Joe Biden is the first candidate that we'll examine. His stance on No Child Left Behind is, like most of the other candidates, that it is under-funded. He favors innovation and retaining good teachers, while proposing a sizable increase in funding to schools. These sound like good ideas, except where are we going to get that money? Raising taxes?
The following, taken from the candidates website, represents what Biden believes about Education:
Education: A Promise For The Future
“My mother has an expression, children tend to become that which you expect of them. I want a country where we expect much from America’s children. Every child must graduate from high school. Every child should go on to higher education. Today, just two-thirds of students entering high school graduate, and about two-thirds of those go
on to college. We are losing too many children in this country, wasting too much talent, leaving so much potential untapped. We know what we need to do: First, stop focusing just on test scores. Second, start education earlier. Third, pay educators more. Fourth, reduce class size. Fifth, make higher education affordable.”
-- Joe Biden
To build a 21st century education system, Joe Biden would:
1. Move Toward A Sixteen Year System
2. Focus on Retaining And Training Teachers
3. Reduce Class Size
______________________________________________________________________
1. Strengthening Our Education System: Moving Toward A Sixteen Year System Joe Biden would replace the 20th century 12-year school system with a 16-year system. He would start education earlier so that every parent who wants to can send their child to two years of preschool and make sure that students can afford at least two years of higher education.
2. Support and Retain Our Teachers
Research has consistently shown that teachers are the single most important factor in determining how well a student performs in school, yet we can’t keep talented teachers in the classroom. Teacher attrition costs our schools $2 to $7 billion a year. Each year 270,000 of our 3.2 million public school teachers leave the field. Every school day, over 1,000 teachers leave the field for reasons other than retirement. Teachers leave for a wide range of reasons – from low pay to burn out.
3. Reduce Class Size
Create a national initiative to reduce class size: Joe Biden would hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce the average class size to 18 students, particularly in the early grades. Students in small class sizes in kindergarten - 3rd grade are as much as half a year ahead of students from larger classes in reading, math and science by the time they get to 5th grade. Smaller classes will provide teachers with the resources they need to create the opportunities for learning that our students deserve.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
What Must Be Done: National Candidates Educational Policies
Today begins a comprehensive journey to let readers know where the different candidates stand on educational policies. We'll highlight three areas of focus: No Child Left Behind, Learning and Teaching, and Innovation.
Since many Progressive Educators in the Open Source Community believe that the educational mandate entitled No Child Left Behind, while a good sentiment to let no child flounder in sinking public schools, the reality has been less than ideal. In fact, many people call the bill "No Child Left Untested." Please remember that No Child Left Behind is fully a bipartisan effort that has been the death-knell to innovative teaching and creative learning. Sort of like everything touched by the current president's administration and this Congress. No one is excused from blame in this shambles of a law and what it has wrought
Why is NCLB so bad? It's not just that it is underfunded. The bill needs to be scrapped, completely. It does not work and it is harmful to the very children that it was intended to help. The poor, the black, and the brown. Simply put, teachers spend far too much of their time focusing on what will be on the state and nationally mandated testing and too little time on actually teaching children to think and how best to learn. Currently, we spend a fair amount of time teaching students what to learn rather than how to learn; that goes for public and private schools alike. Put it this way, if the Stanley Kaplan Testing Company was so widely wonderful and innovative, why aren't their methods not in practice at the major universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford) in the country?
What are my credentials on educational reform, innovation, and No Child Left Behind? I was the chief architect in turning the Andre Agassi School around after it was mired in controversy (from 2004 - 2006). Although we did a great deal in the two years that we were at the school, more can be done, especially given how much money the Agassi Foundation, the Federal government, as well as the State of Nevada is spending on the school. The Agassi public relations machine obscures some of the hard facts about the school and what needs to be done to help Andres Big idea.
Also, I would definitely look to the pre- (so called) Excellence Movement that swept the country during the Reagan regime as a place to look for answers. Short History Lesson: The Civil Rights Seventies, which can be likened to a Second United States Reconstruction, made some headway in dismantling the problems that were posed by democracy in this country. Young and idealistic teachers buoyed by M.L. King, Malcolm X, and the Kennedy brothers, gave their careers and even their lives to dismantle newly desegregated schools throughout the land. Yep, that's in this country. Many of these teachers have recently retired or are nearing retirement age.
