Betty Peters

Working On the Work: An Action Plan for Teacher, Principals, and Superintendents by Phil Schlechty

May 26, 2008 – 8:07 pm
This is a review by Sandy Clevenger In Phil Schlechty’s book, Working On the Work: An Action Plan for Teacher, Principals, and Superintendents, I was struck by some of the statements made in this book.  Many of the statements directed toward teachers are things already taught in university.  However, “skills” taught to principals and superintendents are instructions promoting manipulation of the work force and community to reach the goals of the superintendent.  And of course, this goal is to promote Schlechty and his standard bearer network. In the introduction, Schlechty’s states, “For those who insist that the only way to improve schools is to proceed on the basis of the ‘research’, this book will be a disappointment.  No systematic research program has been directed at assessing the impact of the WOW approach on improving schools.”  As you read the laws surrounding Title II professional development, you will see a common strain, a ...

Posted in Phillip Schlechty | Comments Off

Educations “Wag the Dog”: Geniuses Lost

May 26, 2008 – 12:31 pm
May 25, 2008 Education News It is like someone shouted "FIRE" in a theater, but nobody moved. Is the theater empty? No, it's full of people, but still nobody moved or even cared.We are losing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of potential geniuses every year in the United States because we are just not finding them before it's too late, which in most cases is about the time they are suppose to start 9th grade. It's not like this is some unknown phenomenon.Thomas Jefferson put it succinctly in 1782 while Governor of Virginia when he wrote "By…(selecting) the youth of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use if not sought for and cultivated".It's not that academia in America is not aware of the situation.Since Leta Hollingworth ...

Posted in General News | Comments Off

Betty’s Warning Before the Primary of 2008

May 19, 2008 – 10:27 pm
Betty Peters’ warning to voters in the June 2008 primary: As a member of the Alabama State Board of Education, I agree with and appreciate the editorial boards of practically all the newspapers in our state who have come out in full support of a ban on “double dipping” by state legislators. A typical comment from one of the state’s newspapers regarding legislation to overturn the school board’s double dipping ban sponsored by Rep. Marcel Black and Sen. Linda Coleman succinctly said: “Rather than address how a legislator can ethically vote on legislation that has a direct impact on his employment or employer, a cadre of mostly Democratic legislators, with the aid and encouragement of the Alabama Education Association, has opened the door to let every public official feed at the public trough.” This sentence really hit the proverbial nail on ...

Posted in From Betty | Comments Off

Alabama Education Newsletter- Becky Guinn

May 19, 2008 – 6:33 am
Becky Guinn

Posted in Columnists, Documents | Comments Off

The Computer Delusion

May 19, 2008 – 6:14 am
July 1997 The Atlantic [See link for full article which contains embedded links] There is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve teaching and learning, yet school districts are cutting programs -- music, art, physical education -- that enrich children's lives to make room for this dubious nostrum, and the Clinton Administration has embraced the goal of "computers in every classroom" with credulous and costly enthusiasm Dangerous Policies IN 1922 Thomas Edison predicted that "the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and ... in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks." Twenty-three years later, in 1945, William Levenson, the director of the Cleveland public schools' radio station, claimed that "the time may come when a portable radio receiver will be as common in the classroom as is the blackboard." Forty years after that the noted psychologist B. F. Skinner, referring to ...

Posted in Technology | Comments Off