A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.

From Democracy and Education, Democratic Ideal section, full citation later.

I liked this article on Brockton High and its turnaround. Three things:

The article is built around a Harvard Report, here, and the lead researcher is quoted saying, “Achievement rose when leadership teams focused thoughtfully and relentlessly on improving the quality of instruction.” Nothing outrageous here — focus on instruction and have a single objective (in Brockton’s case, a focus on reading and writing in every class) — but what seems to set this school apart is that they had not only a competent administrator who actually understood what good instruction looks and feels like, but who also could make changes within the contract. Respecting a collective bargaining agreement while empowering teachers? I hope this example gets the press it deserves, especially as pundits and politicos continue to scapegoat unions as the sole issue stopping school reform.

I like Nicholas Lemann’s work, even if I have real problems with his book on the Second Great Migration, which doesn’t matter, ’cause it appears that this book will replace it as the must read book on that topic.

Anyway, this essay, here, makes a sound argument regarding the unnecessary hand-wringing over education. I liked this description of democracy:

It is also, like democracy itself, loose, shaggy, and inefficient, full of redundancies and conflicting goals. It serves many constituencies and interest groups, each of which, in the manner of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, sees its purpose differently.

I do wish he’d cited David Berliner’s book from 1996, The Manufactured Crisis, which makes a very similar argument.

Liked this back page essay. I had my students read Wolf’s book with some success (I guess I got lost, too, in the dense chapters that focus on the brain).

this quote, though, was money:

“There is a difference,” she said, “between immediate recall of facts and an ability to recall a gestalt of knowledge. We can’t retrieve the specifics, but to adapt a phrase of William James’s, there is a wraith of memory. The information you get from a book is stored in networks. We have an extraordinary capacity for storage, and much more is there than you realize. It is in some way working on you even though you aren’t thinking about it.”

Did this mean that it hadn’t been a waste of time to read all those books, even if I seemingly couldn’t remember what was in them?

“It’s there,” Wolf said. “You are the sum of it all.”

Full comments here.

We need no better example than the students who are here today from West Philadelphia High School. These students, under the direction of some terrific teachers, entered a global competition against serious corporate and college challengers to build a production-ready car that runs on very little fuel. So as part of an after-school program, they worked to get their vehicles ready. They tweaked the hybrid engine. They figured out how to make their cars run more efficiently.

At first, the adults didn’t really think their team had a chance — admit it. (Laughter.) But then something strange happened. Where older and more seasoned teams failed, they succeeded, even making it through an elimination round.

Now, they didn’t win the competition. They’re kids, come on. (Laughter.) But they did build a car that got more than 65 miles per gallon. They went toe to toe with car companies and big-name universities. (Applause.) They went against big-name universities, well-funded rivals. They held their own. They didn’t have a lot of money. They didn’t have the best equipment. They certainly didn’t have every advantage in life. What they had was a program that challenged them to solve problems and to work together, to learn and build and create. And that’s the kind of spirit and ingenuity that we have to foster. That’s the potential that we can harness all across America. That’s what will help our young people to fulfill their promise to realize their dreams and to help this nation succeed in the years to come.

And I just have to editorialize. This is the kind of thing that just isn’t going to get a lot of attention initially. This will not lead the nightly news. You won’t see this on the cover of Roll Call or Politico. It’s not — doesn’t have conflict and controversy behind it. (Laughter.)

But these are actually the kinds of things that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, we’re going to look back and say this is something that made a difference. These are the kinds of things I’m really proud of. It doesn’t get a lot of fanfare, but from the bottom up, it’s making a huge difference in our country.

As a teacher educator and former (future?) high school educator, I wonder about lesson plans. A lot. Too much, maybe. You can dig through university websites and find countless examples of how to write them; there are even more commercial sites devoted to these items.

This morning, though, I was wondering what narrative lesson plans might look like; what it would mean if a lesson plan was a short essay, say 750 words, describing how you wanted the lesson to go, what your objectives were, how the day related to what came before and what was coming the next day…It wouldn’t be that much more work, probably just a different kind of work. I know that when I’ve had to complete lesson plans I’ve struggled to understand different components (Mr. Clapper, you’ve confused goals with objectives — shame on you). Writing about a lesson would much more rewarding and would force a kind of reflective component on the teacher.

Certainly every vice-principal would hate this idea — it’s dreadfully inefficient for those charged with the ridiculous, odious task of reviewing vast piles of lesson plans — but it would give teachers something real to hold onto. Hmmm….

“We favor attempts to bring about such improvements by working from the inside out, especially by enlisting the support and skills of teachers as key actors in reform. This might be seen as a positive kind of tinkering, adapting knowledgeably to local needs and circumstances, preserving what is valuable and what is not. But teachers cannot do the job alone. They need resources of time and money, practical designs for change, and collegial support. And they can can succeed best if they do their work in partnership with parents.”

p.10, full citation on other computer.

At one point, the Inqy would allow you to link to Auth’s work; no longer. But this cartoon of readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic was brilliant.

Article here…quote I liked:

Dewey had a great deal to say about the relation of the intellectual to this emergent public. The pursuit of truth and the practice of politics, for him, are both unfinished projects, always unfinished, and both are forms of finding better and better truths for living together in society and democratic polity. The intellectual, academic or otherwise, he argued was a part of whatever public emerges. The focus of intellectuals, Dewey argued, was provided by common life, those animating matters of concern given voice in the public realm. The scholar, for Dewey, does not approach the public as an expert, but rather as one of the public, a member with special access to a fund of knowledge and rigorous forms of thought that he or she can bring to matters of concern. But after exploring the esoteric knowledge available to him or her, the scholar must bring that knowledge back to the public in the language of the public without claiming the authority of expertise, but rather relying upon persuasion in the public sphere.

Amidst all the bureaucratic shuffle going on at 440, it’s important to remember how well paid all of these individuals are. Phil Goldsmith’s dispassionate analysis here is very helpful. I do think, though, that he’s forgotten some districts where superintendents as making much more than Philly’s superintendent.