Truthout combats corporatization by bringing you trustworthy news: click here to join the effort.
This is the third and final installment of Dan Archer and Adam Bessie’s “The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum.”
In our first two episodes of “The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum,” we took readers to Washington, DC, and post-Katrina New Orleans, tracking how the spread of GERM – the Global Education Reform Movement – is transforming public education into private enterprise. Once born of neoconservative economic philosophy, GERM is now fully bipartisan, and, thus, because there is so little public debate between Democrats and Republicans, the corporate media portrays competition, testing and school choice as our only choice for school improvement.
But there is another way.
In our concluding episode, we take readers to Finland, in an extensive original interview with world-renowned education expert Pasi Sahlberg, director general of Centre of International Mobility and Cooperation in Helsinki. The following report is based on an extensive original interview with Dr. Sahlberg, his book “Finnish Lessons” and a small selection of his many published essays (see a selection of his works below). Here, he provides an alternative vision for empowering public education, a way to improve schools that few Americans have been exposed … though one which isn’t so foreign as it first seems.
Run your cursor over the comic to bring up black circles, which tell you that there is interactive content underneath. Simply click on them to be taken to relevant source materials.
You can pre-order the complete print copy of “The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum: The High Price of Education Reform” – including all three episodes in full-color – here, through Chip-In.
Related Content:
Ana Partanen, “What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success,” The Atlantic. December 29, 2011.
Pasi Sahlberg, “How GERM is infecting schools around the world?” Pasi Sahlberg Blog. June 30, 2012.
Pasi Sahlberg, “Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?” (New York: Teacher’s College Press, 2011).
Pasi Sahlberg, “What the US can’t learn from Finland about ed reform.” The Washington Post’s “Answer Sheet. April 17, 2012.
An urgent fundraising appeal: 9 Days to raise $50,000
Thank you for reading Truthout today. We have a brief message before you go —
Unfortunately, donations are down for Truthout at a time when media is under immense pressure. Trump is arresting journalists, Big Tech is censoring independent news, and economic conditions for media have been worsening for years.
Simultaneously, movement media is vital in the fight against Trump’s authoritarian reign. Our mandate to tell the truth, share strategies for resistance, and speak against fascism is ever more urgent in this deluge of political censorship. Yet, we are struggling to meet our publishing costs when our work is so urgently needed.
If you can support Truthout with a one-time or monthly donation, you will make a significant impact on our work. Please give today during our fundraiser (9 days left).