“The dirty little secret about schools of education is that they have been the cash cows of universities for many, many years, and it’s time to say, ‘Show us what you can do, or get out of the business.’” Nothing terribly controversial about those words, unless you consider the source: Katherine Merseth, director of the teacher education program at Harvard University.
Merseth was not bad-mouthing her own program, according to U.S. News’ Eddy Ramirez, who quoted her in a recent blog post. However, Merseth said that of the 1,300 graduate teacher training programs in the country, about 100 or so are adequately preparing teachers and “the others could be shut down tomorrow.”
“It’s high time that we broke up the cartel,” said Merseth. “We need to hold graduate schools of education more accountable.”
Brown University has decided Christopher Columbus no longer warrants a holiday. But the faculty still wants a long weekend, so it’s Goodbye, Columbus Day. Hello, Fall Weekend. “Hundreds of Brown students had asked the Providence school to stop observing Columbus Day,” the AP reports, ”citing the explorer’s violent treatment of Native Americans he encountered.”
Let’s not stop there, writes Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin. Since Hannukah is based on a celebration of carbon-based fuels during a time of global warming, it should be renamed “Alternative Fuels-Day.” Mother’s and Father’s Day “assumes a rigid, traditional family structure no longer in keeping with society’s changes.” Thus it would be better to combine the two into a single new holiday called “Guardian’s Day.” And President’s Day, he notes, discriminates against the other two branches of government. It’s gotta go, he writes.
Because of the importance of Christmas, I for one would be willing to see it go forward, but only if the elves are allowed to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which may well be possible if the Obama administration follows through on promises to make it easier for unions to organize in the workplace.
Patinkin is joking. Brown isn’t.
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