Cross what is known as malcolmx park. Four years earlier she was a student at brown. When see saw the November Times cover of her holding a broom and clean house she decided the Nations Capital is where she would start her career. She believed she had the chance to up the level of rigor in urban classrooms and help the kids that were most poorly served in the past by refusing to keep doing things the way were done before. She was placed at a school in Mount Pleasant named after the founder of the u. S. Naval academy. It was a bumpy beginning and six weeks in the first year she was switched from first to third grade to replace a teacher who had a nervous breakdown in front of children. She had two stable years to hone or craft and felt like she was starting to warrant praise she often received. As she turned on to the sidewalk of the only place she ever worked she felt certain this year would be her last. She entered the gym to search for her coteacher and meet the 60 third graders they would soon escort up the stairs, pass the colorful mural to room 121. Children as young as 3 and old as 11 sat on the floor waiting to go to their home room. Near the gym door, she approached a young boy she had heard the second grade teachers complain about last yee year. How are you doing . Did you have a great summer . He shrugged and had his head down. Nearby two girls smiled at each other each holding the leg of her father and performing her own distinct dance. And this is the principal of the Charter School. In the new apartment she had moved in after the separation that was a longtime coming, she closed the door to the batrochr and got herself ready. She looked across the street at the Walter Reed Medical Center hospital and selected her first day of work attire. She thought back to the apartment in Corpus Christi as a child. That is where the wanting gbegu. It started after visiting a friends house on ocean drive. Why dont we have that . How can i get that . Her dad saw the change in his oldest daughters face in the following week and saw the building anger and resentiment. There is a difference between being schooled and smart. Education is a bridge or a border chose. As a child she often fished with her father. Leave it there her dad would her her when she recast too quickly. Wait it out, dolly, wait up till it tugs. Learn to tell the difference from the tide and the fish pulling on the lure. One time she felt a tug that left no doubt. She tried to pull back with enough force. Daddy, i cannot do this. Dont ever say that. The rod dipped lower and lower and her father got behind her, added his hand to the pole and screamed reel it in. The child strained as hard as she could until a stingray emerged. The father grabbed it, reached for a pair of plyers and pulled the stinger out. The ray was back out of the boat and struggling into the waters. Father and daughter laid exhausted and breathing hard. She felt like crying and laughing then and now. He was always getting her into situations that were bigger than she could handle and pushing her threw through them. He was making sure i had some of it in my. It would not surprise me if some of you are like that doesnt sound like a book about education. It may immediately be self evident but part of what became clear to me over the course of the time that i spent in the schools when i knew i wanted to write a book but i wasnt sure what form it would take is that first of all people are interested in other people. They are not interested in programs. And so a book that explains the specifics of lucys readers and writers workshop could be found in the book shelf even though that is something that is talk about. But also what became really clear to me in watching the cultures of things unfold and this is what folks in the room in education and maybe not in education but worked in successful organizations know is that always the main currency that defines a culture is language and relationships. And always the most effective schools or environments are the places where people know one another which means they dont just know what their tendency is like in the classroom. They know that her father meant everything to her and to understand her is to understand the relationship she had with her father and what he taught her about life that directly impacts the kind of principal she is. I think the reason where bring this up and we will go on to reading number two is because when i look at the field of k12 School Reform it is so contention and twodimensional. It is the landscape of the rightious and the dam. And there are folks out there and people who are doing work that is unrecognized. For the rest of us it is more complicated than merely determining that for example that because Rebecca Leibowitz moved to washington, d. C. Because he admired Mitchell Reed that we should love or hate or or we should celebrate the principal has a here or condemn her has part of the effort to privatize education. It is more complicated from a that. And in almost every city, including and not limited to this one, we need to begin having a different, more pointed conversation about the ways in which School Choice begins to unlease unresolved issues among race and class and place and democracy and the ways in which School Reform, if it is works, is supposed to unleash better approaches to teaching and learning. The first conversation we have to have is what is it that our schools should be more effective at doing and in what ways might we unleash a cycle