Jeff and others interested in his post:
I'll use your theme as a kickoff to a particular concern of mine- lack
of integration between the various vertical layers of students' education
(kindergarten through wherever). You bemoan students' lack of motivation.
But you must remember I experience the same frustration in high school with
students who are forced to be there. Most of my students go to community
colleges out of a sense of not knowing what else to do. They certainly do
not become motivated in the two months from when they leave me and get to
you. In fact, the majority of my students will never get that two year
degree.
I'm going to ramble a bit here, but let me return to my theme-vertical
integration. I was at a Board meeting for Newspapers In Education this past
week (you see like most high school psychology teachers, teaching psychology
is a bonus for me since I am primarily a history teacher). Anyway at this
meeting was a fourth grade teacher from my District who I didn't know
(though he knew me) and he asked me why there wasn't some integration
between high school, middle school, and elementary school. Why didn't we
ever meet or discuss educational strategies? I told him I didn't know, but I
think at a deeper level I was probably thinking that I really didn't care.
Being honest with myself, there is a certain snobbish attitude of high
school teachers to those "lower grades." Yes we all talk about how hard
those teachers work and what a thankless job... blah, blah, blah, and we
even have an anecdote or two about that special 3rd grade teacher in
someone's life but at heart we don't solicit or want their expertise or
collegiality- just as you all in college don't think there is anything you
could gain from working with high school teachers.
In June, I will be attending Division 2's Partnership Project at James
Madison University along with a hundred other college and high school
faculty teams who are interested in exploring linkages among our various
disciplines. That Project was highlighted in Dr. Jill Reich's (APA's
Education Director) April Monitor article "Building Connections". Pointedly,
howvever, since she never once mentioned high school connections. I have
attached a copy of my comments which I previously posted on Psychnews (the
electronic discussion group for high school psychology teachers).
Perhaps this is the appropriate forum for this... perhaps not.
I was struck by Dr. Jill Reich's article "Building Connections" in the
April Monitor. Networks and connections between high school psych teachers
and college faculty are a particular interest of mine. I will be attending
the weeklong Partnership Project in June at James Madison University and as
Dr. Reich pointed out in her article the Partnership Project is intended "to
network psychology teaching and faculty at all levels." Aside from that
rather general reference, that is the only even remote suggestion that Dr.
Reich makes in her article that would seem to include high school teachers
in the connections which she would like to see built. Rather, Dr Reich's
entire article makes clear that the type of linkages she has in mind are
horizontal ones- cross-departmental, possibly cross-institutional, but
always at the college level. I would suggest that the type of linkages that
are needed are vertical, starting at the top in kindergarten and working all
the way down to our most privileged graduate level teachers.
Several years ago I wrote an article, "Bottoms Up" which was published
in CTUP's "Significant Differences" newsletter. ( A number of other
psychnews subscribers also wrote articles for that issue which was devoted
solely to exploring linkages between high school and college faculty). I
pointed out that the benefits of such linkages flow in both directions, as
we high school teachers certainly have a high level of pedagogical expertise
that comes from working more classes and a generally tougher population than
our college colleagues. Without attacking Dr. Reich personally, I would
suggest that her "oversight" should concern us. I'm afraid that to many, we
high school psychology teachers (who according to APA reach some 1 million
high school psychology students each year), are invisible. Who among us has
not heard from strangers at a party (after we tell them that we teach
psychology) "Oh, I didn't know they taught psychology in high school."
Strangers, ok; APA's Executive Director for Education, no!
Let me emphasize again that my remarks are not meant to disparage Dr.
Reich. I've met her at Conventions, was a co-presenter with her at the
Terman Teacher's workshop which preceded the Western Psychological
Association meeting two years ago, and have spoken to TOPSS board members
who have great admiration for her. My point is that when Dr. Reich, APA's
Executive Director for Education, writes an article about "building
connections", "collaborations", "partnerships", and "linkages", and doesn't
mention high school teachers shouldn't we be concerned?
Patrick Mattimore. South San Francisco High School
