NYC Educator: Am I Growing Senile, or Is Tom Friedman Inadvertantly Pro-Teacher?

NYC Educator: Am I Growing Senile, or Is Tom Friedman Inadvertantly Pro-Teacher?:

Am I Growing Senile, or Is Tom Friedman Inadvertantly Pro-Teacher?

I'm not a big fan of NY Times columnist Tom Friedman. In fact, I'm not a big fan of any NY Times columnist, particularly when they write about education. Recently, even Paul Krugman, my favorite by far, has been whoring himself out writing pro-Common Core nonsense.

Friedman is not without flaw. For example, he writes about the Shanghai secret, presented by a publicity-thirsty government, and almost seems to forget that the other 98% of China is not on display. He's got no problem aping the talking points of Arne Duncan, and like many of his colleagues, can't be bothered with cursory research that would prove him wrong.

But in this piece, looking at the much-ballyhooed PISA scores (for which China submitted only the city of Shanghai), he comes to conclusions I'd never expect from a corporate stooge like Duncan:

So now let’s look at the latest PISA. It found that the most successful students are those who feel real “ownership” of their education. In all the best performing school systems, said Schleicher, “students feel they personally can make a difference in their own outcomes and that education will make a difference for their future.”

It's pretty clear to me that students who see the importance of their studies will perform better. I'm not certain