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No More Broken Windows: Transforming the Lives of Urban School Children

By Mary A. Webb

INTRODUCTION

My journey to selecting James Herndon’s book The Way It Spozed To Be begins with my

absence during the first few sessions of class, as I was recovering from a recent surgery and

could not drive to Oxford, Ohio, located about an hour from my home in Cincinnati. During my

absence the group was presented with a list of curriculum scholars from which we could select

an author. Had I been in class I am sure I might have selected a well-known scholar. On my

preferred list were John Goodlad, Jonathan Kozol, Joseph Schwab, and Herbert Kohl. But since

I am an African American scholar in what I hope is the final year of my doctoral studies in

Educational Leadership, I began to explore the selection of an African American writer.

Ultimately, my selection of Herndon was fueled by the notion that historically, the work of

African American scholars suffers from an ongoing marginalization.

I also wanted to choose an author whose book was relevant to my own work and practice

as an educator. As I have proceeded from our K-12 through graduate educational system, I have

found an overwhelming dominance of the Euro-American perspective in research. My studies

here at Miami University have afforded me the opportunity to engage in publication, research,

and discourse of curricula that is relevant, meaningful, and that affirms the African American

experience. My scholarly interests rest in culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory.

So, since I was not in class and due to the size of our class all of the popular, well-known

scholars quickly vanished from the list, Dr. Poetter decided that because our class was so large

(everyone was excited about the possibility of being involved in a published writing project) he

needed to expand the pool of authors in order for each of us to have a chapter for this curriculum

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project. As a result, he introduced more books from the “Romantics.” While still recovering

from surgery, I got an email from Dr. Poetter with the list of the authors identified as

“Romantics.” That list included not only the authors’ names but also the title of the books. The

email read: “They were often later referred to as the 'romantics' because they wrote in a

distinctive, narrative-like, first person style/way that brought classrooms and conflicts alive for

the average reader and the scholar. All of them wrote about the plight of students and teachers

in classrooms across America.”

As I read through the list I immediately noticed the title The Way It Spozed To Be. I

thought this sounded like an interesting title and the phrasing suggested that the book might be

filled with things that someone from my culture would say. The title intrigued me, and I was

hooked. I wanted to study something exciting and relevant to my practice as an urban middle

school mathematics teacher. So, I immediately emailed back that I wanted this title. Little did I

know, until I actually ordered the book and began to read it, that the author James Herndon was

actually a white man writing about issues prevalent not only in schools of the 1960s but schools

today in 2012 as we attempt to educate the historically disadvantaged students in urban

classrooms. This book exposes the conflict between image and reality, between the way things

"spozed to be" and the way they are.

As an educator in an urban school district (North College Hill) located just outside of

Cincinnati, Ohio, I hear the word “spozed” often, both in my work at school and in my

community. After Dr. Poetter explained that Herndon was one of the romantic writers of the

1960s, I found myself even more curious about the author. I immediately ordered three of his

books: The Way It Spozed To Be (1968), How to Survive in Your Native Land (1971), and Notes

From A Schoolteacher (1985). A funny thing happened when I ordered these great reads. I

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purchased the book The Way It Spozed to Be from Amazon for $1.99. However, the cost to ship

it to me was $3.99! After reading the books, I felt like I had found several diamonds after

searching through a bag of semi-precious stones. Incredible reading. I reacted to The Way It

Spozed To Be with an immediate shock of recognition. Mr. Herndon’s experiences still ring true

to this day. How was it that this veteran teacher on the outskirts of San Francisco in 1965 knew

so much about students in 2012? And about me? Although this book was written in 1965, I

would dare say that you could look in any American school today and see the same kinds of

things happening for the students and with teachers, and particularly for students and teachers of

color. It seems that I have traveled the same road some 30-40 years later. It reminds me of the

interlude to the 60s TV show Dragnet. I have altered it to fit this writing: "The story you are

about to read is true somewhere in an American school. Only the names have been changed to

protect the innocent."

The Romantics

James Herndon along with authors such as George Dennison, Herbert Kohl, and Jonathan

Kozol et al., are considered to be radical reformers of the 1960s. These educators advocated for

child-centered schools. These schools were characterized by the freedom of students to discover,

direct, and control their own learning, which might result in noisy classrooms that sometimes

appeared untidy and disorganized. The teaching/learning process is not controlled by mandated

curriculum or standardized testing but rather by meeting students where they are. This new

genre of educational literature called for a transformation of the bureaucracy that administers

schools and the humanization of the teaching and learning process.

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It is said that romanticism has influenced political ideology, inviting engagement with the

causes of the poor and oppressed and with ideals of social emancipation and progress

(http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/philosophy/schools-thought/legacy-the-

romantics). James Herndon’s work fits this definition without question. The Way It Spozed To

Be (1968) is Herndon’s first book, written as a narrative of his first year of teaching in a poor,

segregated junior high school in a California city. It chronicles his passion for teaching students

to read, his desire to use reading as a transformative process, his frustration with a school system

that perpetuates hegemony, and his struggle against maintaining the status quo, which ultimately

leads to the eventual nonrenewal of his teaching contract for “poor classroom management.”

Who was James Herndon?

James Herndon (1926-1990) was a California junior high school educator for over 25

years and before his retirement served as president of the local teachers’ union. In addition, he

was also the author of five books. His most notable two memoirs of teaching, The Way It Spozed

to Be and Notes from a Schoolteacher, established him as one of the prominent voices of the

school reform movement of the late 20th century. He began his teaching career in his early

forties after spending several years working in Europe for an American government agency

(Herndon, 1971, p. 17). There he met and married his wife Fran. After learning that they were

expecting their first child (Jay), they decided to move back to America. A few years later they

had a second son (Jack).

