Deborah Meier on Education

U used to think when I was young, even when I was a firm teenage Marxist, that I could–in the end–depend on smart adults whom might disagree with me but who kept the long term interests of the USA, the human race, the planet and themselves in mind. They wouldn’t do anything too stupid. Then I became a grown-up and discovered that I couldn’t or shouldn’t assume anything of the sort. Some smart grown-ups–well-educated and enormously talented at making money et al–can’t think even a few years down the road. They figure their wealth will always protect them and their grandkids, and otherwise, “who knows, it may all work out.”

Reading the Larry Cuban on School Reform blog is worth reading if only to remind myself that there are wise and thoughtful grown-ups around–who have year after year written and spoken with good sense and given scholarliness and the academy a good name. http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/

The policy-makers are stuck, he suggests (with more understanding and sympathy than I can muster) in a mindset that isn’t appropriate to the subject of schooling/teaching/learning. They confuse “complicated” and “complex”. His latest blog on Classroom Practice is brilliant, but while you are at it–read all three years of his writings. Then go to his books. (I don’t mean to say he’s one-of-a-kind, and if you go my website you’ll find suggested readings of a smallish but important list of other academics.)  I miss Ted Sizer a lot.

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