Apr 3, 2010

Once again, procrastinating

My assignment: Take a current policy issue and examine it through the lens of EE Schattschneider or James Madison. What is the conflict? Who is the audience? Who are the protagonists? Predict/advise the outcome.

I chose to look at NCLB - bad choice because since I'm interested, I'm gonna get dragged into tangents such as policy debates, letters to the editor, angry blog posts, etc. I rehashed this Google Reader share from my buddy on Bill Maher and John Legend's take. My thoughts follow.

Just got in a good viewing of this since I've been reading herra stuff on the subject. Funny how the final line is "In the battle to reform schools, whose side are you on—Maher's or Legend's?"

This ending line is indicative of how people have been framing the issue - that it's one-dimensional, that there is a black and white, that there is a silver bullet. Nah uh.

I appreciate some things that Maher says, but he is a pundit with a myopic, white male, middle class view of the situation. The Ledge acknowledges the good points and nuances with some situational information. In the end though, he's not a teacher. He's a singer, albeit a good one who does an amazing throwback to the days of Motown. Damn, I love tangents like Mr. G. Anyhow, the views aren't at odds.

In short - it's a much more complicated issue and requires buy-in across disciplines and institutions outside of Education. Also, it requires a paradigm shift to make education a true value - no more lip service.

In shorter - we're f*cked.

Ok, time to get back to my homework.

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