Commandos. Terrorists. Leader of the Evil Snake Cult. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fought them all.
But the erstwhile action hero/body builder/movie star turned California governor may have met his match — PR-wise, at least — in the form of the “South Pasadena Grade A Jug Band.” In a word: cute kids in cowboy hats and denim, revising Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t got the Do-Re-Mi” — a Great Depression-era classic about the mirage that was the disastrous 1930s California migration — to highlight Schwarzenegger’s drastic cuts to public education.
Governor, this is one battle you’re not going to win.
Find the jug band here and on the wonderfully titled Such a Smart Mom blog.
That’s kind of hard to top, but there were some other interesting posts this past week. Claus Von Zastrow, in his Public School Insights blog, wonders why politicians and opinion-makers tend to use one terminology when referring to good charter schools (glowing, perhaps?) and another for your run-of-the-mill, high-performing public school. What gives?
Speaking of terminology, NSBA’s Board Buzz notes a New York Times commentary by education historian Diane Ravitch about the dangers of neglecting content in the effort to develop students’ so-called 21st century skills. Ravitch, one of the featured speakers at NSBA’s 2010 Annual Convention in Chicago this spring, is also quoted in next month’s ASBJ forum on the Obama administration’s first year.
Finally, we note The Washington Post‘s Jay Mathews’ review of a provocative new book called The College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand One Another. Author Rebecca Cox, of Seton Hall University, says many professors don’t know how intimidating they are to students. And those intimidated students? A lot of them don’t know what professors want on research papers.
The obvious question for ASBJ readers: Why aren’t they getting these skills in high school?
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
