Too long ago I promised to tell readers why I think parents should opt-out their children from the yearly tests that all public schools  must give in order to receive federal funding. The first part of my explanation was a review of the laws that were enacted to improve school performances from 2000—to 2015 and have failed. Because it took me a lot of time and energy to get that information and report it accurately, I took time off before writing about why I believe that schools must be freed from government control in order to educate students properly.  Finally, I am ready.

My beliefs about education are borne of many years of teaching, being a school principal, serving as president of a national teachers organization, and writing about education. In addition, I spent time living in other countries, observing what young people there knew and could do and visiting many (50) European schools to study the teaching of English as a foreign language.

Among the things I learned over those years were that the assertions of “A Nation at Risk” were not valid, and the laws set over the past 18 years by the Federal government have deeply harmed our public schools rather than improving them.

Almost all the decisions made by Congress each year were based on the results of tests of questionable validity.  The things tested were students’ knowledge and skills for their grade levels as designated by the Common Core State Standards.  But the appropriateness of  the CCSS has been questioned by many educators from the very start.  Almost all of the people selected to create the standards had never been teachers, and they set the standards by stuffing every possible school skill into one grade or another, whether or not it was appropriate for students of that age or fit with their previous learning.

In addition, every new program or change in teaching methods intended to improve a school’s performance has been a failure. Large amounts of money, believed to be “cure-it-all’s”, were spent mostly on hiring “coaches” who had no experience or training.  The rest of it went for glossy new programs that claimed to make students succeed where they had continually failed before.

Although I could name and describe many more bad decisions and actions taken by Congress over the years, I think that most educators know them as well as I do.  We’re fed up with all the laws that have been made since the year 2000 and all the wasted funds spent on unfair tests, crummy programs and ignorant experts.

Since it appears that Congress has not learned anything from all its errors, it will continue down the same roads until our public schools disintegrate. I see only one action that would be effective in returning schools to the wisdom of experienced educators: large numbers of parents willing to opt their children out of the yearly tests.  Only then will the federal government  have to end its ignorant assault on schools.  That action, I believe, would leave the only real educators to do what is best for their students and parents to do what is best for their children.

Today’s blog is not the long, difficult piece I’ve been working on (which I think won’t be ready till next week). Instead I will describe an article in Saturday’s New York Times and ask for your opinions about the issue it covers.

An article in the New York Times recently told the story of a 17 year old female student named Lizzy, who came to school wearing a large, dark, loose t-shirt with no bra under it because she had gotten sun-burned on her chest over the weekend. Unfortunately, the outlines of her nipples were somewhat visible, and that had drawn the attention of some boys in the classroom.

In this situation the teacher did not say anything to Lizzy. But soon after the class had begun, the girl was called downstairs to meet with two school officials, a school dean and the principal.

The first thing the officials asked was why Lizzy wasn’t wearing a bra. Her answer was that her chest was sunburned, so having anything tight on it would have been painful. Nevertheless, the officials were not sympathetic. They told the girl that she was violating the school dress code and should put on an undershirt.

Almost immediately, Lizzy started to cry and said she wanted to go home. She called her mother, who was a nurse at work and couldn’t leave to pick her up. So the dean insisted that the girl must put adhesive bandages over her nipples, and then went down to the school clinic to get some. Lizzy put them on as directed and went back to class.

After 45 minutes in the classroom, Lizzy began to cry again because the bandages hurt her as she moved. She was allowed to leave the classroom and go to a restroom with a friend. Once there she removed her bandages and called her mother once more. This time her mother came and took her home.

Two weeks after all this happened Lizzy sent out a tweet that many of her friends read and responded to. On the next Monday she and about 30 of her female classmates came to school without wearing bras under their clothing, and several other students had taped Band-Aids on their backpacks.

As you might expect, given the way many young people dress in their personal time,the practice of wearing unacceptable clothing in school is spreading to many other schools all over the country. Galen Sherwin, a senior staff attorney a the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU said, “It’s not clear whether the rise we’re seeing in advocacy around the issue of dress code is because schools are imposing them in more discriminatory ways now than they were before, or weather more students are feeling empowered to speak up and complain about discriminatory dress codes. But we do definitely see that more students are speaking up.”

If you were Lizzy’s teacher or one of the school officials, what would you do or say if you saw a student wearing clothing that you considered inappropriate? Think about boys’ clothing as well as girls’, and the vulgar messages sometimes printed on tee shirts.

I hope to get some answers from readers that would make school officials think more deeply about existing school dress codes and, perhaps, come up with something that students will feel is reasonable and fair to everyone.

Today’s blog is not the long, difficult piece I’ve been working on (which I think won’t be ready till next week). Instead, I will describe an article in today’s New York Times and ask for your opinions about the issue it covers.

An article in today’s New York Times told the story of a 17 year old female student named Lizzy, who came to school wearing a large, dark, loose t-shirt with no bra under it because she had gotten sun-burned on her chest over the weekend. Unfortunately, the outlines of her nipples were somewhat visible, and that had drawn the attention of some boys in the classroom.

In this situation the teacher did not say anything to Lizzy. But soon after the class had begun, the girl was called downstairs to meet with two school officials: a school dean and the principal.

