The Freire Project

The National Education Association (NEA) received criticism for publishing an Op-Ed with Teach for America (TFA). Ken Bernstein found the piece to be "unbelievable," while raising the possibility that union members felt betrayed.

 Less than a month after the death of Jamey Rodemeyer, a teenager from Buffalo, NY who committed suicide after being bullied by classmates, the nation has once again become re-awakened to the fact that this issue, which flooded the media a year ago with the death of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, is not going away anytime soon.
 

 For hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, the world seemed to come to a standstill when the news was released that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had turned a deaf ear to pleas for clemency for Troy Davis. Hundreds of thousands of supporters, who range in profile from teenagers in public schools to former presidents, have written letters on behalf of Davis, and hoped that their words would sway the state of Georgia away from the Death Penalty.
 

Why “Evidence-Based” Education Fails

How did the largest and most aggressive federal education initiative, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), garner bipartisan support under George W. Bush, and how have the central tenants of that legislation—accountability, standards, and testing—maintained and increased their value as approaches to education reform despite the tremendous evidence that they do not work?

“[N]ot the Time. . .to Follow the Line of Least Resistance”

CALL for proposals: De-Testing and De-Grading Schools (IAP)
 

De-Testing and De-Grading Schools: Authentic Alternatives to Accountability and Standardization

Joe Bower and P. L. Thomas, editors

Information Age Publishing (IAP)

 
Focus:

“Click, Clack, Moo”: Why the 1% Always Wins

As a high school English teacher for nearly two decades, I came to embrace a need to offer students a wide range of lenses for interacting with and learning from many different texts, but I also learned that coming to read and re-read, to write and re-write the world is both a powerful and disorienting experience for young people. So a strategy I now use and encourage other teachers to implement is reading and discussing children’s literature, picture books, while expanding the critical lenses readers have in their toolbox.

I must admit that my first reaction to having read about the first #OccupyWallStreet initiatives was one of skepticism. The demonstrators, to me, seemed to have no direct “demands” no clear “vision” or “strategy” – something that as an organizer for social justice, I have always been adamant about. I mean, the way I see it, why waste our energies in organizing towards no tangible goal? Don’t get me wrong, the sentiment behind the demonstrations, the anger and outrage against the global elite which have increasingly become more powerful and less accountable to the populations they affect with their agendas of profit and power  – all this I understood, I felt, I agreed with.

 Latest piece by Dr. Susan Searls Giroux
"I want to be the Premier to bring change these families need and deserve. Change that puts criminals to work. Change that treats victims of crime with respect. Change that gives police officers the tools and authority to do their jobs safely and properly." -Tim Hudak, Ontario Progressive Conservative leader
 

Reflecting on children and thier position in our educational systems that I came across the following definition from Wikipedia.
 

I think this is a very encouraging piece of information.  Personally, I'm not too concerned about how the arts and humanities re-enter our cultural dialogue, Im just concerned that they are re-introduced.  When Michelle Obama became First Lady, I was hoping she'd pull a Jackie O. and make the arts her personal priority.  -Nutrition for the body is a close second, but I would've preferred some nutrition for the SOUL!
 
http://www.truth-out.org/digital-art-and-culture-21st-century-paradigm-s...