Who Do We Ally With?
Deborah Meier's conversation with Mike Klonsky continues today.
Dear Mike,
You're right. I'm wrong. Blogs should be short and sweet (or nasty). I see I've corrupted your style with mine. (This refers, readers, to a phone conversation Mike and I had about the proper form of blogging, which I have a hard time with.)
So, I woke up this morning and tossed out my thoughtful original response, and here's an off-the-top-of-my-head alternate reaction, written after reading the latest issue of Education Week (which sponsors this dialogue).
The rapidity with which so-called school reform is moving—without any democratic input, much less input from those who are most affected—is indeed scary! There's not even some phony rhetoric about democracy anymore. And its "job preparation" jargon is completely phony as well. There aren't enough good paying jobs for the currently "well-schooled," regardless of their academic majors. To keep wages from slipping back further (as profits move up) we're watching our democracy slip backward as well. It's truly a "counter-revolution" we're witnessing—with changes undertaken that will be hard to reverse.
Of late, teaching is not a field I'm comfortable seeing my grandchildren or their friends entering. But ... that's too hard for me to acknowledge. But, in fact, more than teaching is at stake. So. How do we fight them?
I'm for making every damned coalition necessary—even if it means switching allies now and then—to slow this down. And that means simultaneously building a movement on behalf of education of, Who Do We Ally With? - Bridging Differences - Education Week: