Arne Duncan: Classrooms Center On Relationships

Ed.gov blog:

Ed.gov blog:

Ed. note: Secretary Duncan penned the following letter for a Virtual Conference that will take place during July. During the conference, participants will discuss the question, “What is the center of the classroom?”

The center of a classroom is not a test, a textbook, or the posters on the wall. It’s not a state or district policy, and it most certainly is not a federal law.

The heart of the classroom is found in the unique relationships between students and teachers. In the same way that a family turns a house into a home, a physical and emotional transformation takes place when teachers and students work together in community to reach common goals. We see it in the trust, the expectations, the experiences and the knowledge of every person in the class.

Read the whole story: Ed.gov blog

Comments

[heymjo]

12:23 PM on 07/05/2011

Why isn't Mr. Duncan talking about the relationship between the parents and the school, the parents and the teacher, the parents and their kids regarding education? When you have parents who do not see the value in speaking English at home, do not promote their kids language learning, do not see the importance of making sure their kids go to school every day, do not see the value in supporting the teacher's efforts, do not make sure their kids do their homework, do not participate int heir children's education in general plus a million other things, no relationship between teacher and student is going to amount to much without this vital part of the relationship dynamic. I guarantee you that if you look at the home environment of students who do well vs. students who do not, you will see the reason for success or failure regardless of the quality of the school or its teachers, especially in early childhood education.

[poeticjustice4all]

03:44 AM on 07/03/2011

Arne Duncan is telling the truth. The center of education is relationships. Currently that's a multicultural (nearly 45% minority) student body's relationship with a mono-cultural (90% White) teacher workforce.

[Tauna Rogers]

04:01 AM on 07/02/2011

Duncan is an embarrassment, but then so were Margaret Spellings and Rod Paige, all remarkably unqualified to hold the position of Ed Secretary. Such appointments are profoundly disrespectful and insulting to educators, like the ridiculous appointment by Mayor Bloomberg of Kathie Black as NYC Schools Chancellor. It's like a slap in face and you know they really don't give a damn.

I long for the day when we have a President and a Secretary of Education who actually believe in public education.

As for Duncan's calculated pretty words about trust and relationships, how could his words possibly be more phony and antithetical to his actions and the policies he promotes?

[LitSpeaks]

04:05 PM on 07/02/2011

I agree with you 100%. I would say, though, that a president and Ed secretary who believe in education isn't going far enough. It would be nice if they simply knew what they were talking about through intimate experience. This year, I had five high school juniors as TA's. They learned details about the inner workings of teaching that they never understood as students. This was an eye-opening experience. Duncan needs a good week in a challenging inner-city school where classroom management, curriculum and. Instruction are his responsibility. Then he'll "get it" hopefully.

[formerLAresident]

12:42 AM on 07/02/2011

Go away Mr. Duncan. Your words are just words and your'e the worst nightmare to public education in this country. Obama was elected for change...change against the crazy No Child Left Behind by the parents, teachers and supporters of fully funded and supported Public education. Instead we got you, Race To the Top Grant and the embrace of charter schools, villification of teachers, unions and business using our children & their schools as cash cows for CEOs to make outrageous salaries and put all our children in a uniform (because that's we all really need). Maybe if Obama fires Duncan and get his nose out of the charter school fan club...we might actually thinks he cares for public schools. Unfortunately, the only person who can lose this election is Obama because he used the teachers, parents and families to get elected. Yes we can...is more like Yes We Can destroy public education.

[OHteach]

09:36 PM on 07/01/2011

It's difficult, isn't it, to take any more flowery lip service from Secretary Duncan and then have to put up with his support of the same failed policies that have made our problems worse, not better. What Secretary Duncan, Michele Rhee, and other so called reformers need to understand about the heroes in our classrooms, is that we're not waiting around for superman to save us. We're doing the best we can with the resources we have. We're a bunch of Clark Kents without a phone booth and we're just waiting for Lois Lane to figure out who we really are. Instead of bashing teachers how about they just say, "Thank You".

[Ariel Bonzai]

08:37 PM on 07/01/2011

I agree. There is no relationship like that between a teacher and a student, who are learning together, and in this way interchangeable. Unfortunately, there is only so much of me and colleagues to go around. The high schools today slam teachers with at least five classes of forty students we are essentially driven like dogs to drill. It's not pretty. So the Confederacy of the Duncans it is. . .

