In a stunning article, Richard Rothstein has dissected Joel Klein’s claim to have grown up in poverty, living in a public housing project, saved by a “great” teacher.
This story is used cynically by Klein and other advocates of privatization to attack public education, teachers and unions. (Wasn’t that great teacher a member of the union in NYC?).
Rothstein says that Klein was not poor, that he actually lived in a public housing project built for white middle-class families. Rothstein further argues that these projects were part of a larger pattern of government subsidy for racial segregation. Klein’s story, he concludes, does not prove what Klein so often claims about the irrelevance of poverty.
This is a must-read.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Richard does another great job of destroying a myth. Joel Klein was no more of a Dickensian waif than his boss. Public housing wasn’t what we have let it become. He actually makes our point for us. With proper support and nurturing outside of school children from all social strata can be successful. It can not all be done by the schools, we need help from the rest of society.
Klein is a legend in his own mind. These people live inside abubble in another bubble. They rarely speak to others with a different perspective. He gives me the creeps.
Ed shyster did it again….way too funny:
So Joel Klein’s father was not an illiterate turd farmer who once tore up the pages of young Joel’s only book and smoked them in his corn cob pipe—what’s the big deal??? When you are literally trying to close the achievement gap with your own bare hands, facts have a tendency to stray. The important thing is that Mr. Sidney Harris, the teacher whom Joel Klein credits with rescuing him from a low-expectations hell, inspired Klein to launch his life-long crusade against teachers.
If you’ve missed the latest scandal to rock the hallways of Education Reform, Inc, allow me to break it down for you. It turns out that Klein wasn’t adopted by African American sharecroppers, and that little flourish he throws in on the edu-stump about having dyslexia and being locked in the closet at school only to be freed by a sassy barkeep, midriff barely covered by her parent-trooper t-shirt? That’s fiction too. But the ending, where Klein is hired by Rupert Murdoch, to peddle edu-products to the public schools while playing the part of a high-minded innovator, that alas is all too true.
http://edushyster.com/?p=892#more-892
Thanks again for comic relief!
Diane Ravitch
The lower middle class in NYC in the 1950’s struggled to make ends meet. I know because like Joel’s family, mine was also forced to make didfficult choices between new school shoes for the kids or putting dinner on the table. In pre-great socirty America, there wasn’t much of a safety-net for the working poor.
This piece is simply mean spirited and misleading. It is intended to reinforce the dangerous belief that schools can’t make a difference for poor kids. To quote VP Biden, “Malarchy!”
Did you actually read the article Eric? The point is not that Joel Klein didn’t have any hardship growing up. It’s that Joel Klein’s version of poor and disadvantaged bears almost no resemblance to that of today’s inner city kids. That and, his parents were both present and cared about him.
Joel bring this on himself by trying to make his childhood sound like it is an equivalent to those of today’s kids and then uses that fiction to try to bolster his ideology that only schools can make the difference for poor kids. Schools that buy his 4G tablets, specifically.
A great article. Thanks for sharing. Joel Klein may have made a better name for himself if he HAD become an author of fiction.
Sci fi or horror…..is more like it.
I think perhaps everyone here is being a bit too hard on Joel Klein.
You see, I spent part of my teenage years in the Jeffries Housing Project on the westside of Detroit, not too far from Wayne State University. I bet the Kleinmeister and I could swap some pretty exciting stories. For example, there was the time I walked home late at night and discovered a trail of blood starting a few hundred feet from the entrance and leading into the lobby. Turns out a university student [from India, as I remember] was viciously assaulted, stabbed repeatedly, and then staggered into the building, only to die shortly thereafter. I remember the aftermath: his widow went around the building collecting cans of food so she and her small children didn’t starve to death. My mother was poor and single but she insisted on donating a large part of our meager cupboard to the woman, impressing upon my brother and me that it didn’t matter if we did without because the widow’s need was so much greater. When I think about it now, what was the scariest part? That I walked back home the next night without even thinking about what had happened the night before, completely putting out of my mind what had happened a scant 24 hours earlier.
And then there were the occasional visits by the salespeople for Muhammad Speaks, the newspaper of the Nation of Islam. The look on their faces when I opened the door — in a predominantly black housing project — was, to put it mildly, astonishment. They remained very polite, though, but became even more astonished when they asked if I was familiar with their newspaper and I replied in the affirmative. Their perplexity was evident when I explained that I had friends that read the paper so I didn’t need a subscription but thank you very much for the offer.
