Don't Know Much About History

O.K. I am a graduate student in the CSU (California State University) system. And yes, it’s a mess. Cal State officials announced last month that they plan to freeze enrollment next spring at most campuses, and wait-list all applications for the following fall, due to budget uncertainty. I am not sure I would encourage my own daughter to attend the University of California (UC) – including UCLA or UC Berkeley.

 But this, is ridiculous:

 

A succinct analysis:

It’s unclear whether Santorum was referring to the University of California system or the California State University system, but it doesn’t matter. Both offer American history courses at all their campuses, with one exception. UCSF doesn’t offer any history courses — because it’s a medical school.  

All 23 CSU campuses offer a variety of American history courses, said CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp. Students are required to take several of those courses or test out of them in order to graduate.  

And the nine undergraduate UC campuses (Berkeley, Irvine, San Diego, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, Davis, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara) offer the courses and have a similar graduation requirement.  

If Senator Santorum wants to use the example of California to make a point about the disaster that is public college and university education in 2012, he has a lot to work with.

Too bad he blew his chance to make any valid points.

From School Bullying to Republican Debates

A heart-breaking story from suburban Buffalo, one of my old hometowns:

Jamey Rodemeyer's death has unleashed a torrent of raw emotion.

It comes from major figures in the world of entertainment, media and politics, who never heard of the 14-year-old Williamsville North freshman, and relatives, teachers and students who saw him every day. His suicide this week, following what he called more than a year of "constant" bullying related to the fact that he identified as bisexual, seems to touch a new nerve every day.

That continued at a Williamsville North homecoming event Thursday night. Amherst Police Chief John Askey said a high school parent called to report malicious words being hurled at Jamey's older sister, who is a student at the high school and attended the outdoor function.

In the original complaint, a parent told police she understood that some students made harassing statements "suggesting that they're glad that Jamey's dead."

The story has focused international attention on Williamsville, and the life of Jamey Rodemeyer. England. Canada. India. And meanwhile here in the US, it is acceptable for the 2012-Republican-Presidential-nominee-wannabees to sit back and listen while their fans boo gay troops, in public:



None of the candidates said anything on stage during the debate, this week.

You can sign a petition here, calling for the candidates to explain themselves.

My heart goes out to all children who for whatever reasons see their life experiences marginalized by the most powerful forces in our society. On television, and splashed all over the headlines of newspapers. I can hardly imagine how a young, gay teenager must feel after being told by these Republican candidates that despite the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” they still shouldn’t be able to serve and defend their country. Oh, and by the way – was former Senator Rick Santorum suggesting everyone in the military pledge celibacy? I am confused.

Connections between what happened in Western New York this week and the Republican debate, anyone?

As Maine Goes, So Goes the Nation

Everything you ever wanted to know about the state of American schools, through the eyes of the Chinese:

A school district in the deep woods of Maine that sought out Chinese students to help boost its enrollment and its finances fell far short of its ambitious goal of bringing in 60 students.

Only six Chinese students will attend high school in the northern Maine town of Millinocket this fall.

The target of five dozen was probably overly ambitious, officials said. The efforts also were hindered by a recruiter in China who failed to deliver any students and a writer who told readers of a national Chinese newspaper that the school was merely "mediocre" and that Millinocket children hang out in parking lots for fun.

Each student attending will pay $24,000 in tuition, room and board.

But school officials found it a harder sell than expected.

An opinion column in June in the Global Times, a national newspaper in China, took aim at U.S. public high schools in general and Millinocket in particular.

The author, an adjunct instructor at a law school program in China and a former high school teacher and prosecutor in the United States, wrote that "the first thing to understand is that the average U.S. public high school isn't very good." He went on to call Stearns a "run of the mill" school and said the "biggest kick for (Millinocket) kids is hanging out in a supermarket parking lot."

A good experience, yes. A good education for a year, maybe.  Depends on how you define it.  But a hard sell at $24,000 year is understandable.

Good News (Finally) From California

Not much in the way of good news coming out of my state, but this is something to be proud of:

California is poised to become the first state in America to make the teaching of positive contributions made by gay and lesbian people to US history and society compulsory in public schools.

