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In Oklahoma, The School is the Community

By
Tom Deighan
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This is the final in a series of ten summertime articles that stubbornly insist that 80% of parents and 80% of educators actually agree on 80% of all issues (my 80/80/80 rule). Unfortunately, schools have become ground-zero for the culture wars, and national leaders from both sides seem to be strategically pitting parents against educators. Please remember that these talking heads know nothing about your local community, and in Oklahoma, your local public school is the community. 

Visit any local school basketball game, bingo night, or band concert and you will know that community. Want to know your neighbors or fellow worshippers? Visit the school cafeteria during lunch, and for a truly deep dive, substitute!  Because in Oklahoma, the local school is not only a perfect reflection of the local community, it is the community. This is just as true for inner city neighborhoods as it is for rural schools miles away from any town. Unfortunately, we are being inundated with stories about extreme agendas (from both sides) that terrify many parents, educators, and communities in Oklahoma. 

One extreme seems to think all parents are incompetent, so parents should sit down and shut up when radical ideologues attempt to usurp or undermine parental rights. Educators with such radical views exist, but they do not represent most Oklahoma educators. Radical agendas are nothing new to public schools, so many of us educators are thankful that people are engaging. Please don’t assume that a few national leaders represent the views of your neighbor or pew partner who works in your public school.   

The other extreme seems to think that all educators are incompetent (or evil), so public schools should be entirely dismantled and the funds funneled to for-profit companies. I have never met a parent who thinks their local school is perfect, but I also cannot remember ever meeting one who wants their local school closed or managed by a corporation. Most Oklahomans scratch their heads about those districts on the news because they know their local school staff so well. 

Remember, your local school is not only a mirror of your local children but also local adults who work there. The 80/80/80 applies to communities, too, but the media focuses relentlessly on the 10% of extreme issues on the left and the right. They dismiss sensible people who keep things running and interact without demonizing each other as part of the problem, but I do not believe Oklahomans must choose between Marxism or crony capitalism. Most Oklahomans widely agree on issues such as the preeminence of the parent, adult-ready graduates, safety and security, social engineering, equal rights and equal opportunity, public money/public rules, and local control. This summer’s articles on those topics are archived at www.mostlyeducational.com if you wish to read them. 

I am not naïve. Some of this nationwide craziness is certainly happening in Oklahoma, but most Oklahoma school districts welcome parents and community members with questions, so just talk to your superintendent, principal, or teacher if you have any doubts. Virtually everything in Oklahoma schools are open records (except student and personnel records), and most are already online, so there are too many eyes on schools to hide anything for long. Besides, in my experience, neither kids nor staff can keep secrets very well. 

School starts soon in Oklahoma, and we face some weighty issues, but I pray that communities can use their dwindling local control to run the gauntlet together, as neighbors, relatives, friends, and fellow worshippers . . . with the civility that characterizes Oklahomans. Yours is likely the typical Oklahoma community and the typical Oklahoma school, so please watch battling news outlets with a critical eye. And if you have any doubts about your local school, go to a ballgame or a school board meeting. I also bet they need substitutes, if you’re interested. 

Tom Deighan is the current Superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. He may be reached at deighantom@gmail.com

Tap-Dancing Toddlers

By
Tom Deighan
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When I recently saw a YouTube video touting a tap-dancing toddler, I was intrigued. After all, toddlers can barely toddle. Unfortunately, my hopes were cruelly dashed. The kid was awesome, but he was no toddler. A quick search confirmed my suspicion that little evidence exists of real toddlers tap-dancing. The one video I found with tiny tapping tots was painfully cute, but it also proved that they need to master walking and standing first. We might as well teach them to juggle. 

No one can be an expert until they have mastered the essentials. Nevertheless, public schools have been forcing children to tap-dance and juggle long before they are developmentally ready or have sufficient time to master the fundamentals. Over the last twenty years, teaching and learning have been gradually replaced with a cultish devotion to increasingly unrealistic standardized tests. This has all been initiated at the federal level and exacerbated at the state level with broad bi-partisan support. Consequently, Uncle Sam now dictates more of a child’s school day than parents, teachers, or principals. 

