It’s been four years since John Mockler died, and I miss his voice, his views, his candor and his humor. I’d like to hear him jousting with the leaders of the K12 establishment. I imagine he’d be ready, willing and able to to interrupt the chorus of conformity that’s all too common when people talk about what’s right or wrong with schooling. Where is the debate, the dissent, the dialogue that other fields enjoy? Who today is bringing this sharp edge to the discussion that John Mockler brought in prior years?

John’s sharp edges weren’t just a result of his wit and his rhetoric. His ideas were substantial, edgy, and often off the beaten path. They were always well reasoned, and well defended with evidence galore. He enlisted his listeners’ hearts and heads when he stated his case. He summoned humor, profanity, logic and reason in his cause. He challenged many to think, to question tradition and “common sense.”

If you never had the pleasure of hearing him speak, let me treat you to an occasion when I heard him poke fun at then-Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell. In January 2007, O’Connell had just released an annual report on the state of California’s schools, and it was a bushel basket of bad news. O’Connell reached these conclusions by misinterpreting statistics, committing a range of sins against Aristotelian logic and the rules of fifth-grade math.

At the EdSource annual conference in the Spring of 2007, John poked glorious fun at O’Connell’s flaws and his hand-wringing tone. John described what he dubbed the “Schools Suck Industry,” and asked why O’Connell felt compelled to make common cause with those organizations that had a stake in making schools look bad. But John built his own case for showing the gains that had occurred, countering O’Connell’s argument with evidence of his own.

You can see John’s slide deck from that 2007 talk on the “Schools Suck Industry” because he gave me permission to publish it. But to get you started, here’s a representative page from that deck. It was decidedly not politically correct to posit good news then. But John’s response to the climate of conformity was to speak his mind, and with a twinkle in his eye, give the current dogma a kick in the shins. Barbara Nemko, the supe of Napa County Office of Ed, reminded me that John sported a ponytail for years, a sure signal that he was a free spirited thinker.

If you care to read more about this talk, I recommend this December 8, 2007 news article by Peter Schrag that appeared in the Sacramento Bee: “Misinformation taints school evaluations.”

His accomplishments were remarkable, and included writing Prop. 98, which redefined how education is funded. His notable life was recapped by the obituaries that followed his death in March 2015. This EdSource obit by John Fensterwald and Michelle Maitre was a fitting tribute. So was this obit by Greg Lucas in the Capitol Weekly. If you aren’t acquainted with John Mockler, I urge you to read one of these obituaries. If you are acquainted with him, join me in raising a glass tonight in honor of his memory. (He preferred Irish whiskey, I believe.)

If you have stories, photos or comments you’d like to share about John, please send them to me. I’ll be publishing them as a tribute as soon as I receive a reasonable bundle. Email them to:  steve.rees@schoolwisepress.com.