Anyone for Civil Disobedience and Dinner?
A great friend of ours has organized an open discussion of "Renaissance 2010" in Chicago for this Saturday at 4:00pm. Come one, come all for some good old fashioned challenge and defend discourse!
The event will be held at Decima Musa and will discuss (in her terms) "Daley's plan to boot the poor people out of the city by closing their schools".
Soooo, at least we know we'll get some good opinions voiced (another friend told her to beware of getting on the mayor's "list", but I figure if you never made anyone's list - what the hell'd ya do with your life?).
Decima Musa (tenth muse) refers to the classic Greek myth of the nine muses and the way in which female poets have been designated the tenth muse. Sounds as good a place as any to discuss the Mayor's ambitious plan to create 100 new schools in Chicago.
The debate seems to be over the tactics - as several underperforming schools are targeted to be shut down to allow for a fresh start with some of the new schools. Highminded indeed - but a difficult "no pain, no gain" type approach resulting already in the planned closing of four public schools in Chicago - one high school and three elementary schools.
Personally - I don't think it's so much a case of the quality of school, rather, it comes down to a motivation factor. I believe students will perform better in public schools across the country when they're ensured access to a free collegiate education if they do perform. If you're too poor/underprivledged to have anyplace to go with your high school diploma - is it really much more valuable than a GED, or nothing at all? If you could go on to college, though, you've got something to work toward. I believe that's the solution - and I don't believe this level of public education is as difficult to achieve in the US as it seems.
The event will be held at Decima Musa and will discuss (in her terms) "Daley's plan to boot the poor people out of the city by closing their schools".
Soooo, at least we know we'll get some good opinions voiced (another friend told her to beware of getting on the mayor's "list", but I figure if you never made anyone's list - what the hell'd ya do with your life?).Decima Musa (tenth muse) refers to the classic Greek myth of the nine muses and the way in which female poets have been designated the tenth muse. Sounds as good a place as any to discuss the Mayor's ambitious plan to create 100 new schools in Chicago.
The debate seems to be over the tactics - as several underperforming schools are targeted to be shut down to allow for a fresh start with some of the new schools. Highminded indeed - but a difficult "no pain, no gain" type approach resulting already in the planned closing of four public schools in Chicago - one high school and three elementary schools.
Personally - I don't think it's so much a case of the quality of school, rather, it comes down to a motivation factor. I believe students will perform better in public schools across the country when they're ensured access to a free collegiate education if they do perform. If you're too poor/underprivledged to have anyplace to go with your high school diploma - is it really much more valuable than a GED, or nothing at all? If you could go on to college, though, you've got something to work toward. I believe that's the solution - and I don't believe this level of public education is as difficult to achieve in the US as it seems.
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