Aug. 11, 2014
Denialism
The term may be new to us, but the idea is as old as
… Scripture. “To refuse to admit….” A word—an attitude—to keep in mind, to watch
for, in the coming days as the state releases TCAP scores and School
Performance results. An all-too-human
flaw. One we need to acknowledge—and try
to overcome.
Perhaps especially if you are named Peter. The name comes from the Greek, meaning
“stone” or “rock.” But The New
Testament’s Peter was not always a rock.
Matthew 26:72 –
And again he denied with an oath,
“I do not know the man.”
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It’s human nature – AND it’s a pseudoscience!!!
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
is a series of lectures by Dr. Steven Novella of the Yale School of Medicine
(The Great Courses). In Lecture #20, “Denialism-Rejecting Science and History,”
Novella “introduces you to denialism,
a subset of pseudoscience… explore(s) the features and tactics of denialism … shed(s) light on how
critical thinking helps you sidestep the more subtle forms of denialism we’re all susceptible to.” http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=9344
“… we’re all susceptible…” Part
of our very nature as human beings.
Little wonder then that we are susceptible to it, in the world of education. It’s my theme this month.
“The lady doth
protest too much, methinks"
Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, is uncomfortable. His little play is hitting home. Too close to the truth.
Page 3: Poetry,
Song, Film, Books / War
Page 4: Leadership
/ Climate Change & Science
Page 5: Death
/ Football & Concussions
Pages 5-6 – 2 positive examples:
1) Sports – no whining
2) Another state confronts the facts
Addendum –
Sheridan in denial
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When educators say the accountability movement has relied too heavily
on assessments that were never intended to be THE CRITERIA of a good school or
a good teacher, they have a point. It is when school, district, state, and
union leaders devote considerable energy to protesting that the tests and data
are unfair, inaccurate, and/or misleading that I see more denial than
responsibility. More avoidance than
acknowledgement of the reality about student performance in their school, their
district, and our state.
DENY
1 to declare untrue <deny an
allegation>
5 to refuse to accept the existence, truth, or
validity of
deny implies a firm
refusal to accept as true, to grant or concede, or to acknowledge the
existence or claims of <denied the charges>.
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**
It is June
2014. The district’s chief accountability and research officer is giving her
local school board an update on the Unified Improvement Plan Implementation,
including the district’s accreditation contract with the state. Minutes of the
meeting state that she “reviewed an outline of actions if the district
continues to be assigned to the accreditation category of either Accredited
with Priority Improvement Plan or Accredited with Turnaround Plan in the fall
of 2014 and 2015.” As this district has
been Accredited on Priority Improvement
three years running—Colorado’s second lowest rating—one assumes any member of this school board is aware of the potential
consequences should the recent poor performance continue, especially any member on the board since 2009—FIVE YEARS AGO—when
SB 163, the Education Accountability Act, was passed and created a new
accountability system. One assumes each board member has heard
before that “the clock is ticking” and that each passing year brings the
district closer to state intervention.
One assumes it is not only
now, FIVE YEARS AFTER the passage of SB 163, that the district is beginning to
feel the heat….
Earlier, at
this same school board meeting, a legislative update included a slide noting
that—as a result of state cuts in education in recent years (“the negative
factor,” I believe it is called)—the district was actually getting $44 million
less than it might have expected.
Still, I am
stunned when—following the update on where the district stands “on the
accountability clock”—one board member (first elected in 2007, re-elected in
2011, so no excuse, in her case—unlike three members elected last fall—to say SB
163 is all new to her) takes the microphone to express her outrage. That’s what I hear, anyway.
The district’s
minutes of the meeting are flat, dispassionate. They read: she “commented that
the state implemented accreditation ratings at the same time millions of
dollars were being cut from K-12 funding.” But according to my notes—I could be
wrong, hence I avoid names here—this board member seemed appalled—stunned at
the possibility of either state intervention, or a loss of accreditation.
“If this happens while we
were given $44 million less…. this would be unconscionable. We have a right to say this is wrong …
they’ve made this as punitive as possible … it’s just amazing to me.”
“Unconscionable,” if I understand her
correctly, because “they”—the state, would first “take away” $44 million from
the district, and then punish it for not being able to meet the expectations
“they” impose.
“When you turn over rocks and look at all the
squiggly things underneath, you can either put the rock down or you can say,
‘My job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things,’ even if what
you see can scare the hell out of you.”
Pitney Bowes
executive Fred Purdue. From Good to
Great, p. 72.
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I call this
denial.
If this trait is in fact found in
human nature, educators
should not feel insulted or persecuted when it is noted
that we, too, are guilty of it. Our
world is rampant with it. I’ve been
collecting examples of it this past year….
Easy to do, given how ubiquitous a trait this is….
