Deborah Meier is a visionary teacher, author, and founder of successful small schools in New York City and Boston. Harry Boyte, senior scholar at Augsburg College, is founder of the youth civic empowerment initiative Public Achievement and a leader in the movement to democratize higher education. This blog is no longer being updated.
Teaching
Opinion
Whither Democracy and Unionism
Deborah Meier: Unions are both an opportunity to practice democracy, to get it in our bones and blood, as well as to create the balance of power democracy rests on.
Education
Opinion
Taking a Breather
The Bridging Differences blog is on a publishing break. Enjoy your summer everyone!--Education Week
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
What's Good for Rich Kids Is Good for Poor Ones, Too
Meier: It is galling when rich people in the ed policy field tell me that class size doesn't matter-and pay a lot to send their kids to schools with half as many students per class as urban schools.
School & District Management
Opinion
Reform for Other People's Children
Klonsky: What we know for sure is that all over the country, power-philanthropists are making "gifts" to resource-starved school systems.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
'Urban' Schools and Other Euphemisms
Meier: It's amazing the lengths to which we will go to avoid the questions that surround poverty and segregation, and how useful instead it has been to focus our animosity on schools.
Standards & Accountability
Opinion
Urban, Rural Schools Connected by Inequality
Klonsky: Small rural schools, which often served as community anchors, were (are) being closed by the hundreds.
Teaching
Opinion
We Need a Strong Alliance for Schools
Meier: States are making it easier to hand over our schools to private interests or providing money to existing private schools.
Standards & Accountability
Opinion
Thoughts From a Sit-In
Klonsky: The struggle in the cities, while certainly connected to testing and curriculum (common core), has been focused on equity.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Don't Write Off Everyone in the Tea Party
Meier: It's too easy to ignore families who fundamentally disagree with us without seeing the damage it causes.
Standards & Accountability
Opinion
Drawing a Line on Common Core
Klonsky: While you and I share a healthy suspicion of government programs and share a strong opposition to NCLB and Race To The Top, I'm not against government.
Teaching
Opinion
Whose Help Don't We Need?
Meier: If my house were on fire, I'd not reject the help of a neighbor whose views I otherwise despise. I think our nation is on fire.
Assessment
Opinion
We Still Have Allies in the Fight
Klonsky: How bad is it out there? Who are the forces in the field? How weak or strong are they and we?
School & District Management
Opinion
Who Do We Ally With?
Meier: Of late, teaching is not a field I'm comfortable seeing my grandchildren or their friends entering.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
An Assault on Public Schools
Klonsky: What we are facing at this moment though, is not so much the problem of choice schools vs. neighborhood schools, or progressive schools vs. traditional schools. Rather, it's an assault on public schools and public space in general.