As I discussed earlier, Senate President John Cullerton has chosen a different path in going after state employee pension benefits than his cohorts in the House leadership.
Cullerton believes that a frontal assault will only waste time and money in years of court battles.
Following the old notion that you catch more flies with honey than crap, Cullerton wants to come up with a
by Anthony Cody, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Anthony Cody worked in high-poverty schools in Oakland, California, for 24 years. For 18 of them, he taught middle school science. He now lives in Mendocino County and leads workshops for teachers. He writes the Living in Dialogueblog and you can follow him on Twitter at @AnthonyCody.
We are now three decades into a huge effort to improve our schools using standards and tests. This project has become the status quo, but it has failed to live up to its promise. I spent the past 24 years teaching science in an urban school district, where I experienced this all first-hand. The students that were supposed to be served are still being “left behind.”
Let’s take a look at some of the big ideas that have become the status quo in education, contrasted with what I believe to be more meaningful reforms.
Status quo reforms promise that schools or teachers alone can eradicate the
We are studying WWI, and I was sharing photographs, quotes, and information particular to Delaware during that era. The text
touched on segregation, and we were sidetracked into a lively discussion. My students find segregation unfathomable, they can’t wrap
their minds around the fact that your skin color determined your place in the world.
One little girl , whose Dad is biracial said, “My Dad said you can’t be part black or part white. What are you going to do, split yourself down the middle?” They make you think. Which is why I was so surprised by the statement she made later, while we worked in our small group.
We were reading a Sioux myth, and one of the students said it was an Indian myth. I asked them what is another name used for Indians, and after a few incorrect answers, the same little girl yelled out “Dotheads!” My jaw dropped, but I quickly recovered because of the
