I'm sure you've all seen the articles, they're everwhere. If you really want a URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/02/25/MN54903.DTL
But the substance of my rant is this:
We have the president saying things like "There is something wrong with the system, and it is our generation's responsibility to fix it. You cannot blame the schoolchildren. There is no excuse for this."
How much do you want to bet that tomorrow there'll be further calls for national standards, national curriculum? At the state level there'll be more attempts to micro-manage curriculum. With each of these initiatives every special interest will tack something "important" on to that initiative, the Republicans will be promoting abstinence, the Democrats multiculturalism, the milk and beef lobbies their own brand of nutrition, and so on, everything peripheral to the real issues of education.
Hmmm, no takers for sucker bets, huh?
In other words, there will be calls to further hobble the teachers and local administrators from doing their jobs, and then blame them for the failures of "the system", while pretending that we're not part of "the system." And rather than further involving parents, all of these initiatives will promote the idea that children are something to be passed off on the state to raise.
I don't really have any hope of stopping the knee-jerk reactions, I don't think American voters are smart enough for that. But if just a few people will step back and say "More of what we're already doing wrong is probably not a solution", maybe we can start taking a longer term view.
Or maybe my optimism in human nature, my belief that I have to live and work within the system rather than withdrawing from it and attempting to build my own separate community, is flawed.
Tuesday, March 03rd, 1998 danlyke@flutterby.com