Participants' Blogs
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exploring composing in the 21st century
In the fourth chapter of Mike Rose’s Why School? he asks why is that some people think that anyone can teach. He describes those photo-opportunity moments when some successful business person—he uses Michael Milken as an example—comes in and teaches class for a day. Can anyone teach? If you know something about literature, science, math, etc.., does that mean that you can teach these subjects? Maybe. But Rose’s point is that too often these celebrity guests are teaching topics in which they have little expertise.
Rose writes, “As a teacher all my adult life, I can’t help but be bothered by the familiar implication that anyone can teach. The symbolism of such events would be more on target if visitors did things in line with their expertise in finance: sat in on a budget meeting, or had to count out and distribute the servings of the free lunch program, or went door-to-door trying to convince fellow citizens to vote for a school board” (54-55).
The business images are intentional as the title of the chapter is entitled “Business Goes to School.” While Rose notes that there is nothing inherently wrong with business-school partnerships—in fact, a lot of good can come from them—he remains skeptical. Why? 1) Sometimes businesses have interests in the selling of school material. 2) “Less obvious is the fact that donations from business are tax-deductible, so as policy scholar Janelle Scott points out, considerable tax revenues are diverted from the public fund and toward business-certified causes” (56). I never thought about this.
But perhaps most importantly, Rose asks if we really want our schools managed like businesses. Perhaps like many of you I don’t. I don’t want productivity to be a guiding teaching value. I don’t want job preparation to be the overarching principle. However, I do believe that both—productivity and job preparation—are important. What I like about Rose’s books is that he doesn’t just say business involvement is bad (just a lot it).
One of the things we have been talking about over the last few weeks is how there is often a tendency to blame the teacher when students don’t do well. If Johnny can’t read or write, whose fault is it? Teachers too often get the bad rap. They are not doing their job. The business model again surfaces. This is such a tricky issue that too often gets polarized. As a teacher, I have responsibilities. And, as we all know, bad teaching is consequential. Yet we also know that sometimes when students are struggling, it is far more complicated than the teacher simply not doing his or her job.