So, what changed? In California and beyond, Proposition 13 destabilized the efforts of real teaching and learning, de-funding and thereby de-neutering the short gains that were made in education.
Can any of the presidential candidates restore the hope that education was supposed to engender for all Americans? Probably not, but by adding your name to a growing chorus of outrage about what is being done to the United States Public Schools, you can fight to overturn years and years worth of worthless teaching and death defying learning in our nations schools. When children feel disrespected, seen and not heard, and cast to the side, then they tend to lash inward or outward. This is certainly no justification for the wrongs that a deranged few have perpetrated on K-12 and higher education, but it is a chorus of mistrust that must be heard and confronted with compassion, dignity, and real solutions--rather than longer school days and tests every year. Namaste, Brian
Since many Progressive Educators in the Open Source Community believe that the educational mandate entitled No Child Left Behind, while a good sentiment to let no child flounder in sinking public schools, the reality has been less than ideal. In fact, many people call the bill "No Child Left Untested." Please remember that No Child Left Behind is fully a bipartisan effort that has been the death-knell to innovative teaching and creative learning. Sort of like everything touched by the current president's administration and this Congress. No one is excused from blame in this shambles of a law and what it has wrought
Why is NCLB so bad? It's not just that it is underfunded. The bill needs to be scrapped, completely. It does not work and it is harmful to the very children that it was intended to help. The poor, the black, and the brown. Simply put, teachers spend far too much of their time focusing on what will be on the state and nationally mandated testing and too little time on actually teaching children to think and how best to learn. Currently, we spend a fair amount of time teaching students what to learn rather than how to learn; that goes for public and private schools alike. Put it this way, if the Stanley Kaplan Testing Company was so widely wonderful and innovative, why aren't their methods not in practice at the major universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford) in the country?
What are my credentials on educational reform, innovation, and No Child Left Behind? I was the chief architect in turning the Andre Agassi School around after it was mired in controversy (from 2004 - 2006). Although we did a great deal in the two years that we were at the school, more can be done, especially given how much money the Agassi Foundation, the Federal government, as well as the State of Nevada is spending on the school. The Agassi public relations machine obscures some of the hard facts about the school and what needs to be done to help Andres Big idea.
Also, I would definitely look to the pre- (so called) Excellence Movement that swept the country during the Reagan regime as a place to look for answers. Short History Lesson: The Civil Rights Seventies, which can be likened to a Second United States Reconstruction, made some headway in dismantling the problems that were posed by democracy in this country. Young and idealistic teachers buoyed by M.L. King, Malcolm X, and the Kennedy brothers, gave their careers and even their lives to dismantle newly desegregated schools throughout the land. Yep, that's in this country. Many of these teachers have recently retired or are nearing retirement age.
So, what changed? In California and beyond, Proposition 13 destabilized the efforts of real teaching and learning, de-funding and thereby de-neutering the short gains that were made in education.
Can any of the presidential candidates restore the hope that education was supposed to engender for all Americans? Probably not, but by adding your name to a growing chorus of outrage about what is being done to the United States Public Schools, you can fight to overturn years and years worth of worthless teaching and death defying learning in our nations schools. When children feel disrespected, seen and not heard, and cast to the side, then they tend to lash inward or outward. This is certainly no justification for the wrongs that a deranged few have perpetrated on K-12 and higher education, but it is a chorus of mistrust that must be heard and confronted with compassion, dignity, and real solutions--rather than longer school days and tests every year. Namaste, Brian
Benazir Bhutto Assassinated
Today, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan after returning from self-imposed exile in London just a few short months ago. When hearing of her return, I thought to myself, she is not long for this world. Today's New York Times obituary said of her:
A deeply polarizing figure, Ms. Bhutto, the “daughter of Pakistan,” was twice elected prime minister and twice expelled from office in a swirl of corruption charges that propelled her into self-imposed exile in London for much of the past decade. She returned home this fall, billing herself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism and a tribune of democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28bhuttocnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
As we head into another United States presidential electoral cycle, may we teach the children well about how the electoral process can lead to peaceful and meaningful change.
