An Open Letter to Gov Cuomo from a New York Teacher by Lori Atkinson

Dear Governor Cuomo:

I am writing in response to your comments about re-imagining NYS public education and the advisory council that you have appointed to examine this process. First of all, I know that this is a huge undertaking and completely necessary. In fact, it has been necessary for years. As a 30 year veteran high school English teacher, I have been hoping for a re-imagining and been extremely vocal about it. In fact, I was ecstatic when I was personally called by Chancellor Rosa and asked to take part in the graduation measures discussion that was occurring prior to COVID 19. Everyone knows that NYS education needed an overhaul, but your idea and educators’ ideas are diametrically opposed. I will specifically address the secondary level since that is where I have spent my entire career.

First and foremost, this re-imagining cannot and should not happen without the complete involvement of more educators. You wouldn’t build a bridge without consulting the engineers and the architects. Furthermore, Bill Gates should NEVER be considered as an educational consultant ever again. He is NOT an expert on education and learning; he is a computer whiz who made millions, but he will never understand teaching no matter how much money he tosses at it. We have spent years trying to undo the damage from the Common Core fiasco; we are still facing the fall-out from that dumpster fire. Why put our kids through another flawed experiment and botched roll-out that has nothing to do with education and everything to do with pushing technology and making more money?

The advisory council does not include proper teacher representation nor does it contain fair geographic representation. Your lone choice for the north country is the president of Clarkson University, a highly respected college, but albeit, a non-teaching prep college. You have just two teacher representatives, both from downstate. There should be a higher proportion of actual educators with years of experience who are living and teaching through this. For that matter, where is Chancellor Rosa? Where is a NYSUT representative like Jolene DiBrango? If it is truly your intention to do the right thing and re-imagine education correctly, then you need to include more educators who are in the trenches, who have actually been teaching online throughout this pandemic and who can provide real, honest, sincere debate about what should happen and why. Our lives are these kids; we can tell you exactly what is happening and provide data and evidence to back our claims. You stated,"When we closed school facilities because of the COVID-19 virus, our teachers and students rose to the occasion, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their heroic work." If that’s the case, then why are you excluding more of the very heroes that you touted from having greater voices on the advisory council?

Technology can never replace human interaction; technology is just a tool. In the 1950s, science fiction writers correctly predicted that we would try to use technology to replace teachers by writing stories warning us of the dangers of thinking this way. Just a few of the ones that I teach include: Ray Bradbury analyzing the dangers of being absorbed by the “parlor walls” and dumbing down education by plopping kids in front of movies in Fahrenheit 451, Isaac Asimov discussing the loss of a social-emotional connection in “The Fun They Had”, and Kurt Vonnegut predicting the dangers of trying to make everyone fit the same mold by manipulating technological devices called “handicappers” to make everyone “feel’ equal in “Harrison Bergeron”. Literature reflects the culture and these authors could see the potential of relying too much on technology.

I will use each of these stories to teach you, Governor Cuomo, that it is an ill-conceived idea to re-imagine education without school buildings and human teachers interacting face to face with students. Ray Bradbury showed readers that too much screen time will lead to all kinds of mental health issues, aggression, a lack of creativity and critical thinking, and communication deficiencies. Sadly, I can certainly attest to the fact that some of these existed and were climbing before COVID 19, but it is certainly worse now. Study after study continues proving with mounting scientific evidence that too much screen time creates more depression, more anxiety and greater levels of stress by creating conversational barriers and feelings of inadequacy. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego University has been studying this for a decade and has been quoted in numerous articles that I use to discuss this downward spiral with students. Twenge states, “we have to go on the data that we have — which is obviously not going to be a true experiment — but it adds up to a lot of evidence pointing toward technology possibly playing a role in this increase in mental health issues." Why would we add more screen time instead of fostering human interaction if we know that research and science clearly shows there is a correlation to an increase in mental health issues? Throughout this pandemic, one thing that I have admired about your handling of it is that you relied on science to make your decisions, so why wouldn’t you rely on science now?

Secondly, Isaac Asimov ironically describes a future where students have to learn from home and have computerized robots for teachers so that they never interact with other students or human instructors. It hits a little too close to home after living like this for three months. The kids in the story find an old book that describes old schools, and they suddenly realize that they wish they had an opportunity to participate in a real school building and how exciting it could be to have a human teacher who talked to them and interacted with them.