The governor of California, Jerry Brown, must decide whether to incur the wrath of religious and conservative groups lined up against the move and approve a bill that has now cleared both houses of the state assembly. If signed into law, it would require the rewriting of school textbooks and redrawing of the social science curriculum to include lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender history – a move that could have wide ramifications given that California's school roll of 6.2 million children is the largest in the country.

Supporters argued that it would give gay teenagers role models and help combat homophobic bullying. It would redress the imbalance in state schools that are already required to teach about women, entrepreneurs and labour and minority ethnic groups including African-Mexican- and Native Americans.

"We gain a greater appreciation for what it means to be an American," John Pérez, the first openly gay speaker of the Californian assembly, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Now, if we can just STOP:  chipping away at public education, raising tuition at our public universities, cutting library budgets, taking child care subsidies away from the working poor...

Detroit, MI Goes The Way Of Providence, RI

Remember when Providence, RI sent lay off notices to all its teachers a few months ago?  Looks like Detroit, MI will be doing the same.

About 5,500 Detroit Public Schools teachers will get layoff notices as the troubled district prepares for an expected drop in fall student enrollment.

The layoffs would take effect July 29, the district said Thursday afternoon in a release.

Non-renewal notices also will be sent to 248 administrators.

The notices are part of a process to allow the district time to assess staffing needs heading into the start of the 2011-12 academic year, according to the release.

And somehow, this news is not a surprise to the teachers' union president Keith Johnson.  Guess he must be used to the seriously poor planning that leads to such slash-and-burn tactics.

"We knew the layoff notices were going to go out," Johnson said. "They gave one to everybody. It is a notice in case layoffs become necessary."

We all know Detroit is in deep trouble, but 5,500 teachers?  I have said it before, and I will say it again.  It is hard to believe that even in Detroit, all these layoffs will come to be.  And the ramifications of the stress this all causes because no one knows what the hell they are doing are tremendous. 

Talented young teachers, too stressed to put up with instability in our already too unstable economy, leave the profession. Teachers get shifted around from school to school, hurting school cohesion. Specialty schools – often popular choices in large, inner-city school systems like Detroit – can suffer disproportionately, losing teachers that are hard to replace and causing loss of morale across otherwise committed school communities.

And of course, there are ties with parents that are ruptured. And loss of faith in a system that can only succeed if parents feel there is a good reason for them to be involved in their children’s education.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who really, really, really want to do away with public education.  They don't need any help from those who are paid to run our school districts.

"Welfare of the 21st Century"

Republicans really, really, really don't want the unemployed to make anything of themselves, do they?

In a telephone interview on Friday, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education compared Pell Grants to "welfare" and decried the fact that students who receive them don't have any sort of graduation requirement and could go straight from the education grant to "food stamps." For those not in the know, Pell Grants assist low-income students pay for the cost of a college education.

"So you can go to college on Pell Grants -- maybe I should not be telling anybody this because it’s turning out to be the welfare of the 21st century," said Rehberg in an interview with Blog Talk Radio. "You can go to school, collect your Pell Grants, get food stamps, low-income energy assistance, section 8 housing, and all of a sudden we find ourselves subsidizing people that don’t have to graduate from college. And there ought to be some kind of commitment and endgame."

Pell Grants.  Welfare.  Food Stamps.  Section 8.  Whatever.  It's all the same thing to these folks.  It's all about money.  And since it's all about money, it should be no surprise that what is freaking these guys out (or at least what they say their concerns are) is how quickly the cost of the Pell Grant program is rising.

Well, duh.  HELLO!  People are unemployed.  We are out of work.  More of us than ever. Of course the cost of the program is rising -- maybe the tons of folks who take this time to return to school and seek a better life should be supported instead of vilified.  Have they ever thought that it might be a Pell Grant that actually keeps an unemployed person ready to make a career change from becoming a future welfare recipient?

