Inside Today’s Elementary Schools A Psychologist’s Perspective James J. Dillon Inside Today’s Elementary Schools James J. Dillon Inside Today’s Elementary Schools A Psychologist’s Perspective James J. Dillon Department of Psychology University of West Georgia Carrollton, GA, USA ISBN 978-3-030-23346-4 ISBN 978-3-030-23347-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23347-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover illustration: Monika Mlynek / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland A cknowledgments I would like to thank my elementary education professors, especially Ronald S. Reigner and Rosalind Duplechain. I am also grateful to all my supervising elementary teachers who opened their classroom doors to me and taught me more than they will ever know. I thank Andrea Laubstein and Isabel Tweedie who gave me countless hours of help researching this book. I also thank all those who read and commented on my work in its early drafts. I thank my wife Kaki and two children, Ben and Zoe, for help- ing me to appreciate what is important in life. Mostly, I want to thank all the little students I have had the pleasure of interviewing or teaching over these many years. They have taught me as much or more than I taught them. v c ontents Part I Shortsighted Vision and Lopsided Staffing 1 1 The House on Sleepy Hollow Road 3 Bridges and Potholes 6 How the Book Is Organized 9 2 So Many Girls…So Few Princes 11 Some Negative Effects of the Gender Staffing Imbalance 16 References 24 3 When Am I Ever Going to Use Any of This? 27 Adventure and High Purpose 29 The Romantic Child 29 Lessons from Harry Potter 31 Industry Versus Inferiority 36 The Zombie Apocalypse 38 References 42 4 “And Then God Made School Boards” 45 The Administration 48 Total Management Mentality 53 Adversarial Posture 55 vii viii CONTENTS Who Becomes an Administrator? 56 Toxic Culture 57 The Good Ones 60 References 63 5 The Bottom of the Barrel? 67 Women’s Work: The Mother 68 Drill and Kill: The Sergeant 70 Just Tell Me What to Do: The Sheep 72 The Easiest Major: The Underachiever 73 Teacher Training, Where It All Begins 76 Why Should We Teach Anyway? 78 References 82 6 What to Do About These Four Things 85 Our Vision of Teachers and Schools 86 Personnel Reform 95 References 102 Part II The Wall of Separation, Administrative Bloat, and Boundless Accommodation 103 7 Platonic Curriculum; Epicurean Society 105 Who Formulates the Standards? 107 What Are Standards Designed to Do? 109 What Is the Nature of the Standards? 111 Five Basic Problems with Current Elementary Standards 113 Three Possible Solutions 119 References 123 8 Just Wastin’ Time 125 The Different Kinds of Wasted Time 127 Where Does the Time Go? 128 CONTENTS ix Time-Off-Task 132 Why Is so Much Time Lost? 134 How Lost Time Negatively Impacts Teacher and Student 136 References 138 9 No Child Left Behind? 143 A Brief History of Standardized Tests 145 Common Critiques 148 The Real Reason Why NCLB Caused So Much Trouble 153 Life After NCLB 158 References 162 10 I’m Five Teachers at Once! 165 What Is DI? 167 A Sympathetic Critique of DI 168 Less Noble Reasons for Using DI 178 References 182 11 The Incredible Bending School 185 Reasonable Special Education and Non-Academic Services 187 Unreasonable Special Education and Non-Academic Services 189 References 202 12 Look Not to the Stars 205 A Picture of Contemporary Parental Engagement 207 Barriers to Parental Engagement 209 Why Parental Engagement Matters 210 References 213 13 What to Do About These Six Things 215 Wall of Separation 215 Multiplying Diversions 228 References 231 x CONTENTS Part III What to Do About All Ten Things 235 14 A New Day 237 Dealing with Fear 238 Seeing Through Ideology 240 Letting Go of the Need to Control 244 Conclusion 252 References 254 Index 257 PART I Shortsighted Vision and Lopsided Staffing