Last night I posted a tribute to “The Hero Teachers of Newtown,” briefly describing each of them , noting that they were members of a union, they were career educators, and that the attacks on career educators and unions should stop.
Shortly after, a TFA officer demanded on Twitter that I retract the post, calling it reprehensible.
I was baffled. The post made no reference to TFA.
Someone then wrote on the blog that I was casting aspersion on non-union teachers, which I was not. I was called many names for using this occasion to call for an end to the relentless attacks on dedicated career educators.
Here, Jersey Jazzman explains what happened.
I doubt that I would ever have the amazing courage of the educators of Newtown, but this much I can say for sure. I will not be intimidated by tweets.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, never be intimidated by tweets!!!
One thing I noticed in the last election its that the corporate strategy seems to be to diagnose their opponent with a weakness they in fact possess. An uninformed public is then misled. This is a prime example of that.
Yet attacks on union teachers are fine, calling them “lazy” and “unresponsive”–among other things.
As Jersey Jazzman points out, the person calling your post “reprehensible” was involved in a political act. It really had nothing to do with you personally or, quite frankly, the intent of your tweet. The person was simply trying to take advantage of your attempt to counter the prevailing vilification of unions. It didn’t matter what you said. Mentioning unions in a positive light was enough.
So, who is “reprehensible” here? You, who puts something out quite clearly and quite humanely, with a political aspect, certainly, but primarily with a humanitarian purpose… or someone who hides behind a single word, never explaining… but trying to move debate away from the heroism of teachers (and unions, for that matter) to the tired old and untrue meme of the coddled union teacher.
If you would have just ended with this line: “Every one of the teachers was a career educator. Every one was doing exactly what she wanted to do” then everyone who read it would have said, “nice tribute” and moved on.
But then you brought up testing. Then you brought up their union membership. Then you demonized education reformers. Then you made the statement that the governor should change his stance on charters and other ed reforms because of this tragedy, all while he is still spending time at funerals and with grieving families.
You made the statement that Newtown doesn’t need division after several paragraphs of divisive language. Take a step back, try to understand that regardless of message, many see this as an opportunist trying to stir up her base (mission accomplished). It’s no different than the gun rights advocates coming out and saying that teachers should be armed.
Oh, more ‘politicizing’! Get ’em, “dave”!!!
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/18/1170357/-Teachers-so-often-vilified-by-politicians-are-the-heroes-of-Sandy-Hook?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29
Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belonged to a union. The senior teachers had tenure, despite the fact that “reformers” (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers) did their best last spring to diminish their tenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores. Governor Malloy said, memorably, to his shame, that teachers get tenure just for showing up. No one at Sandy Hook was just “showing up.”
Governor Dannell Malloy has led the effort in his state to expand charter schools and high-stakes testing. He appointed a state commissioner of education who co-founded a charter chain. He said, memorably, that he didn’t care how much test prep there was so long as scores go up. Sandy Hook is not that kind of school.
Doesn’t sound divisive, certainly less so than those who want assault rifles banned.
It is a very bizarre post. It essentially implies that teachers at a charter school would have acted differently, and it comes really close to expressly stating that one of the lessons of this mass murder is not simply that teachers are important and heroic, but that charter schools are bad.
Didn’t read it that way at all…but at least now you know what it is like to be attacked….we face it every day by the faux reformers and the teach for a while exploiters. Sucks when it happens to you huh?
No, it didn’t. It does sound like those who imply (or sometimes state outright) that we as teachers are somehow only in it for ourselves or the money or whatever are wrong. It doesn’t matter which schools we are in. Some of the reformers have implied that only in charter schools do teachers care for their students. But that’s not true.
That’s all Diane was trying to say.
Often, when someone takes offense upon hearing the bold, brutal truth, I think compassionately about our propensity for denial because, as T.S. Eliot wrote, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”
I don’t get that feeling about you though. I think you and your organization are afraid that the events at Sandy Hook have thwarted your plans, because the public is recognizing the truth about career teachers: that many are so dedicated to the children they serve that they are willing to die for them, including those who belong to unions.
