Sometimes I start my day with that title line. Give it a shot, but make sure you use the accent. By the way, whenever I am forced to read the instructions on high-stakes exams, I use that voice. The kids love it. Try it. I figured it has been a while since I’ve spewed some thoughts in this forum, and sometimes I need Rainier Wolfcastle to provide some motivation.

Life has been pretty busy the past few months, but I really can’t complain given the utter mess our country is in right now. I’ve been doing quite a bit of writing lately that isn’t blog related and that’s taken some time away from posting here. I need to keep that work shrouded in secrecy until a future date though, so stay tuned. Oh, and Facebook is also providing a bit of an alternative to blogging, but I’m beginning to see that they’re both good for different things. I’m going to try to be better at blogging, as it provides a richness that Facebook cannot. It is really cathartic for me to blog and I need to do it more. So, here goes.

What’s the deal with school “reformers” and all their rhetoric lately? Seriously, have you seen Bill Gates’ talk at TED the other day? What a steaming pile. I can’t be nice about this. I generally try to err on the side of humility (really, I’ve been trying) when approaching such topics, but this is really stunning. All of his conclusions are reliant upon test scores as indicators of “success” in teaching and learning. It’s so ironic that someone who made a boatload of loot off his own creativity so vehemently supports such an inflexible, uncreative, and let’s be honest, authoritarian metric. This is “success” to Gates. What’s particularly sad is that A LOT of people listen when Bill Gates talks about education. He’s given tons of money to it, and that’s to be commended, but I really don’t get the sense that he knows much about teaching at all. At the very least he doesn’t appreciate qualitative research, but then again, I’m not so sure I expect a captain of industry to really get that.

Sigh.

How to change that? I know that if I have to listen to Michelle Rhee, or the worship of TFA/KIPP anymore, I might gouge my eyes out. This is what passes for reform? Seriously? How uncreative. I’ll leave the Rhee analysis to Dina though. I can’t get myself worked up over her right now. After all, it is Friday night and I’m heading out to dinner with the lady friend/wife. I don’t know how she puts up with me sometimes.

Expect more soon. I’ve had tons of ideas bouncing around…