States simply made it worse by adding layers upon layer to the federal requirements. Among the dozens of educational “fixes” since 2010, I cannot identify a single curriculum reform in Oklahoma that has remained unchanged for more than two years. We are not only asking our children to hunt bumblebees with bows and arrows, but they are also expected to tap dance while they are doing it — blindfolded. Even if teaching to the test worked, we would need consistency and reliability to play the game. 

Unfortunately, when a teacher knows that third graders have not yet mastered basic multiplication, they are compelled to move on to Algebra. I would love all my third graders to do Algebra (and many can), but my fourth-grade teachers really need them to multiply first, so they can master division. Just ask middle and high school teachers what they must reteach as a result. State and federal mandates force teachers to cover so much stuff that they can no longer teach the essentials to mastery. 

After 20 years of this federal culture and after over a decade of insanity in Oklahoma’s curriculum,  teachers have been reduced to implementers and children to bubblers. Education has become a conveyor belt driven by far-away bureaucratic and corporate agendas. According to such results, one may propose that Oklahoma’s children cannot learn, but that is preposterous. No, we are told that Oklahoma teachers cannot teach, so we need to add more regulation, more rigor, more mandates, and to speed up the conveyor belt. 

Not only are Oklahoma public school children capable of learning – regardless of their background – Oklahoma teachers are more than capable of teaching. Both, however, must be afforded the freedom and time to master the right things. Good coaches know that they need kids who can dribble and shoot lay-ups before teaching fade-away jump shots. Teachers and parents likewise understand that children must master certain essential skills before we expect them to juggle chainsaws and tap dance like Gregory Hines. I am a career public educator, and I have dutifully tried to follow the standardized script, but I can no longer pretend it’s reliable or valid enough to do so.  

Yes, we must still take these tests, just as we must pay taxes, but we must also recognize them primarily as political tools. They reveal little about a child’s college or career readiness or a teacher’s ability to teach. At best, they should be isolated events in the spring, so we can focus mainly on graduating students ready for the real world. Our teachers and children deserve the freedom, time, and support to master those essential grade skills that truly prepare them for college and career success. Our kids can learn and our teachers can teach, but we need to have the courage to trust them more than bureaucrats and corporations. If we do this, I believe we will have more kids tap-dancing and juggling than ever before, not because they have chased the standardized bumblebee but because they first learned to master walking and throwing and running and catching. And if you get time, search YouTube for tap-dancing toddlers to see some really cute stuff.  

Okies Want Oklahoma Solutions

By
Tom Deighan
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When I rely too heavily on one news source too long, I tend to see everything in life through my Cable News Goggles,and it’s terrifying!  Regardless of which “lens” I choose, I walk away wondering if I need to build a bunker. Sometimes, so I can pretentiously claim to be unbiased, I flip back-and-forth between opposing news sources. This only makes things worse, and I am absolutely certain that I need a bunker, but that’s tricky in Oklahoma. How do you build a good bunker that simultaneously protects against climate change and the impending takeover of the CPC in a place with porous clay soils beneath and tornadoes above? 

Clearly, our Cable News Goggles are not always accurate or healthy lenses on the state or local level. National news feeds provide excellent, far-away perspectives, but they also offer more opinions and less helpful information. Consequently, we rarely have consistent information about COVID or the ice sheets in Antarctica, but we always know what “experts” think. Instead of news, it has become my daily affirmation that my views are not only rational and healthy but also absolutely correct. Eventually, I no longer tune in to hear what “my side” is thinking; I tune in to hear what I am supposed to think. Like driving a car through binoculars, that’s when Cable News Goggles become dangerous. We cannot confidently use faraway, partisan lenses when looking at state or local issues.

In recent years, Oklahoma seems to increasingly make local and state decisions based upon or in reaction to national politics, and education is a prime example. National Democrats fight for more money for ineffective programs, and National Republicans fight to subsidize private schools without any accountability for the public funds. Simultaneously, both suffocate schools with unproven regulations and cookie-cutter solutions that change as often as the graduating class. Advocates for smaller government want bigger class sizes schools – for other people’s kids. And advocates for bigger government want more untested programs – for other people’s kids. 

