This is Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Listen and enjoy. It is vacation time. Give yourself a treat.
Archives for category: Education Reform
You will not see the same number of posts this week. You may see fewer. I am posting at will.
From January 8-29, I will be traveling in Asia, checking a few points off my bucket list, including Angkor Wat in Cambodia. During that period, I will repost a few golden oldies, and I will add new ones when I have internet service.
I will not leave you bereft of conversation and discussion.
While driving, I heard a song from “Hamilton” on Sirius Broadway channel.
The song was King George III singing “You’ll Be Back” to his rebellious colonies.
Do you think it’s time to ask Queen Elizabeth if we can come back?
Note: it is a wonderful show. See it if you possibly can. Road company, whatever.
Ruth Marcus, columnist for the Washington Post, describes her paradoxical view.
“Here, for me at least, is the comforting paradox of the age of Trump: I have never respected a president less, nor loved my country more.
“This sentiment may startle. It may rankle, even. It comes in a week that witnessed the passage of the worst domestic policy legislation of my lifetime, followed by the now ritual but always repulsive lauding of President Trump. First by the Cabinet courtiers summoned for that purpose; next by Republican lawmakers willing to lay it on just as thick — even more nauseating, because they know better than the servile flattery of their words and because they occupy, theoretically anyway, a coequal branch.
“And this patriotic burst comes disconcertingly in a year that has seen the public display of the racist, xenophobic worst that America has to offer. These ugly impulses existed long before Donald Trump’s pursuit of the presidency and will, sadly, outlast him….
“Has there been a more embarrassing year for the United States? Thinking Americans cringe at what foreign countries and their leaders make of us and our president, with his reckless upending of international agreements, his bigoted and poorly executed travel ban, his unashamed ignorance, his reckless tweets, his endless susceptibility to flattery…
“George Washington, in his farewell address, advised fellow citizens to “guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” It is hard not to recall that admonition when listening to Trump’s faux-patriotic posturing against kneeling NFL players and his demand that they show “total respect for our national anthem, for our flag, for our country.”
“Real patriotism would be to recognize, as the Supreme Court did three decades ago in overturning a criminal conviction for burning the American flag, that “we do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.”
“Real patriotism would be not to denounce the “Russia hoax” but to insist that Congress — and for that matter, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — get to the bottom of what happened in the 2016 election and, even more imperative, that the United States strengthen its defenses to prevent future meddling.
“That is the patriotism Trump has awaked, in me and so many others. Because our fundamental fight is not against Trump. It is for America.”
Today is a day to remember Lena Sittig and the Brooklyn Christmas Tree Society.
With the deep poverty and inequality in our society today, it seems that poor children will have to rely on the kindness of strangers rather than those elected to “promote the general welfare,” as the preamble to the Constitution says.
For those who have forgotten, please re-read the Preamle to the Constitution, which places promoting the general welfare right up there with providing a common defense.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
If our society spent as much on establishing Justice and promoting the general welfare as it does on our common defense, we would have a far more perfect Union.
Thanks to my friend Larry Lee in Alabama for sharing this beautiful rendition of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”
Remember your parents and grandparents today. They miss you.
Contrary to what you may have heard from certain politicians, the phrase “Merry Christmas” was never banned. Some stores, out of respect for customers of different religious faiths, use the phrase “Happy Holidays,” and there’s no reason to ban that sign of tolerance.
As a Jew growing up in Houston, my family celebrated Christmas every year. We decorated a Christmas tree, we children woke up at dawn to open our presents. We looked for any evidence that Santa had visited. We didn’t have a chimney but we were sure he brought our gifts. We didn’t attach any religious meaning to Christmas.
Celebrate as you wish. In this country, we have freedom of religion and many religious faiths and traditions.
My wish for this day is that we look inward and find the compassion and heart to fight for a world of kindness, compassion, and justice for all people. Care for others. Life is better for each of us when it is better for all of us.
