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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > February > 15 > Entry
Life is like a box of chocolates
A snarky friend of mine, upon hearing about Checker Finn’s memoir about his life’s work in education policy, jokingly described him as the “Forrest Gump of education.” Let’s see, can you can pick out the education reformer from the pictures at the top of this page?
While it’s true that sections of Finn’s newest book, Troublemaker, trace his early career as a mostly behind-the-scenes player in places like the Nixon White House, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s office and Bill Bennett’s U.S. Department of Education, Finn was not an aimless observer. And by the 1990s he became a huge force in school reform — big enough that both he and the foundation he heads were ranked about a year ago by Education Week among the most influential players in education.
As the book’s name suggests, Finn is known for sharp elbows. He is both reviled by some who view him as hostile to public education and surprisingly well-liked by others who might be considered his natural enemies.
Thus, the occassional snarky comment is hurled in his direction.
For those who don’t know much about him, Finn grew up here. His father was a successful lawyer and he attended Jefferson Elementary School and Colonel White High School before heading to a New England prep school and earning a couple degrees at Harvard. His career jumped back and forth between Washington, D.C. and Vanderbilt, where he was a college professor, before he got his big break, thanks to his father.
The senior Finn has long served on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a local charity named for wealthy industrial-era Daytonian who died young and left a fortune to his also young wife. When the wife died and left her estate to the foundation, the board chose the junior Finn to lead it.
Checker Finn turned Fordham into a national school reform advocate, funding research and outreach efforts in support of school choice and standards reform. Finn and Fordham, now relocated from Dayton to Washington, fanned the flames of a wildfire movement as Republican-led legislatures across tha nation embraced charter schools in the 1990s.
But Finn, staying true to Fordham’s roots, played a special role in pushing charter schools here in Dayton. This helps explain why Dayton has been either No. 1 or No. 2 for the highest percentage of kids attending charter school of any city in the nation since the start of the decade.
Fordham now has a Dayton office and sponsors Ohio charter schools. Its support of charters was a major factor in forcing reform inside the city school district here, also, in part by creating an urgency about education that set the stage for new school board leaders.
The book, however, touches lightly on Finn’s interactions here, sticking mostly to his childhood remembrances and a thin chapter on Fordham’s role in the school choice explosion here.
As he spoke about the book at an event Thursday, it was most interesting to hear him say how Fordham’s work in Dayton helped teach him how difficult it can be to translate neat and clean theories about reform into the nitty gritty, on the ground realities of schools and kids.
By the way, someone asked me today to expalin Finn’s nickname, Checker. His given name is Chester E. Finn, Jr. My understanding is that his father, Chester senior, picked up the nickname “Check” in the Navy. Somewhere along the way, Chester the younger became “Checker.” That’s what everyone who knows him calls him.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Comments
By Dave
February 18, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
Mary, you raise a great point there. I investigated the �alternative certification� programs in two states (NOT Ohio), substitute taught, and taught a year of high school in Texas. The alternative certification programs explain what the education professors in most colleges think professionals need to learn in order to teach school. They emphasize learning theory, how to teach reading, and childhood development. If you want to be certified for, say, math or science in Jr. High or High School, they add a 5-6 week session of evening classes at the end in how to teach your specialty. They do NOT address classroom management, communication with parents, etc. I was considered a better-than-average teacher, but I saw teachers who made me stand in awe and wish I could have had them in high school myself. They could teach students with several different learning styles at the same time, without making anyone bored with waiting. I also saw burnouts, average teachers, principals who were worthless, and principals you would freely admire. Not everyone is cut out to teach school. Look at Scientific American and you�ll see Nobel Laureates who can�t explain their way out of a paperbag. At least 2/3 of the industry professionals who go into teaching school, fail. Most of them are the jerks you have had as bosses and co-workers who couldn�t communicate, wouldn�t listen, and knew it all (a LOT of those folks seem to feel teaching is a good second career for themselves). Some failed because they couldn�t deal with anyone who was not as brilliant as themselves, and many failed because they had no patience and couldn�t accept that kids are kids. And the others came in with the right tools and a good attitude and were welcomed with open arms.By Keith
February 17, 2008 3:02 PM | Link to this
It’s always amused me how anyone teaching in college is considered an expert on education K-12. They teach students who elected to be in college, who realize that many will not make the grades, and who realize that it’s going to be difficult. I recall college profs in one area who didn’t have any idea how to contact teachers in schools within a county, for instance. They didn’t even know there were county schools grouped under a county office and schools which are separate. The reform movement is more a political viewpoint than a professionally viable alternative. Look at how the charter school/community school movement has turned out. They typically achieve less than the public school populations whom they undermind funding for. The handling of testing to ascertain levels of performance is questionable (see City Day and Goff), so even their testing may not be valid showing they are performing poorly.By Mary
February 17, 2008 7:48 AM | Link to this
Dave, I guess many of us are still confused what class/classes teachers take for their certification that makes them that much more qualified than the rest of us to teach. Many people have been part of the education system for their own professional degrees in subject areas that they have learned. What are the magic college classes that set the teaching profession apart? We are all part of the education system, and as customers alone, should be considered good sources of inputs on how to improve education.By Dave
February 16, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this
If he was trying to reform college education, it would count. But since he is trying to reform K-12 education, I consider him to more expert than the next guy I run into on the street.By Scott Elliott
February 16, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this
Well, Finn was a college professor. Does that count as a teacher?By Dave
February 16, 2008 9:20 AM | Link to this
It bother me to see that “one of the most influential players in education” has never been a teacher. I can think of several teachers who greatly influenced me growing up. I can’t think of any “foundation board members” who had such a positive effect.By Oldprof
February 15, 2008 9:44 PM | Link to this
To say that Finn’s politics inspired reform in the public schools is a fallacy of false causation.