Just as Oklahomans don’t like faraway strangers telling us what to do, we don’t always want national, partisan solutions to local or state issues. Okies want Oklahoma solutions, and thankfully, most Oklahoma legislators are still Oklahomans first. Even when they are undeniably Republican or Democrat, they are first Oklahomans, and they will work together – against national narratives – to find an Oklahoma solution. We have seen that so far in this legislative session related to the complex issue of school choice. Yes, Oklahomans support school choice, but they also support Public Money, Public Rules. The money may need to follow the kids, but the rules must follow, too. 

The national cookie-cutter solutions being offered in Oklahoma today are no better than the national cookie-cutter solutions implemented in 2009 through SB2033 that brought us Common Core and other stuff. Ultimately, those did not work because they were not Oklahoma solutions. Common Core was as hastily ratified as it was hastily canceled, by mostly the same legislators. We are living through that again as some hastily adopted reforms have quickly created more problems than fixes. This is what happens when we force Oklahoma into national templates – from either side of the political spectrum. 

The issue of school choice is a truly difficult but solvable issue, as long as we take off our Cable News Goggles and look at it as Oklahomans. I applaud our Oklahoma legislators, regardless of their stance, for truly looking at this complex issue as Oklahomans first. What is needed in Gotham City may not be needed in Oklahoma; likewise, what works in a faraway state may not work here. Local Okie parents and educators know their communities and public schools best, and they are not wearing their Cable News Goggles in the classroom. Local and state issues are not nearly as terrifying as they look in our newsfeeds when we look at them as Oklahomans. Nevertheless, we should probably still build those bunkers, but we can just call them fancy tornado shelters for now. 

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Swimming in the Piranha Fishbowl

By
Tom Deighan
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Historically, certain professions accepted the reality of living in a “fish bowl.”  Politicians, pastors/ministers, school leaders, and city leaders all signed up for this in some measure.  People in private-sector leadership understand the fishbowl, too, due to social media, as do teachers, law enforcement, and healthcare workers. Swimming in the fishbowl is not just for high-profile leaders anymore.  Nowadays, anyone can find themselves in the public fishbowl, but in the COVID Era, the fishbowl is now full of piranhas. And if you or someone you love has ever been piranha’d, you need no definition.  Find a leader in a fishbowl, add piranhas.  

Many of us signed up for life in the fishbowl, but in the social media age, anyone can unexpectedly take a swim.  No matter who you are or how you found your fishbowl, no one is truly ready for it.  The stress on your family, relationships, and health can be overwhelming under normal circumstances, but add a few piranhas, and life in the fishbowl has become a blood sport. Without warning and without cause, anyone (literally anyone) can be attacked with a thousand tiny bites while the public watches on.

Consequently, joyful jobs like coaching or volunteer positions like school board and city council are rapidly becoming less joyful. Modern technology has devolved into something medieval. Decent people are now publicly piranha’d simply for having a different perspective, a different philosophy, or a deeply held conviction. People are demonized simply because of their profession, titles or labels.  A snap of the jaws, a little blood in the water, and a feeding frenzy. 

When we interject national political vitriol into our homes, churches, schools, and communities, people become caricatures and symbols.  Symbols become targets. Ideas become weaponized, and decent people become dehumanized.  Consequently, piranhas are tossed into our schools and churches and neighborhoods. Before we allow anyone else to be piranah’d, we must remember that these are real people with families, jobs, and dreams.  They are our neighbors. Our doctors and nurses. Our pastors and principals.  

Do people’s titles, positions, or political parties make them more or less human?  Do we really believe local board members and city council members are evil?  Your local teachers are radicals?  Healthcare workers are trying to hurt people? Parents are terrorists? Do we really believe this about each other? 

We may never see our statewide or national discourse return to civility, but at the local levels, we can restore decency by recognizing each other as people, not as symbols. Your local “fishbowl” leaders are often simply volunteers; they do not deserve to be demonized.  People working in the fishbowl do not always deserve praise, but they don’t deserve to be constantly piranha’d, either. 