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The Travelogue

Herndon gives an account of his journey as a beginning teacher learning to teach in an

inner city public school in his book The Way It Spozed to Be. He highlights the highs and lows

of his journey, which took place at George Washington Junior High School (GW) eight years

prior to his writing the book. It describes the disheartening inadequacy of the school system as

well as his innovative efforts to teach his students to read. The art and practice of pedagogies of

engagement are captured in this quote, from Education for Judgment by Christensen et al: "To

teach is to engage students in learning." The thesis of Herndon’s work and this chapter is that

engaging students in learning is principally the responsibility of the teacher, who becomes less

an imparter of knowledge and more a designer and facilitator of learning experiences. Herndon

was reprimanded by school administrators’ because he refused to listen to the slew of racially

tainted instructions and instead attempted to create a democratic learning environment in his

classroom.

Herndon describes George Washington Junior High (GW) as a “Negro school – about 98

percent Negro” (Herndon, 1968, p. 7). It was a school of defeated students whom the staff had

named “The Tribe” because the group had “controlling characteristics not shared by all other

such groups in America, characteristics which were really at the root of their actions, and from

which they could not easily escape” (Herndon, 1968, p. 59).

School culture dictates that when a new teacher arrives, well-intentioned colleagues let

him know "what he's spozed to do." Instead of taking their advice, choosing to uphold the status

quo and “the way it spozed to be," Herndon chose a less traveled road that looked chaotic and

messy but was actually realistic, relevant, and valuable while validating what knowledge is

important and who gets to decide what knowledge is of value. When Mr. Herndon tried to

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change one of the mindless routines of school that required students to copy a paragraph from the

blackboard that most of the students could not read anyway, even the students responded by

insisting that it wasn’t “the way it spozed to be!” The title of his first book emerged.

His students were conditioned to the routinized, repetitious instruction that relied upon

copying, recitation, and memorization of the facts. James Herndon was a teacher who utilized

critical epistemology by refusing to accept the top-down curriculum. He abandoned the

traditional classroom structures and allowed the students to set up their own reading program as

individuals or in groups. Herndon tried to let his students read on their own in class, privately,

stuff they liked, so that they could begin to catch up, and so that they could experience the joy of

reading, and so that perhaps their lives could be transformed for the better.

America During the Era of the Romantics

This story actually started in the 1950s; Sputnik was launched by the Russians, which

created a great sense of crisis at the realization that the Russians may have defeated us in the race

for science and technology knowledge. Immediately, politicians blamed this failing on the

American educational system, claiming it wasn't rigorous enough and that more attention needed

to be paid to mathematics and science education. As a result, schools and teachers came under

attack. School "deform" (Pinar, 2012) begins, then, in a displacement of military and scientific

failure onto public education. The 1950s were also the beginning of the end of school

segregation. In 1954, The U.S. Supreme Court heard Brown vs. the Board of Education of

Topeka. This case looked at the issue of segregation and this time ruled that it was illegal to

deny entry to a facility based on race and that a “separate but equal” educational system was

unconstitutional and unjust. However, this ruling did not immediately end segregation, since we

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see schools like GW dominated by racist practices and gross inequities in the presence of

funding and materials for learning.

In the decade that followed, John F. Kennedy became president (1960). The Cuban

Missile Crisis (1962) represented the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the

Soviet Union. Kennedy was assassinated (1963), and the country's political emphasis shifted to

the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement (1964). President Johnson continued President

Kennedy’s War on Poverty. Programs like Head Start, Job Corps, subsidized school lunches,

and Title One began during this time in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty and education

(Schubert & Lopez, 2002).

At the same time, a National Curriculum Movement was initiated. The critics of the

education system demanded more rigor and discipline to parallel its embrace of physical fitness.

The nation’s security was at stake. It was described as the “the age of gold” for curriculum

projects by Schubert in Curriculum Books: The First Hundred Years (p. 148). Public and

private funding for curriculum projects raced to an all-time high, which resulted in structured

procedures and materials designed by subject-area curriculum specialists and scientists. These

national curriculum projects constitute the beginning of the curriculum alignment process and of

the re-establishment of outside control, signaling the great loss of autonomy over curriculum

decisions as it was stripped from local teachers. Many educational reforms have been designed

over the past 40 years to remove the professional discretion of teachers. Today in many schools,

teachers are given a script (curriculum guide) that must be followed word-for-word in

accordance with the mandated curriculum calendar. Disconnecting the curriculum from

students’ interests and teachers’ professional discretion ensures curriculum disconnect and

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pedagogical malaise. As a result, the interests of students and their teachers’ interest have little

relevance. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.

Schooling was inundated with “teacher-proof” curricula, which failed to reach students,

specifically the students of color whom Herndon writes about. These curricula typify rote

learning, mindless routines, and imposed discipline, which increased apathy and rebellion.

Herndon illuminates the dialectic between perception and reality, between the way things

"spozed to be" and the way they are. Sadly enough, things have not changed very much.

Schools today are still places of mindless routines that destroy our students' curiosities, senses of

adventure, and love for learning.

