Empowered by Play » NCLB

Dear Michelle Obama:

Geralyn — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:52:14 +0000

The good news is, someone on the White House Task Force for childhood obesity was listening. This week, Michelle Obama sent an email releasing their report, and among the many recommendations, was restoring recess!

Recommendation 5.4: State and local educational agencies should be encouraged to promote recess for elementary students and physical activity breaks for older students, and provide support to schools to implement recess in a healthy way that promotes physical activity and social skill development.

Definitely a step in the right direction, and encouraging news. You can visit the Let’s Move website to read the report and recommendations. The Task Force received over 2500 public comments – so a big thank you to everyone who wrote in about recess and more. On the heels of this success – here is another way to get involved and make change for children and play:

The standardized test movement is one of the many factors that is squeezing play out of children’s lives – especially their school lives. Starting in kindergarten, our children are being turned off – instead of turned on to learning. Many folks ask me, “But what can I do?” Here is one thing you can do…today I am spreading the word about an exciting campaign initiated by the folks at Time Out from Testing. Here are there words:

Dear Friends,

Parent and other assessment reform organizations and individuals from across the country are participating in a postcard campaign to First Lady Michelle Obama asking that she encourage the President to put an end to the use of High Stakes Testing. When she was on the campaign trail she had the following to say about the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Program:

“No Child Left Behind is strangling the life out of most schools.”
“If my future were determined by my performance on a standardized test I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee that.”

THOUSANDS OF US AGREE WITH HER CRITICISM. WE NEED HER HELP TO END THE RELIANCE ON HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS.

HERE IS WHAT WE NEED TO DO: On May 29th send a postcard to Michelle Obama with this message:

Dear Michelle Obama:

We want the same education for our children that you provide for Malia and Sasha.
Our child is not a test score.
Encourage the President to end the use of high stakes standardized tests!

Sincerely,

Name:
Address:
Signature

Mail to:
First Lady Michelle Obama
White House,
Washington DC

Some of you may want to tweak the wording a bit. All that we ask is that you don’t dilute the main message of ending high stakes testing. Remember that once she receives the first 50 postcards, she and her staff won’t be reading them but instead will be counting them.

One way to ensure the success of this campaign will be to go viral and use our listservs and Facebook. However, it requires that people go to the post office , buy a postcard and then write the message and address it. In this day and age we fear that will not happen in mass numbers. So we have designed some other ways to make sure we reach our goal of between 50,000-100,000 cards on May 29th.

FOR THIS WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF ALL OUR ORGANIZATIONS TO GO INTO THE COMMUNITY AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!

HERE ARE OUR SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS:

1. SET UP TABLES IN YOUR SCHOOLS WHEN PARENTS DROP OFF AND PICK UP THEIR KIDS AND GET THEM TO SIGN THE CARD. YOU WILL NEED TO BUY THEM AND PUT THE MESSAGE ON YOURSELF. ASK FOR A 25 CENT CONTRIBUTION. SOME WILL GIVE A DOLLAR AND SOME WON’T GIVE SO IT SHOULD BALANCE OUT.

2. ASK TEACHERS TO CIRCULATE THE CARDS AND GET THEM BACK TO YOU.

3. SET UP TABLES IN FRONT OF THE BUSIEST STORES ON A SATURDAY/SUNDAY AND COLLECT SIGNATURES ON THE CARD

4. SET UP CARD SIGNING AT YOUR LOCAL CHURCH

5. REMEMBER TO TAKE THEM TO THE OFFICE, FAMILY GATHERINGS, BIRTHDAY PARTIES, SOCCER/BASEBALL GAMES

6. REMEMBER ANYONE CAN SIGN THE CARD—KIDS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, RELATIVES

The important thing is that you keep a record of how many got sent due to your outreach. We will need a count sent to us at info@timeoutfromtesting.org so that when we hold a press conference on that day, we will have an accurate count.

