Schools and Society

In a matter of days the official name of the “siteseven” web site will be “Schools and Society” which better reflects the content. The old name will, for a while, redirect. Since publishing my recent book, “Schools and Society” it became apparent that readers not familiar with the site content would have no way to know the book and blog are related. Also, in an important way, this is a new start and I plan (and hope) to be posting more regularly. The attacks on public education are relentless and are still being promulgated by prominent people who know nothing about teaching and learning (e.g. Donald Trump). People who could do with some learning themselves. Public school teachers and education itself have been politicized not for their betterment but simply because they are a soft target for populist politicians. To the uninitiated reader let me put it this way: How would you approach a classroom of, let’s say 8 or 10 year olds all from different homes, at different income levels, and with parents ranging from indifferent to closely involved? How about teaching reading to kids from homes where there are no books? Not ever newspapers! When I was teaching at Madison a group of grad students learned of homes where not even a newspaper was present so they obtained a grant to have a daily paper delivered to every students’ home. There is also the matter of teachers being sitting ducks absorbing criticism for matters and causes beyond their control. Teachers are the favorite soft-target for populist politicians not just because they tend, as a group, to be generally Liberal politically but because the range of intellectual, emotional, and social ability they have to deal with on a daily basis makes their achievements with each child as an individual an amazing feat and they can’t always win! So, I hope you will find these essays interesting, stimulating, and maybe even inspiring you to support Public Education and teachers.

.