The Broken Window Theory

While reading Herndon’s story, I was reminded of "The Broken Window Theory," and I

asked myself what the school considered important. Was it the curriculum, discipline, “The

Word,” the characteristics of “The Tribe,” or “the way things are "spozed to be”? The Broken

Window Theory is based on research that found if a building has a broken window and it is not

repaired, people see that no one cares enough to fix the window, and it will be the first building

to have rocks thrown through the other windows. In the March (1982) edition of The Atlantic

Monthly, James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling – writing about crime, policing, and

neighborhood safety – wrote:

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

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For schools, the Broken Window Theory is generally utilized to reclaim perceived losses

in discipline and classroom order ("one person chews gum, and the school might burn down!").

However, I would dare to suggest that the focus on discipline as a precursor to learning has a

profound impact on the teacher and school’s curriculum and practices of instruction. In terms of

discipline, the theory is that less serious, small problems should be dealt with in order to prevent

more serious ones. By allowing the small problems such as chewing gum, cursing, yelling out in

class, being tardy, uniform violations, talking back to the teacher, disrupting the classroom

through behavior that is not acceptable, etc., to go unaddressed, students believe that disorder

and chaos are a normal part of school (“the way its spozed to be”) which will ultimately result in

more serious problems. Fixing windows as soon as they are broken sends a message: vandalism

will not be tolerated. When inappropriate behavior is demonstrated in the classroom and if the

teacher does not address it, the behavior is encouraged and will spread from one student to

another and from one classroom to another. "It is clear, although unmentioned, that the main

issue for that school year (as it always seems in the secondary schools), is not primarily one of

education but of 'classroom control'" (p. 7). Herndon thinks, "In order that learning may take

place, Miss Bentley was saying, there must first be order" (p. 7).

However, in Herndon's text, the principals, Mr. Grisson, Miss Bentley, along with the

coach, the substitute teacher, the consultant teacher, and his colleagues themselves constitute the

broken windows in the setting. They believed that unaddressed problems would lead one to

think that disorder was the norm, which would result in more problems. They saw noise,

disorder, chaos, and anarchy as the problems. They were obstinate about the linear progression

between order and learning. Order was paramount and one of the school's core values. But

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Herndon didn’t see any of these things as a problem. "I don't want to get them under control, I

want them to see some reason for getting themselves under control" (p. 113).

When Herndon first encountered his students' widespread disengagement and outright

hostility toward him, and toward learning, he resisted the instinct to try to establish the kind of

control that the administrators and others attempted to establish. Their approach lay in direct

contrast to that of Herndon, who treated his students respectfully as human beings. In fact, he

was fired because he refused to embrace this core value that keeping order was paramount.

Instead, viewing the students like beautiful stained glass windows, Herndon saw glimpses of

brilliance in his students and repeatedly tried to get them involved in learning by creating

assignments and using readings that were interesting and personally valuable to them. Herndon

illuminates the stained glass color and beauty of his students through his transformative

leadership. His leadership in the classroom critiques inequitable practices and offers liberation

and hope, not only of greater individual accomplishment, but more so of a better personal and

community life. Until the outsiders (principals and colleagues alike) are willing to consider

things from a different perspective and look at the windows as potentially as brilliant stained

glass instead of as merely broken – that is, as beautiful, not ugly – there can be no hope of

appreciating the beauty that Herndon enjoyed from his position as his students' facilitator of

learning. And teachers today must view their students differently, as filled with potential, not as

doomed (Hilliard, 1995). This is one of the inspirational truths of Herndon's experience and

book.

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Windows of Education

I want to extend the metaphor and propose that the norms for teaching and learning

represent the “windows” of education in a school. If you want to know what the school values,

don’t ask the principal first, ask the students. Student voices are valuable resources in finding

out about the school’s academic quality and climate. Observe whether students can read or are

interested in the process of reading. If they are not, it is the equivalent of a broken window: a

sign that no one cares whether students acquire basic academic skills. If a student fails to bring

home assignments and books or brings home a paper that contains numerous misspellings or

errors, it might be a signal that no one cares whether he gets it right or has the necessary

intellectual materials or the fund of knowledge required for success. How serious was the school

about setting and maintaining demanding standards for academic achievement for all of its

students? Better yet, find out what the students think about their teacher, their classmates, the

classroom scene. Is school freeing, open, democratic, inspiring, exciting, and learning-filled?

Students can you show you whether these things are so or not, and their presence suggests beauty

as opposed to brokenness.

Herndon's school district laid him off at mid-year because he had not met the deadline for

sending in his credential documents to the state; this left him uncertified to teach at GW. He was

replaced by a substitute teacher (Mrs. A.) who had been working in the district. Upon his return,

his students told him what they had done in his absence. Some were glad he was back while

others wished Mrs. A had remained their teacher. One student’s account was that Mrs. A was a

“better teacher and real teacher” because she made them do work. “They were learning spelling

and sentences and all they was spozed to" (p. 67). Another of his classes told stories of plenty of

board work and that the substitute teacher made each student keep a notebook. However, upon

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Herndon’s review of their spellers he found out that “Most of the spellers in 9D were empty of

writing – all that copying of words and alphabetizing and putting in lines between syllables

hadn't actually been done except by May, Josephine and Geraldine. Theirs were all filled out to

date, but were also all wrong" (p. 67).

