Public Education isn’t a war

By Wesley Fryer On March 14, 2011 · · 1 Comment

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Stan Stamper, editor of the local newspaper in Hugo, Oklahoma, misses the boat big time in his editorial today, “Are we losing the education war?” Education isn’t a war and shouldn’t be construed as such, anymore than our struggles to combat terrorism globally or counter illicit drugs should be. Wrong metaphor, and poor policy recommendations here.

This shows what an open door / ripe opportunity we have for those who would seek to shape education reform policy today. I count myself among that number.

Stan’s editorial is on:
http://hugonews.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/are-we-losing-the-education-war/

For thoughts on why a “war on terror” is a bad idea, see:
http://www.wesfryer.com/articles/weedthegarden.html

For more on drug control policy and war metaphors, see:
http://www.wesfryer.com/drugwar.html

For more of my ideas on education reform, see that category of posts here on my blog. I’ll be publishing those aggregated posts soon as an eBook here.

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On this day..

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teach for life

I’m sorry, but there is a war going on. There are stakeholders in education today that want to dismantle public education and are in the process of spinning one of the most racist policies since slavery. Watch at Detroit schools go to 60 kids in a classroom. New Orleans loses most of its public schools and uses inadequate online education and charter education. Private companies and start ups are boundless in their efforts to turn disenfranchised children into the new cash cow. Talk around town is about the best teachers being ones who can teach to the largest groups. Learning should happen through video, School of One. Hmmm… what do we mean here? Mass education for the masses. While the tech ed people look on imagining great opportunities for learning through technology and for the advocates and early adopters, realize that much of what Gates, Broad and the republican governors around the country want is to divest from instruction that provides real opportunities for children and make education for the masses an exclusively online experience with a single narrative established by the state which is run by multinational corporations. If that’s not a war, I don’t know what is.