One of the most powerful videos I have yet seen is making its rounds of the Internet.
I urge you to watch it.
Matt Farmer, a parent of children in the Chicago public schools, addresses a rally of the Chicago Teachers Union, where he “cross-examines” Penny Pritzker, the billionaire member of the Chicago Board of Education.
Farmer is a trial lawyer. He describes how he bristled when he heard an interview on the radio in which Pritzker described what Chicago students need: enough skills in reading, mathematics, and science to be productive members of the workforce. Why no mention of the arts, of music, of physical education, he wondered.
So he cross-examined Pritzker in absentia. Her own children attend the University of Chicago Lab School. Mayor Rahm Emanuel sends his children there too. Arne Duncan is a graduate.
Farmer points out that the Lab School has a rich curriculum, not preparation for the workforce. Children there get the arts and physical education there every day. The Lab School has a beautiful library, and Pritzker is raising money to make it even grander and more beautiful. He asks the absent Pritzker, “Do you know that 160 public schools in Chicago don’t have a library?”
The Lab School has seven teachers of the arts. In a high school that Pritzker voted to close, there was not a single arts teacher.
Matt Farmer goes on to quote the director of the Lab School, who opposes standardized testing and insists upon a rich curriculum. The statement by the Lab School’s director about the importance of the union bring the assembled teachers to their feet, roaring and applauding.
I hope Penny Pritzker and Rahm Emanual watch this video. People who have the good fortune to send their children to elite private schools should do whatever they can to spread the same advantages to other people’s children. When they are members of the board of education and the mayor, they have a special responsibility to do what is right for the children in their care. If they inflict policies on other people’s children that are unacceptable for their own children, they should be ashamed.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I watched this yesterday & was so taken by Matt’s passion and the accuracy of what he was saying. The video needs to go viral. Hopefully, it will inspire many and awake and inform others.
Obama’s kids went to the U of C Lab school, too. Instead of providing what they know in their hearts to be the best model (and desire for their own), a progressive education, with a rich curriculum, small class sizes and no standardized tests, for our nation’s schools, these non-educators serve up basic skills with a testing regime (and data tracking for ages 3 – 21) that essentially demands “drill and kill” teaching methods –which undermine student motivation and love of learning– with ever increasing class sizes. It’s unfortunate that both sides of the aisle are just as likely to support these unconscionable practices in public education, but that’s what happens when, fueled by ideology and/or corporate interests, non-educators are given the power to dictate education policy for other people’s children.
It’s time to take academic decision-making powers away from politicians and big business and give them back to educators, parents and communities who care about ALL children.
Cleaning up CPS will be a major undertaking! This circle of friends is very hard to penetrate and it includes Duncan, Jarrett, and Obama. There’s a saying in Chicago, “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.” They only listen to themselves!
What happens in CPS should not be taken lightly because Duncan is still very attached and influenced by this team and their elitist friends.
We should never give up the battle to save out schools and I applaud Matt for telling it like it is and being so brave!
Not to leave out the even MORE brave bloc of 5,000 strong (the CTU). Kudos to Matt (would more citizens please speak out?). However, it really takes guts for teachers to speak out–they can lose their jobs, as we’ve been seeing time & again. (See the terrific article in The Chicago Tribune–May 30th–“Charter Network in Turnaround,”
page 9–specifically, paragraph 3.) Agreed–don’t EVER “give up the
battle to save our schools.”
We all know how to do the math, because our teachers taught it.
The voice of 99% is louder than 1%.
Absolutely! I didn’t mean to leave them out. I’m originally from the Chicago area. I have cousins and friends whose children attend CPS.
My aunt is a retired teacher in northern IN and she is horrified at what Mitch Daniels has done in her state.
Carole, you’re so on point with your comment. Here’s an essay I wrote on the subject that is making the rounds as well. I’d appreciate it if you share it with folks, not for myself, but for a fighting chance to save quality public education. It was recently edited by a good friend of mine who is ethics counsel for a major bar association for grammatical and punctuation errors, so it’s in top form: http://www.scribd.com/doc/106337306/THE-CHICAGO-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS-ALLERGIC-TO-ACTIVISM
The video was indeed a stand up and cheer message. Truely a blockbuster! I immediately posted it on my page and some others.
Whoops! Sorry I misspelled truly!
