kitchen table math, the sequel: the future of America

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

the future of America



from educationgadfly
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9 comments:

LSquared32 said...

Am I missing something, or is there even less to this than the Engage Me video? They can't seriously be claiming that these statements are true of most people (I hope), so I don't see that there's really any point. Except, I suppose, to produce a mediocre video for one's Technology Applications class.

If my kids are at all typical, I see reading and spelling as becoming more important, not less. After all, how else can you google your favorite show?

April 1, 2008 at 4:11 PM
Matthew K. Tabor said...

This is an excellent parody of the utter crap that ED in '08 has put out. Their campaign, as I've said repeatedly, is shameful and, while not entirely worthless, is a terrible use of $60 million.

In their defense [I hear it's rude only to speak ill of the irrelevant?], they did something right by pairing up with Two Million Minutes. Every bit of seriousness associated with ED in '08 is owed to that film and its tireless advocates. Those folks brought a seriousness of purpose to the ED in '08 campaign that wasn't there before.

It's just shocking that Kanye West didn't bring a seriousness of purpose, isn't it?

April 1, 2008 at 8:07 PM
SteveH said...

Matthew,

Can you get me up to speed on ED in '08? I've never heard about it and it's not clear exactly what they are up to when I go to their web site. Roy Romer is the head and I vaguely remember his name coming up in discussions of education, but I don't remember the details.

It sounds like ED in '08 wants to stimulate the discussions about education, but I can't tell if they really have an underlying agenda. People have always talked and argued about education. What's new with them? They say that their goal is to "increase dialogue", but there is plenty of that already. Talk is cheap and usually very vague. The question I have is whether these discussions will have any effect on who controls the details and money.

April 2, 2008 at 6:36 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

The video is a joke!

I think these are people who work at the Fordham Foundation - pretty sure it's an April Fools thing.

Mathew - tell us more about Ed in '08.

I didn't pay too much attention to them and dimly remember having a vague perception that I wasn't on board with their talking points...

April 2, 2008 at 7:24 AM
Matthew K. Tabor said...

SteveH and Catherine,

This piece I wrote in September will get you started:

http://www.matthewktabor.com/2007/09/13/ed-in-08-makes-strange-bedfellows-kanye-west-amanda-marcotte-and-public-education/

Their Kanye West campaign was a remarkable failure and the campaigns that followed have largely fallen on deaf ears. Their heart is in the right place, they just have little else to back it up.

I also think that they aren't actively agenda driven - and they certainly aren't as agenda driven as other education movements. They're committed to awareness, which means they really aren't committed to much. Awareness campaigns are successful with pressing issues [the polio vaccine PR campaign?] - not as much with a general, broad, complex issue like public education.

The key question is what you raised - "What's new with them?" The answer is "nothing."

In November or so ED in '08 teamed up with Two Million Minutes which, for the first time in that campaign's march, gave everyone something tangible and real to evaluate. The film looks at how we in the United States treat education compared to India/China and offers insight into the consequences of our attitudes. It is an excellent film that everyone in education should watch.

But 2MM was produced and financed independently; it isn't a product of ED in '08. Because it's not a prescriptive film, it does fit well with a campaign focused on awareness rather than specific changes. 2MM has been shown directly to Senators Obama and McCain [likely as a result of their ED in '08 partnership], so in that respect the campaign has made progress.

Even so, until we all admit that, in reality, not many people really care about education beyond a "the children are our future!" mantra, dispassionate awareness movements will be as useless as ED in '08 has come to be. What's the sense in touting how much people care when there's little evidence to suggest they do other than the answer to the tendentious, emotionally-charged poll question of, "Is education a priority to you?"

A dispassionate education awareness campaign is fine in theory, but it's a terribly inefficient use of time/money in practice. Is there a list of accomplishments we owe to ED in '08 that couldn't have been achieved otherwise? Nothing to speak of, and certainly nothing that matches the hype.

The election cycle isn't over, so maybe they'll turn it around or somehow become incredibly relevant. It is possible, but it isn't where the smart money should go.

April 2, 2008 at 8:21 AM
LSquared32 said...

"I think these are people who work at the Fordham Foundation - pretty sure it's an April Fools thing."

Ah--I forgot the date. Of course.

April 2, 2008 at 9:17 AM
SteveH said...

Thank you Matthew. That's just the sort of overview I was looking for.


"Even so, until we all admit that, in reality, not many people really care about education beyond a 'the children are our future!' mantra, ..."

I would quibble with this. I think many people care about education both on a personal basis and a national basis. It's just that there is not much we can do about it. The problems are deeply rooted and it will take more than happy talk to change the flow of money and control. You would see a lot more open caring if you gave parents choice. Many parents currently do private "caring" with reteaching at home, with tutors, or by using private schools.

Public schools want to be in charge of the "caring". They just hold open houses to inform parents about their caring. If they say diorama instead of book report, then that defines caring. I care a whole lot, but I can't go into my son's school and tell them that crayon work in sixth grade is not appropriate. They are not allowing me to care about public school. I have to care in private.

Right now, some in our state are fighting to lift the moratorium on charter schools and to lift the limit of 20 charter schools. It will be another thing to try and keep the Department of Education out of the approval process. They just want charter schools for the kids who can't make it in the regular public schools. They don't want to see a mass exodus to charter schools that promote academic excellence.

It's a money and control issue. Educators will never want to admit that they just provide a service. They feel that they have the right to define assumptions, expectations, and content. That has to change.

April 2, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

They're committed to awareness

right, that was an issue when I was involved in autism funding, too

April 3, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Even so, until we all admit that, in reality, not many people really care about education beyond a 'the children are our future!' mantra

I would rephrase this, probably, to something like, "Not many people care about educational excellence or rigor."

This is where awareness actually is important -- awareness in the sense of consciousness raising.

I completely get the basic American love of sports over books -- and I don't say that to be snotty. As booky as I am I not infrequently react to descriptions of Asian schools, say, with a "OH GOD THAT'S WAY TOO MUCH STUDYING"-type emotion. We're a hyperactive country.

(I can back that claim up, btw. Pretty much.)

The awareness people lack is that you can have far better learning and academics than we do K-12 and still be more interested in football than math.

April 3, 2008 at 2:05 PM

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