Keeping a Positive Attitude as a Teacher in the Midst of the Negative Attitude toward Schools and Teachers

MAY 28, 2015 / Simpson's Summer Blog Series

Keeping a Positive Attitude as a Teacher in the Midst of the Negative Attitude toward Schools and Teachers

Usually at the midpoint in the student teaching semester, one or more of our student teachers will ask, “How do I keep from becoming a burned-out teacher like so many of the teachers in my school?”  Furthermore, over the past few years I have received numerous emails or phone calls from graduates who were exhausted as teachers.  After a few minutes of encouragement, they have often responded, “Dr. Simpson, thank you for reminding me why I wanted to be a teacher.” 

This summer I want to address this topic.  Some of my suggestions come from others and my observations of teachers in general. Other suggestions come from those periods of darkness during my 43 years of teaching at various levels, and the actions that helped pull me out of those times.   

My first suggestion is to maintain a positive attitude.  In order to remain effective as a teacher, one must keep a positive attitude toward students, parents, and the political realities of education.  You must separate your students from the politics surrounding teaching.  The County Commission may have voted down a budget increase, which means another year without a pay increase for teachers.  Please don’t resort to what I have heard many times, “Since the County Commission refuses to pay me what I am worth, I will work less as a teacher.” I understand this reaction.  Just remember that when a new governor and/or new Commissioner of Education take office, they will make changes that will revolutionize education.   

I also understand the necessity of working another job in the summer to supplement your salary as a teacher.  Over different summers, I worked at Elm Hill, waited tables in a family owned drive-in restaurant, and baled hay on a farm.  For a number of years, I officiated high school basketball mainly for extra income.   

Please don’t misinterpret what I am saying.  Stay involved in the demand for higher salaries and better benefits for teachers, but do not bring those battles into the classroom with your students. When you step into the classroom with those 32 students (I had 42 eighth-graders in my class one year), give those students your best effort each day.  I want to encourage you to take an hour or two this summer and make a list of the positive accomplishments that took place in your classroom this year.  I think you will be very surprised.

Bless you my children, 

Terry L. Simpson

Challenge to the 2015 Initiates into Kappa Delta Pi

 

April 9, 2015 / Kappa Delta Pi Initiation

Kappa Delta Pi – International Honor Society in Education

Kappa Delta Pi is committed to the pursuit of excellence in education—gathering elite educators and providing them with innovative resources to help them make a difference in the world.  Members commit to four ideals—Fidelity to Humanity, Science, Service and Toil.

Kappa Delta Pi was founded March 8, 1911, at the University of Illinois.  The Chi Iota Chapter at Ma was incorporated by Dr. Bernard Buell on April 20, 1996.

Members must have a 3.3 GPA and be nominated by a professor in the Maryville College Teacher Education Program.

 Watch the video or read Dr. Simpson's remarks to the 2015 initiates.

Dr. Simpson’s Challenge to the 2015 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 3.64.  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 successful wherever they teach, and their students will be successful.

A few months back we reached a number 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.  But 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.

Yet, 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 teachers and principals, destroy your idealism.  Stay out of the teachers’ lounge! Without high ideals and the struggle for perfection, a society is doomed to 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 25^th year at Maryville College and 42^nd 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 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 25^th 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.

New Theories, Innovation and Experience in the Classroom

Have you ever heard of Edwards Deming?  He is remembered in his role as adviser, consultant, author, and teacher to some of the most influential businessmen, corporations, and scientific pioneers of quality control. He is the most widely known proponent of statistical quality control. 

In 1942, while at the Bureau of the Census, Deming was retained as a consultant to the Secretary of War and was asked by W. Allen Wallis, a statistician at Stanford University, for ideas on ways to aid the war effort.  Deming suggested a short course in Shewhart methods to teach the basics of applied statistics to engineers and others.  The idea was adopted, and the first course was held in the summer of 1942.  The courses were repeated many times with Deming as the instructor.  The influences of these courses on the individuals who formed the core of the statistical quality control are well known.

