Stephanie Block
Beyond Common Core: Transformation from a family-centered society to a society-centered family begins with a community hub
Being on the email list of veteran education researcher and author Charlotte Iserbyt is like being in the passenger seat next to a particularly fast driver. As uncomfortable as the position may be, jumping out of the car would be worse. This is the agenda to expand education into Limited Learning for Lifelong Labor. Iserbyt…
Standing Ground: When the bureaucracy gets it, so does the rest of the world
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) doesn’t have the best record for taking the moral high ground. Generally, realpolitik trumps. There is the case of the USCCB application for government money to assist victims of human trafficking. Government money always has strings. The USCCB, to its credit, made it clear that, as a…
Defending CCHD: Alinskyian organizing is intrinsic to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development vision
After three years of intense scrutiny into problematic Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) grants, the American Life League and other concerned groups gave the beleaguered “charity” some space to reorganize. CCHD’s 2013 collection came and went with hardly a peep from its critics and the next year of grants was announced unchallenged. CCHD allies,…
Controlled Burn, Alinskyian organizing, and Common Core (Book Review)
Controlled Burn Alinskyian organizing and Common Core: A Book Review of A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform By Mark R. Warren, Karen L. Mapp, and the Community Organizing and School Reform Project, Oxford University Press (2011) The title of this book, A Match on Dry Grass, is a…
Family Planning as a Component of Early Childhood Education Programs
When National Nuclear Science Labs study how to change the beliefs of your children, the recommendation appears to be sending government agents into your home. Surely the Church would oppose this, right? Stephanie Block reveals one weird program your tax dollars has been conducting by a nuclear science lab.
“Bolshevizing” the Church: Your Catholic Campaign for Human Development Dollars at work
Educator Paulo Freire – who was deeply influenced by the socialist Antonio Gramsci(1) – came to the United States in the late 1960s after he was exiled from Brazil for “bolshevizing the country.” (2) In the U.S., he spread his educational theories to many of the era’s foremost progressive activists, among them Saul Alinsky, and…
“Can’t We Just Take the Money and Do Our Own Thing?” Why you can’t out-fox Common Core
“Look,” the bright, young superintendent of schools insists, “I understand that are all sorts of horror stories floating around out there about terrible Common Core curriculum but that isn’t the curriculum we’re going to use.” She began her job this past August and has enormous enthusiasm for what can be done to improve the academic…
Getting Testy about Testing
You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Johnny – and Juan – could read. They could recite the multiplication table, too, and could quickly make change, tally a ledger, and calculate simple percentages. Their teachers didn’t teach to a test; they taught basic, academic content. Johnny’s score on standardized tests – and Juan’s –measured…
Common Core and Catholic Education
Catholic Education Daily recently broke the news that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – criticized in pro-life circles for its “family planning” grant program encouraging the use of contraceptives in developing countries – paid the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) more than $100,000 to support teacher training and materials on implementing the Common Core…
The Church and Politics
When discussing the problems of faith-based Alinskyian organizing, people frequently will say, “the Church has no business in politics!” That makes a memorable slogan but it’s not true, of course. The truth is complicated. Blessedly, we have a contemporary pope who was extremely articulate and capable of expressing complicated truths in clear language and short…