WE HAVE VERY LITTLE TIME TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN BUT WE KNOW THAT IF ALL OF US PULL TOGETHER OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL WEEKS IT WILL HAPPEN.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT,

TIME OUT FROM TESTING
COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS
THE FORUM FOR EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
ADVANCEMENT PROJECT
RETHINK LEARNING
FAIRTEST

Recess (It’s not just for congressmen.)

Geralyn — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:24:07 +0000

“I am so happy!” my son declared recently as he got off the school bus. What made him so happy that day? In a word: recess. His class had gone outside to play.

So much is working against recess these days – with one major factor being the high stakes testing that came with No Child Left Behind. Feeling the pressure to raise test scores, schools everywhere have opted to eliminate recess. Even younger grades feel the pressure – with less and less time for unstructured play. When high-stakes tests are administered to older elementary students, the K-2 children are often held indoors so as not to distract the students taking the tests. In Massachusetts some communities have offered a test prep Boot Camp for elementary students during the week of February vacation. I once heard a local politician announce to a group of 4th graders who had just finished their “vacation” in this program. “Congratulations,” he told them. “You’ve done a great job. Now go on and enjoy the 72 hours you have left of vacation!” He didn’t realize how utterly absurd his words sounded. Around the country, time for free play in the afternoons or Saturdays has been turned over to similar test prep programs.

I am hoping that Michelle Obama’s new focus on childhood obesity, “Let’s Move“, might bring back recess – though surprisingly (or not) it isn’t yet part of her plan. The physical activity portion of her plan focuses on the time before and after school. These include finding safe routes for walking or biking to and from school, building community playgrounds, reducing screen-time, playing together as a family, and other worthwhile pursuits.

Why is recess not included in her plan? Why the obvious oversight? A recent press release from the Alliance for Childhood provides compelling evidence that recess is beneficial, including fighting obesity and the strong positive effect recess has on learning. This evidence is clear, so the fact that Michelle Obama did not include it leads me to wonder. Is it that the new Race to the Top federal funding program doesn’t leave room for recess?

The childhood obesity epidemic is real – and her efforts are noble and necessary. But she’s missing a key element of the problem: recess during the school day. It’s vital.

Racing toward all children left behind

Geralyn — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:34:38 +0000

Considering the fact that the test-prep pressures of No Child Left Behind have already wreaked havoc on developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood classrooms, the impending common-core standards will do nothing but add further damage. These proposed standards come with the federal Race to the Top funding. States must agree to adopt these standards – or else they can not qualify for the RttT money. Some states (such as Texas) and some districts have already realized that losing further control of their schools just isn’t worth it, or that the funds offered by RttT may not even cover the changes they need to make or the added hoops they’ll need to jump through.

I’ve looked at the common-core standards for kindergarten. It is the grade my sons are currently in, and it is the grade I have the most experience teaching. After reviewing the ludicrous lists for math and language arts, I can tell you there will be even less time for playful learning in the states that adopt these new standards. Here are some highlights (or low lights!) from the kindergarten math common-core standards:

Students understand that:

A two-digit number is some tens and some ones. For example, 29 is two tens and nine ones.

Breaking apart a group can be recorded in an equation such as 8 = 5 + 3. Breaking apart a group in more than one way can be recorded in an equation such as 7 + 6 = 10 + 3.

Students can and do:

Rank three objects by a shared attribute (especially length), and use transitivity to compare two objects indirectly.

Move shapes using translations, reflections and rotations.

Do you know how to “use transitivity to compare two objects indirectly”? If Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has his way, our 5 year-olds will need to. There are many more standards listed, and one of my favorites is “Students understand that names refer to shapes regardless of orientation or overall size.” I love that one, because in the real-life of a kindergarten teacher, one knows that turning a triangle will inspire great debates about what the shape is now! As my friend wrote recently, “I teach 30 first graders math and when presented with an equilateral triangle with a “point” facing down, half will insist it is not a triangle. Wellesley [MA] is hardly an uneducated town…”

Simply put, you can’t regulate what a young child will understand. Why is our federal government trying? You can, however, learn a great deal about how young children understand the world by listening to them play. For more on that, check out this previous post , Taking Time to Listen and Learn.

