Of T-shirts and laws

Ken Goodman (kgoodman who-is-at u.arizona.edu)
Fri, 07 May 1999 12:01:59 -0700

On T-shirts and IRA.

For those of you that bought T-shirts- and those that didn't- I am
reporting on their reception and response at the IRA convention in San
Diego just completed.

The t-shirts said on the back "In California" with the word "Banned" in
red across the white letters. Above was a design which could only be
understood if it was read holistically: an abstract face with abstract
fingers covering an eye, ear, and mouth. Once the observer sees the
whole the message is clear: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
The front says Freedom to Learn, Freedom to Teach, Social Justice.

All of the 275 shirts printed were sold and were in great evidence even
among the 18000 in attendance.

Fortuitously, my session "Banned in California: The Pedagogy of the
Absurd" was 1 pm Monday afternoon the first day of the conference. I
used the texts of the California laws which mandate phonics as well as
the federal reading excellence Act to show how teaching and learning was
being limited by law, The audience was more than half California
teachers
and many came up to thank me- and share horror stories of how they are
being controlled as teachers and teacher educators. The situation in
California has moved into an ugly enforcement stage.

Duke Helfand interviewed me for about forty-five minutes. His article in
Wednesday's LATimes focussed on the T-shirts and the opposition of
everyone he talked to writing laws to mandate phonics. My favorite line
in the story is this quote from Marion Joseph- the Madam Lafarge of
California education: "The International Reading Association is the
heart and soul of the whole language movement. We think we've had enough
advice from them. Why don't they go someplace else?"

Thursday, the San Diego Union-Tribune ran an editorial obviously based
on the Times story which also focussed on the T-shirts:
"Scolds at the annual conference of the International
> > > Reading Association have rallied around Kenneth Goodman,
> > > professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. Goodman,
> > > who extols the supposed virtues of whole-language
> > > instruction, is miffed at the Legislature for mandating
> > > that phonics be stressed in the early grades to help
> > > students comprehend the written word.
> > >
> > > His sentiments are reflected in the sale of black T-shirts
> > > with bright red letters that shout: "BANNED in California.
> > > Freedom to learn. Freedom to teach. Social Justice."
> > >
> > > This pejorative slogan suggests a gaggle of ill-informed
> > > lawmakers got together and prescribed a reading curriculum
> > > that was anathema to conscientious teachers. In fact, the
> > > Legislature acted in response to a 1995 task force report
> > > that concluded California's kids were being shortchanged
> > > by an undue reliance on the very whole-language approach
> > > the critics are defending.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel also picked up on the Times story but with much
more understanding of our message:

PHONICS: One way of teaching kids to read isn't necessarily the only
method > worth employing.
>
> You know that something is wrong when teachers line up to protest an
> education policy forced upon them by the state of California.
>
> The teachers met this week at the International Reading Association's
> annual conference in San Diego. More than 200 of them lined up to buy
> black T-shirts reading "BANNED in California Freedom to learn. Freedom to teach. Social justice."
>
> The teachers have a right to be angry. They're protesting a state policy instituting phonics as the best way to teach reading.
>
> Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with phonics. The problem is that the state calls for phonics as the only method of teaching reading, essentially stripping teachers of the power to choose other methods they might prefer.
>
> We're suspicious of any teaching method that's instituted at the state
> level to the exclusion of all others.

In sum, the use of the black t-shirts to witness for California teachers
accomplished more than we had hoped for. As simple a gesture as a few
hundred educators wearing t-shirts helped to expose that what is
happening in California is use of laws to impose a single paradigm on
all teachers and learners.

My personal thanks to all of those who participated in this witnessing.
Although the T-shirts we printed have all been sold we plan to order
more to satisfy the demand so send an email to me if you would like one.
I predict they will become collectors' items.
Ken Goodman
Kenneth S. Goodman, Professor, Language, Reading & Culture
504 College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
fax 520 7456895 phone 520 6217868

These are mean times- and in the mean time
We need to Learn to Live Under Water