Monday, March 26, 2012

Rhetoric is Not the Problem

Zak Newman:

Roy: "Changing us vs. them rhetoric in education will come through personal relationships amongst stakeholders." Yes! #yaleelc #edreform

I'll let that fairly innocuous tweet from the Yale ed reform thing last Friday stand in for other longer variations on the same Broderist theme.

Basically, it only seems like we have a problem with divisive rhetoric when you get far enough away from the problem that you only see it through rhetoric. Up close the problem is the visceral reality wrought by bad policy. Schools closing, teachers being fired, educational choice, opportunity and achievement diminishing. The same mistakes repeated over and over again. The rhetoric is no worse than ever, although plunging fire is coming from our own lines now. Its the same rhetoric as before. And when pressed, reformers are perfectly willing to walk away from their own lines and co-opt up yours. Arne Duncan is apparently as much against teaching to the test as I am!

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