You might be interested to note that the McCain McEducation McPlan is full of McShit. You might also be interested in those cookies you have hidden in the cabinet from the children, but stop thinking about that for a moment. They won’t spoil in the time it takes to read about the vague outline of McCain’s plan for education.
Feel free to go here to read about it. My comment got so long that I realized it would be a post unto itself:
It is so past the time when politicians make enormous decisions regarding education that I feel almost silly saying it again: ask teachers.
Teachers will tell you that:
1. Whoever gets to measure the arbitrary goal of “potential” doesn’t truly understand the growth of a child. What does that really look like and what does it truly mean? I fear that standards are applied differently to different groups and this is too vague an exploration as you’ve posted here.
2. If all schools were equalized parents wouldn’t need more choices. This usually serves to allow wealthier parents to choose entitled schooling for their children and is a classic case of the rich getting richer.
3. “Quality teachers” doesn’t take into account some of the most important qualities of educators. In my experience teachers who graduate in the top of their class aren’t the best teachers. The best teachers are the ones who CARE about the students. Can you ensure that those “top grades” college students will actually care more about children?
4. Putting technology into schools requires training teachers FIRST. He wants technological development for virtual schools? Are you going to pull from those “top graduates” with the “top grades” once again? This, to me, doesn’t seem to help the issue of students simply not reading at grade level. It appears to be one more way to divide the haves and have-nots. Those math and science academies serve to stimulate students who do well in those courses, but, again, it takes students away from schools that then become ’struggling schools’.
Nothing is mentioned about early childhood programs focusing on literacy and numeracy or helping high school students and their families access higher education. That is part of the reason real reform continues to fail the masses: real reform isn’t FOR the masses.
Meaningful reform comes from taking the lead from the true leaders. No one ever asks them in a format that brings about true change and educators keep on working to meet impossible standards (how is it again that we’re responsible for their attendance when we get no support from state and local agencies to enforce this?) and do the work that no one else is willing to do or even be responsible for when it fails.
August 12, 2008 @ 9:10 pm | Filed under Education | Permalink |
Loralee Said,
August 12, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
I’m not happy with it, either. (3 term PTA President and Chair of 2 durriculum commitees at my kid’s charter school. I dig education.) Do you think it will be as big a clusterfuck as No Child Left Behind?
Loralees last blog post..Sideblog: Enter to give someone special a $20,000 THANK YOU!
Loralee Said,
August 12, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
Gah! Curriculum! (So embarrassing.)
Loralees last blog post..Sideblog: Enter to give someone special a $20,000 THANK YOU!
KBO Said,
August 12, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
Word, word, word. Our schools, by design, serve middle-to-upper class whites. Really, who are our teachers? More importantly, who are our teacher educators? Why is Seymour Hirsch canon for teacher ed, but Michael Apple, Joe Kincheloe or Paulo Friere are not? Are we teaching our teachers to teach everyone?
The idea that there can be a national standardized curriculum with national assessment is bogus. Who makes the test? Who deems what is appropriate? Who deems what knowledge is valued and what isn’t? We are not a homogenous nation. Our curriculum doesn’t reflect that. NCLB doesn’t reflect that.
As far as technology goes, it’s not a panacea for the problems our students have. I just quit a school that had a SmartBoard in every room and every student had his/her own laptop that they took home. This was a public school. If anything, the laptops made our lives more miserable because half of them were broken at any given time, and getting kids to pay attention to what was going on in class as opposed to any of plethora of distractions to be found on the internet was almost impossible. Did we do any PD to create a universal school culture of laptop expectations? Not really. It was a classroom management nightmare.
Grr…now my comment is too long. Guess I’ll blog about it tomorrow.
ms_teacher Said,
August 12, 2008 @ 11:35 pm
Thank you for saying it much more eloquently than I.
ms_teachers last blog post..Guitar Teen’s Excellent Adventure
Dave2 Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 2:55 am
More of the same McCrap.
Dave2s last blog post..Neverwas
Sugar Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 6:18 am
I always think it’s hilarious that one idea is supposed to be a cure all for every individual school across the board. Within any given school district, there’s disparity. How is it that these far removed politicians think they can actually make any kind of dent without leaving it to the people actually entrenched in the day-to-day learning.
