Glaeser has it backwards. Young people move where the jobs are, the jobs don't move to them (unless offers are sweetened with substantial incentives). Furthermore, it is still large firms and government that are doing the majority of the hiring.
Is anyone tired of these life in X city slideshows? Geographic features notwithstanding, they all seem alike. There is a sameness to cities now, even if that sameness is faux bohemian.
Raising the average income of the city by attracting young professionals does nothing for lower income residents. There is more wealth inequality than ever in cities such as New York and Atlanta.
As a Bank Street grad teaching pre-K many years ago, I found unexpected support from the New York City curriculum guide. After I started the children on indoor sand play, both the early childhood cuuriculum coordinator and the principal asked me what in the world I was doing. Teaching them math, I said, concepts of full and empty, half-full and hall enpty, 1/2 cup etc. Teaching them vocabulary, words like gritty, grainy, smooth, and rough. "I think you could do that with a rexograph" (prehistoric copier), said the coordinator. BUT ITS RIGHT HERE IN THE CURRICULUM GUIDE, I answered innocently, knowing she could not overrule that. If those curriculum guides are still of that quality, you are safe when you use play. If not, get those guidelines back--they were consistent with what I learned at Bank Street. It is heartbreaking that years later this issue still appears controversial. Good luck and don't give up!.
So many teenagers today have few cultural references. They know about civil rights hero Rosa Park, for example, from a ridiculous and also disrespectful rap song. I remember teaching a memoir, RED SCARF GIRL, mandated for all New York City freshmen under a program called Ramp Up To Literacy. I might as well have been talking about the Big Bang because not one student had even heard of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I am all for aligning the teaching of literature with history for context. But introducing BIG HISTORY, with physics and math and the like, seems like a big stretch. Better that math be connected to its practical applications, whether scoring in a basketball game or for would-be carpenters figuring out the dimension of a table. Above all, learning is incremental and individual.
This woman is building an empire and has way too much power over children, their families and education.
The city of New York needs to work on providing quality education for all students with better teacher training, smaller classrooms and extended support to the families that need it. Teaching for the test is not the way to educate students to learn, think and grow.
I am a state certified teacher. I became a teacher because I enjoy learning and I though I could motivate and encourage children to learn. I taught in New York City. Many times I taught in dilapidated buildings and in some of the most disadvantage areas of the city. Most of the teachers I met wanted to do their job, and to do it well. They worked hard on their lesson plans, they attended meetings, and workshops, and most went to school to obtain higher degrees. My teaching days were long and grueling. I found the work-load and responsibilities horrendous. I was required to maintain bulletin boards, complete countless forms, reports, maintain accurate records, complete report cards, contact parents, do lunch duty, monitor hallways, complete lesson plans, and "put out fires" as the discipline problems were huge. I worked hard to be a success. But I was not successful. Because, after about 10 years, I because stress and tense and left New York City's school system. Yes, a great teacher can rescue a child from a life of struggle, but a great teacher, and I was one, need the help and support of caring, and involved parents. And an administration that can assign clerical duties to a clerical staff because teachers need to be in the classroom teaching. And finally, yes, it is not the classroom size,school choice or the Common Core, a bigger factor is properly prepared, involved and concern parents who are not afraid to discipline their children.
