I am beside myself. I am in favor of public schools. I am in favor of state or federal governments funding schools and having regulatory oversight over them. I believe that education is a birthright of every citizen and that governments should take any and all steps possible to protect student rights, to provide educational opportunities…
I am beside myself. I am in favor of public schools. I am in favor of state or federal governments funding schools and having regulatory oversight over them. I believe that education is a birthright of every citizen and that governments should take any and all steps possible to protect student rights, to provide educational opportunities, to support those who value intellectual endeavors and aspire to learning and teaching in schools, and that equality and integration are essential objectives. I am opposed to the scapegoating of teachers or their unions and believe they should be treated as professionals and precious resources.
But, for god’s sake, when are we going to stop using the word “school” and the word “education” interchangeably? This is the precise reason the meddling billionaires and privatizers and the bean-counters and measurement-obsessed freaks who know absolutely nothing about education can persuade people to trash public schools and run from them. We are talking about two completely different things and, as a result, neither is getting us anywhere near where we need to be.
School is NOT, I REPEAT, NOT education. Never has been. Never will be. Never could be, and never should be. Language matters. Words matter. Education is much too important to be left up to technicians, teachers, or neurotic glorified babysitters. And the state definitely has no business whatsoever defining the parameters or dictating how education should be pursued and conducted.
The “world’s best school systems”. What does that mean? How did we come to that conclusion and how do we justify high rates of illiteracy, semi-literacy, rank ignorance and willful ignorance, anti-intellectual crusades, low-information voters, and non-voters, etc., etc.? Well, our schools are better overall than our prisons. I’ll give them that. However, if you were to ask a lot of students in some of our “best” schools, and if they believed they were free to be perfectly candid, they would compare their school experience to prison. But, why would anyone take their opinions to be valid? They are just students. That answers that question, I guess.
I have hundreds of pages in three unpublished books and several articles spelling out how and why our schools suck and how they damage children and undermine democracy. But myths die hard and even the very best debunkers of other scandalized institutions will not give a thought to a realistic assessment of our pathetic schools. I am beside myself. Here, for anyone who cares are a few sources which illustrate my point:
Olson, Kirsten, Wounded by School
Kozol, Jonathan, Shame of a Nation.
Viadero, D. (2011, March 27). IES Seeks Strategies to Rescue 'Chronically' Failing Schools. Education Week.
Villeneuve, J. C., Conner, J. O., Selby, S., and Clark Pope, D., October 28, 2019. “Easing the stress at pressure-cooker schools”. Phi Delta Kappan, 101 (3), 15-19.
Schou, Rebecca A., (2015) Countering Student Apathy to Increase Student Engagement, (Doctoral Study) Walden University.
Stress in America™: Are Teens Adopting Adults’ Stress Habits? American Psychological Association website, Released feb11/2014
Newsweek (1981, April 20). Why the Public Schools are Flunking.
If you don't want them to take away public schooling, then accept the reality that, as they exist, they are a disaster and a threat to our national security. They are too much like prisons because attendance is mandatory and is seen as punishment or paternalistic social engineering. Otherwise, you may as well stop complaining.
I am beside myself. I am in favor of public schools. I am in favor of state or federal governments funding schools and having regulatory oversight over them. I believe that education is a birthright of every citizen and that governments should take any and all steps possible to protect student rights, to provide educational opportunities, to support those who value intellectual endeavors and aspire to learning and teaching in schools, and that equality and integration are essential objectives. I am opposed to the scapegoating of teachers or their unions and believe they should be treated as professionals and precious resources.
But, for god’s sake, when are we going to stop using the word “school” and the word “education” interchangeably? This is the precise reason the meddling billionaires and privatizers and the bean-counters and measurement-obsessed freaks who know absolutely nothing about education can persuade people to trash public schools and run from them. We are talking about two completely different things and, as a result, neither is getting us anywhere near where we need to be.
School is NOT, I REPEAT, NOT education. Never has been. Never will be. Never could be, and never should be. Language matters. Words matter. Education is much too important to be left up to technicians, teachers, or neurotic glorified babysitters. And the state definitely has no business whatsoever defining the parameters or dictating how education should be pursued and conducted.
The “world’s best school systems”. What does that mean? How did we come to that conclusion and how do we justify high rates of illiteracy, semi-literacy, rank ignorance and willful ignorance, anti-intellectual crusades, low-information voters, and non-voters, etc., etc.? Well, our schools are better overall than our prisons. I’ll give them that. However, if you were to ask a lot of students in some of our “best” schools, and if they believed they were free to be perfectly candid, they would compare their school experience to prison. But, why would anyone take their opinions to be valid? They are just students. That answers that question, I guess.
I have hundreds of pages in three unpublished books and several articles spelling out how and why our schools suck and how they damage children and undermine democracy. But myths die hard and even the very best debunkers of other scandalized institutions will not give a thought to a realistic assessment of our pathetic schools. I am beside myself. Here, for anyone who cares are a few sources which illustrate my point:
Olson, Kirsten, Wounded by School
Kozol, Jonathan, Shame of a Nation.
Viadero, D. (2011, March 27). IES Seeks Strategies to Rescue 'Chronically' Failing Schools. Education Week.
Villeneuve, J. C., Conner, J. O., Selby, S., and Clark Pope, D., October 28, 2019. “Easing the stress at pressure-cooker schools”. Phi Delta Kappan, 101 (3), 15-19.
Schou, Rebecca A., (2015) Countering Student Apathy to Increase Student Engagement, (Doctoral Study) Walden University.
Stress in America™: Are Teens Adopting Adults’ Stress Habits? American Psychological Association website, Released feb11/2014
Joyce, C. (2011). ‘Race to Nowhere’ Targets Academic Pressures. MSNBC report. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41744061/ns/nightly_news/t/race-nowhere-targets-academic-pressures/
Karp, S. (2011). Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It? Commondreams.org. Retrieved from http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/28-11
Newsweek (1981, April 20). Why the Public Schools are Flunking.
If you don't want them to take away public schooling, then accept the reality that, as they exist, they are a disaster and a threat to our national security. They are too much like prisons because attendance is mandatory and is seen as punishment or paternalistic social engineering. Otherwise, you may as well stop complaining.