that creates a rising tide that lifts all boats . That is not a conversation we are having broadly enough to impact the work we need to do on behalf of kids and on behalf of our community. All right. Reading number two. I think speaks very specifically to some of the things that are happening in both washington, d. C. And in chicago. And you will get a preview of what is coming in this by knowing this is a chapter entitled building a house. This is a very beginning of that chapter. When romy pitman was growing up on the maryland farm her farmly owned since 1725 she fantasized about being a doctor and working in a large office with a dark desk with a roster of parents dropping children off, the 8yearold added an extra twist. A secret trapped door behind the desk to which she and the children escaped to an environment in the woods free from adult supervision and that is what would heal them and their parents would never need to know. Years later, she fashioned an adult life that honored her fantasy. She designed her own major calling it Socio Economic culture. And studied the ways different children and cultures could expect different experiences in school. As a professional, she spent stretches working with troubled boys and girls and chased against the ridged structure of chasing against a high school and finding her own. Her efforts to build something lasting fell short. What she learned was that the challen challenge of a great education is almost all motivation and every school she worked in, ever even the ones she built, took too much meaning. What she realized was the opposite extreme was just as problematic. If you replace pure structure with pure freedom you get the same result. The art was striking the right balance between planning and impr impr improvasion. The first house she moved in took three years to complete and burned down the first night. The only thing she built before that was a homemade doll. She had a healthy dose of fearlessness and bought a 14 inch chain saw and ignored everything she didnt know and dove in. He stood before the biggest accomplishment and a testament of the learning by doing. She cut down trees and peeled them by hand. She welcomed friends who added touches. On the night of the moving in Celebration Party she felt like she was showing off a masterpiece. She overlooked an important component of bracing in the chimney. No one was hurt but the wood from the fire spread from the wood to the cabin and everything they worked for and everything they had acquired over the course of their lives was gone. She decided to start again and used bails of straw for insulation and a lime plaster on the outside and earth plaster on the inside. Was fire resistant, sustainable and you network. And this time they moved in 11 months later for good. I like the balance we struck between a lot of forethought, planning and innovation in the moment she explained one winter afternoon. With you build something from scratch you must have the right balance. The same is true for schools. Everything you do as a school desi designer is based on need and you leave enough room for things to happen and recognizing you cannot do everything on the fly. I was particularly struck by her insight. R romy was working with the Charter Schools. She works for a National Network of all kinds of schools called expeditionary learning. It was formed with the Harvard School and Outward Bound which gives you a sense of what they are about. Her work is about advising schools to help them embed these principles. She and i witnessed over the course of the first year, which ended well i should say, was the insanity of the starting a school from scratch. It is insane. It is exciting and leads to remarkable stuff. It is insane because you have to build everything on there fly. Things that you take for granted like report cards or professional development calendars. So the flip side was in the time i spent in the Neighborhood School, professional development was like a game of telephone. The principal of the Neighborhood School was sent a set of power point slide from the District Office and the professional development was her presenting the slides to her faculty which was like you know it is very hard for something to maintain its meaning when it is being passed down from other people who are not deciding what to use. So what i saw was in a way what each sector most needs is the others strength. The only way you can continue to populate is if you close other schools there is no other way to do the math in a city like chicago. So i wonder to what extent is there a proactive conversation that yes coming in is important to build new things and by renovating we can just mean renovating the space but figuring out how people will go there and not be sold to falling in how we can both benefit from the strength. This is not happening in d. C. There but it is interesting to see how much it has changed to see how much more relatively speaking will be in a york city tomorrow the climate around choice in new york is closer to chicago and washington d. C. Is to chicago. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and the insight has a little bit of wisdom i will share another reading then the rest to be determined by your questions. It is a bit later in the book you just need to know this is an excerpt about one of the two parents that i followed there were looking at Charter Schools and one of them was on it like attended 30 open house is knew exactly what she was looking for and got it. This woman was not so sure. So what you are about to hear with the enrollment open house after she died in somewhere spirit by the time karen received a postcard in the mail that heard daughter won a preschool see at the Charter School she had just about given up hope. Every other school drew her status so far after the akashi has not even attended an open house is offer a of a commission she now holds but she started to remember to be impressed by a Creative Minds international she found of handout with the image of two childrens faces is. With art and for the bridges and handson projects the Charter School isnt new school for children in washington d. C. To create an International Curriculum with an arts based activity to foster creativity and self motivation and social and Emotional Development as well as academic excellence. , can the school says it offers something of a doesnt exist . Then she read more an emphasis on the arts, the founding principle with the phd with a deeper understanding how children learn and in spite of herself as she started to feel the fortune of her winning number. She also had no other option the fact that tempered her enthusiasm the following week. This is the actual reality of School Choice is school chance. The most established Charter Schools are anything other than a true Lottery Ticket because most of the younger spots are taken by siblings and for those who want to play the game the was the sound great on paper and may actually become a great the yet dont exist in any real form. You buy low and hope the stock will jump. As she walked in the front door she saw other families coming into submit materials. The flier features the posters of the current tenant as the highschool moves across town. One set of parents from pearson. I dont like it he said moments after injuring at which point his bothered knelt down beside him and said this is not your school yet. He stared back blankly. What is it . One pear it handed over materializing gave the teacher a bear hug if you need any help getting ready let me know. That gives me goose bumps i think my cry. And then the principal was addressing prospective families how much can you maintain once the School Year Starts . She has 17 years of schooling left and allow her to be pushed too quickly into the academic focus. I know exactly what you mean i started the school at the same frustrations searching for my son several years ago that is why we want to make sure our kids are just as focused to address the social and emotional needs as on the academics. The other parents were nodding and affirmation. Are these future friends . Will she be spending time at their home . Should i believe with the principle is telling me . We left shortly thereafter and she thumbed through the enrollment packet. I get excited every time i learn more about the school. At the same time did you see how young they were . The rising expectations of the parents and increase understanding have outstripped the capacity of the teachers to deliver the goods. Some of that sounded like election speech but what about practice into a water to be part of the experiment . The more i think about it im not as concerned it is preschool by the time she gets to first grade they will work out the kinks. I go back and forth were my priorities are. I am okay with her switching schools but i cannot help but think down the line it is a leap of faith by suppose that is true anywhere she liked and unlocks her car glading we will still move out of the city just not right away. So the peace at the beginning the front chest piece is the code at the beginning of the book i just learned that. Now you know,. [laughter] the front just peace is from platos republic i never read it like i imagine most of you . In school may be but a show of hands. Who did . Of course. [laughter] pretty good but while i was doing this research there was a not been in the Washington Post that the author quoted that piqued my interest because they never before thought like you always talk about school . Of this made me realize that platos republic talked about i have to read this. So i did so for those of you that have not read it and playdoh and imagines that socrates his mentor is visiting athens which is the highest model of a Democratic Society in Human History and only lasted 250 years nobody has figured out how to sustain an experiment end democracy beyond the point were not right now. Saugerties happens to be visiting any he is hanging now with the other dudes and theyre talking about what the ideal city should be like. A major question is how were they to be reared and educated in how do we answer that and Everything Else that we do to consider and in what way does justice and injustice, to a city . In what way justice and injustice come into being in a city. That is right in what way can the Ongoing School experiment braying justice into the city whether chicago or washington d. C. . This is crazy so the way you bring it to win it comes to education is you have trays and children in a common pen where nobody knows whos kid is too because unless you do that parents will disproportionately lobby for their child potentially at the expense of everybody else. I share this observation someone thought it was a policy proposal. But it captures the attention when it comes to democracy between the meat and though we. We will not be raising our kids and a common pence a how was a possible to honor the desire of parents to forcefully advocate for their kid . With the Charter School movement one of the central rallying cries was my child, my choice. It sounds pretty good. Right . But also the notion of the we and founded to be institutions primarily responsible for insuring we participate in some sort of share and i would say a lot of use the Elementary Schools may be the only spot that bring diverse groups together. There is not a lot of public squares any more. So to me and we will decide together we have to figure out some sort of a way democracy doesnt require that all of us live in in a quality but it does require that we share substantially in a common life. Some of the question that we will not resolve in the queue is a part of the program is in what ways can ongoing efforts to have more high functioning Public Education systems honor both the me and the day we . Three and the reality is really is valued liberty more than equality. To meet whenever away School Choice takes it will be a failure that leads to our own demise unless we very intentionally and courageously and consistently confront core issues that are manifest it around race and class and place and access and the ongoing tension between democracy and capitalism, how close we really want to be to one another. And around the fact schools can do everything and really helping high functioning schools to foster different notions of community. Lead is worth exploring and in my mind were not even having that conversation. It is with the hope we can begin and i look forward to continue that conversation with you in a moment. Thank you very much. [applause] so in the time that we have left what questions or comments do you have . This makes me very depressed. Is this the middle or the beginning . Had you seen a bright spot . There are tons of rice spots. Every word i said is true. I am really lucky and my job i can visit and work with lots of schools all over the country Public Private charter you name it. Most schools there is a reason that schools are feeling the almost every parent loves their kids in school. Most schools are pretty good. Very few schools are truly great whether public or private republic charter and very few are truly horrible. Even though both extremes exist. Most are pretty good and fall along the continuum. I can give you lots of examples where people are doing powerful things but there is a couple of things that i believe our core design principles. Actually let me take a step back further. And all of us need to be more cognizant so were in the midst right now people talk about this generally with the huge shift in education and there is the paradigm shift and here is what i think it means and what it means to be in the last 100 years the levy including the zero people in the room i can almost guarantee everybody in this room in the general age has experienced schooling very similarly and i can sum it up this way. Everybody went to school where the assumption was with content knowledge but the job of the student was to adjust to the school. And i can guarantee them evanston was to adjust to our need. Our job was to fit in and have fun. That this is typical. What we are now in the midst of this session after. Of a shift. Content is no longer where we are going is the means by which we reached the end goal. They decide in understand his skills in how the san dispositions they need to distill because those is what will guide the young people through life. Not just college or a job but through life to make them good parents, neighbors, partners and democratic citizens. But now shifting to the assumption it is the job of the school to adjust to the needs of each student. Those are massive chefs and both are right and it is a lot harder to do that. The reason we should be discouraged we have a system of wind to the old way looking at content knowledge whether schools are successful or unsuccessful based on reading and math scores. Who does this . This is like the general manager of the council only recruit players that hit the stomach. [laughter] perhaps that was a bad analogy. So we have to pay more attention to policy that incentivizes teachers to shift by wheat by where we reached the end and will and the expectation is not that they will personalized instruction to every kid better equipped to do that well and are evaluated based on their ability that doesnt just mean cognitive but social and emotional and ethical and physical. And the good news for full circle and the revolution is under way. Walsh share my contact information. Email me and i can point you to tons of examples where folks are already doing that or they evaluate themselves whether they reach those habits where kids are learning in and out of the classroom and teachers are empowered to build high transparency cultures and where notions of community your strength and in where they have expanded. That we had a larger level how of focused as some of those have but the opportunity to increase the collective attention with those schools. And is that a catalyst . [laughter] i will my suggestion when metcalf has all figured out but it is a School District founded to fulfill the progressive philosophy of john do a. But in urban districts like Chicago Public schools are like the washington d. C. Public schools and it is harder because theres so much beyond the control of schools beyond expectation a district can singlehandedly over, over all of the issues. Leica hardcore top down, i dont think it is possible truly to build an environment to personalized instruction around