From the Bloomington Herald-Times this morning (1/9/2012) comes this betrayal of learning and education. I had intended to simply excerpt but it is too valuable as an example of the way the Project Loving Capital Profiteers are erasing what is human one institution at a time. I’m pretty sure, though, that the public school is our last chance. The following guest column was written by…
The Loss of Soul: Corrupting Language and Stealing Common Understanding
Today our newspaper editorialized that the “fight’ over “right-to-work” legislation “should just go away” (seriously, that’s the headline). Here’s their primary argument: The so-called “right-to-work” issue has already disrupted the Indiana General Assembly. The Republicans’ insistence on making it their top legislative priority has been met by Democrats failing to show up for work again in an effort to slow down the GOP majority. The…
Imperial Philanthropy: Using Education Reform to Buy the Earth and Sky
Editor’s note: Doug Martin’s work supplies a kind of corrective to the simple “top-line” story and understanding of the education reform movement. It can be understood to be “about” management and assessment to enforce a worldview where production is only quantifiable and quality must ape the measurements of assessment; and that’s the kindest way to phrase it. But what is underneath it is a true…
Freedom really is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Welcome to Freedom-land. Seriously, think about it. The world’s greatest power has increased its own poverty levels to where full 1/3 of the population lives in this state. Many of us commoners believe the state is a force to be resisted at both the national and state level. We believe we have lost as communities. And yet, we lose more rapidly than ever due to…
Charity at the Speed of Thoughtless Imagery
Yesterday I confronted a local newspaper column offered as a “correction” to remarks I made regarding charity and humanitarian aid seen through the marketing of narrow Hollywood frames offered by groups like Invisible Children. I closed by questioning the proposition the column’s authors made that The best way to understand which nonprofits deserve support is to get involved, so you can observe directly the organization’s…
“Can ponwyi”–The Grace of Gods by Force
In Acholi, a language of the Acholi people of Northern Uganda, “can ponwyi” literally translates as “disaster and poverty teach you.” (Allen, “Postscript: a kind of peace and an exported war,” 283)* This might put one in mind, in the Western tradition of literature, of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: Zeus sets men on the path of wisdom, establishing the rule: we learn by suffering. Drip by drip,…
Boycotting the Indiana Press’s Corporate School Reform Agenda
Through biased reporting and their unrelenting pursuit to promote Bennett, Daniels, and the corporate school reformers, the Indiana media flunkies have been selling the privatization of our schools for too long. The time is now to let local TV, radio, and newspaper reporters and editors know that we will not stand by idly. If the guilty don’t shape up, we must send them packing. Here…
Bear Grylls, a 5th Grader, and Friday? What is Robinson Crusue
I sent the following to my local paper today–bear in mind there is a 200-word-limit. To the Editor: We like to believe that people who want to be elected for particular offices of government have some kind of ability or experience or intelligence that will prove efficacious for the duties of said office. To that end I would ask a very simple question: How do…
Because We Live Here
From Taibbi in “A Christmas Message From America’s Rich” in response to the whining billionaire’s club: Most of us 99-percenters couldn’t even let our dogs leave a dump on the sidewalk without feeling ashamed before our neighbors. It’s called having a conscience: even though there are plenty of things most of us could get away with doing, we just don’t do them, because, well, we…
Facilitating First Impressions: Education and theTechnological Teat
A book will “drop” at the end of the month called “Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World,”. At the link is a brief interview with the author where he makes one point that must be clear to us by now, “first impressions” are of questionable merit, at best, “dangerous” and damaging at worst. It’s our default assumption. It’s our fallback, automatic assumption about…