Nancy Bailey here presents a vision of schools that create a new realty and build a better society.
Public schools can bring us together. When children learn to care for each other with tolerance and understanding, they will grow to respect one other as adults. Honor the memory of George Floyd and black citizens who have unjustly died, by reconsidering our past efforts to integrate public schools. One place to start is by reading Gerald Grant’s book, Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There are No Bad Schools in Raleigh.
Learn how, once upon a time, Raleigh brought children together to learn, thereby reducing the gap between the rich and poor.
Vouchers and charters divide. Private schools and charter schools segregate. Remote learning, or learning at home or anyplace anytime, does little to bring students together.
This country needs strong public schools that unite students and families.
Who’s considering how to address the growing racial chasm that, along with the virus, could be America’s undoing? It has been 66 years since Brown v. Board of Education. How have public schools changed?
As we watch the unrest in Minneapolis and around the country, how, after all these years, can America bring students together? How, when Covid-19 separates us, can we find our way back to schools that are better than before? What will public schools be like when this disease is over?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you Nancy Bailey.
We sure do need public schools that unite families and students.
Charters and Vouchers did exactly what they were intended to do … DIS-UNITE and pit people against one another.
This seems to be the RePUG-nican and the DFER way … cause STRIFE and INEQUALITY among schools.
Integrated public schools can provide students with opportunity and understanding. When different types of students work and play together, they learn acceptance. They also learn that they have a lot more in common despite any cultural or economic differences. Integration promotes understanding, and it teaches young people how to function in a diverse world. The only thing I would add to Bailey’s suggestion is that diverse schools also need wrap around services in the buildings to help the poor students and sometimes their families as well.
Most public systems already have schools of choice. New York City offers an array of options for students, not just the highly competitive schools. Other cities have similar magnet schools to serve students’ interests and needs. Public schools offer far more choices than most segregated, one-size-fits-all charter schools. Public school teachers are professionals that are trained to teach in their areas of specialization. Many charter and voucher schools provide facilitators with little direct experience and training in education. Public schools are far more efficient than charter schools that divide resources that ultimately undermine the work that public schools do.
That’s it.
Kudos. To give hope to all children must be a major goal of the future of education. Not a side thought but a major goal.
and surely in this moment of a nation considering specific changes in the hopes of addressing racism, the intention of giving HOPE to all children — rather than giving them the vicious labeling, anxiety and closed schools attached to standardized testing — would be a very worthy goal
My intention is not to distract from Nancy’s important words, but in times like these, we need to remember to laugh at ourselves. If you’re offended by profanity, don’t watch. If you need a good belly laugh, this might help:
That video had me laughing out loud!!
Good day to all. I believe we are at a “printing press moment” on the history of mankind. Just as the printing press technology of that time changed society, a digital device connected to the internet is doing the same today at an exponentially accelerating pace. Legacy institutions and 20th-century thinking and systems are struggling to adapt and keep up. Some say we are moving into a 2nd Enlightenment. This raises the question “what are schools to be?” To answer this we must first look at our definition of community.
IF community is your physical space then your learning and perspective are limited by Zip Code. This reinforces silo and bias thinking. If the community is a virtual place (via the internet) then it is not determined by borders.
COVID-19 is nudging us to the virtual community. Business and industry are already there (Amazon, live streaming, Zoom, Facebook). So, what does this mean for schools and education? I have been writing about this in my blog.
https://growthringsjcc.blogspot.com/2020/05/growth-rings-redesigning-learning.html
Because of COVID-19 Public Schools will be faced with even less funding for the next 3 to 5 years (because of lost tax revenue), teacher shortages will grow, Teacher prep is still turning out teachers with 20th-century dispositions and bias, a “perfect storm” is upon us.
Unlimited potential and opportunities are ahead! Stay tuned.
And think of the profits in store for tech entrepreneurs!
They are already laying their plans to replace teachers with machines.
even less funding, even fewer teachers, but likely the same number of management and admin.
I believe a new business plan is/will emerge. One that values teacher skill and expertise. The old factory model, salary schedule does not recognize or value the skills needed to teach children.
Our current public school system is gripped by local politics and underfunded federal mandates.
Schools are not organized like factories. That’s a tired cliche.
I taught in a public school for over thirty years and never considered my work “factory work.” Calling schools factories is a tool of privatizers, not educators. In fact, sitting in front of a screen all day is the factory version of commercial “education.” The worst part is that students despise it, and it fails most students. Read the research.https://www.educationnext.org/online-charters-mostly-dont-work-forum-virtual-schools-greg-richmond/
“Unlimited potential and opportunities are ahead! Stay tuned.”
Really. Sorry, I can’t help but make fun of that.
“To infinity and beyond!” Stay cheesy retro.
Agree. That is if we allow it to happen.
obviously it doesnt work to assume public school diversity brings the best out in people. It starts in the home and it stays in the home instilled in the child the first few years of their life. I dont mean day care, that fails too. You want nice people who get along? Look to the foundation years, develop your childs mind by attention and encouragement, develop confidence that takes sacrifice, being with your child in the foundation years, a calm environment of love and support.