Let's Just Call It 'Education Policy Blog'

Unable to contain all of her ideas and viewpoints in a single blog space, our Teacher in a Strange Land (Nancy Flanagan) is contributing blood blog content to Education Policy Blog, a group grok* (is that redundant?) that features posts from the likes of Sherman Dorn, Craig Cunningham, Barbara Stengel, and Jim Horn.

Nancy's first official post (outside of the Comments areas) is titled "Get Out Your Pom-Poms: Prep Assembly," in which she reflects on the reasons for the disconnect between teachers and the policy development processes that control much of their work. The post led to a lively exchange between Nancy and Horn about the degree to which NCLB has been a successful conspiracy to tear down public schools and promote vouchers and private education.

If you enjoy policy debate and wish more bloggers pursued policy discussions in-depth, this is the wonky blog site you've been looking for. Nancy, who brings 30 years of K-12 teaching experience to the conversation, is sure to liven things up. She's already forced us to visualize the image of teachers putting on cheerleader outfits and conducting pre-testing pep rallies. Something she's no doubt personally witnessed!

[*Robert Heinlein, who coined the term grok in his sf classic Stranger in a Strange Land, described grokking as (quoting from Wikipedia) "the intermingling of intelligence that necessarily affects both the observer and the observed." Kinda works.]