John Thompson: The Anti-CRT Crusade and the Oklahoma City BombingJohn Thompson reports that the crusade against teaching racism critically is in full swing in Oklahoma. Rightwing legislators can’t seem to understand why it’s okay to encourage students to think critically about the terrorist bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City but to forbid them to think critically about racism. Who would have thunk it? The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum,
Historians and Other Scholars and Teachers Denounce Censorship in History ClassesThe following statement was released by leading professional associations. The statement says: Joint Statement on Legislative Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism and American History We, the undersigned associations and organizations, state our firm opposition to a spate of legislative proposals being introduced across the country that target academic lessons, presentations, and discussion
Timothy Snyder: The War on History is a War on DemocracyTimothy Snyder, an authority on totalitarianism, draws a straight line in this article that appeared in the New York Times from Stalin’s efforts to purge history of negative facts about the Soviet Union to the current mania among Republicans to control the teaching of American history and censor shameful facts in our history. Professor Snyder reminds us of Stalin’s brutal campaign to crush Ukrain
Why Were the Children of Benton Harbor, Michigan, Abandoned?Want proof of systemic racism in the United States today? Look no farther than this article by Annie Waldman, who wrote the following article for ProPublica. She tells the story of a district that was abandoned by the state; a district that whites fled from; a teacher doing her best during a year of COVID; and the idiotic state policy of imposing a third-grade retention policy in the midst of the
The Failure of the Obama-Duncan “School Improvement Grants” and Its Lessons for TodayA while back, I read a vitriolic article in a rightwing publication that expressed contempt for the public schools and congratulated Betsy DeVos for trying to cut federal funding for schools. The article asserted that public schools are “garbage” and the government should slash their funding. A major piece of evidence for the claim that money doesn’t matter was the failure of the Obama administra
Texans Speak Out Against Government CensorshipHundreds, soon to be thousands, of teachers, scholars, parents, and students signed a statement denouncing House Bill 3979, passed by the Republican legislature and signed into law by Governor Gregg Abbott. It bans honest and accurate teaching about racism in American history or other courses. TEACH Coalition Statement on Texas House Bill 3979 We are a collective of teachers, professors, communit
Linda Lyon: Can We Heal Our Divided Society?Linda Lyon was a blogger until two years ago. She stopped because she realized the country was too divided to listen to different views. Fake news proliferated. A military veteran, she decided to step back for a while. This is her return column . She was a school board member and president of the Arizona School Boards Association. She writes: Hello. Let me reintroduce myself. Linda Lyon. Retired
Celebrities Fund Public Schools, Not Charter SchoolsWe have seen for many years that celebrities and billionaires love charter schools, though it is not apparent why since they are typically no better–and often much worse–than district public schools. But there are a few signs of change. The legendary singer Tony Bennett created the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts as part of the New York City school system. He and his wife Susan Crow Benedetto ha
Nikole Hannah-Jones Explains Why She Rejected UNC’s Belated Offer of TenureJournalist Nikole Hannah-Jones issued a statement explaining her decision not to accept the belated decision of the UNC board to offer her a tenured position and chair at the university’s school of journalism, whose faculty supported her. She instead accepted a tenured chair at Howard University. Hannah-Jones was represented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Her essay is powerful. Please read it.
Nikole Hannah-Jones Rejects UNC Offer,Will Accept Chair at Howard UniversityStar journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has decided not to accept a chair in the Hussman School of Journalism after the Board of UNC first denied her tenure, then reversed their decision after widespread protests. Hannah-Jones has accepted a journalism chair at historically black Howard University instead, along with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates are jo
Bob Shepherd on the Republican Obsession with Critical Race TheoryBob Shepherd, resident polymath, has been a teacher, a textbook writer, an assessment developer, and a curriculum writer. I am grateful that he shares his thoughts on this blog on a daily basis. He r ecently wrote a post about the Republicans’ obsession with critical race theory, which turns out in most states to be an effort to suppress any discussion of racism, past or present. The war on CRT i
Tom Ultican: EdTech Is Big Business: Part 2In the second part of his two-part essay about the education technology industry, Tom Ultican reviews the highly profitable side of so-called “personalized learning,” where investors profit, not students. He recognizes that not all EdTech is bad, but goes on to explain how many popular EdTech programs are based on bad pedagogy or are designed to make money. The pandemic brought a bonanza for onli
Texas: Lt. Governor Says State History Museum Should Not Discuss HistoryDan Patrick, Lt. Governor of Texas, usually focuses his efforts on pushing vouchers. But now he has a new cause: blocking discussions of history at the state history museum. He wants the museum to celebrate the great heroic story of Texas, not to permit challenges to that story. He is an exemplar of Republican “cancel culture.” Mother Jones reports here on Dan Patrick’s success at censoring a boo
Nancy Bailey: Can We Save Our Democratic Public Schools?Nancy Bailey writes here about the growing influence and persistence of the billionaire-funded groups that want to privatize our nation’s public schools. Despite the substantial research that shows the ineffectiveness of free market school choice, the school choice in undeterred. As Bailey shows, “reformers” (disrupters) have become influential voices in the Biden administration and have created
Nicholas Tampio: Whatever Happened to the Common Core?Nicholas Tampio, a professor of political science at Fordham University, has noticed a strange silence about Common Core, which was the hottest issue in K-12 just a few years ago. The silence does not mean that the issue has gone away. Tampio writes: The Common Core lives, unfortunately On June 16, Emily Richmond of the Education Writers Association led off a lively social media exchange by tweet
Frederick Douglass: “What, to the American Slave, Is Your 4th of July?”Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery as a young man. He became a celebrated abolitionist. In 1852, he was invited to speak at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, to commemorate the 4th of July. This is an early example of critical race theory. Here is an excerpt of his powerful and eloquent speech: Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers o
The Worst Day in American HistoryToday, as most people celebrate the Independence of our country, we think of the men and women who not only established our government but enabled it, prodded it, and compelled it—to live up to its ideals. On July 4, 1776, many Americans were not free; many did not have the right to vote or to own property or to be educated. Many did not have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happin
Politico: Climate Change Threatens Us AllThis is a realistic and frightening analysis of the paralysis in Washington, D.C. on climate change. President Biden proposed an ambitious agenda to act against the pernicious causes abd effects of climate change. The Republicans refused to support Biden’s plans and they refuse to tax the rich, the billionaires whose gold will be useless on a dead planet. Michael Grunwald of Politico writes: CRUE
Denis Smith: Librarians Are the Superheroes of Media LiteracyDenis Smith, a former official of the Ohio Department of Education, wrote this post in 2017, when the major concern of many was how to teach students to recognize “fake news.” The villain of the piece is the internet, where anyone can post anything without fact-checking or any kind of filter. He wrote about a conference on media literacy where Frank W. Baker was the keynote speaker. Baker was the
Arthur Camins and Paul Kalb: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times for Science and TechnologyThe authors of this article are both scientists. Arthur Camins was director of the Center for Innovation and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology. Paul Kalb worked for more than 40 years as an environmental engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In their article, they note that science is more important than ever, yet a sizable portion of the public rejects its findings and m
