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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Disparate Impacts & Another View on Poverty - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Disparate Impacts & Another View on Poverty - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Disparate Impacts & Another View on Poverty

Dear Mike,
No, we haven't bridged our differences. Nor did either of us imagine we would. But I have a clearer idea of some of their roots.  Do you?  I hope so.  
"Staying open to the possibility that they (our opponents) might, nevertheless, have a few smart things to say" still seems worth the effort. I'm quoting Sara Mosle (on NYC education news) here, quoting you. What a nice way to say it.  It's one reason I especially enjoy reading the comments that follow blogs, and why I admire—and read with special care—comments made by a few diligent readers and respondents to Bridging Differences who fundamentally disagree with me politically.
The particulars of our growing-up years are certainly related to our disagreements.  How much?  Who knows?  Maybe I owe some of my reactions to a feisty mother who wouldn't allow us to speak disparagingly of anyone—e.g. "Japs" was taboo in our house during World War II.  I also had a father who switched sides in arguments as soon as anyone agreed with him.  I was influenced by both of them.  From them both also came a very strong sense of being lucky.  They were, after all, not far removed from being victims of the Holocaust as Eastern European first and second