Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: In the Vergara trial, the judge’s verdict was based on unproven theories that a few incompetent teachers would ruin a child’s ability to earn an education. The numbers presented in one theory were one to two percent of teachers might be incompetent—not “are incompetent” but “might… Read more

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: The two Fs I’m talking about are Finland and France. In another forum, this comment was made about Finland’s public schools: “Comparisons with Finland are foolish – virtually no childhood poverty, income equality instead of inequality and few immigrants … and high suicide rates.” Here’s my… Read more

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: Reading Dana Goldstein’s book was a journey of discovery that I wished I’d taken in 1975, before I ended up teaching for thirty years in the embattled and often abused public schools. About the time I reached page 100, I e-mailed an old friend and told… Read more

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: Sunday, I walked downtown to see The Purge: Anarchy, and while watching the film and walking home afterwards, I couldn’t stop thinking about the unnamed New Founding Fathers mentioned at the beginning of the film—who were in their ninth year as the leaders of the United… Read more