Laura Waterman Wittstock wrote: > I happen to agree that culture is a large contributing factor in > academic failure -- the culture of the majority class. People of all > cultural backgrounds buy into this as they are educated and if they go > into education, when they return to the public districts to perpetuate > it. > > There is no reason other than culture to have a long summer hiatus from > learning.
There is a large and gowing group of educators, myself included, who understand this and will be pleased when the cultural communities and organizations finally get around to effecting change in this very ineffecient practice. > And, America grinds all cultures into broken glass. The pieces glitter > and show facets of what they once were, but they are broken under the > great wheel of commercial enterprise. That is true of all cultures for all time with only a few exceptions, and so, those of us who wake up each day in the American culture get to choose what kind of mandala we will create each day out of all that glittering glass. It is, at times, terrifying; other days, it is immensely rewarding. > Under the guise of teaching "citizenship," the public school systems have been complicit in > teaching from a core set of beliefs, points of view, and the repression > of critical judgment. That's a broad brush stroke. One of the possible solutions is for everyone to home school; another is the struggle in which we currently find ourselves. And, as Wendell Berry says, "only the impeded stream sings." > Therefore we cannot expect the achievement failure correction to come > from the schools. It must come from the cultural communities and > organizations. Maybe we could broaden our expectations just a bit to look for correction to come from all of those actively engaged in the work. That mandala has tones more appealing to me. Dan McGuire Ericsson REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
