Recently, the L.A. Unified School District passed a requirement stipulating that a student’s homework grade should consist of no more than 10 percent of the final grade.

As a long proponent of limiting the amount of homework students are given, I applaud LAUSD for implementing such a courageous measure.  Unfortunately, just last week LAUSD Supt. John Deasy suspended the new policy in order to have further public input, even though there were already discussions held for 18 months  The earliest for any new homework policy to be in effect will be the 2012-13 school year.  Don’t you just love bureaucracies?

Does it really take years to figure out that kids are given too much homework, or that some teachers overemphasize the important of mindless busy work over in-class assignments and tests?

The one aspect of my kids going back to school that I dread are the homework assignments.  Much of it is repetitive, but all of it puts strain on the parent-child relationship.  The daily question “have you done your homework?” will reverberate throughout every household with school-age children once again very soon.  I don’t look forward to constantly referring to my second grader’s weekly packet, and signing every day for every book that he needs to read every night.

As a high school English teacher I am very mindful of minimizing the amount of homework I assign, aware that my students have 5 other teachers who may not minimize it as much as I do.  I also make it my policy not to deliberately assign massive projects over 3-day weekends or vacation periods.  It’s important that kids be given time to be kids after the school day is over, and that they spend as much time with their family as possible.

School work is best done at school with the people best able to help the children—the teachers.

Hi Folks,

Sorry for not posting in a while, but I've been writing a blog for the Glendale News Press three times a week called "Crosby Chronicles."

Here's an updated take on coarse Hollywood movie titles that have gone further off the deep end of bad taste with the new film "Bad Teacher."
 

            Just when you think you’ve seen the most tasteless movie ad or billboard ever, a more obscene one comes along.

            Case in point:  the new Cameron Diaz film titled “Bad Teacher.”

            The ad for this latest raunchy comedy to come out of Hollywood shows Diaz leaning back at her desk in a classroom, her feet propped upon the desk with her legs uncovered, the words “eat me” on an apple, and the tagline, “She doesn’t give an ‘F’.”

            I don’t understand how such pornographic innuendo gets approval to be splattered all over town on public transportation.  Isn’t there any one with good taste saying “no” to this smut?

            What makes it worse is that the subject matter is a teacher.  The real world is crammed with enough true horror stories about inappropriate student-teacher relationships, so is it smart or responsible for a major motion picture studio to make a movie like this and distribute in theatres as entertainment across the country?

            You know, not every movie-going patron is an oversexed sophomoric male whose sexual habits get satiated with Internet porn sites.

            Why does the Motion Picture Association of America even bother with ratings when the titles of recent movies evidently have no scrutiny?  It all started a few years back when the raunchy “South Park” cable cartoon series released the feature “Bigger, Longer and Uncut,” and the producers admitted they got a kick out of having the MPAA allow such a gross title.  However, that seems tame compared to “Meet the Fockers”, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”, and “Kick-Ass.”

            If you are watching TV with your mother or children, do you not blush when ads for these movies appear?

            The old argument about turning off the TV if you don’t like what’s on it doesn’t work when billboards all over town are emblazoned with “KICK-ASS”; you can’t easily swerve the car in the opposite direction.

            It is practically impossible to shield young children from being bombarded by images and sounds that at the very least makes it quite difficult to explain to young people, at the worst makes life around them coarse and vulgar.

In the past, double entendres were employed as a way to get around a censor.  Nowadays, there is no shading of what the true meaning of something is.  In fact, often the magnified message is quite clear, slammed in your face super-sized style, leaving no doubt what is intended.

              If your reaction to these examples is “big deal,”  then my point is made:  people have become blinded to good taste.

              Clearly, things have gotten out of control.  This is not about censorship.  It’s about boundaries.

              No standards seem to exist anywhere anymore.  Are people asleep out there? 

              Yet how many of us are sick and tired of the “Holy Shift” ads for Showtime’s“Nurse Jackie”?  Last year’s slogan was “Life is full of little pricks.”  How raunchy will next year’s ad campaign be?  You can imagine those writing these lines snickering to themselves.  You have to wonder about those who are paid big bucks to come up with this tripe:  don’t any of them have kids?  Aren’t any of them ashamed of their work?

