The following is the introduction of the above book. I will send a copy in PDF form to anyone who reads it and is willing to make suggestions or comments. icdrrose@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION.
Life is messy! There are NO simple answers to anything. Humans seem to want or need simple answers since they value security and certainty; which don’t exist and are expressions of their fears and wishes. They trade security for freedom. I chose freedom and throughout my career paid the price!
School systems want simple answers so they try to “teacher-proof" the curriculum to more easily control the teachers. They promote one-size-fits-all classroom management and curriculum to more easily control the students. Neither belief works as each teacher, parent, and student are incredibly unique . Control by top down bureaucracy is the message of schools.
Two Communist leaders are conversing. Alexander Natta of Italian Communist Party, “At the same time we, the communists, having either over or under-estimated the functions of the welfare state, kept defending situations which, as it has become clear only now, we should not have defended. As a result, the bureaucratic apparatus , which serves itself, has swelled . It is interesting that a certain similarity with your situation, which you call stagnation , can be seen here."
Gorbachev. “Parkinson’s Law works everywhere." (Work is always extended to fit the time allotted for it – which creates inefficiency. This will be applied to students and teachers.)
Natta. Any bureaucratization encourages the apparatus to protect its own interests and to forget about the citizens’ interests. " (I am suspicious of those who say they do things, “for the best interests of - children – teachers - parents.")
This book gives ample evidence of exactly how education bureaucracy manages to expand itself while it protects its own interests at the expense of students, parents, teachers, and classified staff.
I began this book with the idea of proving how abuses of legal power are one of the main reasons that the changes that always come from top down more often handicap rather than help students and teachers. The further the people are from the students, parents, and teachers the more power they have to coerce either total conformity or the changes that they believe will improve education. Sometimes, they are right, but too often they are not.
The teachers are the ones who interact daily with students and parents and – if they had the legal power – could learn to trust and use their judgment; they would grow more competent and be able to solve problems as they occur. The same is true with students. If teachers – who abuse their limited powers too - trained and taught students how to be self-motivated and responsible, then students would be able to solve many more of their own problems and be willing to be helped with those they can’t solve alone. I will show how I accomplished this.
As I read some of the many papers I saved from my life as a teacher, I realized that I could do much more than merely explain the problems from the lack of a BALANCE of power, (We see it in our country as the three branches all have abused or ignored the Constitution.) Equally important was that I could explain why I challenged the status quo. I could educate many people why things weren’t (aren’t) working and their consequences and describe the theories, concepts, techniques, and materials I learned from, borrowed, or created that were successful in many different settings.
All the stories are true, but some of the people are still alive and I need to protect them from harm - as well as protect the guilty because they can afford lawyers. (Although a law suit could help promote my messages.) I changed names, schools, places, and modified some of the communications. Of course literary license was taken partly due to memory problems (76 in 2008), but mainly due to self-glorification or as I call them the distortions in one’s personal mythology.
However, I encourage my teachers to keep diaries as my documentation was what kept me from being fired and gave me the materials for all of my books and workbooks. I had written “proof" whereas my detractors depended on their memories and equally implausible personal myths.
It is as important to understand the point-of-view (POV) of a writer as it is his knowledge of the subject. Regarding my knowledge a statement our district librarian said to me is not myth. The district library was being closed to save money, which said tomes about what was valued. She said, “Mr.Rose, you in the elementary and Mr. Allen in the secondary check out as many books, journals, and magazines as the rest of the teachers combined."
It isn’t necessary for every teacher to be an intellectual or a bookworm. I’ve met many who are good to superior teachers who are traditionalists who follow the rules and curriculum. However, progress is made by those teachers who push the limits and find even more effective ways to reach and teach students.
My POV. Why should most teachers read extra when Big Brother tells them what to do during in-services and teachers’ meetings? Most are exhausted at day’s end after trying to teach so much meaningless drivel to students who were forced to be there, but who found multiple ways to undermine the system.
I was the district’s main “maverick." A nom de plume given to me by our local newspaper and which I lived up to by my constant reading in education and other disciplines and then acting on what I read. I took most of my best ideas and techniques from other disciplines as I tried to actually “educate" my students. Educate being the process of drawing out the best in them rather than indoctrinate, which is to place proscribed ideas and values into empty vessels.
When I taught in Los Angeles in 1964 a principal said (paraphrased), “Mr.Rose, how do you take nice children and in a few months change them into mouthy brats?" She was angry because my students asked yard duty teachers and her “Why?" rather than just follow their directions like good little soldiers.
Unknown to her I was teaching them to think for themselves and to challenge anyone (including me) and anything they didn’t understand or agree with. Unfortunately, in my youthful zeal, I didn’t always teach the importance of mutual respect and balance. That came later as I realized how too much freedom without balance of others’ points of view and the maturity that comes with experience was giving them a skewed (screwed) idea of how to handle their freedom of thinking.
Still, a principal from the junior high my school fed into said, “Mr.Rose, as I visit classes in my school I can spot your students. They are the ones unafraid to speak up and their confidence and academic skills are obvious. They are also willing to help others and are self-disciplined." I did explain to him what I had done to get them to that point and he laughed and marveled that I had managed to retain my job.
A concept that I learned in my psychology master’s program was Dr. Roger Williams’ ideas about Biochemical Individuality. It changed how I perceived children’s and adults’ behavior as I understood just how complex and unique each person was. I saw how absurd it was to teach the same thing at the same time to any group when each one perceived whatever was being taught so differently. A course on audiotape I’ve taken in 2008 in Sensation, Perception, and the Aging Process from The Teaching Company is an excellent and thorough explanation of what happens in individuals as they age. Understanding Roger Williams’ belief that each of us is EXTRAORDINARY makes it easier for teachers and parents to appreciate each individual student.
Because of this I gradually spent less and less time talking to the whole class and worked with smaller and smaller groups as I moved towards individualized instruction. Eventually I learned when to use whole class, small groups, and individualized instruction. Still, I was in a system that frowned on all that I was doing because it helped students to think, challenged the status quo, and made them feel like their ideas had value.
I’ll begin at what was the cause of my retirement many years before I was ready. I was sixty-three.
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