I'm so proud of our @HaveYouHeardPod graduate student research contest, which has given the mic to five new scholars over the past two years. Here's the latest episode, with our 2020 winner: soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpo…
Where did the myth of "public schools were modeled on factories" come from?
I think I finally found the smoking gun...
🧵
In 1993, David Osborne wrote "Reinventing Government." Osborne, a consultant at The Public Strategies Group, was an advisor to the Clinton/Gore White House.
These were the "New Democrats" who were going to win elections by taking a few pages out of the Republican playbook.
Osborne was convinced that markets were the solution for government inefficiency.
In his writing and public speaking, he regularly made the case that bureaucracy, administrative bloat, and the absence of competition were the source of all evil in public life.
My thoughts on this extremely shallow NYT piece on grade inflation and the “devastating consequences it has for our society”…
🧵 nytimes.com/2023/10/04/opi…
For those too busy to read it, the argument goes something like this: Once upon a time we had standards...now we don't.
Example: "What's not helping? The policies many school districts are adopting that make it nearly impossible for low-performing students to fail."
2/
We're supposed to buy this logic:
If students fear failure, they'll work harder. If they work harder, they'll achieve more. If they achieve more, our economy (& etc. etc.) will be strengthened.
But students don't sufficiently fear failure, because we don't fail them enough.
3/
Among school voucher advocates, the go-to metaphor has long been grocery stores.
I'm going to drop a few of my favorites here, and explain why this is absolutely bonkers.
1/
Love this one: “Just imagine if the government forced you to buy food from that awful government market down the street that sold contaminated meat, overripe fruit, and moldy bread, and was staffed by incompetent store employees..."
[Wait for the conclusion of this gem]
2/
"...We have had universal grocery choice forever. It is now time to implement educational freedom for all.”
OK. So...universal grocery choice is the rallying cry! (It gets even better.)
3/
I just finished @prof_shelton's new book, The Education Myth. It's the best book I've read in a while.
1/
The book tells the story of how our national narrative about education and social mobility has limited the political possibility of real egalitarianism. At the same time, it has narrowed our understanding of what education is good for.
2/
What is that narrative? That education is the way to get ahead. You get ahead by building "human capital" and then going out onto the job market and reaping the rewards of your investment in education.
3/
A quick thread on what "fund students not systems" means.
The most important thing to know is that there are really two separate camps that this movement brings together: market fundamentalists and Christian nationalists.
2/
The market fundamentalists believe that schools shouldn't be governed through democratic politics; instead, they should be directed by the invisible hand of the free market.
3/