[NLA] Implement this immediately!

[PDRNRI@aol.com]

Dear Andrea and everyone, 

Let me begin by saying that I agree with and appreciate all you wrote, Andrea 
-   Certainly, if the K-12  professional development system worked well, we'd 
be looking at a  much less probelmatic public education system.   I don't 
work in K-12, but my wife does and many of my friends do, and I couldn't 
agree with you more.  To me it seems as complex as your experience describes 
it.   I am certainly not lauding the K-12 system, I'm just pointing out that 
they have a well-funded, recognizable, intensive system of professional 
development - not ongoing development, but pre-service development.    It may 
not be solving all K-12 problems, but at least they have a system... We don't.

I am not a researcher; I'm a practitioner.  My interest is in improving 
practice.  My work with researchers at NCSALL was trying to find ways to 
bringe their research into practice.   My experience as a practitioner and 
Masters student has taught me two things you already know:  1.  Education 
Researchers do not write in a way that is readily accessable to most 
practitioners, and 2. Education researchers do their work mainly because they 
are interested in adding to our understanding of education.   My experience 
with NCSALL (part time, while I was teaching and coordinating a program for 
dislocated workers full time) taught me that NCSALL researchers have a 
genuine interest in finding ways to make their research more accessable to 
practice.   But mostly they are researchers first, not professional 
development specialists.  Yes, it's my opinion, that it's not the function of 
researchers to get their work into practice - it is the function of a 
professional development system.  That doesn't mean researchers are off the 
hook when it comes to presenting accessable, applicable work.  It just means 
that there needs to be a space for this engagement to happen.  In Rhode 
Island, where I live, there is no professional development system - there are 
occasional workshops, drop-in meetings, a one-person literacy resources cen
ter (god bless Janet Isserlis).  

Yes, presumably if Dr. Kegan's work is useful to practice it will somehow 
find its way into practice.  But this working into practice would be done to 
a much greater extent, much more efficiently, if we were a fully 
professionalized level of teaching with the kind of funding that it demands 
and the kind of professional development system it requires.

By the way, I agreed with your first letter, too - Tom's letter was 
hilarious, and it certainly has geenerated some excitement!  

Peace,
David Hayes