The Sandy Hook teachers defied the negative image of America’s unionized teaching force, as portrayed by “reformers,” and Diane was right to point this out. That foils the “reform” plan to do business as usual and keep berating union teachers though, so it looks like you are attacking Diane to divert attention and try to do damage control –which actually makes you appear to be the reprehensible one.
Better get another kinder, gentler plan, because America knows now what the truth is and who the real demons are and it’s clearly not career educators who are ready to put their lives on the line for children. And believe me, I know personally that teachers are planning this very thing all across our country right now, because after a primary school shooting in my area years ago, I realized that I was willing to put myself between a gun and my students and made plans to do so, if necessary, as well.
I don’t know how many temp teachers are willing to do that, so rather than going off on Diane for speaking the truth, I would suggest that you attend to addressing this matter with TFAers instead. Novice teachers in particular may need a lot of guidance and support to help them through this, including opportunities to determine whether putting their lives on the line is what they intended when they signed up for the gig, as well as an out clause without accompanying guilt-o-grams from TFA.
You used the tragedy to promote your own anti-reform / pro-union agenda. Now, you’re using legitimate criticisms of your controversial blog post to promote your anti-TFA agenda. Just because the person who called for a retraction of the post works for TFA, does not turn this into a TFA issue.
Note that he never mentioned TFA in any of his critiques. This is not a TFA issue. This is an issue of you exploiting the deaths of innocent students and school workers to ultimately voice your dissatisfaction with the current CT Governor.
David Rosenberg is right. Your post is reprehensible. Even to people who are not ‘TFA Officers.’ Please retract it.
Still waiting for Rhee to retract her reprehensible statement.
Corporate policy 101: When you make an idiotic advertisement as Rhee had done, you simply attack and distract attention from your folly!
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2012/12/michelle-rhee-never-misses-opportunity.html
Can you contact Rhee and Wendy so they can retract all of their lies and mistruths? Be an equal opportunity critic. Rosenberg never explained his stance, so I don’t actually know what he is “right” about. How do you know?
TFA wasn’t mentioned in Diane’s post, either. That’s just been assumed. And we all know what people do who assume!
Oh but isn’t everyone talking about TFA all day long…aren’t they the center of the universe…please don’t hate us because we are so excellent (as only ed shyster can portray):
http://edushyster.com/?p=1518
Who is David Rosenberg and why the heck do we care what he thinks?
A quick search reveals that Mr. Rosenberg is a Vice President at TFA, and since TFA is up to its elbows in virtually every attack on public education that Diane reports on, it’s inarguable that his tweet is just as “political” as the statements he criticizes.
Wendy and her minions must be worried that the awful events in Newtown cast public school teachers in a very different light than TFA’s patrons would have the public believe. Thus, his attack on the messenger.
It’s almost impossible to adequately describe the deceptiveness, venality and arrogance of this organization, but observing its behavior, and that of the “leaders” it grooms, gives one far too strong a taste.
Stand your ground. You are right.
Please excuse typos and brevity. Sent from my iPhone. George
Bizarre. Did you carelessly note that they were all women, which might be interpreted as an attack on men??? They are crazies. deb
I have read this blog for a while (and appreciate it quite a bit even when I don’t always agree) but this is my first time commenting. I could not agree more with the idea that now is the time to stop any ad hominem attacks on educators. I also believe that the way in which David Rosenberg is being attacked on this blog and others as a “crazy” or the “worst person in the world” who must suffer from “venality and arrogance” isn’t much better. I was really inspired by the tributes from various educators that ran on this blog after the Newtown tragedy and was so appreciative of the fact that this space could be a place to affirm and support educators without having to demean an enemy. I’m not seeing that same spirit here and think this space is weaker for it. Just because somebody disagrees does not make them evil.
