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Monday, January 21, 2013

Diane in the Evening 1-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Diane and Sharon Higgins, a parent activist in Oakland







The Corporate Reform Movement Vs. Dr. MLK

Reader Mike Dixon commented on a post about Martin Luther King Jr.‘s definition of the purpose of education:
A cynical person might suspect that corporate education reform is intended to promote exactly what MLK warned about.


Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the Purpose of Education

Thanks to a reader of the blog for sharing this statement by Dr. King on a matter of concern to us all.
Here is a portion:
“We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to 

EduShyster: If Martin Luther King Were Alive Today….

EduShyster tries to imagine how Martin Luther King, Jr., would react to today’s corporate reform movement in education.
Would he agree with the corporate reformers that poverty is an excuse for bad teachers?
Would he agree that segregation doesn’t matter?
Would he agree that unions are

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Why You Should Send Your Child to the Local Public School by dianerav A reader thought about privatization and offered these thoughts: “Pride in our School.” The idea behind this comes from the community spirit/commitment necessary to sustain public schools. Call it the social contract. In my small, rural northern California community, two threats to the success (dare I say existence) of traditional public education are: No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) and charter schools/school choice. Fortunately, NCLB is... more »