The Teaching World Used to Be Sacred, Like Coaching

My writing rate dropped off this past week with the kickoff of my kids’ soccer seasons and my seasonal return to the coaching world .

Coaching now trumps writing as the single most therapeutic experience of my week. The anti-public educatorism brought to Wisconsin by outside money and outside forces (like the Koch Brothers, ALEC, and MacIver Institute) and subsequently adopted and implemented by Governor Scott Walker have caused terminal damage to my daytime profession as an educator. In the evenings and on weekends, coaching provides relief from Walker’s dichotomous creation in Wisconsin.

In recent years, my coaching has centered on my kids’ activities. However, I have been at the coaching game my entire adult life. In fact, I was a coach before I was a teacher. Under the wing of one of my former coaches, I started coaching as a college student. Of course, I then had no idea my coaching experience would be the blueprint for my pedagogy.

Time for School Administrators to See the Forest

I commiserate with Wisconsin State Superintendent Tony Evers and many other school administrators in the compromising position of having to work on educational initiatives and details with radical politicians, like Governor Walker—who overtly contrast with the values of Evers and the ideals of many other school officials.

Forest Surrounding Devil's Lake, WI

I appreciate the important role school and state administrators play in the lives of my children, my students, and public education. I also respect the work Evers has done in public education and consider him a friend to the noble cause of quality education for all children and young adults of Wisconsin.

Despite the divisiveness of the day, Evers has forged ahead in “finding common ground and working together to improve education for Wisconsin’s children wherever possible” and not letting “conflicts among adults rob our children of the educational opportunities they need to succeed.” Across the state and in my own school district, many school administrators have also continued to throw themselves into the important details of their work.

Contrary to the irate tone of my blog postings, most of my career I have endorsed a collaborative approach to education. In a previous life (before Governor Walker’s radical agenda), I had never canvassed for signatures, written a blog, challenged businesses about supporting political leaders I opposed,  donated any significant funds to political causes, took off school to defend public education,  or marched in a political rally. 

In earlier times, educators across Wisconsin have spent their entire careers collaborating with diverse parties for the common good of public education. However, these are rare times. Governor Walker’s extremism has pushed me (and a million others) to this extraordinary position. Gov. Walker’s radical education agenda is purely partisan, anti-union, founded on sensationalist research, and designed to give unjust favoritism to the private and charter school industry.  

The search for middle ground with Gov. Walker by the altruistic Evers and other school officials inadvertently gives credence to Gov. Walker’s larger radical agenda to slash public school funding and destroy educator unions. The well-meaning centrist positioning of too many school officials enables Gov. Walker’s bigger agenda and propaganda machine to move “forward.” Consequently, Gov. Walker’s recall election campaign is shrewdly designed to give the impression that education leaders are supporting Gov. Walker’s larger political agenda.

Standing up to extremism in public education does not make public educators radicals. Gov. Walker has already robbed our children of educational opportunities they need to succeed. This conflict is not our doing and noble-minded educators should not take any blame for what now lays before us. Our strong response to Gov. Walker’s drastic measures is appropriate, reasonable, and necessary for the future of quality education in Wisconsin.

Bill Conway, 2009-2010 state PTA Teacher of the Year, fittingly wrote local school officials, “The bigger picture is being ignored.  That is the long-term, if not terminal damage to the system. It is my hope that we can bring all sides to the table to discuss the benefits of working together to lobby hard for public education. This is where I am placing my time and energy.”

Hard-working public educators, like Conway, need Wisconsin school administrators to better focus their energies, walk beyond the trees to see the forest, and join teachers in reclaiming public education from extremism. I understand our school leaders are anxious to have Wisconsin lead the way in meaningful improvements to public education. This, however, is not the time to pretend Gov. Walker’s educational reforms are happening with educators for the children of Wisconsin. As we have seen in the past year and in the past week, Gov. Walker’s reforms will continue to happen to us, without us, and for larger political reasons.

My favorite people in history are those leaders who have uncompromisingly and courageously stood against extremism, discrimination, and injustice. It is time for all school leaders to walk unabashedly in this modern-day civil rights movement. Following Gov. Walker's recall, there will be time for school officials to once again work the details of meaningful initiatives and promote compromise among us. However, well-meaning school officials will then be working with teachers who share their passion and sincere interest in fostering quality public education. This is a walk in the forest worth waiting for.

Governor Walker, It's Personal

Last night, I did my social studies duty and suffered through Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s State of the State Address. I agonized through Gov. Walker’s disingenuous thanks to public school teachers, his reiteration of his largely gratuitous education reforms, his excitement over eliminating the state deficit solely on the backs of teachers and public employees, and his self-promotion in ending collective bargaining for public employees.

Gov. Walker’s address chiefly pandered to his conservative colleagues and the Wisconsin business community. However, he did have some parting advice for angry Wisconsinites, like me. Gov. Walker’s final thought:  “Don’t personalize your differences.”  

Instantly, Gov. Walker’s concluding message reminded me of the often-repeated Godfather line, “It's not personal Sonny, it's strictly business.” Similarly, Gov. Walker might view this past year as strictly business from his distant perch, but for those of us directly affected by his radical initiatives—it’s not business, it’s justifiably personal. 

Public education is personal. Schools involve people—not products. Gov. Walker may be able to emotionally detach himself from the educational funding policies he implements, but I take Gov. Walker’s political agenda personally when I see my students (and my own children) going without important services and programs thanks to his radical shift in the public school aid formula.

It is understandably personal when Gov. Walker’s initiatives directly harm my family. The adverse effects of Gov. Walker’s cuts to education hurt my children—now serviced in factory-like class sizes. My wife and I (both educators) now have to manage more with less and for less in our classrooms. Additionally, the unexpected tens of thousands of dollars my wife and I will pay out over the course of our professional careers as part of Gov. Walker’s initiatives is a real hardship on our middle-class family budget—especially on the heels of funding our own professional development (graduate work).

Discrimination feels personal—especially when Gov. Walker talks of “shared sacrifice,” but targets only teachers and public servants to fill the state deficit. Gov. Walker is well aware that the state budget deficit was the direct result of a recession created by unregulated investors--who recklessly spurred and crashed a housing bubble. I take it personally when these same investors get out of paying one extra penny while hard-working, middle class public workers foot the bill for their mistakes. Equally egregious, Gov. Walker gushed in his speech about a $100 savings in property taxes for some Wisconsinites, yet he insensitively ignores the thousands of dollars individual teachers and public servants sacrificed to make this happen.

I am personally offended when Gov. Walker fawns over the ideas business leaders have for running our state, but then hypocritically ignores the insights and experience of educational leaders. It is personal when I see non-educators, like Gov. Walker and his bureaucrats, implementing unproven business measures—like merit pay, data-driven education, and competition—into our collaboratively designed profession. I take it personally when my union rights--that have provide steadiness, perspective, and common mission to public education—are stripped for political purposes.  

Education is an intricate, intimate, and people-driven profession. Business-minded politicians, like Gov. Walker, must learn that public education is much more personal, complex, democratic, and multifarious than most business environments. A diversity of educators, taxpayers, parents, and students all have a voice in this complicated conversation.

This teacher’s final thought:  “Education is not a business Gov. Walker, it’s personal. To sincerely move Wisconsin’s schools forward—let’s use more personal touch.”