Education DEFORM and Media Hearing Loss

A wonderful colleague of mine recently pointed out that I may lack patience and that sometimes I have a tough time realizing that it just may take a little longer to get accomplished what clearly needs to be accomplished.

Translation: I see the destructive forces massing against the American public education system and I'm extremely worried about the consequences. I regularly complain that no one is listening and that all the credible critics of the current reform movement may be wasting their time writing to each other. In fact, I'm convinced that unless something changes dramatically, the end of public education in America is inevitable.

• Was Gerald Bracey wrong when he helped us understand how statistics in public education are manipulated for political purposes?
• How many lectures and invited talks does Diane Ravitch have to do before someone actually hears what she's saying?
• When will Deb Meier be taken seriously when she talks about the power of small democratic schools?
• Does Alfie Kohn really need to continue to point out the lack of research supporting the current high standards movement?
• How much more research does Linda Darling-Hammond have to produce that demonstrates that teacher education works?
• Why is it so hard for people to believe Steven Krashen's reporting about the failure of so-called high school exit exams?
• How many blogs does Anthony Cody have to write about a system that devalues public schools and teachers?
• When are people going to give Bill Ayers the credit he deserves for struggling for decades to elevate teachers and teaching to its well-deserved place of prominence?
• When will Valerie Strauss's education pieces get a chance to move the American public?
• How hard is it recognize the ability of Rick Ayers to use an analogy in describing how single metrics and MBAs damage public schooling?
• Why is Shaun Johnson's description of the "ruinous culture" of high-stakes testing only talked about on a local AM radio station in central Pennsylvania?
• When will more people read Anne Geiger's blog?
• Why is Fair-Test not regularly cited in mainstream media when discussions of education reform focus exclusively on achievement tests?
• And maybe most importantly, when are parents going to be listened to?

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Oprah, etc. please do your job! Stop elevating and glorying Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates. Arnie Duncan, Teach for America, vouchers, charters and school choice. Do your homework and look at the above list of experts. Read their research and commentary and try to "hear" what they are saying. As Diane Ravitch recently commented, "there are children's lives and futures at stake."

 

Follow Timothy D. Slekar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/slekar

Comments

[TFT]

02:35 PM on 02/28/2011

Nicely done.

[Claudia Swisher]

08:21 PM on 02/04/2011

I appreciate your rapid-fire questions...You've cited many of my heroes. Thank you...reposting. We need to keep asking questions...Things in OK are getting downright toxic. We need to stay on message as you have here...thank you.

[smartchoices]

06:42 AM on 02/03/2011

Thank you! These are my thoughts, exactly. It is imperative that we all keep imploring our elected leaders and the media to hear the canaries in the coal mines - Diane Ravitch, Linda Darling-Hammond, Stephen Krashen, etc. We teachers on the front lines know that our schools are being destroyed by Arne Duncan and his corporate friends - Blaming the unions and tenure and seniority is a diversionary tactic to keep people from seeing what is being taken from our students - any chance of learning authentically as individuals. Thank you for speaking up! I hope Shaun is right and we can somehow join a movement to make people aware of what is really happening.

[Shaun Johnson]

11:22 PM on 02/02/2011

Wow man, you've pretty much covered it here. Let us keep the heat on and start the revolution. Oh, and thanks for the link there.

[Timothy D. Slekar]

07:39 PM on 02/03/2011

The trick will be how to keep the heat on and sustain the revolution.

[Shelley Gordon]

02:40 AM on 02/05/2011

Wish I knew the magic words. How long do you think we have to turn the tide?

[shaugland]

03:40 PM on 02/02/2011

I've been saying this for a while. The end is coming and the only thing that will stop it is a movement among teachers refusing to follow the destructive directives that the non-teachers in government are blindly putting in place. Refuse to subject students to ridiculous amounts of testing. Refuse to give homework because the administration tells you students should have homework. Instead, inspire students to think for themselves and value their creativity. We cannot possibly know what the kindergartners of 2011 will encounter in the job market of 2030, but we can prepare them for it by teaching them to be critical thinkers. Sadly, teachers who cannot think for themselves cannot possibly teach their students this one all-important skill.

[Shelley Gordon]

02:42 AM on 02/05/2011

I don't think that plan will work.

[changing]

01:54 PM on 02/02/2011

We need to call, twitter, and email the media constantly and demand they put real educators on the news. We must march and protest vocally all of this deform. We must find, support, and work for candidates who support public education. Not one vote, one volunteer hour, one penny to candidates of either party who are destroying public education.