I Want To Know What Love Is
“These people’s souls are dead: their thoughts are fixed in straight inflexible lines; and they are merciless as only a convinced and stupid man can be.”
― A. I. Kuprin, The River of Life, and Other Stories
Growing up, I fell under the false assumption that people possessed a certain level of skill and knowledge merely because they held a certain position in life. Judges, teachers, police, firemen, lawyers, etc...were all intelligent, courageous, trustworthy people, and that is why they occupied the positions they held.
Embarrassingly, it wasn't until my early 20s, if not later, that I came to the realization that my belief was wrong.
Over the last several decades I've grappled with that revelation and come to terms with the fact that all these supposed positions of authority are held by mere mortals. People who struggled with shame, doubt, guilt, and lack of knowledge - just like me.
Some hide their battles better than others, but the margin of separation is slimmer than I supposed.
Addiction is a multi-tiered and complex subject, but I attribute much of my mine to my inability to reconcile the reality in my head, and the reality of the world. When people didn't conform to my preconceived notions, or live up to my expectations based on their jobs, or positions in life, my mind rebelled.
A rebellion that often manifested in unhealthy ways, and at times led to disastrous outcomes.
It seems a silly thing to say aloud, but it is what is, and twenty-four years ago I took steps to address my misconceptions and miscalculations. I began to try and see the world for what it was, a place of imperfect humans striving to make sense of circumstances that they rarely fully understood.
Still, there are times that I fall amiss.
As part of that journey, I realized that assigning motivation to people's actions is a fool's errand. People act out of multiple impulses, and if you dig deep enough you'll usually find fear at the root of it all.
Even when it appears that greed or the seeking of power is the primary motivator, that need is usually born from fear.
The world is a scary place, and to pretend otherwise is either naive or disingenuous.
Often times we are presented with opportunities to show grace to others, and we choose not out of fear.
Fear that our grace will expose us to harm. Fear that our grace will empower those whom we disagree with. So instead we attack, using words like "accountability", and under the guise of protecting those who neither asked for our protection nor required it.
In my mind, I still regularly rage against the machine, but I am beginning to understand more every day that the machine is not a real entity, but a construction of individuals all trying to protect themselves, their families, and their place in the world. In the end, that is no different than me or anyone else.
Beating someone into submission through the use of either collected, or institutional, power shouldn't be the goal.
The trick isn't to defeat perceived enemies, but rather to show them a path where we can coexist.
It's a difficult task, but the peace plan should always be as robust as the one for war. We seldom devote as much energy to the former as we do to the latter.
Let's leave that as a backdrop for today's installment.
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This week in Tennessee, things were fairly quiet on the voucher front. Instead of pushing pending legislation through legislative committees, proponents focused on drumming up support through a series of meetings with stakeholders.
Lawmakers in both the State House and Senate continue to paint a confident picture, while the chatter in the halls indicated a different story.
Next week, Governor Lee's policy director Michael Hendrix, along with a group called Parents Defending Education Action, is inviting people to a School Choice Roundtable at the State Capitol.
Not sure why, PDEA is partnering with Hendrix because a glance at their leadership team shows a preference for chicks over...never mind that is uncalled for.
Basically, the leadership team consists of 8 women and 1 man - the communications director.
Guess they hired him to do some mansplaining...ok I'll stop and just leave the observation that it's a strange alliance, especially since as far as I can tell, none of the leadership team is from Tennessee.
One last chuckle that I can't resist.
The group recently issued a statement of support for the Combatting the Lies of Authoritarians in School Systems (CLASS) Act. Per their press release issued on 12/23:
The Chinese Communist Party should have no role in the education of American students. Unfortunately, PDE Action’s partner organization, Parents Defending Education, recently discovered millions of funds flowing from the Chinese Communist Party through the “Confucius Classroom” program. At least 143 schools have collaborated with the Chinese government, and many of these collaborations are at schools located near American military bases.