Our children are watching, and how we treat each other as adults teaches them volumes about our world.  Our little Mayberry can either nullify or affirm the world’s ugliness. We can model true tolerance – accepting people even when we do not agree with them – or they can see a world full of bloody fishbowls, where our online profiles or likes determine our worth as people. 

National civility will never be restored until we restore it locally, in our own communities, our own churches, and our own neighborhoods.  We must model it for our children, whether online or in person, and maybe what starts locally could spread statewide and infect our whole nation.  Make no mistake, however, it starts in our own fishbowls, and it starts with us. Enough of us have the scars, so we know what to look for. Let’s no longer permit colleagues and neighbors to be piranha’d. Sure, it may still happen in faraway places, but not in our local fishbowls. Not in our Mayberries.    

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Public Money, Public Rules for Vouchers

By
Tom Deighan
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This is the eighth in a series of ten summertime articles mapping the common ground upon which parents, educators, and communities can unite regarding one of the most divisive topics in America: public education.

Many Oklahoma leaders appear to be taking progressive steps toward implementation of a voucher system, citing the need for increased competition between public and private schools. Many wonder just how that would look, and I think we could learn something from our student athletes, for most public high schools already compete against private schools on the field, on the court, and on the stage. They follow the same rules, supported by common-sense parents and educators. This supports my belief that 80% of parents and 80% of educators agree on 80% of educational issues, and I believe that this even applies to the controversial topic of school choice. My position on this issue has always been captured in a simple phrase: Public Money, Public Rules. To prove, however, that my position is not shaped by current politics, here is an excerpt from my article in an April 2015 edition of the Lawton Constitution:

It will undoubtedly surprise some people, but as a superintendent of a public school district in Oklahoma, I do not oppose vouchers – as long as anyone receiving public funds has to follow the same rules a public school follows. They should provide transportation, therapists, special education, lunches, and fully certified teachers. They should take the same tests and meet the same accountability measures in place for public schools. They should have the same oversight and financial reporting requirements. 

This sort of logic seems to apply in virtually every other area that shifts public funds to private entities. Public and private universities follow the same rules. Private and public hospitals follow the same rules. Quasi-public systems like turnpikes even follow the same rules of the road. Heck, even private prisons must follow the same rules as public prisons, so if the rule applies to criminals, we might consider it for kids.  Public Money, Public Rules works everywhere else, so it should work for public school funds. Taxpayers like to know how and where their money is spent.

Public Money, Public Rules first implies transparency, which was the concern with a high-profile Oklahoma charter school last year. The public expects to know where its money goes, and that district’s private vendor left many unanswered questions. Public Money, Public Rules also relates to accountability, which is a question mark for private schools in Oklahoma that currently receive public funds. Many private schools in Oklahoma receive checks directly from your local schools, through programs such as the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship and some federal programs, but I do not know which (if any) of the public rules follow that public money.  

Must these schools or the proposed voucher schools report graduation rates or utilize the state-mandated evaluation systems, testing systems, or climb the other mountains of mandates expected of your neighborhood school?  Must they block off 90-minutes for uninterrupted reading?  Are their schools rated with A’s or F’s?  Can they expel students? (Public schools cannot.)  Can they deny students entry?  (Public schools cannot.)  Are they required to transport special education students or serve their needs, no matter how astronomically expensive, just like public schools?   As Oklahoma continues to take steady, progressive steps toward vouchers, the Public Money, Public Rules issue should be front-and-center. Any school receiving local, state, or federal tax dollars should follow all the same rules, be it private, public, or charter. 

We do not accept separate rules in soccer. Private schools and public schools must follow the exact same rules on a level field. Likewise, any discussion of a voucher system must begin and end with Public Money, Public Rules – not just most rules but all rules – full adherence to every onerous, ridiculous rule that has been imposed on kids, parents, and educators in public schools. This principle works for soccer and tennis as well as prisons and hospitals. Public Money, Public Rules just seems like another issue upon which most parents and most educators could agree.

