In the Interim, Your Thoughts?

Sometimes the pauses between my essays isn’t confidence freeze, but actual busy-ness. Other times, I am just researching or mulling. This pause has been a combination of the above, plus I’ve been doing a lot of reading today, preparing for what I hope will be the next essay.

In the meantime, I thought I’d throw out the things I’m thinking about and see if anyone has any thoughts or links that might be interesting. Because even though I don’t always respond to my commenters, I read them and mull.

• Why Private Schools are Dying Out—this is, in fact, what I’m working on a response to. If you routinely follow my blog, you can probably predict my response, but anyone just showing up, you may want to check out The Parental Diversity Dilemma, Why Charters Skim, and Why They Should Stop, Charter Hypocrisy, Diversity Dilemma in Action. If anyone has any links or interesting article about education reform in the early-mid 90s, I’d love to hear about them.
• Teacher Intellectual Property–and here I don’t mean the Teachers Paying Teachers aspect, but the larger point—specifically, what is a teacher’s job?
• Geometry topic sequencing and maybe something about this article. Yeah, I know that my non-teacher population is thrilled with this one. But I have been sequencing my geometry in what appears to be a unique way, and I want to talk about it. So if you have opinions on the fact that special right triangles and right triangle trig are actually forms of similar triangles and can all be taught in that sequence, let me know so I can at least say I’m not unique.
• The current irritating eduformer meme arguing that school districts are “creaming by geography”, as a way of striking back at the charter school creaming charge.
• My Philip K. Dick article, which is the first serious challenger to Algebra and the Pointlessness of the Whole Damn Thing as my most-read post, mentioned that I would leave my ideas for high school for later. I would like to get back to that, and figure if I put that desire down on blog, it might up the odds.

Not sure all of these will make it to a post, but those are my current mullings. If you have thoughts or any other questions/comments, put them in comments or if you want to email—is there not a link on the blog somewhere? I should check—my email is the blog name at gmail.

One other thing, sparked by Steve Sailer’s recent donations drive and my discovery that my US web audience is predominantly high income males without kids: would anyone be interested in a Donate button? I can promise only that I will spend the money on sushi, cheap student white board markers, and more expensive beer. Well, maybe pool some of it into a savings fund that will make me feel braver about taking the summer off, instead of working as I’m currently planning. Feel free to shout “HELL, NO!” in the comments; my feelings won’t be hurt. I’m more interested in the possibility that people are thinking gosh, if Ed would just post a link, I’d send cash.

Writing for free, but not as a Writer

I can write, but I am not a Writer. Not only am I not a Writer, but the conditions for Writers today are simply not that good, in part because there are people like me who write, but are not Writers.

— Razib Khan

I didn’t think the Nate Thayer hooha had any relevance to my life until I read Razib’s post and realized that I, too, am not a Writer, but someone who can write. Once I wrote a political website that started from scratch six weeks before an election and was selected for the Library of Congress Web Archive; not only wasn’t I paid, I actually forked out some funds for the domain name. I didn’t expect even a token payment when my two op-eds were published in top-ten circulation newspapers, so I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the past year writing two essays, which both got a nice reception, for free. I was filling out an application today and was surprised to see how often I mentioned an unpaid writing project as an achievement worth mentioning on my resume.

I didn’t accept non-payment to build up my reputation as a Writer, so that some day I’ll be able to charge for my work, but because I want the validation that comes from a reputable source publishing my ideas, and I want an audience, whatever audience exists to read my ideas. Writing is just the means of creation of a package of ideas, and the ideas are what drive me to write.

Take this blog, which represents hundreds, and eventually thousands, of hours of unpaid writing time. Ideally, it will never be publicly linked to the person who wrote those op-eds and essays for free. It will not be picked up by Education Week and provide me an additional paycheck. I can’t use it on my resume, either. Yet this blog represents my greatest writing achievement and a source of considerable pride, a package of information and ideas validated by the growing audience and the recognition by advocates and reporters. Not in the slightest does it matter whether people know it’s me.

I like to think I write well. But I could never be a Writer. Never mind that I’m too slow, and too long, to do this for pay. Never mind that I love teaching and wouldn’t want to give it up. I don’t want to be a Writer because I’m not interested in telling someone else’s story. Advocacy groups would want me to support one particular position. News sites would want me to offer neutral analysis—except, of course, most education reporters are anything but neutral. Straight reporting would require too many tradeoffs in story selection and that I keep my opinions out of the story. Columnists (at least these days) have to find their place on the political spectrum and get a following, or they won’t be columnists. None of these functions sound appealing—assuming anyone would want me in a paid position in the first place, or that I could convince anyone to pay me to write for them.

So for someone like me, publication at a reputable, critically-acclaimed outlet offers exposure to a larger, or different, audience. The more that people read my work and realize that education is complicated, that pretty much every advocacy position is flawed, and that there aren’t any easy answers, the more I have achieved my goal—with or without money. The only payment that would further my goals would be, say, a book deal, and even then, it wouldn’t be the advance or the status of Writer that mattered, but the validation and the audience that comes with it.

