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UPDATE 1: Apparently the blocks on the Education Nation Facebook page have been lifted and they are now allowing dissent. At the suggestion of OL commenter Gray, I'm urging you to log in there and make your voice heard. Tell them that more educators need to be included on the discussion panels. And ask why they weren't in the first place.
UPDATE 2: The Texas School Board's resolution to delete "pro-Islamic" material from school textbooks, has made national news. Please donate to the candidates who are trying to unseat these loonies.
Can you imagine a major media outlet having extensive programming about the economy and inviting no economists? Would a news show doing an in-depth treatment about business ever fail to include spokes people from the business world?
Of course not. Yet later this week when NBC news rolls out its Education Nation extravaganza, what is by-and-large being left out of the programming are educators.
As Daily Kos blogger teacherken reported this weekend, on the official list of confirmed panelists distributed by NBC,
"there are many corporate executives, there are people from educational policy organizations, there are politicians, there are foundations. There are journalists. Many of these lack any real knowledge about education, or are well known for pushing a particular view of education to the exclusion of any other. There are more than 30 names. Of these two are from parent organizations, and there is one representative from the smaller of the two national teachers unions."
After scores of angry educators stormed the Education Nation Facebook page - which resulted in many of them being blocked - it appears that Diane Ravitch, a prominent critic of the Obama administration's education policies, will be interviewed - but not included in the panel discussions.
The Facebook "voice" for Education Nation consoles that there will be teachers included in a "Teachers' Town Hall" on Sunday September 26. But that's not the same thing as being included in the "panels of experts" as educator Nancy Flanagan notes in comments. Being "shuffled off into a 'Town Hall' while the headliner presenters - none of whom are educators and many of whom represent commercial interests" is a not-so-subtle attempt to show educators their "place" in the debate.
All of this falls in the midst of a full frontal assault on public education and teachers that is occurring this week in multiple venues. From Monday's ludicrous Oprah show playing up the debut of the movie Waiting for Superman, through the weekend's roll-out of Education Nation, this propaganda campaign is taking place with very little input from educators, unless they happen to work in charter schools.
And why should it? After all, we've all been to school. We all know what school is all about. And we all know what kind of schools we would like, right? Which begs a question posed in a blog post by the Learning First Alliance's Anne O'Brien recently, "Is teaching a profession or a public service?"
In other words, when we "the public" - which in the case of Education Nation means star journalists and representatives of big businesses, think tanks, and foundations - decide what we mean by a "good school" we basically just need to give educators their marching orders. I mean, when we decide it's time to re-engineer the city streets, do we go talk to the crews manning the bulldozers? If there's a problem with trash in our community, do we bother interviewing the garbage men to get their expertise? No. We just pay the taxes and make the decisions - cut this street through here, run the trucks every Wednesday - that will ensure we are being "well served" by the people who have to do the grunt work.
For all of you who believe that getting your kid, or your neighbor's kid, a good education is just a matter of being "well served," then I want to introduce you to a group of citizens in Texas who believe that having their community well-served means making kids read textbooks that reject the separation of church and state, diminish the role of Thomas Jefferson and the Enlightenment in the founding of America, and shield children from any "pro-Islamic" references.
If indeed what we want is for educators to be public servants, then what we're going to get is education that is subject to those in the public who have the most power. And if you believe that's all well and good for those yayhoos down in Texas, then you don't know how the system works. Because Texas is the nation's second-largest textbook market, textbook companies and test makers that win contracts in Texas end up using the economies of scale of that contract to roll out their products across the country. So if you're okay with having the powerful control education, rather than those mean old teachers' unions, then you're opening the door to the potential for your kids or your neighbor's kids to be learning about Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly, and the Moral Majority instead of reading biographies of George Washington.
Of course professional educators in the state of Texas are fighting these rightwing loonies every step of the way. Two of them have decided to run for the state school board to return textbook policy back to sanity. Tomorrow, the candidates, Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau, will appear at a hearing where they will do battle against the ridiculous contention that teaching kids something about Islam is un-American.
If you care at all about education and kids, you'd better hope the professionals win this one. And you should also toss them a few bucks to ensure the voice of reason, developed through being a knowledgeable professional educator, still has some say-so in our "education nation."
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