I woke up this morning to this refreshing discussion. Check it out.
(Urban parents don’t care what Gary Orfield thinks)
What do I think? Well, when I was a teacher in the Berkeley schools back in the late 1960’s, we had tracking at the junior high. The highest level course and the lowest level course. I taught both and will never forget the parents of my lowest level students (you can imagine who they might have been in this urban setting). They exhorted me to NOT lower standards, NOT go easy on their kids, NOT demand less than the best. They exhorted me to PUSH their kids to excellence, to PUSH them to learn as much as possible, to PUSH them to work hard.
It taught me that parents are parents–wherever they live–and they want the best for their children. This article lays that out well. Thanks for it.
About Miriam
Miriam Kurtzig Freedman, JD, MA—an expert in public education, focused on special education law— is a lawyer, author, speaker, consultant, and reformer.
For more than 35 years, Miriam worked with educators, parents, policy makers, and citizens to translate complex legalese into plain English and focus on good practices for children.
Now, she focuses her passion on reforming special education, with her new book, Special Education 2.0—Breaking Taboos to Build a NEW Education Law. Presentations include those at the AASA Conference, Orange County (CA), Boston College (MA), CADRE (OR), and the Fordham Institute (DC). Her writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Education Week, Education Next, Hoover Digest, The University of Chicago Law Review on line, DianeRavitch.net, and The Atlantic Monthly on line.
No Comments
Be the first to start a conversation