Big Education Ape: KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/keep-up-catch-up-with-diane-ravitchs.html
The National Education Policy Center posted this notification about #ScholarStrike, inviting higher education professionals to speak out together against racial violence and injustice. I joined. Will you? Today and tomorrow, scholars at colleges across America will follow in the footsteps of the NBA, Major League Baseball and celebrities in speaking out against racial violence and unjust policing
New York City’s vaunted Success Academy, which boasts the highest test scores in the state, the highest teacher turnover rate, and very likely the highest student attrition rate (unsure because unreleased by city authorities), has announced that it will be all-remote until at least January. Success Academy is famed for its strict no-excuses policy and its readiness to eject any student who does n
Laura Chapman read Andy Hargreaves’ provocative article about the educational technology we will need in the future, and she responded with this comment: Andy Hargreaves says: “We need to create conditions for technologically enhanced learning that are universal, public and free to those who need it.” Yes. But that is unlikely to happen in the United States, even if available elsewhere. In our ma
Victoria Theisen Homer writes in Salon about the ways that remote learning distorts and devalues human relationships. She writes: Think of your favorite teacher. Whenever I ask people to do this, they usually tell me about a teacher who saw them: the one who took them aside and encouraged them to pursue art or computer science, who helped counsel them through a personal issue, who attended their
One lesson learned since March is that remote learning is a very inferior way to conduct school. Students are bored, and teachers are frustrated. Distance learning may be necessary but it’s a poor substitute for in-person learning. Gayle Greene writes in The American Prospect about the bonanza struck by EdTech due to the pandemic. As she shows, EdTech has a shabby history in the classroom but now
From Garrison Keillor’s “The Writers’ Almanac”: The Blitz began on this date in 1940. “Blitz” comes from the German word “Blitzkrieg,” which means “lightning war.” Germany had successfully invaded France, and now Hitler was determined to conquer Britain as well. The German Luftwaffe, or air force, had been engaging the Royal Air Force for a few months, but without much success. Hitler changed his
Eleven years ago, an airline pilot named Captain Sully Sullenberger had to carry out an emergency landing with a flight filled with 155 passengers. He couldn’t make it to the airport, and he coolly landed his plane in the center of the Hudson River, smack dab in New York City. The craft was soon surrounded by small boats that ferried the stunned passengers to land. Not a life was lost. Captain Su
Bob Shepherd writes a segment for Rod Serling in “The Twilight Zone”: INT. OVAL OFFICE – DAY Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Camera back to reveal Rod Serling standing D.R. SERLING His name, Mr. Little. A man with little education, little taste, little knowledge, little concern for other people. Neglected as a child, he grew into a black hole of neediness. And so he used Daddy’s money to
Peter Greene has been following the career path of Rebecca Friedrichs , a teacher who became the face of anti-unionism. Friedrichs lent her name to a Supreme Court case that didn’t get decided (it was eventually superseded by the Janus case, whose attempt to defund the teachers’ unions won in the Supreme Court but has thus far not defunded the teachers’ unions. I have often heard the rightwing cr
Trump and Barr have warned about the dangers of a group called “Antifa.” I had never heard of them and don’t know anyone who belongs to this group. I did a small amount of digging and learned that Antifa means “anti-fascist.” That confused me. How can it be wrong to be anti-fascism? Hitler and Mussolini were fascists. We fought a world war from 1941-1945 to save the world from fascism. During Wor
People who work for a living count on the fact that when they retire, they will have Social Security. They pay taxes to fund the Social Security fund, and they deserve what they have paid for to protect them from living in poverty
