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What's up with the "passing out of pink slips frenzy" of late? This editorial perfectly articulates my response to that question: "Pink Slips...Part of Disturbing Trend"
Basically, anything goes for "other people's children". A cynical position, yes ... but certainly a hard one to debate with the number of school closings and teacher cuts increasing daily in urban schools all across the country.
Here are some note-worthy quotes from the article:
"It is as if we have all tacitly agreed that when it comes to public schools, there are our children and then there are other people’s children, who just so happen to be largely poor, black and brown. Other people’s children need uniforms, authoritarian disciplinary policies and uninspired curricula. Other people’s children are taught by Teach for America “graduates” who have five weeks of training under their belts. Other people’s children are best evaluated by tests of highly questionable validity. Other people’s children have their schools closed."
"We tell ourselves that success is the result of intelligence and hard work, and yet we willfully ignore the widening differences in resources, teacher pay, and curricula increasingly found between our suburban and urban schools."
"In our poorest communities, where teachers need the most support and students need the most innovative curricula, we find instead instruction driven by the tyranny of statewide tests."
And if you've found your way on to this website, your search for "innovative curricula" probably just ended. :)
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