As Herndon surveyed his classes, he discovered that his B classes were the type that

knew how to play school. They as a group and as individuals had developed a culture of

compliance. “Both had divined the absolute key to getting through school, namely, that you

must understand and somehow satisfy the bureaucracy. One group understood it and trusted it;

the other understood it and conned it. Either way the bureaucracy was satisfied” (p. 58). Class

7B “believed in what they'd been told ever since kindergarten – the school ideals, neatness,

promptness, courtesy, hard work; perform according to them, they'd been told, and you could

grow up to be President or at least a private secretary (private secretaries were, according to the

girls, the most enviable girls alive) and enjoy the promise of middle-class America" (p. 58).

One of his other classes, 7H, could not read, which accounted for their disengagement in

the learning process. In fact, the class mainly consisted of non-readers, a detail no one shared

with him during the new teachers' meeting. His other challenging class, 9D, consisted of a group

of what he describes as “the most mature of the school population, but also the most apathetic

and disinterested and cynical about the entire range of school activities" (p. 63). He wondered

what had happened to 9D. As a result, it was absolutely clear to Herndon that 7H and 9D did

not, could not, and would not play school in the manner in which both 7B and 8B had learned to

do so. Therefore, his commitment was to 7H and 9D.

Windows work two ways. They allow us a view of what is outside, while providing an

opportunity for others to take a look inside. A window symbolizes freedom: it admits light, air,

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literally, and knowledge, figuratively, all of which may pass through coming and going. In

literature, windows are often used to symbolize finding things out, or revealing something.

Herndon gives us a metaphorical window into the complexities of the classroom and the teaching

dilemmas that progressives in real schools grapple with and the real-life dilemmas confronting

their beliefs in a curriculum for everyone. He takes his iconoclastic methods into GW where he

addressed racial tensions due to socio-class stratification, issues of power and authority, the

devastation of tracking, and the marginalization of African American students. Herndon, along

with other progressive educators of the romantic era, is credited for contributing to the

momentum for creating a space for different kinds of teachers and schooling approaches that

would free students’ imaginations and creativity from mindless drill and kill routines, tyrannical

authority, and passive learning.

Same Old, Same Old

Herndon opens the chapter with a physical description of the school building. While

describing GW as “old, dark, the same brown window shades all pulled exactly three-quarters of

the way down" (p. 2), he differentiates it from the newer “motel- schools” which he said “fooled

nobody; they were still schools, and the same old crap was going to go on in them" (p. 2).

Clearly, Herndon did not expect the operation of school to be different whether the building was

old like GW or one of the new schools that he says looks like a motel or bowling alley. Herndon

was adamant that the physical structure of school buildings did not matter, both were subject to

its historical roots of being places where “the same old crap” occurred. He felt that the newer

“motel-schools” simply projected a persona of revealing or being something new. Whereas, in

“old” GW you knew what you were getting, nothing new was expected, nothing new was

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required in fact anything new, which Herndon would later find out, was frowned upon. This was

the norm held by staff, students, and administrators at GW: maintain the status quo.

For example, when Herndon met the coach who was also the physical education teacher,

Coach advised him that things don’t and won’t change, saying, “'Well, Jim, you can have it just

two ways here,' he said, keeping hold of my arm. 'Pretty good, or pretty goddamn bad. Nothing

in between. And it won't ever change either. However it starts for you, it's gonna stay that way'"

(p. 10). The coach’s other advice was on the use of “The Word,” another example of

expectations or lack thereof and how things don’t change.

“The Word" is the one thing you can't ever let them say in the classroom. It's kind of a tradition around here, you might say. Any kid says “The Word”, then right down to the office with him, no arguing, ifs, ands buts. Just make out the slip; all you have to write is “The Word”. They all know it, the kids, and they expect it. Now, this isn't an ordinary school in many ways, and one of the ways is swearing. You'll find you have to ignore a lot of talk you wouldn't dream of putting up with in some other place. My advice here is, forget it. It doesn't mean a thing, and if you try to stop it you won't get anywhere, and you won't have time to do anything else. (p. 11) Perhaps this is another example of the Broken Window Theory, and/or evidence of the

lack of authentic learning activities that might engage student interests and motivate them, which

might actually prevent unacceptable behaviors like using “The Word.”

The Rhetoric Begins

During the new teacher meeting, the administration framed its window for discipline and

the support that both teachers and students would receive from department heads while also

espousing its goals for students. Herndon described what the new teachers heard as reassurance

from the administration that “the individual freedoms to teach how we pleased would not be in

any way affected, but that its purpose was to assist planning so that the students at GW might

have an orderly and unrepetitive progression through the grades and that this administration

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wished to concentrate on the individual, on his freedom of action, learning, growth and

development, and at the same time, to promote an orderly and responsible group of children" (p.

6). The students of GW and Herndon would experience quite the opposite over the next year.

Like many school administrators, perhaps even those with good intentions, they said one thing,

and their actions supported another.

Schools are involved in framing ideas about race and are constantly in struggles around

racial equity. They serve as a sorting mechanism, providing different students with access to

different kinds of experiences, opportunities, and knowledge, which then shape future

opportunities. We must acknowledge the way in which schools are structured, policies, and

practices that are implemented to reproduce the very inequities that they should break down.

Herndon recalls that during the new teacher meeting no one mentioned anything about the

system of tracking used at GW. However, when he looked at his schedule, he found that he

taught five different classes to four different groups (a seventh grade B class, an eighth grade B

class, a ninth grade D class and a seventh grade H class). It wasn’t until he inquired about the

tracking system in the teacher’s lounge that he learned about the ratings. He found that the

students were all rated and group A (high) to H (low).

