Ads Hope to Inject U.S. School Challenges Into White House Race
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 13, 2008; C07
Amid a presidential campaign dominated by debate about the economy and the war in Iraq, an advertising campaign scheduled to debut in Northern Virginia and elsewhere tomorrow is seeking to spotlight challenges facing U.S. schools.
A 30-second television spot shows a blond-haired boy raising the flags of dozens of countries, including Finland and South Korea and Japan, onto one flagpole as ominous orchestral music plays in the background. In a voiceover, actress Jamie Lee Curtis says: "This boy's future isn't looking so good. The schools in every one of these countries are outperforming ours."
In the final shot, an overcast sky looms behind the flagpole and the Stars and Stripes ripples at the bottom.
The $5 million "One Nation Left Behind" campaign is being launched by Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan organization formed a little more than a year ago to boost political discourse about education -- a topic that has received sporadic attention from the two major presumptive presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
The group has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other philanthropic groups.
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At the end of the day...
I often wonder how the society at large has gone from teachers who, if 90% of the class caught on to a lesson, the majority would have to wait and help the other 10% get brought up to speed, to teachers who now pride themselves on a 90% success rate and feel they can’t be held responsible for the 10% that can’t catch if the lesson plan is taught EXACTLY the same way to ALL of the students.
You can say what you want about Adrian Fenty overall, because there are plenty of pluses and minuses to go around, but ever since he installed Michelle Rhee as the D.C. public schools chancellor, I’ve really been watching to see how she ‘walks the walk.’
P6 ran this in a thread not long ago:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/share.html?s=news01na34q212
Highlighting the D.C. public school system. I think it's very emblematic of this whole shift in mindset and ultimate quandary.
(...And it looked like she was really 'walking the walk' to me, but didn't know if it was fast enough to keep her from getting hit by a bus!)
She did an interview that was on Charlie Rose a few days ago:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/07/14/1/a-conversation-with-michelle-rhee-chancellor-of-the-district-of-columbia-public-schools
That I think gives a much better sense of her passion and commitment in attempting to chance the school system and cultural mindset around.
(I can remember a time when teachers like the ‘Mr. Wallace’ she describes were far more the rule than the exception!)
I would still say, at the end of the day, it all starts with how well we arm the youth to deal with the worlds of tomorrow.
I’d like to believe that, truly, the best of educators can create a and foster a successful triumvirate of student, home and school, regardless of what potential reluctance, or apathy, there may be from the family unit aspect.
Those are the kind of challenges, I would think, compelled them to go into teaching in the first place, because of their undying belief in their ability to make a difference.
This was link to the
This was link to the original post:
http://www.prometheus6.org/node/21343
(...After seeing the Charlie Rose piece, it came to mind, but, alas, it had closed!)
I thought this piece as good a place to harp on the issue as any!