The Audacity of Anonymity, Part 2

I composed an earlier blog entitled The Audacity of Anonymity and have become somewhat obsessed with the thought. Conducting some research, I found a research article entitled "Effects of Anonymity and Arousal on Aggression," which had been published in The Journal of Psychology and was written by R. W. Rogers & C. M. Ketchen. In the article, the authors cite another researcher named Zimbardo who stated, "If others can't identify or single you out, they can't evaluate, criticize, judge, or punish you." The authors went on to say, "...anonymity may make aggression a more dominant response tendency because in our culture anonymity reduces the anticipated risk of detection and the ensuing social censure and/or punishment."

In other words, being anonymous promotes feelings of imperviousness (for lack of a better word). Then, as one feels he can do whatever he chooses without repercussions or consequences, he is, therefore, encouraged to exhibit more aggressive behavior. A state of anonymity inhibits civility, causes us to resort to our baser instincts, makes us less compassionate and more egocentric.

Just today (May 15, 2009) Bob Kravitz, a sports writer for the Indianapolis Star, addressed this very topic, and I have to say that I agree with Mr. Kravitz. Kravitz uses classic jock talk to suggest that anonymity is turning us into a culture of weenies. Note, he does not condemn blogs or email or twitter or text messaging. He does, however, condemn the rude behavior that the anonymity of such technologically interactive programs promote. He states very well that "We hide behind technology that provides us with pseudonyms and takes accountability out of the equation." And that is what I'm talking about. If we are so bold as to say something, then let us be bold enough to accept the consequences of our words and our deeds. Otherwise, shut up!

I'm not finished with this topic.

A New Principal's First Speech

I have recently been hired to serve as principal of another high school. This will be my first principalship. Today I met the faculty of my new school for the first time. I knew I could stand in front of them and ramble for fifteen or twenty minutes and say almost everything I wanted to say, but I chose instead to write out my first speech and deliver a more deliberate discourse in under ten minutes. Below is the greater part of that speech, which I publish here for I believe I had something of value to say. I look forward to your comments.

As an educator, I spent 18 years as a classroom teacher. During my early years, I experienced having four principals in five years. Therefore, I know you have no reason to believe anything I say today regarding how long I plan to be here or what I hope to accomplish. It will be my actions that will communicate my commitment to you, to the students of GHS, and to this community. Still, I want to take this time to express some of my beliefs about education, from which you may deduce the expectations that I hold as principal.

First, I am a supporter of teachers. Years ago there were the license plates in Indiana that declared “Kids First.” I wanted one that said “Teachers First,” not because I think less of kids, but because I believe that if we have great teachers in our classrooms, then we do not have to worry as much about the kids. Many kids come to us with their backs against the wall—home life is abysmal; parents have given up on their children and expect the schools to fix the problems; students have experienced so much failure in life that they now refuse to try. There is little we can do as educators to change these factors. What we can control is what happens at school and in the classrooms. We can call parents. We can ask parents to come in to meet with us. We can talk to the kids. We can set expectations and help kids meet those expectations while we hold them accountable. We can be the calm voice in the crisis. We can speak with reason when emotions are high. We can do so much. Therefore, great teachers are the most important ingredient to the success or our school.


Secondly, the outrage over No Child Left Behind has faded and we are now beginning to understand that every kid needs a high school diploma. Every kid will need some form of post-secondary education to compete in a 21st century economy. Our educational institutions are failing when we allow one student to leave without a high school diploma. Our goal must be a 100% graduation rate and we must do everything within our power to achieve that goal. Still, kids’ home lives are unsupportive and destructive. And you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. But we cannot afford to focus on the things we cannot change. We must concentrate on those things we can change and the places where we can make a difference—the classrooms and the halls of our school. We can set high standards and high expectations, and we can find ways to hold our students accountable to those standards and expectations, while supporting students as they learn. The excuses we find for allowing kids to fail do not excuse us of our duty. We must find a way to help every student to reach his highest potential with the compassion and dignity that every human deserves.


Finally, I believe that we, as educators, are models of integrity. We are held to a higher standard by our communities, by our students, and by our colleagues. As actions speak louder than words, we have to ask ourselves, “What are my actions communicating to those around me?” If I take every sick day and personal day to which I am fully entitled, what does that communicate to my students about the importance of attendance? If I refuse to enforce the rules of the school in my classroom and in the hallways outside my classroom, what does that say of my attitude toward the rules of the school? If I close my door to the concerns of my students—or in my case, of my teachers—what does that say regarding how much I value these people and their concerns? If I refuse to contact parents when a student is failing, what am I saying about the importance of the partnership that exists between the parents and the school? I strive to be a model of integrity and ask the same of you. When we falter, we must learn to begin again; for there are truly no failures, only those who give up too soon.