Tom Deighan is the current Superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. He may be reached at deighantom@gmail.com

Breakfast with Recruits

By
Tom Deighan
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This is a recurring Veteran’s Day article that captures the moment that forever changed how I see our military men and women.  During my time serving the children of Fort Sill Army Base, I had the distinct honor of joining recruits for breakfast during bootcamp. It gave me a tiny glimpse into the tremendous sacrifice they are willing to make.  Please pray for our veterans and their families this second Sunday of the month, and please also pray for the safety of our schools. 

We were instructed to leave a seat between each of us in the empty mess hall for the recruits. Few of us in Leadership Oklahoma Class of XXVIII had military experience, so we were impressed with the food line which rivaled any breakfast buffet in town. Some of us quickly found a seat, but others lingered in the food lanes or at the juice dispensers. Then the recruits arrived.

They descended upon the serving lines with speed and efficiency. Always orderly and respectful, they moved past us mechanically as we tried to decide between yogurt or a bagel. They invariably grabbed both and walked in sharp angles to an empty seat. Dropping their trays between us as if pre-assigned, they returned for drinks. Each returned with two glasses that they cupped tightly in the center of their chests, elbows extended.

Although mindful of us civilians in the room, they had only ten minutes to eat, so they inhaled everything. Despite this, they patiently and respectfully responded to our questions. I watched with fascination as one young man folded everything on his tray into a pancake like a taco (for maximum eating efficiency he told me). The stubble on his freshly shorn head was likely the only he had ever experienced. He could just as easily have been a sophomore sitting in English class. 

At a nearby table sat several young women, just as precise and just as hungry. With no makeup and their hair pulled helmet-tight, nothing could hide their youth. But just about then, one of the Leadership Oklahoma members at my table asked them why they carried their drinks that way, cupped tightly in the center of their chests, elbows extended. “Because that is how they train us to handle a grenade, sir.”

I was awestruck. Respect and gratitude replaced sentimentality as I saw these recruits with fresh clarity. In fact, I saw every soldier I had ever known differently. Because in that moment, the United States Army marched right into my heart:  The bagpipe players on the polo field who learned to play in forty-five days. The drill sergeants who spent their weekend with these recruits instead of their families. The solemnity of the retreat ceremony. The big guns firing on the range. But mostly, I saw young men and women who carry their breakfast drinks like grenades because their lives literally depend upon it. I have never been more enlightened or more humbled.  

How foolish of me to look at these recruits as anything but the men and women who keep America free. Just four weeks into their basic training that forges them into soldiers, they already mastered discipline and precision beyond my imagination. This was reflected in each soldier I met on Fort Sill over my years there.  And while I learned to recognize the ranks from their symbols, I could never distinguish rank based on behavior, demeanor, or professionalism – from private to general, I saw only Army Strong.

Both of my parents served in the Navy. I have worked alongside countless other veterans, not to mention former students who went on to serve, and in my time at Fort Sill, I came to appreciate the military like never before. But not until that morning in the mess hall did I ever carry the heart of a recruit – cupped tightly in the center of my chest, elbows extended.

Tom Deighan is currently the superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

By
Tom Deighan
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A few things are consistent for me around Thanksgiving.  First, I can always count on my lifelong friend and childhood hero, Toby Dawn McIntyre to resurrect his greatest business idea:  Toby and Tom’s Hot Turkey Wings!  “Remember when we were kids?” He says dreamily.  “Getting stuck with the chicken wing was like losing a bet, but now an entire industry has been built on the part of the chicken everyone used to hate . . .” 

He is right, chicken wings were so low on the food chain in my family that we wouldn’t even give them to the dog for fear she might choke, but I always had my gullet full of them, mostly because I was the youngest and slowest of seven at the dinner table.  Whoever turned them into a business was a genius, but each Thanksgiving I must suffer through Toby and Tom’s Turkey Hot Wings. Everyone has a crazy uncle like this during the holidays, and Toby is my Thanksgiving tradition. I can never eat turkey without thinking of giant hot wings.  Mostly, however, I think of my mom this time of year. 

