Category: issues

Teachers are seeing their own experience be devalued by policymakers and other officials with little experience in the education field, and it’s not improving the education of their students. In other words, and as others have noted, teachers are balking at the erosion of their status as professionals. In fact, I would submit that it’s precisely because of their sense of professionalism that teachers are driven to an agonizing decision to withhold their labor. Teachers perceive themselves and their students being treated as fungible costs of production, cogs in a bureaucratic machine. To them, nothing less than the education profession is at risk.

The Sesame Workshop, says its head of global philanthropy, “has worked for years with immigrant communities and organizations in the U.S. to ‘help them help their children feel safe’ through the use of bilingual resources. And because many poor immigrants are in the country illegally, Westin said the organization is ‘often doing its work under the radar because the families are worried about having attention called to them.'”

And it’s sure not just Díaz: “This ‘talk about how you’re going to do and be better’ stuff isn’t actually a great formula for reconciliation. It offers neither retributive nor restorative justice. It privileges public acceptance over making things right with the actual victims, who barely seem to register at all. But it’s pretty effective: In an age of never-ending public relations wars, we’re so starved for any sign of sincere spiritual struggle that we rush to reward self-proclaimed sinners who say they’re trying to make good.”

Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, said in a letter in which he told the company about firing Jonathan Friedland, “I realize that my privilege has made me intellectualize or otherwise minimize race issues like this. I need to set a better example by learning and listening more so I can be the leader we need.”

Vulture heads to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to watch how its exhibition maintenance manager, Trenton Dirksen, gives the resident apatosaurus some cleaning and TLC. (video)

Culture Track: Canada imports a long-standing U.S. survey of cultural consumption to this country and reveals some surprising results. Allophones – that is Canadians for whom neither English nor French is a first language – are more culturally engaged than anglophones or francophones. Millennials, defined as Canadians age 20 to 35, are more eager participants than other age groups but, like older people, can be skeptical about using digital technology to get their fix.

“With more funders looking for metrics — and effective altruists asking ‘how many lives does the opera save?’ — how can arts nonprofits best make their case, especially right now, with so many urgent causes vying for donors’ attention?” Mike Scutari looks at a couple of organizations who have answers to that question.

“Tuesday, the foundation announced it will invest $500,000 in Knight New Work Miami, an open call for ‘ground-breaking, innovative works of dance, theater and music.’ Choreographers, playwrights and composers based in Miami and those with with strong Miami connections are eligible to apply. The caveat: The works must premiere in Miami.”