Roads and Schools: Why Are Both Suffering in Iowa?

I was having a conversation a while back with a Libertarian friend of mine and over the course of our chat, he made a comment about the lottery and legalized gambling in the Great State of Iowa, and asked me if I recalled the promises that were made back when all of that was approved by our political leaders. I was quick to respond that we were “guaranteed” that we would be flush with money from gambling/lottery proceeds for education in our state. He quickly responded, “and we were promised that we would have great roads!” Kind of funny how both are short of funding today, yet when I read in the papers, the casinos in Iowa are still doing pretty good business, and it sure seems that I stand a long time in line waiting for people in front of me to purchase lottery tickets. So what gives? Honestly, I don’t know!

Maybe this is one of those things that flew under the radar, or at least mine. Perhaps the agreement that lottery proceeds would go to education was for only a few years, and that time has expired. Or it is possible that when casino licenses have been renewed or laws updated, it was changed. Regardless of the reason, my question is why did it happen? You know, taxes put on cigarettes and other tobacco products goes to subsidize anti-tobacco efforts and yet, some pretty effective programs, such as JEL, are seeing funding cut because the folks currently in power in the Des Moines don’t like them. Maybe that is what happened. Perhaps the powers that be don’t like public education in this state, and don’t see a need to keep our roads in good repair!

I understand people that don’t want taxes raised. Some of them are a bit off the deep end, in my opinion, but one has to appreciate their perspective. However, roads are vital for commerce in our state. In recent weeks I have followed a lot of wagons and haulers full of grain headed to the elevator. We have semi tractors and trailers crisscrossing our state and we all know the shape some of our roads in this part of the state are like. And, as schools are looking ahead at budget projections, and many once again are going to have to reduce teachers because of a shortfall of funds. In my opinion, it would be well worth our time to revisit those promises made a number of years ago with those gambling proceeds. The time has come to reinvest in both our roads and our kids.

Did you hear the one about the doctor, the lawyer, and the dentist?

“If a doctor, lawyer or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.” – Donald D. Quinn

In a previous blog I referenced a quote from Matt Damon, praising the influence that teachers had on his life, and took exception with the criticism that is directed way to often at teachers. When I came across this quote, it reminded me of a comment that I hear from a lot of non-teachers about our profession: “I couldn’t do the job that you do!” I am sure that many of our doctors, lawyers, dentists, accountants, and businessmen would be very frustrated if they actually faced the scenario above, yet day after day, our teachers do. No, we don’t have many classes at North Fayette with 40 kids in a class, but substitute 25 or 30, and I don’t think it would make a lot of difference in the dentist’s office!

What a lot of people are not aware of is the short amount of time that teachers actually have to do everything that is being asked of them. In fact, it is impossible. Between teaching class, grading work, meeting with students before and after school, attending faculty meetings, serving on committees, engaging in professional development, contacting parents, leading extracurricular activities, and working to implement the Iowa Core curriculum, what more can be asked? Did I mention having a personal life?

Okay, okay, okay. This isn’t a whine. It is a reality and I have a solution. We need more time. For years there has been conversation about extending the school year. I am all for that. Add twenty days of instruction and ten days for teachers to work. Let’s get innovative with our calendars and figure out ways to keep interruptions to a minimum and place a high value on instruction time. We need to be very protective of school time and the community has to understand that some of the things we do cannot be done during school time. We won’t have to have early dismissals for professional development if we have periodic full days for teachers to work.

I have a lot of faith in the abilities of our teachers. They work very hard and are committed to doing the best job they can. A lot has been thrown at them in recent years and they keep plugging away. There is talk about more pay, but they don’t do it for the money. Yes, if we have longer years, they will have to get paid more. But, I believe it is an investment that is worth it. American kids go to school less than those in other countries. We can do better if we would just give everyone a little more time.

Team Before Individual? Or Vice Versa?

When I was about seven years old, my dad taught me how to figure my batting average. I was obsessed with baseball as a kid, and even in the backyard games I would figure my average. I kept at it until I was in seventh or eighth grade, but then didn’t pay much attention to it anymore. Our coach would give us a statistics sheet at the end of the season, so I knew at the end of the year how I had done. Suffice to say, I was not really “stats conscious” as a high school athlete, whether it was on the baseball field or the wrestling mat. After all, there was only one statistic that mattered, and that was whether or not we won.

