Dear President Obama,

I waited so long for someone to run and become President that inspired me, gave me hope and believed the best about people.  I don't think I worked on a campaign for over 30 years and then your campaign and Presidency came along.  I really believed what you said and believed in you.  I still do. So it is with a heavy heart that I have watched Arne Duncan talk and take over the reins at DOE. 

I couldn't be in more disagreement with how you are proceeding with educational reform.

The federal government hasn't always meddled in schools and since I have felt their micromanaging, I can see very few positives.  NCLB has dumbed down what we teach and how we teach it.  As a Nationally Board Certified teacher in science, I have had to alter how I use the inquiry method for teaching science.  If I use that brain-friendly, lifelong learner way of teaching (which I consider along with the literature to be best practice), my students cannot pass the NCLB tests which only addresses the factoids of science.  Go and read the National Science Teacher Association statement of best practices and you will NOT find emphasis on memorizing facts...you will find asking questions, experimentation, and higher level, critical thinking kinds of recommendations for curriculum and instruction.

Not only has NCLB pushed science teachers away from best practice, it has narrowed the curriculums of schools to address the facts that can be covered by multiple choice questions.  I had hoped your adminsitration would figure out that this will not raise a generation of scientists.  It will not help our students be curious or adopt scientific reasoning and experimentation.  It will relegate science to the memorization of facts.  This is not what we should want for our students...we should want them to be fully involved in inquiry science, asking questions, conducting activities to find out the answers to those questions and learning how to generalize those findings into conclusions that are based on their evidence.  Just look at our state science tests....there is nothing even close to that on those tests.

Additionally we see more and more students who no longer get to do science in elementary schools.  Under the microscope and intense pressure to perform better and better in reading and math, schools have cut time spent on anything but the tested subjects.  One article I read said that time spent on nontested subjects (science and social studies) have been cut by 44%.  44%....can you imagine how dull it is to be in school where there is very little science and social studies.  Can you imagine how ill prepared and how little background students have when they get to me at the middle school level?  It's tragic.

The way in which your policy is moving is only going to continue this narrowing of curriculum.  It is going to have the opposite effect that I think you want...it will not produce more scientists...in fact, I think students will be less and less interested in science if it is reduced to reading and answer fact based questions.  The idea that the remedy for all the ills of science is a national curriculum...well, that's ridiculous.  The only thing this will accomplish is more companies developing narrowly defined sets of facts that will generate more standardized tests for students.  It isn't the curriculum that's the problem.

Please, please, please....you need someone include teachers in reform policy making.  Clearly the people who advise you now don't have a clue what helps students in the classroom.  I'd invite you to come to my room any time, any day and talk with my students.  They'll tell you in a second what helps them learn more.

I also think you have to think about the bigger issues that schools are asked to solve. I'm not making excuses or saying we can't teach them because they come with so many problems.  But to say that those issues don't exist and impact their learning is foolish.   Inside the educational effort of what we do, we are also asked to fix the problems of our society.  Schools are not the place we can solve the community's problems of hunger, poverty, violence and discouragement.  We can work as hard as we can to help students overcome those issues...because kids come with all sorts of baggage...but we can't fix society from the schoolhouse doorstep.  We can't be all things to all kids...unless you are willing to invest huge dollars to bring many more resources to bear that really have nothing to do with education.  Policy that ignores these realities is doomed to fail.  

Thank you for considering this letter and this information.  Again I invite you to come to my classroom anytime and see what it's really like.  I can't imagine being President right now.  So many HUGE problems and I can understand why you blew it on education...the economy, health care, Afghanistan, Iraq to name just a few things must have your head spinning.  I haven't given up on you.  I believe in your Presidency but I don't believe in the policies under consideration or that you are speaking about these days. 

Marsha Ratzel, 6th grade math and science teacher, Leawood, Kansas

Comments

[Anthony Cody]

Marsha,
Thank you for the excellent letter. With your permission I will include it among the many teacher letters I have been collecting to send to Obama and Duncan. Teachers who would like to contribute their own letters to the project are invited to come to the Facebook site, Teachers' Letters to Obama, here: http://bit.ly/2dnaZB

[Jon Hanbury]

Marsha,
Great letter! I too have joined Anthony in our mission to be heard by President Obama. You menitoned the President's preoccupation with other "HUGE" problems facing our nation -- but our president is also the father of two young ladies......you would think that he would want the best for his children -- I know that I am steered constantly as an educator by what is best for my boys! Today I was reading a blog describing the 21st century learner; this quote, from John Dewey, reminded me of the importance of providing our students with the "survival skills" as outlined by Tony Wagner in his book, The Global Achievement Gap -- "If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow!"