I don’t think he is evil. I do believe he is self absorbed, arrogant, ignorant and pompous..a bit redundant, but you get the point.
This is retaliation to our reaction to the heartless statement of condolence written by Students’ First that was in reality a commercial for her organization and it did not veil her contempt of the public school system. Now they are trying to find a way to hide the fact that Dawn Hochsprung was not a fan of high-stakes testing. And now we learn she was not a fan of using these tests to evaluate teachers.because she liked the Montgomery County, Maryland model.
Let us just remember that it was Rhee who is a self-serving &^%$ noted by the way she had no qualms about firing a principal in front of reporters. That should have been a private act. Then there was that disgusting commercial during the Olympics. Let’s not forget her enthusiasm to the badly rated and worst box office film “Won’t Back Down”. Her connection to the Waltons is thick as thieves that she remains silent on gun control as well as early intervention. Of course we know that most charters expel students that don’t fit their mold–so much for trying to help the students. Then there is her backing of Conservative Republican candidates, yet she calls herself a Democrat.
TFA are part-time employees who are looking to jump start their careers either in education–even though they have little classroom experience. but 2 years gives them great opportunities—or some other field. Even if their hearts are in the right place, we have no proof that their students do any better.
The teachers at Sandy Hook were in this job for life. This was their career path. And yes, they were union too.
I think it’s a reprehensible post as well. These three paragraphs in particular:
“Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belonged to a union. The senior teachers had tenure, despite the fact that ‘reformers’ (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers) did their best last spring to diminish their tenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores. Governor Malloy said, memorably, to his shame, that teachers get tenure just for showing up. No one at Sandy Hook was just “showing up.”
Governor Dannell Malloy has led the effort in his state to expand charter schools and high-stakes testing. He appointed a state commissioner of education who co-founded a charter chain. He said, memorably, that he didn’t care how much test prep there was so long as scores go up. Sandy Hook is not that kind of school.
Let us hope Governor Malloy learned something these past few days about the role of public schools in their communities.”
Care to defend *why* it’s reprehensible? And, BTW, did you also find StudentsFirst’s “condolences” reprehensible, since that too was clearly political?
Well, imagine if Sandy Hook had happened to be a charter school, and Michelle Rhee wrote “Let us hope Governor Malloy learned something these past few days about the role of charter schools.” This is not complicated.
Not the same thing at all. There’s not currently a nation-wide, coordinated assault on charter teachers like there is on public school teachers. Rahm Emanuel, Bobby Jindal, Michael Bloomberg, Chris Christie, Michelle Rhee and a whole chorus of like-minded naysayers have spent the last several years painting veteran, unionized public school teachers as “entrenched”, “lazy”, “in it for the money”, “not caring about kids”, etc. Yet veteran, unionized teachers were exactly the people who risked and sacrificed their lives to protect their students. It puts the lie to the whole “public school teachers don’t care about kids” crap. Perhaps it is political, but there is nothing at all reprehensible about pointing out facts about a group of people who routinely get demonized. It’s no different than pointing out the bravery of the Tuskegee Airmen in connection with their race precisely because blacks were demonized as lazy, cowardly, undisciplined, etc.
“Perhaps it is political, but there is nothing at all reprehensible about pointing out facts about a group of people who routinely get demonized.”
As I wrote below, this may be the premise that’s really under dispute here. I just read Rhee’s statement, which I found vomitously opportunistic. Diane’s post had a similar effect on me. I’m no rhetorical prude, but with this event, I guess I have a lower tolerance level. It would be better if others would at least acknowledge (as you appear to do), that
Diane was using this opportunity to make a political point about education policy, even if they don’t think it was “reprehensible.”
Also — and this is my last post on this — did you just (1) correct me for making an inapt analogy between “charter teachers” and “public school teachers” and then go on to (2) make an analogy between public school teachers and African Americans living in Jim Crow-era America?
