"I'm Not Power Hungry . . . I Just Want to Save Our Schools"

The "Queen of Education" takes on testing, junk food, bad lighting and more

Marine-turned-teacher LouAnne Johnson had the unique experience of seeing herself portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1995 film "Dangerous Minds," based on Johnson's memoirs of teaching a high-risk class. Highly in demand as a speaker and author, Johnson [http://members.authorsguild.net/louanne/index.htm] recently published "The Queen of Education: Rules for Making Schools Work," which combines insight and a characteristic tongue-in-cheek wit. She recently spoke to galeschools.com on the issues facing today's educators.

galeschools.com: Your new book argues that today's schools are designed around the efficiency of the system, and not around the needs of the students. What draws you to this conclusion?

Johnson: The common practice is to take the number of students in a specific grade or level and divide them evenly among the teachers assigned to teach that subject. Then, all students are expected to work at the same pace and teachers are expected to teach at the same rate, regardless of the abilities of the students. And teachers are encouraged (and sometimes ordered) to teach specific skills and information that will appear on standardized exams. Unfortunately, this makes no allowance for the students who come (and they do come) with higher or lower skills and knowledge than they are expected to have for their grade level. I know there is a lot of argument about ability- based grouping, but that's because in the past it was done as a way to exclude certain students. But if we used ability-based grouping to identify those students who need remedial or accelerated lessons – with the goal of challenging the advanced students and bringing the remedial students up to par by the end of the school year – we would do much to eliminate the behavior problems, boredom, apathy and poor grades that plague so many schools.

To use reading as an example, I think we would teach more students much more effectively if we took those students who can already read well and put them with a teacher who will focus on teaching reading comprehension, and took the students who have zero skills and grouped them with one or two teachers (depending upon the numbers) – and assigning classroom aides if the numbers are very high. You might have 15 students in the advanced group at the start of the year and 35 in the lower group, or vice versa. But, as individual students gain skills, they move up to the higher level. Eventually, you would have only a few students in the lower group and they would get the individual attention they need. The larger groups would be working at an appropriate level, not frustrated or frightened because they can't keep up, and would be easier to teach. This method would require frequent adjustment as students progress, but it would certainly do more to make sure that no child is left behind than simply requiring massive testing without addressing the reasons why so many children cannot read at grade level.

galeschools.com: You offer a unique proposition: send every elected official into the classroom for two weeks – and have them live on a teacher's salary.

Johnson: Of course, I don't expect this to happen literally. But I wanted to make the point that citizens must insist that the people who make the laws governing education actually know what they are doing. Unless you have spent time in a classroom today, you cannot visualize what goes on there. Visiting for an hour or reading a book to a group of small children does not give the complete picture necessary to create effective, responsible and ethical laws. I believe that if our lawmakers spent time in today's classrooms, they would begin to see our children as people and not numbers, they would raise teacher salaries nationwide in recognition of the important and difficult work teachers are doing, and they would be much more likely to advocate and fund anti-violence measures, character education, healthy cafeteria foods, fine arts programs, physical education and a positive discipline program instead of a punitive one.

galeschools.com: Your critics say that some of your "royal edicts" don't speak to the reality of today's demands. What's your response?

Johnson: Of course, the edicts aren't realistic; they aren't meant to be. There is no such position as Queen of Education and there is not likely to be one. The title essay, "Queen of Education," with its royal edicts, was meant to be taken as satire, and to provoke thought about what we are doing in our schools.

galeschools.com: You coined the phrase "testing frenzy" to describe modern practices. Are we more dependent on testing today than we were a generation ago?

Johnson: Of course, we must have high standards. But massive standardized testing is not the best way to motivate students or teachers, and it is the not the most effective method of accurately assessing student knowledge. Some people seem to believe that if they threaten schools with loss of funds, or threaten teachers with loss of their jobs, students will earn higher grades.

I would much rather see benchmarks for students where they must demonstrate to their teachers their ability to perform certain tasks, synthesize and create new materials, and use their knowledge to articulately evaluate information in a given subject. Those benchmarks would accurately assess student progress and would eliminate students being "passed on" or left behind.

galeschools.com: Do you think K-12 students have too much homework?

Johnson: I see nothing wrong with two or three hours of homework per night for students older than 12, especially those who expect to attend college. That is certainly time better spent than watching TV, playing computer games or gabbing on cell phones. If teens can't handle three hours per night in high school, they are going to struggle to survive college.

