Views in brief
"Reformers" don't want quality education
IN RESPONSE to "Unraveling the myths about teachers": Overall, Brian Jones does a wonderful job in this piece, but as a former English teacher who became a mathematics educator, I couldn't let go the bit about teachers spending "five minutes" to read, comment upon and grade student papers.
Realistically, if a teacher seriously wants to help students become better writers and thinkers (be the subject in which student writing is being critiqued English, history, science, mathematics, or pretty much anything), five minutes per paper is absurdly little time.
As a college English instructor while doing graduate work at the University of Florida in the '70s, I dreaded collecting student papers because it would take me so long to go through them, and while I tried to find ways to streamline the process, it simply wasn't realistic. Neither was grading mathematics exams in high school, at least not exams that seriously demanded that students show their work, explain their thinking, interpret results, etc.
The only time grading math exams was easy and quick was when I taught at Borough of Manhattan Community College in the early 1990s and gave department-mandated multiple choice tests that were done on Scantron sheets and graded by machine. And even then, I spent time analyzing the results and writing feedback for students, not simply handing back a percentage if the student failed to make the minimum passing grade the rule was that regardless of how students did on the rest of their work in my class, they had to pass the departmental exam to get credit for the course).
In any event, tie all this time required for doing meaningful assessment, which I suspect is vastly more than five minutes per student per assignment, and you start to see another insidious aspect of the privatization movement. They have been pushing like mad to increase class size, to give teachers less prep time, less time for collegial interaction (not that there was ever much of that in US public education in my lifetime), and yet they also push so hard for high-stakes test scores to improve.
Now, if assessment is really so central to improving learning, wouldn't the deformers, realizing that it takes a lot of time to give helpful, meaningful feedback, push for smaller class sizes so that teachers could reasonably be expected to spend 15 minutes per paper when necessary?
But the fact that you will never hear a deformer/privatizer call for smaller class sizes, fewer hours in which teachers have to be in class (a la the Japanese system), or anything else that costs more is simple: they couldn't care less about actual improvement or learning, and they don't want to cut into their profit margin (or the one they anticipate having as they do away with non-profit public education.
Michael Paul Goldenberg, Ann Arbor, Mich.
How do we get the change we want?
"AUTONOMOUS ZONE on Wall Street" is an excellent discussion, all in one place, on whether it is possible to create the future society in the present struggle.
A couple of more points: First, I was thinking about this in terms of long-past struggles. We know the Paris Commune because it did, in fact, produce a new form of organization--workers' power which could rival the power of the French state in 1870. But those organizing got their power because of the support their demands got: Defend Paris! No official paid more than a worker! No night work for bakers!
People didn't rally to them because they said, "We're going to set up the first worker's government, the Commune!" I realize this starts a new complicated discussion (citizens were all part of a National Guard), but they didn't avoid demands--that was how they made their project known.
Second, you get to think about what kind of demands to make--what represents the future in the present. All those demands that start, "It would make sense to... and end with..., but they won't let us. Stop funding war. Spend the money on schools, public works, restoring housing." That's a transitional method.
Tina Beacock, Chicago
Remembering the murder of Troy Davis
IN RESPONSE to "Why did Obama let Troy die?": Excellent article. It made me depressed and angry--again--about the murder of Troy Davis.
You were spot on about Obama; he is the most powerful man in the world. He had the power to stop Troy being murdered, yet he stood by and did nothing. He has blood on his hands; just like the judge, just like the prosecutor, just like the so-called "doctor" who injected Troy with the poison. Just like the real killer of that police officer.
I don't believe in God; but I know Troy did, and my only hope is that he died knowing he was going to a better place, a place where he was free. A place free from hatred. I hope this gave him peace in his final moments. I know his family have faith too, and I hope they have peace, too.
Jackie, United Kingdom
