Posts by Steve Nelson
Because They Need It
“Because they need it.” – Whitney Tilson Tilson is a multimillionaire hedge fund manager who is a major supporter of education “reform,” particularly the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) chain. “Because they need it,” was Tilson’s unguarded response to a question at a seminar about KIPP’s draconian disciplinary practices. “They” referred to the poor Black…
Read MorePoison Ivy
For months, she struggled silently with a sense of worthlessness. She had panic attacks that left her trembling. Nightmares that made her cry. She’d told only a handful of friends about the sexual assault she endured while she was home the summer after her freshman year. Now, as she finished her sophomore year at Yale…
Read MoreBlood on Their Hands
It was well past midnight. I awoke with a start as a silhouette appeared in my dorm room doorway. My heart pounded as a person approached, knelt at my bed and whispered, “Help me.” The person was a blond, carefree college senior whom I had befriended at several parties. We were drawn together by a…
Read MoreThe Beatings Will Continue
“The beatings will continue until morale improves” is a rather familiar quip of unknown origin. Two recent news stories remind of just how apt the saying remains. The first was an astonishing New York Times report on the reinstitution of paddling as a disciplinary tool in a Missouri school district. Surprisingly, paddling children in school remains…
Read MoreBeing a Good Teacher
Last week my grandchildren, Maddie and Jack, were in an out-of-school production of Cinderella. My wife, Maddie’s and Jack’s parents, and I were delighted and grateful that first grader Jack’s teacher came to the evening performance, a gift well beyond the call of duty. He was thrilled. She offered congratulations and hugged him warmly before leaving. This…
Read MorePull Those Damn Bootstraps!
“Just pull yourself up by the bootstraps!” This exclamation captures the prevailing attitude of many Americans, mostly conservatives, toward the least advantaged among us. The sentiment is accompanied by a belief that we live in a meritocracy, where one deserves what they get and get what they deserve. It is a silly admonition because, of…
Read MoreWashing Dust From the Soul
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso We are in the midst of a prolonged dust storm in America. Daily life brings reports of yet another shooting, a pandemic surge on the horizon, emotional fatigue from a year of isolation, the threat of domestic terrorism…
Read MoreColleges Have Damaged Education
One of the most profound changes in United States culture during my lifetime is the role of higher education. By and large I think it has not been change for the best. In many ways colleges and universities have damaged education and had a number of deleterious impacts on society. In 1950 29.7% of high…
Read MorePity the White Folks
Tourists in the Capitol! This was Georgia Representative Andrew Clydes’s characterization of the fine folks who visited Washington D.C. on January 6th. It might have been a tad more understandable if Clyde were a Florida Congressman. I did see some slight resemblance between the merry marauders in the Capitol and some scenes from spring break…
Read MoreREAD, DAMN IT!
Education blogger Jan Resseger published a particularly fine piece on April 26, reporting the alarming backward trend toward the “Read by third grade or else!” policies of the recent past. As she convincingly argues, such an approach is particularly harmful as we emerge from the pandemic. What kids need most is social and emotional reconnection,…
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