Instead of sending Christmas greetings to me, do something specific and meaningful. Join the Network for Public Education and support better public schools for all children and families.
Merry Christmas!
Joanne Yatvin has been a teacher, a principal, a superintendent, president of the National Council for Teachers of English, and a literacy expert.
This is her Christmas wish.
As this year ends I have chosen to pretend that I am Santa Claus for public education. I would come into all our public schools carrying a heavy sack, filled with all the goodies that children, teachers and parents need and deserve.
Afterward I’d be so tired that I will have to rest until January 1st 2018, while all of you will be dreaming of the goodies soon to come.
I’d Love to Be Your Santa Claus
By Joanne Yatvin
First of all, I will sweep out all the junk that has been piling up in classrooms for several years. All the test-prep sessions, the tests and their scores, the unreasonable standards, and the negative judgments on schools, students, and teachers that emanated from them will be gone forever.
Next, I will herd together all the politicians, decision makers, and clueless experts who have made the stupid rules for students and schools, and banish them from power once and for all.
Finally, I will erase all the laws that that have hamstrung good teachers and principals for years and allowed decent schools to be shut down because of their low-test scores.
Then, after catching my breath and cleaning the dirt from my hands, I will bring in all the wonderful gifts I have dreamed into existence, and spread them around all public school offices, teachers’ lounges, and students’ classrooms.
Try to envision each gift as I describe it below.
Golden links between each school and its community
Hearty projects growing and blooming in every classroom
Neat Package of well equipped classrooms with no more than 25 students in each one
Sweet tastes of recesses, physical education and interesting classroom activities every day
Endless piles of Gold coins to fund every school
Glowing and strong librarians with books stuffed in their arms
Crowds of well-educated teachers and principals with magic wands in every school
A huge variety of silver-studded classes for students to choose from
Afterward I will jump back into my sleigh and call out “Happy learning to all and to all a good life.”
Patricia Levesque has worked for Jeb Bush for many years. She is his henchperson in promoting Florida as a miraculous story of educational improvement, based on Bush’s beliefs in high-stakes testing, test-based accountability, school report cards, and choice via charters, cybercharters, for-profit charters, and vouchers. The one belief he does not have is that public schools are important and valuable community institutions.
Here she is today, touting Florida as a “national model.” She says that Florida’s accountability system has “paid off” and is a roaring success.
The Bush approach may be briefly summarized as test-test-test, then close or privatize the schools that can’t produce the scores.
Let’s go to the videotape, or in this case, the NAEP scores for 2015.
In 2015, Florida scored at about the national average in 4th grade math but below the national average in 8th grade math.
Nineteen states had higher NAEP scores in 4th grade math than Florida.
Florida students in 8th grade math scored below the national average and were tied with their peers in South Carolina and Nevada.
Forty states had higher scores in 8th grade math than Florida in 2015.
In 4th grade reading in 2015, Florida was just above the national average.
Fifteen states recorded higher scores than Florida in 4th grade reading.
In 8th grade reading in 2015, Florida students were at the national average, tied with North Carolina and Georgia.
Thirty five states had higher reading scores on the NAEP in 2015 than students in Florida.
Why would anyone consider Florida to be a national model?
Why not choose a state like Massachusetts, which is #1 on all of these measures?
Who would choose to follow the practices of a state that scored at about the national average, rather than one of those states that consistently has greater success on the NAEP than Florida?
What Levesque fails to mention is that many states produced higher test scores over the past 20 years, and Florida’s relative position remained about the same. Florida has a policy of holding back third-graders based on test scores, so that probably inflates their 4th grade reading and math scores. The gains of Florida and other states may reflect that unrelenting emphasis on testing, pre-testing, interim testing, etc., which, as Daniel Koretz points out in his recent book “The Testing Charade” produces inflated scores.
If you live in Florida, check the facts before you follow the lead of Jeb Bush, who is trying to protect his “legacy” of high-stakes testing and privatization.
Bottom line: Florida is no national model, unless your goal is mediocrity.
