Blog 6

1.     A game… (Since this is a game, I won’t bother to consider how the following would be paid for).

a.     Raise teacher salaries. You keep asking more and more of us. You need to pay us more.

b.     Restore education spending to pre-2008 levels (and compel states to do likewise)

c.      Enforce/require teacher accountability. There are simply too many teachers in the workforce going through the motions, waiting for their pensions. The ‘bad’ or ineffective instructors must be removed

d.     Re-work NCLB. I feel that the intent was there, the result (standardized tests etc.,) are so flawed that they (the measurement of success/failure) must be reworked.

e.     Establish a national guideline (accountability, standards) for education and give the states the ability to reach those goals in a manner that meets the needs of that state.

2.     What I got out of Ravitch was the fact that this country has been so political about education over the last several decades. It seems that the best interests of the children are not being fulfilled, just the needs of the politician and/or the special interest group. This results in a “flavor of the month” mentality, which as we can all see hasn’t had a great deal of success.

3.     All any teacher and citizen can do is strive to become the best member of society that they can be. This means that you must be able to collaborate or work with those, whose opinions do not necessarily match your own, for the betterment of that society.

4.     Over the next 3 years I would like to…

a.     See an expansion of historical sites (think museums) that reflect the broad culture in the Bay Area. These site would include:

                                               i.     Port Chicago

                                              ii.     Pittsburg, CA (Camp Stoneman)

                                            iii.     Dublin, CA (Camps Parks)

                                            iv.     Livermore, CA (Lawrence Livermore Lab)

                                              v.     San Francisco, CA (Hunters Point)

b.     Read the following books…

                                               i.     “A Peoples History of the United States”

                                              ii.     “The Russian Revolution”

                                            iii.     “The Years of Lyndon Johnson”

c.      Investigate…

                                               i.     The Chinese Civil War

                                              ii.     The Holocaust

d.     I am not familiar with this sort of event and can’t really comment on one that I would want to attend

e.     See…

                                               i.     Gettysburg

                                              ii.     Holocaust sites

                                            iii.     Normandy

                                            iv.     The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s Plantation)