The similarity between teachers today and African-Americans during the Jim Crow era is that both groups are/were unfairly maligned, scapegoated and discriminated against. Of course there are differences in degree, but not so much in kind.
@Dienne,
Your point about African Americans and teachers trivializes the struggle for equal rights. How many teachers had been lynched?
Hey Dienne (and Diane!),
It seems that Diane is trying to link the heroism of the teachers to appropriate education policy. In the process, she scolds Governor Malloy, ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers, suggesting that they should learn something relevant to education reform policy from this tragic event.
That linkage, if not absurd (as I think it is), is much too superficial and over-the-top given the nature of the tragedy and the distance between the subject matters in a practical sense.
I find many of Diane’s posts to be excessively emotional and insufficiently logical, but this one is reprehensible in that it connects education policy to mass murder in a clumsy and casual manner.
Meanwhile, I don’t follow StudentsFirst, but I do read Diane Ravitch to get a (much) different point of view than my own from someone who has a large following.
It just struck me that the disconnect here may be the premise that it’s bad taste to use a tragedy like this as an occasion to make a political point. Diane and others may not agree with that premise, in which case they might say that whether such a statement is in bad taste depends on the political point being made. Manners versus content. I suppose as long as Diane’s not accusing others of using this event for political purposes, there’s nothing wrong with this logic.
Oh please. Read the Jersey Jazzman link. It’s only “bad taste” to “make a political point” if you disagree with the point being made.
I usually have the same opinion. This time, not so much. In fact, I’d like to retract everything I’ve written on this page. This sub-debate itself is fairly sickening.
Flerper,
I see your point, although I think the linkage between this event and appropriate education policy is so unusual as to require even greater care in considering potential offense. This is not like discussing gun control policy in the context of the event — and as your theory suggests, even that linkage offends some people! In any case, I agree that this is more a question of (reprehensible) manners vs. (absurd) content.
I agree with Ken AND David Rosenberg. You could have left off the last 3 paragraphs and nobody would have taken umbrage at what you tweeted and they would have thought you were the best thing since sliced bread and the invention of the wheel. But no, you just couldn’t leave well enough alone. You could have left off with the venom for one day. I think you should retract it too.
Please express your equal disdain to the Rheeject for her opportunistic statement of “support” or maybe you already have, but I doubt it. Spread your disgust..don’t just pick and choose.
Can you really not understand that just because someone else is a jackass, that doesn’t make it ok for everyone to be one? There is such thing as a highroad. As long as people continue to take glee in being as crass and repulsive as their enemies, both groups are really one and the same.
A huge problem with American politics is that it is so rare for someone to turn on their ‘allies’ when they are illogical and just plain wrong. One of the things that I admire most about Ms. Ravitch is that she had the courage to realize and do something about the fact that she was wrong in her previous views. This is extremely rare, and much needed.
Those teachers are heroes, but there union affiliation has nothing to do with that conversation. I assume that was the point he was trying to make.
Yes, it does have something to do with it. Unionized teachers are attacked daily to be lazy, good-for-nothing, graduates of the bottom 1/3rd etc…
The actions of these unionized teachers shows that to be false. By the way, this does not mean that non-unionized teachers, or any other people (for that matter), would have acted any differently – I would suspect when any dignified adult witnesses little kids getting shot would act similarly.
But that’s not the point. Given the current climate of attacks on teachers and their unions, the actions of these unionized teachers shows these attacks to be empty and heartless.
“Michael Fiorillo says:
December 18, 2012 at 11:54 am
A quick search reveals that Mr. Rosenberg is a Vice President at TFA, and since TFA is up to its elbows in virtually every attack on public education that Diane reports on, it’s inarguable that his tweet is just as “political” as the statements he criticizes.”
Now you all know how those who don’t agree with your views on charter schools, school choice, vouchers, eliminating favored status for senior teachers, the need of unions to get their hands out of our pockets, and anything else feel when you jump on them as they express an opinion differnt than yours.
