Deborah Meier on Education

I liked this e-mail piece from Kipp Dawson.

From

…Since I posted this link an hour ago, this additional comment has been posted: “So many teachers here are suffering economically and their own families’ lives are suffe
ring. Overloaded classrooms, overloaded grading and stress get carried home to families. The furlough days are now moving into furlough week(s) and any new expenditure from the system is met with fatalistic response from teachers, oh well, ….. Teachers who can retire have done so….. Stand up for Chicago, Stand UP for teachers.Let them do their jobs.”
Thanks Kipp, especially for the details in all those responses. A old-time unionist (Joe Hill) once said, “Don’t mourn, organize”–and it’s become an old-hat slogan. I might add, “do’t whine” to it. So it makes me happy to see organized teachers in Chicago using their solidarity to restore a balance of power. It’s harder in NYC (where strikes are both illegal and fiscally expensive), but we need the equivalent. It’s not easy for teachers to realize that the point of the union is #1–solidarity. Grievances, due process, et al are often the only way members come into contact with their union these days. It becomes, as a result, a service organization, just one ore agency to help us out individually if and when… The power of our “togetherness” is beyond many young teachers experience.
Ideas. How about parents and teachers rallying in front of their schools at 8:30am – all on the same day?–and going in together 20 minutes late. Around one or two common demands. SOMETHING!!!!! Let’s play with it, New Yorkers.

Media Companies, Seeing Profit Slip, Push Into
Education
Under pressure to expand, media companies are capitalizing
on the changes that technology is bringing to classrooms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/technology/discovery-invests-in-digital-textbooks-in-hopes-of-growth.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25_20120820

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