Why Amazon is Hurting Our Students

Amazon is the bully on the playground, shaking down the weaker kids for their lunch money.  As The New York Times reports, Amazon is engaging in what some are calling blackmail and extortion to force book publishers to pay higher rates or else.  The or else has taken the form of delayed book shipments, book price increases or, in some cases, the disappearance of titles altogether.  These tactics are not just bad business practice and potentially illegal, they stifle crucial information.  They hurt publishers and authors, yes, but they harm readers even more.  And interestingly, they injure students.

Many of my students have learning disabilities, struggle with reading, or simply refuse to read.  Desperate to teach them the critical reading and writing skills they need before they leave for college, I have resorted to what I call "extreme differentiation."  A non-reader who loves baseball and is a varsity shortstop?  Quick: One-click the new Babe Ruth biography so that he can read excerpts and write a reaction paper on them.  Disengaged, "Black-Ops"-loving dyslexic?  Quick: One-click World War Z and ask him to compare and contrast the various zombie apocalypses with which he is familiar.  A diligent ELL student fresh from Afghanistan, bravely wearing her headscarf, struggling to learn the intricacies of English grammar?  Quick: One-click I Am Malala and ask her to respond personally to the heroism of a girl not unlike herself.

But Amazon is foiling more than my desperate and expensive catch-as-catch-can method of engaging students with texts.  By eliminating the web pages of books and authors (according to The New York Times, Anne River Siddons's The Girls of August has been summarily disappeared), they prevent students not only from buying literature but also from knowing it exists.  Students today treat Amazon as the Oracle: It will link them to any work by any author on any subject that they can imagine.  Amazon's censorship  isn't absolute--kids are free to search for and buy books other ways--but frankly, they may not.  If they don't know a book exists, how can they read it?

This is where my plug for independent booksellers comes in.  My local bookstore will kindly order any title I want that they don't have on their shelves.  Maybe I can't get it overnight, but I can ususally get it within a couple of days.  This is also where I plug our local library.  Not only are they accommodating about finding books through interlibrary loan, but they also are free.  Perhaps this is a chance for me to break my addiction to One-Click and to teach my students about the importance of freedom of information and competition in the marketplace.

One thing is certain: I am boycotting Amazon until they cease holding publishers hostage for higher payments and eliminating the titles of those who won't comply.

Want to join me?


Boycott:
https://blog.zolabooks.com/we-stand-with-readers-support-hachette-authors/

More reading:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/amazon-escalates-its-battle-against-hachette/?hpw&rref=business

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/one-womans-lonely-boycott-of-amazon/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Who cares about New Jersey suburban education?

Urban education gets a lot of attention.  Rightfully so: students in urban schools frequently face poverty, overcrowding, a lack of resources, inadequate facilities, subpar teachers, or charter schools competing for space and funds.  These are real issues and deserve serious attention.

But New Jersey's suburban education deserves a spotlight, too.  Suburban schools are the quiet kid near the back of the class.  They are attentive, don't make trouble, and seem to be working.  But get to know them one-on-one, and you may find a different story.  Suburban schools have genuine struggles.  While they may not seem as urgent and dire as the problems urban districts face, they are real.

Some of the struggles suburban schools face include:

• Diversity.  New Jersey is decentralized and our identities are town-focused.  Kids think they know what it means to be from Newark, or Millburn, or Maplewood.  Schools reflect this sense of identity.  As towns become more diverse--racially, ethnically, sexually, and socioeconomically--schools must accommodate the values, culture, identities, and agendas of the entire community.  And kids must as well: How many of us have seen all the black, latino, or otherwise non-white kids sitting together in the cafeteria?  Hanging out together in the hallways? Lumped together in the same level of class?
• Leveling.  Educational equity is not just an urban issue.  Look around an inclusion class or basic skills class.  What kids are placed there?  Why?  Are we shortchanging, over classifying, and underestimating the kids who are less affluent, less white, or who behave more like stereotypical boys?
• Drugs and alcohol.  How many of us have "coded" kids in the past school year, have watched in dismay as drunk kids are arrested at sports events, or have gritted our teeth at the prospect of potentially chaperoning a school dance?  How can we partner with parents and the community to ensure that kids are safe, whole, and intact while under our care--without turning into a police state?
• Pressure.  The "dark side" of excellence is the pressure some (not all!) students feel to please, excel, and achieve.  What do we truly believe education is for and about?  How can we educate according to our values, rather than caving into our fears for our kids' futures?
• Testing.  PARCC, in many parents' minds, symbolizes the pressure their kids are under as well as everything that's "wrong with education today"-- outside/government control, teaching to a test, inordinate amounts of testing, and the fear of failure.  How can we keep high standards, allay fears, and maximize genuine, deep learning?

Suburban New Jersey educators aren't refugees from urban districts. We aren't using teaching as a steppingstone to loftier achievements.  And we sure aren't facilitators of "failure factories."  What we are is dedicated to a career in the classroom, care deeply about our students, and see their needs as genuine and valid.

Join me in a conversation about New Jersey suburban education today.