The ratings were made on the basis of IQ tests, standardized achievement tests, and, on

occasion, faculty recommendations. Herndon says,

It is this kind of classification, based on this kind of testing, which seems to me the perfect example of the kind of thing that continually goes on in a school, and for which there is no reasonable explanation. Talking just to any teacher, as I did that year, you can hear a perfectly plausible lecture to the effect that IQ (or Mental Maturity, as it now goes) tests are not particularly valid under the best of conditions – that is, their validity is only general. You can't say, for example, that a child who scores 120 is any more capable than one who scores 116, 112, or anything above, say, or anything above, say, 100. (p. 13)

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Later in the book, Herndon described another system of tracking employed by school and

supported by the state in the use of student spellers. This system of tracking is discovered by the

students, when they complained about the substitute teacher (Mrs. A) issuing them the wrong

spellers. “The state spellers tried to keep grade level a secret; they didn't say seventh grade or

second grade anywhere on them, to keep the kids unaware of the fact they were working below

(or above) grade level. What they did have was a number of dots, near the top, perhaps so the

teacher could tell what grade level they were – seven dots for seventh-grade, two dots for second

grade. It didn't take long for the slowest kid to figure out this system" (p. 67). Mrs. A had given

the spellers that were second and third grade spellers, hence two and three dots at the top of each

workbook. “It was true the second-and third-grade spellers were of no use to them. What they

needed were official spellers with seven big dots on them, to carry outside on the school grounds

and home with them to prove they were too in seventh grade. I gave out a bunch of homework in

spelling and ordered everyone to take the spellers home that very night to do the homework in;

everyone carried those spellers home and back again every day from then on, until they were lost

or swiped" (p.67). To the students, the spellers were another example of “the way it spozed to

be.” Whether they completed the spellers or not, having them meant that they were like

everyone else. Students in other classes all had spellers.

School Experiences as Curriculum

In progressive communities, they endeavor to shape the experiences of the young so that instead of reproducing current habits, better habits shall be formed, and thus the future adult society be an improvement on their own. (Dewey, 1916, p. 79)

Herndon was an advocate for child-centered, progressive education. He criticized

schools for their “lack of focus on personal and public education” (Schubert, 1982, p. 224).

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Herndon saw the school system as oppressive rather than as a space that promoted learning,

especially for students already marginalized by race and class. He gives a view of a window of

the systematic dulling of students' abilities and creativity within urban public schools.

Child centered progressive education has been described as an effort to enhance both

child and community by establishing schools that would focus on the needs and interests of

children, thereby turning out more productive citizens. Progressive classrooms are typically

characterized by a great deal of freedom for students and as noisy places that sometimes appear

untidy and disorganized. The teaching/learning process is often structured around student

interests and concerns.

Schubert (2002) discusses three major orientations to curriculum work that took shape

during the 20th century. The kind of progressive, social justice approach to curriculum and

pedagogy adopted by Herndon doesn't connect to two dominant perspectives Schubert describes:

the traditionalist perspective, which suggests that schooling provides awareness and insight into

the paradigmatic structure of the disciplines of knowledge; and the behaviorist perspective,

which suggests schools would mass produce contributors to “successful living" according to

their perceived gifts and talents. But progressivism is kindred with the experientialists, who

perceive schools allow students to resolve problems that inhibit meaning and direction in their

lives (Schubert, 2002, p. 221).

Progressive educators of the 1920s conceived of the notion of curriculum as those

“experiences” that students have under the auspices of school guided by teachers. These

Progressives Reformers argued that the artificial environment of the schools was mis-educative

in that the youth of the country were not prepared to see and understand the values and issues

which would confront them as they became adults (Dewey and Childs, 1933).

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The notion of experience requires each student to evaluate their experiences and

perceptions of these experiences as they encounter their education program. Progressive

educators emphasized several beliefs that they considered central to any adequate conception of

education. “First, they wished to remind other educators that the reality of a curriculum for a

child was determined by the quality of the experience that the child had in the school and was not

simply a piece of paper on which lesson plans were prepared. Second, because children differ

from one another in background, aptitudes, interest, and the like, the curriculum was never

identical for different children” (Eisner, 1985, p. 40).

The progressive reformers called for school curriculum that included 1) teaching about

health and community life while engaging in active learning that would stimulate the mind and

illuminate their talents; 2) new scientific discoveries about learning; and 3) tailored teaching

techniques matched to students' needs. Marsh and Willis (2007) cite Cremin who says that as

part of progressivism in all phases of life, progressive education meant that schools should in

many ways attempt to improve the lives of individuals:

First, it (progressivism) meant broadening the program and the function of the school to include direct concerns for health, vocation, and the quality of family and community life. Second, it meant applying in the classroom the pedagogical principles derived from new scientific research in psychology and the social sciences. Third, it meant tailoring instruction more and more to the different kinds and classes of children who were being brought within the purview of the school. (p. 43)

John Dewey (1859-1952), considered the most renowned of the progressive educators,

wrote for 60 years on psychology, ethics, politics, religion, art, formal philosophy, and

education. A proponent of experiential education, Dewey described educational experiences as

those that contribute to an individual’s growth. Growth for Dewey depends on whether

development in a specific direction “promotes or retards growth in general. Does this form of

growth create conditions for further growth or does it set up conditions that shut off the person

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who has grown in this particular direction from the occasions, stimuli, and opportunities for

continuing growth in new directions?” (p 36) Dewey described three types of experiences:

those that are educative, non-educative, and mis-educative.