The first thing the officials asked was why wasn’t Lizzy wearing a bra. Her answer was that her chest was sunburned, so having anything tight on it would be painful. Nevertheless, the officials were not sympathetic. They told her that she was violating the school dress code and should put on an undershirt

Almost immediately, Lizzy started to cry and said she wanted to go home. She called her mother, who was a nurse at work and couldn’t leave to pick her up. So the dean insisted that the girl must put adhesive bandages over her nipples and went down to the school clinic to get some. Lizzy put them on as directed and went back to class.

After 45 minutes in the classroom, Lizzy began to cry again because the bandages hurt her as she moved. She was allowed to go to a bathroom with a friend, and once there removed the bandages and called her mother again. This time her mother came and took her home.

Two weeks after that happened Lizzy sent out a tweet that many of her friends read and responded to. On the next Monday she and about 30 of her classmates came to school without wearing bras under their clothing, and several other students had taped Band-Aids on their backpacks in the shape of an X.

As you might expect, the practice of girls wearing unacceptable clothing in school is spreading to many other schools all over the country. Galen Sherwin, a senior staff attorney a the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU says “It’s not clear whether the rise we’re seeing in advocacy around the issue of dress codes is because schools are imposing them in more discriminatory ways now than they were before, or whether more students are feeling empowered to speak up and complain about discriminatory dress codes. But we do definitely see that more students are speaking up.”

If you were the teacher in Lizzy’s classroom or the principal of that school what would you do or say if you saw students’ clothing that you considered inappropriate? Think about boys’ clothing as well as girls’, and nasty messages written on shirts. I hope to get some answers that will make me think more about facing such a problem.  I will respond with my own answer afterward.

*Arise, Children of our Country

Faithful readers will recognize immediately that I wrote this piece more than a year ago.  I am re-posting it today because I didn’t want readers to think I had given up blogging or was incapacitated.  The fact is that I’ve been working on another piece for several long days, and I haven’t finished it yet.  I would guess that I will finish it byFriday and then post it.  I hope that it will be worth your time to wait and read it then

Although there is no research evidence to confirm such beliefs about American students’ laziness or the ineffectiveness of our schools, public education has operated on those assumptions continually through the actions of Congress, the Department of Education, and state legislatures. Those bodies have also used public humiliation and punishment of students, teachers, school principals, unions and—indirectly—parents to prevent any resistance from gaining ground.

Thus far, all efforts to reverse the current concept of education and create a humane and reasonable foundation for our public schools have failed. Recently, we believed that the new federal law, ESSA, would return authority to states and their communities, but that belief was crushed by the Department of Education with its rejection of any state plans aimed to serve students’ needs and interests rather than raise test scores and improve graduation rates.

From my perspective, as the mother of four children who were public school students in far better times, and also as a teacher and school principal back then; there is only one possible solution.  We must have a widespread public rebellion against the current system. Parents should refuse to have their children participate in high stakes testing and demand age-apropriate standards for all grades. Communities need to re-shape their public schools to fit the needs of their students; and state officials must fight any moves by the Federal government to punish  schools for non compliance.

We have wasted more than twenty years trying out the beliefs and programs ordered by  powerful, but know-nothing politicians.  For the sake of our children and our country we must take back public education and allow it to grow naturally through wisdom and humanity.

Listening to today’s news about a new school shooting tragedy I decided to revise a piece I wrote after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School   shooting and post it again today. It certainly appears that all schools need full time protection.  But I am not advocating locking everything down or having a crew of armed police just inside the school door.   I think there is a better, less extreme way to protect any school.  Please read my suggestions below.

In these times when so many people have guns and so many schools are vulnerable to attacks like the one in Florida, it seems clear that any large school needs a full time Security Guard. Such a guard is necessary not only to confront any invader, but also to be familiar with students and teachers and gain their trust. In addition, principals, teachers, and students need to learn how to recognize anyone who might attempt to attack the school and the importance of alerting the guard.

The intelligence, persistence and likability of a Security Guard are extremely important. He or she would need those qualities to be the one who hears about any threats to a school’s safety, investigates them, informs and advises the principal, alerts the local police department, and perhaps, if others are slow to respond, takes action. Yes, it is a big job, but a guard is the one most qualified to do it.

When you look at the history of school attacks over the years, you will see that some students were aware of the others at school who were angry or depressed and might become dangerous. Although most attackers appear to be ordinary people on the outside, inside they are deeply damaged and willing to sacrifice their lives and the lives of others who happen to be handy. Many of them are also willing to reveal their feelings, and even their intentions, to family members or friends at school just as Nicolas Cruz did.  When that happens those who are aware of  possible dangers would be inclined to tell what they know to an adult who they trust and believe is the most capable person to protect them. I see that person as the school guard.

In preparing to write about my views of a school tragedy and how it might best be averted in the future, I did some research on attacks in schools in the past. The article that I  found most informative described school shootings that took place over the past two centuries and the present one so far. Not only did it list how many people were killed or injured each time, it also made clear the shooters’ motivations and their willingness to die rather than “forgive and forget”. The title of the article is “List of School Shootings in the United States” and it can be found under:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States