The glory road to education reform...
I think I've decided that I'm going to show Glory Road the first day or first week of the school year in my two math classes next year...
If you haven't seen Glory Road, yet, I highly recommend it...it's very nice to see this trend in movies like Glory Road, Munich, and Capote of soft lighting and unobtrusive costume choices to focus audiences on the story...and it's a marvelous story...
It's the story of the 1965-66 Texas Western Miner basketball team, coached by basketball legend Don Haskins, who fielded a team of 7 black and 5 white players to improbably win the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship...
It's a story of a group of guys, most of which nobody expected to go to college nevertheless play basketball, defying all doubts and expectations and a college basketball game very much tainted with the stain of racism...a game dominated by white coaches, journalists, and boosters who had a million excuses for why black players couldn't compete...with Texas Western, a small, modestly-funded little mining school in West Texas (now the University of Texas - El Paso) being the first team to start 5 black players, and to do so in the Championship game...and winning it all...
It is a story of an underdog team from a little known school accomplishing the impossible when noone thought they could...
And since that is exactly what my kids and I will be doing this next year and every year afterwards:):)...
I want them to get a feel for what it looks like to overcome all odds and everyone's doubts about what you can and cannot do...
I don't know how many times I hear people talk about all of the things that my kids can't do...
So we're going to build on our successes from this year and starting showing everyone what they can do...
And this movie should be inspiration for overcoming all the doubt and skepticism that these kids can do a hell of a lot more than people give them credit for...if they have teachers and coaches and parents and adults who expect and inspire more out of them...
Did I mention that I love being an underdog?...I wouldn't ever have it any other way:):):)...
I just started summer classes at Washburn University, by the way, in Topeka, Kansas, to finish my Master's Degree in special education...
My plans during and after the summer are to change the face of education, public education, and special education with the help of my kids...
And to start working on this book and go on to change the face of policy, psychology, economics, education, criminology, international relations, and really anything else I can get my hands on during this too short life...
What are your summer plans?:):):)...
Have a great week, everyone:):):)...
Love,
Ben
8 comments:
Be careful showing "sensitive subject" material. I know that in our district, if a movie isn't on the approved list and the book for it isn't in the library, you show it at the rist of your job.
That being said, I think it's a good idea provided the movie doesn't have foul language and is appropriate for middle school students. You would probably be safer if you waited and got permission from your administrator and then got signed permission forms from all the parents first.
It's nice to think of changing the face of humanity, but I guess as more of a realist, I just want to work with what God's given me. Sometimes that means making choices that seem at odds with who and what I am. Ground yourself, Ben, before you feet fly off without you to lead them. ;)
Ben...
It's PG, Shelly, I'm sure for that very reason...I'd already planned about asking my principal and there are a million ways around any concerns that she might have...
Realism without idealism, Shelly, is one long excuse for why we don't dream bigger...it's not groundedness...it's cowardess...
We all need to dream bigger, Shelly, and stop making excuses for why we don't...
That's how the Miners won the 1966 championship (a fact, not a fantasy)...that's how I've already had the success I've had this year, Shelly, motivating kids to learn higher level material that most people told me could never do the work because they didn't know how...and that's how you create important change of any kind...
Ben
Shelly...
So many typos and problems in my hastily written response I can hardly count them all:):)...
I think a better way of saying the what I said in that response is that there is no way out of the ruts in inner city schools without the courage to dream bigger than where we are at, now...and so much of the thinking about improving the futures and performance in inner city schools (and in the schools, generally) is just focussed downward on our limitations and not focussed nearly enough outwards at kids' and our potential...
I've already done this long enough to know what a long and frustating and difficult process this kind of higher expectation involves...and how much love and patience it involves if you want to make it real...
Having said that, one of the most critical obstacles, right now, to students and schools in inner cities changing this situation is so many people -- teachers, parents, community members, larger community members in suburbia and beyond, and kids themselves -- making half-assed efforts because they don't really believe that kids can do it...and then finding a million and one excuses for why they can't and don't so that all of the people I just mentioned don't have to invest the emotional energies involved with setting high goals and dealing with the inevitable failures along the way...
