Wisconsin Teacher Training? | Christopher Brauchli

Wisconsin Teacher Training? | Christopher Brauchli:

Wisconsin Teacher Training?

 "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

--Henry Brooks Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

The fact that Scott Walker is now running for president comes as no surprise to those who knew him in college. When a student, he told one of his dorm mates that he was going to be president of the United States someday. Because of that long-held ambition, his January proposal caused some to think his self-confidence had failed him. Those people thought he was trying to change the rules so that he would qualify for a job in teaching if, unexpectedly, and contrary to his expectations, he did not become the next president of the United States. A close reading of the January proposal, however, makes it obvious that he was acting selflessly when he made the proposal and was not trying to provide an opportunity for himself.

The suggestion that Mr. Walker made in January that will probably become law in June, though not, as it turns out, because of his efforts, was that anyone with a college degree would be qualified to become a teacher of students in grades 6 through 12 in the Wisconsin school system.

In Wisconsin as well as in many other states, in order to become a teacher in those grades, it is necessary to undergo courses in teacher training. Under Scott's proposal this notion was set on its head, since it provided that those hoping to become teachers did not need to take any college-level teacher-training courses. All that would be needed to become a teacher in Wisconsin public schools would be a bachelor's degree and a demonstrated proficiency in the course the prospective teacher wants to teach.

Scott did not, as noted above, suggest this to benefit himself, since he is a college dropout. He does not have the qualifications to become a teacher even in the unlikely event that he fails to become the 45th president of the United States. He could, of course, return to school to complete the work he failed to complete before becoming a dropout and then a governor, in which case his proposal would benefit him. That seems a bit far-fetched and unlikely to have been the reason for his suggestion.

Although Scott's proposal went nowhere when first introduced, thanks to Mary Czaja, a Wisconsin legislator, his proposal has reappeared in greatly enhanced form and in a few days may become law. It made its appearance, appropriately enough, in the Wisconsin state biennial budget for 2015 through 2017 and was part of a bill reducing funding for higher education and K-12 education.

At a late-night meeting of the Wisconsin Legislative Joint Finance Committee during the week of May 24, 2015, and thanks to the quick thinking of Representative Mary Czaja, a provision was inserted into the state biennial budget for 2015 through 2017 that went even further than the provision proposed by Scott earlier in the year. The provision she inserted would not only eliminate the need for those who would teach to have any teacher training but provides that anyone can teach non-core subjects, even high school dropouts. The only requirement imposed on a high school dropout wanting to become a teacher is that the school wishing to hire such a person makes a determination that the person being hired is proficient and has relevant experience in the subject he or she wants to teach.

Mary's provision was adopted as part of the budget without a hearing. Mary admitted that if her provision becomes law, it will be easier for individuals in Wisconsin to enter the teaching profession than it is in any other state. However, she is confident that teachers meeting the new standards will be just as qualified as those meeting today's requirements. In an interview she explained, "The districts are going to be the ones that hire these people, and I firmly believe that they're not going to throw somebody in there that isn't doing a good job. This is just flexibilities. They don't have to use it."

Mary's proposal is not met with enthusiasm by professional educators. Tony Evers, the State Superintendent observed, "We are sliding toward the bottom in standards Wisconsin Teacher Training? | Christopher Brauchli:

L.A. Unified (LAUSD) Schools add ScootPad to Their Strategic Plans With Multi-year Site Licenses - Yahoo Finance

L.A. Unified (LAUSD) Schools add ScootPad to Their Strategic Plans With Multi-year Site Licenses - Yahoo Finance:

L.A. Unified (LAUSD) Schools add ScootPad to Their Strategic Plans With Multi-year Site Licenses

Accelerated rate of learning coupled with overall love for ScootPad by both students & teachers resulted in several L.A. Unified (LAUSD) Schools to extend their ScootPad Site License for multiple years

SAN JOSE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 12, 2015 / ScootPad, a leading adaptive learning platform for grades K-8, announced today that several L.A. Unified (LAUSD) Schools extended their ScootPad Site Licenses for multiple years as a result of their early success with accelerated rate of learning and overall love for ScootPad by both students & teachers.

