Happy New Year!

Though in terms of policy, it's pretty much the same thing: Common Core supporters and critics, poor education for children in poverty, classism, and racism. (What does this have to do with teaching, you may ask? Pretty much everything, since the education system is designed largely by white people. More on that below.) There's also this nifty collection of charts showing how the teaching profession has progressed (or not) in various capacities this year. Yay data!

Regarding the point above about racism, writer/vlogger John Green does a great job at explaining that yes, systemic racism does still exist in today's world. As I have stated before, this (along with classism) has much to do with the inequality in education.

Although Green does not directly refer to education in his video (except for the subjects offered in predominately white vs. predominantly black schools -- which is an interesting point), he definitely proves society is racist, and the education system is created by this society. And he does mention incarceration rates and economic opportunities for blacks vs. whites, which are both results of the education system.

I said "yay data!" in the first paragraph, and have previously waxed poetic about my love for data. But Green makes it a point to say that data is not everything, which is oh so true. Skip to 3:32 to hear him state that "while I think statistics and data are really important, I also think it's important to listen to the voices of people who have been affected by racism." This is a key point that policy makers forget -- statistics do not tell the whole story. While we cannot necessarily "measure" anecdotes, they are more important, since, as Green states, "data is cold in a way that humans are not." Educational policy (along with economic, health, and environmental policy) is for humans, not robots. Therefore it makes sense that we should actually listen to human stories.

Speaking of humanity, humans generally do not like change. Perhaps this is one reason why policymakers are stuck on making sure the testing movement and/or CCSS works? Yet, according to this article, it's not that hard to change things.

So... happy new year from an education curmudgeon. Here's hoping 2015 won't be more of the same.