I'm not sure I've ever felt less enamored of our habit of celebrating the passing of an arbitrary line in the sand that we drew ourselves, but it's not the most terrible human activity, either, so carry on. Also cross your fingers and say a prayer for everyone going back to school tomorrow. In the meantime, here's some reading from the week.
Greg Ashman challenges some common thoughts about the beloved taxonomy. Are higher orders really more important?
Audrey Watters does a version of her annual review of the year piece, pulling no punches as always, and reminding us about ed tech amnesia.
An Idiot's Guide To the Philosophy of Education (Part 3)
Othmar's Trombone has been quiet for a while, but this week he popped back up continuing his series of irreverent looks at key philosophers of education, so here you go.
This is a cool little piece about the annually celebrated girl who wrote That Letter and received That Reply. Turns out she grew up to be a teacher.
Pandemic Offers Opportunity to Reduce Standardized Testing
That Josh Starr, CEO of PDK International, would write this piece is not exactly surprising, but that Education Next, the mouthpiece of the Fordham Institution axis of reformsterdom, would run it suggests that something's in the air right now. Let's hope. Also, add this to your bookmarked lists of good arguments for suspending testing.
The National Council of Teachers of English offers an excellent critique of the highly-popular-among-people-who-don't-actually-teach science of reading movement.
Penn State Hockey: Gadowsky away from family since July
My nephew is a sports writer specializing in Penn State sports. Here's a different kind of covid piece, about the university's hockey coach, who has sacrificed being with his own family in order to do the coaching job. One more cost of getting sports running so other folks can feel normal.
Trump's school choice executive order
The indispensable Mercedes Schneider explains why we don't have to give that EO another thought.
The President's executive order is vaporware
Here's a guest post on the reformy Jay Greene's blog, also explaining why we don't have to give that EO another thought.
Amplify and iReady Claim Kindergarten and First Grade Reading Loss. Guess why.
Is it any wonder that much of the chicken littling about learning loss is coming from folks who hope to make a bundle "fixing" it? Nancy Bailey breaks down some of the baloney being sliced up.
St. Louis Public Education Theft Continues
Thomas Ultican looks in detail at the steady dismantling of St. Louis schools and where the situation stands currently.
Why the academic achievement gap is a racist idea.
This piece from Ibram X. Kendi ran back in 2016, but it poped up again this week and it is well worth a reread.
And finally, this tweet just made me laugh this week. If you don't get it, I can't help you.
