Hmmph. So today, last day of the blog-week, when I'm all ready to start my time off -- today, both shows have guests who're actually worth writing about.
Jon's got Education expert Diane Ravitch. I initially had a bad feeling about this, but turns out she's (at least somewhat) intellectually honest:
Ravitch, a historian of American education and assistant secretary of education under the first George Bush, has long sought to find out what makes schools work. She has now found what that is, or at least what it isn’t: choice and testing. Her case against both is unyielding...
..Ravitch’s offer to guide us through this mess comes with a catch: she has changed her mind. Once an advocate of choice and testing, in “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” she throws cold water on both. Along the way she casts a skeptical eye on the results claimed by such often-praised school reformers as New York’s Anthony Alvarado and San Diego’s Alan Bersin, reviews a sheaf of academic studies of school effectiveness and delivers the most damning criticism I have ever read of the role philanthropic institutions sometimes play in our society. “Never before,” she writes of the Gates Foundation, was there an entity “that gave grants to almost every major think tank and advocacy group in the field of education, leaving no one willing to criticize its vast power and unchecked influence.”
...Some may ask whether we should trust someone who was once widely viewed as a conservative but now actually says nice things about teachers’ unions. But for all the attention paid to Ravitch’s change of heart, she has always been less an ideologue than a critic of educational fads, whether the more touchy-feely forms of progressive education popular in the 1960s and ’70s or the new nostrums of choice and testing. Ravitch now supports ideas associated with the left not because she is on the left. She does so for the simple reason that choice and testing had their chance and failed to deliver...
She's listed as promoting last March's The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (the paperback's due in September), but shealso might talk about her featured recent experiences with CNN:
In the wake of the attacks on teachers and public schools this past year, the haters of teachers feel respectable as they write their venomous diatribes and post them widely. When I recently defended teachers and their right to bargain collectively on CNN.com, I was startled by the raw expressions of rage in the thousands of comments that poured in.
Imagine that. Well, here are some reviews the Library Journal via B&N, and Booklist via Amazon:
Library Journal
Ravitch (education, New York Univ.; EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon), former assistant secretary of education with over 40 years of experience in educational policy, provides an important and highly readable examination of the educational system, how it fails to prepare students for life after graduation, and how we can put it back on track. Ravitch was once a passionate advocate for the conservative policies of testing and accountability, school choice, privatization, and business-style management, all of which she here powerfully shows leave students trained to take tests but not prepared to participate in the 21st-century economy. Changes she suggests include curricula that emphasize what students need to learn over test scores, having professional educators rather than politicians, business leaders, and philanthropists run the system, and using charter schools to help students most in need instead of allowing them to siphon off the best students from public schools. VERDICT Anyone interested in education should definitely read this accessible, riveting book.—Mark Bay, Univ. of the Cumberlands Lib., Williamsburg, KY
Booklist
Starred Review As an education historian and former assistant secretary of education, Ravitch has witnessed the trends in public education over the past 40 years and has herself swung from public-school advocate to market-driven accountability and choice supporter back to public-school advocate. With passion and insight, she analyzes research and draws on interviews with educators, philanthropists, and business executives to question the current direction of reform of public education. In the mid-1990s, the movement to boost educational standards failed on political concerns; next came the emphasis on accountability with its reliance on standardized testing. Now educators are worried that the No Child Left Behind mandate that all students meet proficiency standards by 2014 will result in the dismantling of public schools across the nation. Ravitch analyzes the impact of choice on public schools, attempts to quantify quality teaching, and describes the data wars with advocates for charter and traditional public schools. Ravitch also critiques the continued reliance on a corporate model for school reform and the continued failure of such efforts to emphasize curriculum. Conceding that there is no single solution, Ravitch concludes by advocating for strong educational values and revival of strong neighborhood public schools. For readers on all sides of the school-reform debate, this is a very important book. --Vanessa Bush
I suppose there has been a "we were wrong; I screwed up; I trusted people I shouldn't have" moment somewhere, but I think it'll take a bit more than that for me. Being as vociferously pro-union on the air tonight as she has been in some of her blogs might help. Still, this is a rare moment when I wish she'd shown up on Colbert instead -- he's tended to air the other side of this particular debate.
And I wish I had more time to write about Colbert's guest Mark Moffat -- I'm keeping some of these tabs open to, well, get around to one of these days. He's been on before, talking about ants and frogs and ants again. Here's a bio:
Mark Moffettt, Ph.D., Scientist-at-Large
From the top of the world's tallest tree, to deep in unexplored caves, Mark Moffettt has discovered new species and behavior while risking life and limb to find stories that make people fall in love with the unexpected in nature. Mark is a real-life adventurer with awards for writing and photography... and now the highest honors in exploration, the 2006 Lowell Thomas Medal, from the Explorers Club and Rolex, bestowed on him at Cipriani Wall Street; and the sixth Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer Award (2008). With a Ph.D. from acclaimed conservationist Edward O. Wilson, Mark remains active in science, with over 80 peer-reviewed publications. He has penned more than 20 articles for National Geographic Magazine, which has featured nearly 500 of his images. You have experienced Mark on Conan O'Brien, the Colbert Report, and NPR.
Seems he's on tonight talking about his National Geographic article on pollinators (and his site Pollinator.org):
“Striking Pollinator Gold”
An amazing article in the March issue of National Geographic Magazine, lavishly illustrated with photographs by P2’s Dr. Mark W. Moffett, showcases the “little things” that provide vital ecosystem services including our food and clothing - the pollinators!
The article “Gold Dusters” is in the newstands now and is an imaginative, factual and fun romp around the world in search of exotic and familiar pollinating animals and their flowers all in a new light. The eighteen page feature is written by NG staff writer Jennifer Holland.
Just a few pollinator portraits from the article include a ring-tailed lemur gnawing on a cactus blossom in Madagascar, a Manduca hawk moth extending its six inch tongue into a flower in Arizona, a Heliconius butterfly with a pollen moustache in Panama, and an ornate day gecko pollinating blossoms on Mauritius, and a mosquito taking time off from sucking blood to pollinate an orchid in Minnesota.
The article also highlights the plight of other pollinators, including our champion managed pollinator, the honey bee, and the impact of colony collapse disorder on this species. Anthropogenic and natural threats to bees and other pollinating animals are discussed along with our dependence upon them for food, along with oils seeds, fibers like cotton, medicines, anti-oxidants, as well as other health-giving benefits of eating colorful fruits and vegetables.
Pollinator Partnership (P2) Scientist-at-Large and Board Member, Dr. Moffett, also known as “Dr. Bugs” of television talk show fame, was a student and protégé of Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Har¬vard entomologist and Pollinator Partnership science advisor. Mark is an ecologist who has explored remote places worldwide to document new species and behaviors. His artistry behind the lens is showcased in 500 NG photos a over 30 feature articles.
Mark’s places Pollinators under the lens to show people the subtle interplay between these sometimes rare creatures who play a vital role on our planet. From Madagascar to Hawaii to Panama, Mark chases miniscule supermodels down perilous roads and through forests, and captures each one in stunning photographers...
Go look at the pictures. And if you've got a thing about bugs, be alert -- you'll be seeing some tonight. |