As readers of the blog know, I posted a tribute yesterday to “The Hero Teachers of Newtown.”
Soon after, the vice-president of Teach for America responded with outrage on Twitter and said that the post was “reprehensible” and should be retracted. I had no idea what he was offended by, but not long after I received many Tweets and comments on the blog from his followers, chastising me for daring to….well, I am not sure why they were upset. Some thought I slandered TFA, though the post didn’t mention TFA. Some thought I slandered non-union teachers, because I praised the Sandy Hook teachers and said they belonged to a union. Some alleged that I politicized the massacre by acknowledging (as many others have) that teachers have been demonized for at least the past two-three years in the media and by politicians, who blame them (and their unions and their right to due process) for low test scores. Sandy Hook demonstrated the falsehood at the core of that narrative. Why TFA decided to turn it into a cause célèbre, I do not know. But as I told one of the complainers earlier today, “Don’t be defensive. It’s not about you.”
I was pleased to receive this comment from Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union:
Diane, et. al.
I have read these posts (alas I do not do Twitter), and I am struck by the lack of authenticity by the Rosenberg comment. Diane has been at the forefront of the desire to lift up the beleaguered profession of teaching in each and every post. She has drawn the connections between people who wouldn’t think of sending their children to public schools and their policies that are destroying the common good. Anyone who doesn’t know that in the marrow of their bones, doesn’t read her blog.
On the other, the educrats who do not agree with her, read her posts, too so as to keep abreast of her thoughts and are ready to pounce if they see an opening. There might have been a time where “politicizing” tragic events, especially mass shootings was thought to be in poor taste. That has changed with the 24/7 news cycle that continues to focus far too much time and energy on the perpetrator of the massacre than that of our precious victims. Rosenberg’s “false outrage” needs to be checked. That same false outrage should show itself when policies his colleagues support kill and disenfranchise children from schools across this nation. We in Chicago have been the victims of their experiments on our children since the current secretary of Education “ran” CPS.
The accolades heaped on a group of education missionaries, (hopefully with beautiful intent on the part of the TFA teachers) cannot go unchallenged. Diane does that. Day in and day out, she champions rank and file educators and the hard work they do. She has a special place in heart for those who see the value of the classroom and not as stepping stone to a more lucrative career or the opportunism of self-promoters like Michelle Rhee who, with her lies about her own classroom experience has catapulted herself into the welcoming arms of those who hate unions, tenure and anything else that provides due process and gives teachers real voice.
To David Rosenberg, Shanda! Shame on you for such a paranoid rant. If you had nothing of which to be guilty, those words would have rolled off your back.
To Diane – Keep speaking the truth!
Karen Lewis
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As Abe Lincoln said: “Haters gonna hate.”
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-do-teachers-hate-america.html
Can we clone Karen Lewis?
In Chicago, with our member driven unionism, we are going one better than cloning our best–we are empowering each individual. Let’s do that nationwide and take back our schools, profession and communities!
Diane Ravich only spoke the truth. Liars and cheats do not like the truth. Duncan is one of them. When L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa, “King Tony”, tried to get the California State unconstitutional “Mayoral Control” (AB 1381) of LAUSD Arne Duncan and Senator Feinstein wrote to the California Legislature and in those letters stated that those who ran the Chicago Public Schools before Daley and Vallas took over in 1995 had put the Chicago Public Schools into $1.8 billion in debt which Daley, Vallas and Duncan had to clean up. The fact is that I have the pertinent financial pages to the 1994 Chicago Public Schools Budget and there was a surplus. Duncan and Feinstein lied to the California Legislature for political and ideological reasons. Rod Paige lost his job for lying, shouldn’t Duncan? I have copies of the letters and financial pages for anyone who wants them. The truth is what it is. Not only Duncan destroyed Chicago so did Obama while he was president of the Annenburg Foundation for Chicago Public Schools from 1995 until he ran for the Senate. He was also a part of Renaissance 2000 which is corporatization and privatization which Obama and Duncan are pushing today. I am what I call a “Real Democrat” and that is not DNC or DFER. Today most democrats in power are not “Real Democrats” but might as well be right wing republicans by their policies. As a friend of mines grandfather taught him “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.”
