Letter to Our Graduating Seniors-2016

May 17, 2016

Final Letter to Graduating Seniors

I love graduation at Maryville College.  I love the ceremony and traditions which have unique meaning for our graduating seniors.  A number of years ago, I started writing a letter to our teacher licensure students which I always give them on Wednesday evening during their final exam before graduation on the following Sunday.

May 11, 2016

From the desk of Dr. Terry L. Simpson…

Since you have now completed your last final exam at Maryville College, may you have a wonderful celebration with those who care deeply about you and your future.  We have worked hard together to make you the best teacher that you can possibly be, but it is now squarely on your shoulders.  We have equipped you to be a leader and not a follower.

When you finally receive your official Maryville College degree, please remember that no one owes you anything.  Rather, you are obligated.  You are one of the 10% of the world’s population with a college degree.  You are obligated to make a positive difference in the world around you.  You are obligated to be unconditionally dedicated to our children.  A wise teacher once said, “To whom much is given, much is required.”  

When you are named “Teacher of the Year,” you must call Dr. Orren, Dr. Lucas, Dr. Mertz or me before you call your mother!

Finally, for the last time, “Bless you my children.”

2016 Challenge to the Maryville College Initiates into Kappa Delta PI

I want you to look closely at this group of students—top academic performers in majors across the various academic divisions on this campus with an average GPA of 3.71.  You have the potential to be successful in the profession of your choosing.  As highly motivated students, you have freely chosen to dedicate your professional lives to the education of our children.

The political pundits claim that our brightest students do not become teachers.  I don’t think so!  Maybe they should visit our campus and talk to our teacher licensure students.

The naysayers argue that today’s students are self-centered and concerned only with the material things they will acquire in life.  I don’t think so!  They should ask these students about their values and goals.

The doomsday prophets lament about the failure of our schools, especially our public schools.  I don’t think so!  These men and women will be professionally successful wherever they teach, and their students will be academically successful.

A few months back we reached a point in this country that should have caused alarm, but it did not. For the first time in our nation, the majority of American children live in poverty.  Considering this information we must remember, your role as a teacher is even more critical.  Research has consistently demonstrated that children from poor families must have effective and creative teachers or they will fail.

In spite of this need for teachers, we know that our schools lose a significant number of our brightest and most creative teachers within the first three years of their teaching experience.  Don’t forget that our schools desperately need you.  They need your knowledge, your creativity, and most of all your idealism. 

However, I must remind you that many schools have a very powerful, self- appointed committee—the Water Bucket Brigade.  It is the task of this brigade, much like pouring water on a campfire, to stamp out the fires of enthusiasm in new teachers.  They want to destroy your idealism in the name of their real life “realism” and “I don’t care anymore” attitudes. However, they understand neither idealism nor realism. 

Don’t let anyone, including burned out colleagues, destroy your idealism.  The most destructive room in the school building is the teachers’ lounge!  Avoid this room. Without high ideals and striving for perfection, a society is doomed to mediocrity and eventual failure.  I am here to reaffirm your idealism.  You must never quit. You will earn the respect of those in you community; you will make a difference in the lives of children; you will have a positive and lasting influence on American society. And, when you are named teacher of the year, you must call us before you call your mother.

Several months ago, I viewed an interview with a former Tennessee Commissioner of Education.  She spoke of a meeting that she had with a group of very successful entrepreneurs each of whom had risen from poverty to success.  She said that each of the entrepreneurs could immediately tell you the teacher that made the difference in his or her life.

I am finishing my 26th year at Maryville College and 43rd year as a teacher, and at this point in my life, I often reflect on my success and failure.  I am old enough to have that privilege and you have to listen.

Although I have no idea how it will happen, in my faith community we believe that we will give a final account of how we lived during this brief time on earth.  The Holy Scripture that I read has a letter from the Apostle Paul to Christians at Thessalonica.  Paul had taught and poured his soul into the lives these individuals.  He wrote, “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation?  Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?  For you are my glory and joy.”

Just thinking about giving a final account of my life gives me great pause.  When I contemplate on my many failures, I can only appeal for mercy and forgiveness.  This is the very reason I refrain from judging others.  This may seem selfish, but I am too concerned about my own accountability to worry about others.

 However, when I think of you and the time we have spent pouring our souls into your development as teachers of our children, with boldness and confidence on that day of final accounting I will present you to our Lord.  For you are my hope, my joy and my crown of exultation. 

