If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
If we don't prepare all of our children today to be the leaders of tomorrow, our entire economy will suffer. We cannot be indifferent to those held back most by the painful inequality in our country; if we are, it will be the downfall of this great nation.
One in five children now lives in poverty, up from 17% in 2000. This is an increase of 2.4 million children. These are not just statistics. They are real children, waking up hungry and suffering.
Without support and buy-in from the school community, i.e. teachers, parents, and students, these turnaround initiatives are nothing more than a well-intentioned rearrangement of furniture.
The work that Teach For America does to supply these transformational classroom leaders has made reform possible in places written off by many in the education field.
They command six-figure salaries. No, we're not talking rock stars, pro athletes or even pro coaches. We're talking school superintendents.
The current crowd of education reformers like to dismiss any of us who disagree with their agenda as "defenders of the status quo." Nothing could be further from the truth.
Salazar and Locke should definitely take a page from the playbook of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. As the guy who once ran Chicago's schools, Duncan knows we're a nation of dummies.
Let's face it, when you count your blessings this year the first thing that springs to mind is not going to be the New York state legislature. Still, there's lots in New York to give thanks for.
No child should feel unsafe on their walk to school. If we are to turn around struggling schools, we owe this issue a bit of attention. Our children's lives and futures depend on it.
The Lottery is not a poor cousin of Waiting for 'Superman'. In some respects it's a purer and more honest film, ferocious in its anger.
Thousands in Harlem are about to lose their green space to the construction of yet another charter school.
I can't help but wonder if it isn't an intentional Catch 22 that some people are trying to trap our public schools in: setting them up to fail, making it impossible for them to be creative or independent.
At the moment, it is fair to say that the jury is still out on the Harlem Children's Zone. There are things that they do well, but it is not a resounding success as media, such as Waiting for 'Superman', will lead us to believe.
There's no silver bullet that will magically (and quickly) cure all of our educational woes. Real reform, which is to say meaningful and lasting reform, happens incrementally much of the time.
The stereotype of the cowering, twitchy home-schooler who wears his T-shirts tucked far, far into his too-blue jeans and never really learned how to shake someone's hand and say, "Hi, nice to meet you," is getting old.
Superman is not a teacher, not a charter school, not a principal, superintendent or a mayor. He is all of us -- students, teachers, principals, parents, communities, businesses and government.
There's a new scarlet letter in town. Actually, it's the...