Allesandro Elementary School was an early-adopter school from L.A. Unified which implemented ScootPad school-wide starting with the 2013-2014 school year when ScootPad's flagship Ultra-Premium Site License was first released. Bandini Street Elementary School, Gardena Elementary School, Humphreys Avenue Elementary School and Canterbury Avenue Elementary School followed suit with school-wide implementations of ScootPad and subsequently renewed their site licenses for multiple years. Allesandro Elementary School has been recognized by ScootPad as the first school to reach the "5-Year Milestone", having purchased ScootPad for a total of 5 school years!

"With all the recent changes in education our school has been lucky to have found a program like ScootPad. It continues to hit the mark on providing students with much needed Math and Reading practice while acquiring computer knowledge.

Teachers have the ability to assign and modify student assignments for both class and homework. Parents also have access at home so they can work with their kids. ScootPad has become an important tool in the success of our students." said Lynn Andrews, Principal, Allesandro Elementary School. "What has probably been the most surprising part is the willingness of the ScootPad team to take our feedback and make improvements swiftly. On behalf of the entire Allesandro team, here's a big Thank You to ScootPad and the team behind it."

"We are very excited and encouraged to see schools & districts adding ScootPad to their strategic plans with multi-year commitments. We look forward to working very closely with them to make ScootPad even more valuable and easy to use in the coming months and years." said Bharat Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of ScootPad. "Together, we are offering an invaluable learning tool for students at a fraction of the cost compared to similar products in the market."

Through partnerships with schools and districts like this, ScootPad's adaptive learning platform continues to extend its capabilities while becoming a "go-to" tool for thousands of U.S. schools, L.A. Unified (LAUSD) Schools add ScootPad to Their Strategic Plans With Multi-year Site Licenses - Yahoo Finance:

https://www.scootpad.com/pricing/compare

Ethnic studies gaining traction in Sacramento-area public schools | The Sacramento Bee

Ethnic studies gaining traction in Sacramento-area public schools | The Sacramento Bee:

Ethnic studies gaining traction in Sacramento-area public schools

Asami Saito will be done with high school well before 2020, when Sacramento City Unified School District students will have to take ethnic studies to graduate.

Even so, the West Campus High School junior, who serves as the student trustee on the city school board, said she’s hoping future students will benefit from the greater cultural insight that she believes comes with ethnic studies.

For years, she said, history has been taught largely through a European-American lens. “You rarely get to hear about an African American, Latino or Asian American perspective,” said Saito, 16. “I’ve never heard of any textbook focused on the Japanese American perspective.”

Sacramento City Unified this month became the fifth – and largest – school district in the state to add ethnic studies as a future graduation requirement, joining a handful of districts across California that will ask students to study U.S. minority cultures, including Woodland Joint Unified.

The Sacramento district is one of the most diverse in the region, with no one ethnic group forming a majority. According to state data, 37 percent are Latino, 19 percent white, 18 percent African American, 17 percent Asian American and more than 5 percent reporting themselves as biracial.

13Sacramento City Unified high schools will be on board in 2019

The district will phase in ethnic studies as an elective at a pilot group of high schools starting in fall 2016. The course would expand to all 13 district high schools by fall 2019 and become a graduation requirement a year later, starting with the freshman class entering high school.

Districts in San Diego and the Bay Area are creating or expanding existing ethnic studies courses, said Jose Lara, coordinator of the statewide advocacy group Ethnic Studies Now. Locally, trustees for San Juan Unified in Carmichael recently added a course for one high school, although they have not made it a graduation requirement.

San Juan Unified trustees approved that course in April. The outlined course, which freshmen will take this fall at San Juan High School, calls for a “comparative and historical perspective to examine languages, values and voices of diverse groups in the United States” with emphasis on African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Latinos, Native Americans and other groups relevant to students.

