Firing Teachers at Underperforming Schools is Unproductive Reform

Teachers are the life blood of this country. So when I heard that the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan chose to fire a host of teachers in the Chicago schools, in the middle of a recession, I shook my head.

Obama and Duncan are about to see how it feels to get politically bitch-slapped by the most underappreciated union in the country, the teachers. And I hope my mother is leading the way.

They are using one elementary school in Chicago as the model. You would think that people who are so smart could not be as stupid and simple minded as Duncan and Bami, but...my expectations are a little too high in this case; especially since people like Obama have always sent their children to private school and Duncan's children go to an "elite" public institution that Pookie could not get into.

You see Duncan, one moderate "success" story with your program will not be the answer to every school. Take for example the illiteracy, drop out rate and poor performance at schools on Native American reservations. Is it bad teachers? Or is it them still dealing the residuals of a very bad government.

The remedy of firing all teachers is supposed to be the across the board solution, but it is not, it is actually spitting one the profession once again and removing teachers in the group who are have made a difference.

Duncan's tactic is similar to cancer treatment. Kill all cells good and bad in hopes that you can go in to remission.

Why are the teachers to blame when schools fail? That boggles my mind from the Bush era's "No Child Left Behind" to this new initiative "Rising to the Top" a push to make educational levels a national standard.

First the onus was on the bad parents, now it is bad teachers. What about a failed and flawed school system that has ALWAYS been in place due to the preferential treatment of the priveleged and was never fixed. Oh yeah, and what about all the dumb people who have been my supervisor, but got the jobs due to flesh privelege.

Even though the legal system threw out a couple of desegregation laws that have been reversed at least socially today, the evidence of a backwards America exists in the backwards school system.

Of course there are bad teachers.

I will not argue that there are some teachers who are so horrible they need to be placed on something akin to a sexual predatory's list.

Nonetheless, the profession of teaching is seen and treated as an inferior career.

Need I remind U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that teaching has become the depository for everyone who needed a job.

As well, the "integration" of schools disrupted the academic climates of many schools that suffer racial tensions, disappropriation of honors classes to certain races, and the social/economic downfall of communities whose taxes do not go to their community educational instituions.

Maybe if the standards of teaching were elevated before one hits the classroom and real teachers were compensated, promoted and given more say in the run of the school as opposed to an administrator who probably has not been in classroom.

Maybe if the mandate to have teachers bused into communities they fear and will never live teach, while those who have stayed and are the glue that hold some of these raggedy schools together without notice, the climate would change.

Or just maybe if the running of poor school were linked the building of prisons, or economic injustice in working class and communities of color, inequital distribution of taxes, and seen as a bigger issue than just student performance, "bad parenting", or crappy teaching, than everyone who has really profitted off of schools, but failed would be held accountable and fired.

However...

Bureaucrats have to point to somebody so they can look good. But there is an African proverb that says, "Point one finger and three are pointing back at you."

When the Music Hits You Feel No Pain: Omar Sosa

So much trouble in the world, as Marley prophetically spoke.

Mother-nature, my soul sister must be giving birth t something serious because her contractions are non-stop.

Another massive earthquake, this time in Indonesia. So let's count the quakes so far, Haiti, Chile, Turey,now Indonesia.

And with all the rain and flooding that is going on here in the NYC area, I do believe that her water has broke. Now, I know she is giving birth to change that only the elements can deliver. What come out of her womb? Well, we will find out within the next 2-years as the planet's physicality and the people's social realities and awareness shifts.

Also, I heard about the mock Russian invasion played on Georgian TV last night. Sounds like nations are experimenting with the minds of the people again. Let us not forget the panic broadcast inspired by the writings of author Orson Wells.

Throughout all of this, music is a healing salve on our souls. So I am dropping in the words of a musical genius, Omar Sosa, the hardest working man in the jazz world, and arguably the industry.

Years ago on a whim, I spent the remainder of my water bill to check out the Afro-Cuban pianist at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles. I was a vibrant dancehall-booty poppin' 20-something afro-socialite in the thick of neo-cultural revolution in the city.

However, I was tired of the rhetoric and the red-black-green negroes. I wanted something other than the hip-hop, r&b radio commercial stuff. One day while listening to KPFK, a Pacifica station in SoCal, I heard a brilliant jazz song to an African deity, Osun with poetry. Sosa who has a raspy voice was interviewed afterwards. I went crazy like, ahhhhh. "I have to see this old man," I thought.

I am soooo happy I listened to my spirit. I later found out that Sosa is far from old or crusty, or jazz-bourgeios. His hair is shaven except for some Egyptian tufts that are dreaded on his crown. He is this down-to-earth, Santeria-devotee, who loves hip-hop, Mid-Eastern/North African culture, and embraces his African roots.

And his show was fucking bananas. His quartet was so intense my whole inner shit was abuzz. Sosa was dripping in a pool of sweat as he damn near flew off the stage while jumping up-and-down playing his keys.

I am not the groupie type, but I ran to the backstage to shake his hand. Luckily the Jazz Bakery is not this stuffy atmosphere. I was ushered into a room that he shared with all his members and he was so humble.

Later that week, I bumped into him at a Bembe. Small world, I guess geniuses do travel in tight circles. :-)

I will never forget tha experience. I need to listen more to my spirit. Matter of fact, we all do. Blog on, EcoSi