Namaste Readers,
Listening to Techno/Club music reminds one how much this musical genre have in common with haiku poetry. The obvious similarities of both are their paucity for words and their sense of movement. Both can also have a setting, an aspect of time, a mood, and a provocative idea that captures a moment and its beauty.
"Nowhere Left To Go" ( Dave Rose Mix ) by Louie DeVito featuring Lucas Prata exemplifies the elements mentioned above. While the title phrase ( nowhere left to go ) is the only one repeated throughout the track, the word 'no' is emphasized intermittently. This simplicity and suggested direction are reminiscient of e.e. cummings' visual poem about a falling leaf.
Where gravity pulls e.e. cummings' leaf, DeVito's urgent lyric aspires to burst out of its cul-de-sac. The galloping beats and other creeping synthetic sounds of clamped cymbals, muted horns, and glass-vibrating xylophones start to crescendo like a tea-kettle whistling. But instead of reaching an explosive shrilling point, it fizzles and bubbles back where it began.
Are the efforts of dreaming, escaping, and hoping futile? The track seamlessly fades into the next track as one continues to dance chasing the dawn.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
A Professional: extremity of NCLB
Hello Readers,
As I learn more about No Child Left Behind ( NCLB ) and the events leading up to it and afterwards, I’m just surprised by the EXTREMEness of it all. According to Diane Ravitch, a 1983 report called A Nation at Risk made a recommendation encouraging the nation and its states to update its educational goals and vision ( in order to be up to par with global competition ). The topic became uber-controversial when a committee created a history standard that revealed its leftist bias. Although this history standard was never implemented, educational reform has been a hot and sensitive topic since then.
Educational reform has been divisive thus it was difficult to reach a consensus. States didn't want to lose their power and independence, and some fear that people are giving government too much power and control. At first glance, NCLB appeared to create bipartisan support. One side liked how States are defining proficiency in their own terms. Another liked the idea that government is doing something to address the educational problem ( through federal mandate ).
In retrospect, intentions are not good enough, and actions speak louder than words. In NCLB’s situation the action chosen to execute its good intention focused on accountability through testing. This narrow approach meant students’ learning would be measured solely by test results that would generate either rewards ( funding ) or punishments ( failing students, losing one’s job, closing down schools etc ).
Administrators of said tests either ignored warnings or were ignorant about the importance of having reliable and valid tests because “standardized test scores should be used not in isolation to make consequential decisions about students but only in conjunction with other measures of student performance, such as grades, class participation, homework, and teachers' recommendation” ( Ravitch 152 ).
For some schools, the pressure to reach 100% proficiency by 2014 meant lowering standards so a lot more students can pass, or kicking out low-performing students ( to focus only on already high-performing students ), or putting more time in test preparation ignoring other subjects important in a well-rounded education, or employing a worse tactic, such as systematic cheating.
In the long run test scores didn’t improved dramatically. When test scores did improve, they improved not to show an increase in students’ knowledge, but rather an increase in students’ test taking skills. Ravitch summarizes the inaccuracy of test scores: “The trouble with test-based accountability is that it imposes serious consequences on children, educators, and schools on the basis of scores that may reflect measurement error, statistical error, random variation, or a host of environmental factors or student attributes… Tests [ says Ravitch ] must be supplemented by human judgment" (166 ).
As I learn more about No Child Left Behind ( NCLB ) and the events leading up to it and afterwards, I’m just surprised by the EXTREMEness of it all. According to Diane Ravitch, a 1983 report called A Nation at Risk made a recommendation encouraging the nation and its states to update its educational goals and vision ( in order to be up to par with global competition ). The topic became uber-controversial when a committee created a history standard that revealed its leftist bias. Although this history standard was never implemented, educational reform has been a hot and sensitive topic since then.
Educational reform has been divisive thus it was difficult to reach a consensus. States didn't want to lose their power and independence, and some fear that people are giving government too much power and control. At first glance, NCLB appeared to create bipartisan support. One side liked how States are defining proficiency in their own terms. Another liked the idea that government is doing something to address the educational problem ( through federal mandate ).
In retrospect, intentions are not good enough, and actions speak louder than words. In NCLB’s situation the action chosen to execute its good intention focused on accountability through testing. This narrow approach meant students’ learning would be measured solely by test results that would generate either rewards ( funding ) or punishments ( failing students, losing one’s job, closing down schools etc ).
Administrators of said tests either ignored warnings or were ignorant about the importance of having reliable and valid tests because “standardized test scores should be used not in isolation to make consequential decisions about students but only in conjunction with other measures of student performance, such as grades, class participation, homework, and teachers' recommendation” ( Ravitch 152 ).
