You know..

obscuura:

lianneee:

I’m not sure if many of you have seen Leibner’s email or even know the situation that is going on at Carson High at this moment.  I’m putting this up because I feel that this is something that ALL of his students should see. I feel, that without a doubt, a majority of students feel his teaching skills are beyond exemplary. He does what most teachers in the system don’t do. He cares about his students. Please take the time to read through the entire email, if you can, write a letter back. Reblog if you feel the need. 

As far as I know, I refuse to let one of the most influential teachers in my life go down like this.

Hello alumni—
 

There is no easy way to write this note.

When I first started teaching back in Brooklyn, I had no idea how long I would stay a teacher.   Before I took the job in New York, I worked three years as a paralegal in a law office in Washington, DC but knew law was not going to be my life.

Then, New York City opened up its purse strings and raised the starting teacher salary from $14,500 to $18,000 a year. 

I jumped at the opportunity to do something that might mean something bigger than some huge corporate anti-trust settlement.

You all would laugh if I can take you back in time with me in front of that Brooklyn classroom and later in the Bronx.  It was all trial and error as I basically fumbled my way through experiment after experiment trying to figure out what were the best strategies and methods to reach this population.  There were more failures than successes for me back then, but not from lack of trying.   In New York I learned that my life, my education, my life experiences had to find some way to meet my students’ lives, their educations (in all meanings of that word) and their life experiences.

Education is not neutral.  In my mind, to do it right it is activist in nature.  As a teacher, your teaching methods and practices ARE your politics.  Philosophy is politics.  Kids are rarely taught to look at the world like this by either their parents or their teachers, but it’s true.   We are what we put into practice and our actions are our mirror.  The only reason I teach is

On the Carson High webpage, teachers were asked to write an introduction to their classes.  What I wrote was:

THE SCHOOL OF NO SCHOOL

You come to class with lots of questions (even if you don’t realize the questions).

You get some answers (even if you don’t realize the answers).

Then those “answers” change as the class goes on.  And they will change a million times.

But you keep asking questions even after the class is over.

The only reason I “teach” is to assist you in examining those million moving answers so that you ultimately realize that you don’t even need school—if you learn to do this yourself.

Upon coming to Los Angeles all those years ago, there is only one school I have ever taught at:  Carson High.  Most of the time I kept to myself and taught my philosophy of open minded, expansive education.  The books, the films, the field trips, the projects were all part of a discovery process that it wasn’t for me to tell you what you would find at the end…it was just to point to a useful door that you yourselves would open and go through. 

And who knew what you would learn about the world because you took that step.

Or what you learned about yourself.

And the whole process of “education” is giving you the courage and fortitude and wherewithal to not only open that first door, but then open the door that presents itself to you because you turned that knob.  And most of you realize that the doors keep coming.  You all are experiencing things in your life that you could never have possibly imagined while you were at high school.  But the reason that you are is because of the lessons you learned about putting yourself out there to take risks, learn from your mistakes, but most importantly keep pushing yourself forward.

Later, when finding like-minded collaborators, the Advanced Studies Academy came to fruition.  Most of you are from that remarkable program and benefited enormously from what you learned through your interaction with the teachers, the students and the methodologies of that program.  Its termination this year is symptomatic of what is happening in the name of “education reform”:  ASA was deemed unessential to the new vision of what Carson is to become.   Later I worked with the small learning community CATS (Community of Arts, Technology and Science) to help get that novel and exciting program off the ground running.  So many wonderful students were equally energized by the type of free-thinking education they received when teachers put the responsibility of education into their hands and trusted them with what they would find.

This year, Carson had a new change of administration.  The Principal of the school has a radically different set of values and ideas about education.  It is up to the school, the teachers, the parents and the community to make their own decisions about the direction and implementation of the current philosophies.  They are free to accept or reject what they are now being offered.

Very quickly at the start of this year, I made up my mind about the new direction of the school.  (SPOILER ALERT!) I detested it.

For the first time in my entire teaching career, I received a Unsatisfactory Evaluation from the current administration.  In fact, I have the dubious distinction of being the only National Board Certified Teacher in California history to receive an unsatisfactory evaluation.

Here are the administration’s findings in regard to me and my teaching:

Failed to establish and maintain standards for student behavior and create a climate that promotes fairness and respect.

Failed to plan and implement classroom procedures and routines that support student learning.

Failed to provide an effective classroom environment

Failed to provide effective supervision of students.

Failed to collaborate in the improvement of the school program.

Failed to follow district and state policies, laws and regulations.

Failed to communicate and interact with colleagues, staff, parents and students in an appropriate manner.

The teacher has on site, and displays, an over-abundance of inappropriate realia, in the physical classroom environment that is in violation of District policy and regulations (Books that are non-District approved, personal photographs and photographs, art, postcards and personal postcards, personal memorabilia, paraphernalia, figurines, magazines, other materials, etc.)

A climate does not exist with the classroom where respect is provided, expected, communicated or maintained, and students are effectively supervised.

A Climate of neutrality does not exist with the classroom environment that would allow boys or girls to feel free of gender biases, alternative lifestyle choices, or sexism, based upon depictions posted on the classroom walls.

A climate does not exist with the environment that is free of depictions of religious bashing or stereotypes.

A climate does not exist within the classroom environment that is free of depictions of racial bigotry and the promotion of violence as a means of retaliation against bigotry.

A climate does not exist for boys or girls within the classroom environment that is free of depictions of sexual exploitation.

A climate does not exist with the classroom environment that promotes a lifestyle that is free of depictions of drug and alcohol abuse.

 

I need to make a humble request of you.

If any of you would be willing to write a letter of support addressing my teaching abilities and effectiveness, it would truly help my cause and offer testimony to the support my teaching philosophy and its effectiveness.  If any of the books, the field trips, the projects, the discussions, the philosophies made a difference in your life, could you write about it?  You can discuss who you have become since leaving my class and into the broader world.  Obviously, there are many more students I have had over the years, but I don’t have their emails nor am I on FB or any other social media (I do have basic cable TV though).   If you know any other friend who would be willing to do the same and write in support, I would be very grateful.

You will need to email your letter the following people:

Windy Warren:  winwarren@lausd.net

Adrian Magee:  agm0967@lausd.net

Veronica Aragon:  varagon@lausd.net

When one of you wrote to say that you were doing a paper on education, you asked me what my teaching philosophy was.  I responded as simply as I could:

The mission of education is to get kids happy, confident and turn themselves into interesting people by the process.
 
If you do that, then all the other crucial benefits and necessities—being truly intelligent, open-minded, curious, tolerant, adventurous, considerate, artistic, generous (and moral, spiritual and political)—will follow.

It has been an honor to have you as part of my class.  You have taught me so much that you have no idea how much you have shaped and influenced my life.

Because of you, you gave me the strength to do something I never thought I could ever in a million years do…

Raise my own kid.

If Marlowe turns out half as good, as spirited, as inquisitive, as adventurous, as intelligent and challenging as you all have, I would be thrilled beyond all English language vocabulary.

 
Yours,
 
—Leibs

so upset. i’m going to do that letter RIGHT now. windy warren you are a bitch.