Why debate doesn't happen in the US

I was listening to a commentary on a recent congressional "debate" reducing school violence after the Uvalde tragedy, and as could have been predicted, one of the speakers made a comment along the lines of "the left does not want a genuine solution they only want to remove all of our guns". Sadly, too much of the discussion focused on reaction to violence rather than prevention, and to fortress approaches, but that is for another day. What struck me about the "debate" was that no successive speaker appeared to have listened to the earlier speaker had said.

What's wrong with ESL

During my weekly coffee with a former colleague, I found was, at least initially, misunderstood. I am not against ESL ("English as a Second Language", aka E2L) provision, but the way it is designed and implemented. Let me explain.

I don't like Wikipedia, I don't trust Wikipedia, I don't use Wikipedia

Several years ago I was Prinicipal of a new school and as we were trying to build our reputation, I regularly checked our presence n the media and social media. One day, I discovered that the school had been listed on Wikipedia (what is the verb for this? described? listed?), although the entry included several errors of fact such as number of rooms or hours or location, all easily-verifiable.

A critical race for schools

Interesting coffee-chat yesterday with a former colleague yesterday. She told me of a public school district where the board had banned "critical race theory" (CRT) which immediately lead to a 50% drop in teacher applicants to the district. I don't know how accurate this is, or even where it apparently occurred, however four things stood out.

Micro-managing

I have commented before on boards messing things up, and how invariably they do the same thing. They involve themselves in the running of tthe school, or in other words they insert themselves into operational matters. Boards have three responsibilities or roles only : they set overall strategic goals and direction: they approve the budget, especially long-term (ie strategic) and infrastructure; and they hire and supervise the Director. Anything else is problematic, and a slippery slope to disaster.

Cheating Teachers

Another group of teachers has been caught cheating with respect to their students' tests and were subsequently arrested. I don't know the details of this specific case, nor do I know why these people did what they did, but I do think we should look at some of the possible reasons because this seems to keep happening.

Music and longevity

For years, I have been saying that music makes a child's brain bigger. Apparently, music also makes his/her brain live longer. This is another reason why music should be a core subject, at least in elementary school.

Down with exams

I had an interesting coffee morning the other day. Well, the coffee was pretty usual but the conversation was interesting. A former British Prime Minister has proposed eliminating terminal assessment, aka as final exams, in favor of continuous assessment. Many of his arguments are country or culture-specific, but the exam v continuous assessment topic is an important discussion.

What`s wrong with Democratic and Republican positions on education

Like any educator, I am following (or at least trying to follow) the major parties` positions on K-12 education. While those particular bones have plenty of meat, and some significant differences between them, there is one underlying truth to which both subscribe. Rs and Ds alike adhere to the same principle that there exists a body of knowledge, of "facts", which students should acquire. Much of the disputation in K - 12 education revolves around this body of knowledge, and the problem is that this view is wrong.

You`ll take it and you`ll like it

As I was reading, and being prompted for, an earlier piece, my eye was caught by a nearby headline about customers of a restaurant complaining about its menu. Apparently they went to a restaurant, either because they liked it or because they had heard good things about it, and then complained becasue it did not have the menu they wanted. This reminded me of two experiences of my own, one concerning homework, the other recess.