NOT the Monday Excerpt

I normally post an excerpt from my book on the SAT and the ACT on Mondays. This post is different for two reasons:

1. It's not Monday
2. It's not an Excerpt

The Clip Show, or You've Already Jumped the Shark

That's right, the Monday excerpt is taking a little break this week! I've been fairly busy with tasks relating to my second career as a photographer, and the book has temporarily been shifted to the... well, I wouldn't quite say the back burner, but perhaps the medium burner. Your stove has one of those, right?


So, in lieu of an excerpt, I will do the blog version of a clip show: the link post!


Diane Ravitch.


If you feel that the debates over teachers' unions, school accountability, and standardized tests have become oppressively politicized, then please listen to Diane Ravitch. She defies easy labeling, having worked in the administration of Bush 41, yet consistently advocating teachers' rights. Her candid admission of her volte-face on No Child Left Behind - which she initially supported, and now inveighs against - should shame those who base their education policies on politics instead of on sound research.


Ms. Ravitch hosts a blog on the Education Week website in partnership with her fellow scholar, Deborah Meier. She also was on The Daily Show not too long ago plugging her most recent book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Whether or not you agree with Ravitch's conclusions on how to save (and how not to save) our schools, her thoughtful arguments demand attention.


Finally, if you want to know why the history textbooks, literary anthologies, and standardized tests inflicted daily upon millions of American children are so sterile, colorless, and just plain boring, please take a look at Ravitch's previous book, The Language Police. It is an account of how political pressure from the left and the right hollowed out the K-12 curriculum and filled it with content-free pabulum. Every other page you will exclaim, "but that didn't really happen, did it?" Read it and weep for the children.


Judge Steven Teske.

The Washington Post just ran an article on Steven Teske today. It was the first I'd heard of his one-judge crusade to replace zero-tolerance policies in high schools with more flexible ones. Fewer kids, he argues, ought to be suspended or sent to court for minor infractions. That way, they'll be much less likely to become repeat offenders and much more likely to graduate from school. And he basis his arguments on hard facts: the school systems that have implemented his more nuanced approach have seen significant jumps in graduation rates. This isn't a subject that I know a lot about, so I won't editorialize. All I'll say is that, if you're a fan of The Wire or of David Simon, you'll find a lot to like here. Plus, watch him rock that sweet bow tie!