A View From the Schoolhouse
Just read Jim Horn’s transcript of a speech he gave against NCLB. Whether you agree or disagree, go read it. Here’s a piece of his closing argument:
Recently, a quote by Cal State professor, Art Costa showed up on one of internet discussion groups, a quote that is horribly relevant today: "What was once educationally significant, but difficult to measure, has been replaced by what is insignificant and easy to measure. So now we test how well we have taught what we do not value."
Powerful read.
A piece I wrote for the July Issue of School Library Journal is now online!
High-Stakes Testing Threatens School Librarians.
(I didn’t come up with the title, by the way… the piece is about how librarians have more to fear from the culture of high-stakes tests than from School 2.0.)
[Update: According to a local Arkansas news station, the officer has been put on administrative leave. Also of note, within a few hours of posting this, a reporter for a local Hot Springs travel magazine had posted a comment on the blog. Wild.]
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach pointed me to this. Watch it.
Here’s the original posting.
Judge for yourself what you think of the officer’s behavior. My two cents: I think that his behavior crossed a line. It was pretty obvious those kids weren’t threats to anyone but his own sense of authority. And the kids YouTubed it. Good. Let the world see, and let the world judge.
If you are offended. If you think that this shows a real problem between youth and authority. And if you think it might be a good time to use the power of the internet to speak truth to power, then politely call or email or fax the Hot Springs Police Department. I have. For the record, the officer I spoke to says that they are not accepting comments on this, which is too bad and speaks to a larger problem because it appears that they have no feedback loop for the public, which I would say is a major issue. But that doesn’t mean we can’t call and let them know that we all are watching.
This from the original poster’s entry:
Oh and just in case you were interested, the officers name is Joey Williams, and he works for the:
Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department
Phone: (501) 321-6789
Fax: (501) 321-6708
Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
Email: bsouthard@cityhs.net