Diane and Karen please keep “Speaking the Truth.” We in L.A. are at war with the thiefs.
Click to access k0602aye.pdf
I do not understand the relationship of my comment to the posted article. What is the connection except losers? Renaissance 2010 and the entire time Daley, Vallas and Duncan have been in control has been a national tragedy especially considering the spread of that disease around the U.S. and up into the White House. Of course both the Pres. and his wife, Michelle, have been intimately involved in this mess and spreading it around the country since he has been elected. My comment was to show the comparison between what happened to Rod Paige as a result of his lying and what should happen to Duncan for the same reason. The only chance Chicago and the rest of the U.S. has is for Karen Lewis and CTU to continue the fight for all of us since the other large unions and the national reps are bought and sold for cheap. Thank you again Karen Lewis and all with you from the beginning of your great adventure in saving our youth and society. A recent article in the Sun-Times stated that of the about 100 charter schools in Chicago only one did better than the regular Chicago Public Schools and they put their hat on that one? In LAUSD we have now around 260 charter schools. This is the most in the country and is far more than in Chicago and N.Y. even when taken as a percentage.
Why am I not asked to produce these documents on Duncan and why are they not printed on this website or whatever it is? What are people afraid of I might ask? Is it the truth? Are people afraid of what will happen next like their income and connections? It has to be something like that with all the ranting and raving about charter schools and mayoral control. Also, no one, it seems except me, is talking about the DOE OIG report on the total lack of accountability of charter schools. What is up with that also? If you want to win you must use what is at hand. Anyone ever read the “Art of War” or better yet do they understand strategy laid out in it? There is a reason it is mandatory reading at every military academy worldwide and mandatory for CEO’s of corporations or they cannot compete.
This is tremendous. Kudos for standing up and speaking truth.
Karen Lewis, an Ivy League grad with class. Imagine if the AFT had a leader like her!
No kidding and how about if UTLA in L.A. and the N.Y Teachers Union also had union leaders like her. The rest are wimps and tools and Karen Lewis is not. How refreshing!
If you search “David Rosenberg” reprehensible and TFA, nothing else comes up except his attack on Diane
I too am with Karen Lewis. Thank you, Karen.
Thank you, Karen Lewis!
Thank you Diane, for recognizing that most of the teachers of Newtown, like most of their colleagues throughout the United States, are dedicated career teachers who put students first by being with them each day, often for most of a lifetime. The teachers at Sandy Hook reminded us that schoolteachers are everyday heroes, some of whom gave their lives to protect their students. And yes, these people were granted job security by citizens grateful for the work of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants.
I believe this horrific event is a watershed moment for guns and for teacher bashing. I predict we’ll retreat from both.
As for your remarks about the heroic teachers of Sandy Hook, sometimes the truth hurts.
Karen Lewis for AFT president. I consider her a hero as well. She wasn’t afraid of the media response the way “she who will not be named” is. I am just so shocked that teachers in Hawaii are taking a stand while teachers in NYC are clueless. I don’t want to hear they feel “defeated” because we were once a strong union. So why did we become weak. The answer is simple: Our leadership sold us out.
N.Y. and L.A. are wimps and bought and sold cheaply in selling out their teachers and students. It is just that simple. Lewis is not intimidated even by Emmanuel who has made his reputation by intimidation.
The thing is, Chicago was the same way. The previous CTU president was just like Randi Weingartner and others. Years ago Karen Lewis and her allies began working hard to build CORE (Coalition of Rank and File Educators) and finally they had enough support to take over the union. It took a lot of work, outreach and education along the way – it’s not something that happened overnight, nor was it the result of just one union leader.
