Welcome to the HML POST
(Editorials and research articles are selected by Jack McKay, Executive director of the HML. Topics are selected to provoke a discussion about the importance of strong public schools.
McKay is Professor Emeritus from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the Department of Educational Administration and a former superintendent in Washington state.) Feedback is always appreciated.
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  Few subjects these days are more contentious than education, and rightly so. If our children are our future, it's essential we do everything we can do educate them properly, to prepare them for what's to come. But are we schooling our kids for a future that might not even exist by the time they're ready to transition to the working world?

Today, more than ever before, the ground beneath our feet is continuously shifting -- growing and expanding in ways few have been able to anticipate. And with exponential advances in technology being reached with each passing year, the pace at which the global economy is changing has increased proportionally. The fact is, we might be training the next crop of professionals for obsolescing positions, and we may be failing to accurately predict the yet-to-be-invented industries and professions of tomorrow.


 

The Supreme Court and the Politics of Fear   by   Linda Greenhouse  in the Sunday New York Times Sunday Review

WHEN he ran for president the second time almost half a century ago,Richard M. Nixon made Earl Warren's Supreme Court a target of his campaign. It was a brilliant move. His accusation that the court had tilted "too far in weakening the peace forces against the criminal forces," as he put it in a widely noticed 1967 Reader's Digest article, resonated with a public that had seen the crime rate double since 1960. It was no longer acceptable, at least in polite circles outside the South, to denounce the Supreme Court explicitly on race, so Nixon's dark warnings about a breakdown in public order (the article was entitled "What Has Happened to America?") served double duty. Fear was in the air, fear that Nixon and his henchmen (Patrick J. Buchanan was the article's ghost writer) knew how to exploit.
 

We are losing talented, dedicated and experienced teachers and here's why   by   Dora Taylor  on the Seattle Education site

 The self-designation of "reformer" by people who have never been in the classroom and have no actual training or experience in education is a smokescreen. What they are really after is profitability for their investor-owned charter school corporations that will deliver as little education for the buck as they think they can get by with.

The public schools are losing well-qualified and experienced teachers who have made a commitment to our communities and dedicated themselves to teaching our children and and yet we are losing them in large numbers. Why?


 
  While classroom technology continues to grow in popularity, according to a survey conducted by  GfK  on behalf of  Samsung Business , K-12 teachers are having trouble keeping up. 

By redefining professional development for the curriculum of the future, teachers will have the skills and resources necessary to help students thrive. The Teaching Tech to Teachers Infographic illustrates the survey findings and provides Samsung's recommendations for improved professional development programs.







Privatization Primer  by Peter Greene on the Curmudgucation site
  There are many threads to the reformy movement in education, but perhaps the most predominant one is the push for privatization. Many folks look at education and they just see a gigantic pile of money that has previously gone untouched. To them, education is a multi-billion dollar industry that nobody is making real profit from.
Many of the aspects and features of what I'm about to lay out appeal to other sorts of folks for other sorts of reasons, but here is how they fit into the agenda of privatizers.
Step One: Create Failure
Step Two: Consolidate Power
Step Three: Cash In

Why Public Education Will Survive and Prevail  by diane Ravitch on the Ravitch Site
Do not be discouraged as you struggle to restore common sense and rationality to education policy. The corporate reformers have money and the political power that money buys, but it has no popular support. It misleads the public by calling its program "reform," when its true program is privatization. It uses catchy and misleading names like "students first," "children first," "education reform now," "Democrats for education reform." But the truth will eventually prevail. They want to divert public money to unaccountable, privately managed schools and replace professional teachers with computers and low-wage temps.

The purpose of this study was to make obvious the assumptions that have been made within the VAM narrative and that, accordingly, have often been accepted without challenge. Ultimately, sources for this study included 470 distinctly different written pieces, from both traditional and non-traditional sources. The results of this analysis suggest that the preponderance of sources propagating unfounded assertions are fostering a sort of VAM echo chamber that seems impenetrable by even the most rigorous and trustworthy empirical evidence. 

  Many recall the ominous words from the "A Nation At Risk" report.  It stated that if an "unfriendly foreign power" had attempted to force America's education system to perform as it currently was in 1983, it would have been viewed "as an act of war."  It went on to say, "We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."