Well, that would assume good intentions on the part of Rep. Denny Rehberg and his ilk.  In reality, they are just hiding behind their "fiscal concerns" to do what they have wanted to do along -- take every opportunity to screw those who need a little help in order to make more out of their lives.

Teacher Layoffs

This is just plain wrong. From The New York Times:

School authorities across the nation are warning thousands of teachers that they could lose their jobs in June, raising the possibility that America’s public schools may see the most extensive layoffs of their teaching staffs in decades.

Though many of the warnings may not be acted upon — school systems, their budget outlook unclear, routinely overstate likely layoffs at this time of year — when layoffs do occur, they cause a chaotic annual reshuffling of staff members. Thousands of teachers are forced to change schools, grades or subjects, creating chronic instability that educators call “teacher churn.”

“Most districts have not done layoffs for years, so they have no idea how bad this is going to be when it hits,” said Timothy Daly, president of the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group that has studied the effects of teacher layoffs.

Even if these layoffs don’t come to be, the ramifications are tremendous. Talented young teachers, too stressed to put up with instability in our already too unstable economy, leave the profession. Teachers get shifted around from school to school, hurting school cohesion. Specialty schools – often popular choices in large, inner-city school systems – can suffer disproportionately, losing teachers that are hard to replace and causing loss of morale across otherwise committed school communities.

And of course, there are ties with parents that are ruptured. And loss of faith in a system that can only succeed if parents feel there is a good reason for them to be involved in their children’s education.

All around a big mess, reflecting our seriously messed up priorities. 

Teacher Firings In Providence

This is shameless:

After two hours of contentious discussion, the School Board voted 4 to 3 Thursday night to send out termination notices to each of the city’s 1,926 public school teachers.

More than 700 teachers jammed a high school gymnasium to tell school officials that their hearts were broken, their trust violated and their futures as teachers jeopardized.

“How do we feel? Disrespected,” said Julie Latessa, a special-needs teacher, before the vote. “We are broken. How do you repair the damage you have done today?”

At stake here is the fact that the teachers will be outright fired, rather than laid-off.  Under layoff provisions, teachers are returned based on seniority.  This may not necessarily the case when dealing with fired teachers.  No one knows for sure

At first I thought this was a just a silly power play on the part of the new mayor, Angel Taveras, mostly representative of the type of cluelessness so often found in school districts around the country.  Lay everyone off because you don't really know what all else to do, and then call most people back.  Now I am not so sure.

I do know that right now I am irked by own support of the mayor's candidacy this last summer.  Son of Dominican immigrants.  Former Head Start kid.  Harvard graduate. Respected attorney.

For the sake of his own political future, the new mayor better fix this one, and fast.  Providence has come too far, too fast to risk the future of its students.

Caucasian Enough?

There's a new non-profit in Texas, developed to provide college scholarships to white men.

From Reuters. The emphasis is mine.

To qualify for the group's scholarship, applicants have to be able to prove that they are at least 25 percent Caucasian," Bohannan said.

"We're not looking for blond-haired, blue-eyed, stereotypical white males," he said. "My feeling is that if you can say you're 25 percent Caucasian, you're Caucasian enough for us."

Is there a test for that?

Fire All The Teachers, Why Don't You

Very distressing news from (one of) my former hometowns. The city of Providence, RI will be sending layoff notices to all of it’s 1,926 teachers.

In an e-mail sent to all teachers and School Department staff, Brady said, “We are forced to take this precautionary action by the March 1 deadline given the dire budget outline for the 2011-2012 school year in which we are projecting a near $40 million deficit for the district,” Brady wrote. “Since the full extent of the potential cuts to the school budget have yet to be determined, issuing a dismissal letter to all teachers was necessary to give the mayor, the School Board and the district maximum flexibility to consider every cost savings option, including reductions in staff.” State law requires that teachers be notified about potential changes to their employment status by March 1.

Rumors abound that it’s really the new mayor, Angel Taveras behind the plan.

Taveras, in a statement issued Tuesday night, said the uncertainty around the city’s finances, combined with the March 1 deadline, led to this decision. Because it is too early to be certain of all possible changes to the school budget, Taveras said, issuing dismissal notices to all teachers “provides maximum flexibility” going forward.

