This post is written by member who will be the keynote speaker 聽for the at the .听
The Secondary Section is the heart of 楼凤天堂, and being asked to speak to the group at this year鈥檚 Annual Convention is an honor. The founders of 楼凤天堂, the people who gathered in Chicago in December 1911, came specifically to that meeting to talk about the control of the high school curriculum, and their passion fueled the founding of the organization.听 Thus, the Secondary Section was the aegis of 楼凤天堂, has been central to 楼凤天堂 ever since, and whoever talks to the group needs to bring their best thinking.
But what to say that could be helpful, important, or even significant when there are so many competing concerns about education and about English teaching? There is no shortage of topics and never a shortage of dire concerns.
Just this past month is totally typical. On Sunday, September 11, 2016, the about his recent short stint in the schools (no surprise; he found it 鈥済rinding鈥� and filled with worksheets and routine). The Post also featured a 50-state analysis of funding for education vs. corrections (the news, again, is just what you would expect鈥攊n most states prison funding, with few exceptions, trumps school funding by huge margins).
And on that same day, the September 11 New York Times Magazine鈥檚 feature was鈥攆our articles on schools in New York, California, Idaho, and the challenges of discipline (it鈥檚 complicated), refugee students (fitting in is a struggle), and students who are dealing with issues of sexual identity (no, this is not a great time for non-straight students).
At least we know we are relevant鈥攖here鈥檚 no lack of interest in what we do in the schools, and no lack of ideas as to how to make it better.
So, as I mull over my talk to the Secondary Section, the voices in my head today are more than just a little raucous. What are the choices and the questions? There are many:
- the degeneration of civil public discourse and how this current election has engendered a remarkable increase in language slime鈥攍inguistic bullying, name calling, and personal attacks
- the exploding and incremental increase in the power of unfiltered, often uncritical, social media
- the national crisis in student debt and the future of college attendance
- the persistent and widely ignored role of poverty in student academic achievement (don鈥檛 bother giving me your scores; just tell me your zip code).
For us in secondary English, there are also other questions of deep concern:
- the perennial failure to acknowledge and use the expertise of the classroom teacher
- the implosion of the Common Core
- the dispiriting resistance to reimagining the high school
- the heartening鈥攂ut by no means clearly permanent鈥攄e-emphasis on standardized testing
- the precipitous decline in the numbers of undergraduate English majors in college and doctoral students in English education.
Whatever I choose, perhaps the only encouraging point is that education is as relevant and central to the discourse of our marketplace as ever. Issues of secondary teaching and secondary English teaching are not on the sidelines. The passion that ignited our founders 105 years ago can still be felt by those both in and outside the classroom鈥攚e want to do it better, we want to do it right. The problem is, as always: what path (among dozens) to take? What topics (among thousands) to choose?
Stay tuned鈥攎ore later.
Leila Christenbury is Commonwealth Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. She is the recipient of , a past president of 楼凤天堂, and a former editor of