Barbara Jean claimed to be ninety-eight-pounds soaking wet.  When my dad died, she faced the world alone with seven children.  At the time, we lived in Florida, and our nearest relatives were fifteen hundred miles away, but nothing intimidated that woman.  Shortly after my father’s death, she threw a dart at a map (so I have been told), and we moved across the country – just her, seven kids, and two young vagabonds named Hank and Fudgy. That started a journey that crisscrossed four states and a dozen towns. My mom was tough as nails and fearless, and she did everything for her children, but our life was a little crazy at times.   

But that woman could cook!  I grew up eating things like borscht, arroz con pollo, home-made stroganoff, couscous, and her Italian food made with “authentic” Italian sausage bought from Krebs, Oklahoma.  She was like an international food fair all rolled up in a tiny package. Her best dish, however, was hands-down her Thanksgiving stuffing. This was back during the time when people still stuffed the bird (back before salmonella, I suppose) and it was heavenly.

During the Holidays, however, she became Martha Stewart.  She stuck to Thanksgiving traditions that brought a sense of normalcy.  She showed her love by selflessly providing for us and by feeding whoever wandered by for Thanksgiving dinner each year.  I also remember her this time of year because she was a lunch lady, once in a school and once in a prison.  So, when I see the excitement of staff and students for the annual Thanksgiving lunch each year, I am thankful for them, and I think of her. (Clearly, I am unapologetically partial to lunch ladies.)  

As crazy and unpredictable as life has become recently, we really need Thanksgiving, for it is when we settle into old traditions and count our blessings. Honestly, it is very hard to be grumpy or mean when we are thankful, for gratitude is like my mom’s warm stuffing during Thanksgiving.  It brought us all together and slowed down the chaos.

The world seems like it’s spinning apart, but it just might be falling into place. Perhaps, Thanksgiving 2021 will refocus us on what matters: God, family, friends, and our blessings to be Americans and Okies. Who knows? It could be our turning point. And if your crazy uncle tries to sell you on the idea of turkey hot wings this week, don’t burst his bubble with Toby and Tom’s Hot Turkey Wings.  Let him have his moment and offer them another helping of mom’s stuffing.  One day, you will cherish that moment, trust me.

Tom Deighan is currently the superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Your Local Christmas Graduate Factory

By
Tom Deighan
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This time of year, I am struck by the sheer volume of Christmas gadgets that appear on the shelves, and I am fascinated how Santa’s Workshop can produce all that stuff. I have always thought of schools as factories, too, but instead of gadgets, we make graduates, and during my career, I have congratulated literally thousands as they exited our assembly line. Some were destined for college, some for work, and some had no plan whatsoever, but this is often the time of year when many realize that graduation is just a semester away, and many of them wonder if they are ready to exit the assembly line. 

I don’t know much about factories, but I once toured a tire plant. To a layperson like me, a tire is a tire is a tire, but the tires they produce are myriad. All tires are road-ready, but high-performance tires must be supple enough to provide excellent traction yet tough enough to survive corners at high speeds. Tractor tires carry weights that would crush normal tires, and everyday car tires fall somewhere in between. The same factory creates all these tires with absolute fidelity and zero waste. I bet Christmas gadgets are less complicated to make.

Unfortunately, making graduates is not so predictable. Factories can produce perfect products, but nothing enters them that might alter the final outcome. Public Schools, however, Welcome All, Serve All, and Love All who walk through their doors. We may manufacture graduates, but we do not exclude anyone from our assembly line. Our students may live in mansions or be homeless. They may have genius IQs, or they may have a severe intellectual disability. They may be star athletes, or they may be quadriplegics. Nevertheless, public schools face the highest expectations to produce perfect, road ready tires with virtually no waste. Every parent wants their child to graduate as ready as possible for the world ahead, and the ramifications are eternal. 

