What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy.The words were penned by John Dewey for his 1900 work The School and Society. You will encounter...
How to Spark a Social Movement: Thinking Outside the Box
Some "blue sky" thinking about how we could move from where we are after Craig's uplifting review of Arnie Duncan's career. Crossposted from Open Left. What Would a Movement Organization Look Like? Let's imagine, as concretely and pragmatically as possible, what a movement-sparking organization...
Arne Duncan, One Year Later
In December of 2008, President-Elect Barack Obama nominated Arne Duncan, the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, as Secretary of Education. I wrote a blog post containing some predictions of what this nomination might mean for the educational policies of the Obama administration....
Hustle and Flow--and Alfie Kohn
When reformers claim that education scholar Alfie Kohn doesn’t live in the real world, I usually mention the intense Japanese focus, in elementary school, on cohesive and cooperative groups. Since Japan is not only in the real world, but one of our chief national competitors, this is generally a conversation-stopper....
American public schools - still unequal (and racist) after all these years
this has been crossposted on several different blogsIn 1949, Black parents and children filed a law suit against the Board of Education in School District #22 in Clarendon County SC, noting the total inadequacy of facilities which were "unprotected from the elements . . .[with] no appropriate and...
if you care about schools, A Pedagogic Creed worth reading
originally posted at Daily Kos I believe that all reforms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile. If the author of those words is correct in his belief, then the entire thrust...
Standards vs. Criteria....a distinction worth maintaining?
This is a comment on Ken's post about Alfie Kohn's article on national standards, and Barb's comment. This got to be too long to "fit" into the comments, so I decided to make it a post on its on. I agree wholeheartedly with Ken's post (and Alfie's thoughts, mostly). And Barb's distinction between...
Education: Debunking the Case for National Standards - Alfie Kohn
originally posted at Daily KosAlfie Kohn is one of the most cogent critics of much of what goes on in education. He is well known for his belief that eliminating homework and grades will lead to more and better learning. You can explore many of his ideas at his website.He has a piece coming out in...