I find that reprehensible.
I read and reread Diane’s posting from yesterday to be sure I didn’t miss something. TFA wasn’t mentioned. She literally pointed out the obvious: these heroic teachers defy the hateful portrait of them drawn by those who bash teachers. Bravo, Diane!
🙂
David Robinson and his supporters remind me of George Romney and his gang at Cranbrook who attacked and humiliated a ‘nancy boy’ [for those not old enough, that was code then for a young man who was, or presumed to be, homosexual, therefore inviting in the eyes of the bullies attack and humiliation]. How stupidly contemptuous do you have to be to think that Diane, and the majority of those of who post on this blog, are afraid of you and your obvious lies?
I have a simple request to Mr. Robinson and his edubully allies: y’all love to talk about “data-driven” this and that. So let’s start with the letter “d.” How about “decency-driven” tweets? Or the letter “h” as in “honorable conduct in public discourse”?
Maybe, just maybe, that wasn’t on the bubble-in test you had to take to graduate from “Edubully U” after your five weeks of training.
🙂
Let’s see now: so-called education reformers spend years maligning teachers and their unions, never missing an opportunity to portray them as selfish and unconcerned about the needs of their students. Then, when this libel is conclusively refuted by the actions of these selfless and heroic educators, Diane’s pointing that simple fact out be becomes yet another source of bogus outrage for these posers.
Exactly who and what is reprehensible in this situation?
Bingo. Exactly what I was trying to say above. Thank you.
TFA wasn’t mentioned by either “Tweeter” in question. You took the deaths of 26 people, including 20 public school students, and connected it to teachers unions and your hatred of Teach for America. Disgusting.
And for those of you that keep drawing attention to the equally misinformed and shameful post by Michelle Rhee/Students First….two wrongs don’t make a right.
I dutifully read your blog daily, and I refuse to do so after this post. Why don’t you go ahead and join Westboro? I heard they want to make this about something other than those 26 people too.
You have never been supportive of public school teachers who are unionized. Your posts have always been anti-teacher (the career kind as compared to the temporary scab kind). See ya Michelle or Wendy. We know all about your “students first” rants.
You missed this…read carefully:
A quick search reveals that Mr. Rosenberg is a Vice President at TFA, and since TFA is up to its elbows in virtually every attack on public education that Diane reports on, it’s inarguable that his tweet is just as “political” as the statements he criticizes.
I guess you’re in good company, Diane. Others are “politicizing” this too: http://nyceducator.com/2012/12/rhee-rheedux.html
What a ridiculous debate. Diane’s post was a beautiful reminder of the work that teachers REALLY do every day. It points out that the slander and misinformation regarding unions, tenure, testing, evaluation, and teacher quality of EdReformers everywhere is completely unfounded and cruel.
What the teachers at Sandy Hook did was indeed heroic. But I would also like to point out that those 20 precious children are not the only children dying from gun violence. Here in Chicago, we have lost literally hundreds of children’s lives due to violence in the past year alone: http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2012/12/the-children-are-dying/ The teachers who work with these young people, who support the survivors after yet another tragedy strikes their streets, deserve our admiration and respect. Instead, teachers are constantly maligned in the media, called names by reformers and politicians, and accused of being stupid, lazy, and selfish. This bashing is wrong.
This tragedy simply points us back to how important and heroic our teachers are and how we MUST do a better job of protecting our children. So let’s talk about mental health, about gun control, about schools as safe spaces (not little no excuses prisons), and for god’s sake let’s talk about poverty, inequality, and racism. Afterall, why are we only shocked when the children who die are white and middle class? Parents weep every day here in Chicago.
And please, all you EdRefomers and TFAers, be quiet and show our nation’s teachers some respect for once. Shameful…
Ms. Katie Osgood: I sometimes wonder how much poorer we would be without the eloquent and heartfelt comments your post on your blog, here and elsewhere. You are truly a light in the darkness.
