May 12 2009
What Is Going On With David Brooks?
Even though I haven’t always agreed with David Brooks, the New York Times columnist and commentator on the PBS News Hour, I’ve always been impressed with his intellect and reasonableness.
However, it appears that he loses these attributes when he talks about education.
I’ve posted about a relatively incoherent colum he wrote last month (see Relationship-Building, Merit Pay, & Testing).
This week he wrote another bizarre one – this time on the Harlem Children’s Zone, the well known charter school run by Geoffrey Canada.
Instead of going into my issues with what he wrote, I’d encourage you to read two other posts that express similar concerns much more eloquently than I could do:
What ‘The Harlem Miracle’ Really Teaches by Diana Ravitch
David Brooks In Opposite Land by Claus von Zastrow.
There are also some very insightful comments that were left by readers right below his column on the Times’ webpage.
I think Brooks would be better off staying off the education “beat.”
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[...] Navarrete has to say — except when he’s writing about school issues. It seems like David Brooks (another columnist I usually like) just “lose it” when they look at education [...]