A Progressive and a Conservative Find Common Ground Opposing the Common Core
In recent months I have written about the growing opposition to the Common Core, from across the political spectrum. I recently connected with two citizens who embody this, and asked them to share their very divergent backgrounds, and the describe how they have found agreement in regards to the Common Core.
I am Paul Horton. I am a life long Democrat who attended public schools and a public university, Texas at Austin. I come from an Alabama populist family descended from Quakers originally from the area around Nottingham. I am related to Judge James E. Horton (Scottsboro Boys) and Myles Horton (Highlander Folk School). My grandfather, a rural superintendent of schools, had a cross burned on his lawn for firing the county's high school principal, the leader of the Klan in the county.
I am a Progressive Educator who has read all of his John Dewey and who has sought to live up to the idea of creating "a Laboratory for Democracy" in my classroom. I am a strong proponent of inquiry-based learning that requires students to read entire books, challenging articles, and produce analytical essays and research papers.
Although learning facts is a part of the process of teaching students to become historians, citizens who question authority, and adults who can work together to solve difficult problems; like Dewey, I believe that Education must be a part of building a larger vision of who we are and what we should become.
I have taught for thirty years in virtually every kind of school. I began my teaching career in a recently integrated rural Texas middle school. I then taught for five years in a large urban high school in San Antonio's West side
I am Paul Horton. I am a life long Democrat who attended public schools and a public university, Texas at Austin. I come from an Alabama populist family descended from Quakers originally from the area around Nottingham. I am related to Judge James E. Horton (Scottsboro Boys) and Myles Horton (Highlander Folk School). My grandfather, a rural superintendent of schools, had a cross burned on his lawn for firing the county's high school principal, the leader of the Klan in the county.
I am a Progressive Educator who has read all of his John Dewey and who has sought to live up to the idea of creating "a Laboratory for Democracy" in my classroom. I am a strong proponent of inquiry-based learning that requires students to read entire books, challenging articles, and produce analytical essays and research papers.
Although learning facts is a part of the process of teaching students to become historians, citizens who question authority, and adults who can work together to solve difficult problems; like Dewey, I believe that Education must be a part of building a larger vision of who we are and what we should become.
I have taught for thirty years in virtually every kind of school. I began my teaching career in a recently integrated rural Texas middle school. I then taught for five years in a large urban high school in San Antonio's West side