There is an elementary school in Cortlandt Manor New York that is caught in a civil war. One gets used to reports of battles in school systems but this one is different.
This dispute is over whether the principal can insist that everyone use one technique to teach reading, in this case, the "whole language approach" whether they want to or not.
Some parents and teachers are for the whole language approach and some are not. Apparently there is no middle road. This controversy points up two dilemmas faced by schools. The first dilemma is that some school administrators tell parents they want them to be involved in their children's educations, but when parents become involved enough to question educational decisions, these administrators get nervous. They then tell the parents that their involvement does not include educational decisions because they lack the background and training. This is apparently what happened in the Cortlandt Manor School.
The principal made a decision about a new program without adequate explanation and commitment from staff parents. Administrators who do this need to understand that unless they have the cooperation and understanding of parents and staff no program will be successful. They also need to treat both parents and teachers as adults capable of full partnership in decisions about education. The second dilemma exemplified by this controversy is that some administrators have not decided whether teachers are professionals or merely technicians.
The professional teacher with this repertoire may decide one year that the class before her would benefit from the whole language approach to reading.
Professionals are trusted to do the job they were hired to do.
In this case, teach children to read. The professional has a repertoire of skills to call upon to get the job done. The professional teacher with this repertoire may decide one year that the class before her would benefit from the whole language approach to reading.
She is equally skilled in using this approach as in using any of the other approaches. When she discovers some of the children are not learning using this system, she calls upon her vast repertoire of skills to teach reading and introduces another approach to those children. She has the freedom to do this because she is a professionally trained teacher. Why do some administrators not treat teachers as professionals? Do they mistrust them to act professionally? Or are they so insecure that they need to exercise complete control of everything in the school? Teachers in these schools are used as technicians.
Technicians follow orders.
They are not expected or encouraged to think for themselves.
In teaching reading, technicians follow the manual step-by-step without deviation whether the students are learning or not because they do not know how to deviate. They only know what the manual tells them.
This is especially true of programs that are introduced in schools without teacher input, acceptance or preparation.
Professional teachers who treated as technicians soon lose interest and heart. They burn out because their talents and skills are ignored.
Anybody can be a technician. It takes intelligence, training and commitment to be a professional. Professionals who are treated as technicians and parents who are treated as unable to understand need to have their voices heard. One way to do this is for parents and teachers to form informal teacher and parent networks. This is happening in Japan.
These are study groups that debate core issues in education.
The groups are content-oriented. They read about a topic and become informed. In a way, it is like joining a book club except the reading is about educational issues.
A parent group might meet with a teacher group around a topic of mutual interest.
In this way, strategies could be developed to bring about changes in education.
Now is the time for every adult to become involved.
First published in 1993
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