TeacherTalk

Schools--Political Speechifying Or What Students Need?

Last column for the Examiner. June 29, 2011.

            We are tired of clichés. Every mission statement of every school I’ve worked for is full of them. They sound good, but they’re pro forma and have changed little in the past 20 years:

“We want our children to become lifelong learners, to feel safe, be critical thinkers, and to recognize real world applications for what they’ve learned in their classrooms."

How Educated Are Our State Legislators? And Do We Care?

Examiner column for June 22.

            When first reading the newly released data on the educations of state legislators, I was nodding my head at states with highly educated politicians, and frowning at those where a fifth or a quarter of legislators had no record of college at all. Then I thought again. Our knee-jerk reaction might be that it’s better for states to be governed by highly educated people, but perhaps that’s misguided.

Is Advanced Placement Really College Level?

Examiner column for June 15.

            The yearly Advanced Placement exam-grading marathon has begun. There is a scoring session for each AP test, and in English 2500 teachers—half at the high school level, half college level—spend 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day for a week scoring Literature and Language essays written by more than 700,000 high school students.

            The reading remains one of the only ways high school students can be measured by college standards. College Board has always made the case that their tests mirror college work, and as a college teacher and reader of AP exams, I agree that AP does indeed measure skills we would like our college students to possess.

Can You Represent College Learning In Just a Few Pages?

Examiner column for June 8.

            We know that, on average, a college degree adds more than $20,000 per year to earning potential, and that improved health and longevity are also associated with the degree. But if I had to capture the essence of what I learned in college, I could do it in five pages—written by E.B. White. 

            “Once More To The Lake, “an essay White wrote in 1941, encapsulates everything I know. In it, he recounts a return to his childhood vacation spot with his son as he relives his own experience through the next generation.

The Bottom Line: How Your College Major Affects Future Income

Examiner column for June 1.

            We have long known that a person’s educational level correlates with lifetime income, but what we haven’t realized until now is that our college majors are also significant to the bottom line. The U.S. Census Bureau recently published data acquired from their 2009 American Community Survey that shows wide disparities between differing majors and their median incomes: from a low of $29,000 for counseling-psychology majors, to a high of $120,00 for petroleum-engineering majors. 

            Only full-time workers between the ages of 25-64 were surveyed, to help eliminate temporary or first jobs from the figures. The figures support surveys illustrating that educational level is the most important factor in determining future income: counseling-psychology was the only major that had a lower median income than the average for those with only a high school diploma ($33,000). The overall median income for those with college degrees is $55,000.

Graduation: Joyous Occasion or Empty Ceremony?

Examiner column for May 25.

            It starts in sixth grade with an assembly where students sing and play instruments and feel butterflies at the thought of going to a larger school. Every three or four years thereafter, successful students are treated to a ceremony similar to that sixth grade ritual. By graduate school, it has lost its charm—which is why most graduate degrees are awarded by the postal service. 

            Why do we continue to flock to these rites of passage? Even before I attended 25 high school graduations—including my own and my son’s—I found those ceremonies of dubious value. I reluctantly went to my college ceremony, but skipped the larger university-wide one that same day. I also took a pass when that same university conferred a masters and Ph.D. in my name. At the time, attendance seemed pointless.

How College Presidents Differ From You and Me

            What’s the difference between college presidents and the rest of us? They probably make more money, but that’s only the beginning, according to the Pew Research Center.

            Two studies released this week polled 2142 adults by phone, and 1055 college presidents online—the latter poll conducted in conjunction with the Chronicle for Higher Education. Some of the results are predictable: only 40 percent of the public finds college to be a good value, with 78 percent worried about affordability, compared to 76 percent of college presidents who think it’s a good value, with a mere 58 percent worried about affordability. Differences in income probably account for these discrepant views.

Grading Students Is Hard To Do

Examiner column for May 11.

            It’s the end of the semester, which means that 70 George Mason University students are hoping I will give them an A in their required advanced composition class. Many are mystified by how college teachers grade, and they are right that the process is more complicated than it appears.

            As a culture, we grade everything—from restaurants to universities. Then we argue about what those grades mean. Grades for college courses are similarly open to interpretation. Professors have their own systems of awarding marks at semester’s end, and students have long since given up trying to figure out the method behind that madness.

Ding Dong Osama's Dead: How Writing Has Helped Us Heal

Examiner column for May 4.

            Each September 11, my memories are of the classroom. I was teaching a combined class of Advanced Placement English and AP Government. The 56 high school seniors who stayed with me and my co-teacher while we watched events unfold, taught me a great deal about grief and dignity under duress.

            Being with teenagers that day meant I had to be “strong” for my charges; but what happened is that they supported me with the questions I would have been embarrassed to ask in the company of adults: “How can this happen in America? How could we not have known such a conspiracy was taking place? Will our country ever be the same? Will we ever get over this fear?”

False Economy: Funding Cuts to National Writing Project

Examiner column for April 27.

            200 Universities across the country are bases for Writing Project sites, George Mason University being one of the oldest and most active. All that will change as a result of the spending bill signed into law on April 15. Cuts to programs designed to improve the quality of our teachers—the single biggest factor in the quality of a child’s education—are short-sighted economies at a time when our country needs to invest in our children’s futures.

            There are other teacher-improvement programs arguably as deserving as the NWP whose funding was also cut: Reading is Fundamental, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and Teach for America. But none has the depth and breadth of the NWP, nor its connection to colleges.