Yong Zhao: The lack of a "single bar" is never the cause of the problem in the first place. There is plenty of evidence to show that our poor and minority students have been left behind because they are poor and minority--a social justice and racial issue that must be addressed by the whole society and government at all levels. For example, we know the early years matter a lot but our poor and minority children are not in schools until they are five or six years old. That is, even if a "single bar" mattered, it would be too late. After they begin school, they spend most of their time outside school, in impoverished homes and neighborhoods. More importantly, past experiences show that state level standards and assessment have not improved the educational outcomes of poor and minority students. In fact, I would argue a single bar in itself is discriminatory because it favors one type of ability over others, while other abilities may be as valuable. For example, a newly arrived immigrant may not do as well as native born students in English but she has already spoken another language. By judging her ability in English only, she would be "at-risk." Likewise, if a child is musically talented but may not do well in mathematics, if using a single bar, he would be "at risk" in math. Like Albert Einstein once said: "if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." Or imagine judging a swimmer by how high he can jump and training him as a jumper.
Cheers, ken
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
----- Original Message ----- From: michael yates <mikedjyates at msn.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Cc: Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 4:22:18 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Yong Zhao
[I wrote this a long time ago.I'm happy to support teachers against the assaults they face today. And I am happy to agree that there are many good teachers in our public schools. But there are elephants in the room here. Disciplining the future workforce is one of the jobs of school teachers, and many of them do it with gusto. This is why radical alliances between current workers (teachers) and future workers (students) are important now. Also, the--I'll be blunt here for emphasis---grotesque stupidity of teacher training is legendary. No wonder schooling is manifestly not enjoyable for all too many kids. Or that so many teachers know so little. The teachers' unions for all the good they have done, have done precious little to change any of this.They represent the teachers who are participating in all of the ugly shit I referred to in a recent post about No Child Left Behind.]
"In 1991, nearly 30 years after I had graduated from high school, my twin sons, then 12 years old and seventh graders at a Pittsburgh public school, read an interesting story in their language arts class. A young teacher, admired and respected by her students, refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag. For this act of conscience she was fired by the local school board. She filed suit, charging a violation of her First Amendment right of free speech. The court ordered her reinstatement, but in the end she decided not to return to her old job. After reading the story, the class discussed it with their teacher. He was of the view that it was wrong for the teacher not to stand because this was disrespectful to the beliefs of others. One of my sons agreed with the teacher in the story, arguing that no one should have to stand. Besides, he said, there was not "liberty and justice for all" in the United States, so the pledge was a lie. My
son’s comments were met with stern criticism by his teacher who quickly shut off further discussion.