POETRY, SONG, FILM, BOOKS
As
a reflection of human nature, art frequently reminds us of our tendency to
deny.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
T.S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton”
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Yes, how many times must a man
turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Bob Dylan
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...still a man hears what he wants to hear and
disregards the rest.
Paul Simon, “The Boxer”
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From Uncle Tom’s Cabin – on
making excuses
Dinah was mistress of the whole art and mystery of
excuse-making, in all its branches. Indeed, it was an axiom with her that the
cook can do no wrong; and a cook in a Southern kitchen finds abundance of
heads and shoulders on which to lay off every sin and frailty, so as to
maintain her own immaculateness entire.
If any part of the dinner was a failure, there were fifty indisputably
good reasons for it; and it was the fault undeniably of fifty other people,
whom Dinah berated with unsparing zeal.
(ch. 18)
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“the dangers of denial”
Cate Blanchett received the Academy Award for Best Actress in Woody
Allen’s Blue Jasmine. “Her
miseries, we are made to feel, are the fallout from the corruptions she will
not admit to. She so wanted the good
life that she looked the other way, or, more exact, refused to look at all,
at the larcenies that made that life possible. She’s a walking advertisement
for the dangers of denial.”
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We all know that we
fool ourselves. Some suggest it is out of necessity. Robert Trivers, an
evolutionary biologist, recently published The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human
Life. He “makes the intriguing
argument that deceit is a ‘deep feature’ of life, even of necessity, given
genes’ brutal struggle to prevail.”
(New York Times Book Review,
2/16/14, p.28)
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WAR
The cause and effect of wars is
far too complex to reduce to any one flaw.
But just take the two world wars of the 20th century, and we
are reminded that leaders were certainly guilty of self-deception.
World War I – This month we recall the “war to end all wars” that began
100 years ago. How unwilling or unable leaders were to see where their actions
were taking them—and all of Europe … over a cliff:
In his book, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in
1914, Christopher Clark found that “the protagonists of 1914 were
sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams, yet blind to the
reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world.” (“Still in the
grip of the Great War,” The Economist,
3/29/14)
“… Churchill ‘does not try to cheer us up
with vain promises.’ Churchill knew his countrymen. When offered the choice
to deliver false good news or the hard truth, he served the bad, for
Englishmen, he proclaimed, ‘seem to like their food cooked that way.’” The
Last Lion, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965, p. 263.
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World War II – I just
finished The Last Lion, vol. 3, the
biography of Winston Churchill. (More on Churchill in the next section from Good to Great.) Denial comes to mind
when we think of Neville Chamberlain and other British leaders throughout the
1930’s. Churchill spent that decade “in the wilderness,” a “prophet without
honor in his own land”— until his warnings about Nazi Germany proved true. Finally, in May 1940, after Hitler’s tanks rolled
into several countries, England turned to Churchill.
Perhaps “denial” is too
strong. No doubt the horrors of World
War I left such an impact that those leading England and France during the
1930’s had every reason to want to believe Hitler’s intent could not
be so evil. Wishful thinking then? But it comes to the same thing.
LEADERSHIP
Now
all the authorities
They just stand around and boast
They just stand around and boast
“Just
Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” Bob Dylan
If
he were a Denialist—and not the Father of our County—perhaps this is how six-year
old George Washington would have answered his dad:
“What
tree? Who me? Hatchet marks? What hatchet! I wasn’t even near that tree this morning! You think it’s dead? Maybe it just looks dead!”
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Numerous books on effective leadership
(though aimed especially for business leaders,
relevant, too, I would argue, for a state commissioner of education,
superintendents, and principals) stress the importance of truth-telling versus
denial, confronting the reality of the situation—and
thereby helping an organization come to grips with the bad news—in order to
move forward.
·
Good to Great – from chapter 4, “Confront
the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)”
Jim Collins’ popular book, not surprisingly, points to Churchill. Chapter 4 begins with a quote from this war-time leader who was willing to speak of
“blood, sweat, and tears,” and of the grim truth about the challenges facing
his country. “There is no worse mistake
in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away.”
And later in this
chapter, Collins writes:
… Churchill never
failed to confront the most brutal facts. He feared that his towering,
charismatic personality might deter bad news from reaching him in its starkest
form. So, early in the war, he created an entirely separate department outside
the normal chain of command, called the Statistical Office, with the principal
function of feeding him—continuously updated and completely unfiltered—the most
brutal facts of reality. He relied heavily on this special unit throughout the
war, repeatedly asking for facts, just the facts. As the Nazi panzers swept
across Europe, Churchill went to bed and slept soundly: “I had no need for
cheering dreams,” he wrote, “Facts
are better than dreams.”
· The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a
Business When There Are No Easy Answers
From
“The Art of the Struggle,” The Economist’s
review of this book by Ben Horowitz, 3/15/2014):
Mr. Horowitz remains upbeat in
public as the company loses some big customers and misses shipping dates.
