For the past couple of years I thought about having my own blog, but I didn’t know how to do it. Then I read someone’s blog on WordPress.com, and there was a button saying something like “press here and start your own blog.” And I did it a few weeks ago, and thousands of people have logged on since then.
This is what is so great. Aside from my main readership, which is in the U.S., the blog has readers in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the U.K., Japan, Russia, Nepal, Turkey, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Sweden, India, and elsewhere.
That is pretty wonderful. We are all concerned about the future of education. And whether education will create a better world or a world of test-taking robots and corporate profits. I vote for the former. I will continue to speak out and write against the latter.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you, Diane! I have been a fan of yours since hearing you speak a few years ago. I am a retired teacher who believes that the education of our children needs to be taken back by educators. So much money is being spent on things that don’t work, aren’t proven, and turn children off from learning because we are looking for quick, easy fixes, ways to punish educators, and more money for the greediest of the greedy who care for nothing other than filling their already grossly, over-flowing pockets. These “leaders” have destroyed health care, Main Street, our state and federal governments, and are now onto the future of democracy–the children of our country.
Diane,
You have been, and still are, the voice of reason in education. Thank you!!
BTW – Bridgeport Ct’s Superintendent, Vallas, who has left a wave of destruction in his past districts (see Philly as an example) is got a second job. $1 mil consulting for state of Illinois, while still being superintendent – not sure how he can do both at once. He’s also looking at community groups to replace counselors and certified, experienced, school staff!!! http://blog.ctnews.com/education/2012/05/15/vallas-pryor-hold-court-in-a-bpt-church-basement-on-school-reform/
This is a bad thing.
Thank you Diane. I have followed you since your NAEP days and the days when you were evolving. I told you a while back that I purchased “The Death…..” and was blown away. However, I also bought a copy of “The Troubled Crusade” when it came out. That is how long I have been following you. I can’t wait until you come to some place near Chicago so I can continue to get gems of wisdom and nourishment to continue to help fight for equality of education for America’s students
The struggle continues!
Clara
As soon as I found out about your blog, I made sure to add it to my blogroll! Your voice is helping to bring attention to all of us who are daily inundated with the ridiculous state of public education in the US. Your blog will be an excellent avenue for the repeated clarion calls for true education reform!
Reading your blog is very therapeutic when otherwise confronted with a barage of attacks on teachers and public education. I have been forwarding your posts to colleagues as well. I hope that the policymakers that are destroying my profession wake up before it’s too late. Thanks for all that you do.
Diane,
You are my hero.
I am a public high school English teacher in south San Diego and have been for the past 12 years. With everything that is happening in education – from what you write about daily to what is happening in my district (see this for an example of the corruption that is currently plaguing our district: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/apr/11/is-sweetwater-climbing-out-of-the-muck-and-mire/) – I have felt myself becoming more and more dispirited and disheartened about the state of education in the US.
I am hanging in there, trying to stay positive, but I long to get involved and make a difference in the way we do things. Actually, my goal is to be an administrator or someone in the position to effect positive change in my district, but I’m not there yet. Your blog opens my eyes every time I read it and simultaneously frustrates me and inspires me to keep going. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and insights with the world. You are the voice of reason that I hope more people will start listening to! You are fighting the good fight for our children and our teachers, and I thank you!
Mary
Your blog is wonderful! I love the questions you throw out. Anyone who reads your blogs goes away knowing and understanding more and thinking. I don;t know how you find time to do it with your busy schedule, but I am so glad that you do. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this blog, Dr. Ravitch. You have been an amazing role model to me. I’m a public school teacher who has decided to use her tenure for its intended purpose: NOT ‘being lazy and doing nothing,’ but taking major risks to speak out against the corporate interests and standardization that has infected education. My experiences with standardized testing are too meaningful not to share, despite Pearson’s scare tactics of “test security”
http://lolacrabapple.wordpress.com
Diane
I´m writing from São Paulo, Brazil. Your work is extremely useful for us because most of these bad ideas that are being used in the United States, like standardized testing and merit pay are being used in several states and cities in Brazil. There is a bizarre fetish for the educational accomplishments of Mayor Bloomberg among Brazilian journalists and policy makers, there was even a newspaper columnist that suggested that bad teachers should be replaced by Khan Academy videos(That´s seriously). The state of São Paulo even mandated that all teachers, even P.E and Arts, should have worked with basic writing, reading and math for a bimester. States are even hiring these expensive consulting firms from the United States to provide solutions.
Your writing and your interviews allowed me to see things that I never noted on all these ideas about testing and merit pay, it opened a new window to me. Few Brazilian teachers can read in English, but there are lots of teachers noting your writings here.
You are the best, I love you.
A NYC public school teacher and parent who has witnessed the demise of public education from both perspectives. Thank you for exposing the privatization scheme for what it is. Hopefully, it’s not too late.
I am a veteran Oklahoma educator who three weeks ago started my own blog too. You are doing on a national scale what I and others like me are doing in our state. It is important to fight the lies told about public education with truth. That is why I am committed to reading everything you post – it helps me frame my own mission.
Thank you!