Time to investigate, ask questions, discover, mess around, get dirty, and debate what a triangle “turned-upside” is. That’s what we need. That’s what I’m fighting for.

For some related posts see:

Kinder kindergartens, please!

One Teacher’s Story

Learning Through Play and Keeping Good Teachers

Playful learning is more than just Sight Word BINGO

Playing to Learn – thank you Susan Engel!

Geralyn — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:57:59 +0000

Earlier this week there was an absolutely beautiful op-ed piece in the NY Times, Playing to Learn by Susan Engel. In light of Obama’s proposed changes to No Child Left Behind, Susan Engel describes further changes – ones that would truly impact teaching and learning for the better. “Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike,” she writes. It reminds me of a recent study from the University of California where National Board Certified, Highly Qualified teachers were surveyed about NCLB. 84% responded that NCLB has had unfavorable effects. “These highly accomplished teachers were skeptical, and in some cases angry, about the consequences of No Child Left Behind for the nation’s school children,” the report said. “This is a problematic outcome of the legislation, if only because these are precisely the teachers the public schools can least afford to lose.” Click here to read more about this study.

In her essay, Engel describes what an engaging curriculum can look like (engaging for students AND for teachers). Here is a bit about an imaginary third grade classroom,

“In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment; the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become good readers.

“Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual meaning to them — stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons, letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.”

She goes on to describe computation, collaboration and the value of extended time for play. (Check out the full piece for more details.) What she says makes so much sense, I only wish I had written it myself. How have we gotten so far off track with education in this country? What will it take to get us on a better track? I thought Obama would be the answer – but his inner circle of advisers are not what I dreamed of – more like a nightmare! When will our leaders start asking teachers about teaching and learning instead of legislating misguided mandates?

As a teacher, I found ways to have extended periods of time everyday when students were making choices about their own learning. Building materials, art supplies, conversations and good literature kept students engaged and motivated. They had time to play, discover, invent and experiment. At Mission Hill School in Boston where I taught, in a child-centered, democratic classroom, I had time to work with small groups and talk with individual students. We studied curriculum themes for ten or twelve weeks (sometimes longer) and made room for students to carry the theme in their own directions.

My own sons (six-year-old twin boys in kindergarten) now struggle to stay engaged at school. Some days are better than others, but some days are pretty bad. Especially when there has been no time for play or discovery. It is what they live for. Literally, playful learning is like oxygen for them. Hours spent building ramps out of recycled cardboard, rudimentary Rube-Goldberg-inspired contraptions, Lincoln log cities and LEGO vehicles are what makes life worth living for them. They also love to write and illustrate short books – and lately have re-discovered a stack of books they wrote last year (before they started school). What fun it has been, re-reading with them something they wrote a year ago – and noticing how much their writing has developed.

I sympathize with teachers who are struggling to stay true to what is good for kids, and I thank Susan Engel for writing her piece for the NY Times. I’ll be spreading it far and wide. I hope it helps the movement!

Playful learning is more than just Sight Word BINGO

Geralyn — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:34:07 +0000

This weekend my sons had four days off from school. They played and built; wrote thank you notes and get well cards; did some baking with their dad and helped clean the house. An excellent time all around.

I am worried tonight, though, because I know tomorrow will be tough for my two five-year-olds. Kindergarten these days is not what it used to be, and my boys are not happy about it.

This weekend I also met other parents (from other schools) at the local playground. Their young sons, too, are feeling the stress of not having time to play at school. With all the current mandated assessments, it is getting harder and harder for teachers to keep recess, let alone incorporate child-directed and playful learning into their “academic” day.

At best, good teachers struggle daily to balance what they know is appropriate for their students with what they have to do to keep their jobs. At worst, confused and misguided teachers label behavior problems as emotional issues – when in truth, expectations are inappropriate and their students are visibly suffering. These days, there are kindergarten teachers who believe “playful learning” constitutes a few minutes playing “Math facts beanbag toss” or “Sight Word BINGO”. However, I am advocating child-centered, adult-supported play that leads to questions and discoveries. I am talking about dramatic play and block building that evolves over days and weeks, with the children making decisions. And the teachers involved can listen and ask questions in a manner that expands and deepens the play. These rich and playful moments in kindergarten classrooms are getting harder and harder to find.

