Re Choice. I just got an e-mail from someone who expresses surprise that anyone would not want choices between schools. Interesting. We’re led to believe that everyone wants school choice. But it’s more complex than that. Some surely do–for whatever reasons–and what should we do then? We have to balance lots of “goods” vs “bads” and figure out what we’re willing to trade off for what we value even more? Or how we can minimize the bad and maximize the good!!!
When we pretended that all schools were simply schools–and more or less identical, and it didn’t matter that much anyway—it made some sense to say geographic lines were it. Except for the rich, etc. But if we actually want each school to be “itself”–with a right to a distinctive approach, it gets difficult. For example, suppose I was zoned into a KIPP-like school, when across the street my neighbor had a choice of a Central Park East-like school. And vice-versa. More could be said, but this suggests the nature of the dilemma.
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Deborah Meier on Education 