In this my 26th year at Maryville College, I never cease to be amazed at the quality of students who enter our teacher education program.  I surely have the best job on this planet.  I consider it an honor and privilege to work with you.  You make us very proud.

Bless you my children.

Civility in Civic Discourse

So many political commentators have registered their moral outrage at the civic discourse in the presidential primaries over the past six months that I fear you may exit this blog as soon as you read this first sentence.  Please give me a chance to share to the future and the essential role of our schools so that we can move beyond this current political climate. 

After reading numerous comments by editors and listening to an endless number of political commentators, one could easily conclude that this crude discourse in the presidential race is different from the more acceptable civic discourse in the past.  This conclusion would be erroneous.  While I was completing my doctorate at Texas A&M University-Commerce, I taught as an adjunct American history instructor at Collin County Community College.  One of my favorite stories from 19th Century America is the election of Andrew Jackson as president.  Jackson married the love of his life, Rachel Donelson, before he ran for president.  Rachel had married Lewis Robards when she was 18, but her relatives accused Robards of abuse. Rachel later thought she and Robards were legally divorced; however, this divorce had not taken place.  Jackson’s political opponents seized on this issue and unleased a vicious moral attack on Jackson but especially on Rachel.  Their language was vulgar and straight from the moral sewer.  Rachel was so crushed by these moral attacks that she died after the election but before Jackson was inaugurated as president.  Some of Jackson’s closest friends and advisors feared that he would resign before serving a day as president.  As you know, he did serve, but never forgave his political opponents for the death of Rachel. This is one example of dirty politics among many that could be cited from past presidential elections in the United States.  

However, I do not share this example in order to condone the quality of the debates in the current presidential race.  After each debate the political commentators from the news media try to tell us who won.  It seems to boil down to which candidate had the best one-line zinger to which the other candidate(s) failed to respond.  A one-line zinger should have little or nothing to do with winning a debate. 

Many high school students and most college freshmen are introduced (it is to be hoped) to logical fallacies as they study argumentative writing and debating.  Logical fallacies are common errors on reasoning that will undermine the logic of one’s argument.  As I share four fallacies, think back over the presidential debates thus far and see if you can recall examples of each.   

First, ad hominem fallacy is an attack on the character (looks, personality, or attitude) of a person rather than his/her opinions or arguments of the topic being debated.  Did not many of the debates begin with this very fallacy? 

Second, genetic fallacy is the claim that an idea, product, or person must be untrustworthy because of its (his/her) racial, geographic, or ethnic origin. How many of the verbal exchanges between candidates have centered around this very fallacy? 

Third, hasty generalization is that one’s conclusion is based on insufficient or biased evidence.  In other words, one is rushing to a conclusion before one has all the relevant facts.  However, in our current presidential debates, facts don’t seem to matter anymore.   

Fourth, the straw man fallacy oversimplifies an opponent’s viewpoint and then attacks that shallow argument.  What grade would you give most of the candidates in these debates thus far?  My grade would be an “F”. 

At this point in the history of the United States, it is imperative that we seriously engage in moral and civic discourse regarding the complex issues we face as a nation.  Nonetheless, I am weary of listening to the vulgar language of our politicians.  Moreover, I do not want my grandchildren to hear it.  Neither do I want them to aspire to political leadership if they have to pattern their behavior after our current presidential candidates.  I am weary of attempting to listen to political pundits as they try to yell louder than the other pundits in their group.  Being louder than everyone around you and constantly interrupting others as they speak should not mean you win.  It simply means you are rude and obnoxious.  The current political climate is bringing out the evil angels rather than the better angels in each of us.  

It is up to our schools to produce a new generation of citizens that demands something better from our political leaders.  Since we are backing away from a total emphasis on standard test scores in our schools (thank God), may we turn our attention to civility in civic discourse.  I call upon Governor Haslam, the Tennessee Legislature, Education Commissioner McQueen, the Tennessee State Department of Education, local school boards, directors of education, principals, and teachers to commit to this goal.  If we do not teach our children how to participate in a democracy in a civil manner, who will be their teachers?
 
