This thread got blended into the others, but, to return to it again for those who were following it, here is a reprint of that principal’s response to our PLC member Ben Lev:
Dear —,
I waited to respond until I had a chance to meet with the department today to discuss some of these topics. As I mentioned in my last e-mail, I believe we will agree to disagree on this topic. Our department philosophy differs from your expectations in that we are designed to teach the whole language of reading comprehension, writing conventions, and oral delivery of language acquisition. In fact, it was revealed in the meeting that whole language development is supported in this model by English Language Learners as well as the UC/CSU system in recent research. We have discussed having a Native Spanish Speaker section in future years because students who have learned the language in the model you are suggesting having significant gaps in their writing and reading abilities.
I have observed all of our world language classes and am confident in their delivery of instruction. I don’t see the need to meet with our department members at this point as they have weighed your concerns and agreed that their methodology is effective. I would agree and support them at this point.
The principal’s response reveals, in my opinion, serious ignorance, but it also gives us an excellent opportunity to see exactly when to back down, when not to battle, because to do so would be stupid. This e-mail is a clear sign to stop. These people are in a bubble. The air in that bubble sustains them. If you poke a hole in the bubble, they have three choices:
- find a way to keep the air from escaping from the bubble.
- partially embrace something radical and new by learning how to breathe the new air outside the bubble and slowly integrate it into what they are doing.
- die to all that they currently believe about teaching.
The principal and his teachers chose choice #1. They kept their reality going. Therefore, you will get nothing, nothing from this principal and his employees. I hesitate to call them real teachers – I prefer to call them deliverers of instructional services (Ted Sizer’s term) in that they organize activities that drain away time that could be spent on actually acquiring the language.
These people will neither accept nor embrace even the message targeted by Ben. They don’t know what you know and they don’t want to know. How, then, can they be expected to hear it and act on it?
Read my own post on Why I Shut Down the Blog (https://benslavic.com/blog/category/why-i-shut-the-blog-down/). It’s the same thing. We must put on the brakes and kick it back a notch from that little warpath we got on a few weeks ago. We are not here to war on others. I have gotten it very clear from Jody here lately, and from Susan Gross before her, and I have seen it modeled daily for years by Diana Noonan, that we can only love and embrace our own work and those who believe as we do about what is best for our kids.
We can’t change others, especially obtuse others, and we have to know when to stop trying to change things that we cannot change, as per my favorite of all saints Saint Francis. Lea said it perfectly in the post before this one. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done because we have grown some claws lately. But we have to learn to draw in our claws. It’s just that way. We can’t go around breaking all the china in the carefully constructed shops of people who teach in the manner of a bygone era. What would they think? How else could they be expected to react?
Even two years ago I couldn’t have gotten the above out of my mouth, and I am proud because it shows growth in me.