By Ed Kitlowski.

This August began the commemorations of events of World War One. It also was the adoption of the Common Core Standards (CCS) in many states. One aspect of the CCS is to make connections between two ideas, events, literature or artworks. There is an expression that a person should study history so not to repeat the same mistakes. In both international affairs and education, it seems leaders do not study history.

A common image of the First World War is soldiers going “Over the Top” and rising from the trenches to race across No Man’s Land in the face of deadly machine gun fire. Despite massive casualties, the generals still clung to military tactics that were centuries old, even after those first horrific battles. In 1917, the French General Nivelle promised a decisive victory. By this time, the French army had already suffered 1 million deaths. Seeing that the tactics were no different and would just lead to more slaughter, the soldiers of the French army refused to go “Over the Top” to race across No-Mans Land into withering machine gun fire. Instead of listening to their soldiers and re-examining their strategy, the generals ordered the soldiers to be shot for mutiny. Not all were shot, 43 were executed and the point was made. The leaders literally killed their own men for not following a tactic that just didn’t work and resulted in horrendous casualties.

The French government replaced General Nivelle with General Petain who took a different approach. He listened to the soldiers. He promised no more suicide offensives. He said there would be no more major offensives until the Americans arrived and tanks could be built. He also said food quality would improve and the soldiers would have real rest from the trenches. He even gave assistance to the families of the soldiers. His listening re-established trust between the soldiers and the commanders, re-invigorated the morale of the soldiers and ultimately led to success.

The First World War is often referred to as the War to End All Wars. It was so horrific that no-one would want to repeat it. A League of Nations was started as a venue to discuss matters for common interest. It would create a new standard for international affairs. Yet it did not and some even predicted a second world war.

The new Common Core Standards are supposed to solve the problems of student achievement, and to help identify poor performing teachers who then can be dismissed. Maryland agreed to implement the CCS as part of President Obama’s Race to the Top. As the strategies of the WWI generals were essentially redrafts of old tactics, Race to the Top is just more of the same. This strategy will have the same impact as Over the Top. It fails to address the underlying problems impacting student achievement and worse, it will hurt a generation of students.

The leaders of WWI wanted to maintain the status quo of monarchical rule and empire building. Most leaders refused to acknowledge the right of self-determination. The Czar, Kaiser, Emperor and Kings wanted to maintain a social hierarchy based on the luck of birth and not on one’s character. Millions of people were denied the right to govern themselves.

The 1918 Armistice and the peace that followed did not solve the bigger issues that led to war. The proof is the Second World War, the Cold War and the current strife in the Middle East. Millions continued to be under the rule of outsiders or oligarchs. The leaders of the Islamic State, or ISUS, even refer to the secret agreement of the French and English during WWI to divide and subjugate the areas of the Middle East.

The CCS will have the same effect in education. The reason CCS is simply “Over the Top” is that it does not address the bigger issues impacting education. In Bad Students, Not Bad Schools, Dr. Robert Weissberg states what we all know. A school is “bad” not because of the principal, or the teachers, or even the building. A school is only as good as the students. Diane Ravitch recently pointed out that teachers’ impact on student performance is probably around 20%. The majority of what really influences student achievement is outside the classroom. When educators point this out, they are attacked as being unwilling to be held accountable. Imagine a French general telling the soldiers they needed to run faster across No Man’s Land.

We educators describe our students as “my kids.” We become involved in their lives beyond just teaching content. It is an insult to say we do not want to be held accountable. We feel responsible. We live with the consequences of educational reform. Many of the educational reform leaders have no public school experience and demonize educators as being the problem. Even recent movies show teachers as the problem. Most of the so-called education reforms do not address the issues which create “bad” students. Most reform plans simply address academic outcomes and do not include solutions to the poverty and dysfunctional behaviors many students bring to the classroom.

There are solutions out there that could be easily incorporated in classroom instruction, but not in an environment of high stakes testing and numerically quantifying both students and teachers. It seems our education leaders have not learned from the past. We simply cannot continue to race over the top of so-called education reform. In July of 1971, Gloria Steinem spoke to the recently formed National Women’s Political Caucus. Though she was speaking about women’s rights, her speech reflects what is really needed in education. She stated, “This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution.”

For most modern listeners, a revolution is a violent uprising but originally, when applied to government, it meant more of a change in direction, or a transformation of ideals. This is about what Gloria Steinem was speaking. To make an analogy, it is like changing the weather or even climate and we are now observing the effects of a climate change. Martin Luther King spoke more of a climate change when he gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. He did not speak specifically of equal rights in housing, voting rights or equity in employment. He voiced a shift in which the specifics would naturally occur within the new context. Too many educational reformers want the specifics without looking for the transformation of context, a.k.a., the climate change.