I don’t know if this will make you think I’m a nut job, but I decided to homeschool. I have two older kids that went through public schools. My oldest graduated a couple of years ago and my second will be out in two more. My experience with them lead me to make this choice for my younger two. We live in a pretty nice area, but even those schools struggle. I can’t tell you all the telethons and fund raisers that have to be done just to get any kind of arts as well as the whoring that we have to do to get new computers donated by the tech companies in the region. “We promise our kids will be your ready-to-go workforce upon graduation!”
I didn’t want to roll the dice with the little ones. While the politicos figure all this crap out, we’ll be learning, thanks.
I don’t envy you the job you have here, MM. I can feel your frustration at wanting the best for your students and not knowing if they are going to get it. I only have four kids to worry about. You have hundreds.
Good Lord, bless you Lady!!!
All Adither Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 6:59 am
Oh God. Please don’t let him be president.
Ellen Gerstein Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:07 am
Great post with good points. Now can you expand on what crap “No Child Left Behind” is? I have yet to meet a single teacher who thinks that it has helped education in this country. Being a concerned parent, I don’t know the ins and outs of the schools. But when I hear that 3rd grade’s biggest focus is getting the kids ready for the standardized test and they spend hours of valuable class time showing students how to fill in circles with #2 pencils, I know it’s time to worry.
Ellen Gersteins last blog post..School Daze
Amelia Sprout Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:21 am
Oh yeah, the world does great when you try and shove everyone in the same little box. The creates wonderful things. Sure.
McSmokin’ his own farts a bit too much I think.
Amelia Sprouts last blog post..Haiku Friday: A Monkey Prize
Amelia Sprout Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:22 am
I just shouldn’t try to comment quickly. THAT creates. Bah.
Amelia Sprouts last blog post..Haiku Friday: A Monkey Prize
Elizabeth Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:29 am
Hot damn, woman. Can I vote for you for president?
Elizabeths last blog post..A day full of ups and downs
Daisy Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:42 am
#4 is huge, so huge! I am a major techie in my district, and I keep training myself. What’s wrong with this picture? It leaves behind all the teachers who don’t have the time or the interest to learn the technology on their own. Come to think of it, I really should be getting paid for the time I spend learning new software so that I can teach it. What’s with this working for free crap? Would a lawyer work for free? A doctor? But I digress…and I must start thinking positive thoughts about getting back into my classroom.
Daisys last blog post..It’s a jungle out there!
Pam Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:46 am
>the McCain McEducation McPlan is full of McShit
The failure to recognize the need to care seems to be endemic to our culture in general. Besides, we all know the solution is to look like we’re doing something while appeasing the power base.
I’m hoping that by the time we have become a truly multiracial and multicultural country, a goodly portion of that power base will be people who are more like you and less like grandpa McNumnuts.
Melissa Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 8:16 am
Actually, no, I don’t have children, but I do care about the education that your kids and her kids and his kids receive. I also have friends who are educators and their jobs get more challenging every year because of misguided legislation.
Miss Britt Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 10:41 am
“2. If all schools were equalized parents wouldn’t need more choices. This usually serves to allow wealthier parents to choose entitled schooling for their children and is a classic case of the rich getting richer.”
That one right there is the part that pisses me off the most.
“Well, we need to give parents choices.”
Dear Parent, you can either enroll your child in the sub par school district you live in, or drive your ass 60 minutes out of your way to a “good” school.
Um. Yeah. OK.
OR, we could take those fucking tax dollars that we all pay and put it back into the damn communities that we live in! ARGGGGGHHHH
Miss Britts last blog post..In Which I Discuss My Weight. And Use Real Numbers.
Swistle Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 11:34 am
It is such a weird, weird set-up that we give decision-making power to people who have absolutely no connection to what they’re making decisions about.
Swistles last blog post..Distractions
TrayDay Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
Hi Sister,
I would be curious to know what you think about Rev James Meeks’ asking parents of Chicago Public School students to take their children up to White People Land on the North Shore on the first day of school to try and enroll their children in schools like New Trier and other astonomically-funded, make-people-of-color-question-their-own-human-worth-and-potential kinda schools.
While I realize that the state “loses money with every absent child” as they say, and the children are missing out on school (even though they don’t do shit on the first day), I find it hard to criticize someone (even though I don’t like Meeks) for doing SOMETHING?!? Giving a semblance of a damn?