Written in over 30 years ago, the report criticized America's lack of focus on educational achievement.  But the words ring true today, only this time we are not "unthinking" but purposely disarming our public educational system.  Every time someone encourages "privatization" of schools, charter schools, or school choice they are hurting America.  Why?  Because they are supporting the removal of every citizen's democratic right and obligation to govern and direct the education of America's youth.


 Fixing Schools Again and Again  by Larry Cuban on the Cuban site

  School reform over the past century has skipped from one big policy fix to another without a backward look at what happened the first time around. Or even whether the reforms succeeded. Since World War II, U.S. public schools have been in one crisis or another (see  here ,  here , and  here ). Reform-minded policymakers have offered rhetoric-wrapped cures time and again without a glance backward. If amnesia were like aphrodisiac pills, policymakers have been popping capsules for years. Memory loss about past school reforms permits policymakers to forge ahead with a new brace of reforms and feel good. Since World War II, U.S. public schools have been in one crisis or another.  What have school reformers targeted?



Next Time Someone Mocks Teachers For Making Less Money, Show Them This.  Illustrations by Gavin Aung Than, words by Taylor Mali on the Zenpencil site

   

  


 

 

  The Horace Mann League  on the The Horace Mann league site

 

"School Performance in Context:  The Iceberg Effect"   by James Harvey, Gary Marx, Charles Fowler and Jack McKay.

To download the full or summary report,

Summary Report, Click here 

Full Report, click here 

To view in an electronic magazine format,

Summary Report, click here.

Full Report, click here 


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A Few Political Cartoons for the Week

 

 

 

 

 


 
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Horace Mann Prints

 The 11 * 18 inch print is available for individual or bulk purchase.  Individual prints are $4.00.  Discount with orders of 50 or more.  

For additional information about this or other prints, please check here.

 

    

  

 

A Gift:  On the Art of Teaching   by Horace Mann
In 1840 Mann wrote On the Art of Teaching. Some of HML members present On the Art of Teaching to new teachers as part of their orientation program.  On the inside cover, some write a personal welcome message to the recipient.  Other HML members present the book to school board members and parental organizations as a token of appreciation for becoming involved in their schools.  The book cover can be designed with the organization's name.  For more information, contact the HML ( Jack McKay)
 
  
  

  

 
   
    
All the past issues of the HML Posts are available for review and search purposes.
 
Finally, 7 links that may be of interest to you.
Jack's Fishing Expedition in British Columbia - short video

 

 
Reprinted with permission.

 

 
About Us
The Horace Mann League of the USA is an honorary society that promotes the ideals of Horace Mann by advocating for public education as the cornerstone of our democracy.

 

Officers:
President: Dr. Charles Fowler, Exec. Director, Suburban School Administrators, Exeter, HN
President-elect: Dr. Christine  Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
Vice President: Dr. Martha Bruckner, Superintendent, Council Bluffs Community Schools, IA
1st Past President: Mr. Gary  Marx, President for Public Outreach, Vienna, VA
2nd Past President: Dr. Joe Hairston, President, Vision Unlimited, Reisterstown, MD

Directors:
Dr. Laurie Barron, Supt. of Schools, Evergreen School District, Kalispell , MT
Dr. Evelyn Blose-Holman, (ret.) Superintendent, Bay Shore Schools, NY
Mr. Jeffery Charbonneau, Science Coordinator, ESD 105 and Zillah HS, WA
Dr. Carol Choye, Instructor, (ret.) Superintendent, Scotch Plains Schools, NJ
Dr. Brent Clark, Executive Director, Illinois Assoc. of School Admin. IL
Dr. Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Dr. James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
Dr. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Dr. Steven Ladd, Superintendent, (ret.) Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, CA 
Dr. Barry Lynn, Exec. Dir., Americans United, Washington, DC
Dr. Kevin Maxwell, CEO, Prince George's County Schools, Upper Marlboro, MD
Dr. Stan Olson, President, Silverback Learning, (former supt. of Boise Schools, ID)
Dr. Steven Webb, Supt. of Schools, Vancouver School District, WA

Executive Director:
Dr. Jack McKay, Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 
560 Rainier Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365 (360) 821 9877
 
To become a member of the HML, click here to download an application.