Garrison Keillor: "Nice People Are Failing These Kids"

Forget Freedman (In the South Bronx, Robotics and Rebirth), the Wall Street Journal (Those Pell Vouchers), and Mathews (Bad Parents Don't Make Bad Schools).   That's because today's best opinion piece on education comes from Garrison Keillor in Salon (We're failing our kids).  An excerpt:

"Face it, the schools are not run by Republican oligarchs in top hats and spats but by perfectly nice, caring, sharing people, with a smattering of yoga/raga/tofu/mojo/mantra folks like my old confreres. Nice people are failing these kids, but when they are called on it, they get very huffy."

 

The 111th Carnival Returns Home

For the second week, the Carnival of Education has opened at it's home, The Education Wonks. This Week In Education's submission made it into the first category, EduPolicy. Check it out for tons of great education posts!

The 109th Carnival - Professional Development

The Science Goddess hosts the Carnival this week and it is as exciting as it always is! She does a fabulous job - just look at the comments section. Here's a glimpse:

The Grading group immediately started their banter. There appeared to be a great deal of interest in this topic.

“You know,” said DeHavilland, “maybe the issue isn’t grade inflation as much as it is the system. What would happen if teachers did the grading but there was an independent evaluator?”

Joanne jumped in next. “That might at least be one way to take steps. I’m trying to get some advice on how to help a kid who wants to learn, but whose teachers seem to only grade for effort, rather than academics.”

History Is Elementary Hosts Carnival

The 107th Carnival of Education is up at History Is Elementary. Here's a great section on Parental Involvement:

Richard over at Shadowscope provides a parent view regarding our public schools. It’s honest, it’s frank, and I know that many of us on the frontlines feel his pain. Visit Richard at Public School.

Matt over at Going to the Mat gives us a view of what can happen when we have Parental Involvement In VA Schools.

Does a Flower Turn to the Sun? No, this isn’t a science post. Here’s a partial quote, “…parents don’t really have the knowledge to make decisions about the quality of schools.” See how Casey of What Would You Say If You Weren't Afraid? responds to that kind of idea.

The Carnival of Education Returns Home

The 106th Edition is up over at The Education Wonks. It was a pleasure to host the carnival last week, thanks to those who submitted posts. Here's a taste of this week's carnival:Have you ever considered what it means to have a right to an education? An easy concept to consider, but not necessarily so easy to articulate. Consider taking a look at this well-articulated consideration of this basic human right by Principled Discovery.

Carnival 105th: The Over-Scheduled Carnival Kid

The first rule of Carnival is to publicize the Carnival. The second rule is to remember that next week the Carnival comes home to The Education Wonks. The deadline for submissions is: 9:00 PM (Eastern) 6:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, February 13. Submissions may be sent to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net . Contributers may also use Blog Carnival's handy submission form: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_5.html

Now, on to this week's Carnival, #105: The Over-Scheduled Carnival Kid. We've all heard a lot about over-worked, over-scheduled kids, and we're here to tell you: it's all true. The Carnival Kid has more classes, meetings, and extracurriculars than most folks can imagine. Let's take a look.

The 104th Carnival of Education

The Carnival of Education is up at The Median Sib and it's a good one. Great pictures, such as this one that represents the category "School Governance and Edupolicy," and it has some great posts:

EdWonk at The Education Wonks tells us about a Rhode Island Catholic school that has adopted a silent lunch policy in ”The School of Silence.”

Patrick at The Psychology of Education looks at a new book that addresses “shadow children” and what the author claims is the #1 problem in education.

Look for next week's carnival right here at This Week In Education. Posts should be emailed to thisweekineducation@gmail.com by 9 PM EST, 6 PM PT on Tuesday, February 6th.

The 103rd Carnival of Education

The Carnival of Education returns home this week to The Education Wonks. As usual, there are a variety of education topics and submissions. Here's an interesting one:

NYC Educator teaches in the New York City Public School System. Educator is telling us all about the Petty Tyrant EduCrat who allowed a hurt child to bleed until the necessary hall pass was obtained. Only then was the kid put into an ambulance and rushed to the hospital...

102nd Carnival of Education

The Carnival of Education opened today for the hundred and second time at Dr. Homeslice. The Carnival opens with a quote from Dr Martin Luther King and then jumps right on in:

Incidents of students impersonating teachers online are rising, especially on Myspace. Brice recounts making a slanderous Myspace page a high school teacher he hated. He also remembers getting caught after doing it.

Happy first birthday to NCLBlog over at AFT! A number of key blogosphere types share their favorite posts over the past year from the blog. Kind of like a rockumentary for a blog.

The 101 Dalmations Style Carnival

I Thought a Think hosted this week's Carnival of Education - Dalmation style. Featuring a picture of a Dalmation, the Carnival begins by highlighting the Carnival's home site, The Education Wonks: "EdWonk, the founder and patron saint of the Carnival of Education, leads us off with this pressing question: is wetting your pants an arrestable offense?"