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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > December > 16 > Entry
Sparring over Obama’s education advice
(Barack Obama at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.)
Barack Obama has named Standford education research heavyweight Linda Darling-Hammond as his education adviser. And not everybody is happy about it.
Blogger Alexander Russo over at This Week in Education points to some cranky comments by an Obama fan who thinks Darling-Hammond is a step backward for Obama’s chances of proposing serious reform.
The good news for Alexander is that Darling-Hammond apparently checks in at This Week. She sends him a rebuttal of the criticism.
This post also appears at the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
(Image credit: Iowa Politics Blog)
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Comments
By Scott Elliott
December 17, 2007 10:51 PM | Link to this
UDHarvardBC is right about the name. Sorry. That was a very stupid mistake on my part.By UDHarvardBC
December 17, 2007 6:58 PM | Link to this
Just a point of clarification: It should be Linda Darling-HAMMOND not Hamilton. By the way, Yale (and most other Ivy Leagues) primarily awards an A.B. degree to undergraduates even for those who have concentrations in the sciences. Just because one does not focus on science or math education does not mean that they do not understand the importance. Linda Darling-Hammond is a well respected education scholar, policy advisor, and teacher. She is an urban education specialist (but does not limit herself to just urban) but seeks solutions to addressing and meeting the educational needs of all students - she is a fine (actually outstanding) choice. For more information, I would suggest reading a selection of her books, “A Right To Learn”(2001) or “Preparing Teachers for a Changing World”(2007). Perhaps actually reading some of her work would be beneficial to various posters.By Oldprof
December 17, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
Mary, I’ll try not to hold your luddite tendencies against you. Oops, I failed. It’s profoundly wrong to carve human knowledge up into little exclusive cognitive bases. Throughout history, when the arts, sciences, and practical professions informed and promoted one another, knowledge was advanced and propserity was increased generally. By contrast, when one subset of human endeavor was promoted to supremacy and the others ignored, humankind slid toward the darker ages. Frankly, students shouldn’t have to pay extra for proper elective activities. But overall: a person who specialized in the liberal arts (like myself!) is NOT automatically ignorant or hostile toward STEM2 disciplines, and for you to even suggest such a condition without evidence is a grossly unfair leap.By Mary
December 17, 2007 7:39 AM | Link to this
I will try to not hold the bachelor of arts degree from Yale against her. Her credentials seemed to be more focussed to the liberal arts of education. That is important, but we also need educators who understand the importance and challenges of math and science education. I hope she is an improvement over Kerry’s daughter, who seemed to think the main problems in education were students having to pay to play for extracurricular activities.