Soul Crushing Solutions Work Isn't...

Soul crushing work. It's not about the TEKS. Or instruction. Or instructional materials. I don't think there's a damn thing most teachers can do about the kinds of problems I wrote about with Cal and Tanya. 

It's Not: 

It's not that the learners can't...not anymore. That can't stuff has gone way beyond ability by high school for sure. Once you stop trying, can is no longer possible. 

It's not because they haven't been taught or haven't had opportunities. For goodness sake, English has been the same class with the same topics and activities since first grade. 

It's not because they haven't had remediation or reteaching. The same class for years? Extra tutorials and groups before, during, and after school? Extra classes instead of electives? Retakes for credit in summer school? Credit recovery? Assessment retakes ad nauseum? Frankly, it's more sane NOT to keep trying or to participate. 

For some, it's not decoding or comprehension. I've heard them read. I've listened to insightful dialogue and explanation. 

For some, it's not a skills or test prep issue. They know HOW to infer and use the computer. They are familiar with the assessment and question types. They can demonstrate each skill assessed. 

For some, it's not that they haven't been taught strategies or that they don't use them. Or even that they do use them and still fail. 

It's not the parents and society. They aren't having any more success than the teachers and are probably more frustrated. 

But We are Told...

We are told the problems lie in not understanding the standards. We are told to analyze the data and give assessments to monitor progress, but the data and assessments fail to predict or point to the problems. We are told the problems are in our instructional prowess and capacity. We are told that the problem is because we can't make good lesson plans or weren't taught well in college. We are told that we can't make our own decisions about texts and that our choices are the problem. The instructional materials must be the problem. The school leadership and curriculum systems must be the cause. The instructional design must be the cause. It's the kids, right? Because they don't know anything, didn't have SOR, don't know any vocabulary or sophisticated syntax, can't read grade level text? But then all of that stuff would be teacher-school problems because, well, who's supposed to make sure they know stuff? 

Frankly, the things that we are told are the problems, aren't the problems. 

A Cold Hearted-Scenario

We'd been working with some kids one on one. The kid I helped was nice. But he wouldn't agree to do anything. "Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. Any of it. I could. But I won't. I just don't care. I know I'll fail and I know what it means for what will happen to me and everyone else. I'm not doing it. There's not a thing that will change that." 

It's Not Necessarily Academic

It's not necessarily an acedemic problem unless it's an overall systems issue that teachers cannot resolve in an assessment regime. The problem seems to be more of a social response...it costs too much to try...to care...to fail. Emotional. Ecclesiastical blowing of the winds. Meaningless. Life - especially academic life, is futile and wisdom is limited in value. 

Students who won't fail to see themselves in anything we are doing in school that is relevant to their current and future lives. They know it wasn't relevant for their past. School isn't worth doing. 

At this point, failure of the won'ts becomes cognitive...an emotional poverty of personal chaos, an experiential disconnect to eduction. Ultimately, the needs of the won'ts are NOT the purview of how public or private schools work and run in this era. 

Better instruction, better materials, better testing-data analysis, better test prep, better interventions, better tech, better discipline, better accountability, better funding, better architecture, better teacher prep, better teachers, better leaders, better community involvement, better technology policies, better subs, better pay for better data, better master schedules, better coaching and models, better staff development, better science, better time allocation, better legislation banning this and that and mandating other nonsense. And MORE of all of that. I think this needs to be a checklist about school improvement. If the plan mentions any of these things, it ought to be discarded and avoided as a waste of time.

No. 

Because NONE of those things solve the cause of the problems behind our data and the lived experiences of people the data represent. The cures don't match the illness. Because what we are told causes the problems, doesn't. And what we are told are solutions, aren't.