The release goes on to say that "Parents have the right to know if their children’s schools are collaborating with a foreign government, and especially if these collaborations put their child’s personal data or education in the hands of a foreign adversary."
Maybe they are talking about TikTok, which for the record is banned from the Weber household. Still, it feels a little fringe.
As someone who attends a fair amount of events where I interact with other parents, I can testify that the subject of collaboration between the local school and foreign governments is seldom broached.
Hendrix has served as a policy advisor to Governor Lee for the past year and a half. He gets paid north of 150K a year in that capacity.
So riddle me this, is it a prudent use of taxpayer-funded resources to partner with a fringe group to promote legislation that leadership already expects to pass?
In my experience, people don't spend time and money convincing you of the value of something when they feel that the value is already firmly established.
This is just one meeting in a series of meetings conducted by the Governor and his allies. So I'd say there are some doubts.
On the flip side, there has been a whole lot of chatter about Arizona during the debate over charters. Opponents of vouchers have used the exploding cost of vouchers in the Southwestern state as an argument against replicating the proposed program in Tennessee. It's a valid argument, but in my opinion, focuses on the wrong states.
I've previously mentioned Texas, but the conversation should also include, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, and Wyoming. All have recently enacted school choice legislation or are on the cusp of doing so. Education Savings Account legislation is not a state-led initiative but a nationally driven one.
Every narrative needs a bad guy. In Tennessee, it's Governor Lee and the State Republican lawmakers. Sometimes they deserve the role and other times, not so much. Let's not for one minute think that they are the lead actors, they are just supporting players in a much larger play.
Earlier I mentioned fear. Despite his public denials, I think it is safe to say Governor Lee harbors illusions of higher office. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Republican Governors Association. The Governors of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Wyoming are part of that association.
How'd you like to be a leader on a team where you can't get done what everybody else has managed to accomplish? I doubt that's viewed as a strength.
You can bet that Lee is going to do anything in his power to join the ranks of his peers who have enacted voucher legislation.
Personally, I think he falls short this year.
As attractive as the amendment package put forth in the TN House is, it has failed to significantly garner more support or quiet the opposition. Basically, all it has done is raise the price tag.
That's a shame because there are some truly good things in that package that would benefit students and teachers.
Several State Senators have indicated that they have no intention of adopting the House bill.
Here's my prediction, based upon nothing but observation and reading between the lines in personal conversations, the House is going to strip out the amendments of their own volition, perhaps in the name of expediency - we are fast approaching the end of this year's session.
It's going to come down to a straight-up vote, one that ends in defeat in the House.
The question then becomes, what happens next year. You can bet it'll be back next year, in an off-election year.
Some have indicated that proponents of vouchers will draw challengers in the upcoming elections. Maybe, Corey DeAngelo would have you believe that's what happened in Texas. There is a huge difference between threatening and delivering.
Remember, had Governor Lee delivered on his threat last election cycle Representative Cepicky (R-Culleoka) would be holding his seat. Yet here we are with him leading the initiative in the House.
You can win battles all day long, but it becomes meaningless unless you are winning wars and have a peace plan.
That's where traditional public school advocates need to take a good hard look in the mirror. What are they actually defending?
I've stated it before, but it bears repeating, that the idea that public education in Maryville bears any resemblance other than in name to public education in Nashville, or even Clarksville is a disingenuous argument. Let's not even get started on comparing Omaha to Philadelphia.
The only shared commonality is the tireless dedicated work done by teachers, yet every year that work carries less clout.
Advocates would frame the declining numbers of students as being rooted in racism, and I don't dismiss that there is an element of truth to that argument, but that's not the sole motivation or even the primary factor.
The overarching reason is that the institution has grown to become an unresponsive system that puts the needs of the organization ahead of the individuals it serves.
The number of students enrolled in traditional public schools is shrinking every year, as parents of all socio-economic backgrounds seek other options.
It's an institution that has become less about the teacher, the student, and the apple and more about the assessment and the script. Every year the parent, the student, and the teachers lose influence while the technology companies, the curriculum creators, and the bureaucrats gain.
We've become a society where one can be considered an expert in educating children without ever leading a classroom. It is the ultimate personification of the old Teddy Roosevelt quote"
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
In the past few decades, all of our institutions have come under increased scrutiny. Churches, courts, and even countries rarely receive blind allegiance, yet supporters of public education still demand that degree of fidelity.
Public education provides a fantastic service for millions of American children, but it does so through a singular lens. For a student or teacher who falls within those boundaries, it serves its purpose adequately. For those who happen to fall outside the boundaries, it fails miserably, while shifting the blame to the backs of those it's failing.
I listen to advocates decry how children with disabilities will be irrevocably harmed by voucher legislation while failing to acknowledge the thousands of IEPs that go unfilled every year.
What I have been slow to realize, but finally grasp is that the public education system of today is not the system of my youth. Though they share similarities the dissimilarities grow every year.
Foreigner is a band I listened to in my youth. Their concerts and songs were the soundtrack to my coming of age. I hear Cold As Ice or I Want to Know What Love Is on the radio and my mind harkens back to a simpler time. The music evokes fond memories of a long past youth.
The ability to evoke those memories in an entire generation is what allows the band to tour long past their prime. However, none of the people on stage today are the people who composed those songs. Foreigner doesn't have a single original member in the band.
As their audience ages, the crowds shrink, because they've failed to produce current music that resonates the same way. The new members may be worthy surrogates but they are incapable of creating the same emotional connection as previous members, and eventually, the crowds will dwindle to just the children of parents who passed on their love and the curious.
Is public education destined for a similar fate?
Teachers will always be the songs. Whether it be public, private, charter, homeschool, or any other incarnation, it will always be about the relationship between a child and a teacher, everything else is extraneous.
That is not dissimilar to music which once fell into a handful of categories. Now you have rap-metal, Neo-soul, alternative country, and nearly a hundred more. Today's artist produce the same level of quality, they just do it under a heightened freedom. Unencumbered by pre-ordained constraints.
Forty years ago if you told me an artist like Jelly Roll was capable of mass success, I would have fallen on the floor in laughter.
Public schools are not writing enough new songs.
Much has been written about staffing shortages and declining enrollments. Teachers that consider teaching more than a profession are being driven out, and replaced by those who treat school like a temporary occupation. Not to say that many of those aren't good, just that the new songs lack a certain depth and frequency.
At some point, we have to have an honest conversation and ask, who are we pledging allegiance to, the student or the institution?
I'm not sure how much faith I have that we are capable of that kind of rigorous honesty, but until we do, the intensity of the attacks will only increase in both scope and frequency.
Most of you probably dismiss my warning, chalking it up to personal reasons or ignorance. That's fine, I've got nothing to lose if I'm wrong, but we all lose if my advice goes unheeded and I'm right.
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On Monday Tennessee's Commissioner of Education, Lizzette Reynolds presented the Department's proposed budget for next year.
Reynold's budget calls for an increase of $261 million. Most of which will go to establishing Governor Lee's voucher program.
Once again Reynolds was ill-prepared and incapable of fielding questions without relying on Deputy Superintendent Sam Pearcy. The two-and-a-half-hour meeting could have been considerably shortened had legislators cut out the middle man and just directed their inquiries to Pearcy.
Consider for a moment that we pay Reynolds $256K a year, and Pearcy $228K a year. Does anyone see an opportunity for some savings?
Of note, during her presentation Reynolds referred to private schools as "providers". Always playing language games.
It was also revealed that Tennessee taxpayers could be on the hook for several million dollars in Federal TANF money that was used for summer schools without approval. The department is currently in negotiations. to solve that at no cost to Tennesseans. Legislators did not appear satisfied with TDOE's progress with that issue.
The issue TANF issue is especially troubling because the TDOE worked closely with the State Department of Human Services. The appointment of DHS Commissioner Clarence Carter - so many jokes so little time - by Governor Lee was framed as the acquisition of an expert in TANF.
"Clarence has dedicated his career to helping children and families, and he joins my cabinet with extensive experience with critical programs like TANF,” Lee said in a statement. “He will be an invaluable asset to our state and we welcome him to Tennessee.”
Time will tell I guess.
As far as her budget presentation goes, I could cite instance after instance where Commissioner Reynolds was unable to provide an answer or the one she did provide was inaccurate, but at this juncture, it feels like bullying.
At this juncture, I would only offer that evidence supports the idea that Tennessee deserves better.
I would also question the capabilities of ExCellinEd, the Bush foundation where Reynolds was employed prior to coming to Tennessee.
In that organization, she was the third highest-paid employee. Let that sink in for a minute, she was the top of what ExcellIn Ed had to offer.
What does that have to say about their qualifications to advise Tennessee on Education policy?
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The House Education Administration Committee also heard HB2758 by Rep. Rebecca Alexander (R-Jonesborough) this week, The bill prohibits students from displaying, using, or accessing an electronic device during instructional time and requires local education agencies to adopt this policy. Essentially the purpose of this bill is to cover superintendents and school boards back when they impose draconian measures in response to cell phone usage.
Some of those measures include putting the phones in bags before class and retrieving them at the end. Banning phones completely from schools. Or various other methods designed to eradicate usage from schools.
Committee member Representative Charlie Baum(R-Murfreesboro) brought some sense to the conversation when he admitted that his children having phones at times serves as a benefit for parents. There are times when parents need to reach children throughout the day to either confirm schedules, adjust activities or simply ask a question. Yes, parents once survived without this ability, but again, Jukebox Hero ain't playing on the radio right now either.
If we are actually serving our goal to prepare children for adulthood, shouldn't the focus be on providing guidance as opposed to banning?
The bill was rolled for a week, but hopefully, it will eventually be pulled. It's an overreach and not consistent with conservative values.
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Make sure you sign up for MNPS's upcoming National Supervisors of Principals Academy. Through a partnership with AVID, the Martin Center will host a national conference of district supervisors of principals. Tuition for the Academy is $4500. How that tuition is split is not shared. The contract on file between AVID and MNPS simply says neither side will pay the other.
Duties are spelled out as such:
Representatives from both AVID and MNPS will work together to build learning opportunities for all participants. The F2F sessions will focus on introducing relevant content, followed by opportunities to reflect and apply to current practice, and strengthened by creating networking cohorts to expand learning and application throughout the year. Day One content and application will be replicable for all partnerships and Day Two will be an opportunity to connect directly to the specificity of the work of the participants and to establish networking cohort groups and protocols. The synchronous sessions will all be replicable in that the focus will be on networking around problems of practice. AVID will be responsible for developing and owning the content and implementation of content. Content will be aligned with PSEL standards. Nashville will collaborate with AVID in integrating current practices and focus areas. In addition, Nashville will help AVID facilitate each session. AVID and Nashville will collaborate on logistics of registration, marketing, and location.
Scheduled to speak at the Academy are MNPS Chiefs Mason Bellamy and Renita Perry. Bellamy is in charge of academics while Perry oversees the innovation schools. I wonder if anybody will talk about the growth in the number of MNPS innovation schools. No word on whether this engagement will be outside of their regular responsibilities, or a part of their respective job duties.
Under Dr. Joseph MNPS's relationship with AVID was on the decline, but those fortunes have been reversed under Dr. Battle. AVID has become fully ingrained. in the district's middle schools. Over the last 2 years, hundreds of MNPS teachers have been sent to AVID conferences and trainings at district expense.
I guess this feels like the logical next step.
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As always, I need to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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