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Great piece, Claus, and spot on. I just sang a similar tune in a quasi-movie review titled "What would Gandhi think of The Lottery?" Check it out at http://bit.ly/aV2Z4C -- and let's keep lobbying for less 2-dimensional debates on such an important set of issues.

Brilliant piece, Claus--you've had a string of them lately. Perception is indeed reality, when it comes to public opinion on what was once our greatest national asset: free, good-quality public schools.

Did all children have those schools? No. But if we think that firing all the teachers and starting over is the way to ensure that they do, we are sadly mistaken. The scorched-earth policies proposed for "fixing" public schools (even those that don't need an overhaul) are being driven by the rhetoric you outline here.

How do we get past the media distortions? My take on this is that teachers need to find their voices, and speak from the heart and the classroom. There are more than 3 million K-12 teachers who live the realities of school every day. Teachers have been marginalized in this discourse--objects of reform, instead of partners in reform. http://snipurl.com/z80oy

Claus, I agree. And Diane Ravitch is spot on. We need to stop the beatings, and then move to a framework where we can work together to come up with solutions.

And primarily, that is going to mean actually funding inner city schools. And funding schools in general. We need it! And it's the one thing that the private foundations are doing with charter schools that actually makes sense. They are funding them with boatloads of money!

One Green Dot school in LA received $15,000,000!!!!! Do you even KNOW what my colleagues and I could accomplish with even $15,000 to improve our department????

Sam--Thanks for your note. Your very thoughtful take on the Lottery makes the point much better than I do. We need I and Thou relationships to flourish if we're really going to get anything done. I and It seems to be the order of the day.

Nancy--thanks for the very kind comment. I think it would be fascinating to do a poll of very accomplished teachers--National Board Certified Teachers; National Teachers of the Year--to see how they're reacting to the rhetoric of the current reform language. It would be eye-opening to test the theory that we're alienating the most accomplished teachers with the white-hot rhetoric.

Ken--I'd be particularly happy right now to see the $10 billion added to the supplemental stimulus go through. That won't even plug the enormous holes we have right now, but the prospect of reform amidst sudden austerity measures sure doesn't make me happy.

"Public schools are battle grounds for ideologues of all stripes who attack them for straying from ideological visions of what is Good and Holy."

Yes, I should imagine so, if by "ideologue" one means "a person who objects to sex ed in elementary school" or "a person who objects to birth control being handed out by school nurses." There's a limit there somewhere, and it isn't *just* crossed in the 'hood.

But I think parents who see their roles disrespected by the schools or whose children have not been treated well are the ones more likely to pull their children. I don't think it has much to do with general news stories of things happening in other places; people talk with others in their own neighbourhood and figure out the real story about the local school (good or bad).

Do you really know anyone who has decided not to publicly educate his child because of an opinionated news story? IMO anyone that jumpy was on the fence to begin with.

God bless, Claus. I have enjoyed reading your posts of late. :)

But I'm also meeting quite a few parents of means who have internalized the sense that public schools are schools of endless tests, poor performance, restructuring, chaos.

Well, I couldn't agree more that this is going to become the perception as a whole. The thing is, however, that most parents won't feel that way about "their" neighborhood school because they've had dealings with it and can see that's not true. They'll feel that way about "other" schools, which many already do... Largely because they don't know what goes on in those schools. And in many places home values are tied to school district perceptions, so there is an in-built bias to prefer their schools over others.

But the testing... the testing they will see and they will hear about from their kids. And they will hear about it from their teacher friends at birthday parties and backyard BBQ's. And then they will wonder why on earth anyone needs to test their kids to death.

Then, the backlash. And when they've seen what the elite have done to "their" neighborhood schools to save "other" schools... Well, then that will get interesting.

Ravitch recently tweeted that it will take 10 years for the testing regimen to show it doesn't work.

But how long for the backlash? Particularly now that the NEA is taking up the charge with a vocal campaign against "deform"?

Who will parents believe? Their friends in the profession and their children's teacher's, or a politician in Washington with a 22% approval rating?

And I think this will all prove extremely damaging to the Democratic Party. They are not seeing how much the parents, teachers and administrators who are aware of all this really don't like what is going on.

And results, in time, will prove the shallowness of the testing regimen. How? Two ways:

1.) The NAEP scores will not be raised by teaching kids to teach to these tests. Particularly because, as Ravitch puts it, the learning environment in classrooms in response to these tests is inimical to real learning. And according to Ravitch, who helped create the NAEP for awhile, that exam tests genuine learning.

2.) International scores will not be raised either. If anything, they will actually go down. Reason? That international test is a thinking test. And these tests encourage rote memorization of basic facts using basic skills. When was the last time a person who could only use basic skills invented the next iPhone or the next new big thing people don't even know they need yet?

Third world countries have the market cornered on basic skills. We need to teach our children to think and to create. Virtually no one, in the USA in 2032, will make their living sewing buttons, making jeans, or building ikea furniture. In fact, virtually none do.

We are creating a disaster for our country. A generation of schoolchildren who have not been taught to think.

I appreciate this post very much, Claus. I think that we truely need some Academic reforms. This is truely a timely post.

School should be a place where there is a slow pace of life, where everything is determened and the headmasters occupy their thoughts only with their students but not with different obstacles the school can meet. I do mot think that public schools are bad. Everything depends on the teachers. these are teachers that creat the atmosphere.

Instead of feeling disappointed by the failure of Proposition 19 that I'm more excited than ever about the prospects of cannabis should be legalized for adults. Proposition 19 was not rejected, as they sought to legalize marijuana. It was rightly rejected due to defects. We need a perfect explanation of the evils of the ban, along with a more viable proposition for legalizing cannabis. We need to piggyback the current system of selling alcohol and snuff. This will prevent the simple proposal, not to scare potential voters with fear of the unknown. All adults know how alcohol and snuff are sold to adults. Therefore, there is nothing to fear or unknown about the devil you know, compared to the devil they do not. I will be pushing harder than ever for the legalization of cannabis and we must all participate in the debate on how to present the plan to voters. This will be much more successful than random tax plan and possible Proposition 19 lawsuits have been initiated. Even as flawed as Proposition 19 was, I almost did. Now we know what does not and can focus on what will work. Keeping people of faith. The purpose of the prohibition of cannabis is closer than ever. Now is the time to form stronger groups abolished in all states in time for 2012. We need a joint effort across the country, all at the same time. Proposition 19 began the debate. Up to us to take the next step and the restoration of our civil liberties.

I appreciate this post very much, Claus. I think that we truely need some Academic reforms. This is truely a timely post.

I would love to see some media spin. If you support the coal industry you don't support children's brain development!
Orkut Scraps

Indeed, the relentless prospecting for perverse effects may itself have a perverse effect; it is apt to make the reformer insufficiently alert to emerging dangers. More important, reformers must realize that it is impossible to guard in advance against all possible risks and dangers. The most thorough prospecting will miss out on some negative effects that will appear only as events unfold. This inability to foresee future trouble will strike us as less disturbing once we realize that we are similarly unable to think in advance of the remedial measures that may become available or that we may devise once trouble occurs.