Monday, October 26, 2009

Today's Random Thoughts

-Did you know that "kids love year-round school"?  Of course, the year-round school discussed decided to extend its school year by adding "intersessions" every nine weeks or so.  During these intercessionals, kids take less traditional classes like "math you can eat" or karate.  They then have summer break that's only about half as long as usual.  I disagree with the author that summer breaks are completely outdated, but she does seem awfully enthusiastic about her kids' school.

-The Economist is my favorite news magazine for a number of reasons, but chief among them is that they always take a removed, thoughtful tone.  After reading through the Lexington (the American politics columnist) blog, they might want to re-think their blogging.  In many instances, the blog is neither removed nor thoughtful in tone.  For instance, a knee-jerk reaction to demographic data on New Orleans charter schools here.  I once heard a speech by an advocate for New Orleans charter schools that highlighted how their students were doing better than the students who remained in traditional public schools.  When asked if it was possible if better students were simply choosing to enroll in charter schools, he admitted that was probably what was going on but said he was paid to gloss over that fact.  I was quite disturbed.  And it's quite likely that the report Lexington references was influenced by the speaker I heard and his employer -- who admitted to engaging in dishonesty to sell their favorite reform.

-Here's a pretty fair article on corporal punishment in Mississippi from a few days back.  Like a number of people interviewed, I generally have a visceral -- and negative -- reaction to corporal punishment when the subject is broached.  But my opposition wavered when I saw the other punitive measures repeatedly tried and subsequently fail during my tenure in the Bronx.

1 comment:

Roger Sweeny said...

I once heard a speech by an advocate for New Orleans charter schools that highlighted how their students were doing better than the students who remained in traditional public schools. When asked if it was possible if better students were simply choosing to enroll in charter schools, he admitted that was probably what was going on but said he was paid to gloss over that fact.

Terrible. And dishonorable. It's a good thing that people who work for colleges never argue that more money should be spent on them because college graduates do better in life than people who never went to college. Oh wait ...