Quotables...

Last night’s debate

From The Plank’s Jonathan Chait:

Palin's final quote was from Ronald Reagan, warning that without vigilance, "you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." In fact, Reagan was not warning about a general lack of vigilance about freedom, he was warning what would happen if Medicare was enacted.

The factory model

Barack Obama’s educational advisor Linda Darling-Hammond speaking on Capitol Hill (video here):

“You cannot take the vestigial, factory model high school that was invented in 1910 and make it produce the kinds of outcomes that are needed in high-needs communities…Schools are trying to teach a double curriculum, she said, “They’re trying to teach a curriculum that matters and they’re trying to teach kids to be proficient on the bubble tests that we currently have.”

Chicago's first day of school

Remember when Rev. Meeks called for a student boycott on the first day of school in Chicago. Daley/Duncan went ballistic. “Kids can’t afford to miss one day of school,” they told the media, even though the boycott and trip to suburban New Trier was probably one of the greatest educational experiences many of these kids have ever had while in CPS.

When the suburban New Trier kids. Including the Student Council president, missed classes to come out and join the protest to demand fair and equal funding, they were praised by their teachers and superintendent for their civic responsibility.

Now they’ve started anew student organization to involve their fellow students in the struggle for equitable school funding.

What they missed...

But what’s the first day at a CPS high school was, Quintin Creamer (picture above), a student at Robeson High in the Englewood neighborhood took recording equipment and asked fellow students and a parent that very question. The answer? Lots of confusion when some students' transcripts were sent to the wrong schools. The District's Area Instructional Officer, Jerryelyn Jones said it was a computer glitch.

Listen to this report from the students’ perspective on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio.