diseases of the mind.  Reading Sherlock Holmes teaches us that the truth is rarely as simple as it seems, and that we need actual evidence before we can accept, as facts, conclusions that are hastily reached based on assertions that cannot be verified.  Steinbeck teaches us empathy.  Salinger teaches us to reject the superficial. 

Simply reading these books, however, is often insufficient.  One needs a great teacher to help us to understand what is happening.  It is in classroom discussions that the enthusiasm to analyze, to understand, and to express our feelings about what is happening grows and flourishes.  You can’t just assign the books, give multiple choice tests, and sit at your desk.    You must get the students excited to find out what happens next.  You need to make them disappointed that reading time is over.  This isn’t something that just anyone can do.  It’s a talent, a skill, a craft, and an Art.  It requires a deeper understanding of the material being taught.  It requires an imagination. 

Why is public education failing so badly? 

Teachers need to quit complaining.  They knew how much the job paid when they signed their contracts.  They get three months off every year.  If they don’t like it, they should do something else.  I’m not putting any more of my tax dollars into supporting whiners. 

That’s a big part of why we have a teacher shortage.  Words are powerful. 

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.  Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

 – Albus Dumbledore (J. K. Rowling)

When I started teaching in 1987, teachers were treated with at least a modicum of respect.  That respect has dwindled to the point that it’s all but imperceptible now.  The beginning of the modern end of respecting teachers began with No Child Left Behind.  Nearly twenty years ago, I wrote the following in answer to President Bush’s program:

Teachers, Administrators, School Boards: Lend Me Your Ears!

Leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.  Teachers are used to overcoming the enormous challenges put before us daily.  Where once we were responsible only for the students’ academic skills, we are now in charge of teaching them the values of cultural diversity, sexual responsibility, and drug awareness.  And just as we have met these challenges with overwhelming success, so, too, will we meet the challenge that all students will reach the destination of our President’s Educational Train, leaving no child behind.

Arriving at the Station

The first requirement for learning to take place is that the students must attend school.  Following the president’s metaphor, this would mean that the child must first arrive at the station.  I feel sure that my school is not alone in its ever-increasing population of students who miss more than 40% of the standard school year.  Sometimes students are chronically and suspiciously ill (especially on Fridays), sometimes they are suspended, and, all too often, they simply tell their parents they don’t want to come today, and they stay home and play video games.  There is little the school can do to combat this problem.  At more than one Pupil Evaluation Team (P.E.T.) meeting I have heard the Team recommend a bus be sent directly to the child’s doorstep to help her get to school.  The bus is sent, but the child never boards the bus.  A child who never makes it to the station cannot help but be left behind.  Nevertheless, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

If the students won’t come to the school, the school must come to the students.   We could hire teachers who travel from home to home to teach these students between sessions of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 for Play Station 2.  The cost of these extra teachers could come from school bake sales, or perhaps from having students go door to door selling candy.  The students might even sell some of their candy to the teachers who are working in the homes they visit.  On those days that these students do attend school, we can assign some of our Educational Technicians to assist them in catching up on the work they have missed while they were playing video games.  To leave no child behind is clearly an honorable and achievable goal.

Boarding the Train

Assuming the child arrives at the station, it is next necessary that she actually boards the train.  If I understand the metaphor correctly, this would be the equivalent of actually engaging the work that teachers set out for the students in order to help them learn.  While many students do come to class regularly, there is among them a population who does no more than breathe the air in the room.  Certainly, modifications can be, should be, and are made to assist these students.  Educational Technicians work with them individually when the staffing makes it possible.  Special procedures are put in place to help spark the student’s interest, encourage participation, and reward effort.  For many students, these interventions are indeed effective, but not for all of them. 

There are those students who, regardless of the best efforts of the Teachers, Educational Technicians, Administrators, Counselors, Social Workers and Parents, simply will not make an effort.  There is, in the final analysis, nothing that can be done to force someone to try if she doesn’t want to.  While the student may arrive at the station, she won’t necessarily get on board the train.  Nevertheless, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

In order to meet the needs of those who won’t make any effort, we must determine why they won’t try.  They may have lacked success in the past.  There may have been emotional traumas which make it more difficult for her to put pencil to paper.  In order to solve this problem, it is only necessary to conduct a thorough and searching investigation using all the tests we currently have, developing new ones, and bringing in social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, family doctors and, if need be, psychics who will determine what needs to happen in order for the child to begin to engage the work.  The funding for all these professionals could be found in school dances, talent shows or bottle drives.  Will this be enough?  If not, we can assign some of our Educational Technicians to assist them, because, as we know, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal. 

Making the Train Safe for All

There is an additional population that keeps our train from moving safely toward its destination.  This group is made up of those who do attend school, and who can often learn, but feel the need to disrupt.  It is difficult to blame most of these students for their behaviors.  One of my colleagues recently made the observation that he would, under no circumstances, trade lives with some of our students.  We have an ever-increasing population of those who are frequently arrested.  We have some who are using drugs.  There are others who are dealing with different forms of abuse at home, and have parents who are too drunk or too stoned to give them any sort of guidance or help.  If parents do impart their values to their children, the values thus imparted are frequently in direct conflict with those we are called upon to instill in our students.  It is all but impossible to convince a student whose father is in prison and whose mother is usually unable to communicate through her drug or alcohol induced haze that the multiplication tables have any relevance to her life, or that putting a period at the end of a sentence is an important part of communication.  Our train, however, being a public train, is required to transport all those who board it, and we will find a solution to this problem as well.  After all, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

For the students who are on board the train only to disrupt its travels, it is possible simply to send them out of the classroom, so that we can teach the rest of the students.  Of course, these students will miss out on what we are trying to teach, and their high-stakes test scores will show that.  Since this won’t do if we are to leave no child behind, we could have special classes, made up exclusively of these students, with a highly trained and qualified set of teachers who work just with this population.  Although my school’s current staffing makes this impossible, our Special Education Director has assured us that these students are manageable if only we will use the staff we now have more effectively.  Since there is neither the funding for specialists to deal with these students, nor the space for them to have a classroom if such teachers could be found, what we really need to do is just what the President’s plan suggests: replace the teachers who are not being effective. 

If a veteran teacher can’t handle students who yell out in class, bully other students, sell drugs in the hallways, or stand on the desk singing, then we need to get rid of the teacher.  Teachers with many years of experience cost way too much anyway, so the obvious answer is replace them with the vastly superior first- and second-year teachers that are coming out of our colleges in record numbers.  After all, with all of its rewards, many students in college today must certainly aspire to be teachers.  Surely, teachers with no experience, but well-armed with all that can be taught in modern Methods Classes will be perfectly equipped to handle the problems that students in this population present.  If these teachers require additional assistance to help with these students, perhaps we can have our Educational Technicians take these students in the hall and help them to learn there.  See what an honorable and achievable goal it is to leave no child behind?

Serving Our Passengers

Having made arrangements for those who rarely attend, those who make no effort, and those who are a threat to the learning and safety of the rest, we are left with a smaller population who show up on time to meet the train, get on board, and are ready and eager to travel down the tracks toward our destination.  Among this population are those who, despite their best efforts, cannot seem to grasp some of the material.  These are the students that most of us want most to help.  Teaching is, after all, a “helping” profession.  We are, all of us, here because we want to help others.  We are all more than willing to do anything and everything possible to help those who really want to learn.  All that is necessary for the success of those students who do not qualify for a Special Education program, but who still can’t quite figure it all out, is some time and attention.  The solution for this group is simple.  In Middle School, we have Educational Technicians who are experts in serving just this function.  Although in a class of thirty, with 47 minutes to teach them all, a single teacher may not be able to spend the appropriate amount of time with each of these students, our Ed. Techs are ready, willing, and able. 

