David Reber Letter

This letter, from Mr. Weber, has appeared in a number of online publications, and in my opinion, speaks clearly to the mounting frustration that some educators are feeling toward this Secretary of Education, and by extension, toward the president who appointed him.

Conrad Wold


A letter from David Reber, who teaches high school biology in Lawrence KS

Mr. Duncan,

I read your Teacher Appreciation Week letter to teachers, and had at first decided not to respond. Upon further thought, I realized I do have a few things to say.

I'll begin with a small sample of relevant adjectives just to get them out of the way: condescending, arrogant, insulting, misleading, patronizing, egotistic, supercilious, haughty, insolent, peremptory, cavalier, imperious, conceited, contemptuous, pompous, audacious, brazen, insincere, superficial, contrived, garish, hollow, pedantic, shallow, swindling, boorish, predictable, duplicitous, pitchy, obtuse, banal, scheming, hackneyed, and quotidian. Again, it's just a small sample; but since your attention to teacher input is minimal, I wanted to put a lot into the first paragraph.

Your lead sentence, "I have worked in education for much of my life", immediately establishes your tone of condescension; for your 20-year "education" career lacks even one day as a classroom teacher. You, Mr. Duncan, are the poster-child for the prevailing attitude in corporate-style education reform: that the number one prerequisite for educational expertise is never having been a teacher.

Your stated goal is that teachers be "...treated with the dignity we award to other professionals n society."

Really?

How many other professionals are the last ones consulted about their own profession; and are then summarily ignored when policy decisions are made? How many other professionals are so distrusted that sweeping federal legislation is passed to "force" them to do their jobs? And what dignities did you award teachers when you publicly praised the mass firing of teachers in Rhode Island?

You acknowledge teacher's concerns about No Child Left Behind, yet you continue touting the same old rhetoric: "In today’s economy, there is no acceptable dropout rate, and we rightly expect all children -- English-language learners, students with disabilities, and children of poverty -- to learn and succeed."

What other professions are held to impossible standards of perfection? Do we demand that police officers eliminate all crime, or that doctors cure all patients? Of course we don't.

There are no parallel claims of "in today's society, there is no acceptable crime rate", or "we rightly expect all patients -- those with end-stage cancers, heart failure, and multiple gunshot wounds -- to thrive into old age." When it comes to other professions, respect and common sense prevail.

Your condescension continues with "developing better assessments so [teachers] will have useful information to guide instruction..." Excuse me, but I am a skilled, experienced, and licensed professional. I don't need an outsourced standardized test -- marketed by people who haven't set foot in my school -- to tell me how my students are doing.

I know how my students are doing because I work directly with them. I learn their strengths and weaknesses through first-hand experience, and I know how to tailor instruction to meet each student's needs. To suggest otherwise insults both me and my profession.

You want to "...restore the status of the teaching profession..." Mr. Duncan, you built your career defiling the teaching profession. Your signature effort, Race to the Top, is the largest de-professionalizing, demoralizing, sweeter-carrot-and-sharper-stick public education policy in U.S. history. You literally bribed cash-starved states to enshrine in statute the very reforms teachers have spoken against.

You imply that teachers are the bottom-feeders among academics. You want more of "America's top college students" to enter the profession. If by "top college students" you mean those with high GPA's from prestigious, pricey schools then the answer is simple: a five-fold increase in teaching salaries.

You see, Mr. Duncan, those "top" college students come largely from our nation's wealthiest families. They simply will not spend a fortune on an elite college education to pursue a 500% drop in socioeconomic status relative to their parents.

You assume that "top" college students automatically make better teachers. How, exactly, will a 21-year-old, silver-spoon-fed ivy-league graduate establish rapport with inner-city kids? You think they’d be better at it than an experienced teacher from a working-class family, with their own rough edges or checkered past, who can actually relate to those kids? Your ignorance of human nature is astounding.

As to your concluding sentence, "I hear you, I value you, and I respect you"; no, you don't, and you don't, and you don't. In fact, I don't believe you even wrote this letter for teachers.

