Education
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Problem/Solution
I found this interesting chart that shows how education reform is directed toward solving the education problems experienced by kids marginalized by the larger society. Suggests why the phrase 'education reform' in its current usage is oxymoronic (Source):
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Democrat Establishment Wrong on Education Policy
Good piece today in Salon about how many Democrats who think of themselves as Progressive are really just "liberals", and as such have been conned into supporting corporate ed reform: Writing at the Huffington Post, experienced political insider Mike Lux observed that the “battle” for the soul of the Democratic Party “isn’t between progressives and centrists”
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Our Public Schools Lead the World
The idea that our public schools are failing is a manufactured myth meant to create a sense of crisis that justifies corporate reformers demanding that our public schools as we have known them be dismantled and privatized. For those of you who have uncritically absorbed the corporate media narrative that our public schools are failing,
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Jerry Brown on the Common Core
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown blasted the notion of government-imposed standards for public schools, saying he opposed efforts from Washington and Sacramento to dictate education policy. Using "data on a national or state level I think misses the point — that learning is very individual, very personal," Brown said during an onstage interview with The
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In Other News about the Common Core . . .
The Pearson Foundation has agreed to pay $7.7 million to settle allegations that the nonprofit broke New York state law while attempting to profit from Common Core-aligned products. An investigation by New York state Attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman revealed the charitable side of Pearson spent years wooing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in hopes the
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Technocratic v. Humanistic Education 3: Contra the Common Core
I am localist when it comes to education. I think parents and teachers know best what is in the interests of the particular children in their care. The main job of principals, superintendents, and legislatures is to support teachers and parents, not to prescribe for them in top-down paternalistic fashion what they think is in
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The Logic behind Vouchers, Charters, and Privatization in General
Today’s American right is an uneasy coalition among libertarian plutocrats and working-class and middle-class whites who depend on Social Security and Medicare and can’t afford to send their children to expensive private schools. The need to win white middle American votes means that the right can’t simply promise to abolish public services, leaving the mass
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Gary Gutting on Humanities Crisis
The point of work should not be just to provide the material goods we need to survive. Since work typically takes the largest part of our time, it should also be an important part of what gives our life meaning. Our economic system works well for those who find meaning in economic competition and the
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Technocratic v. Humanistic Education 2
I wrote on this theme here, but this kid really gets it: See also Patrick Denneen's eloquent speech at Notre Dame against the Common Core. Key grafs: I began by suggesting that it was in the very absence of any national standard for education, and the strong tradition of local control of education, that we
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Seattle’s Two Most Interesting Elections
Washington State has 100% mail-in ballots, so it takes a while to find out who wins in close elections. Sue Peters and Kshama Sawant were in such close elections, and both won. Neither ran as Democrats in a Democrats-dominated town–they ran to the left of the Dem establishment and won despite all the money that