New York City school chancellor Joel Klein is stepping down to take a job with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and will be replaced with Cathleen Black, chair of Hearst Magazines. Though Black has no experience with education and Klein had none going in, I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense that the current pro-testing, anti-teacher educational fads be administered by executives connected to corporate media, where such nostrums are wildly popular. The irony, though, is that if you had to pick one institution that is a bigger failure at educating the public than the school system, you’d have to pick the industry that Black comes from and Klein is going home to.
I received a great education from Public Schools in the 40’s and the 50’s. My kids did the same in the 70’s,80’s and 90’s. Their kids are getting a great education there now. We produce the finest, best trained and most dedicated teachers in the world. The System is what messes things up, and that’s because there are some mean people out there that don’t want to educate our youth, and we all know the reasons why.
Washington DC had a fantastic school outside the public pale that was setting records for inner city kids.BAM shut it down.Remember His children will never see the inside of any public school as will(not) almost all our legislators children.As the limos leave washington at 5 oclock in an unending stream over the bridge to beatific estates and homes in Virginia, after the children are picked up by their nannies at private schools with manicured grounds, it warms my heart to see them supping together at the family table.Public schools?Something other people do.Nuff said
michael e: when you get near a point, wake me up.
Hypocrites Austin .Damn hypocrites. Short and sweet enough for you.
the Waiting for Suoerman movie never mentioned anything much about how the long term goal of the massively corporate minded groups want to turn public schools into profit making super centers. Even hedge fund mangers are getting in the act. Yes, the topic of the day is the failure of the public schools, so let’s poor money into it in the form of vouchers without trying to discover the failures if there is indeed failures. The movie seemed to say that the problems were caused by bad teachers, bad students, teachers unions, teachers’ tenure, and just public schools in general. But they don’t mention in the movie that the Charter schools they are touting do not do as well as some of the public schools. One thing is certain, engaging all the students individually, reducing class size, equalizing the funds spent on schools primarily of color and white schools would go a long way to help the situation. And to have a drawing for the privilege of going to a better school is preposterous. It is meant to divide students amongst themselves instead of teaching all equally, to bring students together for a common goal of learning.
I went to public schools in Columbia SC. I was also in an orphanage, so being given the same opportunity as the rest of the community helped me to feel a part of something fair. I may have been stigmatized by the orphanage, but I did graduate and later attended a community college(even with student loans, all I could afford was community college). I didn’t know any bad teachers, I did know many unruly students who disrupted things, though. There were some teachers who were better at disseminating information, but all seemed to be educated in their particular subject and acted as though they really were interested in having you learn what seemed to be their love of the class they taught. They seemed to spend a lot of time grading papers and offering suggestions in the margins which was helpful to me, it was a kind of feedback that I was getting. I won’t pretend I liked everything about public education and the whole social network I was in. All it took was a few teachers who took an interest in me personally for me to encouraged in the process.
So, smaller classes, assistants for teachers, good textbooks(hopefully not from Texas, where they are wont to skew the histories to a political slant: read conservative.) The Revisionists formula: even if it may have been radically different than what we are describing and even though we name things and emphasize only that which fits our ideology, just accept our viewpoint and all will be well, and truth be damned.
Oh, and more money for teachers for they deserve to be able to afford an apartment or even a house, surely compensating them would be as important as a person in the House of Representatives should be compensated, House members make about $192,000 annually and some of them have been through college and may have a degree. See, I think if you educate yourself by perservering until you obtain a degree, you should be rewarded. Teachers should never be laid off. An educated populace benefits all of us and public teachers are educated, they’ve used their brain for the accumulation of knowledge. Therefore, let them imbue us with their learning.