“We are being sold a bill of goods when in comes to talking about tougher standards for our schools. The standards movement is pushing teachers and students to focus on memorizing information, then regurgitating facts for high test scores. The shift is away from teaching students to be thinkers who can make sense of what they’re learning.”
Alfie Kohn, The Case Against Standardized Testing (2000)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference
“The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis, the courageous leap to a tentative conclusion—these are the most valuable coins of the thinker at work. But in most schools guessing is heavily penalized and is associated somehow with laziness.”
Jerome S. Bruner, The Process of Education (1960)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
When I began my career as a New York City special education teacher in 2003, I worked on Jackson Avenue, which runs down the east side of St. Mary’s Park in the South Bronx. If your training or your own interests have brought Jonathan Kozol’s book Amazing Grace to your attention, then you already know something about that part of The Bronx.
A bit to the north and east of that school is James Monroe High School. For 46 years, Tom Porton served as an English teacher at Monroe. The South Bronx is not exactly the garden spot of the Five Boroughs, but 46 years ago, in 1970, it was almost literally a war zone–and as the decades passed, it only got worse. Year after year, Tom Porton worked to improve the lives of children in this blighted and often dangerous neighborhood. By all accounts (like this one in The New York Daily News, or this one from NY1, our local cable news provider), he was successful and much beloved by his students. Indeed, in 1995, Mr. Porton was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
If you clicked through on the link under Tom Porton’s name above, you know now that this story has an unfortunately shameful ending. As I’ve said elsewhere, this is not a political blog and I am not a political writer. That said, every so often something happens in the New York City School system, something like this episode, that is such an egregious affront to educators that I am compelled, if not exactly to comment on it, then at least to report it.
The story speaks for itself, I think. In any case, let’s hear from Tom Porton himself, in this post from Mark Naison’s blog, With A Brooklyn Accent.
Farewell, Tom Porton. You will be missed.
Posted in Essays/Readings, New York City, Quotes
Monday, January 25, 2016: We’re giving Regents Tests all week. I wish every student in New York State the best of luck on their tests, and remind them that one’s test results are never an indication of their merits or potential as people–or their intelligence..
“We must accept infinite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
“What better or greater gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?”
Marcus T. Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
“Anxiety checks learning. An overall feeling of inferiority, a temporary humiliation, a fit of depression, defiance or anger, a sense of being rejected, and many other emotional disturbances affect the learning process. The reverse is true; a feeling of well-being and of being respected by others stimulates the alert mind, willingness to participate, and an attitude conducive to learning.”
Eda LeShan The Conspiracy against Childhood (1967)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
“I believe that education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”
John Dewey from a Pamphlet Published by E.L. Kellogg and Co. (1897)
“Much that passes for education…is not education at all, but ritual. The fact is that we are being educated when we know it least.”
David P. Gardner Vital Speeches (1975)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”
Jacques Barzun as Quoted in Newsweek (1955)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
“A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on a cold iron.”
Horace Mann (1796-1859)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
Posted in Quotes
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