So many teachers, Shelly, find so many excuses for why kids fail and why they don't have anything to do with that that it makes me want to rip my hair out most days that I'm in school...
And the great thing about Don Haskins example is that he would not settle for that low expecation even given a modestly funded school and players who were not even expected to go to college, nevertheless compete at the highest levels of Division I basketball...
He took kids from very modest and often disadvantaged backgrounds...
And he taught them dignity...
And he taught them that the best antidote to self-pity...
Is earning your way in this world that is beyond anyone's doubt of your right to be there...
And like it or not, that is the very overwhelming challenge that I and most special education teachers face with kids who are struggling with school and whom many adults have begun to more or less give up on, to one degree or another...
Don Haskins' example that I so appreciate is that that is not acceptable...
And that is a teacher/coach responsibility, primarily, if anything is going to happen to change the situation...
Every big dream, Shelly, involves failure...and the problem around this issue that is that everyone involved is so afraid of that failure that we fail in the biggest way possible...
By not trying...
And by not trying hard enough because we don't really believe that it can be done...
I know it can be done...I've seen too many results, at this point, in just my first year, to think otherwise...
The question for me, at this point, is how do we turn the big corners rather than always settling for the small ones...I think I've found a way and then several ideas along that way that can and are making a difference...
But when you're dealing with a problem that lacks a will, not a possibility, then failing to take up that will is not realism...it's a cop out...and I just can't cop out on these kids anymore...largely because what copping out means to me about myself...about what person I want to be...about when a challenge presented itself, I found out all the ways to overcome it rather than all the reasons why I couldn't when I had a chance to do so...
And given all of the challenges that kids in my classes face, and all of the challenges that all kids and people face, I think that's the least that I can expect of myself...
And taking up those challenges without self-pity...and with pride that you faced the difficult challenge...the one that really mattered...
That is a lesson too important for my kids to miss as long as they are in my classroom:)...
Love,
Ben
I'd read your replies but frankly you talk too much. I've never said that to a guy before. Go figure.
Learn the art of brevity. Or become a Senator where its lack will doubtless hold you in good stead.
Also, I know I've said this before but you seem to have ignored it because you can't seem to stop yourself: NEVERTHELESS does not mean "not to mention" or "notwithstanding." PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STOP USING IT THAT WAY!!!! You are driving me bonkers and quickly losing me as a reader because of that one grammar mistake repeated a thousand times in one post. Just do us all a favor and wipe "nevertheless" from your vocabulary completely since you can't seem to figure out how to use it correctly.
Argh... Ben... work with me here...
Oh and another thing.... ME??? You are preaching to me about dreaming big??? Are you kidding me? Am I not the one who told you to not give up hope when you were beyond despondent? Give me a break, dude.
Thanks, Shelly:):)...I'll keep your feedback in mind:):)...
Ben
Lies do not become you, mon petit.
What exactly were you expecting, Shelly?...
You get all bogged down in not very meaningful tangents, because you're pissed, and you ignore the basic idea that I spent a lot of time spelling out...
Which is that rationalizing the way things are is not realism...it's a cop out...realism is recognizing when either nothing really can be done or that problems will exist until you deal with them in another way...making an excuse is when the job just seems too overwhelming for you...
And working with kids to overcome their own inertia and low expectations and resistance to doing challenging work is overwhelming for me, too, Shelly...
But I've already had a lot of success where people said it couldn't be done, this year, Shelly...
It's hard enough doing this work with everyone always doubting that it can be done not because they really know it can't be done...but because they haven't really tried, and they certainly haven't tried what I'm doing, I'm sure, because I developed it...and because it's just easier to live in that fear of disappointment than to actually face the inevitable disappointments that come with getting achieving a goal...
You can be "realistic" all you want on this one, but it's not realism...it's an excuse...and it's more honest to just say, "I didn't want to try and be disappointed" rather than pretending like something can't be done because you decided that you didn't have it in you to try...
You should really see the movie, Shelly...
Talk with you later, Shelly...
Love,
Ben
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