Education Next – Frederick Hess
“Last week, new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos stirred up a kerfuffle when, after a visit to Washington DC’s Jefferson Middle School Academy, she said that the teachers seemed to be in “receive mode.” DeVos told a columnist for Townhall, “They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child. You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.” DeVos has since clarified that she meant to say it’s a problem that so many teachers feel hamstrung by rules, regulations, and bureaucracy. And you know what? That is exactly right. DeVos’s phrasing was unhelpful, and it’s a problem that she framed the remark as the product of a single school visit, but the contretemps shouldn’t obscure the larger point.”(more)