Of course, there is the difficulty of locating our Ed. Techs.  Many of our Ed Techs are working with those students who are way behind because they have missed school so often.  Others are assisting those students who won’t put a pencil to paper.  The remaining Ed. Techs are being used in the hallway to assist those students who are only here to disrupt.  What does that leave us to help the students who really want to learn, but just need that helping hand?  Well, perhaps these students aren’t all that important anyway.  After all, they’ll probably pass the high-stakes test, even if their scores aren’t as high as they might be.  They can read, write, and do basic calculations.  They’re here in school, they try their best, and they behave well.  These students are by no means achieving all that they might, but they certainly aren’t being left behind.  And, of course, what is most important is our honorable and achievable goal of leaving no child behind. 

Final Destination

Finally, we need to see where we will arrive, once we have gotten all of our students there.  It would seem we will arrive at a place in which ALL of our students have at least some minimal skills.  They can read, if by this we mean that they can decode words and find at least a superficial meaning in written language.  They are certainly capable of comprehending the pop-up ads on the internet, and the advertising in magazines and on billboards.  They are probably not ready to comprehend great literature, but, after all, what difference does the writing of a lot of dead white guys make anyway?

They can write well enough to send e-mails and conduct online chats.  They know that the word “you” is more properly spelled “u.”  It saves time, after all, to write it this way, and we need to have as much time as possible so we can use our writing skills to send vitally important messages, like, “Sup,” (which I am told means, “What’s up?” – a vitally important message itself), and to communicate with others on the same intellectual level.

Certainly they can solve simple mathematical problems, and possibly balance their checkbooks.  They may not have the ability to do any real problem solving, or to examine alternatives and choose the ones most likely to bring about desired results, but how important is that really, anyway?  Our students can now get jobs, respond to advertising, and use the money they earn to buy the products advertised on TV, the internet, and in magazines, and keep our economy healthy. 

Certainly these are the intended outcomes of public education.  These are the lofty goals to which I, like all teachers, aspired when I became certified.  We should all be so proud to have met such an honorable goal.  Congratulations, fellow educators.  We have left no child behind.

Fred Eder

Biddeford Middle School

Twenty years later, we’ve decided teachers don’t even need degrees to teach.  Anyone can do it.    In some states, including Arizona and Florida, a veteran, simply by virtue of having served in the military, is now considered a qualified teacher.  If that’s true, I’m qualified to coach The Phoenix Suns because I saw a basketball game once.  I’ve seen a couple of seasons of ER, so I’m almost certainly qualified to perform open heart surgery.  Or… is it just possible that we need more than that to be qualified to do something? 

Unqualified teachers are likely to be as effective as I would be fighting a war.  I need both hands to stand up.  I need to nap after I vacuum a single room and I’m out of breath.  And the thing is, everyone knows that.  Why would we want to have unqualified teachers?  What is the advantage of that?

The advantage is that we will have a population that can’t think.  They are more easily manipulated and distracted.  We can have a President incite an insurrection while people are busy yelling at each other about whether helping others is Socialism, which most people don’t understand anyway because no one ever taught them to think critically.  It’s easier to convince them of the value of fascism, it’s easier to keep them from the ballot box, and they can be made to accept authority without question.  This keeps the wealthy in power, and it keeps the rest of us content to be wage slaves. 

To further this agenda, more restrictions are being put on teachers because those in power know that teachers are the most vital part of society.  Not only are they not allowed to teach any real literature, they are also banned from teaching any history that is less than flattering to The United States. 

One of The People On The Porch sent me a video the other day in which an economist explained how one can predict what is going to happen in the stock market by means of examining history.  Empires, he posits, go through certain cycles that are predictable because they have been repeated over and over from Ancient Rome, up through The Dutch and The East India Company, the rise and fall of Great Britain, and all the way to America.  America reached its peak after World War II, and we’ve been declining since.  And much of this has to do with education because education breeds the innovation that keeps an economy strong enough for its currency to be the Reserve Currency for the world.  The dollar currently has that slot, but China is closing in on it.  When the yuan (Chinese currency) replaces the dollar in this position, America will lose much of its power.  I’m not an economist of any sort, but the video made sense to me.  Perhaps the author is incorrect.  I really don’t know enough to have an informed opinion. 

The point is that there is an advantage to those in power that we don’t know all of our own history.  It’s easier to be fiercely loyal to a country that you believe has done nothing wrong.  America’s history is filled with immoral and inexcusable behavior.  If all we learn is that George Washington told his father he chopped down the cherry tree because he could not tell a lie (and that story isn’t even true, by the way.  It was invented by Parson Mason Weems.) how could we think badly of our country, and why should we try to change it?

Heather Cox Richardson, whose work I read nightly, summed it up this way:

And now, in 2022, we are in a new educational moment.  Between January 2021 and January 2022, the legislatures of 35 states introduced 137 bills to keep students from learning about issues of race, LBGTQ+ issues, politics, and American history.  More recently, the Republican-dominated legislature of Florida passed the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (Stop WOKE) Act, tightly controlling how schools and employee training can talk about race or gender discrimination. 

Republican-dominated legislatures and school districts are also purging books from school libraries and notifying parents each time a child checks out a book.  Most of the books removed are by or about Black people, people of color, or LGBTQ+ individuals.

Both sets of laws are likely to result in teachers censoring themselves or leaving the profession out of concern they will inadvertently run afoul of the new laws, a disastrous outcome when the nation’s teaching profession is already in crisis.  School districts facing catastrophic teacher shortages are trying to keep classrooms open by doubling up classes, cutting the school week down to four days, and permitting veterans without educational training to teach—all of which will likely hurt students trying to regain their educational footing after the worst of the pandemic.   

This, in turn, adds weight to the move to divert public money from the public schools into private schools that are not overseen by state authorities.  In Florida, the Republican-controlled legislature has dramatically expanded the state’s use of vouchers recently, arguing that tying money to students rather than schools expands parents’ choices while leaving unspoken that defunded public schools will be less and less attractive.  In June, in Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court expanded the voucher system to include religious schools, ruling that Maine, which provides vouchers in towns that don’t have public high schools, must allow those vouchers to go to religious schools as well as secular ones.  Thus tax dollars will support religious schools. 

In 2022, it seems worth remembering that in 1831, lawmakers afraid that Black Americans exposed to the ideas in books and schools would claim the equality that was their birthright under the Declaration of Independence made sure their Black neighbors could not get an education.

Heather Cox Richardson Newsletter, August 21, 2022

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-21-2022?utm_source=email

Are we actually interested in solving The Teacher Shortage?  If we are, then there are several things we can do. 

First, pay teachers enough to make it worthwhile for someone to do the job.  I taught for 29 years, and I live today in a state just North of Abject Poverty.  I can make ends meet only because I have so much help from others.  The idea that someone is going to take on enormous debt to go to college to become properly qualified to teach is unthinkable if a teacher isn’t going to make any money. 