An action like this is reflective of pure incompetence. Any (moderately) well-run institution that does even a modicum of planning can do better than this. And, in a time when it is important to get all community stakeholders – parents, business leaders, volunteers, donors – believing in public schools as institutions that should be supported with faith, time, money and effort, this can only lead to votes of no confidence.

And while I don’t believe for a moment that Mayor Taveras and others behind this plan are explicitly anti-union, I do fear that the prevalent sentiment in America right now makes actions such as this one increasingly possible. It’s in the water.

And when the operative words are "maximum flexibility," the outcome can never be good for the working man and woman.

The Latest From The University of Puerto Rico

A story that has been going on for months and months, barely covered here on "the mainland":

The New York Times:

Months of unrest at the University of Puerto Rico seemed to be reaching a finale over the last 10 days. Scores of students were arrested or injured by riot police officers. Faculty and staff members held a two-day walkout. The president of the university resigned Friday, the police who had occupied campus were withdrawn Monday and an interim president arrived Tuesday.

But there were only three days of peace.

On Thursday morning, students blocked the stairs to classrooms in the social science department with trash cans and chairs, and also closed down the humanities department. At the social sciences building, students said only one professor had tried to get through the blockade.

The spark for the university’s problems was a budget cut that required students to pay a new $800 fee, increasing their costs by more than 50 percent.

You can find some of the best coverage over at The Huffington Post on Dr. Maritza Stanchich's blog. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Take a read.

Tuition at the University of Puerto Rico is cheap. And there are campuses all over the island. You can live almost anywhere, and be within a commuter's distance of an excellent higher education.  Young people can go to school and if they don't have the means to live on their own, commute while continuing to live with their parents. And given the lack of jobs on the island, it is not uncommon for people to go to graduate school because they can't find jobs. The result is a lot of very well-educated people in the work force. Many jobs that only require a college degree are filled with people who have an MA degree or a PhD.

Campuses of the University of Puerto Rico

I have visited many Head Start centers all over Puerto Rico, and can honestly say staff qualifications are much, much higher than those working in the lower 48. Some of the most highly educated early childhood professionals. True of health and social service staff as well.

From Dr. Stanchich's latest blog entry:

"I'm conservative and I work for this government," said one woman wearing a floppy hat to protect herself from identification and reprisals. "But I grew up in a small town, and I owe my economic betterment to my UPR education, and my children were also educated here," pointing to the campus where heavily armed policemen were stationed. "What the government is doing is just plain wrong."

Glad some people still remember their roots.

Filling In The Gap, Texas-Style

By all accounts, public education in Texas is a big mess. Big cuts in services to children are coming down the pike. And what does former First Lady Barbara say about it in the Houston Chronicle? First, blame the parents. Second, let’s all get out of this mess by volunteering.

Let's start with the parents.

Some parents forget they are their children's first teachers, and the home is the first school. When our kids come home from school, do they read a book, or do they sit glued to the television or the Internet? Do they see us reading? Do we eat together, or does everybody "grab a bite" and dash out the door? Do we talk and listen? Do we help with homework? Are we active in the PTA? Do we make sure we attend all parent-teacher conferences, or do we use work as an excuse to skip out occasionally? It's easier to be a lazy parent than a good parent, but with parenthood comes responsibility and accountability.

Many parents face daunting challenges - health and financial issues, single parenthood, or a poor educational background. They need our help.

There are wonderful programs such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters that try to make sure every student who needs one has a mentor. I know several business and government leaders who donate one lunch hour a week to tutor a student, and others who give time to after-school programs. But the need is always greater.

That is why business and church leaders, parents and grandparents, friends and neighbors all must become partners in the education of our children. The best place to start: The school you likely drive by every single day on your way to work or the grocery store or the golf course. My guess is the people inside could use your help.