So please, folks, let the Kleinmeister go his merry way. I am sure that he could blow even my socks off with a litany of horror stories that would make my meager stock of ‘growing up white in black Detroit’ vignettes sound like a stroll through a park in the best part of Beverly Hills.
You hang in there, Joel, and don’t let the haters get you down. They’re just j-e-a-l-o-u-s.
🙂
Jealous of an opportunistic peddler of tainted Murdoch merchandise….the guy whose company hacked into the cell phone of a missing murdered 13 year old child? I don’t think so. My NY times
article response to Mr. Klein:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/news-
corporation-forms-new-brand-for-education-division/
He added, “I’m candid that if this isn’t embraced by teachers in America, it won’t work.”
Dear Mr. Klein:
I am an educator and a parent and I don’t embrace anything being promoted and sold by you or Murdoch. You do not care about children, teaching and learning. You care about profits, profits, profits.
Stay away from our children. I don’t trust anyone associated with a company that hacked into the cell phone of a missing, murdered 13 year old.
I will collect and track student results the old fashioned way. I will get to know each of my students as individuals with dreams, strengths, goals and opinions. We will create individual portfolios with writing samples and journal entries. We will read fiction, non fiction, memoirs, news articles, essays, short stories, poems. We will share ideas, opinions and create long term projects: research, book trailers, original plays, book blogs, etc.
As a teacher it is my responsibility to be data informed NOT data driven. I promise you I will not waste time staring at a computer, tablet or wireless device.
Instead I will look at my students and see and hear them. So, I will tell you now I take a pass on your “digital learning tools” and instead I will use my brain, my instincts and my 26 years of teaching experience to guide me, something the faux reformers (you, Rhee, Bloomberg, Sternberg) know nothing about.
Krazy TA, sorry you had such a rough upbringing but the projects Klein grew up in were nowhere like the one you spent your childhood in. I am about a dozen years younger than Klein but I also grew up in a lower-middle class Jewish family residing in a municipal housing project. Mine was in The Bronx. The type of horrific violent crime you describe just did not occur, and as others have said, the residents of my project were overwhelmingly white. It was a completely different world, one that was probably unique to NYC and one that does not exist anymore.
Barbara who posted below didn’t have a reply ‘button’ to the right of her name, so please excuse the appearance of my seeming to respond to my own posting in such length. *Just to be clear: I agree entirely with the tone of Diane’s and Edushyster’s postings. Joel Klein’s assertions ring hollow. Please continue reading.*
It is difficult, sometimes impossible, to accurately convey real feelings online, but I want you to know that I deeply appreciate your kind comments. However, I didn’t have it nearly as bad as young black men my age. For example, during my late teens and early 20s, I met several guys my age who had the opposite experience attending public schools: me in Detroit on one side of the famous ‘eight mile road’ and they in the ‘burbs, on the other side. We talked about our similar experiences, connecting instantly, but I must say I think [overall] I had it better. While I was the target of occasional but persistent verbal abuse and racist taunting and the [thankfully] rare physical assault, they had it much worse. One fellow I remember in particular. He was popular, on the football team in his HS, and well liked by most everyone in his school, but was regularly assaulted by a bunch of the white members of his own football team! As might be expected, the school didn’t react until a few more black guys transferred in so that the odds were evened. That’s when the school got, you know, proactive. In other words, when he was the victim of unprovoked assault by a gang of [real] haters, hey, it’s just kids, let them work it out for themselves. But when the black kids finally evened the odds, well now, that’s a problem.
😦
Just one more example: when it came to cops, I seem to have always known WAWB [walking around while black] was an occupational hazard for my friends. I never had to worry about WAWW [walking around while white].
I didn’t have it easy, but perspective and context are all-important. I’m sure Joel Klein had rough patches as a kid, fine, but what a deeply flawed view of the world he has to not recognize that others had vastly different experiences.
Of course, when you need to peddle half-truths and exaggerations in order to peddle eduproducts….the pusher doesn’t fall far from his product.
😦
Again, thank you for you kind remarks. They show understanding and I value that far above pity.
