Children are the future of our society. If we want smart, accomplished citizens who can make informed decisions, start wonderful businesses, and create a fantastic future, we need to invest in them. It doesn’t matter if that child is born to parents who are impacted by poverty or to parents who are wealthy and can afford a world-class education.… [Read more]
Overcoming Income Inequality for Children
There is no question that children should be given the best care and education possible. Not only are they young, innocent, and undeserving of mistreatment, but they are also the ones to whom we will pass the world to next. Unfortunately, many children are afflicted by income inequality: living in impoverished neighborhoods, going to underfunded schools, and living with food insecurity.… [Read more]
What’s the Progress on Sustainable Goal Development, Worldwide?
In January 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals, otherwise known as Global Goals, came into action. In the United Nations Development Programme’s words, these 17 goals are a “universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.” In replacing the Millenium Development Goals, the SDGs introduce new areas of concern, with the aim of reaching all of these goals by 2030.… [Read more]
We Owe Our Children More Than Our Schools Can Give Them
My heart breaks for American students. There is no good answer to the question of how to navigate our education system. Public schools are suffering, private schools are inaccessible to many, and those who make it to university walk out with so much debt it’s a wonder they make ends meet.
That’s only if they make it there.… [Read more]
Do U BYOD?
When our students and teachers returned to school, they may have been thinking about the changes ahead for the spring term of the school year. One of the big changes on the minds of many in education, and one that is likely to weigh on public school teachers’ is the concept of BYOD, or bring your own device.… [Read more]
Teacher Appreciation Around the World
Karl A. Menninger once said “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.” Teachers should be celebrated for what they really are, and be appreciated for their efforts by honouring their special contributions to a particular field or the community in general.
The idea of celebrating Teacher’s Day arose independently in many countries during the 20th century.… [Read more]
The Inequality of Public Education
I recently went to a meeting for the school district I work for. At the meeting other teachers and I were told how the district performed on the Tennessee standardized test issued during the prior year. The director of schools and his staff told us about the state of the school system; he revealed data, graphs and other information that each school can use to analyze student performance and focus our sights on raising student achievement for the current year. … [Read more]
A Teacher’s Value
After 25 years of teaching in some of the hardest and most challenging schools and situations in all of America, the State of Tennessee has determined my experience and my advance degrees mean nothing. Governor Bill Haslam and his appointed henchman, Commissioner Huffman, have determined that teachers who have a Doctorate and/or a Masters degree should not get paid for the advanced education.… [Read more]
School Days
This week hundreds of thousands of public school children all over the South started the school year just as congressional representatives left Washington for a month-long vacation, and in many cases those same representatives will be attacking the state of public education with lies and distortions.
The biggest lie being propagated by right-leaning congressional leaders is that the state of public education necessitates an end to the end Department of Education and compulsory education. … [Read more]
Do Politicians Care About Our Youth?
I question the commitment of our politicians when it comes to the education of our young people.
Educating young minds takes more than classroom instruction and standardized exams. It requires a commitment to nurture students and expose them to a myriad of educational and cultural opportunities. How can this happen if one of the first things on the chopping block during budget discussions is funding for after-school programs and the arts?… [Read more]
Blame Mom!
It seems I can’t win. Apparently if I am not screwing up education as a teacher, I’m doing it by being a working mom.
This past week, in a forum hosted by The Washington Post, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant announced that all the problems in education can be tracked back to women joining the work force.… [Read more]
No {Wealthy} Child Left Behind
I think I’ve mentioned before that I teach in a pretty diverse school district; it’s one that is most definitely not one of the wealthier districts in the state of Michigan.
I wouldn’t say we under-perform, but we do have our struggles. Our staff has been diligently working on literacy and increasing thinking and problem solving skills in our students.… [Read more]
How Teacher Evaluations Work…or Don’t.
With four weeks left in the school year, I am constantly getting e-mails from administration that remind us, the staff, that final walk-throughs will be done in the next couple of weeks and, after grades are posted, our final evaluations will be ready for us to view. We receive reminders to enter in our “evidence” that we have been working toward the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year.… [Read more]
Why our kids are “S.O.L.”
Earlier this month, my wife and did the three and a half hour trek from Virginia Beach, Virginia to our nation’s capital to see the annual Cherry Blossom Festival (in case you haven’t noticed from her articles, she has a penchant for all things Japanese). While exiting the Smithsonian along Constitution Avenue, we got to see something we don’t normally see in our sleepy little town: an old-fashioned organized protest.… [Read more]
The Right War, the Wrong Battle
The United States Public Education System needs work.
This is not a secret, or even an opinion. It’s a complete fact. There are major problems with the public system that is in place from curriculum, to policy, to standards…the whole thing needs an overhaul.
For years politicians have been slapping bandaids on the problems hoping that it will hobble along enough until it falls into the hands of the next poor schmuck who needs to “deal” with it.… [Read more]
For the Love of God, Give Texas Back to Mexico
This week, the White House dashed the hopes of millions of Americans when it rejected a request for Texas to sever its ties with the U.S. Bad news for the more than 125,000 people who signed the online petition for Texas to secede. Far worse news for the rest of us!
My issue with the Lone Star state, aside from the fact that it keeps launching the careers of politicians named Bush, is that Texas is a colossal embarrassment to our country.… [Read more]
We’ve Got the Power
You used your voice to speak up for what you believe in.
You exercised your power and your rights by voting on election day.
You’ve signed petitions that were delivered to local and national representatives in support of human rights, a clean environment, privacy laws, and even a system that protects consumers from predatory banks and corporations.… [Read more]
