First, I’ve never - not once - met a single person in public education who knew what Walter Reed did, so let’s start with that.
Med students usually know about him; Walter Reed is famous for his work on understanding the transmission of yellow fever [around the Span-Am War in Cuba, this mattered quite a lot, and then allowed us to finish the Panama Canal]. That’s why we’ve named a hospital after him and a few other things - including the Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood.
I’ve seen it, it’s nice.
Reed’s a neat guy to name a school after. He finished his medical degree when he was 17. WRMS carries a tradition of serious academics, and I think they’re still the only middle school to offer AP Physics.
My high school, which wasn’t a terrible one, didn’t even offer AP Physics.
The LA-Times blog, The Homeroom, links to… yes, TalkingPointsMemo, to explain the potential picture mix-up at the RNC.
Yawn.
I don’t really care about the photo - I didn’t look at them anyway. What concerns me is this bit from WRMS principal Donna Tobin:
“Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school’s picture an endorsement of any political party or view.”
No endorsement? That’s fine to point out.
But “permission… was not given by our school”? Since when does someone need permission to take and use a picture of a public school - or any public building?
Grow up, Donna Tobin, and since you’re so concerned about weird marketing, you might want to take Wikipedia’s advice on the entry for your school: “This article is written like an advertisement.”
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Stephen Downes 09.06.08 at 10:10 pm
I love the way you take a howler by the RNC and turn it into a ditribe against public schools.
> I’ve never - not once - met a single person in public education who knew what Walter Reed did
Based on what I’ve read here, I would conclude that this is because you never actually go out and speak to them.
Stephen Downes 09.06.08 at 10:10 pm
diatribe, of course (keyboard sticks)
Matthew K. Tabor 09.07.08 at 2:31 am
Stephen,
My B key is the naughty one. My cat ripped it off with her claws and I had to glue it back on. It works about 80% of the time.
This has nothing to do with the RNC - I haven’t met, in the last 10 years, a social studies teacher who knows of Walter Reed. I asked around when the poor facilities controversy happened.
Not only do I go out and “speak to them,” but I come from at least 100 years of American educators.
I’d talk to Canadian educators, too, but Hell hasn’t frozen over yet.
Michelle (The Beartwinsmom) 09.07.08 at 9:22 am
Hell freezes over in Michigan constantly. You know it’s a town here. (wink).
Honestly, and I know this is going to sound really ignorant of me since I do try to pride myself on being educated, but that was a school in that picture? It didn’t look like a school to me! Then again, I guess that’s California for ya. Or just me watching the speech very late at night with a tired brain.
What I really thought (and this is going to come off as a slam to the RNC and I don’t want it to come off like that since I am conservative) that it was one of the many McCain houses that he doesn’t remember he has (double wink and nudge.)
Matthew K. Tabor 09.07.08 at 5:03 pm
Michelle,
Stephen is his usual, charming, mouth-frothing dishonest self here - who completely misses the point that vignettes about guys like Walter Reed just aren’t part of the curriculum, and that point isn’t a “diatribe against public schools” - so it’s refreshing to get a little common sense on this post.
I didn’t even see the photo until days after the speech. Maybe that’s because I watched on CNN, and it seemed like they had close-up shots through all of it. I don’t think I can recall a single background image from that speech. I really don’t think too many people saw the images.
Slam away at the RNC and Republicans. Self-criticism is good for everyone. Plus, it’s always better if criticism comes in-house than from outside.