Monday, March 21, 2011

Please help!

Dear Oprah,
The National Writing Project and other literacy programs for students have been cut from the federal budget.  I am hoping this letter will shed some light on why this matters to America’s teachers. 
I have spent the last 38 years in education.  Actually, if one counts my undergraduate years and work in Head Start, I’ve been an educator for 41 years.  During that time, I’ve had amazing experiences with students.  My rural, migrant, minority kindergarteners received letters from Charles Shultz after we sent Valentines to Charlie Brown.  Consequently, they were convinced that reading, writing, and communication would open their world. 
Adidas and John Starks built my inner city school a new basketball court.  I wrote to Mr. Starks telling him the influence he had on my students and Adidas came to interview them.  My students wrote an editorial for the local newspaper urging citizens to help keep school playgrounds safe and clean.  Through writing they learned the power of their voices. 
Another class studied an urban renewal building project, making friends with the architect, project manager, brick layers, etc. in a real world environment where we studied archeology, city planning, careers, budget management, and more.  After traveling to the site weekly, we created journals and scrapbooks of the process, wrote stories and articles, and invited city leaders to our portfolio party.  The students learned the power of writing to learn. 
With no funds for field trips, we started a donut sales company to earn bus rental for a field trip to Oklahoma City, our capitol.  These third-fifth graders incorporated technology to budget and track our profits, marketing ideas to advertise, and hard work before, after and during school.   Many of these students had never left their neighborhood, much less their city.  We toured the site and museum of the Oklahoma City bombing, the State Capitol, and attended the ballet.  The students learned the power of technology, hard work, and communication to reach a goal.
I have provided opportunities for  students to reflect on their learning through writing, how to research their burning questions, and how to stand up for their rights.  Kindergarten thru eighth grade and then at the local community college, I’ve been able to empower students to direct their own learning. 
These experiences were significant to both my students and to me as a life- long learner.    These types of authentic learning opportunities were possible because of my development as a professional and my belief in students being capable, engaged learners.  Since 1994, my growth has come through being involved with a network of teachers who are dedicated to improving education, the National Writing Project. 
The National Writing Project, a non-profit organization, was the first to create institutes where teachers K-University meet together for self improvement and collegial support.  The project started at the University of Berkeley in 1974 with the need to help teachers become more proficient at teaching writing.  Now, we have over 200 sites based at Universities in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  Each site runs a summer institute and provides workshops for local teachers designed to meet the unique needs of their teaching situations.  We also have partnership grants with Gates, Carnegie, McArthur, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC where we lead teachers into a world of technology, publish student work, and provide resources for them to share with their local districts.  Two years ago,  we started working with the embassy in South Africa as we have had teachers from Africa attend our institutes in the states. 
NWP has been effective and successful over the past 37 years and we have the research to prove our programming has depth and breath.  We leverage $3.00 for every dollar received from the federal government, we have built a website rich with resources for all teachers to access.  Please visit nwp.org for more details.
Unfortunately, all of our federal funding has been cut along with many other powerful literacy programs, four billion dollars from the FY 2011 budget.  Because of your love for reading and writing and a lifetime in communication, I am sure you can see this is a great loss to the teachers and students of this nation and beyond.  This means the 37 years NWP built an infrastructure will be lost as well.  It is much like throwing away the baby with the bathtub.
Oprah, I’m desperate and asking for your expertise.  Teachers are not trained in fund raising; they are called to teach.  It is a profession of humility and service.  The teachers in our network and across the country are emotionally and physically drained.  Our government keeps telling them to focus on test scores.  The public says they are no good.  Now the people who have supported and believed in them are being zeroed out of the FY2011 budget. 
We know research has proven the number one factor in improving education is good teachers; we are losing them.   Teachers want to provide experiences like I mentioned above for their students.  And Oprah, these are the best.  These are teachers who are the teacher of the year, published authors, committee chairs in the world of education, and continue to practice their craft daily with their students. 
Will you help the National Writing Project?  Do you have suggestions?  You’ve been in my life throughout my teaching career.  We spent many dinner conversations with our three sons around the daily topic of your show.  Now I turn to you as a friend of education.  How do we keep the National Writing Project for future teachers and students? 

Sincerely,

Pat Mumford


3 comments:

  1. Pat,
    You speak to my heart, as I am sure you will others!

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  2. I love this, Pat -- only you would think of asking Oprah! And you're right: remember when we would compare Oprah stories? Me w/ the mag, you w/ the TV show? :)

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  3. NWP changed my teaching career and, really, my personal life in the most profound ways. Beautiful letter. Great stories. Thanks for writing and sending it to Oprah! I know she'll respond. She has great respect for teachers!!!

    Shelly

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