[mratzel]

Dear Jon,
Thanks for your comments. Like you I was and am heavily influenced by the experience my children (now in their 20s) encounter. I'm sure and hopeful that the President is no different than us.

The difference is that the other things that must crowd his mind are huge. I don't mean to sound like I think education isn't important. But I wanted to express that I knew that there were other things on his plate.

I also agree about teaching for tomorrow. I was just talking with my oldest daughter about how vital it is that I teach my students the 21st century skill of accessing and finding info vs memorization. Info is exploding way too fast to "know" stuff now...but the skill of finding things, looking them up is huge. Alan November said in his ISTE speech last summer that he thought we (teachers) should stop answering questions that can be answered by Google. I thought it was great. November thinks if you rob students of the chance to find the info for themselves, you fail them as your teacher.

[Essay Help]

Hi,
Quite informative article. Gives new thoughts to focus. Exactly what I was looking for. I personally like your informative article. Very well written. This is really beneficial for beginners. I really admire this post.

[Custom Essays]

Hi,
Thanks for the post; it has proven to be exactly what I needed. Thanks for sharing your
deep thoughts.

[Sydney Gurewitz Clemens]

This letter expresses much of the feeling I hear from the hundreds of teachers with whom I communicate daily on listservs. My addition: Dear President Obama, you've secured a good education for your lovely children. Please understand that children in other schools need the recognition and care your girls are getting at their new school.

We want what's best for the least of the children, yes? That means attracting gifted teachers to the field, and trusting them to make adjustments in what they teach, based upon the flesh-and-blood children they meet in their classrooms.

Sydney Gurewitz Clemens, MA Early Childhood Education and Supervision
Author, The Sun's Not Broken, A Cloud's Just In the Way: On Child-Centered Teaching, and Pay Attention to the Children: Lessons for Teachers and Parents from Sylvia Ashton-Warner.

[mratzel]

Dear Sydney,
Thanks for your comment. I'm not sure that I agree with the addition you made. I don't question that President Obama wants the same education for everyone, including his daughters. I think your comment implies that he doesn't want that...I disagree.

I also agree with your idea that we should have gifted teachers in all classrooms regardless of student socioeconomic status.

Thanks for your comments.

[Amy Valens]

Dear Marsha:
I couldn’t agree with you more, as is evidenced by “AUGUST TO JUNE with respect for each child,” the film my husband and I are working on. You might enjoy seeing a teaser at www.tomvalens.com. Now if we can only magnify teachers’ voices enough to make them louder than the Business Roundtable, the Broad Foundation and Bill Gates!

I wonder if you misinterpreted Sydney Clemens’s comment. My take is that the president should look at the choice of schools he and his wife made for their children, and apply that to what parents want nationally. The Obamas chose a school where well trained teachers have the autonomy to teach in ways that address and engage the real children in front of them, and where standardized testing is the least of the ways that teachers assess their students’ growth.

[mratzel]

Dear Amy,

I haven't seen the film you mentioned but will take a look at the teaser link you sent. Thanks.

Maybe I didn't understand Ms. Clemen's comment. Because if she was putting forward that all children should be free of the insanity of standardized testing as benchmarks for schools, then I'm in agreement with that. When the push to test prep and make sure no one falls below a certain mark becomes the school standard, then the instructional focus narrows to the point that 100% of students get it, the fun of school is gone for the other 99% of kids.

I have watched us walk away from the gifted, the talented and just the plain old middle of the road kids so that the few in number can make the tested standard. I'm not sure how we justify utilizing so many resources on so few. At the same time, I realize we can't just abandon those that "don't get it" the first or the second or even the third time around. I 'member the good 'ol days when we modified their work, when we assigned things that engaged them intellectually but asked them to show what they knew in alternative ways...I don't think we abandoned them. We just adapted the learning to meet their needs and abilities. Now if you can't do math, well, get over it. Because you are going to be good even if it kills both you and me!!!!! and what the rest do while I'm getting you up to speed is not of concern to the testing authorities.

I completely and thoroughly agree that engaging children by looking at your curriculum, adapting to their abilities is the best way to go. Standardized testing has a place to be sure....but it should NOT be the centerpiece in our teaching toolbox.

[A level coursework]

Hello,
The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.

[Custom Essay]

Hi,
This problem should be stated at other platforms too because it is a serious problem which is needed to be tackled carefully.

[Logo design]

Really nice letter. You have presented your feelings in this letter very well. I appreciate your work.