Volume 22, No.3

“Rewriting the Script”

Together, the following eight articles outline how the standards-tests-punishment machine has subverted public schools from their democratic promise. With action, we can write a future where education isn’t a soulless profit machine for the few.

Think Less Benchmarks

A flawed test does more harm than good

By Amy Gutowski

Thanks to the folks at the Discovery Channel

Beyond NCLB

By Monty Neill

A new era requires new thinking

Teaching in Dystopia

By Wayne Au

The problem is this: Testing is killing education. Not only is it narrowing the curriculum generally

Reading First, Libraries Last

Scripted programs undermine teaching and children's love of books

By Rachel Cloues

In these bleak NCLB days of regimented

The Scripted Prescription

A cure for childhood

By Peter Campbell

Testing mania reaches the pre-K classroom.  It saddened me to think that my daughter’s first impression of school was based on taking a test and failing it.”

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Bogus Claims About Reading First

By Stephen Krashen

When it comes to Reading First, don’t believe the hype

Textbook Scripts, Student Lives

By Jana Dean

Textbooks

Bonfire of the Disney Princesses

By Barbara Ehrenreich

Contrary to their spin machine, Disney’s princesses are far from role models

Underfunded Schools Cut Past Tense from Language Programs

Due to recent budget cuts, teachers focus on the future tense.

By The Onion

A part of American school curricula for more than 200 years

TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During ‘War On Terror

2nd graders discover new trends in TV since 9/11

By Margot Pepper

Six years into the ‘War on Terror

Queer Matters

Educating educators about Homophobia

By William DeJean, Anne Rene Elsebree

While we were excited to support the opening of the educational closet

Feeding Two Birds With One Hand

Why educators should demand a national health care plan

By Bob Peterson

I can’t imagine any teacher union leader or local school board member who wouldn’t welcome a new federal program that would make the issue of healthcare benefits a moot point in bargaining.”

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Building Teacher Solidarity

Larry Kuehn talks about building ties between teachers in Canada, Mexico, and the United States

By Bob Peterson

“I would really like to see a new movement that gives the kind of hope
for change that there was when I came into teaching in the late 1960s.”

The Power of Words

Top-down mandates masquerade as social justice reforms

By Linda Christensen

Top-down mandates masquerade as social justice reforms

Short Stuff 22.3

McDonald’s Gets Low Marks Under intense pressure from parents and national organizations, McDonald’s quickly suspended placing marketing messages on children’s report cards in Seminole County, Fla. The joint 10-year business […]

Resources 22.3

Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.

Review: Radio Free Oaxaca

By Kelley Dawson Salas

Film Radio Free Oaxaca Un poquito de tanta verdad  (A Little Bit of So Much Truth) Director: Jill Freidberg Corrugated Films, 2007  (www.corrugate.org)  DVD. 93 min. By Kelley Dawson Salas Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad […]

Letters to the Editors 22.3

Thank you, Howard Howard Zinn’s chapter on the Vietnam War (Vol. 22, No.1) was quite an eye opener for me. I knew some of the details leading up to the […]

Good Stuff 22.3

By Herb Kohl

Kasparov, Garry On My Great Predecessors: Part I (Everyman Chess, Gloucester Publishers, UK, 2003; distributed in the United States by The Globe Pequot Press, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437; also available at Amazon.com) On My […]