The suburban district in northeast Sacramento County has grown increasingly diverse over the past two decades, according to state data. In 1995-96, 78 percent of the district’s students were white. This school year, 58 percent were.

Gloria Ervin, principal at San Juan High School in Citrus Heights, said teachers and administrators began to see the possibilities for their students when they attended an ethnic studies training session in San Francisco in January. Administrators and teachers from San Francisco, Santa Monica and Los Angeles explained how the courses enhanced students’ perceptions of their own place in the world, she said.

“We thought, ‘What an opportunity to engage students as they transition into high school,’” Ervin said.

In California, Assembly Bill 101 by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, would require school districts serving students in grades seven to 12 to offer ethnic studies as an elective. The Assembly passed the bill earlier this month and moved it to the Senate.

In Arizona, a 2010 law banned ethnic studies in public schools, a move championed by critics who said such courses were divisive, specifically those that promoted ethnic solidarity or were tailored to individual ethnic groups. Teachers and students mounted a legal challenge that has reached the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lara said he listened to Arizona teachers opposed to the law discuss the issue in Los Angeles and took up the cause when he ran successfully for the El Rancho Unified school board two years ago. He also formed Ethnic Studies Now, a coalition of educators, civil rights groups and educators that has worked with school districts throughout the state.

This year, he said, increased state education funding is helping the effort along. His school district this fall will become the first in California to implement an ethnic studies graduation requirement, starting with the incoming freshman class.

WHEN YOU SEE ACROSS THE COUNTRY PEOPLE SHOUTING OUT, ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER,’ THE QUESTION IS WHAT ARE OUR SCHOOLS DOING TO ADDRESS THOSE ISSUES? AN ANSWER IS ETHNIC STUDIES.

Jose Lara, coordinator of Ethnic Studies Now

“This is a long time coming,” Lara said. “It’s an issue of civil rights. All students are robbed when the voices of students of color are not in our curriculum. When you see across theEthnic studies gaining traction in Sacramento-area public schools | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article24025114.html#storylink=cpy

Alan J. Borsuk - Charter Schools 101: The basics behind a hot education topic

Alan J. Borsuk - Charter Schools 101: The basics behind a hot education topic:

Charter Schools 101: The basics behind a hot education topic

Amid the many education issues now in flux, the future of charter schools seems to attract a high degree of heat and, frequently, misunderstanding. So I thought it might be good to offer a Charter Schools 101 primer.

Q.Just what is a charter school?

A. Launched in Minnesota about 25 years ago, the idea was to offer kids independent, publicly funded schools with creative, different programs. The movement grew rapidly. More than 2.5 million students nationwide were in charter schools in 2013-'14.

Q.Why are they called "charter" schools?

A. Let's say you and I have an idea for a school. We go to a government body (usually a school board, but, around here, a few other bodies, such as Milwaukee city government), and say, hey, give us permission to open this school, give us money and we'll give you something different with good results. (At least, that's the ideal.) Down the road — usually after five years — you can either give us a green light to continue or you can cut off our money, based on our record. If the government body says OK, then we formalize an agreement that is called our charter.

Generally, I'm describing what we'll call an independent charter. There are quite a few charters created within school districts as alternatives to their traditional programs. Most of the charter schools in Wisconsin fit this description.

A significant difference between school district charters and independent charters is whether the teachers are employees of the district or whether they are hired (and potentially fired) by the individual school. Almost all of the controversy around charter schools involves independent schools.

Q.What's the difference between a charter school and a voucher school?

A. Around here, a simple answer is: Voucher schools can be (and almost all are) religious. Charter schools cannot be religious. Overall, both involve public funding of schools outside of the traditional system.

Q.Are independent charter schools intended only for poor kids?