To a lay person, a student is a student is a student, but students are not easy to classify and much more complex to manufacture than tires or gadgets. Critics of public education often point to the imperfect product exiting our assembly line, but they rarely acknowledge the enormous challenge of advancing all children, regardless of status or ability, toward graduation. When a tire exits a factory it can never be anything but the tire that “graduated”. Our students, on the other hand, may graduate as a tractor tire or a replacement donut, but they have the freedom and potential to transform themselves into a Formula One racing tire. Many other countries predetermine how they will exit the school assembly line. Americans, however, know that the students that we manufacture get to pick whichever road they choose and to go as fast as they wish. It’s the American Dream, and it is why public educators do what they do. 

Christmas might be on our minds right now, but our seniors are worrying about things like FASFA’s, finding jobs, and completing their classes on time. They may not show it, but they care deeply. Some are on track to be high-performance, and others don’t know what type of gadget they will be, but please reassure them few of us were ready at this point in our lives, but somehow, we managed to exit the factory road-ready, and few of us are now what we planned to become. If you have a senior in high school this Christmas season, you know it’s not about the Christmas gadgets, and so do they. Fill their stockings with more love than stuff this year, and let them know how you felt back in the day. Somehow, we made it, and so will they, no matter how ready they feel to exit this graduate factory in the months ahead. And if you have no children in school, say a prayer of thanks for your local graduate factories, for they are producing your future neighbors. They are even more amazing than Santa’s Workshop.

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

The Grapes of Wrath: A Modern Version

By
Tom Deighan
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In John Steinbeck’s classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family finally reaches the end of its rope.  Setback after setback, loss of their livelihood, and finally, loss of their land force the Joads to reluctantly leave the only home they have ever known for the promised land of California.  Oklahoma proves to be as indifferent to their absence as it had been to their presence.  The Joads quietly leave everything they have ever known behind, but as backward and misunderstood as they and the countless other Okies were, they never left their dignity.  They never once presumed the world around them would bend to their needs.    

Much of the world still sees Oklahoma through the Okie stereotype.  We are a fly-over state, insignificant and backwards . . . a place of noble victimhood.  We have become the Joads, not because others have branded us Okies, but because we have resigned ourselves to suckling our providers in the abandoned barns of misfortune.  We are a state rich in resources, strong in character, and unrelenting in resolve.  We have traded that strength for a cheap stoicism.  We have become caricatures of the caricatures created so long ago by a pretentious Californian, but the current state of Oklahoma need not be the enduring state of Oklahoma.  Our next generations deserve better than fatalistic surrender to the self-fulfilling prophecies of a boom-bust economy.  We are not bound to the past; rather, we choose to cling to that which we have known – the way of the Joads – motivated by a misguided fealty to suffering as a rite of passage.   Our challenges may be unprecedented, as some have suggested, but I cannot imagine them worse than the challenges overcome by the generations before us.

Oklahomans are by nature independent, self-reliant, and more than a little stubborn.  When things get tough enough, our Wrath kicks in, and we either deal with it or we quietly move on.  Oklahoma educators are cut from the same burlap.  Your classroom teachers and school support professionals have endured a lot in recent years and will continue to endure . . . until one day they won’t.  When they cannot take anymore without sacrificing their dignity, they will quietly move on to something else or somewhere else.  Oklahoma teachers are following in the Joads’ dusty footsteps.  As intimately as they love this state, other promised lands beckon.  As quietly as Ms. Joad and Mr. Joad plied their trades in our Oklahoma schools, they have been quietly leaving.  And just like Steinbeck’s Okies, the Sooner State is as indifferent to their absence as it was their presence.

If you get a chance any time soon, pick up a copy of The Grapes of Wrath, or catch the movie.  It’s worth the popcorn.  For another option, just visit your local public school to see a modern version unfolding right before your eyes. Today’s Joads, however, are neither destitute nor uneducated.  They have options and will reluctantly go where leaders acknowledge their value and loyalty.  None of us educators are naïve, this is not a problem which can be solved overnight, but neither did it evolve overnight.  Past Oklahomans may have endured the Dust Bowl, but they spent that time addressing the causes so their children would never suffer such calamity again.  Our state suffered from the mass exodus of Okies during The Great Depression, but in the end, we will suffer much more from the current Okie exodus.  Oklahoma educators are choosing to follow the Joads because Oklahomans can give up a lot, but they will never give up their dignity.  And unfortunately, our school professionals are losing hope that our state leaders will abandon the past in order to meet the needs of the next generation.

