This teacher in Wisconsin disagrees.
When your class sizes grow larger, it’s personal.
When the classroom lacks the resources it needs, it’s personal.
When this teacher’s family must make do with less, it’s personal.
When the governor takes advice from businessmen but not educators about how to fix schools, it’s personal.
It just isn’t personal for Governor Walker.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
this is what “educational reformers” don’t seem to “get” about education–education is not a business, it’s a relationship.
every time a school is closed, there are families being torn apart. and not just the families of students and parents–“families” of teachers, custodians, secretaries, principals, lunch monitors and many others who make their lives in these schools. these people work together every day, share their hopes and dreams, trust one another in ways few lawyers or engineers ever do with their colleagues, and become one another’s families. sometimes dysfunctional families, but families nonetheless.
and when a school is closed, or teachers are moved around among schools like so many checkers, these families are ripped apart, and those relationships become frayed and torn, never to recover. educational reformers and policy makers don’t seem to understand–or care about–the real, human damage that is done by their decisions.
our communities are not characterized by the businesses in them, or by the amount of profit generated within them–our communities are characterized by the number and strength of the human relationships formed between their members. and so are our schools.
when Gov. Walker demoralizes teachers in Wisconsin through his regressive policy decisions, he is hurting students, families and the school communities in his state. it may not be personal for him, but it is for us.
Blueberries!
Wisconsin teacher here. We’re all still shell-shocked from the failed recall and dreading the changes that are coming down the pike in the years ahead. (As Jello Biafra once said about a very different situation: “The next few years may not be pleasant, but at least they won’t be boring!”)
If anyone is bored they can read a thing I wrote last year about all of this, on the Savage Minds blog:
http://savageminds.org/2011/02/24/its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-madison-by-eric-s-piotrowski/
Mrs. Ravitch,
There is a possible approach to the class size debate which I have not seen used before. Perhaps you can help spread the word to public education advocates across the nation. Please contact me and I can tell you what we have been working on here in Texas.
-Michael
In the movie the Godfather, I believe killing someone was referred to as not personal – just business. The Governor chose to reward those who endorsed him and try to kill the rest – but it’s not personal?
Thanks Diane for blogging about my beloved state. Shell shocked is a good description of how I feel and most of my friends are scared to death. It’s horrible.
A principal once told a string of bald-faced lies to me–and to an arbitrator who was hearing my grievance against the principal. A few days later, I confronted the principal about his lies. His answer? “Don’t take it personally.” Sure, why should I take it personally? Because of the principal’s lies, I was excessed from a school where I had taught successfully for 6 years, and exiled to 3 years in NYC’s Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR).