Remembering and Honoring Ted Sizer, 1932-2009

Dr. Ted Sizer, who died on October 21, was considered by many to be the greatest educator of our time. His writing, his teaching, and all he stood for profoundly influence our work here at Inspired Teaching. He described in vivid detail the sights, sounds, and visceral experience of walking through the halls of American schools. He shed light on the way the structure of our education system forces teachers into roles that undermine their ability to teach and their students' ability to learn. But Dr. Sizer did not simply bemoan the failures of our educational system. He believed he could make it better. And he did, in a manner that respected the dignity of students and the adults who teach them.

His Essential Schools, of which there are over 150 nationwide, provide a wealth of examples of what good schools, and good teaching, look like. Like anyone with the audacity to go beyond critiquing the status quo and offer a concrete alternative, Dr. Sizer had his critics. But just as he encouraged teachers to learn from one another as 'critical friends,' Dr. Sizer learned from his critics as well as his many, many supporters and admirers.

I started Inspired Teaching fourteen years ago as a young teacher who felt a deep sense of frustration with the state of teaching, and an equally deep sense of hope in the potential of teachers to transform our profession. Ted Sizer's work had a profound influence on me as a young teacher, and continues to guide my thinking today.

In Dr. Sizer's obituary, The New York Times offers the following quote from his most famous book, Horace's Compromise, "Inspiration, hunger: these are the qualities that drive good schools. The best we educational planners can do is to create the most likely conditions for them to flourish, and then get out of their way." Those who knew Dr. Sizer best, his colleagues at the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Forum for Education and Democracy, have written beautiful tributes, which I encourage you to read.

To all our friends, and especially our Inspired Teaching staff, mentors, and teachers: I urge you to keep learning about Ted Sizer, keep reading his books, keep grappling with the powerful questions he poses. He has much more still to teach us.

Aleta



Aleta Margolis,
Executive Director,
Center for Inspired Teaching

Education Reform: Beyond Buzz Words

Education reform has its share of buzz words, given the slew of innovation-this, 21^st century-that talk which has been keeping politicians and education reformers busy lately. Just ask Jeb Bush, who gave the keynote address at last week’s Excellence in Action 2009 Conference in Washington D.C.

The conference, “A national education summit for the country’s leading policymakers to share the latest research, lessons learned, success stories and strategy” concluded on Friday, delivering a program chock-full of presentations by international heavy-hitters in education and bite-size slogans on education reform strategies.

In his keynote address, Bush declared that “To really transform education, we need to embrace the fundamental concept that education should be custom-designed to maximize every child’s god given capacity to learn.”

If this sounds like a an impassioned plea for reform à la Inspired Teaching, think again.

Though Bush talked about keeping kids engaged, organizing curriculum around students’ individual interests, and other child-centered approaches, his speech was also full of alarming metaphors and familiar empty rhetoric.

Here is an example:

“Frankly, if Walmart can track a box of cereal from the manufacturer to the check-out line, schools should be able to track the academic growth of a student from the time they step in the classroom until they graduate.”

I cringed when I read this.

Comparing public school students to boxes of cheap cereal should give anyone who values students for the individuals they are, certain pause. That kind of language speaks volumes about the entrenched factory-model of education we are still working against. (Watch the informative video at the Schlechty Center for School Reform.) Likewise, the speech described dozens of grocery-aisle milk options, in a nonsensical attempt to introduce the idea of customized curricula. Much like a glossy breakfast cereal commercial which claims that artificially sweetened clusters in nature-defying colors can be “part of a balanced breakfast,” this speech aims to dazzle, but fails to satisfy, leaving an over-blown and flimsy impression of what education in the 21^st century really means if one is to fall for the buzz-word-heavy hype.

Despite an earnest intention to advocate for a customized, creativity-fueled affirmation of education, time and again politicians can’t seem to break familiar habits of traditional top-down tactics. The tell-tale signs in such speeches belie their lofty goals and often point out an alarming, if unsurprisingly disrespectful view of both students and teachers.

It is notable that Bush mentioned teachers only in relation to technology in the classroom. In addition, the kind of digital innovation he described is a far cry from the digital divide faced by students and teachers in urban public schools today.

Inspired Teaching works from the research-based understanding that teachers are key to reforming education, from inside the classroom out. But that’s not what you hear from politicians these days and it’s not what’s being pushed on the national reform front. We need the leaders tasked with making changes to our school systems to mature beyond the catch-phrase and to develop a deep understanding of what makes education reform possible. Our doors at Inspired Teaching are open whenever they want to learn, and perhaps when they do, the keynotes at educational conferences will give us reason to applaud.

Music must be in us.

When my 4-month-old son started sitting in a high chair next to the stereo we discovered that he could dance. He couldn’t crawl, sit by himself unassisted for very long, or say anything… but he could dance. My boy has rhythm and any time he hears something with a beat he’s got a move to go with it.

This week he’ll turn 18 months and the dance moves have grown more complicated and the reaction to music has grown even more immediate. Watching my son grow into a love of music makes it clear to me why my students always seemed so engaged when the CD player was on in our classroom. I think music must be in us because the joy it brings us even as infants - seems to be innate.

There is plenty of research out there to suggest that my observation is not unique – and (contrary to my own belief) my son is not some musical genius because he can make a statement on the dance floor at less than 2-years-old.

Music is in us and it’s ignorant of reality to think that teaching children should happen without it. Whether we use it in the background to set the mood in our classroom, or discuss it as text to illuminate content music can be used to bring order to chaos or convey ideas.

Music is a very versatile classroom tool and as I am sure most parents can attest it also happens to work wonders in the home!