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Classroom tales: A diary

August 29, 2011

Back To School: Learning To Put Down The Duckie

by Ruben Brosbe, at 2:18 pm

Last week, during my first week at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, I went “course shopping.” This is a time when practically all the professors give 40-minute explanations or previews of their courses so that students can make decisions about their schedule. As someone who thought I had my schedule all figured out at the beginning of the week this was exciting and frustrating at the same time, as I suddenly felt doubts about all the classes I wasn’t taking. With only two semesters of coursework while I’m here, the stakes feel pretty high for each selection.

That said, the stress of figuring out which courses to take has been far outweighed by the excitement of getting to know my classmates and professors. I have been continually awestruck by the knowledge and experience my professors bring to the classroom. I am equally humbled by the breadth and depth of experience of my fellow students.

In the past few days I met Ronald Ferguson, a man who literally wrote the book on closing the achievement gap; I listened to Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot speak, and literally got chills; I sat in on shopping sessions for about a dozen other professors who have in many ways shaped the direction and discourse on education in this country.

What also struck me in the midst of this exciting and overwhelming period is the need for me to stop and prepare to totally open my mind. During orientation’s opening ceremony, one of the speakers, Joseph Blatt, mentioned the need for us to “put down the duckie.” By this he meant the need for us to shed our biases, our hang-ups and preconceived notions, and open ourselves up to the rich discussions of the year ahead.

Over the past year I have felt pressured to create an ad hoc ideology. Since the New York Post published my op-ed in favor of releasing Teacher Data Reports last October, I felt pressured to take stances, sometimes based more on gut reactions to the attacks and assumptions of others, rather than a thorough, well-researched process. This is not a process that leads to the thoughtful formation of lasting, meaningful beliefs.

I am excited then to take a deep breath and “put down the duckie” as I prepare for the year ahead. I am putting down my Educators 4 Excellence duckie. I am putting down my teacher duckie. I am shedding as much as I can about what I think I know for certain, in order to really learn from my professors and peers about the issues that really matter to me. This isn’t to say I won’t use my experiences to act as a lens to aid my studies, but I am excited to approach my studies with a fresh perspective in order to come to an understanding about what I truly believe.

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  • Billy D.

    Ruben: My understanding is that neither Ronald Feguson nor Sarah Lawerence Lightfoot were ever actual public school teachers. Seems that the ivory towers of Harvard are filled with “experts” who never set foot in a public school as teachers. The educational deform movement has it’s frontline generals like Gates, it has ministers of propaganda with the talking heads at ivy league schools, and then it has it’s special forces made up of groups like E4E. However, they are all just paper tigers in the end. You can accomplish so much more for the world as an actual teacher rather than as a “policy advocate” or whatever then new buzzword of the day is.

  • flerpo

    and let the flaming begin . . . . 

  • Marat

    Ruben, after you complete the class you should insist that Harvard allows you to teach it. You’ll surely be an expert by then.

  • I noticed that…

    OMG Ruben, forget about your duckies.  You are a quack when it comes to the teaching profession.  Please move on with your life and get your faux-education from your prestigious college.  Once you’re done go somewhere else.  You used the students as stepping stones and your TDR are disgraceful, haven’t seen it, but I know.  I truly hope we never meet face to face because I would not be able to bridle my tonge especially since I may teaching my profession, my career, my life for over 22 years.

  • I noticed that…

    correction: since I made teaching my profession, …

  • chaz

    Ruben:

    You are a prime example of why education reform does not work. You are leaving the teaching profession because you were unable to get tenure due to poor teaching.  Now you want to go into education leadership with professors who have never been in a public school calassroom. Finally, you actually believe a professor who claims that he can eliminate the academic achievement gap without getting to the root cause which is poverty, family dysfunction, and community.

    I can only feel sorry for the school system that gets you as an educational leader.

  • http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

    It’s always illuminating for us lowly teachers to receive the insights of a college student who’s failed to receive tenure—something many of us, myself included, worked very hard for. It’s even more illuminating as this failed teacher reveals most of the nonsense he’s spouted in his inaccurate and plodding columns was just that. However, this denial is just as disingenuous as the assertions that preceded it. Clearly Mr. Brosbe wishes to find a position telling other people how to achieve what he’s failed to achieve, and I can’t imagine he’ll have the slightest problem doing so.