Second, offer to forgive teachers’ student loans if they stay in the profession for 3 or 4 years.  Burnout is incredibly high among teachers because the job is infinitely more difficult than it appears from the point of view of students, parents, or what you see on television.  Give teachers an incentive to stay.

Third, give the teachers the resources they need to do the job properly.  This includes not only the books they want to teach because they have a passion for them, but the staff they need to help them.  These aren’t just the Ed Techs discussed above (I believe they’re called Paraprofessionals now), but also the technology necessary to teach students to use computers efficiently, space in which to work, and secretaries to handle the tasks that don’t require special training.  Teachers waste enormous amounts of time in the copy room. 

Finally, give them the respect they deserve for doing a job that no one wants to do anymore.  Remove the restrictions on teaching history, trust them to do their jobs properly, and let them apply the Art of teaching instead of forcing them to prepare students for high stakes tests that prove nothing and distract from real learning.  Value their time by freeing them from pointless meetings.  And, instead of criticizing them, thank them for doing the most important job in the world. 

Education is, in fact, the silver bullet. 

Posted on by Fred · 2 Comments

Cameras In The Classroom

Camera in a Classroom

Iowa Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would force all public-school classrooms to have a camera that would livestream classes which parents and guardians could view online.  Under the bill, school staff who did not keep cameras active or who obstruct the camera’s view could be fined up to 5 percent of their weekly salary.

“I have a right to know what is happening in my child’s classroom every minute of every day.  If teachers have nothing to hide, there is no reason to keep cameras out of the classroom.  Let the parents know what teachers are doing to their children.  This is no different than police officers wearing body cameras to ensure they’re not doing anything wrong.  And, like body cameras, cameras in the classroom will provide evidence to protect teachers when they are unjustly accused.  Why on Earth would anyone object to Cameras in The Classroom?”

That’s an excellent question.  I asked it this week on my Facebook page after a dear friend made a request for this episode.  What I’m about to give you is NOT to be confused with scientific research, or even with a valid poll.  It’s nothing more than the responses of a few of my friends, many of whom are, shockingly enough, teachers.  I taught Elementary School for 29 years.  I made friends with a few teachers in that time. 

I won’t be using real names.  One of them already has a built-in pseudonym, and the others I will invent. 

A friend I’ll call “Jennifer” suggested:

My two cents is that if you mistrust teachers so much, keep your kids home and home school them.

The response to this would probably be that not everyone CAN keep their kids at home to home-school them.  Many, if not most, parents are working.

Another friend I’ll call Frances, who has mixed feelings about it, made a case for having cameras in the classroom.  She told us:

As an abused child that switched schools several times in order to get away from our abuser, I could see how this could go terribly awry.

On the other hand, my 6th grade teacher used to hit us with yardsticks and paddles when we were “bad”.  One time, there was this boy named Bobby that used to go rounds with the teacher.  Teacher bullied the student & the student retaliated with a disrespectful & aggressive attitude.  Bobby spouted off to the teacher this day & the teacher full on assaulted this 12 yr old boy.  It was horrifying.  As it turns out, Bobby was being abused at home by his alcoholic father only to come to school to be further abused by his teacher.  In that case, maybe a camera would have saved that boy from yet another assault from an adult that was supposed to be taking care of him.

I’m kinda torn on this one.

This is an important point.  Most teachers, like most police officers, are good, kind, caring people of decent moral character.  In any group, however, there will be bad people, and the teaching profession is no exception.  I don’t know anyone who wants a teacher like this in the classroom.  Is a camera in the classroom the only way to stop someone like this from abusing our children? 

I think we all know that it’s not.  At no time in my career was there ever a camera live streaming my class to the world.  Near the end of my career, however, cell phones were common.  I’m sure they’re even more prevalent now than they were in 2016 when I quit teaching.  You can be reasonably certain some student would record that moment.  Even if that didn’t happen, it would be discussed around dinner tables when students go home to tell their versions of the story to their horrified parents.  It would get to the administration.  It would be addressed swiftly and in accordance with the policies of the district.  The camera wouldn’t offer immediate assistance. 

There is also a legitimate legal issue of student privacy.  As Frau Bleucher tells us:

I teach 3rd grade.  I can’t even take pictures of my entire class without putting an emoji over 2-3 faces because their parents won’t give permission for their pictures to be taken.  So, it would be an issue.

I have 6 students who are currently kindergarten level, so I’m trying to fill in some deep gaps.  Therefore, they will receive different types of lessons and learning strategies than my other students.  I referred all of them for an SST (Student Study Team) meeting in September so we can see if they qualify to be academically tested.  We are currently a year behind in our intervention meetings due to Covid/distance learning.  No other parent needs to know this.

I have one who has the mentality of a 3-4 year old. (We are in the process of trying to find a suitable educational placement before she goes to 4th grade).  She also goes to speech and occupational therapy.  No one needs to know this. I have 3 students who suffer from emotional distress and go to a counselor.  No one has the right to know this.  One is absolutely brilliant, 5th grade level. But, we believe he is on the spectrum and has had episodes of extreme frustration that he gets mad and begins to tear up my classroom or throw things, or break down in tears because he can’t handle it. He also has a severe stutter, but it’s taking a long time to process for testing.  No one needs to see him trying to control his feelings and not succeed on a particular day.

She makes excellent points here.  Students’ privacy outweighs the need for parents to watch what happens all day long in a classroom.  Such a stream could easily be hacked and used for unthinkable purposes.  I’ll say the word pedophile, and I’ll leave it at that. 

A significant part of teaching is establishing relationships with students.  This is made much more difficult by having every move watched in an almost Orwellian sense. 

Another friend I’ll call Austen, who does a weekly news and commentary show on YouTube, saw both sides of it.

I am legitimately torn on this issue.  I feel like the way it is going to be implemented and used is nothing more than spying on teachers for the state.  I don’t think people can work or study in that environment.  On the other hand, I think child abuse at the hands of teachers would probably go… way down and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have an objective view of what’s happening inside of classrooms.  Really tough.  On the one hand we have this watch state, which is dystopian and disturbing.  On the other hand the constant use of cameras everywhere save(s) lives and stops abuse and exposes lies.  We would need to create a lot of regulation around them if we did.  I cannot fall on one side of this issue or the other, I am genuinely torn.

I would be way more in favor of recordings though than streaming.

This might be a more workable idea.  If we insist on putting cameras in the classrooms, the videos are locked down, and they can be opened only with just cause.  I wouldn’t want to try to determine what qualifies as just cause, but others can figure that out. 

I think she’s right, too, that much of this is because there are those who live in terror that teachers will discuss issues that they don’t want discussed.  I suspect you’re familiar with The Scopes Trial.  It is explained succinctly by History.com here:

The Scopes Trial, also known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was the 1925 prosecution of science teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school, which a recent bill had made illegal.  The trial featured two of the best-known orators of the era, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as opposing attorneys. The trial was viewed as an opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of the bill, to publicly advocate for the legitimacy of Darwin’s theory of evolution, and to enhance the profile of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/scopes-trial#:~:text=The%20Scopes%20Trial%2C%20also%20known,recent%20bill%20had%20made%20illegal.

