Study on Charters, The Real Thanksgiving, and a little bit of Communism...

Here's an eclectic selection of readings over the long weekend in case any of you become bored with football, eating, writing term papers, etc...

New study released by the Center on Reiventing Education is a comprehensive look at the charter school movement. The study found that "it is nearly impossible to generalize about charter schools as a national phenomenon." Definitely worth reading, especially due to contributing authors Paul Hill, Robin Lake, and eduwonk
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As Thanksgiving comes upon us, we as educators should always question and search for real meanings. James Loewen's book; Lies My Teacher Told Me, attempts to search for such truth:

The Thanksgiving legend makes Americans ethnocentric. After all, if our culture has God on its side, why should we consider other cultures seriously?

The true history of Thanksgiving reveals embarrassing facts. The Pilgrims did not introduce the traditions; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries... Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday...the Pilgrims had nothing to do with it...Thus our popular history of the Pilgrims has not been a process of gaining perspective but of deliberate forgetting.

Correctly taught, the issues of the era of the first Thanksgiving could help Americans grow more thoughtful and more tolerant, rather than more ethnocentric...

Just some food for thought (in addition to your turkeys)!
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Check out this post on EIA discussing an interesting tidbit of info:

Local communist meetings aren't found only in dark bars, living rooms, and coffee shops. Every month the comrades get a hot lunch, too -- at the National Education Association cafeteria on 16th Street NW

FYI: the NEA did nothing wrong (the cafeteria is a public space) but I found the articles entertaining nonetheless

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Happy Thanksgiving!

The Million Dollar Question

So my favorite blogger edwahoo has just asked the question: "What is the single most major reform needed in American education today?"

He is proposing an edublog debate of sorts and has asked bloggers to post their answers on their own blogs and then send him the link. Here's his brainstorm idea:

"Schools have to be reformed in their pedagogical structures (and everything that flows from them, possibly including but not limited to classroom design and assessments) so that they have the singular goal of critical thinking."

I thought it would be cool if we join in so here's my brainstorm idea:

I am a proponent of Richard Rothstein's notion that environmental factors can account for up to 80% of a child's success rate in education and therefore schools cannot put up blinders to socioeconomic status. I believe there are two main approaches to fixing education: one is we first have to fix the societal problems that exist; health care, nutrition, early child care, employment, affordable housing etc which will ultimately equalize education. The second option is to create schools designed to address the societal issues listed above (like what Harlem Children's Zone does). Thus, schools would become community centers of sorts where children could receive healthcare, nutrition, etc, and parents would receive housing, employment, training, and educational help.


Any other ideas?