Education: Five Unconscionable Public Education Practices
It is a scenario that I just don’t want to believe because it affirms my (our!) worst impressions of public education for the poor in America. This post has everything you would expect from a massively flawed and inertial monolith: a system failed, a bureaucracy corrupted, teachers subverted, and young people disserved. It has all […]
Read MoreTechnology: N.E.I. is the New T.M.I.
One of America’s most cherished rights is citizens’ right to privacy, as former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun noted, “the right to be let alone.” Passions are stirred by debates about the right to privacy and it has become a political hot potato in recent years due in part to the domestic wiretapping controversy, identity […]
Read MoreParenting/Education/Politics: Should Bad Parenting Be a Crime?
Hey, it wasn’t my idea; a commenter raised the question in response to a recent blog post in which I argued that bad parenting is the number-one cause of failing students and failing schools and, consequently, the best point of intervention for public education reform. But it is an intriguing idea. Now, you may be […]
Read MoreEducation: Stanford Charter School Fails to Make the Grade
How much more evidence do we need before we conclude that charter schools aren’t the panacea for America’s public education woes that so many believe them to be? If you missed the story last week, a charter school created and administered by Stanford University’s renowned Department of Education had its charter revoked by the local […]
Read MoreEducation: Stop Blaming the Teachers!
When did teachers become the bêtes noir of public education? Why are they getting all the blame for America’s public education failings? Everywhere you look, people are piling on teachers as if they are at the root of all that is bad in our public education system. Even President Obama has gotten in the act, […]
Read MoreEducation: Failing Students, Not Failing Schools
We’ve been hearing a lot about public education reform lately; No Child Left Behind is up for reauthorization and the Race to the Top is one of President Obama’s top policy initiatives. But all this talk about reform is not really about public education. “Public education” is a code phrase for education for the poor […]
Read More