Of course, there is no doubt that parents should be involved in their children’s education. And volunteering is a very good thing. But as someone who has been peripherally involved in issues of pre-school public education for many years, I can tell you there is a BIG elephant in the room. Many schools don’t even have their act together enough to guide parents adequately in how to be effective partners in educating their children. And yes, some parents are so disgusted by the state of what they see, that they simply don’t believe they can do anything to help. Same for volunteers – when we spend our spare time on something other than ourselves, not only do we want to feel that we are really doing something, we want to have a pleasant time while doing it. We have choices about where we spend our time, and the fact that we have that choice will influence whether we stick around long-term with a volunteer gig.

Reading the whole article is well worth your time. The tone is very disturbing. I guess Barbara Bush does not understand that indeed, some parents have to “grab a bite” and dash out the door because working at night is the only option they have in order to put that bite on the table. And yes, some people have to miss that parent-teacher conference out of fear they will lose the little work they have, if they even ask for a few hours off of the job. And how about those grandparents who will have to trade in the prospect of volunteering for a few more years of working, thanks to the fear that the Social Security retirement age will be raised?  And let’s not forget about the rest of us, who spend endless hours driving to and from the golf course…

And sorry, while volunteerism is a wonderful thing, it will not get Texas – or the rest of America – out of the mess we are in. The former First Lady seems to insinuate that Texas can be on the forefront of some sort of “reform movement” that is driven by volunteerism.

At $27 billion, the budget gap in Texas is more than twice what it was expected to be. Nearly one in four children in Texas live below the poverty line. And in response, Governor Perry plans to gut services to children by $10 billion dollars.

Sorry, Mrs. Bush, but no amount of PTA meetings and rich folks trading in golfing for mentoring is going to make up for that.

Conservatives on Campus

News from my alma mater:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Brown University is offering a new course on conservatism this spring that its supporters say will help bring ideological balance to the school's offerings.

The course, "Modern Conservatism in America: Conservative Thought in the 20th Century," was developed as part of a project called Conservatism 101.

The project aims to introduce courses on conservatism at universities to bring balance to what its founders see as a heavy bias against conservative thinking in academia.

In a statement, Brown student and project co-developer Terrence George says students at elite schools are often unable to study views "outside of academia's leftist mainstream."

A Brown spokeswoman says the Ivy League university encourages broad intellectual exploration and gives students freedom to design their education.

While I imagine it's tough to be a conservative at Brown, that's not the reason to embark on such a project.  It's the work of academia.  I have no doubt this will be done with intellectual vigor.  Good.

In Fear of "Chinese Parenting"

Kudos to David Brooks for his excellent New York Times piece this week in response to Amy Chua’s essay in the Wall Street Journal.  The one written in anticipation of the publication of her new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." As you probably know by now the book is part memoir, part guide to the virtues of so-called “Chinese parenting.” And yes, the article in the Wall Street Journal is called, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.

Brooks argues that in part, the anger towards Chua is based on our collective fear of America’s decline – this time at the hands of the Chinese. The emphasis is mine. And I agree with him wholeheartedly.

The furious denunciations began flooding my in-box a week ago. Chua plays into America’s fear of national decline. Here’s a Chinese parent working really hard (and, by the way, there are a billion more of her) and her kids are going to crush ours. Furthermore (and this Chua doesn’t appreciate), she is not really rebelling against American-style parenting; she is the logical extension of the prevailing elite practices. She does everything over-pressuring upper-middle-class parents are doing. She’s just hard core.

He then goes on to label her a “wimp” because she does not have the cognitive where-with-all to negotiate the activities she so proudly disallows her children from participating in, including sleepovers with friends.

Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls. Managing status rivalries, negotiating group dynamics, understanding social norms, navigating the distinction between self and group — these and other social tests impose cognitive demands that blow away any intense tutoring session or a class at Yale.

As parents I imagine we all shield ourselves from taking the lead on activities involving our children, when we fear our abilities to negotiate particular social situations will be tested.  But the best part of me always tries to set the discomfort aside, do what is best for the children in the moment, and remember that whatever it is I am learning from the particular encounter -- the children are learning too.

On "Chinese Parenting"

Seems like everyone was writing about Amy Chua this week. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. I dare you to go ahead and google her. You’ll be overwhelmed.