    Obviously Gotham Schools thinks it’s important to publish this drek, as though it were representative of anything other than self-serving, self-important, self-promoting blather. Few teachers are fooled, and this is hardly representative of what teachers think. Doubly so because the writer is no longer even a teacher.

  • guest

    Go away.  I thought we were done with you and you are now Harvard’s problem.

    You can’t teach and you don’t have the brains to stop writing about your failings as a teacher.  Grow up and stop posting.  No one respects you and your attempts to look smart just makes you look worse.

  • Stoker

    So true! Ruben is now just a college student. He will be done at Harvard in a year but all the NYC teachers will never forget his dribble and nonsense as a mouthpiece for E4E. He is in for one heck of a ride if he tries to come back to NYC  as an “educational policy” expert.

  • http://twitter.com/SoBronxSchool Bronx Teacher

    Ruben putting away his duckie…….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKnhTUBt5xI

  • Wondering….

    Flerpo, do we really need your trolling? After all, we’ve got Gotham Schools’ own resident special frequent honored guest troll, Ruben Brosbe!

    Gotham Schools, please wake up and smell the coffee; you’ll do just fine with one less writer on your “Community” page.  I mean, really, as good as Brosbe’s intentions may be, he’s no longer from the “community” of teachers.  Perhaps he never really was, if his brief foray into classroom teaching was always but a stepping stone within his grand career plan.

  • Sunshineandlollipops

    Ruben is the duckie.

  • Oldsneakers_2000

    Given Ruby some respect. He left a self-admitted failed teacher and he will return to a run a school system. Where else is some city going to find the next failed administrator.

    Rhee, Klien can Ruby be any worse.

  • Anonymous

    You still have no clue as to what education is about and after your fancy education you will be just as clueless. After all, you will be taking classes with people who have never stepped foot in a public school.  They say those who can’t teach become administrators and you are a prime example.

  • I noticed that…

    From NYC Educator blogsite:  http://nyceducator.com/2011/08/im-lucky-duckie-dude.html

    NYCE nails the duckie dude again.  Bravo to one of my favorite blogger.

  • cl_pixie

    This program is only 2 semesters??  So in very little time someone like you, who we now see can be swayed so easily when a superior tells him what to think.  The thing is Ruben, you are a failed teacher with clueless convictions.  And the fact that Harvard accepted you now makes me realize how worthless this program is.

    The only good thing is if and when you apply for a job, people will Google you and see what a failure you were as a teacher.  The days of taping a kid’s mouth shut to rising to the top of the field in Education will soon be over. 

  • Jan

    Those who can’t teach become policy makers like you. Another know-nothing. Just what the ed reformers want. New blood with no history of the system.

  • Ms. Rim

    If you are a graduate student of education, why on earth would you “put down your teacher duckie?” For you or any one who intends to continue a career in education –  in or out of the classroom –  it will be imperative that you draw from those experiences. 
    And, what, exactly do you intend to do after Harvard?  How can you support and advocate for teachers and students when, by your own admission, you haven’t been a very good teacher all along?
    I was a Teaching Fellow, too – the one thing I learned was that in order to be a better teacher I had to learn classroom management and how to break down concepts in several different ways in order to teach them to different students – something the Fellows did not particularly do well with. 
    The “thoughtful formation of lasting, meaningful beliefs” and ideology, “ad hoc”, or not – is only a small piece of the pie. And in fact, a good educator will  amend, modify or change their beliefs and ideology as experience and circumstances dictate. You will have a very tough time as an administrator or policy maker with only ideas and philosophy.
    I hope one of the courses offered is about the education of teachers, and you take it.  The Fellows shafted us – gave us a lot of theory and next to no practice, and it’s my understanding that most other alternate certification programs are the same, and even many traditional education programs. 
    Finish Harvard. Take a couple of extra courses in techniques of teaching. Learn 3 or 4 different ways to explain multiplication, and vowel sounds. Then, go back to the classroom and teach for a few years before you attempt to, as NYC Educator put it, 
    find a position telling other people how to achieve what you have so not done terribly well with. 

    And seriousy, “Duckie?” Come on. 

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