Because of his work at the USDA and his experience in statistics, Deming was sent to Japan in 1946 by the Economic and Scientific Section of the War Department to study agricultural production and related problems in the war-damaged nation.  He returned to Japan in 1948 to conduct more studies for the occupational forces. 

Deming convinced Kenichi Koyanagi, one of the founding members of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), of the potential of statistical methods in the rebuilding of Japanese industry.  Koyanagi, in turn, suggested the idea to JUSE, which invited Deming to teach courses in statistical methods to Japanese industry.  Under the auspices of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, Deming arrived in Japan to teach in June 1950.  He returned five times as teacher and consultant to Japanese industry.

Deming gave his Japanese students not only statistical theory, but also confidence.  “I told [Japanese industrialists] Japanese quality could be the best in the world, instead of the worst,” he said.  Still, many were skeptical.  “I was the only man in Japan who believed that Japanese industry could do that.”  Deming made a prophetic statement that the Japanese could capture world markets within five years if they followed his advice.  “They beat my prediction.  I had said it would take five years.  It took four.” 

During the period of his activities in Japan, Deming pursued a similar mission in the United States.  However, it has taken the United States much longer to pay attention to his teachings.  As I became aware of the economic competition between American and Japanese industries during the 1970s/80s, it seemed as if the Japanese always won the competition.  Everyone was taking about the Japanese management style, which was actually the teaching of Deming.  Japanese corporate leaders bought into his theory, but American corporate leaders did not.  You know the result.  (ASQ)

Around the time of Deming’s death in 1993, I watched an extended interview with him on TV.  The topic of “new theories” came up during the interview.  He said that “experience is the best teacher” is an interesting concept; however, if experience is the only teacher, society is in trouble because nothing will change.  Society must have the constant infusion of new theories; some will be rejected while others will become a significant part of the economic/social structure.   

This very issue of how a profession or society reacts to new theories is at the heart of the educational battle in the United States.  Teachers often respond to new theories by saying, “Oh, that’s a theory you learned at the college/university; it will never work in the classroom” (I have been known to make that statement myself).  However, not having the development of new theories in teaching and learning would be like not having new theories in the treatment of disease in medical science.  Yes, it is essential that all new medical theories be tested, and some will be effective while others will not.  Yet, if new theories are not introduced into a profession, field of science/technology, or society, that entity or organization is in a state of dying. 

One of the significant barriers to change in education is that teachers have the tendency to teach the way they were taught.  In other words, we use those teaching methods/strategies that match our learning preferences.   I have a series of questions that must be asked:  Are the students in my eight-grade class just like me when I was in the eighth grade?  Has the field of neurological research given us new understandings about the function of the brain which impacts how we learn?

Where do we find the source of new theories in teaching and learning?  Often an innovative school system led by a dynamic director of schools (superintendent) may develop and test new theories.  These school systems often attract creative and dynamic teachers. 

I have seen occasions where classroom teachers are the source of new theories.  However, in the United States this is rare because teachers are responsible for numerous other tasks other than teaching.  Teachers in other countries are given more time to plan and develop new strategies than are teachers in the United States.

Finally, colleges/universities are often the source of new theories in teaching and learning.  The very structure and reward system in higher education lends itself to developing and testing new theories.  However, there are those who want to remove the preparation of new teachers from higher education and place it in the school district and classroom because they feel that instructors in education courses are out of touch with the K-12 classroom. I find it amazing that we expect institutions of higher education to develop and test new theories in all academic fields except in teacher education.  If these critics get their way, an essential source for new theories in teaching and learning will be silenced, and the real losers will be our children.

