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Celebrities talking about current state of the education system.

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Celebrities talking about current state of the education system.

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Whoopi Goldberg, Louis C.K, Regina Spektor, Isiah Thomas.

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Celebrities are becoming a prominent fixture in the debate over K-12 education.

This week Whoopi Goldberg used her platform on ABC's The View to speak out against teacher tenure.

"To me, bad teachers don't do anybody any good. So the union needs to recognize that parents are not going to stand for it anymore," she said.

Goldberg followed up with a YouTube video, responding to the backlash she'd received after making those statements. Her mother, she notes in the video, was a teacher, and Goldberg describes herself as "all about teachers."

"I like great teachers. I don't like bad teachers, so I don't think bad teachers should be given the gift of teaching forever - badly," she says.

Goldberg follows Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor, into the tenure debate ignited by a California lawsuit. David Boies, the high-profile trial lawyer known for his role in the legal challenge that overturned California's gay marriage ban, also recently joined Brown's group, the Partnership for Education Justice.
The Celebrity Anti-Common Core Caucus
And it's not just teacher tenure. Hollywood is lining up on both sides of the Common Core, too.

Comedian Louis C.K., who now boasts more than 3.6 million Twitter followers, used his account to blast the academic standards, long a punching bag for some conservatives and now a growing number of liberals too.

"My kids used to love math," he tweeted."Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!" And he didn't stop there, following up over the next few days with a string of tweets trashing the standards.

On David Letterman's show in May, Louis C.K. elaborated, noting that he's the parent of two young girls: "The tests are written by people that nobody knows who they are. It's very secretive. ... A lot of the year is about the tests. Teaching to the test, they called it."

Other celebrities joined in. Singer Regina Spektor, for example, was among those who tweeted their agreement.

While Louis C.K. has led the charge against the Core, there has also been some under-the-radar support for the standards. Actress Eva Longoria's and singer John Legend's foundations have each put money toward a TV ad supporting the Core, according to Politico.

And NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas wrote an op-ed in support of the Common Core.

"There has been a lot of misinformation lately about the origin and purpose of these standards," he wrote. "The facts are simple. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need to be college and career ready in the 21st century."
The Latest Cause Célèbre
It's long been part of the celebrity career path in Hollywood for stars to burnish their images - and their credentials as serious artists - by taking on an important issue. Think Bono and Africa, or Angelina Jolie and human rights.

Education offers a natural fit, and famous people can bring a lot of attention to a seemingly dense policy debate.

"For those of us who are education nerds, we're talking about this kind of thing all the time," says José Luis Vilson, a math educator and the author of This Is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class and Education. "But it isn't until a lightning rod comes into a situation that it gets more attention."

Celebrities, Vilson explains, are powerful "beacons" for education issues.

"People weren't analyzing Common Core that well until [Louis C.K.] stepped in. The general population either said, 'Hey, Common Core is gonna be around,' or they didn't know about Common Core," he says.

But, Vilson points out, that's very different from doing the hard work of education reform.

"They can highlight something as far as dialogue," he explains, "but they're not actually going to move policy the way people on the ground who have no face or name can move policy."
Before Louis C.K.
If Louis C.K. has become the new poster child for the celeb-critique of standardized testing, Matt Damon is the old guard.

His mother is an expert on early childhood education and professor emerita at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Damon has long followed education, though his main advocacy area is the push for clean and safe water.

In 2011, Damon spoke at the "Save Our Schools" rally in Washington, D.C., and his passionate remarks against standardized testing went viral.

"I don't know where I would be today if my teacher's job security was based on how I performed on some standardized test," he told the crowd. "I sure as hell wouldn't be here, I do know that."

And Damon's involvement showed once again that, when celebrities talk, people listen.

He returned to the issue again this spring, taking questions on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" section, where he again blasted standardized testing.

"Far too much emphasis has been put on these tests," he added. "You're going to get teachers teaching to the test, and you're not actually giving them the leeway to do their jobs."
Does It Matter?
So, does any of this publicity actually matter in the debates over the future of education?

