Howdee.
My name is Philip Kovacs, and I am a former teacher who teaches teachers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Inspired by this community, and with the help of one of its most prominent members, I helped start an organization dedicated to dismantling the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which has been a boon for corporate America, and continues to harm students, teachers, and schools.
You may have seen our petition, which now has 34,000 signatures. That may not seem like many, but if we could all gather in your front yard, you’d take notice.
Please jump with us, we have something we’d like to share with you.
Both of you have discussed "closing the achievement gap" between black and white students. This is a noble goal, but schools cannot do it alone. You see, focusing on the "achievement gap" is a convenient way for politicians to ignore all the other gaps in our country.
Here are a few worth considering...
I was just curious...as president, what are you going to do about all of these other gaps?
Finally, it would be nice if you helped us create schools that helped engender that traits and capacities necessary for participatory democracy.
In no particular order, and I'm sure I've left some out, those would be:
Critical thinking
Perseverance
Impulse ontrol
Metacognitive awareness
Resiliency
Critical media literacy
Listening with empathy
The capacity for action coupled with reflection
Basic statistics
and a solid bullshit detector.
Respectfully,
Philip Kovacs