Even today teaching Evolution can be controversial.  It was the cry for inclusion of religious doctrine as science that gave rise to The Flying Spaghetti Monster.  In an open letter to the Kansas School Board, Bobby Henderson wrote:

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution.  I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them.  I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design.  I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.  It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel.  We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

Open Letter To Kansas School Board

Today, many are concerned about Critical Race Theory.  They don’t want teachers to discuss anything that might make anyone uncomfortable.  Books are being banned for having LGBTQIA characters, for discussing racism, for illustrating the holocaust, or for having ideas that cause a reader to reflect, ponder, or think at all.  Cameras in the classroom would have provided powerful evidence against Scopes.  I believe this is among the reasons Republican state Rep. Norlin Mommsen, who introduced the Iowa Bill, would like to have every moment of the day recorded.  There are bills restricting what teachers can discuss in their classrooms, and the punishments for violations can be extreme.  In short, they want their ideas to be taught to the exclusion of all others.  History shows us this never works out well. 

Your ideas about religion are personal.  The government has no business telling you what your relationship to the universe, or to God, or to multiple gods should be.  Certainly, the school doesn’t have the right to do that. 

History, however, is not a matter of personal opinion.  The Declaration of Independence was dated July 4, 1776.  To say otherwise would require quite a bit of evidence that would probably require a TARDIS to collect.  Slavery was a part of America.  European Americans subjugated and slaughtered Native Americans.  These are facts.  Understanding our history allows us to learn from our mistakes and celebrate our victories.  The United States has won extraordinary victories for humanity.  We have put human beings on the Moon.  We have made an effort at having Freedom unlike any before us.  And we have made mistakes.  We have done evil.  This is all part of the canvas of our history.  We need to see all of it in the cold light of day. 

And just as we trust doctors with medicine and lawyers with legal matters, because they are professionals who have learned more about it than we know ourselves, we need to trust our teachers and treat them as professionals who know more about education than the rest of us.  They are already underpaid and insufficiently respected.  They are filling roles for which no school ever prepared them.  They have become parents, counselors, social workers, and practitioners of patience on an unimaginable scale.  They need to deal with a host of children’s challenges, whether the child is abused, neglected, homeless, or simply sad because their dog died.  They take on an enormous responsibility, and they do it for very little money.  If we would like to end what people are calling a teacher shortage, perhaps we could let them do their jobs unencumbered by the uninformed opinions of those who have, or want to have, power over them. 

No one went into teaching to make money.  We did it to make a difference.  Don’t beat the passion out of those who are still in the profession.  They’re doing the best they can with incredibly limited time and resources.  If you don’t want to support them, at least don’t make their jobs harder.  Let’s leave the cameras on cell phones.  Let’s let teachers do what they can to save the world.

Posted on by Fred

A New Educational Constitution

We, the people, the teachers and parents, the brothers and sisters, the adults and the children, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, and ensure domestic tranquility, require an educational system that allows our children to learn not simply facts, figures, skills, and mechanics of life, but to explore their own potentials and find what makes them unique, following courses of study designed specifically for, and by, each student. In each person’s uniqueness is the potential for contributions unimagined by anyone else. Our children need to be prepared not for a life of drudgery defined by empty but exhausting minutes of their lives exchanged for money, but for life defined only by the limits of their own imaginations and abilities. Such an educational system must be the goal. As John Dewey told us, “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy. ”

How we reach that goal is open to discussion.

In this document, we will make suggestions that we believe will move us closer to that goal.

But, a larger goal is the society in which a school system such as we advocate can serve to help us create The Ideal World. This is a world in which no one is homeless, there is no poverty, everyone has enough to eat, the best medical care is available to everyone, and, more importantly, the citizens are truly free to contribute in a way that is satisfying, creative, and expansive .

This is not a Socialist society. It is Human Centered Capitalism. It’s a world in which there is a solid foundation on which to build, instead of a safety through which to slip.

These ideas are just that: Ideas. Ideas are always open to attack. We recognize there are many other ways to reach the goal. We are certainly willing to consider alternatives. We hope you will consider ours.


There are approximately 74 million children in America.

There are approximately 100 million parents. There are approximately 3.7 million K-12 teachers. Our plan is to bring benefits to all of them.

The Yang Gang K – 12 Educational Plan

Article 1: School districts will eliminate grade-levels. Students will pursue their interests and master the skills needed to advance their interests. They will move up in the same way they are accustomed to progressing in video games. When they master one level, they advance to the next. They move as quickly or as slowly as their abilities allow. Their age is as irrelevant to their education as it is to their ability to play a video game. I’m certain most 10 year olds could beat me in Mario Brothers. They have mastered it; I have not.

Students are not in a race to the finish line, because there is no finish line. Learning is a lifelong activity.

Article 2: Learning must be fun. Play is the most important part of childhood. Through play, children explore their identities, create social bonds, and learn how to interact with the rest of the world. This isn’t simply a 15 minute recess a couple of times a day. This is directed, organize play time. Research indicates this is the most powerful form of learning at young ages.

A great deal of research has concluded that play-based learning is genuinely and positively [useful in] student learning and development. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, a well-known child development expert in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, argues that humans learn best when at least one of these four pillars are present:

  1. Individuals take an active role in the learning environment
  2. They are engaged
  3. Information is meaningful
  4. Learners interact in a social context

The information can be found here. https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/play-based-learning/

Article 3: Learning will be, to the greatest extent possible, Project Based Learning.
The objective of Project Based Learning is that students pursue their interests through creating solutions to problems that can be presented to others. The results are greater long term retention of information, the reason for learning becomes immediately clear to students, since they are learning what they choose to learn to complete their projects, and student engagement is increased. Some, but by no means all, of the advantages are the following:

Researchers have identified several components that are critical to successful PBL (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Ertmer & Simons, 2005; Mergendoller & Thomas, 2005; Hung, 2008). While project-based learning has been criticized in the past for not being rigorous enough, the following features will greatly improve the chances of a project’s success.

  1. A realistic problem or project that aligns with students’ skills and interests, and requires learning clearly defined content and skills (e.g., using rubrics, or exemplars from local professionals and students).
  2. Structured group work with groups of three to four students, with diverse skill levels and interdependent roles; team rewards; and individual accountability, based on student growth.
  3. Multi-faceted assessment, with multiple opportunities for students to receive feedback and revise their work (e.g., benchmarks, reflective activities); multiple learning outcomes (e.g., problem-solving, content, collaboration); and presentations that encourage participation and signal social value (e.g. exhibitions, portfolios, performances, reports).
  4. Participation in a professional learning network, including collaborating and reflecting upon PBL experiences in the classroom with colleagues, and courses in inquiry-based teaching methods.

https://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes

Students will present their work to the selected audience. Their pride in their accomplishments will be increased, and their desire to learn will be enhanced.

Article 4: The Home Environment will be improved to allow for the best outcomes. Most studies tell us now that academic outcomes are more related to factors outside of teacher control, and that the biggest factor is the home from which the students come. There is no Silver Bullet to make all homes the ideal environments for raising children. There is, however, one thing that can be done to help. We can end their struggles for survival. The tension caused by wondering whether the family is going to make rent, keep the lights on, or feed and clothe the children is sufficient to cause any number of unnecessary problems for families. Domestic violence rises as survival is threatened. Suicide rates and drug overdoses are at an all time high, and the life expectancy in America has actually dropped in the last 3 years. While we can’t cure all these problems, we can help to reduce them by ensuring that all families have enough money to survive. Children benefit from stable home lives. These facts have been known for more than 50 years, at least since 1966 when we had the James Coleman Equality of Educational Opportunity (EEO) study.

