Podcasts

In Season 2, we’re going to focus more on connecting the past to the present. In this episode, we take our first look at teachers as activists and look at 3 accidental activists, Oliver Brown, John Scopes, and Bridget Peixotto.

Few things in education are as messy as the issue of dress codes. In this episode, we look at Indian schools that forced indigenous children to cut their hair and wear certain clothes, the evolution of uniforms in American schools.

It’s likely that about ten minutes after the first class was taught in the first schoolhouse in America, someone had advice or ideas how how it could be made better, fixed, or reformed. This week, I put Paul in Black Widow’s shoes and ask him to pick a side.

Isidor Finkelstein wrote that in 1913 in the midst of pondered the great mystery of grades. One hundred years later, we are still trying to figure out the answer. Today’s episode is an attempt to follow the convoluted path that is grading and reporting in American schools.

Mullen’s Alley, New York by Jacob Riis, 1888 (Source) Light, short, and sweet. Just like summer vacation, today’s episode is focused on the question: Why does public education abandon children for two months in the summer, leaving them to their own devices?