AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW MEXICO CDP (Career Development Program)
THIS IS FROM A VETERAN OF THE CDP TRAINING PROGRAM
Dear CDP Participants,
It's been a few weeks since you received an e-mail that I was "quitting" the program. The e-mail was a cheap shot and an invasion of my privacy, but, considering the tenor of the entire CDP, it certainly does not come as a surprise. Perhaps it was even intended as warning to others. I would like to thank those of you that have contacted me. It was greatly appreciated. I know that since I have been branded some sort of pariah, you did it at considerable risk to your career aspirations and you can rest assured I will keep your letters confidential. All of you in the program have made far greater sacrifices--kids, husbands, wives, outside jobs, etc.--than I. Without exception you are superior individuals and will make great educators. In fact, I'm fully convinced that any of us could walk into the classroom today, tomorrow, or next week, and, with the many life experiences that we've had, make topnotch teachers, such spurious and useless exercises as "community" meetings (some community when some wield all the power), "rules and norms," and all the other nonsense we had to endure notwithstanding.
I recall the first day we were seated at UNM. We were all enthusiastic that day. How quickly our eagerness evaporated. Three weeks later the grumbling was incessant as we came to realize we weren't being taught to teach at all, but were merely repositories for an endless assortment of busywork and indoctrination. Thus even one of the mentor teachers whom I visited could state that the students coming out of UNM from the undergraduate program weren't equipped to take over a classroom. Just fill up their minds with psychobabble--that's the ticket. I remember being told that first day that we were to learn a "right way" to teach, that we will be "challenged" to change our views and "biases", i.e. the program will inform us of the correct ideology that we are to carry into our classrooms, as if a career teacher presiding over a monopolistic and declining school system has any "answer," let alone the right one. This is the basest kind of ideological claptrap. Indeed, in e-mail conversations with a Chinese-exile friend of mine, she related that the various "communities" and "groups" we were constantly forming resembled the "struggle sessions" of that country. As well, she related the "journaling" process as a means of regulation and control over the students, far different from the innocuous, "helpful" exercise we were led to believe they were. The petty powers-that-be want to know what's in our heads. I don't think this really needs to be said. I think most of us realized long ago we needed to watch carefully what we say or write. I always found it revealing too that rather than meet on a campus or open environment, we were confined to a trailer all day, the better to keep tabs on us.
I was always fascinated to note that the ideologues who run the CDP are the first ones to call themselves "progressives" when, of course, they are the most reactionary--total slaves to an ideology in spite of any and all evidence that would arise now or in the future that would controvert their cherished beliefs. Turn over all of Albuquerque, it would be hard to find people more set in their hateful, reactionary ways. The CDP staff, those over and above them, are not reformers. They are not progressives. They are not diverse. THEY ARE THE FOREMOST EXAMPLES OF A TIRED, INEFFICIENT, AUTHORITARIAN, FASCISTIC, CORRUPT AND TOP-HEAVY BUREAUCRATIC system that the people of the South Valley and elsewhere throughout New Mexico and the U.S. are rightfully turning out. From the inner-cities of Milwaukee and Cleveland and Albuquerque to the homeschoolers of Alaska, students, parents and communities cry out to be free from "all-knowing," all-seeing monopolies and dictators. The common man, the minorities that the Statists claim to fight for, are rising up and throwing them out whenever they are given the freedom to do so.
As many of you know my views were often at variance with those foisted upon us.
I know many of you too hold diverse and divergent views from the prescribed ideology as well and have to suck it up each and every day. So much for freedom of speech and expression. With all the talk of diversity in our classroom, diversity of opinion is/was frowned upon, and I would argue, punished. As an example, can a single one of us point to any of the readings that were from a different perspective than the radical leftwing views we were subjected to on a daily basis? Of course, there are as many theories of teaching, education, and child development as there are fast food outlets in Middle America. Were we exposed to a single one? As an example, can anyone point to the word "parents" in our readings? Is this not amazing?! Does not this seem odd? Is it possible parents were excluded for a reason, that they don't fit into the CDP State Ideology? Are parents irrelevant? Might not parents be the most important and relevant factor in a child's life and education? I can attest to this factor in my own life. I think most of us would feel the same, and, of course, we have observed this in our mentor teacher classrooms. Yet, this word is strangely silent in the "literature." I may not be smart enough to distinguish Interpersonal: Academic from Intrapersonal: Social on a goals outline or a medieval lesson "plan," but it's transparently obvious that the concept of parents is eschewed in CDP. Perhaps after this letter the leopard will try to change its spots, but the real, true, intolerant CDP is there for all to see.