Consider one kindergarten teacher’s story chronicled in the current issue of Rethinking Schools:

“The students in my classroom during the 2008-09 school year completed more assessments than during any of my prior years of teaching kindergarten:

Milwaukee Public Schools’ 5-Year-Old Kindergarten Assessment (completed three times a year)
On the Mark Reading Verification Assessment (completed three times a year)
A monthly writing prompt focused on different strands of the Six Traits of Writing
28 assessments measuring key early reading and spelling skills
Chapter pre- and post-tests for all nine math chapters completed
Three additional assessments for each math chapter completed
A monthly math prompt
Four Classroom Assessments Based on Standards (CABS) per social studies chapter (20 total)
Four CABS assessments per science chapter (20 total)
Four CABS assessments per health chapter (20 total)

I recently learned that my students will also be expected to complete four benchmark assessments beginning in the 2010-11 school year.

This list does not include the pre- and post-Marzano vocabulary tests (which I refuse to have my students complete because the assessment design is entirely developmentally inappropriate) or the writing and math portfolios we are required to keep.”

Click here to read Kelly McMahon’s full story, Testing Kindergarten.

Back in 2002 my friend Debbie Meier gave me a copy of Susan Ohanian’s book What Happened to Recess and Why are our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? I always remember the opening of the book where Ohanian talks about the protections that animals and insects have on Hollywood film sets. Apes on movie sets have time and space to play – and the American Humane Association is there to enforce the scheduled breaks. Why don’t our children have the same rights? Sadly, things have only gotten worse since Ohanian’s book was published. With Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top and the push for national core standards, I worry how much worse things can get. For more food foe thought, check out Alfie Kohn’s essay in Education Week - Debunking the Case for National Standards: One-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their Dangers.

The disappearance of play is a systemic problem, and I’ll do what I can by talking with district leaders and sharing the Alliance for Childhood’s report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. I am thankful for my sons’ teachers who are doing what they can to keep the learning playful, and I will do what I can to help kindergarten classrooms everywhere return to developmentally appropriate “kinder gardens”.

P.S. With the launching of the new Empowered by Play website (don’t you love it?!) I have crossed over from Blogger to WordPress. Some posts imported nicely, others are a little funky – with spacing issues, etc. If you see any links that aren’t working or anything else seriously amiss, please let me know. Thanks!

Learning through play and keeping good teachers

Geralyn — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Today I am making final preparations for the Coalition of Essential School’s Annual Fall Forum in New Orleans. I’ll be co-presenting on play and democratic classrooms – Who’s the Boss: Empowering Students to Get Down to the Business of Learning Through Play. Presenting at the CES Fall Forum is something that always energizes me. Being a teacher these days is an incredibly tough job and connecting with inspiring colleagues is one way to recharge. I always meet people to learn from, share ideas with and debate. I also leave with a deeper understanding of the national picture of what teachers are struggling with on a daily basis.

This fall I am thinking specifically about a critical issue facing early childhood education today: talented teachers who have been in the classroom for decades who are now leaving the field as fall-out from NCLB. These teachers know what is good for young children and can no longer stay in a system that is pushing inappropriate academics into pre-k and kindergarten classrooms. I also want to shine a light on those teachers who are struggling to stay true to what is developmentally appropriate. To read more about teacher stories, see previous posts Kinder Kindergartens, Please and One Teacher’s Story.

Meanwhile, a new survey of kindergarten teachers from Santa Clara California revealed that the most important readiness skills for kindergarten are motor skills, self-help skills and self-regulation. Academics were the least important, because teachers find academic skills the easiest to teach. However, when students come into kindergarten without motor skills, self-help skills and self-regulation, it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to learn these skills. Read more about the study here on the Early Ed Watch blog. The implications here for pre-k are tremendous, as imaginative play is one of the best ways for children to learn self-regulating skills. The recent article, Can the Right Kind of Play Teach Self-Control? in the NY Times Magazine explains why.

