Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Carnival of Education: If You Are Breathing, You Need To Check This Out! It's For All Of Us.

The new Carnival of Education is up and running, and if you have kids and don't regularly read the Carnival of Education. . . . how in the world will you know what's going on? Your children's teachers are contributing articles to the Carnival, other parents are contributing articles to the Carnival. . .on the Carnival you can read about the TRUTH, not just the candy-coated smarmings of politicians and administrators and assorted nutnicks with personal agendas.

Is "No Child Left Behind" a workable policy? Politicians and administrators will tell you that it's the solution to most of our problems. Your children's teachers, and the parents of your children's friends, and yours truly, might have a different point of view.

Should the schools furnish all supplies, including food, clothing, and a yellow pencil? What do teachers and parents think about that? Joanne Jacobs tells us what she thinks, on today's Carnival.

Is homework a good thing, or a problem unto itself? Read the Carnival of Education to find out what educators and parents have to say about it.

Student loans. Bad teachers. Good teachers. Bad parents. Good parents. Good kids. Bad kids. Ringworm. Censorship. A student who was punished at school for blogging at home. Discipline issues. Caring. Not caring. Responsibility. Cheating. Flunking out. Teacher shortages and why. Testing. Not testing. What constitutes reasonable family involvement. Why bother? Why we must continue to bother. What can parents do? What should parents NOT do? What if your child's teacher is an idiot? What if you're the only parent who thinks so? Uniforms. Freedom of speech. Freedom of expression in other ways. Athletics. Coaches. Homeschooling. Vacations during the school year. Bullies. Big exams. Big problems. Big kid. Little kid. Creepy neighbors. Drunk parenting. Young teachers. Old teachers. Administrations. Morons in power. Morons in the homes. Unfair treatment. Lifesaving decision. Teachers who influence. Standing up for a child. Requiring a child to stand up for himself. Cheerleading. Benchwarmers. Crying. Screaming. Laughing. Rejoicing. Flushing with pride. Flushing the toilet. Idiosyncracies. Reasons. Excuses. Drugs. Letters of the alphabet. Promotion. Retention. Expulsion. Zero tolerance. Standardized testing. Scripted curriculum. Things we hate. Things we love. Things we wish would happen. Things we wish didn't happen. Principals with principles. Principals without principles. Computers. Understanding. Misunderstanding. Privileges. Loss of privileges. Grades. Standards. Cell phones. Gangs. Student loans. Religion. Computers. Corporate sponsorship. Faith. Umbrellas. Attitude. Food.

Name something concerning children, parents, schools, teachers, voters, neighbors, passers-by, citizens, or YOU, and it's discussed somewhere within the Carnival of Education.

Please, go there and give it a read. You'll be glad you did.

Why don't more of YOU submit something to the Carnival? It's open to all who have something to say about the state of education on our planet.

This week's carnival was put together by History is Elementary, an excellent blog written by a fine educator. I read it daily.

The Carnival of Education is the brainchild of The Education Wonks, one of the finest blogs on the internet today.

I liked all of the articles in today's Carnival, but I think this one was my favorite. Is anybody surprised?