An educative experience is one that promotes the growth and desire of the student toward

further experiences. Dewey's theory is that experience arises from the interaction of two

principles – continuity and interaction. Continuity means that each experience affects for better

or worse the attitudes that help us decide the quality of further experiences. Interaction refers to

the situational influence on one's experience. In other words, one's present experience is a

function of the interaction between one's past experiences and the present situation (Dewey,

1938). For example, the experience of those students learning to read depended on how Mr.

Herndon planned and enacted the curriculum, as well their past experiences of learning to read.

By allowing the students to go to the library (a space generally reserved for readers) and to select

reading material that was of interest to them, Herndon created a new, more educative experience

for the students. The principle of continuity is critical and involved in every attempt to evaluate

whether or not an experience is educative. The cultivation of a “desire to go on learning” is one

of the most important benchmarks of educative experiences (Herndon, 1938, p. 48).

Non-educative experiences are those that are simply undergone and have no significant

effect on the individual on way or the other. For example, once a child has learned the alphabet

and can recite the letters, any future experiences with recitation have no effect on the child one

way or the other. In GW, the daily routine of copying a paragraph from the blackboard as a

mechanism to control students and keep them quiet is one of those non-educative experiences

that students are required to do.

Coach said,

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The best method for getting them in order was to have a paragraph written out on the board when they entered, and get them in the habit of copying this paragraph in their notebooks immediately as they sat down, giving a time limit for its completion, erasing the paragraph when the time was up, and grading the notebooks frequently. Copying was something they could all do without further explanation from me; it got them in the mood for schoolwork, quiet, their materials ready, all set for the day's lesson, whatever it was. (Herndon, 1968, p. 106) Herndon’s (1968) response to himself was, "I don't want to get them under control, I

want them to see some reason for getting themselves under control" (p. 113).

Dewey describes mis-educative experiences as those that have “the effect of arresting or

distorting the growth of further experience” (Dewey, 1938, p. 25). These experiences restrict or

prevent further experiences. A bigoted veteran teacher at the GW declared that all her life she

had only spoken to ladies and gentlemen, and since none of the African American students were

ladies or gentlemen, she not only refused to speak to them, but also strictly forbade them to

speak in her class. She silently handed out worksheets on a daily basis with typed instructions to

all the students. If students spoke in the class, she would hand them a written note instructing

them to report to the office.

The structure and routines of traditional school often prevent many students from

developing in certain subject areas. For example, the reading experience of Herndon’s students

was so damning and uncomfortable across their school and non-school experiences that they

avoided the subject whenever it was within their power to do so. The way in which the students

experienced reading as a subject thwarted rather than nurtured or stimulated the intellectual

imagination and aesthetic possibilities typically brought about by reading. An experience that

promotes callousness toward learning; a repetitive experience that places a student in a “groove

or rut”; an experience that leads to carelessness; experiences that are individually enjoyable but

utterly disconnected such that they lead to an inability to make sense of future experiences – all

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of these Dewey would call mis-educative. Almost all of Herndon's students' prior experiences

with reading had been mis-educative. For almost every student at GW, the miseducative lurked

around each corner of the school, and blocked any meaningful vision of the present or future in

school from view.

Critical Pedagogy and Culturally Relevant Teaching

We speak increasingly of control, as if we feared that everything would collapse into nothing if we let loose our (illusory) hold on things. And so I have been urging one simple truth through all these pages: that the educational function does not rest upon our ability to control, or our will to instruct, but upon our human nature and the nature of experience. – George Dennison Nearly a decade ago, African American educator Asa Hilliard spoke to a gathering of

elementary teachers and principals in Milwaukee, stressing the central role of teacher knowledge

and attitudes in any reform effort. “Curriculum is what’s inside teachers’ heads,” he reminded us.

Although Herndon assumed responsibility for establishing routines for instruction,

management, and an environment conducive for academic learning and personal growth in his

classroom by virtue of his position, the burden of the classroom context is not solely his

responsibility, due to the oppressive and in this case racialized contexts of GW. In Herndon’s

attempt not to reproduce the status quo in terms of classroom instruction or lack of classroom

management, as well as to meet the needs of students where they were, he found himself

engaged in what Friere describes as "the nature of oppression," that is he was operating in a

system in which the oppressors and the oppressed are held captive by the forces of oppression.

The structure of school is highly oppressive. The teacher must follow a curriculum set by

someone else and use textbooks written by someone else. The teacher is oppressed under the

structure and hierarchy of the school system and therefore is unable to empower students by

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giving them freedom to create, explore, experience and transform. The challenge for today’s

teachers is to include those elements of curricula that will optimize learning for students while

maintaining their cultural identity (Ladson-Billings, 1994).

Culturally relevant teaching is a term created by Gloria Ladson-Billings to describe a

pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically, using

cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes as part of particular and overall

school experiences through the curriculum and pedagogy of the site and the teacher (Ladson-

Billings, 1992). Participating in culturally relevant teaching essentially means that teachers

create a bridge between students’ home and school lives, while still meeting the expectations of

the district and state curricular requirements. Culturally relevant teaching utilizes the

backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences of the students to inform the teacher’s lessons and

methodology. One of ways in which Herndon engages in this notion of culturally relevant

teaching is through what he describes as intellectual discourse where students discussed “all

serious questions with a view to finding out the reasons and causes and probable outcomes of

situations, everyone having a say including myself. The discussions were lively, honest,

uncompromising (and disorderly) – I was on the whole satisfied with them" (p. 63). During one

of their discussions, the meaning of D designation for the class and the tracking system became

their topic. Like in all schools, the students are supposed to be unaware of the tracking system

used to group students, and like most students Herndon’s students know about the groupings.

