ICYMI: Birdie Edition (3/16)
I spent the week playing trombone in the pit for a local production of Bye Bye Birdie, which is not always my most favorite show in the world, but I love watching the students lay their hearts out on stage. If you don't know the show, it spins off the drafting of Elvis and the hubbub over sending a pop star off to the military while his fans work themselves into a frenzy. But the necessities of casting in high school productions often create intriguing side effects. Like, what if Belle's wacky inventor father was instead her wacky inventor mother? In this production's case, Conrad Birdie is Black. Doesn't change the show in big ways, but it gives it a slightly different flavor.
At any rate, that show has been the big user of my evenings this week, but I still have a reading list for you. Here we go.
Here we go. Somebody used the word equity and now students in three districts will have to pay the price.
Musk's War on Farmers and Hungry Kids
Andy Spears offers quick take on Trusk's attempt to screw children and farmers in one fellonious swoop.
Linda McMahon’s Fake ‘Mission': The States Already Control Education
I've missed Peter Cunningham, a little, sort of. But here he is in Education Week pointing out that the "send education back to the states" rhetoric is baloney.
Jill Barshay at Hechinger tries to unravel the destruction of the whole data wing of the department.
The Strange Bedfellows Fighting School Vouchers
Jennifer Berkshire has been on a tear lately. Here she is with more information about how there's a whole load of voucher opponents on the far right.
I love it when a book ban is thwarted by regular human persons in a community. Phil Lewis tells the story.
GOP voucher plan would divert billions in taxes to private schools
Yeah, I'm still mad at the Washington Post, but this piece by Laura Meckler is a good summation of the federal voucher plan.
Billionaires Pave the Way for Trump’s Federal Vouchers in the School Privatization Movement
Mike DeGuire provides more information about those federal vouchers. It will not make you feel better.
Private school vouchers: Ohio’s richest families access scholarships
Let's once again see data that vouchers are entitlements for the rich.
AI as School Monitor and Measurement
There is no earthly reason that you should not be subscribed to Audrey Watters newsletter. You get stuff like this:
One of the things that struck me about Dan Meyer's recent talk to Amplify software developers (cited above) is how the constant and repeated invocation of the "factory model of schooling" by various ed-tech entrepreneurs (their investors, their political backers) actually belies their recreation of this very thing: their obsession with efficiency and productivity, with data and measurement. They are the heirs of scientific management, not its opponents.
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause Remains Central to the Future of Public Education
Oklahoma is going to test it yet again, Jan Resseger explains.
Meanwhile, in regular non-apocalyptic education issues, Texas is still having trouble staffing schools with actual trained professionals.
Drag the Black kid to the office and have her disciplined for not stopping for the flag pledge? It's time for another lesson in civil liberties, costing this district $75K.
Florida Lawmakers Push for More Cursive Writing— Why And at What Cost?
Kids these days. They don't even know how to write cursive! Florida is going to fix that, by gum. Sue Kingery Woltanski looks at the plan.
Eve of Destruction: How Close Are We?
I try not to include too much material here about the general mess we face, but we also should not look away. At any rate, here's a useful take from Nancy Flanagan.
This week at Forbes.com, I took a look at a much-deserved setback for Christian [sic] Nationalist Ryan Walters. Also, at Bucks County Beacon, a look at a conservative lawsuit in PA aimed at erasing civil rights for LGBTQ persons.
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There are several familiar songs in the show, but after playing it a week, this is the one stuck in my head. From the movie, which did a massive rewrite of the stage version, but kept this number.
Subscribed to Watters' newsletter - thanks for the reference. Yes, absolutely, the heirs of Gradgrind are the data-and-testing obsessives; the irony of their complaining about some mythical "factory" model makes my eyes water. (What do they mean? That kids have to sit at tables? the "sage on the stage?" Actually that's a medieval monastic model. But I digress.)
"Hard Times" isn't my favorite Dickens, but in the Gradgrind family he nails something completely true about living in an atmosphere where you're constantly surveilled by people who are trying to ensure that your inner life measures up to whatever yardsticks they've created. Gradgrind's kids are stunted: Louisa is sullen and struggles with herself constantly, and Tom is hopeless. We've all noticed that today's kids seem, on the whole, a bit more timid, more prone to stress and fear and anxiety, less prone to adventure and optimism. And while there's obviously lots of candidates for why this should be (social media, climate change, politics sucks etc.) I think that the surveillance mode of schools is a big candidate. You can't grow in an atmosphere where you've got no freedom to develop, and little privacy.