We've Got it Good

There's been a lot of comment on the Colorado Independent's current issue which has a few stories on homeschooling. They aren't very interesting stories. It's basically the same old article that been written a hundred times that spolights a Christian homeschooling family, quotes HSLDA statistics and injects comments from a couple of homeschooling critics. Apparently the Colorado Independent isn't much for breaking new ground preffering instead to tread well worn paths.

But don't think we've got it bad.

Instead look at this blog post at D-Ed Reckoning where a news story about one public school is dissected.

Snyder was probably thinking that this one writes itself. All she had to do was visit the school, make a few expert observation, and interview a few expert teachers, and declare a solution to Philadelphia's education woes.

What she wound up with was what all the doe-eyed journalists wind up with when they write about education -- an article full of cliches.

It's really worth the read. A reporter writes a glowing article about one school's success and an intelligent blogger follows with a breakdown of what's actually going on at the school. Of course the unfortunate part is that so many people will see the reporter's story and never see D-Ed Reckoning's work. What most people will see is yet another piece of glowing goodness that soothes their worries and prevent any honest look at the failures of one city's public schools.

We've just got people who encourage a few stereotypes writing about us. The people in education in Philidelphia have a whole legion of people in the media who are all too willing to make fairy tales out of public schools and distract the public from looking too closely.