As a classroom teacher, I’m most familiar with, and upset by, the passage of NCLB in 2001. I’ve struggled with subverting standardized testing, textbook-based and test-driven curricula. It’s an uphill struggle!
Hi Adrian! I followed your substack recently and am delighted to have you join the conversation! I’ve been trying to connect with teachers to gauge how much NCLB and its follow-ups have affected classroom teachers. I’ve heard from a *lot* of teachers via my tiktoks who almost unanimously have struggled—though there are public school teachers in some states who feel like they have the autonomy they desire. What worries me is that as newer teachers come into the field (we hope!) they may have no sense of how entirely different education used to be. I think a lot of parents these days also don’t realize this. That’s one of my missions: to help people understand how much autonomy students *and* teachers had in the classroom just decades ago—so we can fight to bring that back. A seemingly impossible goal in this climate, but I believe in it.
I’m happy to join alongside in this fight. I’ve been teaching for 22 years and everything you’ve said about losing autonomy is true. So much about teaching feels harder than it did just 10 years ago, much less 20 years ago. My passion is in re-humanizing the schooling experience and I’ve been writing about that as often as I can. Thank YOU for continuing to write about public school teachers and the issues we’re facing! Happy to chat any time!
Everything you describe here is social but all of these social shifts/conditions have political and economic roots, or if not roots per se, political and economic co-factors.
For example, as things start to become more economically unstable for families, when parents start to feel that the future for their children is not better (economically or in other ways) parenting becomes more intense. Parents want to secure places for their children in a competitive and unknown future and so they work to do so. And this is labour and of course not all parents have the time/resources for this labour so there is equity issues also.
I love this part:
"I began to interrogate, for the first time, my own motherhood. A rebel mother, that's how I thought of myself, eschewing the system, homeschooling with my kids. Pushing back on what culture demanded of me, of my children. But often, I see now, I sailed along with the culture, let it shape me. I did not always recognize a choice that could be made."
I see this in my own experience also. How shaped by culture I actually am, not quite the rebel I thought myself to be. :)
I'd encourage you to investigate neoliberal influences on education, which has a straight throughline for at least 6 of the above bullet points. Neoliberalism is a suite of political and economic ideologies (premised on a particular take on philosophical liberalism) that were/are infused into cultural discourse and also, importantly, is instantiated in policies.
If you ever want to talk neoliberalism and education I'd be happy to do so as I've been researching/studying this for my masters. I've written one peer-reviewed journal paper on the topic and currently working on my next.
anyway, great topic. Happy to be reading you wherever you publish!
Yes, as I’ve done my research, I have absolutely been discovering how political and economic factors play into *all* of this. It’s been a little unsettling to dig back into the origins of things.
There’s no nuance in a bulleted list. I’m really excited to devote each newsletter to a single issue, not just so I can share what I’m discovering, but also so I can learn from smart people like you.
My book is the tracking of an amateur mind. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive overview, more like an invitation to thought and conversation. So I’m delighted to see this happening already here in the comments. Thank you, Renee! I would *love* to chat with you about all of this at some point. Let’s make that happen!
Love this and I recall so many of the stories of your early teaching days with that classroom. They were quite the characters but you were definitely up for the challenge! Looking forward to the journey...
I'll join you on your carpet and I'll even pretend I'm wearing my black penny loafers that I placed dimes in.
If I were to research a hot topic that I've experienced firsthand, it would be the rise of childhood depression. As I read your list of topics that you will be sharing, I can only imagine how closely they are connected to children's mental health.
Let's brainstorm and share. And please put my idea up on your wall surrounded by a border of yarn. It will bring me joy.
I don’t have a yarn grid, but I do have a clip rack beside my desk and there are definitely beloved creations from you clipped there, my friend.
Childhood depression, sigh. I see that I didn’t mention the word *play* in my post, though I hope it’s inferred by the diminishing free time I’ve seen in the research. I believe that if you take play from kids, you’re taking away something essential to their well-being. The more they play, the happier they are (and the more they learn.) We’ve stopped valuing play in our culture. Tragic and wrongheaded. That must be factoring in to increases in childhood depression.
But if anyone knows that, you do.
And of course my first Substack commenter is you. 💌
As a classroom teacher, I’m most familiar with, and upset by, the passage of NCLB in 2001. I’ve struggled with subverting standardized testing, textbook-based and test-driven curricula. It’s an uphill struggle!
