We are witnessing a potentially cataclysmic shift in
education, that is already having disastrous effects on learners, from babies
all the way up to teacher educators. In college I played the role of Cassandra
in a Hasty Pudding rejected musical production at Harvard based on the Trojan
War called “Hold Your Horses” and I have an embodied memory of what it feels
like to stand on a public platform forecasting doom and gloom to the masses who
simply won’t listen.
Let me try to elevate your sense of pressing concern and
worry for our future.
TRUMP
If elected president, Donald Trump would essentially bleed our public schools to death. By the way,
TECH
Silicon Valley and the tech industry have plans for your children. Goodbye privacy. Know your rights.
THE FUTURE
Some
people are provoking us to envision the future, where ten years from now, "learning is earning." And what’s
really scary is the technology is already in place, the funding is in place,
this is not science fiction, it's real.
SCREEN TIME
The
psychological, neurological, and physical fallout of technology on developing
brains and bodies is more than troubling, yet we are in denial. Take the time
to listen to author and expert Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair.
DISCIPLINE
For
too many children living in poverty, school is not providing preparation for
life, but for prison. Suspension rates are disproportionately high in some charter chain schools such as KIPP and Achievement First.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Above
and beyond contaminated water problems over half of our public schools are in
need of repair and modernization, at an estimated cost of almost $200 billion.
TEACHER PREP
The
coalition of “teacher prep” academies and programs is out to disrupt and replace teacher education in institutions of higher education. So far the verdict is they contribute to the use
of punitive measures in schools with high concentrations of students living in
poverty and to the inequitable distribution of professionally prepared
teachers.
TEACHER TURNOVER
Schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty suffer from high rates of teacher turnover and attrition. Those preparation programs that provide pedagogy, adequate practice opportunities, and feedback to teachers lead to less attrition than those with little content and substance.
Schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty suffer from high rates of teacher turnover and attrition. Those preparation programs that provide pedagogy, adequate practice opportunities, and feedback to teachers lead to less attrition than those with little content and substance.
TEACHER LICENSURE
It's turning out to be very expensive and messy to evaluate teachers in terms of their readiness to teach and their "core competencies" so virtual reality and digital badging are on the horizon. Only problem: avatars are not humans, online modules are not courses or workshops.
