Blogging Irresponsibly About Education
Conor Williams has a very smart response up to this post from Freddie deBoer. He touches on a couple things I left out of my own response, but that deserve more discussion. He settles on several concerns, including the absolutist rhetoric that both sides of the education debate take:
Ravitch’s team argues that any upticks in accountability are attacks on teachers and their profession. They defend the status quo without compunction. In response, education reformers double and triple down on the horrifying experience of the “relatively small subset of our public school populations” that happens to consist overwhelmingly of students of color. Throwaway lines like “Of course, everyone knows that teachers in underserved communities are overworked” or “We all agree that all students deserve great teachers” simply don’t count. Real thoughtfulness on education takes more than one sentence.
This is becoming more and more of a concern of mine. I have grown increasingly troubled by the language of