StickWithANose

I’d like to apologize to readers [all 20-30 of you!] for my recent excursions beyond education policy and issues related to schooling [my areas of expertise], but this week’s news offers us some perspective on the Orwellian state of public discourse that impacts everything in our society, including debates over public education.
Yesterday, I posted on [...]

The very serious thinkers running our Banana Republic are all aflutter today over the AP/Stanford University poll which finds that a large majority of Americans think we should make it easier to fire ‘bad’ teachers and pay ‘good’ teachers better wages. Couple of points: First, the take away from this poll is that 30 years [...]

In the first episode of The Corporation, the film-makers construct their analysis on the question: If a corporation is a legal person then what kind of person is it? To answer the question they do a “psychological profile” that leads to the conclusion that the modern corporation is a psychopath. Perhaps it is time to [...]

Through the course of my research, I’ve reached the conclusion that the primary task of public schooling should not be to impart a fixed curricular package of ‘knowledge’ but should instead be focused on imparting the skills required to build knowledge. It is no small distinction. If I had my way the primary goal of [...]

With regard to education policy, I’m reaching the point of saturation and despair. The same old characters are pitching the same old policies, and the same old media personalities repeat the same old slogans and message frames without ever bothering to do their job. However, looking around at the rest of Bananamerica doesn’t instill much [...]

As Larry Cuban and countless other educational historians have noted, there has been a common thread running throughout public debate over public schooling since its creation over a century ago… There has always been well-organized groups seeking to reform the institution, and they have sought to do so by fostering a common belief that public [...]

Corporate Reform Action Pack! [h/t]
I’ll be traveling this weekend… posting will resume on Monday!

As a follow-up to my previous posts on the publication of the Point study on teacher incentives and the attempt by noted think-tank intellectual Matthew Yglesias to polish that turd, I want to share with you a very small example of how incestuous the world of philanthropist funded think-tanks and policy centers really are. Yglesias [...]

I’ve taken issue with the Krug-man on many occasions, however his most recent commentaries on the political economy of contemporary America have been simply brilliant. In today’s column, he sums up the zeitgeist of our political discourse concisely and accurately.
The spectacle of high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people, wallowing in self-pity and self-righteousness would [...]

Just when you think that public discourse on education couldn’t get any crazier the Texas Board of Education comes through with another round of the stupid… TPM
The Texas Board of Education, whose decisions can set textbook standards for the entire country, is now trying to take on the “Muslim propaganda” in world history [...]