by I’m blogging about education on a law/religion/ethics blog, and I used to teach high school history, economics and government. So I feel more or less obligated to say something about the latest culture war flare up over social studies curriculum standards in Texas.
Read the full postArchive for the 'Mary McConnell' Category
Rob Vischer made the very good point, in response to my previous blog post, that the education debate is too easily reduced to slogans, and that the situation “on the ground” is more complex. He doubts whether national educational directives make much sense. As a former high school teacher I have a lot of sympathy with his position. From the worm’s eye the view is very different indeed. But since our public schools are now thoroughly addicted to federal money, that money will invariably and even necessarily come with strings. Just this week the Department of Education rolled out a proposed new set of strings – a veritable web of strings – in the name of proposed grade-by-grade common standards.
Read the full postAlthough the health care debate continues to suck air from public discussion of almost every other domestic policy initiative, a couple of big education stories did hit the headlines last week.
On March 2 President Obama roiled the American educational establishment when he appeared to laud Rhodes Island school authorities for firing every teacher at Central Falls High School (effective for the 2010-11 school year) after the union rejected a modest set of “turnaround” improvements. These included lengthening the school day by 25 minutes, tutoring students before and after school on a rotating schedule, and – as a former teacher I can’t help wonder if this one was the deal-killer – eating lunch with students once a week…