[TFT]

06:17 PM on 07/01/2011

So start talking about how those relationships are affected when one or more of those in the relationship are hungry, abused, frightened, in pain, never been read to, alone, poorly parented, tired, or in need of dental care.

[Ariel Bonzai]

08:39 PM on 07/01/2011

What if both of them are? LAUSD and NYC literally abuse teachers. This guy barely has a relationship with himself.

[johnthompson]

05:24 PM on 07/01/2011

Of course classrooms are about relationships. And Duncan has been doing everything in his power to destroy classroom relationships and replace them with test prep. I'm really getting sick of his double-speak. Politicians have to speak out of both sides of their mouths, but Duncan is carrying it to an extreme.

[P Alan Greene]

04:35 PM on 07/01/2011

What great rhetoric! If only it were reflected in a single, solitary policy of Duncan's department. But as always, the disconnect between what he says and what he does is enormous.

[TINA ANDRES]

03:28 PM on 07/01/2011

I had 238 students in my classes last year and 258 minutes of teaching time in one day. Does anyone know how to develop relationships and actually really know all about 238 students that you see for 43 minutes a day in groups of 40? If someone can figure that out, I'd be willing to listen. As class sizes increase, teaching styles change and the whole thing becomes more like a lecture hall or if you work in groups of 5, you may have the chance to check in with each group on their progress. Actually developing relationships with these students would require more than about a minute per student a day.

[wayne the pain]

02:32 PM on 07/01/2011

What does this guy know? He never taught in a public school, he was never an administrator in a public school, he never attended a public school. He knows about as much about classrooms, teaching, and public education as a hog knows about Easter. Duncan' first job in public education was a deputy superintendent in Chicago, that is called starting at the top! He is totally unqualified but an Obama cronie. Obama and Duncan are following the Bush education agenda one hundred percent. He is Arne the philosopher!!

[jal6641]

02:04 PM on 07/01/2011

Authentic evaluations? Really? This so contradictory to what is happening in Chicago and Washington. And you support this! What a hypocrite!

[MsLovePeace]

02:02 PM on 07/01/2011

Did Arne realize he was quoting Yeat's Second Coming in the final sentence of his letter?
THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[Ariel Bonzai]

08:42 PM on 07/01/2011

Yeats is a visionary. no wonder this is my favourite all time poem. . .

[gallo48]

12:00 PM on 07/01/2011

I say:
Wonderful idea, Arne! What level of success will you achieve when you see 150 + students a day (30 + students in each class)? If this idea is so important, let's put our words to action by reducing class sizes.

Arne says:
"Oops, can't do that because we are in the midst of a budget crisis."

I say: "From the department of duh! I have other ideas that will work but they cost money including giving teachers a raise.

[tultican]

11:55 AM on 07/01/2011

In this letter, we see nice sounding platitudes strung together by the failed administrator of schools from Chicago. Because he has political connections, he is now the failed Secretary of Education for the Obama administrations. He has no experience as an educator but he is right we do need leaders “who will provide authentic evaluations.” Someone who has never taught cannot provide “authentic evaluations” or identify “reliable student achievement data.” Standardized testing gives a snapshot of a school’s academic performance but gives almost no information about quality of a school or its staff. However, they do a remarkably accurate job of identifying the economic health of the community. For decades authentic evaluation based on multiple measures have been performed routinely in America’s schools. A team of administrators and teachers from out of the area spends a week at a school to observe classes and review documents such as the schools master plan. They interview students, teachers and parents. At the end of the observations they provide feedback and list areas that must be improved in order to remain an accredited institution. Here in California, schools get a visit from the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) every three years if there are no problems. Professionals evaluating schools lead to better schools but do not profit private industry like RTTT and NCLB.

[wayne the pain]

02:40 PM on 07/01/2011

You have analyzed Duncan to a tee. This guy is in so far over his head he will never see daylight again. Like most philosophers with no experience he has no doubt that he is right, ordained by God I suppose, it never occurs to these " true believers" that they might be wrong. But in spite all the research that shows much of his agenda is wrong, he and his billionaire backers want us to " drink the kool aid".