By Amber McGee
Courier Staff Columnist
The topic of education reform is an often overlooked one, mostly because for a majority of students these days this “reformed” world is the only one they’ve ever known. For long time teachers like Mr. Ellison this reformed world is a nightmare. After 31 years of teaching Ellison has had more than enough time to gather his thoughts and opinions on the changes to schools and the school system. Bloodletting: Why Education Reform is Killing America’s Schools is all those opinions and thoughts put to paper.
Bloodletting was a common medical practice in the old ages, and it was used for just about everything. Doctors would withdraw great amounts of blood from patients until they felt that the balance in the body had been restored. Needless to say, this operation always made the patient worse rather than better. As Ellison puts it, “It made things worse because it was a misdiagnosis. Everything we’re doing today to reform education is wrong, and it’s ended up causing great harm. From charter schools, vouchers, merit pay…to standardized testing. It’s all because of a misdiagnosis.”
So what is this misdiagnosis that has plagued the school system for years? Is there a cure for it, and if so, what is it? These questions and more are addressed and answered in the book.
For those who want details and are truly interested, the book is available through Amazon and Stairway Press in both electronic and physical form. For those who want to know more but are unsure whether it’s really something they’d read, a free sample of the book is available online (link at the end of article). Finally, for those who want a general overview of the 144 page critique and its contents, keep reading.
Part 1: What’s Wrong?
Education reformers have gotten it in their heads that teachers are lazy and need to be motivated to work. This is the claim Ellison makes during the first section of his book titled “A Terrible Misdiagnosis.” In this part he examines what reformers have done in an attempt to make teachers more competitive with each other and how those attempts have failed.
Each chapter focuses on a different type of reform, and by using quotes, opinions, and critical thought Ellison peels away their glamour and reveals them for the toxic ideas they are. He states that, “We’ve been trying these reforms for 15 years and they’ve been failures. Why? Because we’re not treating the real problems.”
Part 2: What Are the Real Issues?
“An Unflinching Diagnosis” begins where part 1 ends. After thoroughly examining what reformers feel are the problems and proving them wrong, Ellison takes this time to give attention to the what he believes are the real problems. These problems include issues such as childhood poverty, the lack of funding for schools, the new kind of racial segregation in classrooms, and how the least qualified teachers are often sent to lower income neighborhoods.
Ellison calls these issues Voldemorts. It may seem like a weird choice, but when you consider that these problems are big, important ones and yet no one wants to address them, it all makes sense. The chapters in this section focus on these various forms of Voldemorts and how they, already bad, are becoming worse under the new system.
Part 3: What’s the Prescription?
In the final part of Bloodletting, “A Provocative Prescription”, Ellison finally gives answers to the big question hanging over the reader’s head: now what? After reading so many negative things about America’s schools it is easy to become pessimistic and believe that there’s no hope for the future.
That’s where Finland, the country and the title of the second to last chapter of the book, comes in. I can’t write much about it without spoiling–this is just an overview after all–but I will say that this is probably the most hopeful chapter in the book. It’s an odd thing to say, that reading about Finland can give you hope, but it’s the truth in this case.
Before ending his book Ellison also imparts one last truth: nothing short of a revolution will do.
“America’s schools are but the canaries in the coal mines of the nation. If we want the schools to change, we first have to change almost everything around them.”
It is fitting, then, that the final chapter of the book be called “Revolution.”
Bloodletting was released on November 18, 2014. It has yet to climb up the bestseller list and for now the biggest battle Ellison is facing is raising awareness about the book. Currently he is trying to get an article published in Education Weekly. As of right now he hasn’t gotten a reply. Even so, Ellison says he is pleased with the book.
Learn more about Bloodletting and its author on the website: http://bloodletting.us/