Skip to main content

Winding Down

As the school year slowly grinds to a end, I'm finding less and less time to post entries... I keep on thinking of fantastic entries while driving my car. Unfortunately, death caused by fiery car crash is not on my top ten list, so they've been pushed to side.

A couple of weeks ago, I read Margaret Spelling's inteview on closing the achievement gap. I think it was posted in NYT, (but done on NPR?) but it's been archived, so I'm going off of memory. The comment that made me stop short was one in which Ms. Spellings said something along of the lines of Hispanic mother's questioning their schools as to why their child wasn't achieving as high as other students. The first thing that popped into my mind, was how unRepublican the remark was... isn't the foundation of the Republican party that individuals are responsible for their own success and that the government isn't? Shouldn't this mother be sacrificing something (electricity? - Abraham Lincoln didn't need it) to walk to a public library (supported with private donations from some bleeding heart liberal) and force the child to read instead of letting them play outside? And for that matter, why is this mother letting her child go to a public school? Shouldn't a voucher have been found for a private or charter school?

Does the President realize that his Education Secretary is telling the general public to demand services from the government? What's next? "Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Notes

Books to Read: New Kelly Gallagher   Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions  by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana  Notes for Art: Group Project for the First Day Expectations from group project exit question

“They Don’t Get It”

I hear that a lot these days. It used to be mostly from various teens trying to negotiate the drama unfolding in their lives as they wandered into that no-man’s land between adult and child. These days it’s from adults trying to navigate the education scene these days. So many people talking and no one listening. The other day I was reading a post by a blogger I’ve been following for several years. Before there was such a thing as “blogging.” We all know spring is IEP review season. This blogger wrote about his daughter’s. Among the various elements, there was the discussion about the state assessment tests. She did not pass. There was discussion about what this means… and why said student needed to pass this test. Would she be taking a modified test? While reading, all I could think about was what would happen to that child as she entered middle school and high school. A history of not passing the assessment test vs. teachers who will now be evaluated on how many students pass t...