A. No, but that's pretty much what's developed, both in Wisconsin and nationwide. There's a bunch of reasons why — a subject for another time. Charters have emerged as one of the most prominent (and controversial) strategies for trying to improve education outcomes in high-needs urban areas. Large charter operators have arisen, some running dozens of schools, most of them offering programs with high expectations, step-on-the-gas styles of education, a lot of structure, strong emphasis on behavior, and longer school days and years.

Q.Are kids ever assigned to go to charter schools?

A. No.

Q.Do charters charge tuition?

A. No.

Q.How much money do they get?

A. The current public payment in Wisconsin is about $8,000 per student per year. That's less than public schools get. Most high-quality charters also benefit from quite a bit of private donations.

Q.Do charter schools enroll any student or do they attract better students?

A. A controversial question. Charters aren't allowed to be choosy about who gets admitted. And good ones work hard to help any child. But, as reality plays out, there is some truth to saying that a lot of kids who don't fit into the program don't stay. Charter critics say one outcome is that charters overall have fewer students with special-education needs and big behavior issues than conventional schools.

Q.Are charter schools getting better results?

A. Yes, no and maybe so. Frankly, your answer often depends on your politics. Setting that aside as best as I can, I'd say some of the best schools in Milwaukee, both in results and school culture, are charters. There is data to back up saying that, although critics disagree. Overall, locally and nationwide, charters aren't a panacea and the outcomes aren't that much different than traditional public schools.

In Milwaukee, there were — and still are — charter schools with bad results and bad operating practices. Some of those are gone, which is how the system is supposed to work. Some are improving.

I watched a Milwaukee Common Council committee wrestle on Thursday with what to do about King's Academy, a northwest side charter with a poor record but evidence of improvement. The discussion focused on data, serious talk about how to improve, and what's best for kids. The committee backed a two-year extension of the school's charter, rather than the five years the school wanted. The school will remain under pressure to show further improvement. It struck me as a good example of how the idea is supposed to work.

Q.Is the charter movement going to expand in Wisconsin?

A. In the last four years, while voucher school advocates were scoring big victories in the state Capitol, charter advocates got pretty much nowhere. But as the new state budget is shaping up, charter people have scored some victories.

It's a mess to describe, but it seems likely there will be at least a few more charter schools in Milwaukee in the next several years. There might be independent charters for the first time in Madison, Waukesha County and possibly some other places. But there will be no green light for independent charters statewide, while private school vouchers are getting a green light.

Opposition to charters is strong. In short, the more kids who go to schools outside of the traditional system, the more problems there are for the system. This applies to Milwaukee, but it also applies out state, where opposition to independent charters has succeeded in stopping independent charters. The vast majority of Wisconsin kids will continue to be educated through public school systems.

My guess overall is that with funding capped around $8,000 per kid, and with an atmosphere that is so contentious, there won't be a big surge of new charters. I'd go with a forecast of some growth, with reason to hope it will generally be connected to an upward movement in the quality of the schools involved.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. Reach him atalan.borsuk@marquette.edu. Alan J. Borsuk - Charter Schools 101: The basics behind a hot education topic:

Heavy emphasis on “hard skills” leaves children unprepared for the real “tests” in life. | WagTheDog

Heavy emphasis on “hard skills” leaves children unprepared for the real “tests” in life. | WagTheDog:

Heavy emphasis on “hard skills” leaves children unprepared for the real “tests” in life.

The appropriate and skillful application of hard skills is soft skills dependent.

~ Corporate Learning World Blog

Working with grade 7-12 students in a public school for more than a quarter century, and as a summer youth employment counselor for more than a decade, it has been my experience that a lack of soft skills (perseverance, ambition, self-confidence, self-discipline, patience, initiative, integrity, empathy, courage, cooperative, resilient…) has directly contributed to declining student achievement and performance in the classroom and on the job.

While mastery of content and literacy skills are important for career and college readiness, these performance standards are too often trumped or canceled out when a student or employee lacks a work ethic, emotional intelligence, and has not developed a personal code of conduct.

