Comments on: 21st-century educationese in translation

By: Bandit

Bandit — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:39:34 +0000

In my daughters tech homework they asked her to identify a floppy disk – I told he to write obsolete

By: L. C. Burgundy

L. C. Burgundy — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:34:35 +0000

From Bob Taft to Ted Strickland, I tell you, Ohio has a knack for picking the losers.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:13:42 +0000

The Gadfly translations are hilariously snarky and often insightful, but we all know not to take the original statement or the translation at face value, right?

For example, the next to last translation. Because traditional news outlets just can’t seem to understand how the demand for news is changing, they’re making massive cutbacks, and one area hit hard is education reporting, especially good news. That leaves non-parents with no way to hear about the good things local schools do. Then, those non-parents vote “no” on bond elections, since all they hear is the bad news. If you’d ever like your school district to pass a bond election, this is a big deal. So external communications from school districts is actually one of the only ways that schools can impact their funding, and there is a problem that will cost more initial investment of staff in order to get returns.

That said, we don’t need communicators to work on getting Podunk into the New York Times, and we don’t need them to spin stories. We just need them to efficiently let local voters know about the true success stories that really are happening all the time.

So…the post is an eye-opener but not a decision-maker.

By: Ponderosa

Ponderosa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:05:54 +0000

Our new superintendent has swallowed the “Professional Learning Communities” fad hook, line and sinker. Richard DuFour is his guru. Putting a bunch of well-meaning and bright but not-incredibly-learned teachers in groups is not going to yield the Platonic ideal of a school, or anything close. You’re right, Joanne. This is the abdication of leadership. The problem, it seems to me, is that the “leaders” have no clear idea of what a good school looks like. So they “punt” and hope the teachers can figure it out. But they, too, are devoid of a clear ideal. So these poor teachers labor away in committees (when they could be lesson planning or grading or reading something illuminating) producing half-baked and very flawed schemes that will wither and vanish within a couple years. A good education leader needs a lucid vision of the Good and Beautiful School. Very few seem to have this.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:36:02 +0000

“Governor Strickland does not see any problem with state agencies running background checks on people who have the audacity to question Democrat politicians.”

This is an example of what governemnts do–everywhere and always. Even so-called “good” governments eventually go bad.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:33:00 +0000

I sure hope that the Education Gadfly does not have any problems with child support payments or anything else in Ohio. Governor Strickland does not see any problem with state agencies running background checks on people who have the audacity to question Democrat politicians.

By: david foster

david foster — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:48:18 +0000

This kind of blather seems most prevalant in the education industry, but is increasingly prevalent throughout our society, even in business. I think it does real harm to the quality of thought and the effectiveness of action.

By: Andromeda

Andromeda — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:50:00 +0000

That first proposal line...I've seen that before somewhere...oh yeah, here!

By: Rho

Rho — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:11:34 +0000

Oh, our dear Gov. Stickland-it was not one week after the election that the headlines read “Message to schools: Go ahead and put your tax levies on the ballots for spring because we aren’t going to be able to solve the inequities in Ohio’s school funding for years.” This after he RAN on the promise of finally fixing the system that has been declared unconstitutional in lawsuit after lawsuit in Ohio.