If the answer is yes, please come to one or both of the two
sessions where I am speaking on April 3. I will give the
John Dewey Society lecture at the
Convention Center, 100 Level, Room 114, from 4-7 pm. (Lots of time
for discussion). My topic: “Does Evidence
Matter?” Fair warning: The room holds only 600
people. Before the Dewey lecture, I will join Philadelphia parent
activist Helen Gym and Carl Grant of the University of Wisconsin
(chair) in a special Presidential session from 2:15 to 3:45,
on the same level in Room 121B The
title of the session is: Rising to the
Challenges of Quality and Equality:
The Promise of a Public
Pedagogy If you join me at the early session,
you will have to race with me to the lecture, and the room may be
full.
A site to discuss education and democracy
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Diane,
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the conference. I’m sure you will have a lot of very important things to say about how evidence is ignored or distorted and abused by the “reformers” with whom you and I both disagree. But, I am obliged to ask you about the incontrovertible evidence that, long before this latest crop of educrats came on the scene, the record of the public schools was pathetically awful. Many of the things I’ve seen on your blog convey a belief that one should just pretend that none of the millions of severe criticisms of the public systems have any significance and that the reforms proposed now are not variations on changes proposed or tried for generations in response to shocking conditions and failures. If you can ignore the preponderance of evidence that a totally different paradigm is necessary yesterday, why can’t they ignore your opinions and evidence?