               It’s akin to a person drawing genitals in a public restroom.  Only now all of us can see the work of the infantile minds in magazines, newspapers, and on television, buses, and the Internet.

              We all should feel embarrassed when we see and hear these images.  Evidently shame is on the endangered species list of human traits.

               People can be very good at trumpeting certain causes, such as outlawing cigarette smoking in public places, making sure animals have rights, cleaning up the environment.  But when it comes to the pollution of the eyes and ears, protests are nonexistent.

            We don’t know the possible harm that is being done on young people’s psyches.  All of us need to remember that there are children soaking in all these words and images, and as adults we need our guardianship role seriously.  Who’s to say if children growing up today with a coarser culture will turn out courser themselves? 

             There was a time when adults would refrain from using obscenities whenever women or children entered a room.  Now those obscenities are tattooed on the parents’ arms.

            Freedom is not about doing or saying anything you want.  If so, there would be no civilized society.

            There is plenty of room in the marketplace for garbage, but the public should have the choice whether or not to be forced to look at it and smell it.

We all could use a little civility nowadays.

            Hollywood, enough is enough.  Stop making garbage.

“We are in lockdown.  This is not a drill.  Repeat.  We are in lockdown.  This is not a drill.” 

Such dire-sounding words piped over the P.A. system sound like something one would hear in the military or in prison.  Instead, the discomforting announcement is made at the high school where I work.

When I became a teacher over 21 years ago, I never thought in my wildest imagination my life could be in jeopardy while on the job.  Due to the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, today’s teachers and students face new threats going to school.  It’s not enough having fire and earthquake drills.

If you’ve never experienced a lockdown, feel lucky.  I’ve been through two and they are frightening.  Yet much of the horror stems from the procedures of a lockdown more than the suspected sniper lurking about.

Teachers are told to lock the door, turn off all lights, and get kids on the floor under tables and desks.

Since everyone knows this, what prevents a person with a gun on a school campus from shooting the lock off the door and killing 35 kids who are sitting ducks? 

For the teacher, there is no worse feeling than having no communication with the administrators.  Besides the P.A. announcement of a lockdown, no further messages are aired.  No e-mails are sent to teacher computers.  Cell phones aren’t even utilized.

“It was only fifteen minutes,” an outside observer may comment.  But let me tell you, when you are crouched down under a table, hearing muffled cries and whispers from students, unsure how to comfort them, unable to calm your rapidly beating heart, peering up through the slits of vertical blinds hoping not to get a glimpse of a gunman, it seems like an eternity.

School officials need to figure out a better way of protecting children during future lockdown episodes.

“Those who can do.  Those who can’t teach.”

            So goes the clichéd saying that has long been an indictment on the quality of the teaching profession.

            No one in a position of power, from presidents to principals to managing editors, believes that school teachers have anything worthwhile to say in fixing America’s declining public school system.  Teachers are rarely consulted, their advice never used in any decision-making capacity on how best to teach to children.  Most definitely, they are not the face of the teaching profession.

            Whenever the media, especially television, use on-screen attorneys to dissect the latest headline-grabbing trial, it makes sense to have those who have studied and practiced law to discuss the law.  And when the story revolves around terrorism, all kinds of security specialists surface including ex-secretaries of state and CIA officials.  Yet when the subject turns to education, who are the experts sought out by the media?  Former U.S. education secretaries, think tank opine-ers, or anyone with a household name of Bill as in Bill Gates or Bill Cosby.  Almost all newspaper op-ed pieces on education are written by people with these pedigrees.  Rare it is to find a byline of an actual classroom teacher.

            Oh sure, every September there’ll be a “first day” diary written by a local teacher.  And once in a while a newspaper will track the year of a teacher, but even that is written by a journalist.

            Would a person give more credence to a friend or neighbor on how best to treat a medical condition than what an actual medical doctor has to say?  Yet year after year anyone with name recognition chimes in on how best to teach kids despite a total lack of teaching credentials.