My greatest strength as an administrator for the past seven years has been my skill at conflict resolution. The key to conflict resolution is taking the time to truly listen to the concerns of other people. Therefore, my phone line is open. My door is open. And I promise to find the time to sit with you, with parents, with students, with school board members, and with community leaders to hear the concerns. I cannot always afford you the luxury of having your way, but I hope you will always feel that I value your time and, more importantly, that I value you.

I am more excited today at the prospect of coming to GHS to serve as the next principal than I have ever been in my educational career. My only promise is that I will work hard every day and allow my actions to tell the story of who I am and of my commitment to this school. I will make mistakes and work hard to correct those mistakes. And I will see successes and join in the celebration of those successes. I am looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you and I invite you to come see me this July. I’d appreciate getting to spend an hour or so with each of you before the next school year begins.

Thank you.

Weighing Teacher Effectiveness

As I began to think more about the topic of determining whether a teacher was effective, I noticed that I have accumulated a few books on the subject. And I know that I've read through some of them, because they have my characteristic underlining, squiggling, asterisks, check marks, and sidebar notations. Some of the books I have are:
Fiore, D. J. & Whitaker, T. (2005). Six types of teachers: Recruiting, retaining and mentoring the best. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
Stronge, J. H. (2002). Qualities of effective teachers. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tucker, P.D. & Stronge, J. H. (2005) Linking teacher evaluation and student learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

I am certain there is much in each of these books and many other texts that can help us to measure the effectiveness of a teacher. However, I believe there is a simpler method of determining a teacher's effectiveness, at least on a personal level. At the end of the day, every teacher needs to answer one important question:

"Was I the type of teacher that I would want my own children to have?

When I think about the type of teacher I wanted my children to have, I wanted someone who forgave my children when they made mistakes but held them accountable to the reasonable consequences of their actions.

I wanted someone who called my children to attention when they misbehaved but did not scream at them, belittle them, or destroy their self-confidence in the process.

I wanted someone who encouraged my children to take chances and to learn on their own, to experience that mistakes are part of the learning process. I did not want someone who declared that the only right answers were the ones she held in the back of the teacher's edition of the textbook.

I wanted someone who had compassion, who saw my child as a child even when he was seventeen, who listened more than she spoke, who looked for ways to make my child successful even when he struggled.

And if I, as a teacher, can meet the expectations of what I wanted for my own children when I was working with the children of other parents, then I know that I am a good teacher.

Dr. Daggett of the International Center for Leadership in Education speaks of rigor, relevance, and relationships as key to improving the quality of education. I agree. However, I suggest that relationships come first. Because kids really do not care about what you know, until they know that you care.

The Audacity of Anonymity

I recently found myself standing between two large groups of teenage males, hyped up on adrenaline and metaphorically beating their chests and challenging each other to combat. I stepped in between the two groups in an attempt to calm them and to bring an end to the insanity. Although most of the students were from my school, one of the leaders of one group was not. Having the advantage of anonymity, the young man threatened me openly and taunted me, calling me names and ordering me to back away.

The entire incident had escalated through the audacity of anonymity that many students held that evening because they were not from my school. They took pleasure in creating chaos and were bold in being rude and disrespectful. The evening ended without further incident; however and consequently, it has become clearer that there is a trend in our society of affording people the protection of anonymity, which has given people courage to cast insults with impunity. The audacity of anonymity is a blight upon our society, defying reason, responsibility, civility, cooperation, collaboration, and accountability.

Another example where the audacity of anonymity has been disruptive involves what is called "Coffee with the Principal." Originally designed to provide a forum to address concerns that the faculty has regarding the operations of the building, Coffee with the Principal has become mean-spirited and petty. I am convinced that the vulgar nature of many comments is a by-product of the rule that all concerns be submitted anonymously. I doubt that many of the complaints are representative of the whole faculty and are more so the expression of personal vendettas. It was never the intention of the process to become as such. Anonymity has allowed those who otherwise would keep quiet to speak out in rude and disruptive ways and to lower the dignity of the process and the school.

A third place where I see anonymity causing rude boldness is on the Internet. I've visited YouTube sites where people have left vile and offensive remarks, hiding behind pseudonyms and nicknames that make them entirely anonymous.

When I receive a letter at school, I first look to see who signed the letter. If it is anonymous, I throw it away. If a person cannot sign his name to what he has written, then the person knows that it is vile, disgusting, rude, and inappropriate. He does not want to be associated with such behavior, while he engages in the behavior.

One might site examples of people posting anonymous statements that are quite the opposite from being rude and disruptive, statements that are actually respectful and uplifting. Regardless, I still suggest that the cloak of anonymity allows people to be vile and that anonymity should not be encouraged. Instead, people should be encouraged to stand behind what they say. Indeed, people should be proud of their words, whether they are statements of allegiance or cries of protest. And if a person is not proud of his thoughts nor his words, then let him hold his tongue.

Classifying Learning

I am constantly thinking about ways to improve classroom instruction, because I believe that the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher and the most important characteristic of good teaching is an understanding of methods and strategies that engage students in authentic learning. When considering any process, it is beneficial to classify and differentiate among the various parts of the process.

In How We Think (1910) John Dewey identifies three types of study. The first has to do with the "acquisition of skill in performance;" the second involves the acquisition of knowledge; and the third is concerned with the development of reasoning or "abstract thinking." Many years later, Mortimer Adler wrote about three modes of teaching in his book The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto (1982). The three modes of teaching were differentiated according to the intended goals as "acquisition of organized knowledge," "development of intellectual skills," and "enlarged understandings of ideas and values."

The similarities between the two lists are easily recognizable and worth a moment of consideration. Both authors recognize that learning involves the acquisition of or perhaps the accumulation of knowledge, the development and refinement of skills, as well as the development of reasoning, or what I will call critical thinking. Neither author suggests that one type of study or teaching is better than the other. Neither author suggests that one type of study or teaching should be excluded. Adler does suggest that the development of understanding or reasoning is often neglected in classrooms, but he does not advocate that any of the modes of teaching be sacrificed to make room for more critical thinking.

It is important that teachers understand that there are different types of learning and different modes of teaching designed to meet the needs of the different types of learning. We should not teach only rote memorization, but we should teach some rote memorization. For that reason, I, as an English teacher, required my students to memorize poems and to recite them in front of the class.

We are dealing with whole students; therefore, we should address the whole student in our teaching.

One Thing Wordle

Our school improvement team surveyed the faculty recently. One of the questions was with asked what one thing would they recommend to make the school better. There were many responses, although only about half of the faculty responded to this question. Still, when looking at the responses, I wondered how we might reduce the wordage, allowing us to group responses to get a feel for the one thing that the majority believed would be most beneficial. So, I suggested using Wordle. Wordle creates from the transcript a word cloud, in which the words which appear most often in the transcript are larger. Clearly, Wordle discounts articles and prepositions and such, so the words that appear in the word cloud are the pertinent words from the transcript. Here is the word cloud we created:
from http://www.wordle.net

Unless you have much better eyes than I, many of the words are too small to read. The words also come at you lacking semantic relevance. It is a beautiful thing to look at, but I find myself still wondering what is the one thing that teachers believe will improve our school...Or am I being obtuse?

Is the most important thing "Teachers"?

Plagiarism

My school recently experienced a rash of plagiarism, probably brought on by the pending ending of the grading period. This has prompted me to address plagiarism. There are plenty of books, web sites, and people suggesting that cheating is on the rise in America, so that is not my purpose. Instead, I would like to suggest that there are (at least) two different forms of plagiarism and (at least) two ways to respond to plagiarism.

The two types of plagiarism are "plagiarism of omission" and "plagiarism of commission." A student commits plagiarism of omission when she neglects to provide the proper documentation--fails to place quotation marks around a passage that is clearly taken directly from the source, provides no reference to the source from which the ideas came, or turns in a poorly organized "Works Cited" page. I call these acts plagiarism of omission because the student has left out important information giving credit to the source. Students make these mistakes out of confusion, a lack of understanding, and frustration--a natural part of the learning process.

Plagiarism of commission, on the other hand, is a conscious and deliberate act of deception. When one commits plagiarism, the intent is to deceive, to take advantage of another person's trust and to reap the benefits that may follow, provided that the deception is not detected.

There are generally two responses to plagiarism. The first and perhaps most common (at least at the secondary level of education) is to punish the student by denying credit for the work. In the clear case of plagiarism of commission, this is an appropriate reaction, although I will suggest that the perpetrator knew the risk he was taking and is probably not effected by the punishment. Without some required intervention, the student is likely to plagiarize again, knowing that the next teacher is not likely to catch him.

The second response is to turn the offense into a learning opportunity, allowing the student to correct the errors. A loss of some credit may be warranted--which is up to the teacher--but the student is allowed a chance to redeem her credibility, to learn the proper way to avoid plagiarism, and to develop a trust in her teacher as someone she can turn to for guidance in her learning. I suggest that this response is more appropriate when a student is suspected of plagiarism of omission.

Real learning is about taking chances, making mistakes, and correcting those mistakes. Certainly, a part of learning involves the decisions one makes to document correctly the information one includes in an essay and the consequences of those decisions. However, dropping the hammer of justice on every student who plagiarizes may inhibit learning. I suggest teachers consider whether a student is guilty of plagiarism of commission or of plagiarism of omission before passing sentence, and that teachers not allow a teachable moment to slip away because of righteousness.

One final thought: The information teachers present to their classes in handouts, PowerPoint presentations, and such are often taken from a variety of supplemental sources. To what extent does the teacher demonstrate a responsibility to document correctly the sources he or she uses? If we want our students to be responsible and to adhere to the rules protecting copyright, then we must be sure to demonstrate that responsibility at all times.

Okay...so here's a humorous look at plagiarism that I found on TeacherTube...