02-14-2017, 10:52 AM
(02-13-2017, 04:29 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: This guy (and another guy I'm looking for again) has the scoop on education. Kunstler might have some points, from a generally reactionary point of view. But I think another point of view is closer to the truth.One of my very favorite George Carlin routines. He was "spot on" about the state of public education then--and now. I left the field the year after No Child Left Behind was enacted. Even in my rich school district, the curriculum was being "dumbed-down" to accommodate the standardized testing regime that was about to metastasize. Of all the cabinet appointments made by Trump, Betsy DeVos was quite simply the worst. She is an appalling choice for Education Secretary, really, a billionaire with absolutely no connection to public schools on a personal level. Neither she nor her kids ever attended public schools, and she never taught in a classroom. Would that have been too much to ask of a nominee? It's hard not to see her as a "stalking horse," an ideologue seemingly intent on privatizing public schools in the name of "choice." If she and her ilk get their way, we'll just end up with a bifurcated education system.