This is why a Freedom Dividend, of $1000 a month for every adult 18 and over, must be implemented. If we want to improve educational outcomes, we need to reduce poverty.

For more information, spend some time on the Yang site. It’s here.
https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/

Article 5: All learning is individualized. Through technology, we now have the means to ensure that students have the resources to learn what they want to learn, at the pace at which they can learn it. There are on demand videos readily available, even now, for students to learn any skill needed in order to complete the projects they choose to do. Software, perhaps even in the form of video games, can be created that will engage children in interesting activities that teach them what they need to learn.

Classrooms need to be equipped with computers and other technology for students to use to learn what they need to complete their projects. The technology must be updated as necessary to keep it both functional and cutting edge.

Article 6: Teachers will be paid a living wage for the area in which they teach. If a teacher needs a second job in order to make ends meet, that teacher’s effectiveness drops quickly. The teacher’s attention is distracted from the students because when the teacher’s day is over, it is also just beginning for the second job. This creates exhaustion and the inability to function at one’s best. This means a teacher in San Francisco, where the cost of living is exceptionally high, will make more than a teacher in a city where the cost of living is lower. To attract and retain teachers, it’s essential that the pay is sufficient to attract the best and brightest.

Article 7: High stakes testing is eliminated. Tests are used only to determine mastery of a subject. They are not used to determine the quality of a teacher, or to decide anything about the students’ futures. Students are in charge of their own learning, without regard to test scores.

This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of all the changes we need to make in order to return education to what it is intended to be. These are a few preliminary ideas. They are all open to change based upon data that emerges. Other ideas are welcomed.

We must have an educated populace in order to ensure that America’s Experiment in Democracy can succeed. An uneducated citizenry can solve no problems. We must be able to discuss alternatives to find the best ways to reach our goals.

A government based in reality, and not simple adherence to ideology, is one that can function most effectively. An educated population is one that is adept at the fact checking that has become an essential part of our lives. Such a population is not easily deceived. It may be divided on solutions to the problems it faces, but it will be united on what the facts are. This is the ultimate goal of public education.

This is the time to reform not only the schools, but the world in which they function. We have taken 200,000 years to reach this pinnacle of humanity. We now have the resources to feed, clothe, shelter, and medically extend the lives of all human beings. Many sorts of labor will become unnecessary, and we can begin to pursue our interests and passions. We can help humanity to improve itself by recognizing the unique value of each individual. When we shed the scarcity based economy, and replace it with a post scarcity philosophy, we will improve the lives of all of our people. This must be our goal. These are a few steps we can take to reach it. When we all work together, more steps, and, quite probably, better ones may be found. Let’s begin that work today, while we still have time.

Posted on by Fred · 2 Comments

Teachers, Administrators, School Boards: Lend Me Your Ears!

Author’s Note: I wrote this essay in October, 2003.  I’m publishing it now because, it seems to me, we have arrived at the Destination described herein. If you disagree, please leave a comment and tell me why. If you agree, you’re welcome to leave a comment telling me what you think about that, too. I’ll probably even answer you.  — Fred Eder

Leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal. Teachers are accustomed to overcoming the enormous challenges put before us every day. Where once we were responsible only for the students’ academic skills, we are now in charge of teaching them the values of cultural diversity, sexual responsibility, and drug awareness. And just as we have met these challenges with overwhelming success, so, too, will we meet the challenge of getting students to reach the destination of our President’s Educational Train, leaving no child behind.

Arriving at the Station

The first requirement for learning to take place is that the students must attend school. Following the president’s metaphor, this would mean that the child must first arrive at the station. I feel sure that my school is not alone in its ever- increasing population of students who miss in excess of 40% of the standard school year. Sometimes students are chronically and suspiciously ill (especially on Fridays), sometimes they are suspended, and, all too often, they simply tell their parents they don’t want to come today, and they stay home and play video games. There is little the school can do to combat this problem. At more than one Pupil Evaluation Team (P.E.T.) meeting I have heard the Team recommend a bus be sent directly to the child’s doorstep to help her get to school. The bus is sent, but the child never boards the bus. A child who never makes it to the station can not help but be left behind. Nevertheless, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

How, though, are we to teach students who don’t attend school? As Mohamed might tell us about mountains, if the students won’t come to the school, the school must go to the students. We could hire teachers who travel from home to home to teach these students between sessions of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 for Play Station 2.

The cost of these extra teachers could come from school bake sales, or perhaps from having students go door to door selling candy, since, evidently, the funding will not be coming from the federal and state governments that promised it to us when they increased our responsibilities. The students might even sell some of their candy to the teachers who are working in the homes they visit.

On those days that these students do attend school, we can assign some of our Educational Technicians to assist them in catching up on the work they have missed while they were playing video games. To leave no child behind is clearly an honorable and achievable goal.

Boarding the Train

Assuming the child arrives at the station, it is next necessary that she actually boards the train. If I understand the metaphor correctly, this would be the equivalent of actually engaging the work that teachers set out for the students in order to help them learn. While many students do come to class regularly, there is among them a population which does no more than breathe the air in the room. Certainly, modifications can be, should be, and are made to assist these students. Educational Technicians work with them individually when the staffing makes it possible. Special procedures are put in place to help spark the student’s interest, encourage participation, and reward effort. For many students, these interventions are indeed effective, but not for all of them.

There are those students who, regardless of the best efforts of the Teachers, Educational Technicians, Administrators, Counselors, Social Workers and Parents, simply will not make an effort. There is, in the final analysis, nothing that can be done to force someone to try if she doesn’t want to. While the student may arrive at the station, she won’t necessarily get on board the train. Nevertheless, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

In order to meet the needs of those who won’t make any effort, we must determine why they won’t try. They may have lacked success in the past. There may have been emotional traumas which make it more difficult for them to put pencil to paper. In order to solve this problem, it is only necessary to conduct a thorough and searching investigation using all the tests we currently have, developing new ones, and bringing in Social Workers, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Family Doctors and, if need be, Psychics who will determine what needs to happen in order for the child to begin to engage the work.

The funding for all of these professionals could be found in school dances, talent shows, or bottle drives, since, again, we can be sure the government that imposed this program on us will not be paying for it. I have also recently observed that the students’ learning time, which is a valuable resource, can be sold to professional basketball teams, who represent a valuable source of funding. For a mere $1,000, the Boston Celtics got a captive and adoring audience for purposes of an hour long commercial for their team. The educational message, which lasted, in a generous estimate, for two and a half minutes, was admittedly important: you should always work hard.

While it’s true that the teachers at my school deliver this message to their students almost daily, we’re not as important as professional basketball players, and the message is much more powerful coming from Jo Jo White, while the Celtics mascot runs around slapping students’ hands, and the team’s Public Relations executive is passing out free tickets to kids who know Celtics trivia.

It’s hard to blame my principal, my superintendent, or even my governor, all of whom attended this “very special” assembly, for their choice. If the money can’t be found in any other way, they need to do what they can. The only commodity they have to sell is time with the students. If it seems to be to the students’ detriment to sacrifice class time for commercials, the case can be made that at least their students may have a few more books or supplies. These are important to the students’ education, too.

