Teaching & Learning Blog

Teacher in a Strange Land

From January 2010 to September 2018, Nancy Flanagan, an education writer and consultant focusing on teacher leadership, wrote about the inconsistencies and inspirations, the incomprehensible, immoral and imaginative, in American education. She spent 30 years in a K-12 music classroom in Hartland, Mich., and was named Michigan Teacher of the Year in 1993. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teacher leaders.

Education Opinion You Bet Your LIFO
Hard to say which has diminished teacher quality more: valuing longevity over talent, or the wages and working conditions teachers must routinely accept.
Nancy Flanagan, February 3, 2011
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3 min read
Education Opinion Equal Access: Rosa Parks, Lite
Kelly Williams-Bolar has become a symbol of another kind of Tiger mom--one willing to be arrested and incarcerated for the sake of her children's education. Whether she set out to be that symbolic hero--or whether she was talked into it to advance a cause--is unclear
Nancy Flanagan, February 1, 2011
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2 min read
Education Opinion The Real Nation-Builders
The teachers I know in Detroit Public Schools--to a person--are dedicated to the children who have no educational options. Are they nation-builders, then?
Nancy Flanagan, January 31, 2011
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3 min read
Education Opinion Ask Not...
Mrs. McIntosh required us all to memorize those lines. In between the spelling tests on Friday and endless multiplication worksheets, we all stood up and repeated "ask not..." until we knew it, cold.
Nancy Flanagan, January 22, 2011
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2 min read
Education Opinion We're Fine with Segregation--As Long as We Have Charter Schools!
Isn't "diluting" the problem of poverty one of our educational goals? Shouldn't all Americans be concerned about racial and economic equity?
Nancy Flanagan, January 19, 2011
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2 min read
Education Opinion Big Brother vs. Teacher Professionalism
The videotape can be a useful tool in building a dynamic teaching practice. Don't turn it into a bludgeon.
Nancy Flanagan, January 15, 2011
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3 min read
Education Opinion Teachers Gone Wild
The headline says it all: Should I Care if My Child's Teacher Once Worked as a Stripper?
Nancy Flanagan, January 14, 2011
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2 min read
Education Opinion The Common Core: Policy Triumph or Commercial Bonanza?
The option of mass-delivering standardized instruction electronically is only the icing on what could be a very lucrative cake for commercial education materials developers, courtesy of the Common Core.
Nancy Flanagan, January 12, 2011
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3 min read
Education Opinion Media, Violence and Schoolkids
Isn't it incumbent upon those who hold the public trust--and I include both educators and political leaders in this group--to speak with discretion and a commitment to peace?
Nancy Flanagan, January 9, 2011
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3 min read
Education Opinion The Gorilla, the Basketball and the Future
Sweeping changes in educational practice and policy tend to come as a surprise to teachers, simply because they haven't been paying attention to the discourse or trends, what with recess duty, lesson plans, parent phone calls and trying to stay awake until the news.
Nancy Flanagan, January 4, 2011
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4 min read
Education Opinion The Ghost of Schooling Past
The eradication of Ignorance and Want? Not there yet.
Nancy Flanagan, December 27, 2010
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3 min read
Education Opinion The War on Jingle Bells
It is ironic that, in a month when you can hear "For Unto Us a Child is Born" in the dog food aisle of the supermarket, we are worried about whether it's OK to be roasting chestnuts over an open fire in the school gymnasium.
Nancy Flanagan, December 21, 2010
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3 min read
Education Opinion Digging Out
We're on the kryptonite bandwagon now: old public schools bad, "innovative" charter schools good. Action, not reflection.
Nancy Flanagan, December 20, 2010
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4 min read
Education Opinion Whither Public Schooling?
When it comes to schooling, perception is reality--so what does it mean when we position public education as hopeless?
Nancy Flanagan, November 28, 2010
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4 min read
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