Staying on Message While Smart People are in Charge

Talking to one of my friends from way back on the phone the other day, I mention this blog here, and he may or may not have been looking at the page when he offered an oblique piece of advice that I very sensitively took as a completely damning criticism of this whole enterprise. He said something to the effect that a successful blog needs to convey an air of expertise. I didn't say any of this at the time-- we had plenty of other stuff to talk about-- but I have come to a conclusion. I'm not up for that.

All that I've read about our current administration suggests to me that they've already thought through my fairly simple ideas about effective public education-- that is, it is a human enterprise that requires only a handful of demanding standards, sufficient staffing to meet those standards, and the ability for teachers to choose their pedagogy and parents to choose their child's school. After that, all you have is the politics of local and state money. And I'm definitely not up for that.

So while we have, at the national level at least, smart people in charge for the foreseeable future, I am going to return to my core mission-- looking for truthful art and writing about public high school.

So far, Frederick Wiseman's High School and High School II (pictured above) are all I've got. Both are brilliant movies. There must be more. Let me know.