🙂
So, this historical dissection about Joels passion to be a better student and stand apart from his peers should be a reliable but unsubstantiated account of a mans life. Do you know the man? Do you know his family or childhood friends? How can anyone discount the benefits of having a teacher in their life that made them reach higher than they could possibly dream? I think it is shameful that others relish in personal attacks against a self made man that has a vision and a passion to bring to other students, what was brought to him? Please, do tell me how many people of modest means attend an Ivy league school and go on to Harvard Law. I’m sure plenty of folks have taken that road………if you don’t like his policies, say so. Attacking a man that has shared his beginning days to inspire others, is just poor form. I give this man kudos for what he has accomplished.
What Richard Rothstein questions is not Joel Klein’s ambition, determination and success, but his determination to destroy public education and to eliminate the union that protected his favorite teacher. Mr. Klein did not become a success because of charter schools but because of public education, yet he never lets pass any opportunity to treat public education with contempt. Can you explain the logic?
If you are a supporter of Klein why not use your real name and if he is a product of great public schools why is he donating money to local elections in NOLA and he supports candidates who are against public schools. Maybe he thinks they will owe him something when he comes knocking to peddle the Murdoch digital learning tools?
Yeah, they multi billionaire whose company was responsible for hacking into the cell phone of a missing and murdered 13 year old child? He wants access to our children?
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/10/usdin_draws_110000_haul_in_orl.html
Read this. http://www.tsowell.com/speducat.html Joels mission is to achieve success where none is expected. To close the gap, and integrate 21st century education into the curriculums. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before. It is beyond the character assassinations and the importance of the teachers union. The answer lies between the students and the great teachers that they should all have. The expectation, the culture of the school is so important. When the teachers union dictates education policy and not the education community or the elected leaders, we should have options for those that are fiscally restrained from seeking them out on their own. You mention charters; there can only be 200 in the entire state. That’s hardly a significant number. I personally think school vouchers should be introduced and the competitive climate of capitalism will energize and help invigorate education and our economy. Sad to see so many private institutions that have shut their doors after serving so many a quality education. Joel is about the kids. He’s expressed his thoughts too many times to ignore his vision is for the kids, not the union. The union has clearly stated that they represent the teachers and not the kids. MM. The idea that Joel has contempt for public education, kids or teachers is not true. He has different ideas to evolve education and bring it into the technology world that we live in. We need to expect better to get better. I believe he holds high expectations for everyone involved in education.
Is your real name Jane Doe? If you paid attention during the CTU strike, you would know unions do care about students. You are repeating an old mantra…very typical these days. You don’t have to sell Joel to us….we ain’t buying.
Read here to see how much Joel cares about profits over the welfare of children. Maybe if you do know him, you could speak to him on behalf of the lowly middle class and poor class parents. Eduvultures…philanthropimps is more like it.
Parent groups in New York are trying to block the release of student data to an entity that includes Wireless Generation, a technology company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation.
“On Sunday, October 14, at a press conference held at the midtown law offices of Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans LLP, attorney Norman Siegel and New York parents released a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York State Board of Regents, demanding that the agreement between the NY State Education Department and the “Shared Learning Collaborative” be released, setting out the conditions and restrictions on the use of confidential student and teacher data to be provided to this limited corporation. The letter asked that parents be informed exactly what information concerning their children will be shared with this corporation, why the transfer of this data does not violate federal privacy protections, and demanding that the parents have the right to withhold their children’s information from being shared. The letter is posted at http://bit.ly/W6H2qV”
Read the background information here about Wireless Generation, Gates, etc. very important!
The CTU strike yielded a 17.6% pay raise for teachers making avg $75g’s a year. They agreed to extend the school day and it only took the kids out of the classroom for 7 days to achieve this. So what the municipality pays 71 cents on the dollar for pensions from the education budget. The municipality is suffering more than most fiscally, the students struggle more than most nationally, but they weren’t the priority during the strike. Were they? Joel doesn’t need me or anyone else to sell his story. I have been very involved in education and I follow the local scene, national issues and the global concepts in education. I posted on this blog because I have followed what Diane has to say and as a noted historian, I wondered how a simple glimpse into a shared history could be so trampled upon without facts. We all like facts. Don’t we?
What do you think a teacher should be paid? Considering that teachers typically work 11 hours daily (see Gates-Scholastic survey, “Primary Sources” 2012). Considering that they have overcrowded classrooms and generally poor working conditions. Considering that they teach our society’s neediest children. Considering that their work is high social value. Then considering that Joel is paid $5 million a year to sell technology to the schools. I conclude from these facts that Chicago teachers are vastly underpaid.
Diane