QOTD — What Kind of Educational Summit Doesn’t Want to Listen to Its Practitioners?
And by practitioners, I mean teachers. Today, Governor Markell is participating in the NBC News Education Nation Summit in NYC. He is talking about early learning initiatives here, with Harriet Dichter, Executive Director of the Delaware Office of Early Learning.
Go to the Summit website and scroll down to look at the agenda. With the exception of the Student Town Hall, the Teacher Town Hall and possibly the various Master Classes interspersed, I think I can count on one hand the number of teachers included as named speakers. There’s a few more if I include principals, and the number looks even better if I include Superintendents of school systems.The majority of the people speaking (with NBC anchors and reporters — what?) are from various corporations (mostly those with something to sell to schools and students), colleges (professors and Deans), politicians and WTF is Goldman Sachs doing here?
What do you think? What kind of credibility does and Educational Summit have that includes very few teachers and is run by TV personalities?
Tags: Qotd
It makes me want to pound my head against a wall.
I’m going to the simliarly-themed Rodel Vision 2015 conference on Wednesday. Hope to have some good live Tweeting. I believe the Gov. will be there, probably offering a variation on the speech he gave to Education Nation today.
As has always been the case with this Administration’s views and policies on education and early child “rearing” there is absolutely no credibility to be had there and little if any knowledge or experiences. The carnival has arrived and step right up to pay to see the freak-show.
John k.
It’s analogous to a pharmacy rep at a doctors’ office. They’re there for the order, but drop off donuts, pens, and tablets. The real inservice and learning is elsewhere w/ the professionals, who can parse back and forth findings, concerns etc…….honestly.
Then let me ask this another way, Joanne, what other professional organizations hold major conferences to discuss the state-of-the-art of the practice without hearing from those who are doing it? Your keynote might be some big name with no real connection to the profession, but I’ve never been to a conference where some politician is talking about best practices for design quality control.
I think we have wires crossed here cass. I’m responding to the “sales” of education w/ goodies and gimmicks, distributed by a prop.
Your best practices guru at the dais is another matter. But, I bet some folks might think of Al Gore.
OK, I see. But I still don’t understand why there is a high-profile education summit with salespeople running the show. That’s not a summit, just a sales opportunity.
Al Gore at the dais doing some rah rah thing as a keynote speaker is alot different than Al Gore at the dais talking about early childhood education. People might want to come see Al Gore speak on whatever interests him over a lunch or breakfast in a really big room of other people. I’m not so interested in Al Gore speaking on something I need to get CEUs for.
Agreed. But now everyone is in on the business of education from cradle to grave–as in “life long learner”—so we’ll get lots of summits, movements, coalitions, consortiums, and think tanks. CEUs aside–because ed people count their hours a whole different way. Kinda loose.
John K., what makes you any more of an expert than Jack Markell or those in his administration?