            This belittlement of the teaching profession is maddening and is directly related to the fact that 75% of all K-12 teachers are female, and females as an employee group traditionally haven’t had the same salary and respect level of mainly male employee groups.

            Teachers don’t need a Big Daddy figure to stand up for them.  Teachers shouldn’t allow the Tony Danzas of society to put teaching in prime time.

            Believe it or not, America does have talent and it’s in classrooms all across America.  The teaching profession has its own superstars.  But the media doesn’t seem interested in either seeking them out, or in giving space in print, on air or online to these special educators who not only do incredible work with young people, but who strive to better education.  The word “hero” gets bandied about too easily these days, but some of these folks would be candidates for such an honored title.              
            It’s wonderful that President Obama is willing to rattle the teachers union status quo about merit pay, it’s good to see Education Secretary Duncan taking risks by stating teachers need to be held accountable, but neither of these gentlemen have teaching experience.  And the president’s two daughters attend private school, just as the majority of politicians’ children do.  These folks may be the least qualified to stake a claim on what’s best for kids in this country’s public schools.

            It seems that the media listens to everyone who has an opinion about teacher and schools except those who actually teach to America’s youth.

            When I was doing research for my latest book and came across a report from the College Board, the folks behind the SAT and AP tests, I noticed on the very first page at the top was a quote triple the size of the other text attributed to former IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr.  When I read it my eyes bugged out—it was a quote from my first book.  Not a word altered, moved or deleted.  Verbatim.

            To the College Board’s credit, once I brought the matter to their attention, they were apologetic and made the correction.  In a way I understood why I wasn’t credited.  Who am I?  I’m not a billionaire or celebrity or national politician.  I’m just a classroom teacher.

            One of the paradoxes in good teachers is their innate desire to help others and, at the same time, not take credit for it.   This selflessness has to change.  Good teachers should stand up and speak out and take ownership of their own profession, and don’t let outsiders take away the spotlight of their work.  Until that happens, teachers will continue to be overlooked, their expertise unexplored.

            However, don’t feel sorry for them.  Once Teacher Appreciation Week kicks in, they’ll be inundated with tshatshkes as proof of their worth, such as a marble with a saying attached, “You are marble-ous!”

            Teachers are the experts in the education field and their voices need to be at the forefront of changing the way this country’s children get educated.  Unfortunately, no one is listening.

            Credit should be paid to NBC News for devoting days of coverage this week to a national discussion on education reform.  But why wasn’t an outstanding teacher the guest on “Meet the Press” instead of Education Secretary Arne Duncan?

            A big “thank you” to Bill and Melinda Gates for donating billions of dollars to public schools.  But Microsoft should not be the face of education reform.

            Creating a reality TV show with Tony Danza as a classroom teacher may garner ratings, but all it does is bring more attention to Mr. Danza than those who year after year positively impact young people’s lives.

            Congratulations to filmmaker David Guggenheim on his education documentary “Waiting for Superman” but he shouldn’t be the one on Oprah.

            The people who deserve to be in the spotlight, who should be the stars of the public school reform show, are the classroom teachers.          

            Many bright instructors are in America’s classrooms right now who could do wonders in transforming public schools if given the opportunity.  Why won’t anyone listen to them when it comes to how schools should be run?

            When 46 of the nation’s governors held a groundbreaking meeting on high school reform in February of 2005, no teachers were present.  This is like holding hearings on tort reform without a single attorney there.  Why would anybody intelligent do that?

            It seems no matter how hard they work, when it comes down to it, teachers are shut out from the decision-making process.  Just when teachers feel they have reached a certain level of respectability in their profession—sit on committees, chair departments, mentor other teachers—they quickly slip back to reality:  they wield no authority.  Despite their achievements, in the eyes of those in charge, they remain teachers, nothing more, and most definitely not needed for establishing education policy and reform.

