Archive for January 2010
School district reacts to “George Carlin’s famous “seven dirty words” and yanks dictionaries from classrooms
Posted on: January 25, 2010
- In: Books | District Policy | Media | Parents
- 1 Comment
According to the District Dossier, an Education Week blog, the Menifee Union School District in California recently removed all Merriam-Webster dictionaries from its classrooms.
Why?
Let’s see what the news media has to report.
Menifee school officials remove dictionary over term “oral sex.”
Read the article, here.
Dictionaries removed from Menifee classroom: books are being reviewed after parent finds offensive words
Read the article, here.
I hope you noticed the difference in reporting.
So, it is likely that the real issue here is the “seven dirty words” and not the inclusion of the entry “oral sex,” which the first article’s title would lead you to believe. But I don’t have the dictionary in question at my disposal to check for myself.
Does the difference in reporting make a difference, however, in whether the dictionaries should have been pulled?
- In: achievement gap | Federal Policy | K-12 | President Barack Obama | STEM | Teachers
- 5 Comments
President Barack Obama talks with Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching winners in the State Dining of the White House January 6, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
First, let’s note the obvious in this photo and then move on — White women. Where are the men? Where are the men of color (Call Me Mister)? Where are the women of color?
Now, I understand why, as a nation, we are looking to strengthen our math and science intellectual capital. I understand the relevance. However, literacy has been eclipsed, and my fear is that such an unbalanced focus will actually serve to perpetuate the competency gap, particularly among white students and students of color.
I simply fail to recognize how high school students, for example, who are reading on a sixth-grade level will excel in science and mathematics.
Dear EducationCEO
Posted on: January 5, 2010
- In: Charters | KIPP | Personal | Reform | Urban Education
- 2 Comments
Dear EducationCEO,
Like you, I am up at 2 in the morning! I checked my phone and saw that I had an e-mail notification alerting me to a new post on your blog. The title intrigued me, “Let me set the record straight …” I couldn’t resisit! However, please forgive my middle-of-the-night, my laptop-battery-is-low-and-I-don’t-feel-like-fetching-my-powercord-in-the-next-room brief response to one thing in particular that you wrote:
Perhaps they could ‘color’ their respective boards to reflect the communities in which they serve, and simultaneously make millions each year, per school?
If I read correctly (and please correct me if I am wrong), I understood this comment in context to mean that the boards of KIPP and TFA (among others), are not reflective of the communities they serve. And though not explicitly stated, I understood you to be talking about the organizations’ national boards. You’re right, names do pop up in more than one place on the national scene. But at the local, I feel I can speak to this issue of representation from personal experience, having served a 3-year term on the KIPP Baltimore board of directors. I believe there is real value in pursuing racial and ethnic diversity at the local level. What does it really matter if the national board is lily white and estrogen deficient? At the local level is where I believe board members are going to be most impactful – mobilizing local resources, involving the local community and businesses, and really being champions for our kids.
So, I’d love to chat with you about this! Thanks for posting your thoughts – these conversations are necessary.
– Samantha
Education Policy & Practice 