Belatedly, he realizes he is only making matters worse because his sunny
demeanor discourages workers from being frank about the startup’s problems and hunting
for solutions to them. His financial
controller recommends being forthright with investors as well as staff. ‘If you
are going to eat shit, don’t nibble,’ he says in a phrase that should be
immortalized in corporate finance textbooks.”
CLIMATE CHANGE and SCIENCE
I will not wade into the right and wrong on the controversy, but we
know the concept of denial—a refusal to accept the evidence—is often heard in
debates about climate change.
·
“Welcome
to the Age of Denial,” (by Adam Frank, op-ed, New York Times, Aug. 22, 2013)
“Today, however, it
is politically effective, and socially acceptable, to deny scientific fact…. Though transparently unscientific, denying evolution has become a litmus
test for some conservative politicians, even at the highest levels.” (All bold throughout this essay is mine.)
(Frank is a
professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester)
·
“Climate ‘denialists’
will be branded as anti-science and their funding sources exposed.” (An article
on Tom Steyer’s support for like-minded politicians, “A run for his money,” The Economist , 4/12/14)
·
“They’re saying, ‘How do we know the sea is
going to rise 39 inches in 100 years?’ And the truth is, we don’t. But you’ve
got to start planning for something.
They’re trying to ignore the problem hoping it will go away.” (Andrew
Coburn, associate director of Western Carolina University’s Program for the
Study of Developed Shorelines, “Climate,” The
Denver Post, 6/26/14)
DEATH
From “How to Say Goodbye,” by Alice Hoffman. In this moving essay, Hoffman’ sister-in-law,
who was dying of brain cancer, asks Alice to visit the Mount Auburn Cemetery on
her behalf, as she hoped to be laid to rest there. (AARP
Bulletin, Oct. 2013)
“I was stunned and my heart sank, I was in denial. If we didn’t discuss her
illness, perhaps the worst wouldn’t happen.…”
But Alice goes and returns to the hospital and tells her sister-in-law
about the cemetery,
“… about the tulip
trees, and the hedges of lilacs, and the blue herons. I showed her photographs
of the pond and the weeping willows. What I saw in her expression was relief.
“There are times when we all run away from
the truth, when the facts of life are too painful to endure. We don’t want to know
what comes next. We’re taught to tell
our ailing loved ones not to worry, even in the most difficult time, to look on
the bright side and hope for the best….
“A certain amount of denial in times of trauma may ease the way for our loved ones, but
making a plan before dire circumstances strike helps us and those we love gain
some measure of control over our fates.
The knowledge that our final wishes will be realized can bring us peace,
as I know it did my sister-in-law. She
was able to choose what she wanted for herself….”
FOOTBALL
– and CONCUSSIONS
“League
of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” Frontline
documentary, fall 2013.
“… the documentary turns up evidence of NFL
disinformation, spinning and outright lying on the subject of the consequences
of the regular violent collisions on the field….
“Through each scientific finding, the NFL is
shown to have reacted with denials,
demanding n retractions form scientific papers, discrediting researchers who
made the findings public and spending heavily to shut down evidence that
football was responsible for the brain damage to players.” (“‘Denial’ tackles football’s failures,” The Denver Post, by Joanne Ostrow,
10/6/2013)
**
POSITIVE EXAMPLES – NO DENIALISM HERE!
I close on a more positive note: examples
of those who “own the results” and do not dispute them.
SPORTS – “the scoreboard doesn’t lie”
2013: Broncos fans couldn’t
believe it, but the scoreboard doesn’t
lie. The Ravens’ Joe Flacco’s threw a bomb down the right sideline … game
tied. Then OT. Final score 35-28.
2014: Bronco fans couldn’t
believe it. The game felt over by half-time.
But the scoreboard doesn’t lie.
Seattle 43, Denver 8.
In sports players are expected to
own the score, not to whine about bad
breaks and refs and what ifs. Yes, there
are lucky bounces; a penalty that should/should not have been called; what if
so-and-so hadn’t been hurt …. But it is
bad form—we call it lousy sportsmanship—not
to swallow hard over a loss and accept the final score. No whining.
Educators might adopt a similar
approach. Too many, in my view, will
find the analogy absurd. They insist: “—but
our scoreboard does lie.” Well, sure, there are plenty of legitimate
questions about the details of the state’s School Performance Framework (such
as the percentage for growth over achievement), or the degree to which
socio-economic factors are taken into account … We have reason to wonder about
the methodology of the state’s new Accountability Act and how one district or
school is or is not “on the clock” of year 3 or 4 …. No one would say it’s
perfect.
But it reflects poorly on us when
the whining becomes a substitute for acknowledging the facts.
When denial replaces acceptance of what is so
clear: that our school or our district is not performing well.