I truly believe that if parents of young children fully understood the power of play, and the harmful effects that NCLB is having on early childhood education, then the pendulum would begin to swing back. For our youngest students, racing to the top means letting them take time to play, explore, build, do and inquire. (It does not mean a continuous stream of mandated assessments, developmentally inappropriate academic benchmarks and micro-managed teachers.) Research has continued to show that the learning will come through play. Good teachers everywhere have known that for centuries.

I’ll be thinking about all of this, and honoring the life and work of visionary educator Ted Sizer as I prepare for and attend the Fall Forum 2009.

Kinder kindergartens, please!

Geralyn — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:31:00 +0000

This Peanuts cartoon, originally published in 1962, was reprinted this week. It was just another sad reminder about how much kindergarten has changed. The truth is, now there are many anxious and stressed-out kids in kindergarten. Sally wouldn’t be alone in her need for therapy. (She’d probably have to stand in line!)

In the Sunday magazine of today’s Boston Globe, the article Pressure-cooker Kindergarten describes the issues at hand. You can read about kids, teachers, administrators and child development experts who all understand the atrocities NCLB has inflicted on kindergarten. Time spent on test-prep and continuous assessments has taken away time spent playing. And playing is precisely how young children learn about the world around them.

Real learning happens through play – and authentic assessments can be used while children are at the “work” of play. These aren’t separate activities. Good early childhood teachers know their students well from observing them at play, listening to the questions they ask and noting the choices they make. Teachers can decide when to do one-on-one interviews and gather more data as needed. The article highlights the sad fact that excellent teachers are leaving the profession because they can not abide by the harmful regulations now in effect. These regulations keep them constantly administering mandated assessments that may, or may not, be appropriate for their students – and away from craft of teaching.

Many parents who read the article will say, “Well, my child could read by [insert a ridiculously young age] and could multiply and divide, too!” or “If other parents worked with their kids, they’d be ready for the academics!” The truth is, all kids are different, and all kids learn in different ways and at different rates. Some kids never even have to “learn to read”. They just do it. I’m not sure how it happens, but I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I’ve also seen kids struggle to make sense of print for years, and eventually, after working incredibly hard, begin to read. The point is, one size never fits all in the world of early childhood.

Kudos to Patti Hartigan from shining a light on the Alliance for Childhood report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School, and for continuing the conversation.

Read my other related posts: Who is flunking kindergarten? The students or the system? and Kindergarten Summer School?!?

Healthy Media Choices: follow-up, reflection and new directions

Geralyn — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Thanks to all of you who tuned in on Tuesday to the Healthy Media Choices Hour radio show. It was great fun for me, and talking with Mary Rothschild was a perfect opportunity to cross-pollinate and share ideas. Look on her site for a link to Mary’s blog, too.

We talked about so much, but of course afterwards there was even more that I thought about. Luckily the on-going blog gives me the chance to continue the conversation. One great resource, which I am honored to have contributed to, is the book So Sexy So Soon by Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne. The book is now available in paperback it is an invaluable resource for all parents (toddlers through teens). I know that Jean has been on The Healthy Media Choices Hour talking about the book, and this is a shout out about the new paperback edition and the newly launched blog!

In the interview did I make clear that good teaching is a craft? That one reason why good teachers are leaving the field due to No Child Left Behind. They are too smart and too creative to be fulfilled in a job of scripted curriculum. Good teachers are good thinkers and need to be in places that are interesting and stimulating. Losing skilled teachers is part of the fallout from NCLB. As I’ve said in the past, Debbie Meier is an expert at starting schools that are interesting places for students and for teachers. It is not only possible – it is essential.

I also loved the question one listener emailed, about me getting money from companies I endorse. As I stated on the show, my endorsements are free. I simply believe that people who are doing good work on behalf of kids deserve to be recognized. Parents and kids are constantly marketed to by companies more concerned about growing cradle-to-grave consumers than they are about growing thinkers and doers. I also aim to celebrate great toys simply because the current world is saturated with absolutely terrible toys.

