October 19, 2006 Volume 11, Issue 3

SMALL LEARNING COMMUNITIES AND POSSIBILITIES FOR PERSONALIZED, CURIOUSITY-BASED LEARNING

Edited from an article by DAN SPELCE, PV HIGH SCHOOL

Thirty-five years ago many of my friends and I already understood howthe institution of schooling served as an assemblyline, intent onthe high school students we were into cogs in the greatfactory into which the Industrial Revolution had transformed society.Fortunately, many of our high school teachers mitigated some of thehurt of factory-style schooling by engaging the expressed desires ofwe, young people, for invention and exploration in imaginative andsupportive ways. The standardized testing preoccupation gripping mainstream education today, in which increasingly scripted curricularprograms constrain the scope of the natural curiosity of youthfulintelligence, demonstrates that the impersonalization ofinstitutional public education has intensified over recent decades,rather than undergo a broadly wiser, personalizing transformation.

Difficult, perplexing challenges greet the Small Learning Communities (SLC) movement that aims to liberate the human learner amidst themachinations that lose individuals in processing massesfor placement in a society obsessed with commerce and consumption.The balance between teaching to tested content standards andorganizing activity around curiosity-based learning persists as acore dilemma that the SLC movement encounters. Authentic assessments (project-based learning) rooted in real life learning endeavorsjuxtapose themselves to instruction aimed at scoring high on tests.

Furthermore, the opportunity for the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers to embrace a vision of innovations toestablish the more humane educational experience for young people that the SLC movement embodies faces tensions from deepcontradictions. Demands on teachers today are vast and exhausting;union contracts provide essential protections from abuses. Theexceptional dedication and creative energies that faculty at PVHSpour daily into our work with young people demonstrate that none of us became teachers to live out school years as bureaucratic clockwatchers. The same can be said of the inspired PVHS administrationthat skillfully marshals tangible and intangible resources for our school community. No movement for humanizing change has succeededenthusiastically making important sacrifices enabling acommunity to transform an undesirable established order into a more liberating one. So, our union does seek to embrace the SLC movementwhile honoring hard-won protections from externally imposed overwork.

Upcoming Events Mark Your Calendar

November 13, 2006 General Membership Meeting is at the Board Room from 4:00-4:30pm-For a follow-up on discussions around the District. From 4:30 to 7pm will be the Old and New Building Rep Trainings! Special trainers from CFT will be Pat Lerman and Julien Minard. Dinner will be served.

DUES INCREASE

The AFT constitution mandates that per capita increases are to be passed through, that is automatically added on the dues of the members and agency fee payers the local represents. This means that if the local has a percent dues rate, that the per capita increase is to be added on top of that.

The following are the per capita rates approved by the CFT convention held March 2006 and by the AFT convention held July 2006: The CFT per capita increase is $36 annually per full time equivalent dues or agency fee payer effective on the September 2006 per capita report. The AFT per capita increase is $9.00 annually per full time equivalent. Thus, because dues are deducted over 11 months in PVUSD, the increase to full time dues and fee payers in PVFT is $4.09 per month or $45 annually for 2006-07 year. This pass through is mandatory and must be implemented for PVFT to remain in good standing and receive formula funding rebates from CFT.

The following are the per capita rates approved by the CFT convention held March 2006 and by the AFT convention held July 2006: The CFT per capita increase is $36 annually per full time equivalent dues or agency fee payer effective on the September 2006 per capita report. The AFT per capita increase is $9.00 annually per full time equivalent. Thus, because dues are deducted over 11 months in PVUSD, the increase to full time dues and fee payers in PVFT is $4.09 per month or $45 annually for 2006-07 year. This pass through is mandatory and must be implemented for PVFT to remain in good standing and receive formula funding rebates from CFT.

YOUR UNION RECOMMENDS.

There have been many calls to the PVFT office asking for endorsements and recommendations in the upcoming election. Therefore, here are the endorsements of CFT and PVFT for the November election:

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