THE BECOMING RADICAL
EMPATHYEDUCATES!
the becoming radical
A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness
by
How Not to Panic When Your Toddler Sounds a Little Racist
Generic image | THINKSTOCK By Jenée Desmond-Harris | Originally Published at The Root. February 26 2014 1:00 AM “My 3-year-old daughter attends preschool at a public charter in Washington, D.C. The school draws students citywide through a lottery system and is very diverse (a black plurality, with […]
What D.C. Schools are Doing Right – and How to Make it Better
By Valerie Strauss | Originally Published at Washington Post Answer Sheet. February 27, 2014 There is a lot to celebrate about the pre-kindergarten program in the D.C. public schools. In fact, some aspects of the program are so strong that school officials would be smart to borrow […]
FEB 27
CPS: Expulsion Rate Higher at Charter Schools
Photograph; Chicago Public Schools released data on Tuesday showing privately-run charter schools expel students at a vastly higher rate than the rest of the district. (Posted on: February 26, 2014) By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Alex Richards | Originally Published at Chicago Tribune. 7:23 a.m. CST, February […]
A Brief Meditation on Choice
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. February 27, 2014 Deborah Meier reminds us that “one can’t ’choose’ to be the children of the wealthy,” adding later: You and I—or some other somebodies—are deciding the future of “other people’s children” [hyperlink added] […]
FEB 26
Hundreds of CPS Students Refuse to take Annual ISAT Test
CPS parent and More than a Score member Cassandra Creswell speaking at this morning’s press conference. | Hannah Lutz/Sun-Times By Hannah Lutz | Chicago Sun Times. February 25, 2014 1:21PM Hundreds of CPS students from 25 schools are refusing to take their annual state achievement test next […]
Are Schools Asking to Drug Kids for Better Test Scores?
Photograph; Drugs don’t ‘cure’ a disease called ADHD, the way that antibiotics cure pneumonia. Getty Images By Alison Gopnik | Originally Published at Wall Street Journal. February 21, 2014 In the past two decades, the number of children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has nearly doubled. […]
FEB 24
DangerousBlackKids: Where Do You Stand?
On Saturday, February 16, 2014 a Jacksonville, Florida jury declared it impossible to come to a unanimous decision. Michael Dunn, a forty-seven year old white man who admits to shooting Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African American, was ultimately convicted but not on the charge of first-degree murder. […]
This Is Your Brain on Poverty: What Science Tells Us About Poverty
(Photo: Franco Folini / Flickr) By Christian Exoo and Calvin F. Exoo | Originally Published at Truthout. | Truthout | Op-Ed February 22, 2014 09:19 Talking about poverty and inequality is all the rage these days. President Obama wants to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an […]
FEB 23
For Whites Only – Students and Teachers Matter
Teacher Linda Robinson works on algebra with students, left, Alicia Varney and Savannah Reed, both 16, at Union County’s Porter Ridge High, one of the schools that logged a strong performance on new state ratings of teacher effectiveness. Davie Hinshaw — dhinshaw@charlotteobserver.com Introductory Essay By Betsy L. […]
South Carolina and Common Core: A Next Step?
Oran P. Smith, a senior fellow at Palmetto Policy Forum, introduces in The State a new report on Common Core from the conservative think tank: After the hearing, I concluded that John Hill of the Alabama Policy Institute had it right when he wrote: “Although both sides of the Common Core debate make arguments worth consideration, both the potential benefits and pitfalls related to Common Core have
FEB 27
A Brief Meditation on Choice
Deborah Meier reminds us that “one can’t ’choose’ to be the children of the wealthy,” adding later: You and I—or some other somebodies—are deciding the future of “other people’s children” [hyperlink added] unless we provide ways for “them” to have a voice, a vote, and the resources to decide their own future. We need to restore a better balance between local communal life (with its power to eff
FEB 26
“Hunting Scapegoats”: WWII Literacy Crisis and Current Education Reform
“Historians often mention World War II as a time when expectations for schooling and literacy really took off,” explains Deborah Brandt, “when what was considered an adequate level of education moved from fourth grade to twelfth grade in a matter of a few years” (p. 485). National concerns about literacy can be traced to literacy tests for soldiers in WWI, when 25% of recruits were deemed illitera
FEB 25
Ralph Ellison, a Century: From Unseen to Misseen
With his Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison’s narrator announced on the first page: “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Ralph Ellison – March 1, 1914 – April 16, 1994 And with this novel, the ironies become so layered that “irony” likely isn’t sufficient. Many see only Invisible Man when they hear Ellison’s name. And Ellison’s entry into the exclusive and mostly white a
FEB 24
True Detective: It’s Still a Man’s (Hostile) World, pt. 2
I started to say True Detective (HBO original series) is gold ore and then to pursue a metaphor of finding something of value in an impure original form. But one of the two main characters is named Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) so I will say instead, True Detective is iron ore and we can find something of value—something tarnished, yes—in an impure original form. I want to start with the tarnis
Knowledge: Not If, but How (and Who Decides)
As I have posted before, progressivism and whole language have a long history of being blamed for failure when in reality neither has been practiced in any substantial way by teachers. While school policies and classroom practices have remained committed to traditional approaches and behavioral groundings, it is likely more accurate to describe schooling in the U.S. as dominantly bureaucratic—ofte
FEB 23
remnant 56: “thus I, for example, in the midst of my unhappiness”
remnant 56: “thus I, for example, in the midst of my unhappiness”.