I have written before that in general conservatives operate on fear while liberals operate out of necessity.

Let me briefly review this idea. In general conservatives are the successful wealthy business people who fear losing what they have - money. Or, conservatives are the morally upright religious zealots who fear that society could go down the toilet at any moment. These two groups represent the majority of conservatives. Progressives however, feel that the world has already caved in all around them. Progress is anything that can help them dig out of this mess. Progressives are willing to try almost anything to fix the problems in society, while conservatives fear that anything new will lead to the downfall of everything they have come to love.

The minotaur, bastard freak child of Pasiphae, shame of Minos, dark secret down-bringer of Crete, somehow the image has always stayed with me; and considering the crisis in our public schools I wonder if there isn’t a correlation between this myth and the manufactured education crisis.

So, here I am, walking the labyrinthine halls of this urban middle school to which I am confined, wondering how long all this absurdity will continue to play out. I think of the year so far, year two of teaching from a canned curriculum designed to raise test scores at all costs. I recall various episodes since the beginning of the year: a veteran teacher weeping openly when the vice principle handed an award to three first-years whose sixth graders were the only ones to show significant gains in all areas. Later, at the monthly staff meeting, the clearly chagrined principal tried to assuage his ever-silent staff saying “I heard there were tears, but please don’t worry, we’re just trying to celebrate our successes because I know how you all work so hard!”

Last night I realized one of my dreams, to see and hear Jonathan Kozol. It was a warm fall evening in the historic LoDo district of Denver. As the last light of day fell on the old brick warehouses, across from Union Station upwards of 200 people gathered at the Tattered Cover Bookstore to listen to the man who is perhaps America's best known advocate for the educational rights of children. Kozol, despite being visibly gaunt from his partial fast, did not disappoint. It was an evening to remember and hopefully a touchstone for greater awareness and activism on the part of Colorado teachers. [Crossposted at www.educatorroundtable.org and dailykos.]

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

Here is an essay that I've crossposted at Educator Roundtable. I'll be coming back soon enough to add the proper hyperlinks, but in the meantime enjoy! This essay critiques an article by Ron Brandt from 2001 that appeared in Phi Delta Kappan. Brandt argues for a market approach to schooling, advocating the emergence of chain schools as a means of presenting more school choice to families. The entire concept is, of course, anathema to my own.

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

© copyright 2007 Betsy L. Angert, BeThink.org

As a child the Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui could not speak, and this was a concern to his parents, his grandparents, and his uncle.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t speak a second language, English, that he would have had to learn when his parents emigrated to the US when the child was 9 years old, it was that he didn’t speak at all.  His disability was pronounced at an early age, impacted negatively on his socialization skills, and learning a second language would have been that much more difficult.

We have heard John Edwards, speak again and again about the two America’s, the haves and the have nots. His message resonates with me, because I witness it every week in my own life. I wanted to take the time in this diatribe to share my experiences of the disparity with you.