This is the weekend of Applefest in Franklin, an annual festival hung on the thin hook of Johnny Appleseed's residence in the are for fifteen minutes a couple hundred years ago. John Chapman is a fascinating story, and so is the story of how he became a story, and I recommend Johnny Appleseed: The Man, The Myth, The American Story by Howard Meansfor reading about all that. As for Applefest, we have a few hundred booths, a car show, a lot of food, a show at the theater (this year-- Mean Girls), and a race from one end of town to the other; the board of directors and the CMO will be running again this year.
But the most exciting thing this week was that the board of directors had their first instrumental music lessons. One board member is pursuing percussion, and the other aspires to trumpeting. They have their instruments, their method books, and the privilege of attending a school with a full time music teacher who will see them once a week as we begin this adventure. Tooting and bonking abound at the institute, loaded with potential and promise. We shall see.
In the meantime, here's some reading from the week.
There are a plethora of statements out there now that the rules are out, but Jessica Levin is a smart lawyer and I find her comments particularly valuable, because much of what's being said just isn't accurate.
Many folks have thoughts about Ben Riley's reporting about Alpha School, but this piece by Matt Seybold is one of the better ones for capturing the wider implications of this upscale snake oil emporium.
Bruce Baker, the noted education funding expert, has made a long-time habit of cleaning up after Marguerite Roza (whose name you may not work but whose economic apologetics for reformsters you have almost certainly encountered). Here's an overview of her greatest hits (and why they're baloney).
Larry Ferlazzo offers a reaction to the NYT piece that asked thirty education "experts" how to improve schools-- but he gets beyond the eyerolls hat most of us offered to get to some more practical matters.
Sue Kingery Woltanski has made many correct calls about vouchers in Florida. Now she has some predictions for the federal voucher program. They all look correct to me.
I love good cross-genre cover. It can open up a song in ways you just never thought of. Here's Lake Street Drive doing a completely other cover of "I Want You Back"
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