the strength and needs of each student to not do that and a democratic environment. How you can possibly empower young people if adults still feel empowered. I helped to produce a 10 her video series about a school in boston called mission hill. That is a remarkable school. The idea was real hall attended the very few have attended a great school so we dont know what that looks like and it just lets you be a fly although wall to see what it is that they do and develop a clear sense of oneness it is that might be exported and tried elsewhere. But to be continued. What about the current breakdown . To cement education is that compartmentalization is a hindrance to developing the of life skills across different arenas like academic or social and emotional blow away the curriculum is broken down prohibits that from developing further . Good question. Yes and no and mostly yes. If we try to shift away from it is content knowledge is what will define our work you still need a subject to i teach math or history or high school or a middle school where elementary school. Those that have made the shift there may be folks who have a particular expertise and theyre always should be but what they teach primarily is creativity and Critical Thinking and problem solving through math and poetry and social studies so a subtle but significant distinction and the fact we have been lots of places hardcore academic departments that kids go to school and 45 minutes installments how do you develop a more integrated sense of self deficit is it artificially demarcated into english and math and science . Expeditionary learning it is not a radical philosophy but we learn that by doing. One of the founders believe is what matters most is quality student work if you want to transform cultures start helping to produce quality work but in order to do it you cannot be racing through the curriculum. Said youre really serious there should only be two grades. A and not yet and still learning youre combining in realtime and ultimately you have to present what it is you have learned to a community who will evaluate your work. That is a model that what some of the schools are using all sure there are schools in chicago go visit and start their but it is harder to do that more schools if we continue tuesday caught in the teacher box. Thanks for the narrative but the part to that was concerning why does it have to be a choice between autonomy in the system with the strict control within democratic of structures . And at least if you are pork . And then the last thing a and thinking my one experience with Chicago Public schools as a build amazing programs that we teach how to do activities in the Previous Administration is committed to shut down the programs because their competition for the local turnarounds schools hopes of block. The first thing i would say is these issues of School Choice and how it plays out is so different depending upon where i am in the country. Suggested answering that specifically through chicago which ive not as knowledgeable about, what seems to stand out to me the most is that chicago seems like it has the lowest level of trust and transparency of any other major cities participating in the process. Kim from an outsiders perspective, the of budgetary issues seem pretty wheel. Real. In theory i could see how some schools will have to be closed. But mayor who announces 54 School Closings while on a ski trip in utah . That says everything about the extent to which there will be a real civic Energy Around School Improvement which it to your point has a goal is to build better schools and here is where i get agnostic hint washington d. C. Most of these people it is like mom and pop. In michigan for out of five Charter Schools are run by forprofit entities. That is a very different environment. In the environment there is so much mistrust so i think any time he gets into charter he brings in a chain and this is the beginning of a different sort of an effort. But from the outside it does not smell right. So much of the issue is localized so would his uniform if we create more space for a public Charter Schools and they are Public Schools with the autonomy they should be held to the same transparency standards. To the greatest extent possible any City Building space for a district to be better and for Charter Schools to be innovative need to create the most level Playing Field possible. And to be transparent as they can be and that is the biggest tragedy. When the Chicago Teacher strike was happening the title of the article is a part of buses dying in chicago. Of wind things like that happens our ongoing ability to maintain tenuously a hold on a Democratic Society admits to a larger engine of a capitalist society becomes gravely threatened it is something we should take very seriously with eyes wide open. And to the extent possible we should not throw too many babies out with the bathwater and for those of us that are the most passionate we have to help them understand what are nonnegotiable is and the positive next step can begin. [inaudible] obviously this has different implications for the jury to man charters with the relationship with the traditional public. I am curious about your thoughts with respect to private schools that is said huge question i know. So full disclosure i ran the illinois a nonprofit for a couple of years and i fell into that role. Looking for a job and i wound up doing that because the recipient of the scholarship got me into the academy where i