In a matter as subjective as "effective teaching" by "effective teachers," and weeding out "ineffective teachers," the haters have no sound definition, never mind a reliable measure of "effectiveness," but that does not stop their keening. So, in something such as "effectiveness" one has to say the probability is that experience is the best teacher (heard that one before, eh, well it too regularly proves true, and the haters just do a glide-and-slide to misdirect attention from their weaknesses).
That said, the online links for today are Sorensen at BP, "MN Action Network post card in Sen. Clausen's district focuses on gutting teacher tenure" - here, and Burns at MPP, "Norm's back!" - here. Earlier crabgrass posts have also dealt with the issue.
Surely one could now, in a post such as this, use an image of Norm at his maximal Normness, or follow leaders and post a weasel picture while Norm is being discussed (see the Burns link above); but instead, this image, and please make of it what you will. (It is offered without any overly-direct textual tie-in to the rest of this post.)
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| ... nice looking mandibles too ... |
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Sorensen posted the below image of the scurrilous attack piece being mailed to citizens by hucksters. It is very important for readers to enlarge the image, to see the slimy glide-and-slide propaganda ploy in practice (done by skilled propagandists, slick, but where's the beef).
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| originally posted here |
It is worth adding, practice makes perfect for propagandists too, with the slick use of "our childred" on the front of the attack piece, and the pleasant looking impressionable urchin, to disguise the politics of the perp's PAC.
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For the next silk-screening of a new batch of red tee shirts (as per the sidebar), expect "TENURED TEACHERS" to be added to the bottom of the judgmental list. For now, that's a wait and see. But expect it. Were all the likely dislikes of that shirt seller/wearer faction to get cataloged, it could be a list too long to fit on the back of a burqua fit to Brittney Griener. Perhaps you'd need a bridal gown train too long for many church aisles.
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That mailer, the stuff about protecting our best teachers. It has to be said. "Best" does not mean "cheapest," nor "least experienced," so ask the Republicans going on the warpath against the teachers union, precisely what does "best teachers" mean. And ask it before drinking any of their Koolaid.
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Links possibly of interest, here, here, here and here. If considering standardized testing, consider following the money to follow the true gist of the Republican argument. Whose cash flow is backing the pitch for "protecting the best teachers," and what might enhance that flow while lessening reliance placed elsewhere, in other formal ways?
As an example, ask yourself whether medicine should be a self-regulating profession, i.e., left to those with experience and expertise, or subjected to somebody else's vision of standardized testing of surgeons and other specialists?
There's gold in them-there standardized tests. Try being a skeptic. See if it fits your personality.
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If amused by the venom some reserve for so-called, "liberals" and "socialists," do you wonder why don't they hate "neoliberals?"
Yeah, for one thing, they don't know what the term means, and self-education that way is not their cup of Tea.
Try, in the context of "education reform" heated rhetoric, the two part low-key analysis out of New Mexico (yes, there is more there than the backdrop for Breaking Bad). As an incentive, neoliberalism gets its mention; the two-part discourse being online here and here.
Enjoy.
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Keeping a theme alive, perhaps too tenaciously, this image
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| ALEC Headquarters |