Come, join the conversation! Just don't say anything, please...
Finally, it's happening! With the help of the New Yorker and that long-revered institution of higher learning, the University of Phoenix, rich New Yorkers will finally have the chance to spread their altruistic wings by joining forces with CEOs, film producers, education policy "experts," and other suit-wearing wankers to discuss the future of American education! You too can join this conversation by emailing a question to the communications associates of this esteemed panel of four before they discuss their "innovative models" (which contain "potential solutions and related trade-offs," of course)... to address the needs of our children in the 21st century!
What: The Conversation on the Future of Education in America Continues and Comes to Life panel discussion, see page 31 (all of it) in the New Yorker. I'll bet that full-page ad cost more than I make in year.
When: March 23, 2011
Where: New York City, of course. The address, however, is not disclosed in the ad. I suppose you need a special invitation to attend this panel discussion.
Who: Craig Barrett, retired CEO/Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation (World leader in silicon innovation and school curriculum, apparently); Madeleine Sackler (Couldn't she just spell her name without the "e"?), Director and Producer of The Lottery, another hot film that blames teachers and their rights to collective bargaining for the results of poor parenting and widespread entitlement complexes; Cynthia G. Brown, Vice President for Education Policy for the Center for American Progress (I need to get into the "think-tank" business. What is the educational criteria, I wonder, for an entry level think-tanker?); and the Honorable Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education for George W. Bush (Because we all know what a smashing impact No Child Left Behind has made on the system that already exists.)
I hope I'm not the only New Yorker reader who thinks this a rather motley crew for bringing the conversation on education reform to life. It appears to be a very well-financed bullshit session, like a much more formal level of cocktail party bravado, the kind where a bunch of bloviating business jerks stand around with their glasses of something amber-colored on the rocks and jab at each other with their fat fingers and say things like "You know what they should do about schools and teachers and blah blah?" except this time they get to BE the ambiguous "they" of their fantasies. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it. Perhaps all these conversations about education reform that go on around me as if I didn't exist are completely innocuous. What isn't innocuous about any of it is this: real educators, people who have spent their lives working within these broken systems, are always the last to be asked to the party.
Anthony Mullen said all this last year, and he said it much better than I do. Here is a blog from his Road Diaries:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_of_the_year/2010/01/teachers_should_be_seen_and_no.html
I will certainly accept the invitation to join this conversation on March 23 by submitting my question online, but I don't expect much to change in my world, at the roots. In fact, I expect it to get much, much worse.
What: The Conversation on the Future of Education in America Continues and Comes to Life panel discussion, see page 31 (all of it) in the New Yorker. I'll bet that full-page ad cost more than I make in year.
When: March 23, 2011
Where: New York City, of course. The address, however, is not disclosed in the ad. I suppose you need a special invitation to attend this panel discussion.
Who: Craig Barrett, retired CEO/Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation (World leader in silicon innovation and school curriculum, apparently); Madeleine Sackler (Couldn't she just spell her name without the "e"?), Director and Producer of The Lottery, another hot film that blames teachers and their rights to collective bargaining for the results of poor parenting and widespread entitlement complexes; Cynthia G. Brown, Vice President for Education Policy for the Center for American Progress (I need to get into the "think-tank" business. What is the educational criteria, I wonder, for an entry level think-tanker?); and the Honorable Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education for George W. Bush (Because we all know what a smashing impact No Child Left Behind has made on the system that already exists.)
I hope I'm not the only New Yorker reader who thinks this a rather motley crew for bringing the conversation on education reform to life. It appears to be a very well-financed bullshit session, like a much more formal level of cocktail party bravado, the kind where a bunch of bloviating business jerks stand around with their glasses of something amber-colored on the rocks and jab at each other with their fat fingers and say things like "You know what they should do about schools and teachers and blah blah?" except this time they get to BE the ambiguous "they" of their fantasies. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it. Perhaps all these conversations about education reform that go on around me as if I didn't exist are completely innocuous. What isn't innocuous about any of it is this: real educators, people who have spent their lives working within these broken systems, are always the last to be asked to the party.
Anthony Mullen said all this last year, and he said it much better than I do. Here is a blog from his Road Diaries:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_of_the_year/2010/01/teachers_should_be_seen_and_no.html
I will certainly accept the invitation to join this conversation on March 23 by submitting my question online, but I don't expect much to change in my world, at the roots. In fact, I expect it to get much, much worse.