As Director of Teacher Education at Maryville College, I cannot guarantee that each new theory in teaching and learning that we share with our students will be effective with every child in every classroom, but neither can the medical scientist guarantee that each new drug developed from research will be effective in the war against cancer.  But medical scientists keep developing new theories and testing those theories just as educational researchers should keep developing and testing new theories in teaching and learning.  The status quo in the war against cancer is not acceptable; neither should the status quo in teaching and learning be acceptable.

“No one has to change.  Survival is optional.”  Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Bless you my children,

Terry Simpson

Reference:
http://asq.org/about-asq/who-we-are/bio_deming.html               

Common Core Standards...Really

Dr. Terry L. Simpson
Director of Teacher Education
Maryville College

From My Cluttered Desk...

              It was 1988, and I was in a doctoral program at the University of Texas A&M-Commerce, which is located in Commerce, Texas.  My 15-year-old daughter was sitting in my apartment completing her homework.   The TV was on, and I was watching the Republican National Convention.  Speaker after speaker came to the podium and trashed public education in the United States while extolling the strength of public education in Japan.  For some reason, not one of the speakers mentioned that education in Japan is controlled by the national government, and schools operate under a rigid set of national standards. Finally, Jennifer had had enough, and she threw her books on the floor, stomped over to the TV and yelled, “You just want us to go to school on Saturday!”  From the standpoint of a 15 year-old, that was all she needed to know about education in Japan, and she wanted no part of the Japanese education model.
              With that introduction, and in the face of better judgment, I tread into the Common Core minefield.  As I have listened to and read opposition to the Common Core, the arguments remind me of my 15-year-old daughter’s opposition to the Japanese education model, except that these critics are not 15 years old. 
              One local politician running for the school board stated that the Common Core Standards were “dumbing down the curriculum”.  Really?  Several months back, I sat in the central office of one of our rural school districts and watched as in horror they received their students’ test scores.  The percentage of students that scored proficient in math under the previous standards was above 70% while less than 25% scored proficient under the new standards.  Surely, this is not an example of “dumbing down” the math curriculum.  If someone wants to sit down and discuss the math Common Core standards and whether many of these standards are assigned to the grade level of students that are developmentally ready to master these standards, I am ready for that discussion.
              The attempt of the federal government to force the Common Core standards on the states is President Obama’s plan to control education.  Really?  The origin and development of the Common Core standards did not take place in the secret offices of the United States of Department of Education in Washington, D.C. 
              The Common Core standards will destroy the concept of patriotism in the American History curriculum.  Really?  Common Core standards have been developed only for Mathematics and English/Language Arts. 
              Do the academic standards in American education need to be changed and made more rigorous?  Before you answer that question, let me share a few experiences.  In the late 1980s, I was completing a doctoral program at the University of Texas A&M-Commerce, and while completing the program I taught two undergraduate classes.  In one of those courses I had a woman from France.  She had been in the United States with her two children and husband who was completing a graduate degree.  They were preparing to return to France, and she was horrified.  She had discovered that when her two children returned to school in France, they would be two years behind in mathematics when compared to French students their age. 
              In 1986, I visited China with an education delegation and had the opportunity to meet and talk with middle school students in Beijing.  Their instruction in mathematics and science was at a much higher academic level than the typical instruction in American middle school.  Plus, they could converse in three different languages.  While visiting a school in Brazil in 1998, I discovered that students in Brazil study Physics each year in their secondary curriculum.  In 2000, I was awarded a Fulbright Grant to teach at Tartu University in Estonia during the fall semester.  Estonia had made a commitment to be a top tier country in science, and they are well on their way.  The papers the students wrote for me in English were flawless, and they could research topics in three different languages. 
              The city Maryville has a significant Japanese population, due mainly to Japanese industries, especially Denso Manufacturing.  Denso rents space at Maryville College and the Japanese government sends a principal to hold Saturday school for Japanese students so they will not be academically behind when they return to Japan.  Do the academic standards in American education need to be changed and made more rigorous?  You answer the questions.
              Teachers tend to teach the way they were taught and achieved success in school.  It is difficult to get teachers and even teacher licensure students to move away from this comfort zone.  The key factor is a common resistance to change.  I am 66 years old, and the standards I met in order to succeed in grades 1-12 are no longer sufficient.  The standards that students met even 20 years ago in order to be academically successful are no longer sufficient.
               Colleges and universities must change, and this change must reach deeper than educational methods courses.  Instruction in college level math and English can no longer be the same as usual.  In my humble opinion, instruction on this level will be the most resistant to change. 
              However, as Director of the Teacher Licensure at Maryville College, I am well aware of changes we need to make in our program.  One of our goals in the Maryville College Teacher Licensure Program is to equip future teachers with various teaching strategies and instructional models so they will have the background knowledge, learning theory and confidence to adjust to new and more rigorous standards as they progress through their professional careers as teachers. I am responsible for the instructional models approach in our instructional design, but we must make adjustments and do much better in preparing our graduates for success in the Common Core standards.  We would be remiss if we demanded any less.

Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee! What have we done to the school curriculum?

In The Death and Life of the Great American School System Diane Ravitch wrote, “If we want to improve education, we must first have a vision of what good education is. We should have goals that are worth striving for.”

After teaching as well as being an administrator for 38 years, I have earned the right to comment on the trends in education in our country and especially in my home state. My first concern is the removal of Tennessee local and state history as a course in the P-12 curriculum. Yes, I am aware that it is to be integrated into the American history curriculum; however, this integration will seldom take place in a consistent and coherent process. I am appalled by the lack of knowledge and understanding students have about our local and state history. Dollywood, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg simply reinforce the stereotypes about the East Tennessee region and students buy into this Southern Appalachian hillbilly stereotype. The current and future generations of students do not know who we are. This is a tragedy. 

Removing geography from the high school curriculum is my second concern. Again, I am aware that geography is to be integrated into the history curriculum. This integration will seldom take place. The result is we don’t know who they are. I have even heard teachers say, “All those MEXICANS should go back the Mexico.” When did you learn that creating stereotypes of those who are different can have very negative consequences? I learned this concept in the second grade. Our diversity has always made us better. I certainly hope the off-spring of the brothers James and John Simpson who fled the poverty and religious strife of Ulster (Northern Ireland) made this a better country in spite of the English power structure along the colonial eastern coast claiming that the Scots-Irish riffraff from Ulster was trashing the colonies. We did trash the White House when Andrew Jackson was elected President!

Emphasizing STEM courses (science, technology, engineering & math) by removing or limiting the access to other subjects, especially the social studies, humanities and the arts, is my third concern. At what point in this new curriculum will we wrestle with the great moral questions of our society? Where will we debate and define “the good” in our nation? Where will we learn compassion for “the other”? By slashing these subjects in the curriculum in favor of technical skills, we may graduate more technocrats but lose our soul as a nation.

In the book When Learned Men Murder, David Patterson reminded us of the meeting in Germany on January 20, 1942, which outlined the Final Solution. “Of the 14 men who sat down to discuss the murder of the Jews, 8 held doctorates from the finest universities in Central Europe. Those universities were as interested in being technologically advanced and politically correct as are our own.” Furthermore, Haim Ginott, who survived the death camps a later became a teacher and child psychologist wrote,

"My eyes saw what no person should witness. Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and killed by high school and college graduates. So I’m suspicious of education. My request is: help your students to be human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, or educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, and spelling and history and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our students human."

Yes, we need to reform the strategies we have historically used in math instruction, and we need more graduates in engineering, math and science. However, we do not need to decapitate the other academic subjects in the curriculum to achieve this goal. We not only need students who are academically strong but who are morally strong. “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts” (Einstein). 

Terry L. Simpson (July 2014)

References 

• Patterson, D. (1996). When Learned Men Murder. Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
• Ravitch, D. (2010). The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books. 
• The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Competitive and Secure Nation. (2013). Cambridge, Mass: American Academy of Arts & Sciences.