Teachers in Magnesia, Texas, were in for a big surprise when they reported to their schools one day recently and found their chairs had been removed.
They quickly learned that they were on the cutting edge of the latest reform idea.
THIS IS A SPOOF!!
Too many readers couldn’t tell.
Hard to satirize current madness!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is this for real?
What kind of milk do they serve in Magnesia?
Do you they stand at parent conferences? What about at lunch or in the bathroom? Are teachers children that must be monitored by other children or are they professionals? I can’t imagine that they would make this a requirement any other profession.
This is a spoof!
Is this satire?
This is a joke I assume.
Mike Brocoum
Can’t even find Magnesia, TX on a map. hmmmm.
Spoof!
Obviously satire or we would have read about this in the “papers.”
Are you sure this isn’t a spoof? I can’t locate Magnesia, TX on google maps.
It isa spoofffffff!!!
Diane, the fact that you’ve had to mention this at least three times now only shows how awful things have gotten in the real world.
So true. Sadly.
Hilarious. Great satire should feel like this — so uncomfortably close to the possibility of truth and yet simultaneously so absurd. I recall Donald Rumsfeld’s argument that making Guantanamo prisoners stand for four hours to entice them to talk wasn’t so bad. After all, he stood all day …
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-28/kill-your-desk-chair-and-start-standing
Dr. Ravitch does post it under “humor” for a tag.
It would present some comic relief it if weren’t so close to the grim truth.
Sad that we might actually believe something like this goes on. Education “reform” is often this bizarre.
I’m just waiting for some moron to latch onto this! We recently got to see a clip of students (KIPP, I believe) sitting in rows passing papers to each other in 10 seconds or less. My principal thought it was great. I asked if we were next going to teach them to goose step.
“Hail, victory?”
No sitting was actually the rule with previous administrators at my school. They did not go so far as to remove the chairs, but God help you if you were seen in one by certain people.
The current principal is much more reasonable about adult chair-usage, fortunately.
One of my principals tried to remove the desks of our adult para-professionals for just such a reason. Teachers could still keep their desks, but mostly that’s where our computers (for the gradebook) were located. The other teachers and I complained about this unfair treatment, and the paras kept their desks, but it was close there for a bit.
Yeah, I thought this was true at first too, until I read the link a few times.
The lack of seating is a common issue in retail environments, and a contributor to burnout (in addition to low pay, low or no benefits, low hours, micromanagement, etc). One of the many reasons I shop at Aldi whenever possible instead of WalMart is because the Aldi cashiers have chairs.
I posted this on my FB page. While it’s a satire, many, MANY of my teacher friends had stories of very similar happenings within their schools.
So yes…while a spoof, it’s not completely unheard of.
Gives a whole new meaning to “cutting” edge.
BTW, this may be satire now, but I won’t be surprised if it’s not in a couple years. If that long.
Folks, in these heady times we need to overcome the urge to overthink things. Please note that on Diane Senechal’s website, under the posting Diane links to (“To Save Kids, District Adopts No-Sitdown Policy”) one can clearly see the following: “Posted in EDUCATION, SATIRE.”
But don’t be surprised if some edubully reads this, takes it oh-so-seriously, and then instructs some of the conservative think tanks to prove its effectiveness by producing a few “research-based” studies supporting this idea.
Diane: could you spare a few moments of your precious time to contact some of your old colleagues to see if they would be eager to take up the challenge? Please?
🙂
Are we to go from “No Child Left Behind” for the students to “No Behind Seated Down” for the teachers? After all, chairs are so last century when everyone who counts knows that iSeats are all the rage…
🙂
It took a paragraph to get it. Why? Because I spent my first eleven years teaching in Texas where something like this would not surprise me. My first four years were in the ghettos and barrios of Houston- Kashmere and Davis)- and then seven years in Cy-Fair (rhymes with “nightmare” for a reason) at Jersey Village, which was an intellectual black hole. I had an associate principal, a true “cheerleader” who would walk around smiling all of the time telling us, “Teach on your feet, not on your seat.” They promoted her.
Well of course they promoted her. Did she have big tatas? (sorry couldn’t resist)
I totally fell for the post on that website about the “study” on how student effort does contribute to student achievement. It just matched so well with reality…
And…truth is stranger than fiction…on October 31st (Halloween, mind you, NOT April Fool’s Day!) The Onion ran an article (&, being The Onion, satire, of course),”Nation Suddenly Realizes This Just Going to be a Thing That Happens From Now On.” I was cleaning upstairs, & I found a Newsweek from June 6, 2011 with the cover title, “Weather Panic: This is the New Normal (and We’re Hopelessly Unprepared).” The ensuing article is titled, “Are You Ready for More?–in a World of Climate Change, Freak Storms are the New Normal. Why We’re Unprepared for the Harrowing Future.”
Funny (ironically), this article is not that much different from the one printed in The Onion!
We truly have entered bizarro world!