            Whenever politicians talk about what needs to be done in education, they always seem to forget to invite the people who have the most direct connection to the students—the teachers.  Despite many of them sending their own kids to private schools, and having never spent a single day teaching a class, these lawmakers think nothing of dictating educational policies without the representation and advice of the people who do the teaching.  It makes about as much sense as having these same politicians debate a new surgical procedure and not having a single surgeon in the room.  That would never happen in the medical community, but it happens all the time in education. 

            It is frustrating for teachers to work in a system where they are accustomed to being the leader in the classroom, yet subservient to principals, superintendents, and, above else, politicians.  Teachers’ thoughts and concerns are ignored, discounted, overruled.

            The California State University found that “having meaningful input in the decision-making process” increases teacher retention.  Teachers not feeling that their input is valued end up exiting the profession.

            The time has come for teachers to be in charge of their own profession.  Teachers need to chair committees, lead state school boards, run for state superintendent positions.  The President of the United States should create a new position of Education Czar, a post that carries one stringent requirement:   several years of exemplary teaching experience.

             The greatest resource a school has to offer is its finest teachers.  If given the chance, they might just be able to transform America’s schools.

            It’s coming.  Whether you like it or not, it’s coming.

            To all my fellow teachers out there, stay awake and pay attention.  Your job is about to be on the line.

            No more can you hide in your classroom except for the once every two-year visit from your administrator.

            No more can you pooh-pooh standardized testing.

            No more can you keep private test results of your students.

            With the state Board of Education voting for a database that will share information about teacher effectiveness, the gig is up.  The free ride over.

            Your lifetime job security is about to be extinct along with free healthcare.

            President Obama isn’t on your side and neither is education secretary Arne Duncan.

            The age of evaluating teachers qualitatively has arrived.  For those teachers who have clocked in and out of work, doing the minimum effort, knowing full well they’d still have a job, it’s time to wake up.  For those teachers who have always been remarkable, it’s time to shine.

Value-added evaluations, using student test scores to determine if a teacher is effectively teaching or not, is being tried in certain school districts around the country.  This is a Nightmare on School Street for the National Education Association (NEA) and other teachers unions.  The last thing they want is for teachers to be evaluated for the job performed.  The union’s goal is to maximize membership and to serve in a protector role for all teachers regardless of ability level.

            What’s missing in the value-added evaluation discussion is the next step.  Evaluating teachers based on student data must be only one piece of the overhaul needed to ensure high teacher quality.  Tied to value-added evaluation must be the reward and punishment, i.e., if a teacher is determined to teach well, that teacher deserves an increase in salary and bonuses, and if a teacher is determined not to teach well, that teacher deserves to be fired.  Otherwise, identifying which teachers are good becomes a bragging rights exercise.  Not building a payoff into the evaluation system makes such judgments meaningless.

            The uproar over using student test results to determine teacher effectiveness, and to publicize it, is strangely muted, only erupting into a protest against The Los Angeles Times for printing them.

            One reason being that it is a Democratic President who has been leading the charge.  Imagine if a Republican President were rattling the teaching establishment and union leadership, there would be no end to the on-street protests and public tongue-lashings.  But when the NEA almost without exception financially supports Democrat-only candidates, this call for change is indeed a hard pill to swallow.

            And you know what?  It’s about time.

            For while some teachers cringe at the idea of having their incompetence spotlighted and broadcasted over the Internet, there are many others who applaud any effort to attach some kind of quality label to the teaching profession.

            Outside of a few progressive schools districts across the nation, teachers have never been given true job performance evaluations. 

            The healthiest aspect to this discussion is that finally, finally the argument about the inability to determine if a teacher is good or not can be buried forever.  You can tell if a teacher is effective.  But test scores alone don’t reveal a teacher’s quality.

            How well a teacher communicates to students is a component not easily tested.  The well-thought through lesson plan cannot be looked at quickly either.  The comments on student work that provides insight and encouragement also don’t show up on a scan-tron form.

            So before we all go numbers crazy about trying to squeeze a teacher’s complete skills set into a couple of digits, let’s use the value-added discussion not as opening the door to a new way to evaluate teachers but as a stick of dynamite to blow the door clean off to a complete overhaul on how teachers are trained, evaluated and, yes, paid.