None of this is to say I don’t sympathize with the Nate Thayers, the Writers who are seeing a near cataclysmic decline in income. The Atlantic is seeing record profits, a rare happy tale in a the recent publishing landscape. What does it mean if a publication can only achieve record profits by refusing to pay for the manufacture of its product? It’s one thing to occasionally pick up a well-written piece by an amateur who wants the audience. It’s quite another to just survey the landscape of written work and scavenge the pickings for the article that has the potential to increase their click—wait, we’re calling it “hits” now—count with an author who’ll value the exposure over cash. Is that the future of magazines without a deep pockets dilettante? Editorial vision and quality control secondary to manufacture?

If so, that will ultimately redound to people like me, who write but aren’t Writers, and who have done their bit to contribute to this situation, because one key aspect of our goal is “reputable outlet validating our work”. We’ll just have “hit”-whoring publications who will only care about quality after traffic, and billionaire mouthpieces that pay well, but require a certain viewpoint. And of course, to a certain extent, what else is new?—but really, it’s worse. The market is fragmenting even further, and the disintegration of another gold standard is nigh.

I find it increasingly difficult to get excited about technological innovations any more.

2012 in review

In October, I reached 100 posts, which is a lot for a slow writer, so I did a summary of my work thus far. I had 37,000 views in October; by year end, I had 67000. Calculated on a purely monthly basis, my blog has 5628 views per month. However, it’s clear that things took off in June, which is when I created a Twitter account. June through December accounts for 60,000 of my 67,000 page views, or 8627 views per month. I did not achieve this by writing more posts; as you can see by my calendar archive at the bottom I wrote 25 posts in January, 13 posts in February, and 10 or less every subsequent month, so I apparently grew my audience. So I thought I’d do a retrospective; maybe new readers would find something that interested them.

Page views by month:

Rather than list posts by viewership, I thought I’d look into the numbers by month, as it’s obvious I started off big, then faded back, then hit my stride over the summer, which I connect to Twitter but may be caused by something else.

January

1. The Gap in the GRE, currently 8th in my overall list, has actually gotten more views over time than in its original posting. Steve Sailer discussed it in June, and it’s getting more interest over time. As a 99.999% verbal performer, I’m proud to have increased awareness of that gap.
2. Teacher Quality Pseudofacts, Part II. This article was responsible for most of the atypically high activity in January and is third on my overall list. Google “teacher SAT scores” and the search returns my article on the first page. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been reading a blog on an entirely unrelated subject and seen commenter A sneer about crappy teacher SAT scores, and commenter B slam back with a link to this article. This is a high information value post that gets used a lot. Deeply satisfying. Eat that, Biggs and Richwine.
3. Another post that gets a lot of attention, relative to what I expected, is Modeling Linear Equations. Google “linear equations modeling” and it comes up on the first page, and is 13th overall in page views. Teachers use this post as a direct homework assignment or as an example, and its usage has also increased over time.
4. Oh, yeah, I explained the Voldemort View, a phrase I borrow from an anonymous teacher.

February

1. Another sleeper post, Homework and Grades. Joanne Jacobs linked it in, giving it the first boost, but it’s been a big performer over time, and is the seventh most read post.
2. I think my unit on Twelfth Night has some great ideas.
3. I also introduced the lurker in the teacher quality debate—namely, race. I’ve returned to this several times with my Mumford posts.

March, April, and May

These were all very slow months, primarily because I didn’t take on hot topics and talked mostly about teaching. No big posts, but I’m very happy with the method outlined in Teaching Trig, and thought this post on induction and its crappiness was good. My History of Elizabethan Theater I, II, and III are worth a read, too. I only wrote 4 posts in May, because I was focusing on a piece I wrote under my own name, but this piece is a lot of fun: Teaching Algebra, or Banging Your Head With a Whiteboard.

June

1. Why Chris Hayes Fails got a big immediate reaction, winning links from both Steve Sailer and Razib Khan, and is currently #5 on my overall. This post, too, gets a lot of repeat links because of its disconcerting evidence in two big areas: a) blacks and Hispanics are more likely to get test prep than whites, and b) wealthy blacks score lower than poor whites on the SAT, something I return to often.

2. What’s the difference between the SAT and the ACT—The difference between these tests will, at some point or another, become relevant to your life, and I’m one of maybe fifty people in the country (and that’s being generous) who have spent a decade prepping wealthy, middle class, and poor kids of all races on both the SAT and the ACT. Please keep it in mind.
3. Difference between tech and teacher hiring . I’m fifty. It’s frigging brutal, getting hired as a teacher. If you know anyone planning on becoming a second career teacher, send them this link to discourage them from spending a lot of money on the effort.
4. The problem with fraudulent grades: For seven years, I’ve taught an ACT class to low income, black and Hispanic students, and seen the profound differences in GPA, course transcript and demonstrated ability based on whether or not they went to a charter school or comprehensive high school. My contempt for GPA and AP for all is close to boundless because of my experience.