If this won’t pay for all the professionals we need to get the students to engage the work given to them, we can assign some of our Educational Technicians to assist them, because, as we know, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

Making the Train Safe for All

There is an additional population that keeps our train from moving safely toward its destination. This group is made up of those who do attend school, and who can often learn, but feel the need to disrupt. It is difficult to blame most of these students for their behaviors. One of my colleagues recently made the observation that he would, under no circumstances, trade lives with some of our students.

We have an ever-increasing population of those who are frequently arrested. We have some who are using drugs. There are others who are dealing with different forms of abuse at home, and whose parents are too drunk or too stoned to give them any sort of guidance or help. If parents do impart their values to their children, the values thus imparted are frequently in direct conflict with those we are called upon to instill in our students. It is all but impossible to convince a student whose father is in prison and whose mother is usually unable to communicate through her drug or alcohol induced haze that the multiplication tables have any relevance to her life, or that putting a period at the end of a sentence is an important part of communication. One student, whose father is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for dealing drugs, told me education was of no importance to him since he would simply take over his father’s business. His intimidation and assaults upon his fellow students is much better training for his chosen future than is anything I can teach him.

Our train, however, being a public train, is required to transport all those who board it, and we will find a solution to this problem as well. After all, leaving no child behind is an honorable and achievable goal.

For the students who are on board the train only to disrupt its travels, it is possible simply to send them out of the classroom, so that we can teach the rest of the students. Of course, these students will miss out on what we are trying to teach, and the test scores that our government has decided will determine our school’s future will show that.

Since this won’t do if we are to leave no child behind, we could have special classes, made up exclusively of these students, with a highly trained and qualified set of teachers who work just with this population. Although my school’s current staffing makes this impossible, our Special Education Director has assured us that these students are manageable if only we will use the staff we now have more effectively.

Since there is neither the funding for specialists to deal with these students, nor the space for them to have a classroom if such teachers could be found, what we really need to do is just what the President’s plan suggests: replace the teachers who are not being effective. If a veteran teacher can’t handle students who yell out in class, bully other students, sell drugs in the hallways, or stand on the desk singing, then we need to get rid of that teacher. Teachers with many years of experience cost way too much anyway, so the obvious answer is to replace them with the vastly superior first and second year teachers that are coming out of our colleges in record numbers.

After all, with all of its rewards, many students in college today must certainly aspire to enter the teaching profession. Surely, teachers with no experience, but well armed with all that can be taught in modern Methods Classes, will be perfectly equipped to handle the problems that students in this population present.

If these teachers require additional assistance to help with these students, perhaps we can have our Educational Technicians take these students in the hall and help them to learn there. See what an honorable and achievable goal it is to leave no child behind?

Serving Our Passengers

Having made arrangements for those who rarely attend, those who make no effort, and those who are a threat to the learning and safety of the rest, we are left with a smaller population who show up on time to meet the train, get on board, and are ready and eager to travel down the tracks toward our destination. Among this population are those who, despite their best efforts, can not seem to grasp some of the material. These are the students that most of us want most to help. Teaching is, after all, a “helping” profession. We are, all of us, here because we want to help others. We are all more than willing to do anything and everything possible to help those who really want to learn. All that is necessary for the success of those students who do not qualify for a Special Education program, but who still can’t quite figure it all out, is some time and attention.

The solution for this group is simple. In Middle School, we have Educational Technicians who are experts in serving just this function. Although in a class of thirty, with 47 minutes to teach them all, a single teacher may not be able to spend the appropriate amount of time with each of these students, our Ed. Techs are ready, willing, and able.

Of course, there is the difficulty of locating our Ed. Techs. Many of them are working with those students who are way behind because they have missed school so often. Others are assisting those students who won’t put a pencil to paper. The remaining Ed. Techs are being used in the hallway to assist those students who are only here to disrupt. What does that leave us to help the students who really want to learn, but just need that helping hand?

Well, perhaps these students aren’t all that important anyway. After all, they’ll probably pass the high-stakes test, even if their scores aren’t as high as they might be. They can read, write and do basic calculations. They’re here in school, they try their best, and they behave well. These students are by no means achieving all that they might, but they certainly aren’t being left behind. And, of course, what is most important is our honorable and achievable goal of leaving no child behind.

Final Destination

Finally, we need to see where we will arrive, once we have gotten all of our students there. It would seem we will arrive at a place in which ALL of our students have at least some minimal skills. They can read, if by this we mean that they can decode words and find at least a superficial meaning in written language. They are certainly capable of comprehending the pop-up ads on the internet, and the advertising in magazines and on billboards. They are probably not ready to comprehend great literature, but, after all, what difference does the writing of a lot of dead white guys make anyway?

They can write well enough to send e-mails and conduct online chats. They know that the word “you” is more properly spelled “u.” It saves time, after all, to write it this way, and we need to have as much time as possible so we can use our writing skills to send vitally important messages, like, “Sup,” (which I am told means, “What’s up?” – a vitally important message itself), and to communicate with others on the same intellectual level.

Certainly they can solve simple mathematical problems, and probably balance their checkbooks. They may not have the ability to do any real problem solving, or to examine alternatives and choose the ones most likely to bring about desired results, but how important is that really anyway? Our students can now get jobs, respond to advertising and use the money they earn to buy the products advertised on TV, the internet and in magazines, and keep our economy healthy enough for the millionaires whose tax cuts are creating the low-paying jobs for which our students have been successfully trained.

Certainly these are the intended outcomes of public education. These are the lofty goals to which I, like all teachers, aspired when I became certified. We should all be proud to have met such an honorable goal. Congratulations, fellow educators. We have left no child behind.

“…and Brutus is an honorable man”

Some Dead White Guy

Fred Eder
Biddeford Middle School

Posted on by Fred · 1 Comment

The Importance of Language

I’m often referred to as a Grammar Nazi, and many of my friends take delight in finding errors I’ve made in something I’ve posted. I am embarrassed, and I fix the error promptly. But, most people are thinking, “What difference does it make anyway?” The difference it makes is greater than you probably ever imagined. We’re seeing the effects of poor language use on our country daily. It divides us for reasons we don’t understand.

If I use the word “table,” we probably have a similar image in mind. If I use it in context, you’ll probably be more certain of what I mean. If I describe it well enough, we will both have a nearly identical understanding of the word.

When, however, we misuse words, their meanings become murky. “Chill” is a somewhat benign example. It once meant to make cold. People saw that as a good metaphor for relaxing. “Chill, dude!” is not a call to put a beer in the refrigerator. It’s a plea for someone to settle down.

I got in trouble a few years ago for using the word in that context. I have a friend who is a brilliant singer, and a very beautiful woman. She is decades too young for me, but that doesn’t keep us from being friends. I saw on Facebook one day that she was having a difficult day. I behaved as I thought a friend should. I knew she would enjoy the opportunity to relax after all of her difficulties, so I texted her. I invited her to watch a movie with my new access to Netflix, and to relax, perhaps sharing a bit of marijuana. My meaning was entirely benign. The way I phrased it got me into instant trouble. “It looks like you’re having a lousy day. When you get off work, why don’t you come by? We can watch Netflix and chill a while.”

She was shocked I would send her such an offensive text. Evidently “Netflix and chill” has an entirely different meaning. She wondered if, because she wasn’t even 30 yet, and I was in my 50s, I was some sort of pervert. Without intending to, I had evidently invited her to a sexual encounter. I apologized when I recognized my mistake, and we are still friends. It wasn’t a big deal, but it could have cost me a person I enjoy having in my life.

