We 'Choose' for Poor Children Every Day
Deborah Meier continues her blog correspondence with Robert Pondiscio today.
Dear Robert,
I'm in complete support of the title of your letter last Thursday. "Running the wrong race" is precisely at the heart of the problems we face—you and me both.
I get confused at times about who "we" are. The businesses that are leading the current school reform drive in education have invested in the whole world—they have no stake in "beating" this or that country. They will do well regardless. Many even live abroad in mansions here and there around the world. They have no particular roots, loyalties to this town or that, except affection for their place of birth, perhaps. If they do have loyalties, they are completely a matter of choice. The "race" to beat x or y is being run mostly by our most vulnerable children, who have become a larger and larger slice of our nation.
We tell 5-year-olds they better get down to business or else they'll never have a job, and certainly not one that pays a living wage. And jobs that once were done by folks with less than a high school education now require B.A.s. (This fact strikes close to home.)
Meanwhile, we all know (or think we know) that the good spots go either to exceptional geniuses or