Let Teachers Teach (but what?)

The UFT says: Let teachers teach! And we are right. This was the core of a resolution passed at this week’s delegate assembly. (I’ll edit in a link to the full resolution when it appears on the UFT website). To summarize:· We are asking the State Assembly to hold hearings on the Lam-legacy curricula
· We are publicizing the problems with same
· We are going to the media
· We are reminding our members about Article 24, Professional Conciliation *
· We will otherwise work to increase teachers’ professional autonomy

* (I used to think “professional conciliation” was a silly little sop in the contract, full of sound and fury. But then I took part in one, and we won the right to change math curricula in the Bronx, at least until the next set of mandates came down. I am now convinced that we need to learn to make more and better use of it.)

Good Teachers Disagree About What to Teach

In the discussion before the vote, something interesting came up. The draft resolution included implied positive references to NYS standards and assessments and to ‘scientifically-based’ curricula, and a delegate objected. In the end, the ‘whereas’s in question were dropped, but clearly reasonable teachers were disagreeing about them, and by extension, about what should be taught.

So what should we teach? Many experienced teachers have a good idea of what works best with their students. Good. But there are more ideas out there. More importantly, half of our teachers are in the system less than five years. (Is this right? When did we last check?)

The AFT, in their magazine, “The American Educator” has a definite coherent approach. They tend to the conservative side, but in a modern way. I love reading their stuff, and agree far more than I disagree.

Every content area has real discussions. They occur in many more places than the American Educator. They just do not occur in a NYC framework. For example here (and here and here) are scattered parts of a recent discussion of calculator usage, from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics of New York State’s listserve. The participants are NYS math educators, including some from the City.

How Can the UFT Help?

I appreciate the UFT’s approach. Let teachers teach means that we are not advocating one sort of curriculum over another. We don’t need to do an AFT and advocate one method over another. And we don’t need something as amorphous as a semi-anonymous listserve? Couldn’t we provide some sort of productive forum for discussion of the choices?

The UFT could advocate for professional discussion within the schools. The best professional development I ever experienced (in nine years of teaching) was during a two year period when pd consisted of teachers sharing best practices. Senior teachers showed off ‘tried-and-true.’ Newer teachers with some sophistication brought in, well, newer stuff, or technology. No one was forced to adopt someone else’s methods, but we shared and we tried. Some of my best lessons come from that brief time; when we borrow, share, modify, discuss, the final product is invariably improved.

The UFT could also, carefully and selectively, provide elements of professional discussion within The New York Teacher, or on the UFT website. Perhaps EdWize, or some sort of sister site, could become a place for UFTers citywide to share teaching ideas.

Unlike ideologues who advocate one extreme or the others (in my area, math, that is back-to-basics cretins vs ‘constructivist’ nuts), classroom teachers balance different ideas and modes, not based on low quality studies or unsubstantiated anecdotes, but on real experience of what best helps children learn.

This system’s greatest resource lies in the collective experience of its teachers. The Lam-curricula spit on this experience. Most of our administrators ignore it. The micromanagement stifles it. The UFT should find ways of promoting it, developing it, sharing it. By helping teachers help each other, we will better meet the needs of our students. Once again, teachers want what students need.

Jonathan Halabi is a chapter leader in the Bronx. He also writes at his own blog, JD2718.