Finally, I recently added a link on my blog for folks who are looking to host workshops for parents and teachers on the topics presented in the blog. I have been presenting for years at schools and conferences across the country, and now that my sons are starting school, I will have more time for presenting again. Thanks, again to everyone – we’ll see where the new (school) year brings us…

"Play is like fertilizer for brain growth." – Dr. Stuart Brown

Geralyn — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:45:00 +0000

I am reading a new book by Stuart Brown, M.D. and Christopher Vaughn. I was browsing in a book store, and of course the title jumped out at me – Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul. The author’s name was familiar, as I’d heard of him as the founder of the National Institute for Play. I usually read and research play from the educational and human development perspectives, so I was intrigued to learn more about Dr. Brown and his defense of play from a medical viewpoint.

Dr. Brown is an advocate of play in everyone’s (young and old) lives. He understands and explains the innate need for play. His focus in this book is to convince those who dismiss play as a frivolous pursuit, to understand its central place in our lives. Play is often what is missing when people find themselves too busy, stressed, overwhelmed and wondering, “Is this all there is? What is the point?”

Dr. Brown also explains the neuroscience involved in nurturing innovative and creative people. “Once kids enter school, the importance of free play doesn’t end. All of the patterns that induce states of play are present and remain important for growth, flexibility, and learning. Unfortunately, we often forget this and choose not to focus on play’s necessity under intense pressure to succeed. No Child Left Behind is a perfect example.” (p.99) He argues that NCLB has led to a focus on rote memorization that is preparing students for assembly work jobs of the past, not fostering their creativity and imaginations for innovative jobs of the future. “

This book, and the work of Dr. Stuart Brown, is an important contribution to the promotion and protection of play. Find it at your nearest library or book store and share it with your family, friends, teachers, employers and employees! As Dr. Brown writes, “When enough people raise play to the status it deserves in our lives, we will find the world a better place.”

Thanks, Debbie! In honor of Deborah W. Meier – defender of play

Geralyn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:06:00 +0000

In the early years of No Child Left Behind I worked with Deborah Meier http://www.deborahmeier.com/ at the Mission Hill School in Roxbury, MA. Debbie was the founder and principal. I was a teacher – but a student as well. Deb is good at starting schools that are interesting places for students and for teachers. Deb was then, and is now, a visionary leader, educator and activist. She helped me form my beliefs about teaching, learning and life. She taught me that when working for change within the system, it is easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. She was one of the first to open my eyes to the current threats on imaginative play. Over the years, NCLB has pushed many kids indoors to their desks for meaningless rote instruction. Here is an excerpt from a front page Mission Hill School newsletter which Debbie wrote in defense of play on April 2, 2003:

Play is good for learning how to trust oneself – which is part of learning how and when to trust the world. Repetition, doing things over and over is essential for learning; but only happens enough when it’s also fun – playful. Play is essential for developing one’s imagination – thinking outside the box is at the heart of play. And empathy – stepping into the shoes of others – is central to both childhood and adult pretend play. In fact, one can see all the Habits of Mind when watching young children at play.

At Mission Hill we will not give up play; and not just for the little ones. The spirit of play is central to good learning at all ages – in and out of school. Play and work are not polar opposites – they go hand in hand. Good workmanship thrives in a setting in which children’s standards grow out of their own initiative; their own task setting; in short, from play. It takes those same four qualities underlined above to produce a masterpiece. We don’t intend to let the pressure for early test success destroy what counts in the long run. It’s good for your kids, for our school, for America, and maybe even the whole wide world.

Last night I had the privilege and pleasure of helping to honor the very first Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education award presented by FairTest http://www.fairtest.org/at the Urban Academy at the Julia Richman Edcation Complex in New York City. This time, the award went to Debbie herself. Thank you, Debbie, for touching so many lives in such a powerful way. And thanks, in particular, for bringing out my inner troublemaker.