Our “Founding Fathers” drew up the Declaration of Independence without knowing what form of government the new country would eventually take. Our current government is not the first plan. A revolution in education needs to begin with a context of values. In our Declaration of Independence, we created a country based on ideals, with accountability to each other, not a sovereign. Furthermore, we stated that if any form becomes destructive, it is the right of the people to change it. With the Declaration of Independence, government is accountable to the people. Education is a form of the government yet it is upon the people within the system that the label accountability is hung, not the legislators who have mandated and constructed today’s education system. This is contrary to our American values. Interestingly, the Declaration of Independence acknowledges that people will put up with unworkability for a long time before changing things, “that mankind are more disposed to suffer….than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

We need to bring American values into American education. We cannot expect good citizens and effective education with a system that is contrary to the core values and beliefs of our country. Our government is founded on the belief of popular sovereignty, as President Lincoln stated, “Of the people, by the people and for the people…” This translates in education to educators being the ones to make reforms and establish policies. In totalitarian societies, the government controls all aspects of society, even areas with no expertise.

This concept also translates to the local building. In almost all instances, the principal is a dictator, though sometimes benign. We cannot expect our children to authentically learn American values in a totalitarian environment. Each day, students experience their education. Perhaps we need to change the phrase, “to get an education.” The school day is filled with relationships and emotions. It is not some thing a person gets, it is an experience lived. Students use school as part of their defining a world view. Part of that view is the authoritarian quality of decision making in education.

Another American value, established in the Constitution, is “due process.” We have a legal system based on peer evaluation. In the trial process, the defendant has the right to face and question witnesses. There are safeguards against an arbitrary judgement. Recent remarks on teacher tenure have attempted to define it as job security without acknowledging the American value of due process. A teacher’s evaluation is essentially a trial and verdict. Public schools are not private corporations which can establish their own rules. Peer evaluation must be part of a teacher’s evaluation. The principal could become a judge and not also the jury and executioner. Again, public education is a function of government and therefore must follow the values and beliefs of America.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” are core values of our country. That phrase created the climate or context in which we have the right to live. The data driven context is contrary to this core value. It has instead fostered a climate of mediocrity with extrinsic rewards and punishments. As Daniel Pink clarifies in his book, Drive, the carrot and stick approach to motivation actually has the opposite effect in the context of pursuits requiring critical thinking. The data driven, high-stakes testing mandates have created a context in which teachers have more at stake than the students on the tests the students take. Mr. Pink states the effect succinctly in his “Carrots and Stick: The Seven Deadly Flaws.” His list looks like a description of the ills of American education. The latest educational reforms under the No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top have abrogated the liberty of, and disempowered both students and teachers, turning the students into commodities and teachers into automatons. They have taken humanity out of the equation of what equals excellent education.

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

We hold these words to be true. These beginning words of the Declaration of Independence created our United States and established a context for life which has been adopted throughout the planet. There is the expression that the truth cannot be denied. It has an unstoppable force. Mohandas Gandhi used the word Satyagraha or “truth force” referring to the right of the Indian people to self-govern. Victor Hugo coined the phrase, “An idea whose time has come” to express a similar idea. Creating a context of American values by establishing a structure in the American education system which embodies those values is an idea whose time has come; it is truth that cannot be denied. Many educational reformers have a narrow focus on the structure of change without establishing the context. We first need to create a climate change in education reform. “Vive le revolucion!”

Ed Kitlowski:

I was inspired to become a teacher watching Room 222 as a child. I started teaching in 1983 at a private school for learning disabled students. I received my M.Ed. from Loyola University of Maryland in 1986 and began teaching in Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS). I served as the Special Education Dept. Chairman and IEP Chairman at Sparrows Point Middle School. I believe I was the first IEP Chairman who was not an Assistant Principal. I have continued my education in diverse programs including the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish University International Summer School program in literature, Gaelic language through the Gaelic College and Cape Breton University, and participated in several non-academic leadership programs. I am active in the Teachers Association of Baltimore County and the Maryland State Teachers Association where I co-chaired the committee on the impact of No Child Left Behind. I initiated a national letter writing campaign to the Bush administration requesting increased educator participation in the process. After several years as Dept. Chair., I returned to the classroom as I felt I could make more of a difference. I currently teach English 12 at Kenwood High School in Baltimore County. I am also a bagpipe player and have competed worldwide and also teach bagpipes. I am also a published author having written articles for various magazines.