I think you sense a shift in public opinion. Parents are starting to see through the façade; and recognize the privatization and for-profit education reform movement for what it is. And they've begun to organize --Parents Across America, is one example.

. . . No doubt some will dismiss what I've said as paranoid delusion. What they call paranoia I call paying attention. Mr. Duncan, teachers hear what you say. We also watch what you do, and we are paying attention.

Working with kids every day, our baloney-detectors are in fine form. We've heard the double-speak before; and we don't believe the dog ate your homework. Coming from children, double-speak is expected and it provides important teachable moments. Coming from adults, it's just sad.

Despite our best efforts, some folks never outgrow their disingenuous, manipulative, self- serving approach to life. Of that, Mr. Duncan, you are a shining example.

Can't afford to get sick

Bend over, Buster. The here come the health care insurers again. In the May 13th issue of The New York Times, columnist Reed Abelson notes how the largest insurers in the US are enjoying record profits for the simple reason that people are not making claims. Simply, people are not going to the doctor like they have in the past. People are still getting sick. People still have health issues. The problem is, insurance premiums have gotten so pricey that folks are seeking policies that carry higher and higher deductibles. In order to pay the monthly insurance bill, people are now buying policies that have deductibles of $4,000 or more per year. A guy is on the hook for his first $4,000 of medical expenses before the insurance kicks in. So what happens? People continue to pay their outrageous insurance premiums, but they never get to the point where the insurance company pays. Growing revenue vs. lower payouts equals record profits.

I researched the stock prices of the three giant insurers that Abelson referenced in his article: Cigna, Aetna and United Health Group. I had no doubt what I would find. Record profits can only correspond to high stock prices. Sure enough, from their record lows last July, these stocks have taken off. Cigna was $29 per share last July, $48 now. Aetna was $26. Now it’s $ 44. United Health Group went from $28 to $50. Not a bad return for 11 months. Wish I’d bought some, except these profits and surging stock prices have come at a cost to Americans. What a business plan! Raise premiums so high that customers will opt for a policy that they will likely not use because it’s too expensive to use it. Huh? Speaking of raising rates, in Oregon, according to Abelson, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield plan a rate increase of 22% for individuals.. No matter how bad the premiums get, we pay them. We’re afraid not to. What a perfect business model.

Of course, so many of us had so much hope that President Obama and the Democrats who controlled both houses would somehow, some way, come to the rescue and blow up a game designed for American consumers to lose. The result of their work: reform that isn’t reform. A health care system that enriches the already rich insurance companies and does nothing, absolutely nothing, to lower monthly premiums. Obama and the Dems were a major disappointment in regard to health care reform. A disappointment to everyone except for the shareholders of these companies and the executives who run them.

Goodbye, Donald

One of the more obscure benefits of the successful raid on Osama bin Laden is the removal of Donald Trump from the daily news cycle. It was just two weeks ago that “The Hair” was standing in front of a helicopter with his name emblazoned on the side, as he spoke to the assembled media types, claiming to be “So proud of myself…” for forcing Barack Obama to reveal his birth certificate. Which was worse, the daily ego blast from The Donald or the fact that the media, for a few days, hung on his every word?

Finally, a story of such importance exploded that the media was forced to actually report on something of substance. Suddenly, Trump has been dumped. The Donald is The Gonald, thank God. Trump, where are you? Looking at those pictures of President Obama and his team of top advisors, all gathered together, watching a monitor as the drama of the raid unfolded, it was impossible not to compare that image to Trump sitting down at his table surrounded by his “team” on “The Celebrity Apprentice”. Imagine if Trump was in charge of such a crisis. President Donald Trump, a comfort in crisis!

It took a shocking event to bring the media back to some serious journalism, and focus its attention on something meaningful. One could hope that talk of Donald Trump as any kind of serious candidate will fade away, and that we can turn to more serious issues instead of goofy birth certificate theories, but it seems more likely that we’ll get bored again, the media will run out of big stories that fall in its collective lap, and we’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming: the Donald demanding to see Barack Obama’s junior college transcript.