The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right Has Framed the Debate on America’s Schools
From the back cover:
“Timely, accessible, and thoroughly researched, The Seduction of Common Sense exposes the insidious nature of current educational reforms and offers promising directions for anti-oppressive change.”
Kevin K. Kumashiro is an associate professor of policy studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, College of Education, and the founding director of the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education.
Series Foreword: William C. Ayers, University of Illinois-Chicago; Therese Quinn, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Foreword: Herbert Kohl
Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way
From the back cover:
What happens when a teacher resists the pressures of “teaching to the test” and creates a curriculum based on student needs, wants and desires? Brian Schultz did just that when he challenged his students from a housing project in Chicago to name a problem in their community that they wanted to solve. When the students unanimously focus on replacing their dilapidated school building, an unforgettable journey is put into motion. As his students examine the conditions of their blighted school and research the deeper causes of decay, they set off on a mission of remedy and repair. It is finally their own questions and activities that power their profound self-transformations. This moving story is a tribute to what determined teachers can achieve in the current stifling environment of high-stakes testing and standardization. Anyone who has faith in creativity, commitment, and the deep potential of inner-city children and youth will want to read this book.
Brian D. Schultz is an assistant professor of education and honors faculty at Northeastern Illinois University [NEIU] in Chicago. He also taught in the Chicago Public Schools and in 2005 received the Educator of the Year award from the Illinois Computing Educators.
In the latest issue of Education Next, Paul Peterson and Rick Hess analyze and rank state standards - and find that only three states [Massachusetts, Missouri and South Carolina] have rigorous standards.:
As the debate over the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) makes its murky way through the political swamp, one thing has become crystal clear: Though NCLB requires that virtually all children become proficient by the year 2014, states disagree on the level of accomplishment in math and reading a proficient child should possess. A few states have been setting world-class standards, but most are well off that mark—in some cases to a laughable degree.
How’d New York fare?
4th Grade Math: C-
4th Grade Reading: B-
8th Grade Math: C
8th Grade Reading: B
In 2003 and 2005, NYS received an overall grade of C.
Three of the organizations that consistently uphold only our best values in higher education have redesigned their websites - they’re worth a look, whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth.
I’ll start with NAS - what they do, who they are, and why they matter.
National Association of Scholars
NAS describes their mission on their website:
NAS was founded in 1987, soon after Allan Bloom’s surprise best-seller, The Closing of the American Mind, alerted Americans to the ravages wrought by illiberal ideologies on campus. The founders of NAS summoned faculty members from across the political spectrum to help defend the core values of liberal education.
The NAS today is higher education’s most vigilant watchdog. We stand for intellectual integrity in the curriculum, in the classroom, and across the campus—and we respond when colleges and universities fall short of the mark. We uphold the principle of individual merit and oppose racial, gender, and other group preferences. And we regard the Western intellectual heritage as the indispensable foundation of American higher education.
The 2007 NAS report titled “The Scandal of Social Work Education” describes the politicization and intellectual conformity that has been systematically imposed on an important discipline in public life. Social work programs have become a vehicle for doctrine-based social engineering instead of remedy.
They’ve begun to raise awareness about “Little Delawares,” K-12 programs that, while less intrusive than the University of Delaware’s infamous Residence Life program, border on indoctrination - sometimes blatantly crossing that border - and betray even our most sacred liberal, Western values.
The NAS strolls purposefully and confidently where angels fear - and that often comes with a price. In response to, “Is it dangerous to join?” the NAS advises:
“It can be. We recognize that graduate students and untenured faculty members run a risk if they join an organization that is famous for challenging campus orthodoxies. So we won’t tell your colleagues — or your dean, and we’ll mail Academic Questions to your home if you wish.
Is joining NAS worth the risk? That’s a decision you must make for yourself — and something you should consider the next time you bite your tongue in a department meeting for fear of the consequences of expressing what you really think.”
I’m a member of the NAS. Even if you’d rather not join, you’d do well to stay abreast of their sober takes on contemporary issues in higher education.
And we’ve lost another Country great. Eddy Arnold sold 85 million records and charted 28 #1 hits including “Make the World Go Away” and “Cattle Call.”
Arnold bridged the gap between his “cowboy country” fan-base of the late 1940′s and the popular crooners of the 1950s. When country music started bedazzling its outfits and getting rowdier and more flippant, Arnold stuck with simple, classy suits and a demure, gentlemanly disposition.
When Merle Haggard was singing “The Fightin’ Side of Me” and Johnny Cash was notoriously intemperate, Eddy Arnold was still singing love songs with class.
Here’s Eddy singing “Cattle Call” on TNN’s “Salute to the 1950′s” show. He ain’t young, but he’s still got it. [click here if reading in RSS]
UPDATE: The New English Review’s Iconoclast blog has several links to Eddy Arnold videos.
