"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Reformer, Deformer, or Renewer?

I am glad the Republocratic word warriors led by Frank Luntz and the corporate media echo chamber nailed up the "education reformer" frame around themselves, while pushing everyone else out. Personally, I think education deformers would be a much more suitable frame.

Nonetheless, the carrying away of the reform flag by the high tech antiquarians leaves new possibility for all of us who would like to be part of the rebirth of a public commitment to schools aimed at sustaining our democracy and building individual happiness--a new possibility that will be constructed upon the realization of educational renewal. Let all of us, then, who would like to leave the testocracy behind become part of the educational renewal movement.

So even though the great national nightmare is over (hey, hey, hey, goodbye!--see below), Bush and Spellings left a real reformer in charge at ED. We will have to see if the new President can reign in the reformers, i. e. the closet antiquarians, so that educational renewal can become a part of the larger national renewal that he talks so much about. Or if all the talk of renewal is just hype.

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