When I started coaching, I kept statistics but I never shared them with my athletes until the season was over. The game is not about how many hits some gets, or how many yards they rush for. The game is about the effort given and whether one is victorious. Whether it is a team sport, or an individual one like wrestling, you can have great statistics, but if you aren’t winning, what does it matter? I have worked with a number of coaches that share that opinion. But now, times have changed a bit and I cannot figure out why. Oh sure, there were guys in my day that seemed more concerned about how many points they had in a game than whether they did what was in the best interest of the team. But now, there seems to be almost an obsession with the numbers.

For years I have thought it was ridiculous when I would go to basketball games and moms (yes, usually the moms) would have a pencil and piece of paper out, keeping track of how many points their son or daughter had. Then when I actually found that there were some that kept track of other players on the team, I began to really question what kinds of conversations were taking place at home. Did they center on “doing your part for the team?” Or, “the heck with the team, make sure you get yours?” And then I even ran across parents that got into arguments with a coach because their numbers were different than the ones that he released to the newspaper. Now, as I have followed my daughter playing softball at tournaments called showcases – events designed for college coaches – I see fancy sheets with all kinds of statistical information put together by some parents to give to these coaches.

What troubles me the most about this is that in most high school sports, teams compete, not individuals. And when individuals put themselves above the team, generally the outcome is not positive. But then along came something called QuikStats, an online database used for high school sports in Iowa. A couple of years ago, I swear I saw pigs flying because both our boy’s and girl’s state organizations mandated that coaches post statistics on QuikStats! I couldn’t believe it! From organizations that profess to be about the high school athlete, and one that for years publicly stated that, “we’re not about making college athletes,” it amazed me that now coaches face being suspended from coaching in the state tournament series if they didn’t keep statistics updated. I have spoken to officials from both the IHSAA and the IGHSAU and both tell me that the media loves it, colleges can check it, and parents check it out all the time. Do you see a problem with this?

Thank-you Matt Damon!

"This has been a horrible decade for teachers. I can’t imagine how demoralized you must feel. But I came here today to deliver an important message to you: As I get older, I appreciate more and more the teachers that I had growing up. And I’m not alone. There are millions of people just like me . . . And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned, none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success (imagination, a love of writing & learning, and curiosity), none of these qualities that make me who I am ... can be tested!" ~Matt Damon at the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC July 2011.

Wow! Someone finally someone publically stood up for teachers! I cannot think of a group of individuals that have experienced more criticism, had more fingers pointed at them, and given more blame for the ills that befall us than teachers. The profession has been an easy target for the past ten to fifteen years, and the slings and arrows continue to come our way. It is interesting that our newly appointed Director of Education, Jason Glass, has included in Governor Branstad’s blueprint for education a reference to the quality teachers that we have in our state, but that seems to be lost in all of the other very important aspects of the plan he will take to the legislature in the upcoming session.

It pains me to hear the criticism. I know that there are some teachers that should not be in the profession. Believe me, in my role it is a huge concern and responsibility; one that I take very serious. It is important to work with all of our teachers to help them become better at their craft, just like any other employee. But, people need to recognize that the quality teachers outnumber those that should not be in the profession by a huge margin. Thus, I believe that the criticism lobbed our way is undeserved. Education is an easy target because a tremendous amount of money comes from the government to fund it. Yet, politicians have demonized the profession for what I believe is their own political gain. In modern politics, you need someone or something to point your finger at. Thus, they have been aimed at us.

When we look at the big picture and people throw all kinds of statistics around, here is one that I believe sheds more light on the problem than any other, and one that for whatever reason has not attracted attention in the media or politicians. In the most recent PISA results that compare the performance of American students to those in other countries, if you would adjust for poverty, students in the United States perform at the top. Hmmm. Do you suppose we have a poverty issue in this country? Have we adequately addressed that? When you recognize that in most industrial countries poverty levels are not close to what we have in the United States at this time, should it be a surprise that teachers struggle to teacher kids that come to school so very unprepared for school? There is a huge divide between the “haves” and the “have not’s” in our country, as is evident by what is currently being fought over politically. Politicians spend a lot of time talking about fixing education. How about they spend a little bit of that time figuring out how they can fix poverty? I may be very interesting what the future of our country will look like if that would happen!

Let's Have Some Fun!