A deeply polarizing figure, Ms. Bhutto, the “daughter of Pakistan,” was twice elected prime minister and twice expelled from office in a swirl of corruption charges that propelled her into self-imposed exile in London for much of the past decade. She returned home this fall, billing herself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism and a tribune of democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28bhuttocnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
As we head into another United States presidential electoral cycle, may we teach the children well about how the electoral process can lead to peaceful and meaningful change.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Oobleck Pool at the Exploratorium
Here's an example of what some teachers have done at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This is a group of the Exploratorium's Teacher's Institute who run back and forth across a pool of cornstarch and water--Oobleck--at the Exploratorium.
Too Much TV--When Kids Are Bored
The Exploratorium is a children's science museum that many Bay Area families visit during breaks. Teachers also use the Exploratorium to support their science learning in their classrooms.
My children have been sleeping late this past week. It's what my wife truly hates: too much TV. Like one of those Berenstain Bears' books where the bear cubs and their goofy dad watch way too much television or eat far too much crappy foods. The sanctimonious books were the mainstay of our hosuehold when the kids were three, four, and five. Not any more, thank goodness. My daughter and son are now older and their taste in reading has gotten to be much more sophisticated. They've been reading books like EVERY LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS, which is about a girl whose family owns a funeral parlor (actually not one of my favorite books that she has chosen for us to read to her at night). My son is reading INTO THE WILD, based on the disappearance of a young man into the wilds of Alaska. Although we got up late today, we're preparing for a day of turning the television off--tomorrow.
From the museum's website, "The Exploratorium is an experimental, hands-on museum designed to spark curiosity—regardless of your age or familiarity with science. There are hundreds of exhibits to touch, pick up, and tinker with. Your curiosity can be your compass to endless discoveries!"
One of the featured exhibits this month is Making Sense of Sound. Part of the museum's exhibit is where people who listen for a living tell you about what they do. At least that is what I was able to glean from the museum's website. There is an acoustic engineer, a wildlife tracker, an auto mechanic, an experimental music maker, as well as others, who go through their lives in sound. In a future post (hopefully tomorrow), we'll give you a review of this exhibit and perhaps some of the other museums treats.
TURN OFF THE TV!!
My children have been sleeping late this past week. It's what my wife truly hates: too much TV. Like one of those Berenstain Bears' books where the bear cubs and their goofy dad watch way too much television or eat far too much crappy foods. The sanctimonious books were the mainstay of our hosuehold when the kids were three, four, and five. Not any more, thank goodness. My daughter and son are now older and their taste in reading has gotten to be much more sophisticated. They've been reading books like EVERY LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS, which is about a girl whose family owns a funeral parlor (actually not one of my favorite books that she has chosen for us to read to her at night). My son is reading INTO THE WILD, based on the disappearance of a young man into the wilds of Alaska. Although we got up late today, we're preparing for a day of turning the television off--tomorrow.
From the museum's website, "The Exploratorium is an experimental, hands-on museum designed to spark curiosity—regardless of your age or familiarity with science. There are hundreds of exhibits to touch, pick up, and tinker with. Your curiosity can be your compass to endless discoveries!"
One of the featured exhibits this month is Making Sense of Sound. Part of the museum's exhibit is where people who listen for a living tell you about what they do. At least that is what I was able to glean from the museum's website. There is an acoustic engineer, a wildlife tracker, an auto mechanic, an experimental music maker, as well as others, who go through their lives in sound. In a future post (hopefully tomorrow), we'll give you a review of this exhibit and perhaps some of the other museums treats.
TURN OFF THE TV!!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Come, All Ye Faithful
Yesterday, my family and I made our yearly pilgrimage to church. This time we were at a candle light service at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Marin City. We chose it because we knew that it was Anne Lamott's church and that it was multiracial and multicultural. The last two elements would fit nicely with our family. Plus, the minister is a sister.
Thirty minutes before the service began, I drove like a bat out of hell, trying to beat the traffic (which there was none) and parishioners who would be lined up down the block to get into the Marin City church. As we pulled into the parking lot, across the way from the Outback Steakhouse, where we have spent a good deal of our dining out time since we arrived back in the Bay Area, we noticed very few cars in the parking lot. Including our own car, there were only three families who had arrived. One very friendly-faced African American woman waved to us as I turned off the Christmas carols and the car.
