School leaders and policymakers must weigh the impact of anything they require schools to do against its social and individual gains.
May 2015 Archives
We both believe schools should help young people to believe in, and be active participants in democracy...As you put it, "There's a radical--and wonderful--new idea here... that all children could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people's ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on the world.... I think both what you and I suggest are needed if this is going to happen in most schools for virtually all students.
Today Deborah Meier and Joe Nathan describe what their priorities for a progressive education agenda.
Deborah Meier and Joe Nathan discuss their differing interpretations of the school-choice movement--and what it means for democracy.
isn't one of the central principles in a democracy, the power of citizens to make choices and decisions, within some limits? Also, don't we know that there's no single design/curriculum/organization for a school in which all students succeed? I think the answer is "yes." So public school choice, including chartering, with schools open to all - no admissions tests - should be part of what we work for.
To strengthen our democracy as well as our education system, the country needs more small, self-governing community-based schools, argues Deborah Meier.
There was a time when corporate giving to schools was truly "charity" in the best sense. But now it appears to be setting the agenda for education.
Labeling others with whom we disagree don't help improve or increase student's learning. Labels may be convenient. They may make people using them feel better. But having witnessed this over forty years, I don't see how they help students.