Reference:  Simpson, T.L.  “Model for Integrating Moral Discourse into the Classroom.”
Image Source: http://www.civication.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/civil-discourse-civility.jpg

Bless you my children,

Terry L. Simpson

Read to be Ready

A few years ago, I was listening to NPR as I often do in the mornings while driving to campus.  A report about reading was the focus of this particular news item.  For developing reading skills, 3rd grade seems to be the essential grade level.  If a child is not reading on grade level at 3rd grade, in most cases, that child will never read well enough to be successful in school.  Then came the most startling statement that I had heard in many years.  The states of California and Arizona were estimating the number of prison beds they would need in the future by the percentage of 3rd graders in their states not reading on grade level. 

I was so shocked that I almost wrecked on HWY 321.  What is wrong with this picture?  We can get the millions of dollars needed to put more and more teens and young adults in prison, which has no redeeming value, but we cannot put the same amount of money in teaching all of our children to read.  Let’s not blame the politicians.  They want to be re-elected, so they do what the voters want.  Why has there not been a public outcry?  This is nothing short of immoral. 

However, the TN Department of Education is attacking this reading crisis in Tennessee in full force.  On Wednesday, February 17, I attended the public announcement of our new educational emphasis Read to be Ready.  If you want detailed information about this program, go to ReadToBeReadyTN.com.  Why reading?  Reading is the key that unlocks the door to academic success, and we have a problem in Tennessee. In 2015, only 45% of 4th grade students performed on grade level on the English Language Arts (ELA) TCAP exam. However, on the NAEP exams (exams administered by the United States Department of Education) only 33% of Tennessee students demonstrated proficiency (I addressed this discrepancy in a previous blog).  The ambitious (but many believe attainable) goal set by the Tennessee Department of Education is that 75% of 3rd graders will be proficient in reading by 2025.  I commend Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen for her leadership in this endeavor.  We need a significant but focused goal to achieve in a critical area that will make a difference in the lives of our students. 

The Department of Education realizes that schools and teachers alone cannot achieve this goal with our children; therefore, our leaders in the Tennessee Department of Education are trying to bring parents, businesses, community members, and non-profit & faith-based organizations together as equal partners in this initiative.  It should be noted that at the public announcement of the program, Dollar General Store Corporation presented Commissioner McQueen a check for $1,000,000 dedicated to this reading initiative. 

As we implement this reading program, my concern remains the academic achievement of boys in our elementary schools. Developmentally, boys are often far behind girls in the elementary and middle school grades.  When specific reading skills are introduced in the elementary grades, many boys may not be developmentally ready to master those skills.  They fall behind academically and often never catch up.  The report on this initiative correctly identifies what teachers must do; that is, teachers must be able to differentiate instruction so that our boys will not be left behind.  Differentiating instruction is seldom employed by teachers, and when attempted, is often done poorly.  I believe differentiating instruction must become a priority of our teacher licensure programs in our colleges and universities and in-service programs in our school districts.  

We must consciously choose more stories/books in the older elementary and middle school grades that boys like to read.  I have shared this concern with numerous teachers and administrators over the years, and most agree.  If we differentiate instruction, the essential reading skills could be taught with the stories/books that appeal to different students.  I attended Davis Elementary School in grades 1-8 (4 teachers with each teacher teaching all subjects in two grades in the same room), and to this day, I remember the first stories that captured my total attention.  First, the short stories by Jesse Stuart about daily life in homes and schools in rural eastern Kentucky fascinated me.  These were stories that were like my family and friends in East Tennessee, and it gave my daily life a sense of worth that could be told to others.  Second, any story about the Civil War always caught my complete attention as a young man in the south.  I realize these topics may not be of interest to boys today, but it is critical that we identify stories/books of interest to young boys.  It may be super heroes, famous athletes, Harry Potter, or a myriad of other topics.  The failure to address this issue may result in the collapse of this critically important reading initiative. 

Additionally, we must stop assigning classes filled with low performing students to weak and/or inexperienced teachers.  These students need our best teachers in order to be successful.  When our best teachers are assigned these students, the teachers must be recognized and rewarded rather than believing they are being punished by the administrators. 

Finally, to Commissioner McQueen and the Tennessee Department of Education—Maryville College is totally supportive of this initiative, and the faculty in our teacher licensure program will do everything within our power to help our schools and students achieve this important goal.  