Music lessons, ballet and sports are important, but they shouldn't take precedence over learning skills such as reading and writing. In my opinion, students have been allowed (even encouraged) to become intellectually lazy. They don't enjoy homework because they aren't engaged in the activities assigned, but more importantly, because our pop culture does not glorify studiousness or academic achievement. If we had one television program in which the stars were admired for their character, their intelligence, and their desire to learn, as opposed to their beauty, their sexiness, and their ability to "kick ass," we might see a different attitude toward homework and learning, in general.

galeschools.com: You shared a speaking engagement with President George W. Bush. Any advice for him?

Johnson: Actually, Mr. Bush stole my speaking engagement when he was campaigning and decided he wanted to address an audience of teachers in North Carolina who had paid to hear me speak at their luncheon. At the time that the security agents muscled me off the stage, over the protests of many of the teachers in attendance, I told Mr. Bush that if he ever needed a Queen of Education, he should call me. So far, no call.

galeschools.com: What's your take on No Child Left Behind – the philosophy versus the reality?

Johnson: I think it's a wonderful idea, but it isn't happening because the necessary funds are not included in the mandate. In fact, it has hurt many schools because they have had to cut back on other programs in order to meet the testing requirements. If you are going to add requirements to schools, you must give schools the resources to meet those requirements.

galeschools.com: Can you take the stress out of "teaching to the test"?

Johnson: In my own classroom, I repeatedly proved that if I focused on developing solid reading skills, vocabulary, writing, logic, problem solving, ethics and evaluation, my students would do as well or better than the rest of the study body on standardized exams. Many other teachers have reported similar results, but because they don't want to jeopardize their jobs, most of them keep their success a secret.

Let's look at driving, for example, because most people drive. And everybody passes a driving test, which includes a finite set of facts. Yet look at the huge numbers of terrible drivers and the loss of life due to illogical actions. If we included test questions that required verbal or written answers, questions such as: "What should you do if an aggressive driver tailgates you?" or "What should you do if you are in the left lane on a busy freeway and you see your exit coming up on the right?" If we focused on teaching people how to analyze information, solve problems, and use basic logic, I think America would have better drivers – and better readers.

galeschools.com: You say that caffeine, sugar and aspartame (NutraSweet) can play havoc with children's behavior. Do you think they're tied into the current focus on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

Johnson: Every day, researchers and scientist release more reports confirming the effects of food and chemicals on our brains, and specifically on the brains of children. I believe that aspartame is a dangerous substance and I do not ingest it in any form. In addition to very negative side-effects reported in a wide variety of sources, I have read several studies suggest that aspartame actually makes people prone to gaining more weight, instead of losing it.

As for children, their young bodies and brains are especially sensitive to chemicals, sugar, caffeine and other substances. In order for their brains to function well, children need good nutrition, daily physical exercise and adequate sleep. Poor nutrition and inadequate sleep can result in the exact same symptoms as ADHD – which I believe is overdiagnosed to the point of becoming criminal. There is an entire chapter in "Queen of Education" that details my experience working with kids who were supposedly ADHD, and my research into the whole ADHD dilemma. It is far too complex to summarize here, but I will say this: before we drug any child, we should make sure that child has nutritious food, daily exercise, eight hours of sleep each night and full-spectrum lighting in the area where he or she is expected to read.

galeschools.com: Speaking of lighting, explain your views on scotopic sensitivity.

Johnson: I know scotopic sensitivity exists – I have repeatedly witnessed it in my classroom, with both children and adult developmental reading students. Whether you call it "scotopic sensitivity" or "vision convergence problems" or one of the other recently coined terms, I believe that lighting has a tremendous effect on people's ability to read. Helen Irlen, and a host of others who have followed up on her initial research, have proved time and again that nearly half of the people who have been labeled "learning disabled" because of reading problems can read effectively simply by placing a colored transparency over the page while reading. Sensitivity to light is not a vision problem, per se, such as near- or far-sightedness, so it often goes undetected by standard vision exams.

I would ask that skeptics read the account of my own students' experience with scotopic sensitivity in Chapter 9 in Queen of Education, and the experiences of other administrators and teachers. Then check out the sources and scientific research that is referenced. I believe they will be convinced that this is a viable and important topic and that screening students for light sensitivity and providing transparent overlays could greatly increase the reading ability of American children, and reduce the pain, failure and humiliation of so many students who struggle to read. In addition, removing half of the children from special education classrooms would free up resources for those students who truly need special-ed interventions.

galeschools.com: Finally, does passion still have a place in today's classroom?

Johnson: Yes, I believe that many of our best teachers are doing what the best teachers have always done – take their passion and creativity into the classroom and change young lives. But we don't hear from so many of those excellent teachers because they know that forgiveness is much easier to get than permission – so they ignore the threats and pressure to simply teach testing skills and a finite set of fact. Instead, they continue to quietly teach their subjects, they connect with their students, and they teach those young people how to read, write, think, articulate their ideas, set goals, solve problems – and follow their dreams.