You remind me of the best teachers I worked with. I can’t imagine the edubullies will EVER be able to shut your mouth with duct tape.
Good for us, too too bad for them!
🙂
I think that Michelle Rhee drew the line in the sand when she failed to at all acknowledge the teachers of Sandy Hook in the PR statement she issued.
One would think that someone who claims to be all about “StudentsFirst” would have commended those teachers for truly putting their “students first”, including those who placed themselves between a gun and their children and lost their lives doing so.
Had they been non-union teachers, Rhee probably would have held them up as models exemplifying the ultimate meaning of “StudentsFirst”. Clearly, they were not even mentioned precisely because they were union public school teachers, who Rhee, Kopp et al don’t want the public to see as martyrs, because their plan is to continue to vilify union teachers.
I think Rhee’s sin of omission called for pointing out that these brave teachers were among the very union members that “reformers” are on a witch hunt to demonize. I believe that Diane said all the right things precisely because she spoke the truth.
Obviously, the truth hurts Rhee and Kopp, who have a history of embellishing, exaggerating and downright lying, in order to further their own causes, and those behaviors have been publicized lately, hence the call to divert attention away from themselves and attack Diane.
Stay strong and honest, Diane! You are in the right and the truth will prevail.
–From a non-union teacher who, unlike Rhee and Kopp, has no personal investment in the vilification of union teachers.
One thing Rhee did not omit in the SF post after the shootings: digging deep into her heart at an agonizing moment, and tenderly referring to children as “assets.”
Interesting word to use, especially at a time like that. Merriam -Webster’s online dictionary defines “asset” as:
“The entire property of a person subject by law to the payment of
his or her debts or legacies: Advantage: Resource: An item of
value owned.”
It’s a very revealing use of words, and cuts to the heart of how so-called education reformers see education, children and humanity in general: as market entities to be managed in the interests of their owners.
We already see what the so-called reformers are willing to do to get control of those “assets:” close schools and destabilize communities, demonize teachers in an Orwellian propaganda campaign, turn a precious public resource over to privateers.
Ms. Rhee and her cohort should now be asked who those putative “owners” are, and how they intend to deploy their “assets,” formerly known as children.
I don’t care if the teachers were in a union or not. I don’t care about the governance structure of the school. I don’t care what the Governor’s past views on education are. Obviously, I care deeply about these issues under normal circumstances, but now is not the time to bring up any of these issues in relation to the recent events at Sandy Hook Elementary. I found the StudentsFirst reaction to be cheaply political and exploitative and I found your post to be so as well. What matters now is that a very sick person killed 20 children, 6 brave adults, and himself. What does NOT matter right now is the charter/public debate. I understand that you feel our profession is under attack in the current political environment and believe me I sympathize but as Robert Kennedy said in the wake of his brother’s assassination “it is not a day for politics.”
Actually, Diane did declare a time of mourning this past weekend and she did not post the messages she had planned then. (Unfortunately, that didn’t stop neocons from going on the attack.)
Now it is truth-telling time, before the billionaires who own the media and their “reform” puppets, who are opposed to unions and public education, try to spin this into something that is not the domain of unionized teachers in neighborhood schools –as it rightfully should be, since they lost some very valuable, model teachers from their ranks.
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
I was enthralled reading this post. I was thinking yes, yes, yes! And then I saw your name. OMG…I think I love you. I do love you!
Wow! I would love to meet you someday.
Now to get this guy, who I have never heard of, to read this would be super!
Wendy? David? Michelle?
Listen to Karen Lewis…you could learn so many new reformy ideas!
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
I was appalled Ms. Ravitch’s initially tribute post took such a sour direction to compare union to non-union/charter teachers/schools. And, I’m appalled Ms. Lewis has decided to chime into this debate about “politicization.” Frankly, we’re all tip-toeing around the idea of political agendas, so let’s go ahead and get right to the nitty gritty.
I’m a product of CPS, and I’m extremely proud of the education I received. My teachers were excellent. However, I’m sadly aware that not all public schools are created equal (just as I’ve learned not all charter schools are created equal either).
With the CPS strike behind us, Ms. Lewis, I’d particularly like you to take a look at this video posted to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5UbTh6fchM
Posted just a day before the Sandy Hook tragedy, this video is of a South Shore High School student in Chicago completely livid about the quality (or lack) of education she’s receiving. We watch in this video that this teacher (assumedly one who took part in the CTU strike) has absolutely zero classroom management, and we watch as this student calls him out about taking off the week to strike while she’s back in the classroom now (assumedly academically behind with her teacher’s freshly negotiated contract in tact) and still not learning.
While I’ll admit that her approach is not gracious in nature, that we do not know the full context, and that this student’s outburst should not be condoned in a classroom setting, there is a rawness we witness in this student’s emotion. She knows she’s not receiving a fair shot at an education, and she’s irate.
We, as adults, may have the privilege of having made it to adulthood to secure livelihood, which allows us to point fingers over Twitter and Ms. Ravitch’s blog about who’s justified in their argument and who’s not. But, I’m afraid the girl in that video doesn’t have such a luxury.
If we are all (public school advocates, education reformers, *everyone*) truly intent on solving America’s education problems (it isn’t news to anyone that we continue to lag behind our global competition, right? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/education/us-students-still-lag-globally-in-math-and-science-tests-show.html?ref=global-home&_r=1&), then I would hope that we’d come together for the sake of the children – even if it requires us to considered a diversified, multi-faceted approach. None of us are, in fact, perfect. None of us have all the answers. But the problems that exist in America’s underachieving schools (public, private, charter) are *all* of our problems. And, if we’re serious about solving this problem (not just pointing fingers, bickering among adults, and igniting hate among one another), then I suggest we attack the real issues at hand…like ensuring America’s laws protect our children while they’re at school and ensuring the young lady featured in that YouTube video receives the education she deserves.
May God bless the souls lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.
Excuse the typos…
“I was appalled Ms. Ravitch’s initially *beautiful* tribute post took such a sour direction to compare union to non-union/charter teachers/schools.”
“(it isn’t news to anyone that we continue to lag behind our global competition, right? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/education/us-students-still-lag-globally-in-math-and-science-tests-show.html?ref=global-home&_r=1& *)*”
You shall not be moved! I stand with you Diane. Thank you for being a light in the darkness!
The fact that the comments critical of Diane’s Twitter post are here on her blog is indicative of the wonderful person she is. Her responses to criticism are dignified and impersonal .
Her stature as a renowned educator, administrator, and historian is acknowledged globally. She has authored many books relating to education, has served in many capacities, and has been a distinguished speaker for decades. What have you “critics” and “preachers” done?
The detractors seem to think that they become more “expert” and brilliant” because they have the audacity to attack such a distinguished expert. They were badly mistaken. “Small” would be more like it.
Thank you, Diane, for your dedication and contributions to professional education and educators. You have made us aware of a fabulous group of bloggers who have added valuable insights into what is happening. Thanks for all of your time, and sharing your expertise.
Thanks to All of you “regulars” who have who have “made my day” countless times! And, Thanks to Karen Lewis and the terrific Chicago teachers she leads. ( I’m with Linda 🙂 )
Hopefully, some good will come of the tragic losses of little children and their teachers in Newtown, Conn., and their broken hearted families and friends.
Twenty elementary school children are killed in their school by a boy with access to military assault weapons. He had attended the area’s schools. The principal, a school psychologist, a behavior specialist and a number of teachers were killed in the attack.
A leading education policy opinion-maker relates the horrific attack to current issues in education policy, giving others a forum to express a multitude of viewpoints and emotions, and an opportunity to go forward from the tragedy. Thank you, Diane Ravitch