Bless you my children,
Terry L. Simpson  
 

School Vouchers: We Must Be Very Careful

During this legislative year in Tennessee, the legislature may very well pass its first school voucher bill.  It’s being guided though the TN House of Representatives by our friend, Representative Bill Dunn of Knoxville.  Representative Dunn is a good and honorable public servant, and I have no doubt but that he wants the best possible education for all the children of Tennessee.  

When a new educational program is being considered by the Tennessee Legislation or the State Department of Education, I always ask one crucial question: Will this new program help enhance the educational achievement of children from poor families?  Middle/upper class parents have the financial ability to live in the best school zones, or they supplement the education their children receive from the local school.  Children from poor families are doomed to attend the public school for which they are zoned regardless of the quality of education the children receive. 

I’ve been a teacher for 43 years and a teacher educator for 26 years, and we have been trying to “fix” urban and poor rural schools for all these years, and basically we have failed.  Teach for America and KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Public Charter Schools have a positive track record with poor urban children, but their schools are usually small, because they pick from the most motivated parents and students.  We have not been able to replicate their success on a mass scale, and their programs are nonexistent in poor rural areas. 
This situation brings us back to the issue of finding better schools for those children who live in poverty and are trapped in ineffective schools.  But I have a concern with the voucher approach.  I have never examined a voucher program where the amount of the voucher would actually pay for full tuition to a private school.  This reality brings us to a very important question: Which students will the voucher really help? 

The reading of the Tennessee voucher bill indicates that most of the students eligible for the voucher will be students of color in failing, poor, urban schools, which brings up yet another significant question: Will private schools actually accept the urban poor students into their schools?  Many parents sacrifice financially to send their children to schools that not only educate them better, but also shield them from the culture and social ills of urban poverty. 

Finally, will all private religious schools be able to participate in this voucher program?  I believe in religious freedom and that this freedom is not limited to Christian religious groups.  However, there are specific religious groups in this state that, although I would march in the street for their right to worship their God as they choose, I do not want my tax money to be used for their private religious schools.  The ability of all religious groups to get these voucher funds for their private schools could turn into a civil nightmare which could ignite a serious reaction against religious liberty. 

I am not begrudging the success of Teach for America and KIPP; several of our Maryville College graduates have been employed by Teach for America and KIPP.  The criticisms of these programs center on the fact that they tend to hire young, recently licensed teachers, but in their programs the hours are long, and the work week often extends beyond five days.  This work load is not sustainable; consequently, teachers often burn out early and leave the teaching profession.  For this reason, I do not believe Teach for America and KIPP have the long-term answer. 

My final warning to those whose motive is pure, in that they want all our children to have access to effective teachers and schools, is this:   We need to be very careful before we go down this road. 

Bless you my children...


(photo credit: TNReport.com News Service)

Aspirations and Ideals...

I am sitting in the living room of my home on Saturday evening looking at what is left of the snow that fell last night.  This coming Monday will be the first day of student teaching for the 2015/16 class.  A few years back, one of our student teachers came to my office several months before her student teaching began, and asked, “Dr. Simpson, when I think about student teaching, I am scared out of my mind.  Is that normal?”  My response was, “Everyone is scared; you are willing to admit it.”  By the way, this student teacher was chosen Outstanding Secondary Student Teacher of the Year.

I understand the pressure placed on our student teachers and their fear of failure.  Maybe we expect them to be too perfect.  The past Tuesday afternoon I shared with this class of student teachers and many of their public school cooperating classroom teachers three ideals we expect them to demonstrate.  However, it is important to make the distinction between being idealistic and holding well-defined ideals.  If I am idealistic, it usually means I have little to no understanding of the real world.  However, idealism relates to those ideals we aspire to as a people.  If idealism dies, we will never reach beyond the status quo.

The first ideal I shared was efficacy.  We want our student teachers to believe they understand teaching and learning, and their students will learn.  They can and will make a difference in the lives of their students.  We believe in them and we want them to believe in themselves.  They understand state standards and the connection of these standards to daily instructional objectives, instruction, formative assessment, and summative assessment.  Now is the time to just do it.

The second ideal was compassion, and by compassion, I do not mean pity.  Each semester most of our student teachers are shocked by the home situations of so many of their students.  If they have pity for these students, they will not expect them to excel in their classes.  But, if I have compassion, I will meet my students at their current academic and social level and push them to achieve higher because it is the only way I can help them rise out of their current state of existence.