One of the underlying premises of CCSS appears to be that students who cannot read and write on an advanced college level are destined to be unsuccessful in life. Not everyone can be an advanced reader, no matter how hard they try. Do proponents of CCSS really believe that the 15 to 20% (NICHD) of our population with language-based disabilities are doomed to failure in life?

Considering the diversity of student skills and abilities represented in our classrooms It is foolish and inherently unfair to define and predict student success in life based on a narrow and shallow set of testable math and reading skills.

Testing and training students to meet common math and ELA standards does not prepare them for the social and emotional challenges of uncommon careers.

The “power” and critical importance of soft skills is evidenced by the highly successful careers of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Tom Cruise, Erin Brockovich, Magic Johnson, Anderson Cooper, Winston Churchill and many other dyslexics.

These individuals and many others learners like them have not allowed limited reading and literacy skills or a low score on a standardized test to define them and curtail their goals and achievements in life. Instead, they relied upon their special talents and abilities to overcome obstacles in life and compensate for any cognitive deficiencies.

Emotional intelligence often “levels the playing field” and helps adults to lead productive and very successful lives in spite of weaker reading or writing skills…

“…But what has become obvious—as evidenced by the sheer number of dyslexic World Economic Forum attendees in Davos and by plenty of 

Heavy emphasis on “hard skills” leaves children unprepared for the real “tests” in life. | WagTheDog:

Madeline Dietrich | Bullying: An Open Letter to the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools

Madeline Dietrich | Bullying: An Open Letter to the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools:



Bullying: An Open Letter to the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools

I wrote the following letter to call attention to the tragic suicide of one of Milwaukee's brightest teachers. The incident went unnoticed by the public, occurring over the Thanksgiving holiday. While a large component underscores the plight of many transgender people who simply try to exist in our society, my message is about bullying and the critical importance of recognizing when it occurs and intervening when possible.

Karis Anne Ross

Madeline Dietrich

6/10/15

Dr. Darienne Driver, Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools

Milwaukee Public Schools

5225 W. Vliet Street

Milwaukee, WI  53208

OPEN LETTER TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF MILWAUKEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Dear Dr. Driver,

As the spring semester draws to a close and another class prepares for graduation, I wish to call to your attention to an oversight, a failure to act, by Milwaukee Public School administrators, which undoubtedly contributed to the suicide death of one of Milwaukee Public Schools' best and brightest teachers this past school year. While the blame for her death cannot be fully placed on the Milwaukee Public School District, it is my opinion that if key personnel had responded appropriately, this teacher may have chosen to continue living.

Karis Anne Ross, who taught at MPS's prestigious Milwaukee German Immersion School, took her own life over the Thanksgiving holiday last November. She was thirty-seven years old. Ms. Ross was the schools' lead Special Education teacher, a stressful job by any account, but made unnecessarily more stressful by a hostile work environment fraught with tension, disrespect and bullying, not from her students, but from the teacher’s aides assigned to assist her.

There were four professionals working in Ms. Ross' classroom, a lead teacher and three teacher's aids. Each were human beings, and each were women. But three were cisgender, while only one was transgender. Three were black, while only one was white. Three were paraprofessionals charged with supporting the lead teacher's direction, while only one held a master’s degree and professional teaching certificate. The differences in race, education status and gender identity fostered an environment where Ms. Ross was regularly subjected to intimidation and resistance by the majority group.

Ms. Ross repeatedly informed the building principal, Dr. Albert J. Brugger. It had gone on for years, but in the weeks leading to the moment Ms. Ross chose to end her life, numerous emails were exchanged between Ms. Ross, school officials and the medical community, all pointing to a crisis which went largely ignored by Dr. Brugger, who rather than mediating or intervening in the conflict, chose to play down the situation and avoided any direct involvement with Ms. Ross and her aids. It is clear by the timing of the suicide, which took place the Saturday afternoon before Ms. Ross knew she must again face the hostility of her support staff and the indifference of her principal the following Monday morning. Each aide was named in Ms. Ross’ suicide letter, along with Dr. Brugger, as the primary cause of her grief. Transgender people are too often rejected by friends, employers, landlords, and family, and are forty percent more likely to attempt suicide than the mean population. Ms. Ross was rejected by the very MPS employees whose job it was to assist her in caring for profoundly disabled children.

