No Wrong Answers

When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, many people had more existential problems than sending their kids to school. But in the immediate aftermath, some educators volunteered to continue teaching classes at shelters around Huston. This is a story from one of those teachers.

Trump's DACA decision is a big one for students and schools. You may have questions, we have some answers. Plus, we talk about Chance The Rapper's new award show for teachers, and another edition of the Betsy Breakdown.

A video of high school cheerleaders being forced to do the splits goes viral. Our teachers ask, how do you know when you're truly pushing kids and when you're going to far? Plus, research shows that kids with a few close friends may do better later in life than popular kids. And another round of Ask A Teacher.

Some are saying Charlottesville was a turning point. Do our teachers feel the same way? Plus, new research suggests grade inflation is the newest form of the achievement gap. And, a new segment: Ask A Teacher.

On this episode: our teachers discuss strategies for addressing Charlottesville with teachers and students in school. Plus, how much say should parents have over the classroom, and it's back...the Betsy Breakdown.

Many schools include hair in their dress codes, and that's gotten some black students in trouble. Our teachers discuss whether dress codes can be racist. And confidence in police is up overall in America, but dropping among young people. What's it like to teach about law enforcement in this age of police shootings and protests?

The Trump Administration has its definition of close family, but how do our teachers define who their student's close family are. And new research says that smart phones are distracting even when we're not using them...should schools ban them altogether?

Some say computer coding is as crucial to kids education these days as math and reading...our teachers are skeptical. And, in this current social justice moment, should educators be teaching their students to be woke...one teacher says "hell yes".

This episode is a rebroadcast while our teachers are on summer break: The term white privilege has hit a new level of cultural significance in recent years. Our teachers say that white privilege is as pervasive in school as the rest of society. 

This episode is a rebroadcast while our teachers are on summer break: Teachers are buying and selling lesson plans and materials on line, in a growing digital marketplace. (Teachers have reportedly raked in more than $1 million in a single year selling their plans.) But some worry this “monetizing” of a key teacher skill creates literal paywalls to organic collaboration. Our teachers’ verdict? In a phrase: “Respect the hustle.”

This episode is a rebroadcast while our teachers are on summer break: Take a breath! News events have come quick and often this year, and some of that news has been called "fake". The teachers had a lot to say about dealing with "fake news" in their classrooms. How do teachers teach critical reasoning skills in an era of “alternative facts.” It reminded our panel this week of George Orwell’s 1984.

What makes a city a good place to live for teachers? Data analytics firm GoodCall has its answers, and the best city to live as a teacher might surprise you.

Researchers recently studied some 600 anonymous Reddit posts in an attempt to form a picture of what the public views as a “good” and “bad” teacher. The findings come with some major caveats: nearly three quarters of regular Reddit users are males, under 35. So the take the following conclusions through that lens. An analysis of users’ posts showed they preferred teachers of so-called qualitative subjects (like humanities) over empirical subjects (like math), male teachers over female teachers, and high school teachers over elementary school teachers.

Secession is back and not just in American History class. Our teachers this week tackle the story of mostly white Alabama city seeking to secede from a largely black county-run school district. Our teachers have a problem with the district’s stated reasons for seceding and a problem with what they say it means for public education writ large.

Few education writers (with the possible exception of Jonathan Kozol) are more widely respected and more widely read than Mike Rose. In a career that’s spanned more than 35 years, Rose has produced eleven books on education and learning, ranging in topic from effective literacy strategies to the cognitive complexity of blue-collar work. His most well-known book may be the semi-autobiographical Lives On the Boundary. It’s now generally considered a classic of the field, often read in education schools and teacher-prep programs. The book details different ways to reach so-called “problem” students, while at the same time mining the deep vein of Rose’s own personal experiences growing up in a working class household that often felt shut out of the educational establishment. Mike Rose was born in Pennsylvania, the son of Italian immigrants and grew up in Los Angeles. He’s said one of the most impactful things to happen to him growing up was being moved out of his high school’s vocational track into its college prep track. In the college prep track, he had a teacher who advised him on applying to college. Rose, who now teaches at UCLA, has tended to focus his writing on class divisions he experienced as a student and that still often plague our education system. He’s written passionately about vocational education--what’s now termed Career and Technical Education--and how it can and should be integrated into a more well-rounded education that also includes STEM learning and instruction in subjects like classic literature. He says votech subjects like auto mechanics and shop class are often looked at with snobbery and elitism and are undervalued by the education system as a whole. Rose has been revisiting these themes on his blog in the wake of the election of Donald Trump as president. He’s not a fan of the president. He makes no bones about his disappointment in Trump’s election, swept to the White House with the support of millions of white, working class voters like people he says he grew up around. We wanted to speak to Rose about how his career’s focus--his lifelong passion for looking at issues of class in education--now may seem more relevant than ever.