Queen of Spain Blog

crossposted at blogher.com

Arne Duncan, the Chicago Public Schools chief, is President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Education and it’s raising more than a few eyebrows.

I’ll be honest, I had no idea who the guy was until his name came up as the architect behind Chicago’s LGBT High School proposal. An interesting concept that garnered much discussion here at BlogHer.

Apparently Duncan is also known for championing Charter schools.

Now I’m really listening, this time as the parent of a charter school student.

Dr. Susan Neuman writes at the Huffington Post, “Duncan has a track-record of educational reform successes and he’ll use whatever it takes–innovative charters, teacher reforms, early childhood programs–to ensure higher achievement. Way back when I was Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, and at the initial stages of implementing No Child Left Behind, Duncan was trying to make sense of the law to the benefit of kids in Chicago. He pushed every button he could but, as we now as we know so clearly, the administration wouldn’t budge from its ideological perch.”

But Madison at BlackVoices disagrees,

“Now I don’t know if this is Chicago machine politics at work here, but I’ve gotta question Obama choosing a bureaucrat who actually oversaw the closings of about 18 public schools in poor neighborhoods, all in the name of supposedly providing children with a better education, as well as fire 300 teachers. In fact, here at BlackVoices, we blogged about this very subject, and you Chicago readers responded fervently. Maybe it’s me, but I never thought of closing a school as a benefit for children. …”

A mixed bag of reaction for sure.

Over at MotherTalkers the comments show uncertainty and praise for the pick,

CascadingWaters isn’t happy, “As a teacher, and moreover, as a parent who’s pulled my daughter out of MA public schools because of their overreliance and overemphasis on MCAS (our standardized test), I feel completely let down by this. He had Linda Darling-Hammond, one of the best thinkers in the country, advising him. I can only imagine he ignored her. Added to the other Clinton-era choices, this one confirms for me that we’re getting pretty far away from ‘change we can believe in.’ I ain’t believing.”

While parentalunit1 is pleased,

“1. this choice comes with a clear record of impressive success. and someone who clearly shares obama’s style of consensus. you can’t be successful without working within the NCLB infrastructure. but i am not so sure Duncan is a real supporter of NCLB. 2. Duncan is willing to try anything to see if it works. cash for grades as an example. i like obama’s positioning here as with other issues…ideology does not reign supreme. they are both open to ideas to see if they ‘work’.”

On the one hand I applaud Duncan for attempting to think out-of-the-box on issues and on the other I remain unconvinced of “successes” in the Chicago public school system under his tenure.

One thing is for sure, Duncan will have a hell of a job ahead of him as he attempts to overhaul our public education system.

Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain blog

We may or may not be the wards of several fish this holiday break- courtesy of the charter school’s kindergarten class.

Immediately the jokes began about how long it would take me to kill the class pet, because I have a bit of a track record with fish.

I maybe, kinda, sorta, inadvertently boiled our last one.

On accident.

Poor fishy resided in a nice bowl on top of our mantel in our old home. Months went by, and fishy was a happy swimmy member of the family. Then the cold months began and like I did in that house every time it got cold, I flipped a switch and the gas fire place went ‘poof” and we were all warm and toasty.

Including fishy. On the mantel.

Mmmmmm, dinner.

Now mind you this fish belonged to us and only us…not an entire crew of 5 & 6-year olds who will no doubt need therapy if I kill their class pet.

…but as it turns out, many of YOU have already killed class pets. LOTS OF THEM. Early today I twittered about the prospect of becoming foster-fish parents and you people came out of the woodwork to tell me your class pet stories.

Oopsie (who has the cutest Etsy shop) says, “After the Class Pet spent the week at our house, they opted for a stuffed animal class pet. No lie.”

The Smart Mama tells me,  “Have killed class pet before. Trust me – they do NOT notice replacement fish – just make sure your kid doesn’t know either…And, by the way, my mom killed class hamster – nobody noticed the replacement hamster either.”

HawaiiReality cracked me up, “Girl, My cat ate gerbil I brought home.Parents got replacmt.Iwas scaredclass wood b able 2 tell difference.But they couldnt”

And although this pet didn’t die…I’m still laughing over the message I got from Josh, “3rd grd-brought class hamster home for xmas. disappeared that night for two weeks. Day before school starts – hamster alive in sock drawer”

I’m confident I can keep the class fish alive. CONFIDENT. Why?

No more gas fireplace.

Plus I think I’m going to set up a webcam on the tank so Twitter can warn me if any of them seem to be going belly up.