From the trenches - a blog with a unique point of view
Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 10:06AM I reviewed Dennis Fermoyles's book In the Trenches in this blog last January and commented on the author's frank and realistic appraisal of public education and the problems it faces. It was a real breath of fresh air after reading so many ivory tower pundits both in print and online. (And yes, while I do work in the public schools, I don't work with kids in the classroom on a daily basis. My ivory tower has leaky windows and a crumbling foundation, but I still consider myself an ivory tower sort of guy.)
I am happy to report (belatedly) that Dennis now has a blog - From the Trenches of Public Ed. and he has been writing regularly for it. His most recent post was a review of the nasty book, Education Myths by Jay Greene about which he was much kinder than I would have been, based on my quick browse through while at the bookstore.
But what I have been enjoying most in his blog are Dennis's explications of his PUBLIC EDUCATION'S SELF-PROCLAIMED DEFENDER'S (PESPD's ) EDUCATION MYTHS. The are:
- When a student fails, the teacher has failed.
- The American people demand high standards from their schools.
- Education should be a right of every student.
- All high school aged kids should be encouraged to stay in school.
- The key factor in the learning that takes place in any classroom is the quality of the teacher.
- The key factor in determining a student's performance is his or her academic ability.
- God is not allowed in public schools.
- Teachers lack incentive to do a good job unless they are held accountable.
- Public schools will improve if we use vouchers to force them to compete with private schools.
- Because of our poor public education system, we are falling behind other nations.
As you can tell, this is by no means mainstream educational thinking. But it is thinking and Dennis has the experience to back up his beliefs.
Both his book and blog deserve a wide audience.
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