The CDP is a study in contrast and hypocrisy. During all the many discussions we had on diversity, I could barely contain myself. Where, I asked, was the male point of view? And, I am here to say, that, in the main, a man would take a far different or opposite tact on most topics and issues than was the agenda in CDP. Just take a look at any election or poll on virtually any issue: Men and women are different. Here were 20+ female staff members and teachers convening such a topic. When do we laugh?! The CDP staff admonished us early on to watch out for the biases that each person carries with them or that we will experience in the classroom or in our readings. Yes, we all have biases except them. How could they when they are in possession of the "true" path? I'm sure we all observed that boys and girls are very different during our classroom experiences, if we didn't have some inkling of this previously. I would argue as well that men and women have different ways of looking at things. Vive le difference. Yet, the CDP class setup, readings and assignments were presided over by an all-female staff. The fact that there is not one male staff member or mentor teacher--I counted well over 20 staff people and teachers--is highly disturbing and discriminatory, quite possibly actionable. Imagine the outcry if the numbers were reversed. I call on the CDP to hire some male staff, er . . . more male staff, er . . . . one male staff member for the entire program.
I heard so many times from teachers whom I came into contact with how important it was to have more men in the early grades. Yet, given the framework and impractical assignements we were all subjected to, how many men can struggle through the program? How many women for that matter? Why, I must ask, in probably the most relevant and poignant question, do any of us need to suffer at all as we all were doing under the weight of so many, and such insipid "assignments"? Indeed, so many assignments and so many assignment dates and times that the vaunted CDP troika themselves couldn't keep up with the volume as they repeatedly mixed things up, from even before the first day of classes.
It's high time to integrate CDP with several strong male voices. In addition, if one is tobe a strong voice, either male or female, it's time to allow these views equal weight rather than allow the program to be one person's or a troika's private fiefdom. It's time for a free and unfettered community rather than one where people have to live in fear for what they do or say like a tinpot dictatorship. UNDER CONDITIONS OF TOLERANCE AND TRUE DIVERSITY IT'S DOUBTFUL THAT I FOR ONE WOULD HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF "SLOUCHING" OR "LAUGHING" (either too much or too loudly). AS WELL, I WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SET UPON DURING MY "GOALS" MEETING FOR "HELPING" THE CHILDREN AS I WAS, OR FOR TEACHING TO "TOO HIGH A LEVEL." These ridiculous accusations are disturbing if not, once again, actionable.
For the record, that's the way I am. I'm not a drone. I like to laugh and I have a hearty one. I possess a sense of humor. As well, I try to help other people, especially children, who can't make heads or tails of their division under the new-fangled method of "estimation" presently employed. I understand men have quit/been forced out in greater numbers in the past. The same is, of course, occurring this year. I believe this is a natural result of the bias in the program. The very fact that classes are held during the day and the evening creates a de facto bias against male participation in the program.
When one grows up and does business in Los Angeles, one becomes fairly adept at sizing people up. It didn't take me long to see the face of intolerance and hate, to see through the pasted-on smiles, the saccharin voices, and the nosehair. It was clear early on the staff wasn't most interested in great teachers, but in making sure all towed the CDP line. In my case the fix was in. My "goals" session represented a twisted attack upon myself. I was presented with more accusations, further "evaluations," and meetings than one could shake the proverbial stick at. Contrast that with the very positive experiences I'm sure all the children would relate with whom I came into contact in the classroom, as well as the teaching job I did, and it was clear, if it hadn't been already, that I was being forced out. I understand from recent discussions that this type of treatment is a tried and true CDP modus operandi. I chose to stand on principle rather than be a whipping boy for a pod of incompetents. It's time for the CDP to diversify and democratize itself, for participation to be welcomed from all genders and points of view and for a program to arise that respects both individual freedom and differences.
"Liberation grows out of the realization that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" -- Stephen Biko.
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