The more things change part I

Last weekend I watched Education Secretary Arne Duncan discuss the state of American Education. You can take a look for yourself at what he said at the following link -- Mr. Duncan's remarks generated a lot of thought for me, and my response is too long for a tweet, too long for one single blog post.....so if you are curious after reading todays post, you will have to return daily to see what I want the secretary to know --- that he seems not too understand.... http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/27/education.school.year/index.html


Dear Mr. Duncan;

My mother taught, my grandmother taught, and I swore I would never teach! Growing up in a virtual medieval gild of educators made me want to run from education. Every family gathering (which included teachers, college professors, newspaper publishers, park rangers, and farmers) wound up being a discussion about education. Stories were shared around the dinner table. Always in the background – never spoken outloud—was the message that we are part of a community to which we owe ourselves and all that we are.

I became a librarian, because I believed in that concept of public service (and to avoid public service as an educator). Gradually, I recognized that my service as a public librarian was teaching. This was a freeing concept. People may not realize that being a librarian is often about teaching;

• helping people find their real question,


• coaching them as they seek their own answers,


• rejoicing with them when they answer their question to their own satisfaction, and


• helping them frame what they learn so that they can utilize their new knowledge as they desire.

When I recognized that I was already in education, I decided to make the relationship formal. I returned to college and got my masters degree in Education! It was stimulating as I found many people who understood education as my grandmother did! Whole language was a philosophy and mirrored what I did as a librarian with literature and kids! You couldn’t bottle it, replicate it, or sell it! It was more like a disease -- an infection of educational curiosity. In this new world of educational reform I learned that students would be driven by delight and questioning! We would no longer be bound by the steel bands of skills alone. Of course, skills could not be under-rated! They were necessary, but not the goal of education. Skills helped kids acquire the tools to think. THINKING CRITICALLY was the goal. My professors understood that education was, as Dewey had seen it, related to personal experience! These were ideas I could give over my life to!! I graduated and looked around for a job in my "new-old" calling, education!