Their methods are entirely replicable in other cities if other teachers would be willing to do what Lewis and her allies did within their own unions. Stop waiting for current union leadership to do it for you. Start laying the groundwork now for new union leadership – step up to the plate yourself if necessary.
Throughout our country, teachers are under attack. Over the past few years, the assault on teachers has been unrelenting. I was talking recently to a teacher who entered the profession mid-career, after having spent much of her life as a high-powered marketing executive and then as an official in non-profits. She said to me, “In no other field that I have worked in have I experienced anything like this, Bob. I work in a profession now, where EVERYONE ELSE thinks that he or she is an expert in what I do. Every parent, every politician, every pundit thinks that he or she knows my job and what I should be doing better than I and my colleagues do. But they’re wrong. I work harder now than I ever have, in any job, and I know more about how to do it well than I ever did in any other job, and my knowledge of how to do my job deepens with every day. But for the most part, that isn’t recognized by others, and it certainly isn’t recognized by this ridiculous evaluation system.”
Diane Ravitch is the strongest single voice in our country, today, for teachers. She seems almost alone, on this national stage, in her understanding that teaching is a profession, that it is peopled by professionals with vast accumulated wisdom, grappling mightily with all the world’s problems, dropped in their laps, problems that will not be solved by the latest snake-oil mandate, the latest panacea–new standards, new tests, new evaluation systems, new online education programs, new charter schools run on business models. I know that I speak for many, many teachers when I say that they are grateful for her voice. The latest round of panaceas will fail as the previous ones have. What did NCLB promise? Every student will reach proficiency by 2014. George Bush, Jr. actually said, once, in an interview, “I solved the education problem on my first day in office.” Teachers knew that that was laughable, that the goals were insane and that the supposed method for achieving those goals was a ludicrous non-starter. Now they have to put up with the hydra-headed NCLB v2, as though we should respond to utter failure of NCLB by doing more of what failed. Hydra-oil in a dozen smart new varieties replaces the old snake oil. But teachers will struggle on, doing their jobs despite the nonsense from on high, and they will find the courage to do so in the success of this or that child, in the thanks from this or that parent, in their own deepest convictions and commitments, and in the occasional voice, like Diane’s, that actually recognizes what they do.
But it is all about them. That’s how they think and that’s how they operate.
These TFA’ers think that they can save the world one poor little black child at a time.
Dora
Everything Karen Lewis said is spot on.
No one who cares about education for real should care what Teach for America says anymore. They are just an astroturf group anyway. They represent the corporate privatizers and are the enemy. Call it like it is. No more political correctness. Also, Obama is the enemy as he is the present enabler of the destruction of “Real Public Education” and has been since at least 1995 when he became the president of the Annenburg Foundation for Chicago Public Schools and got involved in Renaissance 2000 which is all about privatization and corporatization, charter schools.
Karen Lewis’ comment fits the real meaning of AWESOME!
Well put and much appreciated, Ms Lewis!
Thank you.
The importance of cognitive competence and subject matter expertise are critical to effective teaching, but educators must also have highly developed non-cognitive skills. I think it’s the ability to demonstrate these well-balanced, multi-dimensional human characteristics which makes for inspiring teacher-leaders, both for children and adults.
It’s ironic that so many people that have assumed high-profile leadership roles in education, who are not really educators, seem to lack well developed affective skills, such as Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates and David Coleman. They appear to be incapable of recognizing the importance of the intra-personal and inter-personal skills they lack. Thus, they don’t value those skills in teachers, or the role of educators in helping students to develop non-cognitive skills, and they emphasize a narrow range of cognitive skills.
Karen and Diane are both examples of well-balanced, multi-dimensional educators who are inspiring teacher-leaders. We have many such teachers in classrooms across America, and I think our nation is amiss in not selecting more educators like them to be involved in driving education policy.
Can we PLEASE all get along, especially in the wake of this horrible tragedy? I am a Teach For America teacher, and I have been a fan of Ms. Ravitch’s writings for a while now, as well as a supporter of my organization. It doesn’t have to be an either-or thing. Unfortunately, I think people on different sides of certain debates have lost the ability to trust in the good intentions of one another.