Her latest book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” was published this week. Roughly speaking, it is part memoir and part how-to-guide for those interested in employing so-called, Chinese methods to raise Western children. She is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School, holding two degrees from Harvard. She is the author of two books on globalization and the law.

But it was this essay in the Wall Street Journal that started the controversy – Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. And yes, the title says it all.  In it, there is something for everyone.

For those of you who like facts and figures, there is this:

Despite our squeamishness about cultural stereotypes, there are tons of studies out there showing marked and quantifiable differences between Chinese and Westerners when it comes to parenting. In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun." By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be "the best" students, that "academic achievement reflects successful parenting," and that if children did not excel at school then there was "a problem" and parents "were not doing their job." Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.

For the arm-chair anthropologist, this:

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up. But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it's math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more.

And for the voyeurs among us, this:

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin.

I actually have a great interest in this topic. I worked for a number of years in a management-level position for Head Start in San Francisco’s Chinatown. For those of you not in the know, Head Start is a federally-funded pre-school program for low-income children and their families. In addition to early education services, programs are mandated to provide health, social services and parent involvement components as well.

Kids In the Know

Want to know what makes for a good teacher? Ask the kids.

Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research.

Financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the two-year project involves scores of social scientists and some 3,000 teachers and their students in Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Hillsborough County, Fla., which includes Tampa; Memphis; New York; and Pittsburgh.

The research is part of the $335 million Gates Foundation effort to overhaul the personnel systems in those districts. 

And there's more:

Teachers whose students agreed with the statement, “We spend a lot of time in this class practicing for the state test,” tended to make smaller gains on those exams than other teachers.

“Teaching to the test makes your students do worse on the tests,” Ms. Phillips said. “It turns out all that ‘drill and kill’ isn’t helpful.”

Makes perfect sense to me.

NYC Schools Chancellor-In-Chief

Oops.  No need for advertising back room deals.

It looks like Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to take the backseat to the state education commissioner in reaching a deal to appoint his choice for the next chancellor of the NYC schools.  The New York Times coverage of the story over the last few weeks has been exhaustive.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg reached a deal Friday to save the tottering candidacy of Cathleen P. Black to be the next chancellor of New York City schools, agreeing to appoint a career educator who started as a classroom teacher to serve as her second in command.    

As a result, the state education commissioner, David M. Steiner, has agreed to grant Ms. Black, a media executive, the exemption from the normal credentials required by state law for the position, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

So, the next overseer – or better said, CEO – of the nation’s largest school system will be the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines.  Ironically, the man she replaces, Joel Klein is to become an executive vice president of the News Corporation.  If they can ever get his job description down in writing, she will be ably assisted by a second-in-command who might actually know something about education, but could have little if any power.

Nice message Mayor Mike is sending to the American worker bee.  Work hard all your life, and you, too can be supervised by someone who knows nothing about what you do 9 to 5.  But, you can still aspire to be number two in charge, at risk of no one taking you seriously.  Sound familiar? 

In my opinion, the issue of Ms. Black’s exemption for the credential required by New York State law is serious, but not necessarily because she lacks mandated administrative experience in an educational setting, or applicable coursework.  She has never been to graduate school.  And yes, Virginia, you do learn something about education by going to graduate school.  Any graduate school.  In any field.  Learning to think is a good thing.  There is a reason why the teachers who will be under Ms. Black’s supervision need to obtain a Master’s degree during their first five years in the classroom. 

Despite my “big picture” cynicism about this appointment, I am very, very sympathetic to the idea of needing to “think outside the box” to solve problems as complex as those represented in the inadequacy of the NYC school system – especially when remaining inside the box has proven inadequate.  And of course, no one knows what kind of Chancellor Ms. Black will be.  For the sake of the children and families of New York City, I hope she succeeds.  If she does, we will be able to analyze the positive qualities she brought to the job, and attempt to replicate them in future educational leadership.  And if the opposite is the case, we will need to engage in a dialogue far more critical than the one will are spouting now, and move on towards finding the right box to think inside of.