What Next for Flint?

Advertising an online school in Flint, Michigan.

Why Schools Can Never Be Expected to Run Like A Business

Diane Ravitch does it again. Schools cannot and should not be run like a business. Read here and here

Also today Diane wrote about Robin Williams performance in Dead Poets Society and aspiring to be the kind of teacher that changes lives and inspires students.

Yesterday she captured the thought process behind high stakes testing, data collection and pseudo accountability. Read the whole article here.

Those with this narrow, self-serving mindset accept that something is true without checking or affirming it. (i.e., Bad teachers are the problem). They claim to have hunches or insights that will correct problems. A woman who typifies this limited thinking is Michelle Rhee. She demonstrates a myopic way of thinking that is not productive. That is, if you threaten and hurt people they will get in line behind your assumptions or get out of your way. Bill and Melinda Gates are part of this way of thinking. If you devise tests that are designed to fail children and their teachers, you will motivate them and purge the profession – or so this tragic way of thinking plays out…..

Read her daily!

There's something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear

But, it's getting clearer...

Sold to the Poor for the Benefit of the Elite

No Summer Soldiers or Sunshine Patriots

Diane Ravitch often posts material from Peter Greene. This seems especially appropriate for the 4th of July.

Education Achievement Authority First Hand

Listen, learn and say, "This will not happen here!"
(Audio only.)

American Culture

Diane Ravitch hits the nail on the head when commenting about how American education policy is to make American classrooms more like Chinese classrooms.

This is the dream of “tiger moms” like Amy Chua and Michelle Rhee, to subject children to higher and higher stakes until they think of nothing other than their test scores.

Sorry, guys, but your dream is not the American dream. The American dream is one where everyone has a fair chance to realize their ambitions, whatever they may be–not just test scores, but in sports, music, or some other endeavor. The American dream celebrates those who tinker, who create, who improvise, who invent new ideas while “messing around” with stuff that interests them. This is the dream that made this country great, not a one-size-fits all examination hell that ranks kids according to the whims of the testing industry.

...At Hengshui, students study from 5:30 a.m. to 9:50 p.m., cannot have cell phones and are allowed just one day of vacation every month. Cameras are placed in each classroom to monitor students for laziness...

Look at Chinese society and culture under this system, totalitarian, high pressure and conformist. This is not what we should be aspiring to nor what we should be subjecting our children to.