Bellringers is hosting the 170th Carnival of Education this week.
I like this multiple choice testing format - it’s not the quickest read, but it’s clever and entertaining. Gold star!
Don’t stop at the Carnival, though. Bellringers is a good read that everyone ought to have in their RSS reader. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Carol Richtsmeier, the author of Bellringers, was a reporter before moving into teaching and in 2002 was named the Texas Journalism Teacher of the Year.
Ms. Richtsmeier was kind enough to include my post about Kierra Bell, the Detroit 8th grader who respectfully taught City Councilman Monica Conyers a few lessons that she’d have done well to have learned many, many years ago.
Larry Ferlazzo at InPractice can’t quite decide whether WASL-weasel Carl Chew is an American hero. He thinks that Chew’s actions won’t have any impact and that Chew is likely an egocentric grandstander - yet:
Do I think his [Chew’s] action showed disregard for his communities’ values? Definitely not. In fact, I’d say they might have been an extraordinarily accurate representation of the best values in our community traditions.
I’m awfully pleased, then, that I don’t live in Chew’s community.
If you’d like to see how things turned out the last time I linked to a Carnival post about Chew, have a gander. The comments are a worthwhile read.
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Technorati Tags: bellringers, carl chew, carnival of education, kierra bell, monica conyers, mybellringers, wasl
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Matthew,
I think you accurately summarized, and quoted, what I wrote except for the important fact that
I don’t see the word “hero” anywhere in my post.
Nonviolent civil disobedience, whether or not I or anyone else agree with the goal, is an honored and critical part of our nation’s history and I suspect and hope it will continue to play an important role in our future.
Mr. Chew’s actions, even though I believe them to be tactically and strategically ill-chosen, do provide his students, his school, his community, and the rest of us a teaching and learning opportunity about this important aspect of our history and the role of civil disobedience in public life.
Larry
Larry,
That’s why I didn’t quote the word “hero.” It was my word, not yours.
Civil disobedience, as we all agree, has its place. I don’t think that anyone is challenging that - and if they tried, people would [rightly] come out of the woodwork to defeat the assertion.
Chew refused to do something and is grandstanding for a particular agenda that, as you have said and with which I agree, is unlikely to have a positive impact. Counting Chew in that tradition practiced by too many important people to list is an unacceptably low bar for something we find to be an “important aspect of our history” and of “public life” in the US.