The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have a quote on their website that says “Nobody knows teaching like teachers.” If they believe that, why don’t they let teachers teach the way they know best? Or, why don’t they ask them what they need to teach better? Instead, Mr. and Mrs. Gates are going to now […]
The POWER of Picture Books v. High-Stakes Testing & Common Core
In 2010, I read an article in The New York Times that both saddened and infuriated me. In “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children” by Julie Bosman we learned about a bookstore in Brookline, MA, a beautiful community surrounded by Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc., where parents were rejecting picture books. They skipped buying […]
Professional Teachers—Click, Click! Poof! You’re Gone!
The attack on teacher education is fast and furious. Privatizing America’s public schools means getting rid of career teachers who support instruction geared to a child’s needs. A way to purge the country of real teachers is to extinguish their teacher education programs and make teaching look like a regimented practice that any drill sergeant […]
Oregon Officials Wonder Why Children Act out: Maybe It’s Because…
They’ve got behavioral problems in Oregon. Kids throwing tantrums, despondence, and there’s plenty of physical aggression to go around. Officials don’t know why. Their data isn’t helping much–and they can’t figure it out–exactly. They know many of the children live in poverty. They might be traumatized due to violence in their lives, and this could […]
Hey Bill & Melinda! Here’s What’s Hard for ELLs
By Linda Chantal Sullivan As I read Nancy Bailey’s blog post, “Challenge to the Common Core King and Queen: Get Involved Really!,” I found myself vigorously nodding my head in agreement. How ridiculous that Bill and Melinda Gates say reforming our education system is the hardest job they’ve ever tackled. I was thinking, “Yeah, you […]
My Dream About EDUCATION and the Democratic (or Republican) Debate
I fell asleep last night during the democratic debate and I dreamt this is how it all unfolded. The scary part was there were no answers to the questions about education when I woke up. In my dream Anderson Cooper said: America’s democratic public schools, how we treat and instruct the next generation, our children, […]
Challenge to the Common Core King and Queen: Get Involved Really!
Bill and Melinda Gates say “Working on reforming the U.S. education system is the hardest job they’ve ever tackled — even more difficult and complex than trying to find a cure for malaria.” Their hardest job? Are they kidding? Sitting in an ivory palace pulling school reform ideas off the top of your head is […]
Learning Matters: The Truth about Our Schools—In England and the U.S.
School privatization is happening around the world. It should come as no surprise that many countries have the same draconian reforms foisted on their public schools like the U.S. I find it interesting to learn how other countries run their schools and the similarities and differences between their systems and ours. Learning Matters: The Truth […]
The Trouble with “Disruption” and its Effect on Children
Disruption has become a popular buzzword in regard to schooling. Education reformers like to say disruption is a good thing—like shaking up a kaleidoscope to get a pretty picture. Never mind that those beautiful little pebbles in the kaleidoscope are real children. Nor is it with certainty that once you shake things up the picture […]
Take the CEO and Policymaker Challenge—Teach A Year in a Poor Public School!
I would like to challenge CEOs and education policymakers, and anyone else who thinks they know best what teachers should do, even though they have never been in a classroom, except perhaps for a few photo opts, to take the teaching challenge. Spend at least a semester teaching in a poor public school, which now, […]