Adding insult to injury, MPS made no attempt to contact Ms. Ross' family for nearly two weeks. Dr. Brugger sent flowers and a card, butMadeline Dietrich | Bullying: An Open Letter to the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools:

Our Dirty Little Secret Education Lessons From A Sparkly District

Education Lessons From A Sparkly District:

Our Dirty Little Secret

I want to share with all of you an example of what parents of children with disabilities go through in New Jersey. Sadly, this is not new, nor is it likely to change anytime in the near future. There needs to be a fundamental shift in how NJDOE/OSEP view these students, how individual districts view them, and how communities value them (or don’t).

This happened in my home K-8 district in Bergen County. This is a beautiful, close knit community. We take care of each other, we have very active civic organizations, and we even have two small, well-embraced, adult disability housing facilities. What we don’t have is that kind of support for the families who happen to have children with disabilities. It’s our dirty little secret.

Parents struggle to get evaluations. Scratch that, they struggle to get anyone to take their concerns seriously. Their teachers generally do, but are afraid to speak up. Parents struggle to get classifications and appropriate services. The district is adept at dragging the process out as long as possible (sometimes years), many times by simply not explaining the process to parents who have no idea how any of this works.

As you read this statement, made by a father, please remember that as parents, part of our job is to raise children who can make their way in the world as independently as possible and to become functioning members of society. I am absolutely sick of districts getting in the way.

It’s difficult to stand here and speak about the state of and the attitude towards Special Services in this district knowing it falls on deaf ears and has no apparent effect on the continuance of the treatment of the families in this town. The fact is that [Sparkly District] has an awful reputation with regard to their treatment and programming for special needs children and their families and it is evident that this works just fine for you all -- if it didn’t, things would be changing.

Maybe you are blinded by your personal feelings towards specific members of the community who fight for this population’s rights. Maybe you have grown too familiar with one another and cannot separate or comfortably voice your own personal opinions, experience, or agendas if they differ. You are professionals and our children are counting on you. To continuously ignore, deliberately avoid, and create a divide within the educational Education Lessons From A Sparkly District:

Is the Common Core killing kindergarten? - Ideas - The Boston Globe

Is the Common Core killing kindergarten? - Ideas - The Boston Globe:

Is the Common Core killing kindergarten?

LAST SPRING, Susan Sluyter quit teaching kindergarten in the Cambridge Public Schools. She’d spent nearly two decades in the classroom, and her departure wasn’t a happy one. In a resignation letter, Sluyter railed against a “disturbing era of testing and data” that had trickled down from the upper grades and was now assaulting kindergartners with a barrage of new academic demands that “smack of 1st or 2nd grade.” The school district did not respond to a request for comment.

But Sluyter’s complaints touched a national nerve. Her letter went viral, prompting scores of sympathetic comments by other frustrated teachers and parents. Sluyter’s letter was fresh evidence for groups of early-childhood educators who oppose the kindergarten expectations for math and English Language Arts, or ELA, set by the new Common Core, the academic benchmarks for K-12 that most states have adopted to replace the historic patchwork of standards.

The thrust of the opposition is that many of the standards are too high and not developmentally appropriate for kindergartners. Opponents say teaching some academic skills too early can be counterproductive. They cite research suggesting that reading and math advantages in kindergarten are fleeting. Furthermore, they say, the pressure to meet academic standards will lead to lecture and work sheet style teaching, foster rote memorization, and snuff out the inquiry and play-based instruction that can instill a love of learning.