I may have been a 2-year interloper in teaching, but it’s not because I used the profession as a stepping stone. It’s because there are serious problems in education being exacerbated by campaigns against proper funding for education, and it made the career untenable for me in the long-term. I feel sad about that, but I do not feel guilty. But these problems are being further exacerbated by rifts between well-meaning educators.
I heard about this big tiff third-hand and decided to check out the source of the uproar myself. When I actually read Ms. Ravitch’s post that sparked this thing, I thought it was a touching lament for those who lost their lives in the process of performing duties that could not have been “just for the money”. This is something I think we should all be able to get behind. Maybe the charter policy stuff could have been left out, but I found the overall post far from offensive. Yet the resulting conflagration seems to have gotten way out of hand. And now we’ve got an implication that TFA kills and disenfranchises children? I really can’t get behind that.
It’s about time people who care about the quality of education in this country step back, turn the rhetoric way down, start holding our allies accountable, and stop trying to read the worst intentions into the words of those we disagree with. It’s alright that people have different ideas for what could improve the dismal state of education. Some are short-term fixes and others are long-term solutions. Not every idea is compatible, and we’ve got to learn to live with the fact that different solutions will have to coexist.
We have got to start building each other up, rather than tearing each other down. We wouldn’t accept that sort of behavior between children in our classrooms, so why is it okay for adults? They are watching us.
“That same false outrage should show itself when policies his colleagues support kill and disenfranchise children from schools across this nation.”
You all actually believe that the policies that Teach For America supports KILL children? That’s what she wrote. She wrote that they kill children. That’s a massive claim. Diane, you believe this too? Commenters, you believe TFA’s policies KILL children?
I think it’s an outrageous, dangerous, and hateful claim. I appreciate Lewis’s candor and respect her point of view, but I don’t think anyone in ed reform is killing children. We should be careful what we type and what we support.
Absolutely, people that have put forward policies of Ed Reform (turnarounds, school closings, etc…) are directly responsible for the lives lost due to such policies. The easiest example to cite is Derrion Albert from Fenger H.S. a few years back. He was murdered outside of his school after his school community was destabilized by reform. Every teacher was fired and many TFAers hired in their place. They did not know the school, the students and the community. The teachers might be well intentioned, but the policy is not and led to his death. His death is not the only one to happen. All research analysis of school closings, consolidations and turnaround has shown (and will continue to show) that school actions leads to an increase of violence. Shame on the ed reformers, their supports and people unwillingly to recognize the hard truth.
The way you have twisted Karen’s words is very similar to how you twisted Diane’s words, David. Once again, you took offense regarding TFA, when the issue was “policies” your “colleagues support,” which included a reference to the experiments in Chicago under Duncan, not TFA policies
Yes, kids have been “killed and disenfranchised.” Look up how the murder rate has increased in Chicago since Duncan’s reforms were put in place. Do the research on student killings that are a result of shutting down schools, sending students to schools outside their communities and put into classes with rival gang members.
Stop manipulating the conversation in order to put TFA front and center. Education does not revolve around missionary temp teachers.
Teach for America does not “kill” anyone, and it is beyond stupid to suggest that it does.
Teach for America does not do it immediately they do it slowly as the students do not get educated they then fall into the criminal justice system and then “Stuff Happens.” They promote slow death by their policies and what they do to destroy “Real Public Education.” Teach for America has been totally corrupted from its origination.
Lewis was not speaking about TFA specifically, but about the Corporate Ed Reform movement as a whole with which TFA is closely aligned. And yes, the corporate education reforms plaguing Chicago for the past 10+ years have cost precious children their lives. The chaos caused by callous school closings, leading to sending children across the city to “choice” schools crossing gang boundaries has indeed led to increases in youth violence and yes, even deaths. The tragic beating death of Derrion Albert in 2009 is one prime example http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/chicago-teen-deaths-viole_n_311877.html
It is the utter ignorance and arrogance of education reformers, including and especially TFA, which allows terrible policies to get passed. Churn in teaching staff after closings and turnarounds is dangerous to kids who need stability. Charter schools do not serve the neediest students and instead these kids are concentrated in schools purposefully underfunded and neglected causing ever more severe behavior issues in schools given fewer resources to help. Our district buys new tests and “data systems” instead of hiring more social workers, counselors, and nurses which my kids desperately need. Ed Reform creates environments of fear and stress with terrible new evaluation systems and sometimes even pay tied to test scores leaving the people who work directly with the children with less emotional energy to devote to them. Ed Reform also pushes more inexperienced, poorly trained teachers-as the war on veteran teachers, tenure, and unions continues-on the children who need experienced, well-trained teachers the most.
Ed Reformers are so far removed from the realities of communities and schools, and in their hubris so very sure they are right, that truly cruel decisions are made everyday. TFA is absolutely guilty of this elite dangerous social distance. http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2012/11/twilight-of-edreformers.html
I work in a psychiatric hospital in Chicago. Your ridiculous education reforms are harming children and like Karen Lewis, I am sick of it. I am tired of hearing story after story about the vulgarity of no excuses charters. I’m sick of knowing that the neighborhood schools where my students with special needs are receiving services are being sabotaged and shut down. I’m sick of learning that yet another special education student was given a 1st year alternative cert teacher who has no idea how to meet that child’s needs. I’m sick of all of it.
You don’t know what you’re doing and you won’t listen to the ones who do. Disgusting…
Hi Diane,
I am a TFA alum still in the classroom. I am trying to understand the connection you are making between the actions of the teachers at Sandy Hook and the ed reform movement. I was hoping you could make these connections a bit clearer.
It appears you are arguing that members of the ed reform movement would have called the unionized teachers at Sandy Hook people who “just show up” and the teachers proved the movement wrong on this point. Your point here is clearly correct. Those teachers loved their students and sacrificed their lives for those students. They were not in the business of teaching for anything other than giving their students a better life.
It also appears that you are drawing a connection between their actions on that Friday and high stakes testing. It also appears you are drawing a connection between their actions and the governing structure of their school system (public vs. charter). These are the connections I was hoping you could elaborate on.
You have also said that the governor and presumably all of us concerned about the state of our schools should have “learned something” from this day about our schools that we previously did not know. What specifically have we learned?
I appreciate all the help.
Using this tragic event as a tool to shame your opposition is reprehensible, for both sides. You talk about coming together, while you simultaneously participate in the destructive dialogue. We wonder why our nation continues to become more and more polarized and unable to have productive problem solving, as our very leaders act incapable themselves.
Furthermore, according to Illinois.gov, “In 2012 Illinois will spend $5.1 billion on pensions and only $300 million on early childhood education.” I am in favor of competitive teacher pay and competitive retirement packages, but when I hear the union teachers insisting that they are only focused on what’s best for our children, while they themselves insist they must have tenure to feel secure in their jobs (nobody should feel secure in their job, you should always feel like you have to perform in order to keep it) and must have such beneficial pensions and benefit packages, it just makes me sad. If high pensions resulted in greater things for our students, perhaps our Chicago school system would be much better.
Jill, you are comparing apples and oranges. To understand what goes on in Illinois, I suggest you read Glen Brown’s Blog* (he frequently posts here; in fact, Diane posted information from him RE; teachers pensions, and also addressed the fact that teachers’ pensions are being threatened throughout the U.S. {see Rhode Island, for example}, as yet another way to punish teachers, specifically, discourage new teachers from entering the profession, and causing further privatization of the nation’s schools. As for tenure, its premise is that of due process. As someone who taught for 35 years and who keeps abreast of current events in education,
I can testify about the pettiness and avarice that has caused teachers to lose their jobs–the stories are endless. And this ridiculous notion of evaluating teachers based on students “standardized” test scores is a totally illegitimate form of evaluation evaluation (read Todd Farley’s book, Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry for a good read of the situation). BTW, if you haven’t already read Diane’s book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, you absolutely must (and read the paperback version–it has an updated chapter). I think these suggestions will help you to have a better understanding of what is at stake for everyone.
