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On Dark Times, Parallel Universes, and Déjà Vu

2000; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 82; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/003172170008200204

1940-6487

Bobby Ann Starnes,

Education and Critical Thinking Development

Effectiveness cannot be found in the mediocre sameness that grows out of programs that require lessons, teaching strategies, and materials to be precisely executed in order to maintain integrity, Ms. Starnes points out. If only it were that easy! THIS IS a dark time for education. I accept that. It is difficult for me to write these words. I'm not an alarmist or a reactionary. I don't believe our society is doomed by single-parent families, and I don't think Pokemon will be the ruin of all we hold dear. I don't panic when change comes slowly - that's just the way it comes - and I don't see doom lurking around every corner. No, I'm an optimist. I actually believe that one person can make a difference. I believe that, given the opportunity, teachers and learners will choose to do well. And I believe that grassroots change is both possible and desirable. Like William James, I believe in tiny, invisible . . . forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets . . . which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of human pride. I've seen how small victories give teachers and learners the strength and courage to go on in spite of enormous challenges. So, under normal circumstances, I talk, write about, and promote what I am for rather than dwell on or criticize what I am against. Perhaps I'm swayed in this direction by Dewey's admonition that those who form their principles or define their purposes in reaction against others . . . [are] unwittingly controlled by them.1 Besides, differences in educational approaches are never gratuitous or invented. Instead, Dewey continues, they illustrate profound differences in theory [that] grow out of conflicting elements in a genuine problem. In other words, from my perspective, we are separated in our vision for and beliefs about what makes good education by the personal values and belief systems that are at the core of our being. No person will be convinced by any amount of research, argument, or evidence that is constructed upon fundamental beliefs that they do not personally hold. That is why we have political parties and so many religious denominations. Having said this, I do think these times require an airing of certain ideas lest they be forgotten or drowned out by the loud and powerful voices of an apparent majority view. Therefore, I would like to insert another - and vastly different - perspective into the debate that took place between Herbert Walberg, Rebecca Greenberg, and Bruce Joyce in the October 1999 issue of the Kappan. The discussion centered on the efficacy of Success for All and the evaluative research attached to it. I work for Foxfire, and at Foxfire our underlying beliefs are strikingly different from those expressed by these authors. My job is to support teachers in a variety of ways. Our organizational mission reflects our knowledge that individual teachers can be - must be - reform agents. We have seen no convincing evidence that top-down programs and policies reap positive change. So we work teacher-to-teacher and school-to-school, and we work only with teachers who make an individual and free choice to work with us. We have learned that changes in the ways teachers think about teaching and learning lead to sustainable changes in practice. And although a supportive community of teachers, learners, administrators, and others is always preferable, it is rare. Therefore, we support individual teachers in their self-directed professional development. We believe that decisions about teaching and learning must be made within the individual contexts of classrooms, schools, and communities. Thus we offer no curriculum, no script, no textbooks, no worksheets, no quick fix. What we do offer is a decision-making framework defined by 11 Core Practices that have been formed out of the experiences of individual teachers over years of exploration, testing, and refinement. …