We would do well to be “better
sports” about what the scoreboard tells us.
Take our lumps, see what we can learn from the bad news, and determine
to get better.
LEADERSHIP IN ANOTHER STATE – “… the data don’t lie.’
I will close with the words from
the former head of K-12 education in ANOTHER STATE, reflecting an attitude that
denies little—that displays an exemplary honesty about the challenges before us.
As you read the following, please guess the name of the state redacted here:
However, doing well isn't good enough. While we in xxxxx appreciate the
outstanding performance achieved by our students and educators, we have been
sharply focused on the sad story our outstanding averages conceal. We have
deep, persistent achievement gaps, larger than in most other states. Even
though we are gradually closing these gaps and have raised achievement levels
so that our lowest performers now surpass low performers elsewhere, the
progress is far too slow. Too many students in xxxxx, in spite of our high averages, are unable to
enjoy the advantages of a high-quality education. Caught in that achievement
gap are low-income students, English-language learners, students with
disabilities, and students of color.
Often touted as the number one state in the country for its public
education system, Massachusetts could be guilty of complacency and pride. To his credit, though, that is exactly not what we hear from the state’s former
secretary of education, Paul Reveille, in his Commentary in Education Week, “Seize the Moment to Design
Schools That Close Gaps,” June 4, 2013.
No denial of where the state falls short; instead, admitting hard
truths. (Perhaps there’s some truth in
the notion that, the healthier we are, the more willing we are to see our
failures.) Reveille went on to speak of
the “notable exceptions of individuals and schools defying the odds,” but
added:
… We have not been
able to scale up their success. The exceptions have not proven a new rule,
though some practices have shown promise. The gaps, on average, persist. After
20 years of school reform experience, the data don’t lie.
The Colorado Department of Education has been known to look to
Massachusetts as a model before (see our Race to the Top application, where we
used Massachusetts NAEP scores as our model). Here is a case where we might do
well to adopt Reveille’s honesty. No
exaggerations of how great the progress. and, when we see no progress at all (yes, stay
hopeful), but “Confront the Brutal Facts.”
Another
View, a newsletter by Peter Huidekoper, Jr., represents his
own opinion and is not intended to represent the view of any organization he is
associated with. Comments are
welcome. 303-757-1225 / peterhdkpr@gmail.com
Addendum
Sheridan in denial - (Methinks he doth protest too much)
We saw a telling example last winter
of a district fighting the facts when Sheridan asked the Colorado State Board
of Education to raise its accreditation rating from Priority Improvement to Improvement. Astonishing, really, to claim—in spite of
some of the data below—that “the district should serve as a model” on improving
graduation rates, “that Sheridan continues to lead on these issues.” Really?
“Everyone
is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own
facts.”
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
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It has come to this—a district with Sheridan’s record protesting the idea
that the state—how mean! how unfair!—might
dare to “suggest district efforts should be focused on improving the
graduation rate....”
The state board, wisely, denied Sheridan’s
request.
On-time
(4-year) graduation rate*
2012-13
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#
students
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#
graduates
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Graduation
rate
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Sheridan High School
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70
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42
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60%
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SOAR Academy (an Alternative Education
Campus)
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42
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3
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7.1%
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Sheridan
District – TOTAL
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112
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45
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40.2%
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2012-13
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Graduation
rate
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SHERIDAN
2009-13
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Graduation
rate
|
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COLORADO - TOTAL
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76.9%
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5 metro
area districts
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Denver
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61.3%
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2009
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47.4%
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Adams 14
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59.4%
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2010
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33%
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Aurora
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52.6%
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2011
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37%
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Mapleton
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47.8%
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2012
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31.2%
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Sheridan
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40.2%
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2013
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40.2%
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*CDE- http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/gradcurrent
(2013) & http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/rvprioryeargraddata
From Superintendent Mike Clough’s
“Position Statement – Accreditation Appeal,” Feb 13, 2014.
An excerpt from the section under
the heading: GRADUATION AND DROPOUT RATES
The state’s
rating of Sheridan School District 2 as “Accredited with Priority Improvement Plan”
is based upon a technical application of the district’s graduation rate. The rating is not an accurate portrayal of the
district’s success and the ongoing pursuit of further education for all students.
… The
district is imploring the State Board of Education to look at the data with a different
lens—one that trumpets success for students and does not penalize a small district
for successful, longstanding programs that afford students a solid foundation for
post-secondary and work-force readiness….
A rating of “Priority Improvement
Plan” suggests district efforts should be focused on improving the graduation rate
or lowering the dropout rate when, in fact, the district should serve as a model
for both.
In fact, if we turn to the most recent data available, it
is easy to see that Sheridan continues to
lead on these issues, not lag. (http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1018004/sherdian-2014appeal-position.pdf)
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