The third ideal I shared was enthusiasm.  By enthusiasm I mean the satisfaction I feel by being a teacher.  Teaching is my niche, my calling, and I could never imagine doing anything else in my life.  With enthusiasm the teacher plans lessons that come alive, and the students realize they are special in the eyes of their teacher.

I have just finished teaching the January Term course, Philosophical and Theological Foundations of Ethical Thought, in a class filled with our senior teacher licensure students.  One of my students, K.F., described the struggle her parents went through before she was finally conceived.  They experienced two miscarriages over a two-year span and decided to try one more time before they finally gave up.  It worked!  K.F. wrote…

              “I almost was a “was not”….I am meant to be alive.  It might have been difficult for me to get here.  I might have been a last try, but I know I am here for a purpose.  I fully believe that my purpose is to be a teacher and love every student, but especially the ones who seem toughest around the edges.”

Yes, K.F. will make a difference in the lives of her students.

Bless you my children...

Preparing for 2016

As we approach the end of this calendar year and look to 2016 and the presidential election, I am keenly aware of the coming political change. A 

new president means a new secretary of education and new ideas concerning the role of the federal government in education. However, change at the federal level is already well underway, and our own Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander has provided leadership in this rewrite of the federal role in education. 

This legislation eliminates the federal mandate that teacher evaluations be tied to student performance on statewide tests, although states will be able to link these scores to teacher performance reviews. Second, the rewrite also says the federal government may not mandate or give states incentives to adopt any particular set of academic standards, such as the Common Core. Third, states and districts will now be responsible for coming up with their own goals for schools, designing their own measures of achievement and progress, and deciding independently how to turn around struggling schools (Jennifer C. Kerr, The Associated Press, 2015). This is a fundamental shift from a broad constructionist view of the United States Constitution regarding education to a strict constructionist view, which leaves the governance of education solely to the states. 

The death of a federally mandated Common Core has not come as a surprise to those invested in educational policy. These standards have been attacked by those on the political right and left. False statements about the Common Core Standards, which range from their origin to their relationship to the Obama Administration, have trended regularly on social media. 

As a result of the rewrite of this educational legislation, the states and local school districts must step up and maintain rigorous standards for our schools and students. We must not return to the previous system where the state-determined proficiency levels on state tests were so low that being proficient was a joke--our own state of TN was part of that system. I am afraid the real losers in this retreat to the previous state of affairs may be our children and the future competitiveness of our nation. 

As these coming changes swirl around in my mind, three issues come to the forefront. First, the one emphasis we must keep is the essential importance of formative assessment. During the past several years, school districts trained data coaches, and teachers built data walls to visualize the academic achievement of their students and identified the standards to be addressed during instruction. This process has opened the eyes of many teachers and given them the clear direction on where to direct subsequent instruction. 

Second, we must devote more of our energy and time on the top performing students. We have bored these students to death with the endless practice of taking standardized tests and by the constant drill in basic skills. No Child Left Behind focused on the students in the bottom half of the achievement range. I n 2008-2012, I directed a NSF Math and Science Partnership Grant during which we worked with three school districts on math and science instruction. Some of the highest growth in achievement was seen in students who were in the top third of the academic achievement range, but no one at the Tennessee State Department of Education seemed to be interested. All the pressure was on the improvement of students in the lower third of the achievement range. As my current and former students will confirm, my heart is with students living in poverty in our region of Southern Appalachia. However, the next generation of engineers, scientists, inventors, and leaders will come from the top performing students. We continue to neglect them at our own peril. 

Third, I want to address my colleagues in teacher education. We sat back and let individuals in other fields (politicians, business leaders, and philanthropists), who may or may not understand the complexity of teaching and learning, take control of education. We go to our conferences and write journal articles for each other, but we need to be communicating with the shoppers at Walmart. Furthermore, we must change the reputation of “education courses” as fluff. Robert Munday, the chair of my doctoral committee at Texas A&M University- Commerce, told me that as teacher educators we have brought this criticism on ourselves. Our courses have lacked substance, been void of rigor, and are seen as not applicable to the public school classroom. Our courses should always be relevant to the public school classroom, and we should have the reputation as some of the best teachers on campus. 

We are entering a new day in education. As teacher educators we must seize the initiative.

Bless You My Children,

Terry L. Simpson

Reference 

Jennifer C, Kerr, The Associated Press, December 10, 2015

Photo Credit

http://lyk-empa-paf.schools.ac.cy/