From 4:22 to the end is pure gold.
If only the UFT would take these same stands, both by Ms. Lewis & Mr. Farmer.
Not to mention the NEA. We need to merge–in numbers there is strength. I am reminded of one of my favorite childhood poems–
“If All the Seas were One Sea.”
To clarify my previous post, the “team” is Pritzker/Emanuel. It has been written many times that Duncan and Pritzker are close friends, and she was Obama’s national finance chairwoman.
When billionaires like Penny Pritzker are given too much power in steering education policy, then unfortunately you will have the closing of schools due to low test scores, performance pay-plans, tons of support for charter schools, and attacks on the Unions. Duncan did all of this during his tenure as CEO of CPS. Nothing has changed and Chicago Schools have not been saved, yet!
I was one of the lucky 4,000 teachers who was at the rally for this speech. It is one of the most powerful experiences in my career. I am a proud union member and part time art teacher with 22 years experience. It is a sad state of affairs that only 25% of of our neighborhood schools have an art and music teacher and that many of us have been cut to part time or have been cut altogether. My 350 students deserve me there full time! Now there is talk about privatizing art education and replacing state-certified, experienced art teachers with artists from outside agencies who they can pay an hourly rate and are not part of the union. The mayor and CEO are lengthening both the school day (by one hour) and school year (10 more days) with empty promises of including more time for the arts. In our contract negotiations we are asking for two full time certified art educators (visual arts, music, theater arts or dance) in EVERY neighborhood school, regardless of enrollment. Chicago has one of the few appointed school boards in the nation. When the new mayor took over he stacked the school board with millionaire charter school advocates. Their agenda is transparent and we are in the fight of our lives. There is nothing more important.
Yeah, & isn’t it interesting that NYC has one of the other? (2 of the largest, most powerful cities in the U.S.)
Kudos to YOU for your participation in the rally, your dedicated teaching & your continued efforts in getting a message out there!
It seems some are still locked into an industrial age model of education. We can only hope that others, like Matt Farmer, can help break the walls down and provide for all.
What a surprise! The 1%-ers’ children are enrolled in whole child/broad learning schools while their parents slash budgets and celebrate stripped-down, ‘no nonsense’ franchise school boot camps for those unlucky in where they live or to whom they are born.
Brizard has described the rebuilding of CPS as a “generational process”. Where does that leave people like me who currently have school-age children? I guess it’s nice to believe that my grandchildren will have good schools but I’m more concerned with finding a safe, effective high school for my daughter next year.
What was educationally significant and hard to measure has been replaced by what is educationally insignificant and easy to measure. So now we measure how well we’ve taught what isn’t worth learning! –Dr. Arthur Costa, CSU Sacramento
What a wonderful quote and so fitting, Reposted on Wear Red for Ed. Thanks for posting!
Well you can test for math. And math isn’t worth learning?
I did get a well rounded education in high school (arts and science – Central High, Omaha) and later attended UChicago.
I always wondered why the University never cared about 63rd and Cottage Grove despite all the high minded rhetoric.
I visited 63rd in 2007 when #2 son graduated from UC and nothing has changed in 30+ years. I’d call that a disgrace.
Matt Farmer is an amazing speaker and parent! His devotion to Public Schools is an asset to CPS. He is willing to ask hard questions and demand answers. As a CPS teacher, I would be honored to teach his children!
these private schools are exclusive because the children of these leaders are being primed to continue in the roles of government and corporate executive…aka building their “clubs/dynasties/et al”…..you all know this already right?
aka segregation in a different sense…..
I’m sorry, but are you seriously expecting shame from Pritzger – the woman who created the model of bundling sub-prime loans and made an obscene amount of money but led to the collapse of the global economy? She should be hounded out of public office. If you let criminal sociopaths run your institutions you are not going to get good results.
“Today on Flashpoints: Obama getting ready to nominate sub-prime queen and Hyatt Regency Billionaire, Penny Pritzker to be the next Secretary of Commerce.” https://soundcloud.com/flashpoints/flashpoints-daily-newsmag-02-3 – ’nuff said?
To me, this rampant corporatization of public schools is the major civil rights issue of our time. When there is no one left to speak-out against what’s happening [a.k.a. finally, fully removing educators & parents from the loop] – – that’s the part that has me scared to death. It’s feels like serving-up our youth on a platter.