Love this conversation. I think you also can't overstate the easier job that private schools generally have than public schools. They filter out kids and families in all sorts of ways: overwhelmed financially? Not welcome. Kid misbehaves too much? Not welcome. Parents don't demonstrate their own ability to carry a heavy amount of the education of their kids, by not appearing educated in the application? Not welcome. It's not merely that private schools are able to spend more per kid, which is generally true but not always as big a difference as you might guess. It's that if private schools had to actually take the same kids that public schools take, their teachers, students and administrators would be overwhelmed with their needs.
That is such a great point Ben. Even something like how many of your students have trauma history's or mental health challenges can make a big difference in how you can implement changes. Also, what's wild is that in a state like Massachusetts or New York, that per pupil spending does creep up to private school amounts. But in places like California, schools get close to half the $$ per kid. Crazy.
And also, and Sarah knows way more about this than I do, aren't private school teachers generally treated sort of terribly -- paid poorly, not given much buy in to decisions, lots of unclear communication. At least a union is a way of letting teachers fight for their dignity--warts and all.
I think this is totally right. If I could "yes and" it, I'm fascinated by all the hacks and shortcuts by which education is divvied up as an exclusionary good rather than something to which we're all equitably entitled. You're totally right about private schools' role in that. I would also name the parallel way that (through zoning, suburbanization, magnets, etc.) that white parents create islands of exclusion in ostensibly public systems as well.
I also hate my couch! I used to love it because it was a hand-me-down from a family that had had three boys and so it didn't matter what happened to it because it had been through everything. But then we got a dog and she's always spread out on it, which means being covered in fur when you sit down, and she also keeps ripping out the stuffing so it's not as comfortable.
This was amazing and I am so glad to be introduced to Sarah Wheeler. I particularly liked the Part II section on her newsletter. I am not a teacher but I work in textbook publishing, which gives me a lot of opinions about curriculum development and the kinds of pressures put on teachers to abandon deeper learning in favor of test-driven lessons. It feels like our society does everything we can to make teaching, especially in public school, an impossible job, and then looks for ways to blame teachers for the failures we've baked into the system.
I don't know if it's that interesting! I'm a freelance copy editor and have worked on projects for pretty much every major textbook publisher. It's, um, depressing. I have like one client who seems to develop good, thoughtful materials and cares about the quality. When I started out almost twenty years ago, Common Core wasn't around but almost every textbook I worked on had to adhere to TEKS or TAAS because Texas was about the biggest buyer and those were their standards. And then the Common Core rollout, which some states did thoughtfully and others, like New York ... well, didn't.
Anyway, I have school-aged kids and so much sympathy for teachers trying to do a good job even in non-Covid times with all the varying pressures on them.
As someone currently looking through a million pages of copy edits, I beg to differ. I've never met this woman and I have a DEEP, complicated relationship with her. (And I'm guessing she feels the same way about me.)
Oh dear, yes, it’s a very weird and particular kind of relationship, isn’t it? It’s like the two of you meeting inside each other’s heads and having the kinds of long conversations that are usually reserved for first-year college students in the middle of the night except you never actually meet in real life. I do love copy editing but even I find it weird to be on the receiving end!
1. Oh my goodness I can totally picture that couch. Damn our couches. 2. Ok, if I accomplish nothing else in life I love now that the two of you are now familiar with each other!
Wow. This post is so, so, so great. So many good things, but this really hit home for me "And when we hollow out society to that point, of COURSE that goes to scapegoat next door."
It does feel like the middle has been hollowed out doesn't it? Like another metaphor for this is year is cutting into the cake and being like "this thing's empty inside!" Sorry I love food-based metaphors :)
Love this conversation. I think you also can't overstate the easier job that private schools generally have than public schools. They filter out kids and families in all sorts of ways: overwhelmed financially? Not welcome. Kid misbehaves too much? Not welcome. Parents don't demonstrate their own ability to carry a heavy amount of the education of their kids, by not appearing educated in the application? Not welcome. It's not merely that private schools are able to spend more per kid, which is generally true but not always as big a difference as you might guess. It's that if private schools had to actually take the same kids that public schools take, their teachers, students and administrators would be overwhelmed with their needs.
