Mike Rose rules....

I want to smack at least half of the 130 teachers at the high school I
work at in the face with this essay.

Given education's movement away from skilled employment education (in NY
it was called BOCES--I have no idea what trade education at the high
school level was called in California) I simply don't understand how
they can fail half of their students in every class. The current
education system is doing a number of things to children who simply will
never go to college who do not want to.

I know we started having this discussion the other day, but I think it's
worth discussing further. I think it's unfair that our school are
raising legions of students who are woefully unprepared for life because
we're pushing them all toward college. Some students aren't good at
school, but might be good at other skilled professions. That's where the
true failure in Education exists today, I feel, that we don't give
enough realistic job training in schools. Sure, some kids might be able
to change brakes, but can they weld? (etc.)

Additionally, I loved Grimke's letters for the same reason others above
stated. It's nice to read rhetoric of passion, rhetoric of the
oppressed, rather than rhetoric of intellectual privilege.