Schools Matter: Petrilli's polemic against Alfie Kohn: Half-reactionary, half-mendacious

Schools Matter: Petrilli's polemic against Alfie Kohn: Half-reactionary, half-mendacious:

Petrilli's polemic against Alfie Kohn: Half-reactionary, half-mendacious

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"What a teacher can do – all a teacher can do – is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with..." — Alfie Kohn

With a shameful broadside against the esteemed Alfie Kohn, Fordham's Michael Petrilli demonstrates once more why he's the darling of The Hoover Institution and all the other fringe-right think-tanks. I don't know what I found more disturbing about Petrilli's recent piece: the endless parade of straw-men he marshals, or his constant allusion to long discredited meritocracy myths.

What made me retch was this passage: "...KIPP network, which boast high student achievement and a well-rounded curriculum." As someone who writes alongside professors