worked. And through that experience of understanding that private voucher in the idea with public funds i thought it was appealing and i had this feeling of social justice then that led a but but i had the malevolent right wing people on my board who i could talk with but there are misguided and ulterior motives as far as the real aim and the real goal. I just want to give you that background to pose that question as far as a you think what promises occur compared to private school. To thank you for rolling with the microphone cspan is years of this conversation will continue for insomniacs and hotel dwellers. [laughter] i said this to others who were kim private schools and i taught in both when i was in the classroom. To me, every private school must have a Public Mission and it is not visiting a Senior Center and collecting canned goods. If Charter Schools have a little more freedom than Public Schools to think about what they do then you can do whatever you want to. To me the Public Mission of education is the ultimate laboratory for how to do teaching and learning and to do is in the environment to be very explicit the thinking of the ways in which your wisdom might be exported if you have an amazing place that can only exist here that is great for the people that go here and stops here. In fairness it doesnt stop off because all the and people that graduate can radiate out to do amazing work you see my point that not only in packs the young people but starts to help other folks who dont have the freedom to do their work more effectively that is the way private schools can proactively contribute to that cycle. They cannot be irelands the past to be the ultimate frontline laboratory to figure out how to do this. We need more innovative thinking now the schools are children and grandchildren are attending will look very different because the world will be really different it is speeding up and to me that is the ideal role to play. Were almost at the time may be one or two more questions. I have a 13 yearold daughter in we have embarked on the madness of bicycles in chicago and it is sheer madness. With a handful of schools that created the best students with hundred percent Graduation Rates in those handful of schools. Then a majority of schools that a 55 Graduation Rate then is 45 struggling neighborhoods. You mentioned in the context than the need to discuss race and class and the deeper issues that are challenging. How do we begin to tax those things that have been so embedded and are so ingrained and in a segregated city like chicago . How do we begin to change that . Do you have an idea . I think we need a lot of support from not just schools but i work with the ymca, nonprofits, Community Organizations to change the paradigm. Theres a lot of paid in the motion in anchor in the motion with people struggling in communities that are struggling and violence. We live here i dont have a good answer. I thought about that before and this needs to be tackled them preschool because that is the time where kids how these ideas the few misconceptions about the world. And still to try to encourage empathy through preschool and my hope is that as students go through preschool to become more empathetic individuals their logo into high school with the much more empathetic background to lead them more in tune to the issues you brought up but is people simply willing to recognize their presence and talk about them. Anybody else . It seems there were those who wanted to offer their own wisdom. Not to debate your points but the other are points out threeyearold are capable of acting performing racist acts basically. Not that i have the solution that that is right we have to start the conversation but the majority population has to be the leaders as people are set up and it is time to get it going. First with regard to preschool washington nbc is one end with a policy solution as universal preschool to begin. A population of 800,000 before the riots. Then 500,000 and it stayed there 40 years. I move their 2001 and as right around thing started to change so the population is over 600,000. Rising tax base which means six years ago we passed universal preschool and because we were only 600,000 things are possible that have become harder in a city like chicago but now 75 percent of eligible threeyearold and 90 percent of eligible for yearold are enrolled in preschool. That is a start. Also people say preschool is it t number booktv we will look at poverty in the u. S. And start with the tyranny of experts. Economists, and dictators and the forgotten rights of the poor. And how the poor can save capitalism rebuilding the path to middleclass. Later jason riley on his book please stop helping us tonight at the p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Cspan2 providing live coverage of the u. S. Senate floor proceedings and keep Public Policy events and every weekend booktv for 15 years the only Television Network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. Cspan2 created by the cabletv industry and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. Of nick at this seth rogan testifies at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on alzheimers disease focusing on a latest science and research. National institute of healths director Francis Collins told senators federal investment in Alzheimers Research pales in comparison to how much the disease costs the country. From earlier this year this is
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