ICYMI: Tech Sunday Edition (2/8)

I'm directing a community theater production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, a show you probably don't know but should. 4 actors play 52 characters in 20 vignettes about love and connection. The show starts with getting ready for a first date, conducts a wedding before intermission, and finishes up in a funeral home. It is warm and tuneful and captures a lot of the beauty and hilarity of ordinary moments. The cast has worked hard, and this is the week we do the final work of getting ready before opening next Friday night. If you're in the neighborhood, by all means, stop by. 

This is part of how I stay charged up, because if you gaze into the contentious abyss that is our current national state of debate about every damn thing, you can forget what is great about being human in the world.                          

And now, this week's reading list.

Legislative Extortion bill would withhold more than $4.3 billion from 700,000 Ohio public school students

Stephen Dyer has been on a tear lately, but so has the Ohio legislature. I wrote about this extortion bill this week, but this post gives more details on just how much damage this would do.

Mobile Co. Public Schools request US Education Secretary McMahon visit rescheduled

McMahon's right wing history tour hits yet another snag. What a shame.

"A deliberate effort to circumvent the law"

Steve Nuzum reports from South Carolina about some voucher-loving senators who are sad that home schoolers are getting in on their pile of money.

I Can't Learn It For You

Matt Brady with some words that most teachers will recognize in reaction to too many familiar student claims.

Unanimous committee vote halts wide-ranging education overhaul

Mississippi was thinking about a big fat voucher bill, but after the House passed it, the Senate has (as promised) shot it down.

Ramaswamy’s proposed rule for public schools highlights Ohio’s lack of rules for private schools

Vivek Ramaswamy is running for Ohio governor, and he has a bunch of dumb ideas about education. But Denis Smith points out that at least some of his pronouncements have a different side effect.

Teens should read great (but hard) books: 'Macbeth' is better than 'Hunger Games'

Joanna Jacobs weighs in on and aptly summarizes last week's online discussion of the place for "hard books" in the classroom.

Stop trying to make the humanities 'relevant'

I missed this essay by Thomas Chatterton Williams when it first ran in The Atlantic a month ago, but here it is on MSN out from behind the paywall, and worth a read as he considers teaching the humanities in the rise of ChatGPT. 

NYS: Why Are Authoritarian Entities Needed to Create Charter Schools if They Are So Popular?

Shawgi Tell asks the million dollar question-- if the public really really wants charter schools, why don't leaders use democratic means to create them?

Why some Texas private schools are not accepting school choice vouchers

Texas has kicked off its taxpayer-funded school voucher program, but not all private schools have signed on. Lacey Beasley at CBS News interviews a private school head who explains why she's not on board. Short, but you'll recognize some of the issues. 

Debunking the latest The74 miracle charter school story

Gary Rubinstein checks out the latest miracle school headline and finds, once again, no actual miracle in evidence.

How to Teach Authentic Christianity in Public Schools

Nancy Bailey has the answer (hint: it doesn't involve throwing immigrants in detention centers).

When "Parental Rights" Become a Shield for Child Abuse

"Parental rights" are headed for several courtrooms. Bruce Lesley breaks down the implications and problems connected to the Texas case and the problems of child abuse.

What Are “Parental Rights”?

Steve Nuzum takes a deeper dive into the legal and ethical aspects of parental rights and "parental rights." 

Rent-a-Human, When AI Becomes (Almost) Everyone’s Boss

Julian Vasquez Heilig warns that AI is not just stealing your job-- it's stealing your boss's job, and that means work is getting lousier for you.

I used AI chatbots as a source of news for a month, and they were unreliable and erroneous

From the file of things that are so obvious nobody should have to say them, except that I know too many people who need to hear it. Jean Hugues-Roy ran a little French experiment.

This week at Forbes.com I looked at an exceptional new book about the "miraculous" T.M. Landry private school in Louisiana. Great work by journalists Katie Brenner and Erica L. Green. 

Why tenors like to gather in groups of three I do not do, but thank heaven they do.