EducationNews.org

David McGrath
Columnist EducationNews.org
Around the time Barack Obama started high school, I was a new English teacher of freshmen and sophomores at Chicago Vocational High School (CVS), on the city’s southeast side. Raised in the suburbs, I had had zero experience working with inner city youth, for whose education I became suddenly responsible.

David McGrath
Columnist EducationNews.org
While we read how Illinois Governor Blagojevich allegedly tried to stop negative stories about him in the Chicago Tribune, the college where I taught for 15 years wants to stop me from writing this column.

David McGrath
Columnist EducationNews.org
Christmas had become a tin ornament. Hollow. Once, it had been magical, but that was before my older sister took me into the linen closet and spilled the beans about Santa Claus. She wasn’t interested in truth as much as in revenge for my breaking her Easy Bake Oven.

David McGrath
Columnist EducationNews.org
I fear that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty may be pulling a “cassiani.”
My reference is in regard to the governor’s push for education reform this week, which apparently will be carried out on the backs of school teachers.
Minnesota, like a lot of other states, is experiencing a decline education, as evidenced by decreasing test scores and below normal graduation rates.

David McGrath
Columnist EducationNews.org
For Chicagoans, 25 degree temperature is practically jacket weather in the second week of January. But we had been standing on the frozen concrete since early morning, and the persistent wind off the lake was beginning to penetrate the layers of clothing we had thought would sustain us through another day on the picket line.

David McGrath
Guest Columnist EdNews.org
I was 19, had my first serious girlfriend, the keys to my father's car in my pocket, and Christmas cash in my wallet. I felt like Superman.