The Shocking State of Our Schools

I posted five video clips that captured all of Friday's amazing Oprah show, but for some strange reason clip #2 and clip #5 had no audio, so I've reposted them: www.clusterurl.com/548zo2u.

 

I forgot to mention this in my last email: be sure to watch Geoff Canada's answer to Oprah's question about what the unions should do: commit to an extra hour a day.  Sadly, I suspect that hell will freeze over before they'd give an extra minute a day without full compensation.

 

In addition, here's another 32 minutes of discussion among Gov. Chris Christie, Mayor Cory Booker, Geoffrey Canada and Mark Zuckerberg that didn't air: www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Panel-Continues-the-Discussion-After-the-Show-Video

 

Finally, if you haven't watched last Monday's Oprah (www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FB34F7A3C0610E25), at the end of this email is a quasi-transcript of it that's posted on Oprah.com.  Here's an excerpt:

 

Clearly, our education system is in dire straits, so who's at fault? Michelle Rhee, chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools, says children are not the problem, adults are.

"Everybody knows I love good teachers, and there are so many thousands of you—great ones—in this country," Oprah says. "So we're not talking about you if you are a good teacher."

Michelle says we can trace the problems back to an entirely different group of educators. "The reality is that we have some ineffective teachers, some bad teachers, who are in classrooms every day who are doing a disservice to our children," she says. "The data shows if [children] have three highly effective teachers in a row versus three ineffective teachers in a row, it can literally change their life trajectory."

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The Shocking State of Our Schools

Oprah.com   |   September 20, 2010

www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Shocking-State-of-Our-Schools/print/1