“So you’d like me to go from being an outstanding teacher to a mediocre one?”
(Gatto, 2007, pg. 73).
When teacher Lynn Gatto begins her chapter on success guaranteed literacy programs with the above line, it is almost as if she performs several feats in uttering one sentence. Not only did Gatto describe herself challenging the views of a specially hired, “transmissionist trained” Reading First specialist, she also threw down an educational gauntlet of sorts, demanding that students always be taught literacy in a stimulating and effective way. By refusing to adopt the educational methods of the Reading First literacy approach, a program she describes as something “each teacher [in her district] is mandated to use,” Gatto made it clear that she would continue to teach in the manner in which she thought best, no matter who it upset (2007, pg. 74).
That Gatto was able to take this stand with impunity is refreshing, as is her discussion on the way in which she teaches her own students. After sharing that her personal teaching theory is “grounded in the work of Vygotsky” as well as Nystrand’s “substantive engagement,” (2007, pg. 75) Gatto describes a classroom rife with “dialogic discussion” and inquiry-based/immersion learning.
It was wonderful to read about the enthusiasm and passion that Gatto brings to her classroom, along with a teaching approach that does not intellectually “oppress” children. If Paulo Freire were alive today and were able to look in on Gatto’s classroom, he might proclaim her teaching to be libertarian in application, one that gives students a voice, recognizes their strengths, and promotes a constant sense of conscientizacao. In Gatto’s words, important aspects that underline her teaching include planning carefully, selecting appropriate materials and activities across the curriculum, and always considering students’ needs. Above all else---at least for the purposes of the chapter we read---the school mandated Reading First curriculum is essentially verboten in Gatto’s classroom.
That being said, within the first few paragraphs of Gatto’s piece, I realized that she was coming from a rather privileged position, one in which she could professionally afford not to implement the literacy program her school district had mandated. Gatto could also afford to publicly make her displeasure with Reading First known, both within the school and in national, scholarly publications. As a veteran of the teaching profession with tenure, a thirty-year plus track record, numerous teaching awards and a professionally produced documentary in circulation, Gatto can let her voice be heard with little risk of personal repercussions, such as losing her job. However, newer teachers entering the teaching profession, particularly in the educational and economic climate of today, do not have such luxury, nor can they afford to blatantly go against school mandate in the same manner Gatto did.
To a large degree, Gatto is a rogue teacher, and, in reading between the lines of her text, there is the sense that she is not sharing all that happened to her in the aftermath of her refusal to teach the Reading First curriculum:
So far, my “Don’t” attitude and “I do not use it” conduct have not been challenged by my school administration…I must admit, in the last sixteen years I have transferred out of four schools because of the frequent changes in administration, which left me to work with principals who lacked peda-gogical vision and leadership skills. Since my district comprises thirty-nine elementary schools, I have had little difficulty transferring to the schools of my choice (2007, pg. 77).
Though it is good that Gatto has been able to change from school to school as she sees fit, what type of message does this send to perspective, new, and young teachers? And what about all the children Gatto regularly leaves behind? With her gone from their lives, they ineluctably go back to being taught using mediocre teaching methods. Somehow, choosing to go rogue and then changing schools whenever administrators begin to turn against you somehow doesn’t seem to be the most efficient approach to changing the educational system. Suppose one is in a position where s/he doesn’t have such a choice? Administrators and fellow colleagues alike can make life quite terrible for talented but less established teachers who refuse to follow rules and protocol.
For the duration of the article, I was excitedly waiting to hear about the moment when Gatto and her fellow teachers banded together, unanimously agreed to teach their students in a more progressive and inquiry-based manner, and subsequently turned around the test scores and literacy skills of students. In other words, I was waiting to see how Gatto lead her colleagues to Beat the System, but from within. But the moment never came. With a teacher as gifted as Gatto, I never felt that she was particularly interested in sharing her teaching methods with colleagues and working with them to truly make a difference in education as a united group.
For the duration of the article, I got the strong sense that Gatto views herself as a one woman show and a star teacher, but she never takes on a leadership role to “rally the troops” and get everyone, rather than just her, teaching in the best way possible. As educators, it does little good to only be off on our own doing good things for students. In this educational climate, now more than ever, teachers need to collectively support and help one another.
On a personal note, for the duration of my own teaching experience, I have had the luxury of teaching in a setting where I was able to employ an inquiry-based, progressive instructional approach without the use of state mandated textbooks or programs. The inspired and inquiry-based teaching approach I have always employed is somewhat similar to the one that Gatto created. The curriculum at my school was entirely teacher generated and its quality heavily depended on the skills and talents of teachers. Suffice it to say, effective teachers at the school did an incredible amount of work on a daily basis, constantly coming up with new curricular ideas and devising innovative implementation methods. The teacher autonomy was wonderful, but there is a catch---the school I speak of is private, and I know that the rules of instruction that work well there would not work at all well in most public schools.
Because Gatto commences her teaching units by immersing students in a theme, begins instruction with the children’s questions (rather than her own or those given in a textbook), has students engage in hands-on, project based learning and extensive, reflection driven writing, she appears to not run a “banking based” classroom. In Freirian theory, the banking approach to education is one in which the road to learning is paved with rote memorization and children are viewed as empty depositories which teachers must fill with knowledge. In Freire’s words:
In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slave of the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher’s existence---but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher (Freire, 1997, pg. 53).
In all my various academic experiences, both in the United States and abroad, I’ve discovered that having a true Freirian educational experience, one that essentially approaches education from a libertarian perspective and thus promotes authentic thinking and consciousness in students, along with genuine and meaningful time to work and reflect, is an exquisite find indeed. On the rare occasions this has actually happened to me, I’ve felt like I’ve unexpectedly stumbled over the Hope Diamond.
And now for a Freirian homage, put together by Suzanne McDougall, formerly of Antioch (please excuse the small spelling error in one of the frames of the video):
http://youtu.be/KEaH64uhaN0
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