“No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.”
I think it’s Lily Tomlin, but the interwebs make it tough to tell for sure.
All posts by history
Cadillac Records
I was almost as scared about this movie as I was about I’m not there, but, man, this film was quite something.
Eamonn Walker deserves best supporting actor for his portrayal of Howlin’ Wolf. He stole every scene he was in…
Quote from new NYC school (1856)
We want to show by this building, with its towering walls and fair proportions,that the dignity of the school is rising in the world. . . . We believe that the existence of our government depends on the education of the people. . . We want the people, as they pass back and forth to ask what public building this is. We want them to understand that this is a noble institution of learning, and that people have wisely expended their money in erecting schoolhouses in preference to erecting jails. . . . It has been the wish of the school officers to make in such an institution that all classes might be induced to send their children to it; they wished to draw the rich as well as the poor within it, so they erected a structure of which the son of a wealthy man need not be ashamed, and that the son of a poor man may feel proud to enter. Here the both are placed on a perfect equality, and the road up the hill of fame is as broad to the humblest child of our ward as it is to the most favored son of the wealthiest citizen.
From the dedication of New York City’s Ward School 4
April 23, 1856
American Rust
Reading this exceptional novel — first novel I’ve read in a long time that I felt the need to go buy a hardback copy upon completion — while I’m reading Guion McKee’s book, The Problem of Jobs, a survey of Philadelphia industrial policy in the 1960s and 1970s.
This exchange on page 274 of American Rust:
“Company looking after you?
“Yep. Got us on this profit-sharing plan, stock’s up a hundred percent. we just hired Benny Garnic’s son, matter of fact.”
“Thought he was a computer programmer.”
“Shipped his job off to India,” said Riley. “Kid goes to school so he wouldn’t get laid off like his dad did, but then…”
“It does make you feel better about things,” said Frank, ” in a purely cynical way. Those kinds of people didn’t have much sympathy for us twenty years ago, I can remember it was asshole after asshole going on TV and saying it was our faults for not going to college.”
“Benny Garnic’s son probably doesn’t feel better.”
“I got him started at nineteen-sixty and hour,” said Frank. “He won’t lose his house the way we all did.”
Inspiration
Van Gundy on playing hard…
Jeff Van Gundy makes this point:
“But I think everybody who’s ever watched, coached or played basketball knows the difference between dirty play and hard play.”
Yep, the guys on MY team play hard, and the guys who play elsewhere are dirty.
Arlene Ackerman on facilities
Arlene Ackerman, reflecting on her first year in Philadelphia, seems ready to take on teachers and principals, playing the “tougher standards” card in this article.
What struck me was her description of the school construction process:
One example is the way new facilities have been built, she said. In the past, school advocates got new buildings or renovations based on meetings and promises from administrators. She wants a master facilities-planning process, with some kind of formula to determine which schools get built, and when.
“People don’t go to the superintendent, have a meeting, and get promised a school when there are schools that have been waiting for years and decades to get needed renovations,” Ackerman said.
Now I don’t doubt that there are political subplots to which schools get built and repaired and which ones don’t, but a bit more evidence here would be helpful. This suggestion plays into conspiracy theories–some of which are undoubtedly true–but a simple follow-up question asking for an example would have helped.
Poor reporting?
There’s a lead article in today’s Times describing Arne “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” Duncan’s plan to move towards closing schools as a new type of federal reform.
I have a lot to say about the feasibility of such a program — it would only work with massive financial incentives, incentives which would then flow into the hands of district administrators whose financial track record is hardly proven — but what was striking about this article is that neither the reporter nor Duncan mentioned where these schools are and which children would be affected.
There’s no mention of race or class in describing poorly performing high schools (for that matter, there’s minimal mention of how you’d define these schools: I’m sorry suburban family, your high school didn’t send enough kids to Yale this year) so it elides the fact that any program would necessarily be about Philadelphia, New York, LA: the big school districts that serve primarily poor children of color.
Paul Vallas quote
“You really cannot have educators running major school systems. They’re simply not trained.”
Wilgoren, J. (1999, December 26). Now Seeking a Superhero. New York Times, p. 1.
Categories of Thoughtfulness
Re-discovered this study by Fred Newmann on high school social studies classes.
The “six key indicators of thoughtfulness” are as follows:
1. Classroom discourse focuses on sustained examination of a few topics rather than superficial coverage of many.
2. The discourse is characterized by substantive coherence and continuity.
3. Students are given sufficient time to think before being required to answer questions.
4. The teacher presses students to clarify or justify their assertions, rather than accepting and reinforcing them indiscriminately.
5. The teacher models the characteristics of a thoughtful person.
6. Students generate original and unconventional ideas in the course of the interaction.
Newmann, F. (1990). Qualities of Thoughtful Social Studies Classes: An Empirical Profile. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 22, 253-275.