I wasn't mistaken, there was no one at the church--twenty minutes before the service was to start!! This was different than going to my mother's church, Trinity UCC in Chicago. There we had to get to church at least an hour before the service was to begin just to get a decent enough seat somewhere within one hundred feet of the altar. Even as we waited outside of the narthex to get into the church building and the sanctuary itself, we noticed the small worship space--intimate, let's say. Also, the candles that were on gold foil that stretched out in front of the lectern, roughly 4'X12'. The building itself held about 170 seats artfully placed around the central speaking area.
I must say the the modest size of the church and the few people that trickled into the sanctuary--either given candles with drip catchers or flashlights--took some getting used to. No one asked us for money the entire time, and people seemed generally interested in us as humans. As in so many multiracial places, the majority of the folks looked "white."
We sang carols and listened to bible verses read by what I presume were the elders of the church. I did have to speak with my son a few times to get him to behave (stand-up to sing--sit-down to listen to a reading--over and over again). Without understanding the true meaning of Christmas, I told him, there would be no presents the next day. It wasn't an artful threat, but it was what I was feeling at the time.
It all was quite wonderful as it turns out in a "give love on Christmas Day" sort of way. It felt like school rather than church, which always put me at ease. I appreciated every moment of it. I must admit that I didn't quite feel the spirit inside the church, but we will go back.
Every day and in every way, education extends to every aspect of our lives. Whether it's re-inventing traditions or co-creating community wherever we are, living in Open Source communities means coming as you are.
Thirty minutes before the service began, I drove like a bat out of hell, trying to beat the traffic (which there was none) and parishioners who would be lined up down the block to get into the Marin City church. As we pulled into the parking lot, across the way from the Outback Steakhouse, where we have spent a good deal of our dining out time since we arrived back in the Bay Area, we noticed very few cars in the parking lot. Including our own car, there were only three families who had arrived. One very friendly-faced African American woman waved to us as I turned off the Christmas carols and the car.
I wasn't mistaken, there was no one at the church--twenty minutes before the service was to start!! This was different than going to my mother's church, Trinity UCC in Chicago. There we had to get to church at least an hour before the service was to begin just to get a decent enough seat somewhere within one hundred feet of the altar. Even as we waited outside of the narthex to get into the church building and the sanctuary itself, we noticed the small worship space--intimate, let's say. Also, the candles that were on gold foil that stretched out in front of the lectern, roughly 4'X12'. The building itself held about 170 seats artfully placed around the central speaking area.
I must say the the modest size of the church and the few people that trickled into the sanctuary--either given candles with drip catchers or flashlights--took some getting used to. No one asked us for money the entire time, and people seemed generally interested in us as humans. As in so many multiracial places, the majority of the folks looked "white."
We sang carols and listened to bible verses read by what I presume were the elders of the church. I did have to speak with my son a few times to get him to behave (stand-up to sing--sit-down to listen to a reading--over and over again). Without understanding the true meaning of Christmas, I told him, there would be no presents the next day. It wasn't an artful threat, but it was what I was feeling at the time.
It all was quite wonderful as it turns out in a "give love on Christmas Day" sort of way. It felt like school rather than church, which always put me at ease. I appreciated every moment of it. I must admit that I didn't quite feel the spirit inside the church, but we will go back.
Every day and in every way, education extends to every aspect of our lives. Whether it's re-inventing traditions or co-creating community wherever we are, living in Open Source communities means coming as you are.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
December 23rd--White::Christmas
Two days before Christmas.
I remember this day more than any other--even more than Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So, what's so special about Christmas Eve Eve? It's probably the anticipation of being picked up by my dad on Christmas Eve. My brother and I would spend two or three times per year with our father, each time was very special, going to Downtown Chicago on the IC (Illinois Central Railroad). The train was a commuter rail line to the City then rather than a train the went from Chicago and all the way down through down State, Illinois, then on to Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS, and New Orleans. The City of New Orleans.
Trains meant freedom. For generations of Black people and this one Black boy from Robbins, Illinois. Riding on a train was like the holiday that we loved so well; Christmas. Traveling from Robbins via Blue Island to the Randolph Street station, which were in the very bowels of City, underground out of the elements. It could be snowing like crazy, or sleeting, but we were safe--with our Dad.
