Education: If the political system gives you lemons, make Lemonade

I am posting this as an essay rather than a comment to keep the discussion going.

There have been great ideas posted in the comments of the essays about education in the past couple of days.

Thoughts on this. So . . . we are having this whole charter school system thing forced upon us. The motivating factor of the promoters is religious.

What if we steal their charter school opportunity and really create a charter school system that implements the school finance dream ideas. This means it pays teachers and staff well, feeds kids, provides creativity, mediates dyslexia, has the good schedules with recess, no homework . . . etc. Testing can go to hell.

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the biggest motivator is not religious, it's capitalist. corporations can get themselves paid big dinero to manage what are essentially school franchises. in other words, McSchools: Deliver the lowest possible value to the largest possible clientele.

on the other hand, in wisconsin -- and this was especially true prior to walker -- the charter school laws were very restrictive, explicitly to prevent such phenomena. charter schools are typically created by coalitions of parents and teachers, and often share buildings with "regular" schools.

dane county (where Madison sits) has some rather unusual charter schools intended to enable alternative educational approaches. i know of one district that has a charter based on the Core Knowledge curriculum (which many on this site would probably consider anathema), and a charter based on a lefty–lib environmental curriculum with multi-age classrooms and flexible learning.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@UntimelyRippd

on the other hand, in wisconsin -- and this was especially true prior to walker -- the charter school laws were very restrictive, explicitly to prevent such phenomena. charter schools are typically created by coalitions of parents and teachers, and often share buildings with "regular" schools.

The experience of my younger son was very beneficial. He was struggling in class, hating them at municipal schools. When he started charter schools, his performance blossomed and he studied--which he didn't do in school before.

My elder daughter teaches at the highest ranking public elementary school in Orange county CA using the core curriculum. She is satisfied with her students's learning. She relies on performance rather than rote learning. The core curriculum in Santa Maria is damn disaster however. Kids leave school dumber than when they entered. So I guess it depends upon the school district and individual teachers.

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@Alligator Ed
CK is trademarked and is based on E. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy concept from 30 years ago.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@UntimelyRippd

i know of one district that has a charter based on the Core Knowledge curriculum (which many on this site would probably consider anathema),

There's a baby in that ocean of filthy bath water. If you taught the expected knowledge from the Core Knowledge curriculum using methods independent of high-stakes testing, and add some of the necessaries we've discussed above (art, music, civics, critical thinking training), you'd end up with reasonably well educated kids.

But the first step is to strain that "baby" out of the ocean of filthy bath water in which the likes of Pearson and their politician allies have been marinating it in for decades, and flush the latter clean away as the worthless waste it is.

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OzoneTom's picture

BUT, I would hate weakening funding for public education.

With the right-backed charter systems, that is the frosting for proponents.

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mhagle's picture

Yes ... The public school system is important.... But dyslexic kids in public school are on the "school to prison" train ride.

My own kid is truly a genius. His knowledge of history, geography, politics, economics, theoretical science is amazing. But in public school, he would have been a victim.

IMG_0383.jpg

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

OzoneTom's picture

@mhagle
... like your son. And like Alligator Ed's above (BTW Ed -- DPHS Charger here!) within the public system, but the system seems opposed to anything that could improve public ed.

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Wink's picture

@OzoneTom
for the RW. They not only get their own Charter School with Jesus riding dinosaurs, but they get money from the Public School System to fund their school. So they get to teach the kiddies their RW ideology while draining the coffers of the Public Schools, negatively funding their demise. What's not to love?! DeVos must be wetting her pants every day thinking about all those public funds (taxpayer dollars) flowing from Public Schools into RW pockets!

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

riverlover's picture

The Alternative school is not charter, but for those vulnerable in a large student setting. Some kids think going to the Alternative School is a visible curse. Mine made it through the big HS, one in summer courses and pregnant. I have not personally surveyed the Alternative School. Charter schools here serve the religious or the quirky, only K-6. And the Catholic private K-6 is closing.

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mhagle's picture

@riverlover

At least in Texas they are. Here they use computerized text-based curriculum. Dyslexic students can't learn that way, yet that is the population that ends up there.

They don't exist to help children. They exist to boost graduation numbers and therefore school scores.

I used to have to attend ARDs - parent, teacher, administrator special ed type meetings. At many of these someone would be scolding the (dyslexic) child for not working harder. Assholes. CAT (career and technology) teachers were required at these meetings, so I attended many. So one time I was at the Alternative school for an ARD and they were scolding the child for doing poorly in mathematics on their computerized system while she had performed well in math class with a teacher at the main high school. This time I spoke up and defended the child. CAT teachers were supposed to be a fly on the wall at those meetings. So heartbreaking.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo