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."