My just read of the day is actually a must watch—a mini documentary "Alise v. The Mayor," directed and produced by Will Cain.
This documentary focuses on a specific group of charter schools in New York City, but the story is bigger than that. What we see happening in one city has ramifications beyond it.
Charter schools face seemingly nonsensical challenges across the country. Right now, the debate is most robust in New York, but it certainly won't end there.
Whenever people discuss education and schools, they assume it’s largely irrelevant to me because I’m young and don’t have children. That’s not the case at all.
My mom was a teacher and has worked in schools the majority of my life. When I graduated college my resume was split with internships in DC and internships teaching.
In college, I interned with places such as the Lab School of Washington, in "integration" classes at an elementary school in Vienna, Austria, and with multi-sensory impaired students at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind.
I've always been interested in the way children learn, and I tend to look at it through a special education lens and favor individualized learning. For that reason, charter schools fascinate me, but the debate surrounding them tends to puzzle me.
It’s easy to forget that the debate isn’t about an inanimate object. It’s about children and the opportunities they have to learn. This documentary reiterates that. I would highly recommend you watch it; I'm looking forward to part two.