I originally wrote this article in 2017, shortly before Oklahoma teachers walked out because they felt unvalued, but now in 2022 they feel vilified. Whereas the grapes of wrath in Oklahoma teachers’ souls were once “growing heavy for the vintage,” they have now simply withered on the vine because a profession emptied of dignity quickly becomes an empty profession.

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Our Next State Superintendent

By
Tom Deighan
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0

I have written literally hundreds of articles and two books about very controversial issues, but I am reluctant to address specific individuals because it’s too easy to inadvertently villainize people nowadays. When we face an election like this week’s primary, however, we must consider people and pick sides. I am not sure the traditional sides fit anymore, so let’s start by focusing on the qualities of our next leader.

By “sides,” I refer to the extreme Pollyanna Public Schools (PPS) and Evil Public Schools (EPS) options that dominate public discourse lately. The PPS crowd insists that the only change needed in our public schools is more funding, and the EPS crowd insists that the only answer is giving them the same taxpayer funds to dismantle all public schools. Lost in the debate, however, are the majority of Okies alienated by both sides. Our next State Superintendent should reflect the following values. 

Inclusive: Our state superintendent should genuinely include all stakeholders, not just those who subscribe to a certain orthodoxy. Both sides claim to support parents and educators, but both sides quickly marginalize anyone who disagrees with them. We need a state superintendent who will listen to our sensible parents and educators more than the flaming pennies (the radical one percent willing to burn the world down to make a point). 

Peacemaker:  Tiny (but loud) factions of people continually stoking controversy currently dominate our public square. They seek either to force everyone to embrace radical beliefs or force taxpayers to fund our own separate schools. Our next state superintendent must bring peace and consistency to the sensible majority, not capitulate to partisans.

Failures and successes: Of course, we want a state superintendent who has a successful track record, but we also need someone who can be open, honest, and reflective about their failures. Winston Churchill overcame terrible public failure to become a great (but flawed) leader. Our next leader must not only have learned from missteps but also have taken ownership of them. If a leader is all thumbs, we would certainly have less finger-pointing!

Discernment and boldness: Our state needs a leader willing to champion bold change (which usually means betraying both sides), but we also need someone willing to check the bathwater before throwing out more babies. The last decade is a revolving door of hastily constructed change atop hastily scrapped ruins. Before we start swinging wrecking balls, let’s make sure we know what we are demolishing . . . and have a sensible solution ready to replace the rubble.

Solutions: Partisanship in education is both naked and blind, which means it is exposed and vulnerable to a pragmatic leader who can serve the sensible majority of parents and educators. Imagine a willingness to work with the opposition instead of an eagerness to gloat and lord power over them. Unfortunately, even when both sides agree something is good for kids, they will not currently hold hands because the other side is involved. 

Oklahoma’s sensible educators and parents cannot embrace a progressive march toward Marxism or a progressive march toward crony capitalism. My proof? If educators were widely motivated by the far-left rhetoric, then they could easily run rule any election. If parents were widely motivated by the far-right message, then schools would be privatized tomorrow. Instead, they focus on kids’ needs and try to avoid engaging the flaming pennies. They just want safe, caring, healthy, open, orderly, learning spaces. (S.C.H.O.O.L.S.)

After over a decade of inconsistency and partisanship, Oklahoma needs a state superintendent who will serve our sensible educators and parents over far away partisans with deep pockets. I believe that all of our remaining candidates sincerely want what’s best for our state, even if they disagree, but we won’t really know whom they serve until someone gets into office. Let’s hope it’s not the Pollyanna or Evil Public School caricatures. We need a superintendent committed to real, sensible Oklahoma parents and educators. After all, who loves their children more?

Tom Deighan is a public educator and author of Shared Ideals in Public Schools. You may email him at deighantom@gmail.com 

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