I can clearly see the toll that online education is having on my students in grades 10-12. They tell me that they need my feedback on their writing, and it isn’t the same when I am a faceless embodiment typing on their Google document. They don’t always understand my comments, but when I am responsible for almost 90 students, it is difficult to keep typing lengthy replies to every single one that would clearly spell out what I mean. There simply isn’t enough time in the day! They need to ask questions in person, they need to discuss and brainstorm together to hear different ideas, and they need to have the feedback exchange in person in order to produce stronger, more creative writing. They need to have their ideas validated in person so that their emotional confidence can mature in order to become lifelong learners who become productive members of society. Although the list of 21st century skills do include technology literacy, they also include critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and social skills. Online education could never create the proper environment that fosters authentic growth through confidence that is built by repeated feedback and practice together with both classmates and a teacher to hone these skills.

In the last literary example, Kurt Vonnegut shares a harrowing tale of what happens when we think we can make everyone the same through technology which is what online education does by default. It assumes that all students have the same background, the same home environment, the same access to technology,the same learning styles, the same parental support, the same resources, etc. This is not true and never will be because we don’t live in a classless society and we don’t have cookie cutter children. Our state should have learned that lesson when we were forced to use Common Core. Kids are not equal!

Additionally, by eliminating school buildings, you would further add to the disparity in the equity among NYS students by cutting educational funding. I realize that we are in dire times, but this would be creating more pockets of poverty and deeper holes of inequity surrounded by an abyss of unfunded technology mandates and gaping chasms of limited access to dependable internet access. There are other revenue means; a very easy solution would be to institute a progressive tax on millionaires.I know that Andy Pallotta has described how this would work and potentially add $650 million per year. Simply hoping and saying that online education and technology are the answer to re-imagining education and the economic woes is pure folly, and you saw the immediate backlash after you uttered it. You cannot close school buildings and cut teachers just to save money and make up for our loss during this shut down; it’s beyond ludicrous. Students are not the same and will not neatly fit into the technological world because NYS is much bigger than the Big 5. You have parts of your state that still do not have adequate internet service, so you would be condemning those students to fewer opportunities simply because of where they live. How is that fair or a good way to re-imagine education?

Furthermore, there has been on-going research about drop-out rates and graduation rates tied to online education. According to In the Public Interest, “on average, only half of online high school students graduate within four years, compared to 84 percent of high school students nationally.” I can already see that some of my students who really hate school are just dropping off the face of the earth despite my best efforts and a definite reduction in the workload. They will come to class during regular school because it is a requirement to come and it is harder to skip if they think they are disappointing me, but there’s nothing forcing them to attend a Google Meet session, so they don’t. Several of them have admitted that if they don’t have me in their face joking and nagging at them to “just make it through this year because it’s one step closer to a diploma” then they just can’t find the motivation because no one else cares enough to make them.

Furthermore, if students cannot attend a vocational education program, we are short-changing them even more. These are hands-on programs that cannot be done in just an online setting. According to a Forbes article less than a year ago, “America is facing an unprecedented skilled labor shortage. According to the Department of Labor, the US economy had 7.6 million unfilled jobs, but only 6.5 million people were looking for work as of January 2019 and it is more apparent than ever that our country is suffering because of it.” Without physical interaction and hands-on experience, I can guarantee that we will lose these types of learners because it is too easy to avoid a face in the computer that doesn’t have the human connection to prod, cajole and encourage them. Is that fair to essentially discard this group of kids?

Most students require structure and discipline to develop, grow and mature into responsible, hard working adults. School buildings with their bells, set schedules, activities, clubs, and sports are comforting because they are dependable. If you surveyed NYS students about these past few weeks, I can guarantee that they will shout with a resounding “NO THANK YOU” if you actually asked them their opinion regarding online education. I have several seniors who have stated they will take a gap year to avoid attending college this fall if it means online classes. The kids who have been enduring this should be heard. Have you even considered implementing a statewide survey of all students to use as valid data?

I haven’t even touched upon the other factors that are beyond a teacher’s control if we eliminated the “old model” of students attending a physical classroom. Logistically, I haven’t even mentioned the struggling single parents or dual working parents who cannot keep this pace. There’s obviously so many more variables that do not make this a wise idea. Although you are correct in realizing that we are at a precipice for change, that change should not include the push off that precipice toward more technology and less human interaction. Schools are more than brick and mortar facilities that simply dole out nuggets of knowledge. They are physical places to get good, healthy, regular meals, they are places of comfort and refuges from domestic violence and abuse, they are counseling facilities for families who cannot afford outside therapy, they are career and mentoring centers, they are clothing providers,and they are places where kids feel valued, loved and respected no matter what. School buildings and teachers are the foundation for all that we hold dear in our democratic society--simply put, they are the building blocks for the future and technology will NEVER replace the caring, loving words of a teacher who will envelop each kid with a smile of support and encouragement that technology will never provide no matter how many times politicians or big business attempt to convince us otherwise.

Sincerely,

Lori Atkinson

Proud NYSUT member and English educator