That is such a great point Ben. Even something like how many of your students have trauma history's or mental health challenges can make a big difference in how you can implement changes. Also, what's wild is that in a state like Massachusetts or New York, that per pupil spending does creep up to private school amounts. But in places like California, schools get close to half the $$ per kid. Crazy.
And also, and Sarah knows way more about this than I do, aren't private school teachers generally treated sort of terribly -- paid poorly, not given much buy in to decisions, lots of unclear communication. At least a union is a way of letting teachers fight for their dignity--warts and all.
I think this is totally right. If I could "yes and" it, I'm fascinated by all the hacks and shortcuts by which education is divvied up as an exclusionary good rather than something to which we're all equitably entitled. You're totally right about private schools' role in that. I would also name the parallel way that (through zoning, suburbanization, magnets, etc.) that white parents create islands of exclusion in ostensibly public systems as well.
Redlining, the name of (one) of the games.
I also hate my couch! I used to love it because it was a hand-me-down from a family that had had three boys and so it didn't matter what happened to it because it had been through everything. But then we got a dog and she's always spread out on it, which means being covered in fur when you sit down, and she also keeps ripping out the stuffing so it's not as comfortable.
This was amazing and I am so glad to be introduced to Sarah Wheeler. I particularly liked the Part II section on her newsletter. I am not a teacher but I work in textbook publishing, which gives me a lot of opinions about curriculum development and the kinds of pressures put on teachers to abandon deeper learning in favor of test-driven lessons. It feels like our society does everything we can to make teaching, especially in public school, an impossible job, and then looks for ways to blame teachers for the failures we've baked into the system.
Well said Antonia. What an interesting perspective you have coming from your professional vantage point, I wanna know more!
I don't know if it's that interesting! I'm a freelance copy editor and have worked on projects for pretty much every major textbook publisher. It's, um, depressing. I have like one client who seems to develop good, thoughtful materials and cares about the quality. When I started out almost twenty years ago, Common Core wasn't around but almost every textbook I worked on had to adhere to TEKS or TAAS because Texas was about the biggest buyer and those were their standards. And then the Common Core rollout, which some states did thoughtfully and others, like New York ... well, didn't.
Anyway, I have school-aged kids and so much sympathy for teachers trying to do a good job even in non-Covid times with all the varying pressures on them.
I'm serious that I would read that memoir. The standardized testing/curriculum debate from a textbook writer's perspective...
Well, copy editor so maybe a little less interesting!
As someone currently looking through a million pages of copy edits, I beg to differ. I've never met this woman and I have a DEEP, complicated relationship with her. (And I'm guessing she feels the same way about me.)
Oh dear, yes, it’s a very weird and particular kind of relationship, isn’t it? It’s like the two of you meeting inside each other’s heads and having the kinds of long conversations that are usually reserved for first-year college students in the middle of the night except you never actually meet in real life. I do love copy editing but even I find it weird to be on the receiving end!
1. Oh my goodness I can totally picture that couch. Damn our couches. 2. Ok, if I accomplish nothing else in life I love now that the two of you are now familiar with each other!
I’m putting a request in for a couch-centered book of essays someday ;)
Wow. This post is so, so, so great. So many good things, but this really hit home for me "And when we hollow out society to that point, of COURSE that goes to scapegoat next door."
It does feel like the middle has been hollowed out doesn't it? Like another metaphor for this is year is cutting into the cake and being like "this thing's empty inside!" Sorry I love food-based metaphors :)
THE HOLLOW TREE! Remember in that novel we read?!
Omigod! The hollow tree is everything!!
Ha! And who doesn’t love cake. But an empty cake. Or how about Marie Antoinette!? Not the cake anyone wanted. Sorry I love loose associations.
I just love how this article hit the micro & the Meta. And metta, in the Buddhist sense too.
I lived in Oakland for 10 years at worked for the health department, and sad I didn’t meet you.
I love the image of an empty cake. Thanks for all this, Jessica.