I have worked in urban education for 11 years now and in many different capacities and have been able to many sides of education.  Currently and for the past two years, I have worked with charter schools.  I am a proponent of public education.  I have always worked in public education and plan to always work in public education.  I was also skeptical of charter schools before I started this job and to tell you the truth I am still a little skeptical.  Starting a school is hard and there is so much expertise, knowledge and skill that is required.  One cannot just have a big heart.   I am 100% against for profit charter school or any kind of school operators who are in education for-profit (higher ed is quickly expanding in this way).  Schools should not be in the business of making a profit.  This just seems obvious to me.  When companies are in something to make a profit, shortcuts happen and it is the students who suffer and pay the true price.

Education is not a money making business–or it shouldn’t be a money making business.  But it has become a huge industry with standardized testing, textbooks, canned curricula, etc.  There have to be ways to get the bottom line to be just that a bottom line.  We need to put students and teachers first and put worry about lining the pockets of industry out of our minds.  Why do schools even buy textbooks?  Don’t we trust our schools and teachers enough to design curriculum and teach?  I once had a professor who challenged us by saying that if all we were going to do was teach from a textbook, anyone could do our job.  You don’t need any real training if all you are doing is following the textbook. And with technology today–why do we need textbooks.  Everything a teacher needs can be found without having to buy a text series.  If your teachers cannot create their own material–then maybe they shouldn’t be teaching.

I will admit, that the only time I have used a textbook was during my student teaching (because I had to).  I used the textbooks occasionally when I taught for a particular short story or group of poems, but I did not use the canned textbook curriculum and I worked really hard to create authentic learning experiences for students.  Was I as authentic as I could have been?  No.  But I determined what to teach and how it should be taught.  I created my own quizzes and tests based on what I determined was valuable.  I did look at what students were expected to learn and where their weaknesses were based on my own formative and informal assessments.  That is what a teacher does.  They know their content; they know where their students are academically;  they know where their students need to go; THEY (not a textbook or curriculum company) design classroom instruction and pick the materials that will best get their students to their goals.

This is not what happens in most urban schools (traditional public or charter public).  Urban schools spend a lot of money on buying “designed for them” curriculum from big name/big money companies.  These companies are in essence determining what and how students are taught particular subjects.  They determine the testing that is used.  These out of the box, ready-to-use curricula come with benchmark tests that are to be administered every 6 weeks.  EVERY. SIX. WEEKS.  When the hell is their time for teaching?  When is their time for differentiation?  When is there time for authentic learning? This isn’t the way it needs to be–there are plenty of examples of schools who do better and I don’t buy the argument that it’s the kids or their resources.  This is part of why teachers get so much of the blame, when really the blame lies with the control of the landscape by companies who are profiting from selling their uninspired curriculum.

Why don’t schools create their own curriculum?  Often curriculum directors are in charge of buying the curriculum that school use, as opposed to working with teachers to design a curriculum that is thoughtful, useful and engages students in thinking and learning.  I don’t want to hear it isn’t possible or it isn’t possible with student who are so far behind, etc.  I am tired of hearing excuses for the status quo.  I know what is possible and I know what can happen.  Kids are kids and all kids can learn. All kids want to learn.  What is often mistaken for disinterest or apathy is an inability to do the work. Often it is a reaction to work that is meaningless or de-contextualized from anything in the students’ lives.

When we use curricula that has been designed for the masses, we do a disservice to our students and it sends the message that we don’t/can’t take the time to create learning experiences that would help them.  The curriculum becomes the center and the students become passive receivers of the chosen knowledge.  Shouldn’t we as teachers be content area specialists?  I’m an English teacher with a B.A. in English and a M.A. in English/Composition.  I know my subject. I also am a trained teacher and know how to teach my subject.  I think all teachers need to be content specialists.  Yes even elementary teachers.  There is no reason schools can’t have teachers who are literacy specialists and teacher who are math content specialists who either team teach or trade classrooms.  There are models that work and if we stopped spending so much money on curricula designed for the masses and money on standardized testing, we could have classrooms that work.  We could have teachers who are professionals and teachers who create with students a curriculum that teaches as well as engages students.

But as long as textbook publishers and testing companies are in the game–nothing will change.