Nov 1, 2007 3:05 PM
I came to this city from Ireland almost 20 years ago. Next April Fools’ Day, in fact, it will be 20 years to the very day. That first weekend, while staying in a four-star YMCA hostel near 34th Street, I remember walking around, checking out the sights and sounds, taking it all in, amazed at what an incredible place this city was. I had all my $394 safely tucked away in my front pocket as I set out to explore the avenues and the streets. I told myself that I would look for a job in a day or two, but first I was going to have a slice of that famous New York pizza and then I wanted to see the rest of the city; the big tall buildings, the subway and everything else that made it New York.
I remember that first day coming across a small group of men standing around this one man who, upon a closer look, was shuffling cards back and forth on top of three upturned empty boxes. The game seemed easy enough; all you had to do was follow the Queen. I threw down $20. I was sure I had it, but somehow I must have taken my eye off the card. What the hell, I tried again, this time with $5, though, and this time I told myself to make sure I watched closely. And, of course, I won. This was great, I thought at the time, and so I jumped right in again. And again. Within minutes I had lost almost $200, each time upping the bet, trying to catch what I had lost in the games before. I was tricked that day by some very fancy sleight of hand.
Of late, as a teacher in this city, I feel that we are all working in a system that goes something like that game. You try to keep your eye on what and where the progress is in all this change that is happening, but you can’t, because like the Queen of Hearts that day, progress seems to have been palmed. This school year we — educators, students and their families alike — are all functioning in yet another of the chancellor’s big overhauls, more examples of what he likes to call Progress. But it is his understanding of what progress is that scares the heck out of me.
One of his big new changes this school year has been reorganizing the educational regions that the city is divided into. “Super regions” they are now being called by many. They will be run by what we are supposed to believe are educational companies with legitimate CEOs who will be selling to the schools the help and guidance and support that all the city’s schools always need. Things that, I might add, were once provided as part of the day-to-day standard operations of the Department of Education before this year’s seating change. The best part of all this very bizarre procedure, however, is that in order for the schools to be able to pay for these services, the chancellor has quite cleverly taken the money from the regional offices of the DOE and has given it directly to the schools so that they can give it back to these new super region companies to make it look like they are paying for what before they were given. It’s all enough to make your head explode.
Joel Klein, of course, sees all this change as nothing but progress. Regions being replaced with bigger, newer, fancier-sounding super regions; offices being moved from one building to another; new chairs and desks for the new CEO superintendents; and a whole new lexicon of departmental divisions and titles created for the same old people. Marcia Lyles, Kathleen Cashin, Judith Chin and Laura Rodriguez are not long-standing CEOs of real educational companies. They are all New York City Department of Education employees sitting in new offices behind shiny new desks where Mr. Klein has merely rearranged the metaphorical furniture, changed the décor, and asked that we all believe.
I hope this is something good, something that in the end will help the children rather than, by sleight of hand, merely shift blame from here to there. But I don’t think so. Progress, to Mr. Klein, seems to work like that, a game of merely shifting and hiding and moving. As long as it’s some kind of change then, by virtue of that fact, it must mean it is progress. But the truth is that not all change is in fact progress. For real progress to happen there must be forward movement, not just any kind of movement.
As I’ve said, I hope I’m wrong. I hope for the children’s sake that this is not another of those sleight-of-hand games. But the truth, is for, me this time I am not going to bet. This time I’ll keep my few dollars safely in my pocket, my hand tightly holding onto them. I may have come to this country on April 1st, but that does not, Mr. Klein, make me the fool.
The Speakout column allows members to praise, criticize, explain, question or just plain vent on any topic of interest to their colleagues. If you have something you want to sound off on, e-mail your submission — about 800 words — to mspielman@uft.org. Include some brief information about where and what you teach (or taught) and how you can be contacted. Writers whose columns are printed receive an honorarium.