Welcoming Mike Klonsky to Bridging Differences
Today, Deborah Meier bids farewell—for now—to Democracy Prep's Robert Pondiscio and introduces her next co-blogger, Mike Klonsky. The blog will take a short break and then return with Mr. Klonsky's first post on Tuesday, April 22.
Dear Robert,
I'll be keeping a little book about topics to argue over when we resume our conversation in the fall. I find myself setting certain articles aside, even now, to pass on to you when we are no longer blogging.
By the way, as an educator my focus was always specifically on my colleagues and the kids in front of me, not the future of the world. Just their specific future. I figured I was paid to be the best advocate for their present and future as I could be—in the role I played.
But if I had chosen to be a librarian, or a lawyer, or a housing expert, or environmental activist, I'd have done the same. Although none by themselves are an answer to the changes that need to be made to give today's children (and my grandchildren and someday great-grandchildren) what they deserve, need, and which we owe them!
And also, I'll send you stuff in coming months—but you are wrong! Just plain wrong. The standards are a curriculum and imply a pedagogy, too. The way they recommend teaching reading places a particular emphasis on a particular approach (close-textual reading, etc). If I disagree? It covers particular events, genres, historical events, scientific principles—out of many more that could be chosen. And it asks the questions in ways that require a particular pedagogy to answer correctly.