*Also–for more Illinois info–read Fred Klonsky’s Blog
What is at stake is the entire future of everything. Do you want a Darth Vader world where technology is used for evil or the Star Trek world where it is for benevelence and good? This is the question. The privatizers and corporatizers are Darth Vader. Those fighting for “Real Public Education” are the Star Trek world. By “Real Public Education” I mean the type of education I received and it was not in public school. We need to teach the complete person in ethics, competence, critical thinking and in the basics. We also need to go back to having shop classes and other kinds of alternatives which provide a good living that are not college. Not everyone is a “Desk Jockey.” In fact being a top of the line car mechanic is a better job in many cases than having a PHD. PHD’s pay about $95,000/year and a Lexus or Mercedes mechanic can make $100-120,000/year with great benefits and retirement packages. On top of that their job cannot be oursourced as GE jet engines did in the last few years to India where they shipped 15,000 engineering jobs. Do not forget China, Vietnam and Russia also. The only way the U.S. will remain a land of opportunity is to stop this madness being pushed by Obama, Duncan, Gates, Broad, Walton, HP, hedge funds and the others involved in this charade. They are playing for all the marbles. We must also. It can be done. Here in L.A. a small dedicated group from all racial and income sectors beat Measure J which was a 1/2 cent sales tax until 2069 worth $90 billion without the interest in only 3 weeks and very little money. It can be done with dedication to our future and to our youth and teachers. Administrators are the biggest problem in education not teachers or students. That is where the big corruption lies. Just look at what Gates and Broad are doing nationwide in that area.
Finally, it is truly disheartening (and perhaps telling) that the leadership within the teaching field believes that there is no way they can get our youth inspired and encouraged to become teachers without the current benefits packages, current retirement packages, and things like tenure. If those are truly the main selling points that are drawing people into the field, perhaps the leadership needs to revise their message of what they do and why they do it. Inspiring youth toward your career should include much more than things like job security and posh retirement plans.
Jill,
Thanks for the great response. If my friend, Richard Arthur, could turn around the most criminal and violent high school in the U.S. in 1970 where there were constant gunfights on campus and finally the principal killed in their office why can’t we do it now? No one wants to listen to Richard. He also helped to found Whitney High School in Cerritos which for 25 years is about the highest performing public high school in the U.S. He is still alive and finishing a book on his life and how he did what he did. Why not contact Richard and deal with what he knows including gangs. He wrote a book called “Gangs and Schools.” Why do people listen to so called consultants who have never really done anything except pick up large paychecks?
The short story is that teachers and some other public service workers in Illinois don’t pay into or get Social Security. The teachers’ pension fund was established long before Social Security and teachers stuck with it.
While teachers have continued to pay their portion into their pension fund, the government has not and that is the crux of the problem.
See: http://www.wbez.org/series/curious-city/question-answered-why-don%E2%80%99t-most-illinois-teachers-receive-social-security
Look how they literally inserted “TFA” into Karen’s quote: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336034/chicago-teachers-union-head-karen-lewis-teach-america-kills-students-patrick-brennan
Disgusting attack on Karen and Diane, too. Looks like they will do virtually anything to be front and center and trash unions and union teachers.
They have declared war a long time ago. Now is the time to do it to them. We are doing that in California and it looks like CTU is doing it in Chicago. Read the “Art of War” and “Hapsburgs to Hitler” if you want to know what to do and what they are really up to.
What a wonderful letter from Karen Lewis! And the letter you posted today to President Obama was another gem. Thank you, Diane, for what you do to keep me and so many others aware of the need to celebrate our teachers so our children can learn more than, “Is it on the test?”
Sent from my iPad
You are an expert in this topic!