This retired teacher hasn’t seen the controversial movie about the parent trigger.
But he read Frank Bruni’s article and found it insulting to teachers.
He criticizes Bruni for accepting the “reformers” claims that unions and tenures are the bane of U.S. education.
And he points out that students in affluent suburbs get high test scores and have high graduation rates even though they have teachers who belong to unions and have tenure and seniority. He suggests that it is not unions and tenure that cause low performance in urban districts.
Read some of his other posts as well. He has a razor sharp wit and knows the score.
He makes so much sense that he makes you wonder why so many people don’t get it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dear Diane,
Would you please address this statement which I heard last night in Chris Christie’s speech. It is about the idea that people become and stay as teachers because they love children.
I really disagree with this. Yes, teachers may love children but that is not really why they become teachers. I became a teacher when I went to college because I loved my subject matter and I loved learning. I thought that I would excel at the passing down knowledge and culture and making ties between history and literature. I loved doing research and I loved explaining things to people- children, adults, whoever would listen.
I asked my husband this. He is a lawyer. He always said he went into law because he loved the law. He never said I am going into law because I love my clients. Yes, I love helping them but not because I love them. I doubt that doctors go into medicine because they love they patients. There needs to be more to a job than loving those you serve. This constant confusion that a teacher is somehow part of the child’s family is wrong. As you well know, the problem with education lies with the problems of families.
I went into teaching when I was 21. I taught middle and high school in NYC and Sao Paulo. I am 44 and have witnessed the wholesale destruction of this profession. The powers above have taken the humanity out of this very human profession. I will still keep up the fight against the DEFORMERS but I have lost hope ever teaching again. Thank you Diane for giving voice to the teachers.
“Even Randi Weingarten is quoted as saying unions have focused too much on fairness for members and ignored matters of quality. (But to be frank, every time I hear her talk on TV or read what she says in interviews, I find myself thinking, “This poor woman couldn’t defend teachers if you gave her a baseball bat.”)”
Gates is getting a good return on his investments in this reform effort.
Gates would not be able to impact a nation in this way if the control lied with the people in the community instead of the few who could be bought off at the top.
You have to abolish the head of the snake first. Abolish the U.S. DOE first.
In CT, the AFT president just accepted a position offered by the anti-teacher governor. I would hate to think that this is a reward for the relative silence and flabby resistance that the unions offered in opposition to the ALEC-inspired education bill that passed here.
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/17332/onetime-foe-joins-malloy-administration
Bruni usually writes about food? You’re kidding me! And this is someone we’re supposed to listen to about education policy and reform?
Did I just see a rabbit in a top hat run by, shouting, “I’m Late, I’m Late, for a very important date!”
That rabbit went by quite awhile ago!! Should’ve shot him and stewed him up when you had the chance (except for the fact that if he really was talking you should have box-trapped him and made a fortune).