American Girl Doll Comes with Backpack Including Pearson Math Book!
Play once meant play. Now it means a marketing opportunity for publishing giant Pearson. As blogger Chris Cerrone discovered and Valerie Strauss reported, the popular (and very pricey) American Girl brand has released a new doll that has a little Pearson math book in her backpack. Surely, the workbook is aligned with Common Core!
Raging horse Blog: How Coddled Ate Opinion Writers for New York Times?
The blogger called Raginghorse has noticed some important facts about the opinion writers in the New York Times: Several have written glowing articles about the Common Core standards. None offers any evidence that they have read the standards. All report what the press releases say about the standards. Most ridicule their critics as extremists and pay no attention to parents or teachers, who arg
When Does Schooling Become Psychological Abuse?
In response to an earlier article by psychologists and social workers about abusive tactics in certain schools in Texas, this parent wrote the following comment: Quote from the above article: ” During the same 30 years when A.D.H.D. diagnoses increased, American childhood drastically changed. Even at the grade-school level, kids now have more homework, less recess and a lot less unstructured fre
Parent: Free Our Children from the Dead Hand of Testing
Jeff Nichols and his wife Anne Stone are outspoken critics of standardized testing. They have two children in public school. Here is Jeff’s testimony to the Néw York City Council, in which he eloquently explains why the tide is turning against standardized testing. He speaks on behalf of the values of humane education, creativity, diversity, originality, individuality–now almost forgotten in this
Your Holiday Gift of Humor: Please Read and Enjoy!
Russ Walsh prepared this reform dictionary or field guide with pictures and definitions and source materials. He calls it “The Seven Blind Mice of Reform.” There is a word for this sort of antiquarian dictionary but after a Thanksgiving meal, I can’t think of it. Read and enjoy!
This Blog’s All-Time Most Popular Post, By Far!
Here it is, the most popular post ever posted on this blog. It is called “NC Teacher: I Quit!” When I posted it on October 27, 2012, it recorded more than 66,000 page views on one day. In aggregate, it has been opened on this site alone by more than 250,000 people. It was written by Kris Neilsen. He wrote a book recently called Children of the Core and Uncommon: The Grassroots Movement to Save Our
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 11-30-13 -13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG mark as readDo You Shop at Walmart? Don’t.If you are a parent of public school children; if you care about your local public schools; if you are a teacher or administrator or school board member, you should think twice before shopping at Walmart. The Walton Family Foundation spends nearly $200 million every year to unde