Poizner the teacher is sent to the office
Steve Poizner can’t catch a break. For his advocacy of tax cuts that would further punish public schools, he may not deserve one.
Behind in the polls, deluged by eMeg’s bank account in the Republican race for governor, Poizner published a candid, largely sympathetic chronicle of his year teaching at a high school in East San Jose, only to get berated and shunned by some of the subjects of his book.
Poizner, the state’s insurance commissioner, timed the release of his detailed education policy on Thursday with the official publication of “Mount Pleasant,” named after the low-income largely Hispanic high school where he taught American government to seniors for a semester in 2003.
The jacket cover has effusive comments from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, among others. But the day before, Poizner’s hometown paper, the Mercury News, noted that Poizner had been uninvited from returning to the high school, where he has spoken annually. A benefactor of the school since teaching there, Poizner has even offered to donate the proceeds from the book to the school.
But students and some teachers have taken great offense over a few phrases that the chairman of the school board, in a letter to Poizner, called “damaging and insulting.”
One referred to students possibly being “too busy ducking bullets” to focus on career goals. Having spent time in East Side Union’s schools (including one trip to Mount Pleasant to speak to Poizner’s class), I can testify they are safe.
Another passage read, “From an intellectual standpoint, I absolutely knew not to expect Silicon Valley-caliber ambition and smarts from East San Jose schoolkids. … The differences weren’t only in our expectations and zip codes. They were in our wiring.” That metaphor could be interpreted as racist, though Poizner isn’t – and demands an explanation.
Poizner told the Mercury News he wouldn’t change a word in the book, but a few words have become a distraction and allowed those who disagree with his politics to dismiss the book. That’s too bad.
More self-deprecating than self-congratulatory, Mount Pleasant details Poisner’s complex relations with his fellow teachers and students – and his come-uppance as a Type A Valley millionaire who finds teaching humbling. Calling himself a “poser” for teaching only one course, he writes, “I didn’t know what it was like to be a career teacher year in and year out, preparing nine months’ of lesson plans for several different subjects. I didn’t know about trudging home after an 11-hour day with a hundred papers in my arms, wondering how on earth I’d get them graded. I hadn’t experienced the numbness that a teacher must feel when she knows that kids in her class will fail, and she’s already too overextended to do much about it.”
Frustrated initially by his students lack of interest in government, their poor writing and bad attitudes, he comes to better understand and connect with them. “Many of my Mount Pleasant kids lived in confined worlds with incremental aspirations. … my big goals occasionally seemed trivial next to the kids’ needs, which were more basic.”
If his account is credible, he also motivated many of them by assigning community projects and a final PowerPoint presentation to San Jose’s mayor. “I learned the possibility existed for each of my students to think critically, study hard, ask questions, and find passion in schoolwork.”
The new Steve Poizner
Where Poizer does his former colleagues and students at Mount Pleasant wrong is not in his book but in his campaign, with its pitch to the Republican right. The former moderate’s hard line on immigration would would wreak havoc with the lives of immigrant children he taught. His failure to acknowledge the financial crisis facing California schools mocks the sympathy he expressed for struggles teachers and students face in large classes lacking essential resources.
Poizner’s advocacy for charter schools – a belief he held before he taught at Mount Pleasant; his call for replacing the state ed code with more local control; his support for “merit pay” for teachers and open enrollment for the lowest performing 4,000 schools are hardly a radical agenda. Some pieces are similar to recommendations of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Committee on Education Excellence or principles of the federal Race to the Top.
But by perpetuating the myth of bureaucratic waste in schools and denying the devastating effects of continued budget cuts, particularly on low-income schools, Poizner is ignoring the lessons he should have learned at Mount Pleasant.
The civics teacher is proving cynics towards politicians right. I wonder what his former students are thinking.
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Teaching a class for a semester and then writing a book about it as if you are now an expert is exactly the kind of resume-building you would expect out of a wanna-be politician. Compare Poizner’s few weeks of teaching to Jerry Brown’s understanding of how life really works in Oakland and the fact that he created great schools when he was mayor. No contest.
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It’s simplistic to claim that Brown created great schools when he was mayor. He has worked mightily (and sometimes in ethically dubious ways) over the years to raise vast amounts of money for the two charter schools he created, which have struggled badly and would have crashed and burned without the enormous extra funding his efforts have brought in for them. But that said, he does now understand what it takes. Meanwhile, it’s appalling that Poizner is apparently calling for some of the very children he taught to be entirely shut out of an education. And Mount Pleasant’s reaction also reveals how deeply a school community can be wounded by offhand, unwarranted disparagement — especially when the insults are slung to boost the speaker’s political fortunes.
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You should check out this week’s episode of This American Life. They had a fact-check segment on Poizner and his book and it was pretty revealing.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/sites/default/files/This_American_Life_Transcript_Poizner_0.pdf
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“Having spent time in East Side Union’s schools (including one trip to Mount Pleasant to speak to Poizner’s class), I can testify they are safe.”
I spent two years teaching nearly a full schedule of classes in the East Side District recently. During that time one of my students got jumped at school, came to class bloodied and frightened and two days later was out of school for months after his father and brother were stabbed (off campus). The father died (trying to protect the brother) and the brother survived in the hospital. I had to speak to detectives about the case and it turned out the office had no record of me sending the kid (with security) to get help. This was my first year and only October (two months into the year). The second year, the detective called back to go over details and the Mercury News covered that three kids had been arrested in the stabbing. The boy no longer has parents since his mother was killed in a hit and run in years prior.
I would like to testify that East Side schools are not as safe as you declare. How much time have you spent in East Side schools? What research have you done into the number of gang fights on or off campus, the number of kids, or kid’s parents getting hurt or killed off campus? I would like to testify that this former student could not concentrate on his school career with both parents murdered. Your experience, like Poizner’s appears extremely limited. I would advise studying the issue before making a statement that we are all supposed to believe.
“Another passage read, “From an intellectual standpoint, I absolutely knew not to expect Silicon Valley-caliber ambition and smarts from East San Jose schoolkids. … The differences weren’t only in our expectations and zip codes. They were in our wiring.” That metaphor could be interpreted as racist, though Poizner isn’t – and demands an explanation.”
Here is your explanation: While there were some fine students in my classes the majority of students had poor writing skills and many could not do basic math. I had to constantly remind kids that if they didn’t turn in papers with their full name, date and period on them I might not be able to give them credit. I had students cheating (and not very well) and one student turned in Wikipedia for his research paper. He didn’t change anything, just printed out Wikipedia and turned it in with his name on it. Poizner’s statement may be insulting but unfortunately it is mostly true. We won’t fix our education problems by being falsely proud and declare that everything is fine. It’s not fine. It’s not fine that students are being passed from grade to grade without mastering basic skills.
“But by perpetuating the myth of bureaucratic waste in schools and denying the devastating effects of continued budget cuts, particularly on low-income schools, Poizner is ignoring the lessons he should have learned at Mount Pleasant.”
District waste and mismanagement of personnel, funds and everybody’s time is a huge problem for our schools. It wasted my time and made my teaching experience miserable and difficult and ultimately made it impossible to continue. During my time they fired one person with enormous experience and professionalism and replaced her with someone with virtually no experience and competence. Budget cuts are devastating to schools but having worked with the District, I believe that mismanagement is far more damaging than having little money. The one reason I will never be interested in teaching at East Side again is not the gangs and difficult students but rather the poor way I was treated by the District management.
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