The impetus for developing the Common Core standards for kindergarten through 12th grade was the worry that American education was losing its edge in a globalized economy fueled by innovation.

“The United States is falling behind other countries in the resource that matters most in the new global economy: human capital,” declared a 2008 report from the National Governors Association. Creating a common set of “internationally benchmarked” standards was seen as the best way to close the persistent achievement gaps between students of different races and between rich and poor school districts.

 View Story

Fighting to save cursive from the Common Core

Defenders argue penmanship is not just a handy skill but a source of art, virtue, and patriotism.

•  Executive function not a panacea for education ills

The Common Core’s defenders say critics are misreading the kindergarten standards, which are meant to be goals, not dictates. What’s more, standards alone don’t tell teachers how to teach. What standards actually do, backers contend, is level the playing field and help keep students from falling behind early, which they say is the real and lasting danger for our youngest learners.

THE COMMON CORE K-12 standards debuted in June 2010, following a year-long initiative spearheaded by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Since then, 43 states have adopted the standards, with the stated aim of getting students college and career ready when they graduate from high school.

In two reports published earlier this year, the Boston-based nonprofit Defending the Early Years took aim at the kindergarten standards in ELA (focused on literacy at this age) and math. The first report singled out the expectation that kindergartners should be able to “read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.”

Emergent-reader texts include repetitive lines like, “Brown bear. Brown bear. What do you see?” or, “The fat cat Is the Common Core killing kindergarten? - Ideas - The Boston Globe:

CURMUDGUCATION: I'm Defending Teach for America

CURMUDGUCATION: I'm Defending Teach for America:

I'm Defending Teach for America

I'm about a week behind on this, mostly because I don't usually pay any attention to conservative rantist Michelle Malkin. Yes, she often rants against Common Core and corporate commandeering of public education, but when I first started picking apart the odd alliances, congruence, and alignments of the education debates, one thing became clear to me-- in these debates, as in other aspects of life, the enemy of my enemy might well be my enemy. Or at the very least, a trellis asshat.

Malkin made her recent stink in the New York Post, where she accused Teach for America of harboring dangerous radicals.

But those concerns pale in comparison to the divisive, grievance-mongering activities of the group’s increasingly radicalized officials and alumni.

TFA’s most infamous public faces don’t even pretend to be interested in students’ academic achievement. It’s all about race, tweets and marching on the streets.

She goes on to give accounts of recent civil rights activism by TFA members and alums, including popularizing and promoting the #BlackLivesMatter movement. She links this to TFA's recent initiative to include more men and women of color. She stops just short of saying that TFA has been taken over by a bunch of uppity black folks who don't know how to stay in place-- but only just short of that.

Look-- nobody is ever going to mistake me for a TFA supporter. I've explained numerous times why the organization, which has morphed into one more corporate-stoogery corporation, is bad for CURMUDGUCATION: I'm Defending Teach for America:

Flying First Class

Traveling always gives me time to think, and I spent yesterday making my way to the West Coast, where my wife and I are spending some time in LA hanging out with my son and daughter, their partners, and my grandson (my in-laws are tending to the house and the dog, who cannot even successfully manage a car trip across town).

On one leg of the journey yesterday, we ended up sitting just behind the bulkhead that separated we Mere Mortals from the folks in First Class.

I've never traveled first class, in fact have never traveled sitting far enough forward to see the wonders that occur there.

I marveled at how those twenty-four travelers, of all of us cattle-jammed into the plane, had essentially their own personal staff of attendants to provide them with a steady stream of amenities, from taking their lunch orders to delivering via tongs some nicely warmed towels. One business traveler's seat would not recline, and after contortions worthy of Godzilla's chiropractor, the flight attendant promised a financial compensation for the travelers emotional pain and suffering from being forced to do without his six degrees of inclination.

I reflected that it made a certain amount of sense-- those folks had likely forked over (sans tongs) a ton of money to sit in airplane nirvana, and so had personally generated a great deal of the plane's 

Flying First Class