One day a kid opened up a period by asking me to explain why they were all in a dumb class – what he actually said, I remember was: If we in this dumb class why should we do anything if we already too dumb to do it? Yeah, came a number of voices in agreement, old D for Dumb! and several similar expressions. (p. 64)

They spent several days discussing this topic. Each day, students excitedly picked up where they

left off. It was one of the times that Herndon says that the students didn’t mind listening to him

23

talk for long periods of time. Herndon tried to explain about the tests, who made the tests, who

took the tests, what they meant or didn't mean, why a student might do well or poorly on the tests

on any given day, and how they got the groups out of the results of the tests. “Everyone wanted

to know about it because, I imagine, it was true and had something to do with them, and no one

had ever gone into it with them before" (p 64).

Herndon’s goal for his students was to “learn something about English, since that was

what they were spozed to learn” and to “learn something about writing – how to say what they

wanted on paper so that somebody else could read it. In this respect the discussions, upon which

I'd counted, were a failure; no one found it necessary to record his own or anyone else's

thoughts" (p. 65).

The independent reading and writing, along with the cooperative learning methods

employed by Herndon, were described as the most frequently discussed methods to teach African

American students to read in a study conducted by Perkins (2001). Reading, as defined by Clay

(1991), is a "message-getting, problem-solving activity which increases in power and flexibility

the more it is practiced" (p. 6). During independent reading and writing, students are in charge

of their own reading and writing; they choose what to read and what topics they will write about.

Social interaction is extremely important in developing students' cognitive growth. It is

significantly relevant to current trends in reading instruction. Cooperative learning groups help

students to synthesize information in a collaborative way. Slavin (1991) found that students'

achievement, self-concept, and social skills were enhanced when they participated in cooperative

learning groups. Research on cooperative learning practices reveals that students achieve more

when working in groups than when working individually or in competitive situations (Dilworth,

1992 & Kuykendall, 1992).

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According to Irvine (1989), there is significant evidence in the literature that African

American students achieve better when they work together rather than alone. The refusal of the

curriculum coaches and administrators to support and encourage Herndon's innovative and

emancipatory teaching techniques only helped to create and re-create the existing culture, beliefs

and practices, which are hegemonic in nature. Although nearly always invisible, hegemonic

structures reify what seems to be natural and therefore accepted as commonsense.

Peter McLaren (1997) explains that Critical Pedagogy is an approach adopted by

progressive teachers attempting to eliminate inequities on the basis of social class, and that it has

also sparked a wide array of anti-sexist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic classroom-based

curricula and policy initiatives. Common questions for the critical educator include: What

knowledge is of most worth? Whose knowledge is most important? What knowledge should be

taught, and just as important, what knowledge is not to be taught? How does the structure of the

school contribute to the social stratification of our society? What is the relationship between

knowledge and power? What does this imply for our children? What is the purpose of schooling?

Is it to ensure democracy or to maintain the status quo and support big business? How can

teachers enable students to become critical thinkers who will promote true democracy and

freedom?

In Making Choices for Multicultural Education, Sleeter and Grant (2007) refer to

multicultural education as “educational practices directed toward race, culture, language, social

class, gender, and disability” (p. 211). However, they do not imply that race is the primary form

of social inequality that needs to be addressed. Multicultural educators are described as

affirming difference as a resource rather than as a deficit. Thus, they would argue that a

25

significant aspect of student engagement is a connection to students’ personal lives and the

material world (McLaren, 1997).

The curriculum should be reformed so that it will more accurately reflect the history and cultures of ethnic groups and women. (Banks, 1993, p. 4) Reading is said to be a window to the world. The American Association of School

Librarians – in its Standards for the 21st Century Learner – says that reading is a foundational

skill for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment. The degree to which students can read and

understand text in all formats (e.g., pictures, videos, print matters of all kinds) and all contexts is

a key indicator of success in school and in life (American Library Association, 2007, p. 2).

Education – and reading well – enables students to look through window frames in order to see

the realities of others and into mirrors in order to see their own reflected realities. Knowledge of

both types of framing is basic to a balanced education, which should be committed to affirming

the essential dialectic between the self and the world. In other words, education engages us in

"the great conversation" between various frames of reference.

Herndon describes the routine of asking non-readers to engage in reading aloud, a

practice that required students to risk themselves in ways that prevented them from complying.

Their resistance provided protection to their emotional and social selves. This avoidance of the

risk for Herndon’s students’ was entrenched in the racialized context of the school. In chapter

three, titled “Welcome Back!” Herndon describes a huge poster located at the end of the hall

hung high up on the wall. The poster said “Welcome Back.” Below the these words was a

painted picture which showed two white children, a boy and a girl, carrying lunch boxes and

books, heading for school. In light of the student population being 99% African American, this

depiction is clearly problematic. The problem, as he describes it, is “that these two life sized

painted kids didn’t look like anybody I saw or was likely to see, heading for old GW. The girl

26

was blonde. Her hair hung in a nice long curl around her shoulders. The boy had brown hair,

combed straight back. They both were white" (p. 11). The presence of the mural depicting

white children, the limited books and older texts, showing a complete lack of concern for the

students in this school and their educational experiences, all certainly created a contentious

climate inside the school.

For Herndon, the task was to carve out a safe learning environment. He recognized that

the structures of GW, like countless other schools across America then and now, were mis-

educative. He attempted to create a learning space where students were encouraged to

participate and engage in discussions and group projects. Learning would be enjoyable.

However, while the plays and films blurred the lines between work and play, they ultimately led

to his being characterized as an unsuccessful teacher.

The idea that a central purpose of a democratic curriculum might involve exploring

where knowledge comes from, the rules of its production, and the ways we can assess its quality

and the purposes of its production often don’t resonate with individuals living in an era of

standardized tests and student/school rankings (Kincheloe, p. 3, 2010). Dewey advised teachers

to build their classroom lessons around the life experiences of students.

Paulo Freire always reminded us that central to our work in critical pedagogy is the effort

to end the grotesque reality of human suffering. “A critical epistemology helps educators

understand that thinking in new ways always necessitates personal transformation: if enough

people think in new ways, social and pedagogical transformation is inevitable" (Kincheloe, 2010,

p. 32).

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1947), said: “It seems to me, that education has a two-fold

function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture.

27

Education must enable a man (sic) to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility

the legitimate goals of his life.” Some do see education system, or more specifically our public

schools, as a means for controlling students, for teaching them merely to obey (Gatto 2005). It is

widely agreed upon that one of the purposes of schooling is to understand our country and how it

works, either as a way to operate in society or to question and to change it. A more democratic,

critical, and progressive education in the public school makes it possible for students to control

their own future.

Stained Glass

When I see a stained glass window in a church, its beauty often strikes me. The stained

glass is often a depiction of a particular story or inspiring moment from scripture or an aspect of

faith. A closer look at the art embedded in the glass panes often reveals that the window is made

up of many pieces of glass of different shapes and sizes, some are large and some are small and

they are made of different colors.

The ultimate goal of a great teacher (James Herndon), the fine artist who creates stained

glass out of his students' lives in the classroom, is to create something that will captivate, evoke,

enthrall, or in some other way stimulate the viewer (learner). This is accomplished by coming up

with fresh ideas or designs (innovative teaching strategies), and then executing them (even

though the outcome may look very random, imprecise, and sometimes chaotic).

Students are like a giant stained glass window, with their own life experiences

shimmering as the light of people who had an impact on their lives through liberating actions

shines through them, always in the moment but sometimes recognized only in the future.

Teachers, like James Herndon, shine through them, and create a new world, transformed by

28

opportunity, and justice. As you look at each piece of beautiful stained glass – your students'

lives and experiences – you might see a name or image of something or someone that has made a

difference for him, or for her, or for you. The people who shine through will be the ones who

took the time to listen, to care, to teach, to inspire, to encourage, those whom you took a chance

on, or who took a chance on you, like James Herndon did for his students.

Instead of operating under the broken window theory, which privileges disorder and

merely responds to the perception of it with behavioral interventions (like direct instruction), we

should strive for the excellence and possibility symbolized by stained glass windows. Herndon

was an educator who attempted to transform his students from regular glass windows, perceived

by every other adult in the setting to be broken, into stained glass windows, in tact and thriving,

and emitting beauty and potential. His nontraditional teaching methods led to enthusiasm and

diligence from his students, and, ultimately, and sadly, the non-renewal of his teaching contract.

He attempted to utilize novel strategies that motivated students to read in a world where students

had mis-educative experiences with reading over the course of several years, since they were still

non-readers in seventh grade.

In the last month of school, the students decided to stage riots. The riots mainly consisted

of throwing things out of the windows, destroying books, and occasionally locking a teacher out

of the classroom. Herndon's classes were the only ones not disrupted. His students did not riot

against him and or his authority (or lack thereof) as they did against other teachers. So, the

administration fired Herndon because it felt that if no one rioted against him, he must be the only

one not enforcing authority. In his final evaluation interview, Herndon recalled that “On the

form, where it counted, I was totally unsatisfactory. He spoke to the point; the children were not

in their seats on time, they did not begin lessons promptly, many of them sat around doing

29

nothing, there was not an atmosphere conducive to study, no effort was made to inculcate good

study habits, there was no evidence of thorough preparation of lessons or goals. I appeared to

encourage activities that were opposed to the efforts of the faculty. In general, I appeared eager

to discuss with the students matters irrelevant or unfit for the classroom, I had no control over

their actions, and I steadfastly rejected aid and advice from experienced people" (p. 110).

Instead, all of what Herndon did was done to empower and transform the lives of children, to

educate them, which he did and the others in the school did not. Their realities are on different

sides of the window, one that sees the windows as broken, and the other that sees them as

beautiful, filled with possibility.

We live in a society which values maintaining the status quo and where some of the most

vibrant approaches and possibilities are often stifled, and where individuals not "with the

program" are encouraged to become more like those that are accepted and privileged in the

dominant culture. I have always believed that active lessons should connect to the real world

and that the experiences of students, as they are surfaced and privileged in class, promote

motivation and excitement for learning. Classrooms should be places where students are treated

as thinkers, doers, and directors of their own learning. Students will achieve academic prosperity

when teachers like Herndon give them the opportunity to succeed. The persistence of racial and

economic inequalities that minimize the life prospects of urban African American school

children should lead each of us to consider our moral obligations as change agents, and

particularly to reconsider just how it is that the status quo in curriculum and pedagogy today,

especially in classrooms where students of color go to study and learn, is being fostered by the

hegemonic forces of the day. We need more James Herndons to break down those practices, to

engage learners, and to transform society.

30

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