My father died six days before the events of September 11, 2001. It was like my own personal grief was swallowed whole by what the nation was experiencing at the time, sending me reeling off of my own tracks, as it were.
But back in the late Sixties, bracing the stiff rain, sleet, and wind of Chicago's brutal winter to hang out with our father is still the highlight of my life.
What was special about that time? There were pinball machines and baseball machines and donuts and places where you could actually make a record. My brother, dad, and I jammed into a photo booth-sized cubicle making our rendition of "White Christmas." To me, my father sounded exactly like Bing Crosby, how deep he could make his voice.
Racing home to show my mother was probably the biggest letdown, that's when we would realize that they were never, ever going to get back together. I have to admit, I don't remember a time when they were together, but I had their wedding pictures staring at us over at my "Aint" Bert's house, airbrushed to perfection to emphasize their diminutive size and airbrushed eyebrows and red, red lips; they both looked liked they had on lipstick. I loved that picture. How beautiful they were. They were my hope for the future. They were what I remembered about Christmas.
Although my mother and father went on to marry other people. Again, hurtfully so for mom, and pretty happily so for my father, they were what I secretly wished for at Christmas. If they could only get back together, then all would be solved.
So these days, I listen to the candidates talk about what constitutes a married couple, what constitutes love, a household, a family. My mind goes back to that train station underneath the City of Chicago, and I remember those moments that made me unequivocally and irrevocably me. Making "White Christmas" and hoping for a reunion that wold never come. No one was more heartbroken than me; it was like waiting and waiting for Jesus to arrive. Dying waiting for "The Christ." The One who would save us all.
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know.
http://people.uis.edu/mleon1/images/robbins.gif
I remember this day more than any other--even more than Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So, what's so special about Christmas Eve Eve? It's probably the anticipation of being picked up by my dad on Christmas Eve. My brother and I would spend two or three times per year with our father, each time was very special, going to Downtown Chicago on the IC (Illinois Central Railroad). The train was a commuter rail line to the City then rather than a train the went from Chicago and all the way down through down State, Illinois, then on to Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS, and New Orleans. The City of New Orleans.
Trains meant freedom. For generations of Black people and this one Black boy from Robbins, Illinois. Riding on a train was like the holiday that we loved so well; Christmas. Traveling from Robbins via Blue Island to the Randolph Street station, which were in the very bowels of City, underground out of the elements. It could be snowing like crazy, or sleeting, but we were safe--with our Dad.
My father died six days before the events of September 11, 2001. It was like my own personal grief was swallowed whole by what the nation was experiencing at the time, sending me reeling off of my own tracks, as it were.
But back in the late Sixties, bracing the stiff rain, sleet, and wind of Chicago's brutal winter to hang out with our father is still the highlight of my life.
What was special about that time? There were pinball machines and baseball machines and donuts and places where you could actually make a record. My brother, dad, and I jammed into a photo booth-sized cubicle making our rendition of "White Christmas." To me, my father sounded exactly like Bing Crosby, how deep he could make his voice.
Racing home to show my mother was probably the biggest letdown, that's when we would realize that they were never, ever going to get back together. I have to admit, I don't remember a time when they were together, but I had their wedding pictures staring at us over at my "Aint" Bert's house, airbrushed to perfection to emphasize their diminutive size and airbrushed eyebrows and red, red lips; they both looked liked they had on lipstick. I loved that picture. How beautiful they were. They were my hope for the future. They were what I remembered about Christmas.
Although my mother and father went on to marry other people. Again, hurtfully so for mom, and pretty happily so for my father, they were what I secretly wished for at Christmas. If they could only get back together, then all would be solved.
So these days, I listen to the candidates talk about what constitutes a married couple, what constitutes love, a household, a family. My mind goes back to that train station underneath the City of Chicago, and I remember those moments that made me unequivocally and irrevocably me. Making "White Christmas" and hoping for a reunion that wold never come. No one was more heartbroken than me; it was like waiting and waiting for Jesus to arrive. Dying waiting for "The Christ." The One who would save us all.
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know.
http://people.uis.edu/mleon1/images/robbins.gif
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