I appreciate the OA’s coverage of an exceptionally generous gift made to me and Rigo Mendoza. That gift was really Rigo’s reward for being a gifted learner, and thus a delight to teach. I did make a comment about “data” that needs some contextualization. Most people who set policy for public education, in the ECISD and beyond, have decided that nothing related to instruction truly counts unless it can be counted. I want to leave OHS precisely because this obsession with “data-driven instruction” has become unbearable. I have discussed this issue at great length in another venue, most recently by arguing that “public schools have declared war on uncertainty.” I am humbled and grateful for the gift, and especially its donor’s anonymity; there ARE people who understand what truly counts in education.
I want to be clear about this: Rigo’s achievements should be celebrated. I am grateful for the gift he and I received. The IB program is perhaps the only public school program anywhere close to Odessa that celebrates the gift that Rigo and his classmates are to those of us who want to nurture and celebrate critical thinking and passion for learning. The people who are responsible for standardizing most other curricula have declared war on individual classroom epiphanies that cannot be quantified. The ECISD’s PR celebrates an “opportunity culture,” but this culture simply does not exist for teachers who value such epiphanies over compliance or homogeneity of instructional delivery.
Students are being indoctrinated in public schools. Students are being taught, every day at every level, that their test scores define them, and that their best teachers are “best” only because the data harvested about such teachers say so. Perhaps culture warriors on all sides should look into this kind of indoctrination.
David Newman
Odessa
