It’s recommendation season and as I write these letters for future teachers and potential graduate students, I wonder if the folks who end up reading them understand that the highest compliment I pay students is to describe them as a “reader.” I love my students who furtively hide books that aren’t for class. I love my students who bring other things they’ve been reading into the class discussion. I love any evidence that students are reading.

I just wish I could describe more students this way.

So I agree with almost everything in Philip Goldsmith’s post here regarding the likely explosion of middle class parents when district officials even think of tampering with magnet schools.

All except this line:

Magnet schools, whose admission is based on academic achievement, represent meritocracy in a school district that is often focused on ensuring equity.

Maybe represent is a purposefully chosen verb; any child at these schools can tell you of a classmates whose entrance was secured through parental action or political connection. Not a mystery. Special admission schools do represent meritocracy but I’m not sure that they exemplify it. Nor do these schools do anything to address the fact that while anyone can apply not all children have the same opportunities afforded to them before the admission application begins.