The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch

The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books.

Another article about Charter Schools that I enjoyed.

White Privilege

Lori Ungemah on readwriteteach shared this blog post about White Privilege. I know this is an issue that I have talked with my aunt about extensively (in addition to male privilege). Do you find that most people are oblivious to this idea?

As a teacher I am curious about what kind of conversations we can have concerning these issues. I know that in the district I worked at last year taught To Kill a Mockingbird (from which Lori quotes) in 8th grade, yet most of the conversation in class was very base and centered on the idea of courage. I think that issues of race and privilege would be much more engaging and interesting to discuss. But perhaps this is too uncomfortable for most teachers. And maybe these notions and ideas are outside the grasp of many of my students who were mostly white and from an extremely wealthy/privileged community. But wouldn’t that make them all the more important to discuss?

readwriteteach

White privilege is a very hard concept for many White folks to get.

It was hard for me, too. For years and years as a young adult, I refused to believe that the color of my skin had privileged me. I felt the opposite of privileged–I felt my life had been one freakin’ long-ass struggle: I was in a ridiculous amount of debt from my undergraduate education which I had paid for; I had a dad who had been sick my entire life and had died of diabetes complications; my sister had done many an illegal act, had two kids in high school, and had married a crack head who had threatened to kill us; my mom was a religious zealot who constantly belabored the fact that I was going to hell. I grew up as barely middle class, feeling poor by comparison to neighbors and friends, eating hot dogs…

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