it's not good for kids to read books because it will prepare them for college, or for work, or for seminary, it's good for them in the moment because it helps them grow, in any number of unpredictable directions

Public education itself is a more wildly ambitious innovation than anything the tech industry has ever, or could ever, offer. Working to fulfill the promise of that innovation can help us be clear-eyed about what a volatile, diminished substitute Alpha School and its ilk are peddling.

Importantly, part of the history of "innovation" in K-12 school reform is that there have always been people—students, teachers, communities—that not only saw through and rejected this cycle, but also advanced alternate visions for what educational "innovation" could be.
logicmag.io/kids/we-dont...

While the book focuses on a modern instantiation of this cycle in Philadelphia public schools (and how we might respond), I've also traced the longer history of this cycle in the district and its interplay with race/labor politics in 1960/70s Philadelphia.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Congrats, Xander—well deserved!

Hey high school English teachers! If you are going to @ncte.org 's convention next month, please be in touch! @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I, along with ed prof pals Robert LeBlanc and @philnichols.bsky.social, will be presenting and leading a workshop on Saturday, 11/22

I'm so glad to hear it! Thanks for the work you're doing, Craig!

Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for the kind words and for sharing, Ben!