2017 Medley #25

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Preschool,
Teachers Subsidizing School Programs,
ALEC, DeVos, Charters,
Can We all Agree on This?

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Preschool Reading Instruction and Developmentally Appropriate Practice. Can You Have Both?

In our test-crazed society, where we have elevated the flawed process of standardized testing to the point where it has become the end-all of education, we have also lost our understanding of the learning process. Learning to read doesn't mean worksheets, bubble tests, and disconnected lessons on phonics and word analysis. It means building the understanding of the written word beginning in infancy: right to left, top to bottom, the understanding of story, and dozens of other concepts built by talking to children, allowing them to play with books, and reading aloud.

Developmentally appropriate literacy instruction doesn't mean teaching 4 and 5 year olds test prep!

To take learning standards appropriate for 8-year-olds and push them down to kindergarteners at large would be inappropriate, not advanced. At the same time, the idea that literacy should simply wait until children are suited to conventional reading standards is equally flawed.

A TEACHER SUBSIDIZES THE STATE

Kansas City Teacher Darryl Chamberlin Creates Youth Orchestra With his Own Money

Would a wealthy family send their child to a public school without a library? Would you be able to find a white suburban school without a playground or gymnasium? How about a music program?

Here is yet another teacher subsidizing a state which, as is often the case, inadequately funds schools for children of color. This is an exceptional story, yet this is the sort of thing teachers do all the time.

Darryl Chamberlain was determined to create a youth orchestra come hell or high water. In these uncertain times, where public school budget cuts are impacting African American students perhaps more than ever before, Chamberlain, a history teacher in Kansas City, Missouri, began thinking out of the box.

Chamberlain wants to change young lives through music but he had limited resources. So with the money he received playing piano in local churches, Chamberlain bought 70 used instruments, some from pawn shops, and cleaned them up for the students in his class.The result: The A-Flat Orchestra.

THE WAR AGAINST PUBLIC EDUCATION: ALEC

ALEC’s Attack on Public Education: A Report from the Frontlines

DeVos's selfishness is a perfect fit for a selfish America.

...DeVos’s philosophy was illuminated most by her quote of another former Education Secretary—Margaret Thatcher. The quote: “But who is society? There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first.”

DeVos, like most of the people at ALEC, dismisses the collective good in favor of the individual benefit. Our public education system was designed to collectively educate the masses, in hopes that democracy would thrive. Her priority, and ALEC’s agenda, are otherwise.

THE WAR AGAINST PUBLIC EDUCATION: DEVOS

A Very Serious Thank You Letter to Betsy DeVos

Here is a blogger who reminds us of the good that Betsy DeVos has done...

...you have single-handedly placed public education and its importance back into the national dialogue. And the longer you stay in your office and continue your nebulous approach to privatizing public education, you will convince more people that the need to support public schooling really is important.

PRIVATIZATION: CHARTERS

Charter School Lobby Panics as NAACP Rejects For-Profit Schools

How upset are the privatizers by the NAACP's critique of privatization in the form of charter schools? Schools should be for children, not for profit.

...the report, titled “Quality Education for All: One School at a Time,” basically says nothing more revolutionary than that all public schools should be transparent and accountable.

That includes charter schools.

“Public schools must be public,” the report states. “They must serve all children equitably and well. To the extent that they are part of our public education system, charter schools must be designed to serve these ends.”

TWISTING THE PAST

No Man’s Land

Jim Wright, and his Stonekettle Station blog, are always good for thought-provoking, insightful comments. This piece takes issue with the "slavery apologists" who, in order to relieve the cognitive dissonance of approving of Trump and the racist and anti-semitic fools who support him, find ways to say that "slavery wasn't really so bad."

Can we all agree that slavery was/is evil? Can we all agree that owning and selling human beings is wrong? Apparently not.

Wright's posts are usually very long - and this one is no exception - but it's well worth the time it takes to read.

Slavery, that’s evil. Horrible. Immoral. Wrong.

Agreed? I mean, we are all agreed on this, aren’t we?

I honestly thought that would be the one thing we Americans could all agree on.

Black, white, yellow, red, gay, straight, left, right, liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Christian, Muslim, Jew, atheist, Biggie, Tupac, whatever we identify as, I thought that would be the one thing we Americans could agree on without caveat.

Slavery sucks.

Slavery is bad.

Slavery is an evil blot on American history.

Slavery will always be our eternal shame as a nation. We can surely all agree on that, can’t we? 

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