Diane Ravitch, a former assistant secretary of education and education historian argues that it does.

Louis C.K. and his celeb comrades in arms, she argues, have changed the terms of the Common Core debate.

"Don't underestimate what Louis C.K. accomplished," Ravitch - who has become an outspoken opponent of the Common Core - wrote in a blog post.

Louis C.K., she wrote, "was able to break through the carefully crafted narrative that had been spun by Arne Duncan, Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, and other advocates for the new standards."

His celebrity gave him a platform, she added. "His standing as a parent of public school children gave him credibility."

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Education Reform Is Becoming A Celebrity Cause

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Celebrities are becoming a prominent fixture in the debate over K-12 education. This week Whoopi Goldberg used her platform on ABC's The View to speak out against teacher tenure. "To me, bad teachers don't do anybody any good. So the union needs to recognize that parents are not going to stand for it anymore," she said.

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Things taught in High School that you'll basically never use.

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Things taught in High School that you'll basically never use.

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Certain subjects that the youth is force-fed, that will never be of any use to them in adult life.

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The start of a new school season is right around the corner. But once the first-day-butterflies have settled and you've gotten into your new groove, there isn't really anything left to worry about - right? Wrong. Many of us may find ourselves stressing about the part of school that really matters - grades.

It can be tough to find motivation to study for specific subjects, especially when you can't even figure out how they'll actually benefit you in the long run. But try not to stress too much - here are a few of the things you'll learn in school that won't have much bearing once you get into the real world.

If current events weren't a hint, most of the history that you learn in school is hardly the most accurate. In fact, many states are finding that whole chunks of history - especially that deal with people of color - have been fabricated or changed dramatically to fit the narrative of racism and oppression.

Many states have an "abstinence-only" policy when it comes to sex education - if they even mention it in health class. And even if you're lucky enough to have a sex ed class that discusses condoms and STIs, you're still largely missing out on vital information - such as gender identity, gender vs sex, initmacy, and ways to build a positive, healthy relationship with your partner.

This may seem like a wild card - especially from a former English Lit major - but hear me out: most English Lit classes aren't very diverse or inclusive. Sure, you cover Shakespeare and Hemingway, but barely any classes let you read authors that you may actually relate to. Sandra Cisneros, Toni Morrison, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, and even Haruki Murakami are just a few of literature's most prominent contemporary authors that get very little love in academic spaces.

And bonus points: there's a strong likelihood that you'll need to recite soliloquies from Hamlet or Othello on your next job interview - not.

In general, many of us hate math. And interestingly enough, a lot of us rarely find use for advanced math in our daily routines and work habits, unless we're specializing in a math-heavy field. For writers and editors, there's rarely an opportunity to bust out your knowledge of trigonometry or pentagon formulas.

In the age of technology, there's barely any need for physically writing things down anymore. Beyond signing important documents, you'll be hard-pressed to find a situation that calls for a perfectly looped vowel. Just saying.

Remember that awkwardly awesome and despised musical instrument from middle school? Yeah, we tried to block it out of our memories too.

Good news - in the real world, you won't need to rely on your awesome recorder skills for the things that need to get done day-to-day. But who knows? Maybe your recorder skills will be a good party trick or fun personal fact to share with your new friends.

Of course, this list is completely interchangeable depending on your individual situation.

So don't worry about mastering every subject - once you find your niche, there won't be a need for you to rely too heavily on the things that you never really masteredin school. Trust us.

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Stuff you learned in high school that you'll basically never use again

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The start of a new school season is right around the corner. But once the first-day-butterflies have settled and you've gotten into your new groove, there isn't really anything left to worry about - right? Wrong. Many of us may find ourselves stressing about the part of school that really matters - grades.

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18 Reasons U.S education system is failing.

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18 Reasons U.S education system is failing.

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Multiple biased-based statistics that diminish the value of current school curriculum.

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18 Reasons the U.S. Education System is Failing

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Spread the loveOnce upon a time, enthusiasts designed a formal education system to meet the economic demands of the industrial revolution. Fast forward to today and, with the current global economic climate, it seems apparent that the now established education system is unable to meet the needs of our hyper-connected society - a society that is in a constant state of evolution.

