The staff of the Curmudgucation Institute home office are on the road for a corporate retreat in Maine. Internet access is spotty there. Also, I am told that sometimes people actually vacation by stepping away from social media. Most years I pre-create some content (usually some greatest hits compilations) but this year I just didn't pull it off.
So tonight we're in a motel in Bennington, Vermont, and tomorrow, we'll finish the trip to a camp that my grandfather, a general contractor, first built way back in the day. I'll be back in ten days or so, unless something happens and I just can't bite my tongue. Pass the time with the very smart people listed on the right. See you soon.
The Single Biggest Scourge of Education ReformPrivatization? Profiteering? Vouchers? Charters? Teacher-proof classrooms? High-stakes testing? No, these issues, in their worst forms, all have their roots in the same soil, the same fertile ground from which all rotten education fruit grows. Amateurs. The current flap flying under the banner of critical race theory panic is just the freshest example of people who really, truly don't understand
Is Teaching About Control?I knew I was going to hate this piece as soon as I read the first sentence. In their training, teachers are taught to control the classroom. This piece appeared on NBCThink, a kind generally guest op-ed page the website runs. It was written by Peshe Kuriloff , who is a retired professor of education who is now a self-employed consultant. She's got a BA and an M.Ed from Harvard and a PhD from Bryn
A Systemic TaleThey hated tall people. They were the ruling class in this country, and they were all 5 feet tall or shorter. There were tall people among them, mostly as servants or laborers, because the short ruling class hated them and barred them from the same kind of freedoms that the short rulers enjoyed. This was reflected in many aspects of their society, including the architecture. In those long-ago days
ICYMI: Fourth of July Edition (7/4)Here's hoping that you are busy with some combination of friends and family today that leaves no time for the weekly collection of readables. But just in case, here's the list. How Do You Fight Hot Air Tired of reading CRT pieces? Me, too. But people keep writing good ones. Here's an op-ed in Washington Post by Karen Attiah, writing about one school district leader many other folks will wish they
Moms For Liberty And The Unified Theory of Far Right GrievanceAnti-maskers. Anti-school closings. Anti-vaxxers. Anti-something-vaguely-lumped-under-critical-race-theory. If it seems as if these folks are all actually the same people coming back with new signage every could of months, join me as we take a look at Moms For Liberty. MFL was launched at the beginning of 2021 by two Florida women, both with school board experience. Tina Descovitch ran for Brevar
Language Generating AI Still Lacks IYou may remember that last year, a piece of language simulation AI software appeared touted as the next big thing. OpenAI rolled out GPT-3 . The claims were huge. It can write poetry. Various writers wrote pieces about how realistic it was. It can write computer programs--well, actually that was less unbelievable. But the other claims were looking somewhat shaky already , including some linguisti
NC: Another Way For Charters To Hit TaxpayersWith all the CRT fooferraw and voting suppression and a world of other hurts coming from legislatures and courts, it would be easy to miss this latest wrinkle from North Carolina. Durham is already awash in charter schools, but as we've seen many times, the wisdom of the invisible hand of market forces does not include charters looking at a saturated market and saying, "We might as well not" and