But really, curious to know how an educator feels about it…HOLLER!
Amy in StL Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
Okay, I don’t have kids AND I’m not an educator. So I thought the plan sounded pretty good. But I guess that’s what we’re supposed to think, huh? I do agree that our school system is broken and I do think that local educators should be given the empowerment to make the changes that need to be done to fix their school. I wish there was a simple fix, but having virtual classrooms available for kids who don’t have internet access 24/7 isn’t probably helping, huh?
tracey Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
I agree with Elizabeth!! MOCHA for president. It is a bunch of McShit. Education was never and CAN NEVER be a one size fits all. Not unless you start cloning the “good students” The ones that have the potential they need to reach to make us a more superior society.
Mocha Momma Said,
August 13, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
Ok. I’ll run for prez in 8 years after my man Barack is done in Washington. Buttons will be forthcoming…
So, when my sister comments on my blog I’m compelled, by Law, to answer. Otherwise, we won’t be sharing shoes and need I discuss their importance again?
Honestly, I hadn’t heard he was encouraging folks to do that, but now that I have I’m mildly impressed. The principle of the issue is to be taken seriously - shine a light on the inequities of education. People should be ashamed that the amount of money going to schools like New Trier (remember when we used to visit that school in high school? I was SHOCKED to see all that they had!) leaves children behind. The disparities should be lined up next to the NCLB statistical data and we should ALL be forced to account for it.
Side note: where I live we can’t tax property for state offices and buildings. That accounts for an enormous amount of land here. Our school gets NONE of it. Why is it, again, that Governor Blagojevic won’t live here and put his children in our schools?
Yeah, now I know.
Loralee, it will just add to the clusterfuck of NCLB and perpetuate all that was wrong with it in the first place.
KBO - I can’t wait to read what you have to say because I have the same questions about what’s force fed to educators. Ruby Payne had some interesting points, but that’s not all their is - she is missing some BIG pieces in her work on poverty.
Ellen Gerstein - This might take another entire post. No kidding. Let me get to working on that.
I wish I would have made my point clearer so I will just say it here: my title implied that we are all responsible, whether the children belong to our personal families or not. Any child left behind belongs to us all.
Pam Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 7:39 am
>I wish I would have made my point clearer so I will just say it here: my title implied that we are all responsible, whether the children belong to our personal families or not. Any child left behind belongs to us all.
Thank you Mocha!
lylah ledner Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 7:58 am
Hi Mocha Momma…LOVE this blog! I can tell we’re going to get along JUST marvelous!!! Cupcakes and all…:-) thanks for the HELLO on the lylah blog….yup…having 5 grandkiddos…i’m asked, “nana, can we make cupcakes?” can’t refuse!
blessings…lylah
Gwen Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 9:12 am
When politicians start talking about education, I stop listening because they never seem to know what they’re talking about.
My biggest issue is with the inequities in funding schools, but I think that’s been pretty well covered here already.
Gwens last blog post..Heart Throb
aly Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 10:44 pm
a-fucking-men.
especially given all the discussions we had at FOR, it is so frustrating to hear people who have NO IDEA WHAT GOES ON IN EDUCATION declare what is wrong with it, and then propose “solutions” that will continue to disintegrate our schools and children.
i hate that i teach in a trailer where my classroom used to be an office, and therefore can barely fit my 15 kids on a site completely inaccessible to families, while schools in neighboring districts with money are building new performing arts centers because their old one isn’t “aesthetically up-to-date.” mother effer are you serious!?
ps- at least your governor hasn’t chosen to punish the state employees for legislators not passing a budget. if he had an ounce of sense he’d withhold THEIR paychecks and pay the rest of the state a living wage instead of putting one more family out of a house because they were barely making their mortgage as it was. just give me the nyquil is the point.
gunky Said,
August 15, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
i taught elementary school for ten years and hailed my first pregnancy as my ticket out. i had enough of raising my student’s reading levels by two years’ worth in ten months and of still being told i was a bad teacher because they were exiting below grade level. BUT LOOK WHAT THEY LEARNED!
anyway. i can’t stand it. if mccain wins i am moving to canada.
gunkys last blog post..aloha