Ideas About Education Reform

Sharing Ideas to Hack Curriculum in Schools

LET’S START A CAMPAIGN TO REBRAND TEACHING AND MAKE NOTEABLE TEACHERS INTO CELEBRITIES  … NOMINEES FROM TUMBLR?America Loves Celebrity Chefs, But Who Are Our Celebrity Teachers? This came up because Robert Pondiscio, former VP of Core Knowledge, changed his Facebook status to the following: Make a list of celebrity chefs. 2. Make a list of celebrity teachers. 3. Compare. From there, a few of us chimed into the discussion, opining aloud who fits the mold of “celebrity teacher.” People like Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Melissa Harris-Perry come off the list because, you guessed it, none of them work K-12, and, as much as some of us hate to admit it, college professors get a much higher level of respect from our society than local teachers do in terms of expertise. Even people like Diane Ravitch, Pedro Noguera, and Linda Darling-Hammond, professors focused on education, come off the list for the same reason. Not K-12, not applicable. Then, I ran down the list quickly and thought of Jaime Escalante, Joe Clark, and Erin Gruwell, of Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me, and Freedom Writers fame respectively. Then Rob reminded me that it’s been more than twenty years since Escalante’s star turn, about 20 years since Joe Clark’s turn, and about seven since Erin Gruwell’s 15 minutes. Ron Clark, the Oprah-celebrated teacher who taught in both North Carolina and Harlem was certainly popular, but how quickly would he garner real attention from the average American? Deborah Meier and Robert Moses were MacArthur geniuses, and actually have verified Wikipedia pages, but they’re so selfless that the organizations they represent have gotten way more attention than their own works. The term “celebrity teacher” is such a difficult one too, because it presumes that the spotlight should focus strictly on the teacher and not on the ways in which that teacher helps students. The profession doesn’t lend itself to alpha dogs and sunbathers of the egoistic type. Yet, I have a hard time with the idea that, in a landscape with people so replete with opinions about our profession, that we shouldn’t have the same viability when we speak about it ourselves.

LET’S START A CAMPAIGN TO REBRAND TEACHING AND MAKE NOTEABLE TEACHERS INTO CELEBRITIES  … NOMINEES FROM TUMBLR?

America Loves Celebrity Chefs, But Who Are Our Celebrity Teachers?

This came up because Robert Pondiscio, former VP of Core Knowledge, changed his Facebook status to the following:

Make a list of celebrity chefs. 2. Make a list of celebrity teachers. 3. Compare.

From there, a few of us chimed into the discussion, opining aloud who fits the mold of “celebrity teacher.” People like Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Melissa Harris-Perry come off the list because, you guessed it, none of them work K-12, and, as much as some of us hate to admit it, college professors get a much higher level of respect from our society than local teachers do in terms of expertise. Even people like Diane Ravitch, Pedro Noguera, and Linda Darling-Hammond, professors focused on education, come off the list for the same reason.

Not K-12, not applicable.

Then, I ran down the list quickly and thought of Jaime Escalante, Joe Clark, and Erin Gruwell, of Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me, and Freedom Writers fame respectively. Then Rob reminded me that it’s been more than twenty years since Escalante’s star turn, about 20 years since Joe Clark’s turn, and about seven since Erin Gruwell’s 15 minutes. Ron Clark, the Oprah-celebrated teacher who taught in both North Carolina and Harlem was certainly popular, but how quickly would he garner real attention from the average American?

Deborah Meier and Robert Moses were MacArthur geniuses, and actually have verified Wikipedia pages, but they’re so selfless that the organizations they represent have gotten way more attention than their own works.

The term “celebrity teacher” is such a difficult one too, because it presumes that the spotlight should focus strictly on the teacher and not on the ways in which that teacher helps students. The profession doesn’t lend itself to alpha dogs and sunbathers of the egoistic type. Yet, I have a hard time with the idea that, in a landscape with people so replete with opinions about our profession, that we shouldn’t have the same viability when we speak about it ourselves.

2 months ago

  1. jameshowell528 reblogged this from hacking-curriculum and added:
    prose
  2. educationalliberty reblogged this from hacking-curriculum and added:
    LET’S START A CAMPAIGN TO REBRAND TEACHING AND MAKE NOTEABLE TEACHERS INTO CELEBRITIES … NOMINEES FROM TUMBLR? America...
  3. rburrito15 reblogged this from hacking-curriculum and added:
    YES
  4. theteacherfilm reblogged this from hacking-curriculum
  5. manorhousebey reblogged this from betheteacheryouloved
  6. rknjl reblogged this from hacking-curriculum and added:
    I don’t think celebrity chefs have people who have never cooked a meal in their life telling them how to do their jobs…
  7. yooknowit reblogged this from cakeninjak and added:
    This is wonderful !
  8. cakeninjak reblogged this from pfkhens
  9. unohill reblogged this from pfkhens
  10. sophie-not-sophia reblogged this from hacking-curriculum
  11. betheteacheryouloved reblogged this from hacking-curriculum
  12. pfkhens reblogged this from hacking-curriculum
  13. kajunmomma reblogged this from hacking-curriculum and added:
    Hows about a reality show on teachers. Even something similiar to the Cooking show like Hell Kitchen Lets do one on...
  14. This was featured in #Education
  15. hacking-curriculum posted this

1 ⁄ 1

- Inkhorn theme powered by Tumblr -