They took all the trees And put them in a tree museum And they charged all the people A dollar and a half to see ’em Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘Till it’s gone They paved paradise And they put up a parking lot ~Joni Mitchell, Big […]
How DeVos & Co. Use Special Ed. to Privatize Public Schools and End Student Services
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her corporate friends are about dumping civil rights protections regarding IDEA. Special education has become a means to transform public education into choice and charter schools while ending student services. This is done by defunding special education and convincing parents that services don’t matter. Dismantling services in public schools shouldn’t be allowed. […]
How School Reformers Try to Convince Us You Can Fly a Plane Without a Real Pilot
Spending time studying how to teach and how children learn has been replaced with fast-track programs that breed future workers. These people know little about children, but they follow the script. They will keep children focused on their computer lessons, and collect data on their progress. It’s like getting on a plane and learning the […]
Who Arne Duncan is Today Speaks To His Past Role as Education Secretary
Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently stepped away from his ventures to discuss his new book How Schools Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success from One of the Nation’s Longest Serving Secretaries of Education. Few teachers were impressed with Duncan in this role. He never worked in a school. He’d never been a […]
The Short Rise and Faster Fall of Special Ed. in the State of Michigan
If Michigan eliminated our state-imposed special education rules, other states’ would fall like dominoes. I could not let that happen. Not without waging a war on the MDE [Michigan Department of Education] and anyone working to deny children with disabilities an education, and hope for a future of independence, and access to the American Dream. […]
Class Size and Its Impact on Inclusion
Parents want teachers to address their child’s individual needs. Teachers want this too. They want to be able to work with and understand the students they teach. They especially want to help the students in their classes who have exceptional differences. This is difficult to do when class sizes are too large. If elementary teachers […]
America’s Students are Brilliant! The Cynics Can No Longer Claim Otherwise!
Beyond the sadness over the terrible event at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, still unimaginable, there was something that stood out last week. America’s kids are smart! Really smart! They’re smarter than the school reformers who have said ugly things against them for years! President Trump referred to public schools in his Inaugural Address as an education […]
Liking Those We Don’t Like: The Dissonance Involved with Supporting Public Schools
Most teachers see the good in everyone. They go into teaching because they care about children, and they take what happens in life personally. They are usually defiantly protective of their turf. Many years ago, I started out disliking the late Benjamin O. Canada, who was superintendent of Atlanta and one of the first school leaders […]
Destroying Special Ed: Sliding Backwards in Time
Serious changes are occurring when it comes to special education. This post is an attempt to tie recent events together. Under the Trump administration, the Education Department said Friday, it’s rescinding 72 guidance documents to “alleviate unnecessary burdens” and get rid of “unnecessary regulation” having to do with special education and rehabilitation. They seem to […]
What’s Behind the Obsession with Kindergarten Readiness?
When I was in kindergarten, I had one line in a little play. I said, I am Patrick Potato and this is my cousin, Mrs. Tomato, and I heard laughter. I wanted to be an actress from that moment on. ~Doris Roberts, American actress, author and philanthropist. Raymond’s mom on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. […]