For some schools, the pressure to reach 100% proficiency by 2014 meant lowering standards so a lot more students can pass, or kicking out low-performing students ( to focus only on already high-performing students ), or putting more time in test preparation ignoring other subjects important in a well-rounded education, or employing a worse tactic, such as systematic cheating.
In the long run test scores didn’t improved dramatically. When test scores did improve, they improved not to show an increase in students’ knowledge, but rather an increase in students’ test taking skills. Ravitch summarizes the inaccuracy of test scores: “The trouble with test-based accountability is that it imposes serious consequences on children, educators, and schools on the basis of scores that may reflect measurement error, statistical error, random variation, or a host of environmental factors or student attributes… Tests [ says Ravitch ] must be supplemented by human judgment" (166 ).
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
A Professional: waiting for super teachers...
Hi Readers,
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is so extreme that at one point during its implementation somebody figured out that super teachers are the one and only key to solving the education reform conundrum. According to this mad scientist decimating teachers’ unions and tenure are ways to motivate teachers; without job security teachers will work harder if they were to FEAR being fired. Super teachers will not only raise test scores, they will also overcome poverty and other disadvantages.
The mad scientist says that super teachers are not made through experience; they are born. But the mad scientist fails to recognize that "being an effective teacher is not necessarily a permanent, unchanging quality" ( Ravitch 186 ). Teachers, super or not, will have bad days. Is their human infallibility a strength-giving amulet or their kryptonite?
Being in school forever, I've had my share of teachers both super and not ( in fact, I'm planning to go back and pursue a career in professorship ). When I was in school in the Philippines, I didn't remember 99.9% of my teachers. I remembered practicing phonics, and a couple of months ( maybe years ) later I learned how to read. My dad gave me a newspaper, and I was able to put sounds and words together even if I didn't understand most of its vocabulary. In another classroom, I understood better freedom of speech and censorship when a teacher scotch-taped my mouth shut because I was chit-chatting non-stop.
Then I immigrated to the U.S. Mrs. S, maybe condescending, praised my efforts and gave me validation. Mrs. G had the most creative-looking classroom. Mrs. T reminded me that plans could change. Mrs. M cried in front of students, and she gave us a French Club. Mr. F was our gym teacher-turned-homeroom- teacher; he threw a tantrum sweeping objects off his desk, and he also introduced me to Tuesdays with Morrie. Principal Sister was strict; in her class, I understood fractions better while mastering the art of cloud watching.
The stories from these teachers paint a snapshot of my grade school experience. Stories about teachers from high school, college, and beyond have their own tomes too large for this blog entry ( I wonder what teacher stories, super or not, will my students tell ). Human infallibility in the long run will be every teacher's strength. Flawed but approachable teachers may not raise test scores and instantly wipe out poverty et al, nonetheless their imperfections remind us that school and education are not just an apathetic business; they are personal endeavors involving sincere human interactions necessary for growth and awesomeness.
Being in school forever, I've had my share of teachers both super and not ( in fact, I'm planning to go back and pursue a career in professorship ). When I was in school in the Philippines, I didn't remember 99.9% of my teachers. I remembered practicing phonics, and a couple of months ( maybe years ) later I learned how to read. My dad gave me a newspaper, and I was able to put sounds and words together even if I didn't understand most of its vocabulary. In another classroom, I understood better freedom of speech and censorship when a teacher scotch-taped my mouth shut because I was chit-chatting non-stop.
Then I immigrated to the U.S. Mrs. S, maybe condescending, praised my efforts and gave me validation. Mrs. G had the most creative-looking classroom. Mrs. T reminded me that plans could change. Mrs. M cried in front of students, and she gave us a French Club. Mr. F was our gym teacher-turned-homeroom- teacher; he threw a tantrum sweeping objects off his desk, and he also introduced me to Tuesdays with Morrie. Principal Sister was strict; in her class, I understood fractions better while mastering the art of cloud watching.
The stories from these teachers paint a snapshot of my grade school experience. Stories about teachers from high school, college, and beyond have their own tomes too large for this blog entry ( I wonder what teacher stories, super or not, will my students tell ). Human infallibility in the long run will be every teacher's strength. Flawed but approachable teachers may not raise test scores and instantly wipe out poverty et al, nonetheless their imperfections remind us that school and education are not just an apathetic business; they are personal endeavors involving sincere human interactions necessary for growth and awesomeness.
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