Cultural conservatives are trying to make the 2022 midterm elections about education in general, and the (phantom) issue of “parental rights” specifically. As someone who has been involved in education at various levels for the past 40+ years, I’ve not seen any evidence of a widespread lack of parents’ abilities to guide and influence their children’s schooling. To be sure, […]

Moms for Liberty (M4L), an astro-turf group that is probably not actually many moms and definitely not about liberty, has moved on. While they didn’t seem too afraid of a deadly virus that killed almost 6.5 million people around the globe—as evidenced by their increasingly dramatic and dangerous anti-mask and anti-vaccine protests at school board meetings across the country—they are […]

Years ago, I placed the blame for uncertified, unqualified edutourists who spent a year or two working in mostly urban schools before heading off to law school or cushy gigs at ed policy think tanks on the despicable persons heading up Teach for America–the Michelle Rhees and Wendy Kopps of the world–and not the fresh-faced, hyper ambitious noobs who applied […]

I’m seeing a lot of well-intentioned rhetoric lately about the importance of good ventilation in schools to mitigate the spread of Covid in school classrooms, with the best advice being to “just open a window,” and “use a simple box fan to circulate exhaled air.” The example shown was of a “real classroom” with an entire wall of windows, a […]

The following essay was written by Tina Beveridge. Tina is a veteran music educator of 17 years and is currently a 2nd year PhD student in music education at the University of Miami. It was first posted on her own blog Insert brilliant title here… Reader, I’m not going to lie. I felt an enormous weight lift when President Biden […]

Dear Teachers, As your school districts’ “return to school” plans are being released, remember that you are going to hear mostly from the folks in your communities who are angry–angry that classes are being offered online, angry at the lack of child care availability, angry at teachers for not putting themselves in danger. In fact, many of these persons may […]

Like many of us, I’ve been paying close attention to the various plans and suggestions for “reopening schools” this fall. It’s been more than a tad confusing to track the various recommendations coming from partisan legislative groups, professional associations, school district task forces, and the governor’s advisory board on reopening schools.I wish more than anything that there was more clear […]

While I absolutely agree that Adam Schiff did a wonderful job presenting the impeachment case against the president, I must confess that I’m a little surprised at how amazed so many seem to be at how smoothly he delivered his information, the quality of his argument, and his use of audio/visual materials. Because if you were impressed with Mr. Schiff’s […]

I received a phone call from a music teacher last night whose principal had recently marked her down on an unannounced, “drive-by” observation…because the students “weren’t engaged.” When she asked how the principal had come up with that rating, she was told the “evidence” upon which the comment was made was based on the principal’s observation that “only 10% of […]

Given that education consistently ranks among the top issues for voters in most public opinion polls, with the vast majority (82%) of parents of school-aged children reporting that they are either “somewhat” or “completely satisfied” with their child’s education, one could be forgiven for being flummoxed by the near-absence of questions about teachers, schools, or education in general at any […]

Way back in September–which feels like 10 years when measured in teacher years–I shared my disappointment with my sophomore foundations class that so many of them no longer understood references to the classic teen coming of age movies of the 1980s, like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Snippets from these films, like the ones below… […]