Now, that’s a minor issue. “Chill” is not a terribly important word.

But, what about words that carry greater weight? What, for example, is Socialism? What is Communism? What does Conservative mean? What about Liberal? What is Capitalism? We all throw these words around as easily as “table” or “chill,” but their meanings seem to vary as widely as the people who use them. I will limit this essay to only one of these words, but as much could be written about any of them.

Just today, I came across this definition of Liberal:

“The Liberal: We support terrorist groups. We support antisemitism. We support thought and speech control. We support attacking people in the street for having different opinions. We support sacking people for having different opinions. We support hounding and harassing people for having different opinions. We think all white people are born evil. We teach that all white people are born evil. We support open borders. We support widespread drug use. We support the sexualisation of children. We tacitly support the mass rape of children. We support special privileges for certain groups based on gender, race or sexual orientation. We support hating your own country or your own working class. We support the cruelty of halal. We support welfare cheating. We support pulling down statues. We support you being ruled from abroad. We support everything and everyone that hates you, damages your society or blights your life. And we support you paying high taxes for it too.
The Conservative: Please stop.
The Liberal: Shut up you moron. Why did conservatives become so extreme?”

Bartholomew Chiaroscuro

If that’s the definition of Liberal you believe to be correct, it’s hardly a surprise you despise me. If that were what Liberals believe, in just that form, I would not choose to be one. However… that’s not what the word actually means.

The Dictionary at Google defines the word as follows:


“open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.
(of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person’s general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.”

Google Dictionary

John Dewey tells us:

“But the majority who call themselves liberals today are committed to the principle that organized society must use its powers to establish the conditions under which the mass of individuals can possess actual, as distinct from, merely legal liberty. They define their liberalism in the concrete in terms of a program of measures moving toward this end.”

Liberalism and Social Action

These are only a few of the definitions of the word. In order for us to communicate with one another effectively, we must agree on what words mean. Without that agreement, we are spitting into the wind. We can accomplish nothing because we can’t understand each other.

How do we manage this?

I think it begins by examining the context in which a word is used. While what we currently call a Conservative might agree with the first, frankly offensive, definition of the word, I know few Liberals who would. And I know many people who call themselves Conservative, in a different sense of the word than is popularly used today, who would also find that definition to be absurd.

Let’s ask ourselves why some are choosing one definition of a word but not another. What advantage is gained for them in argument? If all Liberals, or all Conservatives, or all of any other group you might wish to label in a negative way, are evil, then I don’t need to engage their arguments. I can simply call them, “Typical ___” You may fill in the blank.

I have made no argument. I’ve done nothing to convince anyone that I’m right and they’re wrong. I’ve learned nothing about the opposing point of view that might help me to refine my own. I just get the unwarranted feeling that I’m superior.

If I’m choosing a definition of Liberal that I like best, it would probably be Kennedy’s:

“If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”

Profiles in Courage

The function of language is to help us to understand one another more clearly. When we use words as epithets instead of as accurate descriptions of one ideology or another, we are unable to communicate meaningfully. I can’t solve the world’s problems alone. Neither can you. If, however, we listen to each other, understand each other, and learn from each other, together we might take a few steps in that direction.

“The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let’s go together.”

Hamlet Act 1, Scene 5
Posted on by Fred

The Path


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

A few days ago, the first principal for whom I ever taught found me on Facebook, and we began corresponding a bit. When I met her, I was hardly a teacher. I was filled with Idealism, but I had none of the skills that experience brings. She nurtured the Idealism, and she helped me to get the skills that finally made me a truly great teacher.

This week she asked me this:

“Can I ask what [possessed] you to choose the path you chose?”

And, suddenly, I had to stop. I have never, in all my years, really thought about this. I’m a big fan of Socrates, who told me both, “Know thyself,” and “…the unexamined life is not worth living.” And I have tried to keep both of those ideas in mind, and to follow them to the best of my ability. But, one of the biggest parts of my life has been left unexamined for decades. I don’t know that the examination is going to yield the results I want, but this is my effort to answer her question.

I suppose “if you really want to hear about it…” I would have to go back to April 6, 1967, when I was not yet 5 years old. That was when Captain Kirk told Edith Keeler that the three words “Let me help” were more important even than I love you: “A hundred years or so from now, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He’ll recommend those three words, even over I love you.”

No, I wasn’t a philosophical genius at age 4. I’m not Salinger’s Teddy. But, I knew there was something important there.

My parents were teachers. My parents helped. I believed in helping before I arrived at my first day of Kindergarten.

When I was little, I wanted to be Captain Kirk, Batman, and, from time to time, Mighty Mouse. There seems to be a theme within those folks.

When I was, perhaps, 7 years old, Dad gave me a Show ‘N Tell record player / slide show projector. The first show I ever watched on it was Hamlet. And I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

If we put all those elements together, perhaps we can see what motivated me to teach. I wanted to help. I wanted to be heroic. When I was old enough to begin to understand the idea of What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up, I saw To Kill A Mockingbird. I also read the book. And, of course, I wanted to be Atticus Finch. It seemed for quite a few years that I would become a lawyer. Starship Captain and super hero were not professions that were widely available to adults in the 1960s.

My sister was a babysitter, rather frequently, when I was a child. She could make a little extra money in her entrepreneurial endeavors if she brought me with her. I was good at playing with little kids. Even then, I told them stories that I made up off the top of my head, just as my Dad did with me when I was little. He would ask the three of us what characters needed to be in a story. My brother insisted on Popeye, who I liked, too, and later he moved up to Winston Churchill, which made for some truly bizarre stories, since I, obviously had to have Captain Kirk or Batman, and my sister seemed to have an affinity for either Cinderella or Snow White. I challenge any writer to invent anything resembling a coherent story with that cast of characters. But… my Dad could do it. I miss him so much.

When I got older, and I wanted to be The Six Million Dollar Man, I would write plays my friends and I would perform in my garage. We did a great Frankenstein piece once because my friend, Tom, had figured out how to do Monster makeup.

I created my own cardboard version of the Bridge of the Enterprise in that same garage. I had a flashlight connected to a hanger that came through the toy pool table to which I had lost all of the equipment years earlier. I could aim the flashlight at different ships I made out of cardboard and stuck on the screen I made out of masking tape. There was a button on the pool table I could press to turn the flashlight on. I could fire phasers at my targets. It was incredibly cool.

Perhaps I should have been an engineer? Lawyer? As it turned out, Engineering required both more mathematical ability and physical dexterity than I would ever possess. Neither my father nor I were ever much good at physical tasks. My mother suspects that, had Special Education been as regulated, understood, and funded as it is today, I would have been diagnosed with something, but she never said what. My roommates suspect Asperger’s. They may be right. I honestly don’t know.

What did it turn out, from all this, that I could do well? The lawyer in me knew how to talk to people. I made pretty good arguments. The Starship Captain wanted a crew. The Writer wanted to see his plays performed. The hero in me wanted to help. It turned out, I found, one needed little green pieces of paper in order to survive on this planet in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Teaching would fulfill most of my desires, and it would earn me a few of those dollars that seem for many to be the mark of my value.

I became a teacher. Simple.

