CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Losing An Hour Edition (3/8)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Losing An Hour Edition (3/8)

 Losing An Hour Edition (3/8)

Surely it's about time to end this whole Daylight Savings baloney. Because as I sit here this morning, it hardly seems worth it.

But here's some reading from the week:

Voucher Programs Undermine Religious Liberty 
The Baptist Joint Committee posts this piece in opposition to voucher programs being used to drain public schools and send money to places like Baptist private schools.

Colonists  
Uncharted is a blog allegedly operated by a former charter school teacher, and it offers some stark and stunning looks at the inside view of charters. This piece is about the realization of a racist system inside the school.

City Fund Spending
The City Fund is the latest organization, featuring many of the same old players, that is out to privatize public schools. Thomas Ultican breaks down some of the organizational and financial connections that are in play for this group. It's not pretty.

No More Middle Ground
Shane Phipps has pretty much had it. This Indiana teacher points out that the legislature just floated a Florida style law that would let charters steal part of the income from a funding levy passed to support public schools.

Trump's Education Policy Is A Chance for Democrats 
Jennifer Berkshire has been traveling in Trump country and noting that his supporters are also big fans of public schools. Will that have implications for the fall election? The Nation has her article.

How The DeVos Rules on Sexual Assault Will Shock Schools  
Betsy DeVos thinks schools and universities are too hard on men accused of sexual assault, and she's about to "fix" that. Politico looks at some of the implications of her coming rules shift.

Betsy DeVos's Problem with Numbers 
DeVos made a visit to the Senate to talk about then budget, and as usual, her talking points included some items that were counter-factual. Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post breaks down the baloney.

100 Years of Teacher Bashing
Have You Heard reminds us that "reform" via shaming and blaming teaches has a long, rich history.

How Will Schools Handle a Pandemic Without Nurses?
Jersey Jazzman crunches some number, builds some charts, and points out that one in five US schools has no nursing coverage. There are details, but the bottom line is that this may not be the best place to be heading into a pandemic.

Black Students Are Being Penalized for their Hair, and That's Bad for Everybody
CNN looks at this issue from the "Wait, Aren't We Living in the 21st Century Filers." An angrifying school trend.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Losing An Hour Edition (3/8)

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The Complexity of Performance Tasks

29by Peter Greene / 1d

It's spring musical season here in NW PA, and I am back in a small way playing in the pit orchestra for a production of Seussical being put as a co-op between my old school and a neighboring high school. This is an annual enterprise I was part of for years. I've been doing school and community theater in a variety of capacities for almost forty years now, and it's still pretty exciting. There real

MAR 05

Schneider's Indispensable Guide To Research

23by Peter Greene / 2d

I call her the indispensable Mercedes Schneider. When I entered the blogosphere, hers was one of the first names I learned, because I kept coming back to her blog to get the information that wasn't anywhere else. I have (I hear) a reputation for cranking out a lot of writing, but Schneider posts almost daily, writes books, and carries a full time teaching load. And her posts are usually the result

New Book Argues Christian Right Worships Power

by Peter Greene / 2d

Katherine Stewart is an author and journalist who specializes in issues surrounding te separation of church and state. She has a new book coming out-- The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism , and a recent interview at Salon captures some of the highlights. It's always interesting to see what happens when someone whose main beat is not education takes a look at e

MAR 04

IN: Child Labor Is Fun

by Peter Greene / 4d

Some legislators in Indiana are boldly taking on one of the great problems of their state-- too many restrictions on child labor. The bill intends, among other things, to do away with the requirement for student work permits for teens. Because the fact that a teenager is flunking high school should not stand in his way when it comes to serving as a useful meat widget for employers. Full day of sch

NWEA Offers More Testing Baloney

92by Peter Greene / 4d

When a system doesn't work, you have a couple of choices-- you can address the problems that are causing failure, or you can insist that the original system is super-duper and start imposing new rules to try to work around the flaws in your original system. Like the latch that doesn't work properly, but instead of fixing the latch, you just teach everybody to lift and push the door to the side to

MAR 03

Civics and History in the Classroom

by Peter Greene / 4d

The teaching of US history has always been... well, not a hot topic, exactly, but always one that is simmering on a back burner. From the occasional reaction to one brand of civic illiteracy or another (no, that's not an actual power of the President) to the eternal complaint that schools are teaching students to hate America , the civic conversation is always drawn back to the question of how the

How Do We Measure Your Turf?

by Peter Greene / 4d

In which I ponder the various ways in which private money plays in the public sphere, how much we should care about them, and why. Preface/Warning This post is probably going to be long and only sort of related to education. It has an audience of roughly two people-- a guy who periodically kicks at my ass on Twitter, and me. He's unlikely to be moved by anything I have to say, and I'm indulging my

MO: Arresting Librarians

200+by Peter Greene / 4d

If you haven't already, read this piece from Nancy Bailey that makes two points with crystal clarity and detailed support: * school librarians are an essential part of teaching reading in school (scientifically or otherwise) * school librarian jobs are being shed in many major cities at an alarming and distressing thoroughness. School librarians are essential, and they are a popular target for the

MAR 02

Free Market Winners and Losers

30by Peter Greene / 5d

One of the foundational arguments of modern ed reform is that free market forces would make education work better, that having to compete would make public and private schools work harder, smarter, better and create a rising tide of educational awesomeness that would lift all boats. This is unlikely for a variety of reasons, but the biggest problem with the free market when it comes to public educ

MAR 01

ICYMI: Making Up My Mind Edition (3/1)

by Peter Greene / 7d

I've held onto the privilege of not having to make up my mind about the Dem race, but more and more I find myself gravitating to Elizabeth Warren. Not perfect, but none of them are. I like her combination of policy, plan and temperament. And the whole smartness thing. Anyway. I figured you were just dying to know. Here's some reading from the week. The Myths of Learning Styles From the Atlantic, a

FEB 28

What Ever Happened To AltSchool?

27by Peter Greene / 8d

You remember AltSchool, the miraculous Silicon Valley technoschool that was going to Change the Game. We've checked in on them from time to time, and it's time to see what has happened since the Altschool ship ran aground on the 

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