July
July was my first huge month, nearly double June, and 60% of January through June combined. I found it intimidating, frankly.

1. The myth of “they weren’t ever taught”–probably my single favorite post, an effort to explain to non-teachers what it is like to teach a demanding cognitive subject to low to mid-ability kids. Razib Khan and many others linked this in; thanks for the attention!
2. Google Clarence Mumford and my original post is still on the first page as of today. In August, it was third. This story was completely ignored for four months, in my opinion because it points the way to what will certainly occur (and has occurred) if teacher content knowledge requirements are raised.
3. The False God of Elementary Test Scores–another idea I return to frequently. Many believe that raising elementary test scores and achievement will lead to stronger high school achievement. No evidence of that, folks.

August

1. #1 on the most read list: Algebra and the Pointlessness of the Whole Damn Thing, my “curating”, as it’s called today, of the argument set off by Andrew Hacker. I didn’t take a position but rather explained why everyone else was wrong.
2. SAT Prep for the ultra-rich and everyone else—another very useful useful primer on test prep.
3. Why Chris Christie picks on teachers—for that matter, why eduformers pick on teachers and leave cops and firefighters alone. Is it completely a coincidence that teachers are mostly white women and the other two are primarily white men?

September
A relatively light month, but with a number of pieces I’m happy with.

1. The Fallacy at the Heart of All Reform—this piece has never gotten all that much attention. Basic idea: both progressives and “reformers” have been pushing legislation onto schools without any research supporting their objectives. Useful overview of education legislation over the past 40 years.
2. On the CTU Strike—another piece I like a great deal, suggesting why reformers might be failing so spectacularly at winning the hearts and minds of the public.
3. The Sinister Assumption Fueling KIPP Skeptics—Stuart Buck throws out what he assumes is a gotcha, and I amiably agree.

October

1. Escaping Poverty—what advice do you give a 15 year old who wants to get out of poverty? In a little over a month, it achieved second place on my most read list.

2. Boaler’s Bias—it was opinions like these that made my life at ed school difficult.
3. Teaching Students with Utilitarian Spectacles—Every so often, I take a piece of academic writing and show what it means when working with a student at ground level. This is one of my favorites; thanks to Joanne Jacobs for discussing it.
4. Best Movie About Teaching. Ever.–I like writing about movies.

November

1. Parental Diversity Dilemma—jumped to six on my overall list. I’m pretty hard on Mike Petrilli, the parents pretending they want diversity, and charter advocates. All in all, a good day’s work. John Derbyshire included me on his dark enlightenment reading list, as did Steve Sailer
2. More on Mumford—finally, the media noticed the Clarence Mumford story, and I slam down hard on the education pundits who scoff at the “stupid” people who can’t pass the Praxis without cheating.
3. The End of Pi—Like Twelfth Night, a rare post when I talk about teaching literature.
4. Algebra Terrors—in which I discuss the PTSD I suffer from teaching all algebra, all the time.

December

1. Alternative College Admissions System–#9 on my most read list, an answer to Ron Unz’s controversial article about the myth of american meritocracy
2. Fake Grades and Big Money–I use KIPP data to show why I think grades are useless, and why KIPP pledges are so problematic.
3. Push the Right Buttons—another student anecdote that I’m very fond of.
4. Those who can, teach. Those who can’t, wonk—useful if you want to know the teaching history of most major eduwonks. Answer: not very much.
5. Diversity Dilemma in Action—Obligingly, the Rancho Elementary School in Novato comes forth to prove why I have such a low opinion of Mike Petrilli’s new book.

So there’s my year. Thanks for reading!

No Jeans for Teachers? Seriously?

Teacher dress code means banning jeans.

Are you one of those people who thinks that these dress codes will “restore professionalism” and “instill respect” into teaching? I can’t remember the last time I saw a doctor who wasn’t in jeans or dockers. My dentist is an overdresser, it’s true, but her receptionist never moves beyond jeans. Casual Friday died the death in corporate America a decade or more ago; we dressed down every day of the week. Hell, lawyers don’t even wear suit and ties routinely unless they’re at court.

So spare me the pieties about teachers’ clothes. Many of us want to wear jeans, or shorts, or sweat pants. Unless there’s research proving that kids achieve better when their male teachers wear ties and the female ones wear dresses, then take a big cup of shut up. Curb the excesses, fine. No holes, no spaghetti straps, no tattoos, sure. But jeans? Please. The era of suit and ties is over—not just for teaching, but for the country. You want to bring it back, start with an occupation that pays in the six figures first.

Hey, I’m on Twitter

For an ex-techie with a distressing number of website domains, I’m not a faithful blogger and I avoid most social media. But I wanted to try to respond more quickly–that is not necessarily with a blog post–to articles that interest me. We’ll see how it goes. I will probably get bored with it.