You know, sometimes it’s just a good thing to step back and have some fun. We have had quite a bit of fun the past couple of weeks with Homecoming and the festivities that come with that. In fact we even put a little more emphasis on the fun part as quite honestly, in years past there wasn’t that much going on that was fun. We added competitive games between advisory groups that were well received. Kids got a kick out of trying to work their way through hula-hoops and breaking apart frozen blocks of knotted t-shirts. Changing things up on Friday with a pep rally that included all of the kids in the district brought electricity into the gym. And the introduction of the “Interlude Dance” saw our kids drop their inhibitions and fill the floor, breaking moves and having a great time!

And then the Home Makeover crew came to town and out of the blue late Tuesday afternoon Mr. Willhite got a call asking if our softball team wanted to play a “fun” game Wednesday evening. The HM folks wanted to blow off some steam and work off some stress, and at the same time give folks in the community a chance to come out and see them. Talk about a “Field of Dreams” night! To a person, the girls that got to play had a great time! Talk to people that were there and the first thing out of their mouth was “it was a lot of fun!”

I think that we need to rediscover “fun” at school. No, I don’t expect teachers to be entertainers, and hard work generally isn’t fun. But, there are ways to make learning fun and I have seen it. Students had a great time designing and building Rube Goldberg machines in physical science over the past couple of weeks as they studied force and motion. I saw some hilarious “presentations” in speech class where students demonstrated things you don’t do when giving a speech. And it has been fun for kids to be part of the Interlude dance at events ever since it was introduced to us at homecoming. Days sure do seem to go a little bit better when you have a chance to laugh and smile a bit!

Privilege and Responsibility

Prior to the start of the current college football season, all of the major conferences host media days. In the Big 10, coaches, players, athletic directors, and other individuals associated with member school’s athletic departments gather for a few days in Chicago and meet the press. A few days after that gathering, a video clip started circulating of Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins and a speech that he gave on behalf of the players in the conference. It is out there on YouTube and I would encourage you to take a look. However, there is a part of his speech that I want to focus on, which I have included here.

"It's here in this place of privilege where perhaps danger lies," he said. "I've been taught that human nature is such that the place of privilege most often and most naturally leads to a sense of entitlement -- the notion that I deserve to be treated as special because I'm privileged. The truth is privilege should never lead to entitlement. I've been raised and taught to believe that privilege should lead to responsibility, in fact to greater responsibility."

When one reads about this current generation of teenagers, some often refer to them as “the entitlement generation.” Because of the way that many have been raised with a focus on making sure that they feel special, in turn they expect things because they are “special” and do not acknowledge that in “real life” you have to earn your keep. We see this quite often in the classroom where students believe they just have to show up to get a good grade, or that by simply completing a paper should bring reward, never mind the quality of work. As parents we have cheered the effort rather than the outcome, which I believe is a disservice to our kids. Of course we want them to participate, to try. But many of us have hesitated to push them to perform at a high level because we are afraid of what might happen. So, I believe that many kids have gained a false sense of privilege and do not recognize the responsibility that comes with it. For some, if it doesn’t make them feel good, why should they do it?

I am also concerned about a prevailing attitude that exists with seniors at North Fayette. There is a strong sense of entitlement among that group simply because they are seniors. They have “put in their time” and now it is all about them! It isn’t just this year’s class as actually, I have seen less of it with them than in my two previous years. What I want to see is that they have become leaders and that they make a difference in the lives of others, especially the underclassmen. They need to be the students in the building that teach others about what it means to be a North Fayette Hawk and to help prepare them for the challenges that are ahead of them. Rather than expecting that the spotlight will now shine on them simply because they have completed 12 years of formal education, our seniors need to figure out how they can expand the spotlight to include all of those things that they have done and all of the people they have touched to make NFHS a better place. With privilege comes responsibility!

Iowa Futures: Did You Know Iowa?

At the beginning of August I attended our annual School Administrators of Iowa Conference in Des Moines. In addition to renewing acquaintances and listening to a number of presenters, I attended one session that focused on the future of education in Iowa and how to engage the community in the discussion. One of the highlights was the premier of the video that I have included on this post. I think you will find it interesting and it should point out that if we want to provide the best for our children and the future of our state, we must start making the changes that so many people find hard to make. Click on the link to watch the video.

Iowa, Did You Know?