Except, that’s not REALLY what my principal was asking, I don’t think. I think she was asking why I quit teaching, and why I chose poverty and writing.

That was also about my Ideals.

When I began teaching, I was hired because of my Ideals. My principal wanted a teacher who wanted to go beyond the Basal Reader. She wanted creativity, ideas, and engagement. She wanted what might today be called Progressive Education. I was encouraged to stretch myself and the minds of my students. Everything was ripe for me to grow. And I did.

I became a very good teacher. I have known few who were better than I was. I’ve known quite a few who were as good, and more than I would like to admit who were not. I developed a highly functional Token Economy that, by the end of my career, included bank accounts run by students on computers. I had 4th Graders doing Hamlet.

I was living the life I wanted. I was proud of who I was, what I was doing, and what I was producing. I was as happy as I could be. I made a difference.

I wrote my own musicals for students, and I learned to record their vocals so they could sing with themselves over the vocals on the original tracks. The plays were as professional as any Elementary School was likely ever to do. The kids felt the kind of pride that can be gained only by getting a standing ovation. I don’t care whether it’s in the library in your school or at Carnegie Hall. There is a glow that comes with it that can’t be found by getting an A+ on your report card.

One of my students had been terrified of getting on the stage, but he memorized ALL of Hamlet’s Soliloquy when he was in 6th Grade. And when he did it on stage, he nailed it. And the audience of parents and students responded. Today, he makes a living producing and acting in his own plays. Was that me? I don’t know. I know I’m proud of him, though.

The kindest thing anyone ever said to me was said by one of my students when I was in my sixth or seventh year. She had difficulty reading, but when she graduated from high school, she was selected to give one of the speeches because of her many great accomplishments. And she insisted that my principal and I come to the ceremony. We went.

In her speech, she said, “I had two teachers who really believed in me.” She named her Special Ed teacher, and me. “Mr. Eder said if I wanted to play Ophelia, I absolutely could do it. And because of him I can quote Shakespeare today. Really,” she said. “Ask me anything.” And then she sought my eyes in the crowd, and she said, “To be or not to be, Mr. Eder? I choose to be.” And I wept visibly. Thirty years later, my eyes still tear up at the memory.

And that began to change. It changed when I changed principals. When my first principal retired, she was replaced by a new one, who once did an evaluation of a brilliant lesson I had taught in Hamlet, in which I hit every possible goal on any evaluation, by saying, “Let’s talk about what you didn’t do.” I hadn’t used the correct materials, you see. Hamlet wasn’t approved by the District for Elementary School. I should have been using the basal reader. And, thus began the decline of my career.

I fought, of course, valiantly. Capt. Kirk, and later Hemingway’s Santiago, taught me that. And for many years, I was able to continue to teach in ways that made me proud. I was forever fighting principals and district committees and anyone else who was obsessed with test scores, but, I won most of those battles. My students were excited. Their parents loved what we were doing. I still felt proud.

And a few years after my first principal retired, I attended yet another end of the year waste of time with the entire district. They had asked me to create a video… an actual video, on video tape… no cell phones existed yet… combining pictures and music that celebrated the district. I did it for free, and I made it precisely the way they wanted it. And they showed it before the program started. Instead of having the entire district watch the Art I tried to create (on which I had worked for many hours, and of which I was more than a little proud), they used it as Elevator Music. My ego bruised, my wife and I left. There were more than 1,300 people there. No one would notice.

Except, they did notice. When they handed out the award for Hesperia Unified School District Teacher of The Year, I wasn’t there to accept it. And they had brought my first principal out of retirement to present it. Oops.

My career reached its summit while I was teaching in Maine with a group of the most creative people I’ve ever known. We were using professional theaters for my musicals now. We were creating units that had students traveling back in time, interviewing people from the Renaissance, mapping their trip from one side of Europe to the other, creating a log to chronicle their adventures, creating physical models of their imaginary modes of transportation, and solving the puzzle to return a stolen item to its original user, thus saving History as we know it. They were reflecting on their own learning with daily reports of themselves and the other members of their group.

Students were producing their own magazines by buying and selling articles and pictures from and to each other. Their writing was improved not because I insisted it be better, but because it needed to be in order to sell it. They challenged themselves and each other. My job was just to let them know when they had made their articles’ language mechanics perfect. I would stamp the article, and its value would triple on the market.

I could go on and on, but I feel like I’ve already done that. The point is, I was teaching well, I was excited, I was making a difference, and I was honoring the three most important words: “Let me help.”

By the time I quit, they had removed all of it. I was strictly bound to district materials. One of my principals actually shut down my Drama Club. It wasn’t just that he cut funding. I could have raised the money myself. He decided it wouldn’t be allowed at all anymore. Honestly, it was making me too popular with students and parents, and he and I had been at war for a couple of years. He had to remove as much of my power as he could, and he managed it. I changed schools, and it wasn’t long before there was no more fun to be had in my class.

We had to “track data.” We had to have our PDSA wall up to date. We had to have “artifacts” on our “My Learning Plan” website to prove we were good teachers. We had to teach by a set of arbitrary rules, and the scores students made on tests were of paramount importance. Everything that meant teaching to me had evaporated. I couldn’t do it anymore. My students were beginning to learn the only reason anyone reads is so they can pass a mind numbingly dull test on a computer that proves almost nothing, assuming, of course, we can get the computer up and running so the students can take the test.

My once glowing evaluations had become recitations of complaints that I wasn’t a “team player,” and I wasn’t doing all the things that they now believed were vital to teaching.

By this time, after having been divorced twice, borrowing money every month to make the bills, getting roommates who were convicted felons in an effort to avoid eviction, and surviving the Death of my Father and watching the loss of my Mother’s mind, my depression was at a place that my psychiatrist pulled me out of work because he was afraid I was going to hurt myself. At the end of the 2016 school year, I resigned, pulled my retirement, and lived well for several months before I plunged permanently into poverty.

My diabetes kicked into high gear. I was hospitalized a dozen times in the course of 2 years, at least twice when I should have been dead save for the intervention of other people.

I couldn’t teach another day of Elementary School even if I wanted to. I could still teach Defensive Driving, so I got myself re-certified (I lost my certification for a while when I got a photo radar citation), and started making what I could. Prior to that I worked at trying to sell DirecTV to unsuspecting old ladies over the phone. I loathed that. It was the opposite of everything in which I believed. Worse, I was good at it.

I have a couple of roommates now who help take care of me. I make almost, but not quite, enough to survive. I’m on Food Stamps and state Health Insurance. But, I spend more time writing, which, let’s face it, is what I think I really wanted to do in the first place, and I limit my social life to Facebook. I have no retirement. I have no means of ever quitting work again. I hope, one day, I might be able to get disability, and maybe it will be enough to keep me alive.

For all the poverty and poor health, I think I’m actually happier now. I like myself again. I’m still not Batman, and I have retired from the Bridge of the Enterprise. Now, I’m a man who is cuddled by cats, but my body is shot. That’s fine, though, because other than containing my consciousness, there’s really almost nothing else I want to do with it. I’m a guy who sits in the backyard smoking while I rewrite my work with blue inked Uniball pen in my left hand. I’m someone who shares too much of his personal life with strangers… for Some People. I’m too private for the liking of Other People. For Some I need to be more concise. For Others I need to go into greater detail. But, this is who I’ve become now. In short, I think I’m Fred now. I like this guy.