Response to Guernica Magazines interview with Michelle RheeRhee

Comment posted on 1/16/12

As an activist and former educator, I'd like to state my firm disappointment in this article. The take-aways I gained are: if you are in the low-income bracket, dream bigger; if you are in the higher-income bracket, dream bigger. I found no value in this diatribe of inadequacy. How do we expect schools to perform better and, simultaneously, ignore influencing factors of culture, economy and society.

Education is our microcosm that reflects our current stall out as a country. Our greatest opportunity in recent history to date lies in how we act to reform education. How we educate young people now, will shape our society's trajectory into 2100.

There is a fundamental problem with our education system. The problem is with how the conversation is being shaped. If our expectations are set at being better than, an inherent hierarchy emerges. Hierarchical order has prevailed through the inception of our current education system with the emphasis on surpassing expectations measured by a constructed value scale.  It seems that if our highest performing students are still considered under-performing in the international spectrum, then the default solution should not be more of the same.

With our greatest opportunity to reshape our current trajectory, I am optimistic because there are educators working every day to make certain that all of their students learn that there is no such thing as 'less than.'  I am optimistic because its evident that the current way of evaluating the education system and the education system itself will most certainly become an archaic relic.