Speaking of school and school reform

Michelle Rhee, the new Chancellor of DC Public Schools, is on tv and in the newspapers. Schools won't have textbooks. Schools don't have air conditioning...

This is news?

The system and structure of the school system is failing. It has been failing for 20+ years. It's nothing new. Being skilled and expert in hiring teachers isn't the issue. It's rebuilding and transforming--not merely fixing or even changing--the "system."

My unkind joke is that the reason the schools are so bad is because that's where home rule started first.

As long as the school system has been looked upon as a source of contracts, jobs, and a place to get paid, there has been a disconnection from being concerned about "outcomes."

And speaking of "teaching," yesterday I spoke for 45 minutes to about 55 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders about the history of Brookland and history and architecture and historic preservation.

It was hard. But I was able to do it... It's about taking the lessons and applying them in ways that are relevant to children. In part, we discussed the history of the neighborhood in terms of Maryland colonial history and the development of the first amendment of the Constitution and how the first amendment impacts them today--in terms of the freedom of assembly and anti-loitering legislation.

I covered the same (but fewer of the) historic themes listed in the blog entry below, in describing Brookland, including a discussion (very short), of slavery.