...taking back the narrative from Arne Duncan:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-ayers-/taking-back-the-narrative_b_793973.html?ref=twExcerpt:
These are points which we must hold on to now to take back the debate:
Reform demands empowered communities -- not passive recipients of charity from above, but communities that demand the resources and freedom to pursue their deep interests. We need more Freirian, transformative education, not top-down command mandates.
Reform insists that children must be loved and, yes, cared for; they need to be supported through community construction, rites of passage, and the development of life goals.
Reform means a curriculum of inquiry, questioning, critical thinking, curiosity, imagination. It emphasizes civic discussion, and social ethics. It places a high priority on music and the arts as well as new digital media. It demands assessments that reflect the complexity and reality of student performance in schools -- not standardized tests but projects, portfolios, and actual work in the real world.
Reform means science and math curricula that are meaningful, engaging, and rigorous instead of the dreary regime of memorized formulas and the unscientific notion that we are teaching settled, decontextualized truths.
Reform recognizes how crucial it is that society reprioritize allocation of resources, funding education and recreation for youth. We are not in a time of scarce resources, not if we factor in the trillions wasted on war and prisons -- the shame of our society which is strangling our educational budgets.
Reform means real respect for the profession of teaching, supporting collegiality and initiative among teachers while at the same time inviting in a much broader array of community activists, local experts, and treasured elders to the classroom.
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