Hi Adrian! I followed your substack recently and am delighted to have you join the conversation! I’ve been trying to connect with teachers to gauge how much NCLB and its follow-ups have affected classroom teachers. I’ve heard from a *lot* of teachers via my tiktoks who almost unanimously have struggled—though there are public school teachers in some states who feel like they have the autonomy they desire. What worries me is that as newer teachers come into the field (we hope!) they may have no sense of how entirely different education used to be. I think a lot of parents these days also don’t realize this. That’s one of my missions: to help people understand how much autonomy students *and* teachers had in the classroom just decades ago—so we can fight to bring that back. A seemingly impossible goal in this climate, but I believe in it.
Thank you for being here!
I’m happy to join alongside in this fight. I’ve been teaching for 22 years and everything you’ve said about losing autonomy is true. So much about teaching feels harder than it did just 10 years ago, much less 20 years ago. My passion is in re-humanizing the schooling experience and I’ve been writing about that as often as I can. Thank YOU for continuing to write about public school teachers and the issues we’re facing! Happy to chat any time!
😊
You ask, “Where have I not dug?”
Everything you describe here is social but all of these social shifts/conditions have political and economic roots, or if not roots per se, political and economic co-factors.
For example, as things start to become more economically unstable for families, when parents start to feel that the future for their children is not better (economically or in other ways) parenting becomes more intense. Parents want to secure places for their children in a competitive and unknown future and so they work to do so. And this is labour and of course not all parents have the time/resources for this labour so there is equity issues also.
I love this part:
"I began to interrogate, for the first time, my own motherhood. A rebel mother, that's how I thought of myself, eschewing the system, homeschooling with my kids. Pushing back on what culture demanded of me, of my children. But often, I see now, I sailed along with the culture, let it shape me. I did not always recognize a choice that could be made."
I see this in my own experience also. How shaped by culture I actually am, not quite the rebel I thought myself to be. :)
I'd encourage you to investigate neoliberal influences on education, which has a straight throughline for at least 6 of the above bullet points. Neoliberalism is a suite of political and economic ideologies (premised on a particular take on philosophical liberalism) that were/are infused into cultural discourse and also, importantly, is instantiated in policies.
If you ever want to talk neoliberalism and education I'd be happy to do so as I've been researching/studying this for my masters. I've written one peer-reviewed journal paper on the topic and currently working on my next.
anyway, great topic. Happy to be reading you wherever you publish!
Ooh, I do love a juicy comment!
Yes, as I’ve done my research, I have absolutely been discovering how political and economic factors play into *all* of this. It’s been a little unsettling to dig back into the origins of things.
There’s no nuance in a bulleted list. I’m really excited to devote each newsletter to a single issue, not just so I can share what I’m discovering, but also so I can learn from smart people like you.
My book is the tracking of an amateur mind. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive overview, more like an invitation to thought and conversation. So I’m delighted to see this happening already here in the comments. Thank you, Renee! I would *love* to chat with you about all of this at some point. Let’s make that happen!
Love this and I recall so many of the stories of your early teaching days with that classroom. They were quite the characters but you were definitely up for the challenge! Looking forward to the journey...
Thanks for the carpet. And for every gazillionth other thing you’ve helped me with. 💕
I'll join you on your carpet and I'll even pretend I'm wearing my black penny loafers that I placed dimes in.
If I were to research a hot topic that I've experienced firsthand, it would be the rise of childhood depression. As I read your list of topics that you will be sharing, I can only imagine how closely they are connected to children's mental health.
Let's brainstorm and share. And please put my idea up on your wall surrounded by a border of yarn. It will bring me joy.
I don’t have a yarn grid, but I do have a clip rack beside my desk and there are definitely beloved creations from you clipped there, my friend.
Childhood depression, sigh. I see that I didn’t mention the word *play* in my post, though I hope it’s inferred by the diminishing free time I’ve seen in the research. I believe that if you take play from kids, you’re taking away something essential to their well-being. The more they play, the happier they are (and the more they learn.) We’ve stopped valuing play in our culture. Tragic and wrongheaded. That must be factoring in to increases in childhood depression.
But if anyone knows that, you do.
And of course my first Substack commenter is you. 💌