Here's one for you:
- Rosa Parks : Civil Rights Movement ::? _________ : Current Education Reform Movement
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It's a trick question (er, analogy). We don't have one. We don't have a sweet little old lady, smartly chosen by the movement to be our rallying point. We don't have an ever-perfect individual, or even one who can be deified as such.
Instead, the reform movement is spearheaded and kept running by myriad ?real? people, all with their own strengths?and their own imperfections. Take Michelle Rhee?who, for better or worse?has come to personify the reform movement; she's a spitfire. She's passionate and intelligent and has proven herself to be (through Students First) a fantastic mobilizer. But, she can also be abrasive and has been known to trample collaboration in her race to improved teacher quality.
Yet, I wonder: Is that really a bad thing? Do we need a Rosa Parks for this generation's civil-rights movement? I don't think we do. I think our real people, who make real mistakes, are exactly what the doctor prescribed.
Yet, as the fallout from Paul Tough's recent New York Times Magazine article painfully shows, reformers are reticent to accept this Rx. For those who haven't yet read the article, Tough raised some tough questions about the ?no excuses? culture of the reform movement. Notably: How can reformers claim to embrace a ?no excuses? (no excuses for failure, that is; success by any means) culture while simultaneously praising (and defending) schools with abysmal student achievement?even those that move the student-achievement needle from dismal and deplorable to merely lamentable?
And the battle cry from reformers was sounded, with blogger Whitney Tilson leading the cavalry. ?Another day, another article in the NY Times that misrepresents reformers?? he proclaimed.
But what's so wrong about being human? About admitting the hiccups, the imperfections, the (gasp, she's going to say it) letdowns and slipups of ourselves and of the movement? We should be owning these wholeheartedly, because it is exactly these bits that keep the reform movement energized?and keep us honest.
Paul Tough's piece wasn't a hatchet job against reformers. But it was a good reminder that we could all do with a good dose of humility?humility that should spur us to further action.
?Daniela Fairchild