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Compare & Contrast: Finland education system/American education system.

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Compare & Contrast: Finland education system/American education system.

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Finland has gotten rid of certain mandatory school subjects, made them choice based, such as physics, science. Finland's current education system is considered to be one of the best in the world.

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2015 Viral Political Video: Don't Stay in School.

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2015 Viral Political Video: Don't Stay in School.

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Lights flames onto the current state of the education system and curriculum being taught in schools nowadays.

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Certain Problems of the current state of our education system.

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Certain Problems of the current state of our education system.

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Not exactly all students, or even high school students have the necessary information or skills that will help them in their adult life.

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11 absolutely useless things you were taught in school.

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11 absolutely useless things you were taught in school.

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Certain things, like the quadratic formula, or molecular bonds and covalent bonds, have no value at all in our knowledge.

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PEDESTRIAN.TV has partnered with Macleay College to bring you useful life hacks.

You know when you think about your school days and you just wish you could go back and tell younger you, 'honestly, dude, it doesn't matter'?

While there's obviously all the social advice like 'avoid that douche, Tristan, he's a total loser' and 'no, experimenting with fake tan right before your formal is not a good idea', there's also all the academic stuff that we used to fret over.

Do you remember the days of trying to perfect Pythagoras Theorem, or recite actual Shakespeare? Yep, same. And has it come in handy, I ask? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

And, you know what? Sometimes we even called it at the time. I vividly remember kids asking our maths teacher, 'Miss, when will we actually use this in real life?' and she couldn't even answer it. Pah - we knew it.

In tribute to your younger self, here are a load of things you totally learnt at school that have been useless as an adult:

1. Remembering SOH CAH TOA

Sine, cosine, tan? What an absolute joke that was. In fact, that trig stuff is so damn useless, I've completely erased it from my memory as a sort of survival mechanism. Putting the 'trig' in 'triggered', if you ask me.

2. Making punnet squares

I think I can safely say that no respectable adult is working out the inheritance patterns of their traits over family dinner.

3. Learning how to make dioramas

These were kinda fun but, despite how long you spent on it, it always looked like a load of greasy paper stuck together with the wrong glue. Also, totally useless IRL.

4. Making potato batteries

I have no idea why we turned potatoes into batteries - if it helped cook them, maybe that would've been useful, but alas. All I remember is people pinching each other with those funky crocodile clips.

5. Mastering long division

Bahahahahahaha. Good one, pass me the damn phone.

6. Learning how to play the recorder

Great for 'woe is me' stories, useless for everyday life. It's not even like the skill is transferrable to something like the flute which, granted, still ain't super helpful, but still.

7. Reciting the Periodic Table

Well, that's a few months of my life that I'll never get back.

8. Drawing box and whisker plots

Box and what plots? Exactly. Legit just think our teachers made this crap up to keep us busy. It was... successful.

9. Writing poetry

Writing them, reciting them. You name it, utterly redundant.

10. Conducting dissections

Unless you're planning on turning into a fully fledged serial killer with a penchant for decapitation, I'd venture to say that this sadistic crap was also wholly unnecessary.

11. Finding metaphors in books

You know what would've been useful? Looking for sarcasm in texts. The real world application of that is significant.

What if we told you there's somewhere where you can actually learn all those super duper useful life skills, like how to network and resolve conflict in their Business course, or about the future of content creation in Digital Media? What about learning to tell other people's stories in an in-depth Journalism course, or managing stakeholders in Advertising? Y'know, useful stuff.

Macleay College is currently offering a slew of courses on exactly this kind of thing, so jump on over to their website for more info on how to acquire skills you'll actually use in life.

Image: Getty Images / [Jetta Productions / Digital Vision]

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11 Absolutely Useless Things You Were Taught In School

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PEDESTRIAN.TV has partnered with Macleay College to bring you useful life hacks. You know when you think about your school days and you just wish you could go back and tell younger you, 'honestly, dude, it doesn't matter'?