How I Got the Covid Vaccine: an Immunization Odyssey | gadflyonthewallblog

How I Got the Covid Vaccine: an Immunization Odyssey | gadflyonthewallblog

How I Got the Covid Vaccine: an Immunization Odyssey

So there I was standing out in the cold – miserable but happy.

My jacket was buttoned up to my nose on top of my mask.

My hood was up and my glasses were becoming a white screen of fog where my hot breath escaped into the chill.

In my pocket, my left hand wiggled into a glove, then sneaked out to hold my glasses away from my face.

It was the only way I could see whether the line was moving.

And deep inside me, as I stood shivering through the gusts of bitter wind, somewhere I was happy.

Because I was in line to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Despite it all, I knew I was one of the lucky ones.

It had been a long journey to this place, CONTINUE READING: How I Got the Covid Vaccine: an Immunization Odyssey | gadflyonthewallblog

Education Matters: I can't imagine DCPS being more despicable.

Education Matters: I can't imagine DCPS being more despicable.

I can't imagine DCPS being more despicable

 DCPS has been encouraging, cajoling, and in some cases threatening staff not to social distance. 

I put the following question on 5 Facebook pages that have the potential to reach almost 9000 people, many of whom are educators or very interested in education. 

DCPS teacher friends, have any of you been pressured or even asked to do small group instruction? Or do anything else that runs counterintuitive to social distancing? You can private message me if you want. Thank You

I received dozens of public responses to the post and most private messages that I have ever received when asking a question, and the responses were both damning and heartbreaking. 

I have decided not to present any of the responses here, though, with details like where they work and what they teach scrubbed, I will be sending them to the media, the union, and the school board. Forcing people to risk their lives by ignoring CDC guidelines is unacceptable. The reason I have chosen not to share the responses here is the fear of retribution is also real and disturbing.  

The most despicable thing I heard, and I heard it over and over, is teacher’s administration has told them that having small groups is a quality indicator. If they don’t do it, then their evaluations will suffer. In a district that routinely, in my opinion, does despicable things, this may be the worst that I have heard about. They are in CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: I can't imagine DCPS being more despicable.

Choosing Democracy: Should California Schools Reopen?

Choosing Democracy: Should California Schools Reopen?

Should California Schools Reopen?

It’s been a month since Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced his Safe Schools for All Plan, in which he aims to reopen schools for in-person learning by February or March.

However, with the Feb. 16 deadline to open schools looming, there’s no telling how many districts have actually signed on to adopt the plan. Education leaders and teachers have openly criticized it, and negotiations over details appear to be at a standstill. Parents, eager to get their children back to in-person learning this year, have organized a campaign to safely reopen schools once case numbers decline.

The debate echoes what’s going on across the country, as President Biden’s push to open schools in his first 100 days has been met with caution from teachers’ unions, who want to tamp down expectations that students will be back in classrooms before the end of the school year.

Here’s what we know about the state of reopening schools so far.

Mr. Newsom’s plan is in danger of failing.

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that schools could be opened safely, but the message came with a caveat: It’s safe only if other precautions are made to stop community spread. That means tightening, not loosening, restrictions, as Mr. Newsom did this week.

“Prioritizing schools is going to mean limiting some of those other activities, and deciding that we want to undertake some of those sacrifices to keep schools open, because we’ve decided as a society that schools are important relative to other things,” Dr. Oster said.

The governor’s plan calls for schools to reopen once the rate of infection falls to 25 positive cases per 100,000 county residents.

Although cases in California are declining, hospitalization rates are still higher than they were when the strictest lockdown measures were announced. Currently, most of the state’s population falls under the most restrictive purple tier.

In addition, the plan’s $2 billion grant fund, which breaks down to $450 per pupil, falls short  CONTINUE READING: Choosing Democracy: Should California Schools Reopen?

‘School choice’ is a dog whistle for resegregation

‘School choice’ is a dog whistle for resegregation

‘School choice’ is a dog whistle for resegregation

Congratulations to Cindy Marten. San Diego Unified School District’s superintendent has been tapped to become the next deputy U.S. education secretary.

Under Marten, San Diego Unified was one of two large urban districts nationwide in 2019 to outperform average test scores for fourth- and eighth-graders. The district’s Black and Latino students also graduated at higher rates than the state average.

Meanwhile, Iowa is headed in the other direction. Like, really far in the other direction.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has proposed a bevy of so-called “school choice” reforms to the state’s education system.

What you’d expect is included. Private school vouchers. More funding for privately operated charter schools.

But most striking is a change that would allow students to transfer out of schools that have a voluntary or court-ordered diversity plan.

