In a message dated 1/4/2003 7:35:22 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Linda Mann] writes:
"As one of the chief enforcers of segregation in Minneapolis, the MPS is not a progressive (nor a left) organization by any current definition. The "Progressive Era" did originate a lot of the tracking ideology that the School District still subscribes to but this ideology is almost a century old and represented a totally different mindset than the label "progressive" does today." The Left-wing Progressive movement to which Mr. Atherton, Diane Ravitch, (author of Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms) and many other self-described education conservatives refer is a bogeyman which doesn't exist in the real world today. Today the terms 'Left-wing Progressive' and 'Liberal' are generally applied to people who oppose the regime in the public K-12 school system established during the Reagan and Bush administrations (1981-1992). The Liberal / Progressive leadership of the educational establishment during the 1960s and 70s, which the Reagan-Bush administration replaced, actually made a great deal of progress toward 'closing the gap' without watering-down the curriculum for the high achievers, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a Federal testing program. An organization which I joined over a year ago, the National Coalition of Educational Activists was established during the 1980s by people who opposed the Reagan-Bush education agenda and support the kind of education reform that I advocate. During the Progressive era (1890 - 1920) at least two very distinct and different types of "progressive" philosophies had a large following. One was associated with age- and ability-grouping, a standardized lockstep curriculum and the separate-but-equal doctrine -- reforms that had the backing of "progressive industrialists" such as Andrew Carnegi, the Klu Klux Klan, and the leadership of the Democratic Party (especially during Woodrow Wilson's administration, 1913-1920). The "progressive" educational philosophy articulated by Maria Montessori was in many respects at odds with the progressive era reformation of the schools. For example, Montessori schools have multiage classrooms and allow students to group themselves (students do not ordinarily 'ability-group' themselves). Other reformers of the progressive era shared Montessori's emphasis on 'child-centered' methods, had a fairly large number of adherents in the teaching profession, and exercised some influence on K-12 educational policy. -Doug Mann, King Field and the new 8th ward Mann for School Board web site: http://educationright.tripod.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
