View From the Cheap Seats
Peter Greene, a veteran high school teacher and writer in Northwest Pennsylvania, authored the popular Curmudgucation blog and can be followed on Twitter at @palan57. The posts on this blog were exclusive to Education Week Teacher. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Congress and Your Homework
"Congress must not abdicate its responsibility to help all children succeed."
The first picture that popped into my head was an old white guy in a suit, knocking on some family's front door. When a parent answers, he says, "Hello. I'm Senator Bumswoggle, and I'm here to help Chris study for the big algebra test tomorrow."
Education
Opinion
Curmudgucation Digest (January 11)
This week, more Arne Duncan shenanigans, Brookings and CAP get silly, and Common Core gets the love.
Education
Opinion
Take Me To Your Leader
I don't believe that reformers really care about the supposed problem of these many phantom bad teachers in school. My disbelief is not because of what the reformsters are doing, but because of what they aren't.
Education
Opinion
Curmudgucation Digest (January 4)
Changing the year with more Common Core commentary, Pennsylvania education spending, the biggest ed win of the year, and more news from York, PA.
Education
Opinion
Fixing Tenure
We aren't any closer to fixing whatever is supposedly wrong with tenure than we were a few years ago. Why not? Because there are certain obstacles to the brighter bad-teacher-firing future that some dream of.
Education
Opinion
Curmudgucation Digest (December 28)
You'd think a holiday week would be slow, but between news breaking in York, PA and Bill Gates admitting to being naive, there were still pieces to be written.
Education
Opinion
What Didn't Happen in 2014
There are some events in the world of education that we have all been anticipating breathlessly. And yet in 2014, they just didn't happen.
Education
Opinion
Curmudgucation Digest (December 21)
Pearson redesigns education, Cuomo declares war, and Arne claims to have learned something, all this week at Curmudgucation.
Education
Opinion
Common Core Now Loves Inertia
It is by far the weakest argument presented in favor of the Common Core (well, the weakest argument that is not, like "written by teachers" or "internationally benchmarked," based on fabrications and falsehoods). It is the argument that we must stick with Common Core because dropping the standards would be too costly and disruptive.
Education
Opinion
Curmudgucation Digest (December 14)
Forbes, Mike Petrilli, religion in schools, and charter cheating in Chicago. Another fun week at Curmudgucation.
Education
Opinion
What Do We Do About NCLB?
All I want to do with NCLB is blow it up. I realize I'm dreaming, but so is anyone who thinks we can have 100% above average students or who thinks that free market forces could possibly help education. I like my dream better.
Education
Opinion
Did Duncan Corrupt Common Core?
One of the recurring narratives among conservative supporters of the Common Core is the Tale of How Duncan and Obama Corrupted the Good and Virtuous Common Core. And no matter how often the tale is debunked, it keeps popping up again.
Education
Opinion
Curmudgucation Digest (November 30)
Rochester charter shenanigans, America's sexiest teacher, and a festival of gubernatorial talking points in this week's Curmudgucation.
Education
Opinion
Toxic Expectations
The parable doesn't say that the Samaritan found the man beaten and lying at the side of the road and said, "I'm going to do you a huge favor. I'm going to expect you to heal yourself and get yourself out of that ditch. Good luck. I expect I'll see you later."