Higher-income families (read: well-to-do white families) would be able to remove their kids from schools that educate predominantly lower-income students (read: Black and immigrant families in cities like Des Moines).

In other words, the resegregation of public schools.

No wonder so many right-wing politicians and pundits are gung-ho about vouchers and charter schools. As historian Steve Suitts has documented, “school choice” rhetoric and policies harken back to the racist segregationists of the mid-twentieth century.

Like former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who coordinated with the Ku Klux Klan while cloaking his CONTINUE READING: ‘School choice’ is a dog whistle for resegregation

ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE, AND WE BUT MERELY PERFORMERS – Dad Gone Wild

ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE, AND WE BUT MERELY PERFORMERS – Dad Gone Wild

ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE, AND WE BUT MERELY PERFORMERS

“All politics is marketing. And in marketing, there are but two variables: product and salesmanship.”
― Tim Dorsey, Pineapple Grenade

 

I’ve been deeply involved in the world of public education for nearly a decade now, yet I am still consistently amazed at just how weird it all gets. You would think the world of academia would adhere to some sort of logic and consistency. Unfortunately, and I chalk it up to the politics and money involved, it does neither. Instead, it continually seems to be driven by self-interest masquerading as a desire to do what’s best for kids.

That’s not to insult teachers or principals. because at its core level, public education does remain centered on kids. I’m reminded of that constantly, just this morning I received a copy of an article about a teacher that continued delivering instruction to her students, even while undergoing chemotherapy. Fortunately, those kinds of stories occur with regularity, because most teachers enter the profession out of a sense of service. It’s when you move up the stratosphere that things get a little less altruistic.

For example, on Wednesday, I wrote a story about Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn sending a letter of rebuke to Metro Nashville Public Schools over their handling of federal funds. In her letter, Ms. Schwinn cited an audit from the state comptrollers office, an audit that won’t be completed until March. As a follow-up, I sent an email to department spokeswoman Victoria CONTINUE READING: ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE, AND WE BUT MERELY PERFORMERS – Dad Gone Wild

THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS Dad Gone Wild Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it. + TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT

 Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.

THIS WEEK'S WILDNESS 

Dad Gone Wild 

Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.

ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE, AND WE BUT MERELY PERFORMERS

by TC Weber / 19h

“All politics is marketing. And in marketing, there are but two variables: product and salesmanship.” ― Tim Dorsey, Pineapple Grenade I’ve been deeply involved in the world of public education for nearly a decade now, yet I am still consistently amazed at just how weird it all gets. You would think the world of academia would adhere to some sort of logic and consistency. Unfortunately, and I chal

THE BURDEN OF PROOF

by TC Weber / 2d

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters” ― Albert Einstein Two days ago the Tennessean ran an article reporting that MNPS had received a letter from the Commissioner of Education accusing them of fiscal malfeasance regarding their management of federal funds delivered through the CARES Act. In the commissioner’s words, “I cannot underscore eno

DISCRETION AS THE BETTER PART OF VALOR

by TC Weber / 4d

“With distrust came suspicion and with suspicion came fear, and with fear came hate–and these, in already distorted minds, inflamed a hell.” ― Zane Grey, To The Last Man: 8 Western Novels – Collection Since the dawn of social media, Nashville’s education leaders have chosen to utilize the platform as a means to division instead of unification. Some will say, they are just using it as designed. Th

THE LESSON IS, ELECTIONS MATTER

by TC Weber / 7d

“Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.” – Amanda Gorman Elections have consequences – it’s a phrase most of us are familiar with. Currently, it’s

 Dad Gone Wild – Nobody reads it, everybody quotes it.

TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT

EDUCATION POLITICS AND POLICY IN THE VOLUNTEER STATE

TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT

ASD Light

29by Andy Spears / 22h

State Senator Ferrell Haile of Sumner County has filed SB 122 , a bill creating a “School Turnaround Pilot Program.” Maybe Haile has never heard of the Achievement School District? It’s difficult to understand why someone who has served on the Senate Education Committee for some time now and should have at least a vague familiarity with education policy in our state would want to recreate one of

Make Believe

52by Andy Spears / 4d

The land of make believe is apparently where Gov. Bill Lee and his team go to find justification for their bad public policy. WMC-TV out of Memphis has the story about how the Lee Administration is using old data from a study based on projections to justify a demand that schools return to in-person learning. Here’s more: Despite new data suggesting COVID-19 learning loss wasn’t as severe as predi

So This Actually Happened

53by Andy Spears / 5d

Here are some responses to a Facebook Post by Metro Nashville Education Association (MNEA) President Amanda Kail from MNPS School Board member Fran Bush. Enough of your bull! We are going to open in person

TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT