I hesitated to post this because it refers to me.
But I decided to post it because the author, Mark Naison, makes a powerful point about the present moment.
What is happening in education today is ignorant, willful, and dangerous.
Thoughtless politicians and self-seeking entrepreneurs are hurting children, damaging public education, and demeaning the teaching profession with their misguided policies. They welcome for-profit schooling, they are closing down urban education in city after city, and they want a “free market” in schooling. At the same time, they acquiesce to deep budget cuts in essential services for children. Is there a parallel with Vietnam in the 1960s? Naison thinks so.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It may have been a humiliating defeat for the nation as a whole and a waste of human life for the world as a whole, but the fact remains that those who pushed it got exactly what they wanted out of it.
And so it goes, time after time …
And once again, the Militant Educational Commodifiers don’t want a free market in education any more than the Military Industrial Complex wants a free market in defense. The analogy with the war machine should tell you the model they are really gunning for.
Excellent perspective on Dr. Ravitch’s wake up call with truth and honesty. And, a way to add that anyone who has not read Dr. Ravitch’s “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education” it is a MUST READ.
Must add that a similar analogy is that NCLB is Iraq.
WMD and the Test Scores (instead of looking at authentic learning).
Slipped the strategy in while America was mourning and consumed by 9/11 (NCLB was voted in on January, 8 2002).
Attack where a quick victory could be claimed instead of attacking where the enemy was rooted.
Hanging the banner “Mission Accomplished” and false claims of “closing the gap” with lies and cheating —- Texas Miracle
Privatization and corporate profiteers.
Calling up dedicated National Guardsman and Teach For Awhile teachers…
Sadly, Mr Obama got us out of the war but is stuck on RTTT (NCLB with a smile) and testing, testing, testing, testing. Makes Dr. Ravitch’s comments in this article even more relevant today.
Oh, we’re out of Iraq?? Look again.
And no “Mr. Obomber” did not get us out of Iraq. That agreement to withdraw “combat” troops (what a misnomer) was negotiated by the Bush regime. Obomber tried his best to extend the “combat” troops being in Iraq past the deadline negotiated by George the Least’s administration.
Hard to believe that the educated folk who read this blog believe that “our troops” are out of Iraq.
So much ignorance so little time!
First – I wrote “got us of war” – not specifically Iraq and no troops are everywhere. If the attribution belongs to Mr. Bush – sorry about that.
Second – we’re not out of NCLB either
Third – you totally missed the point which is that we got into NCLB very much the same way we got in Iraq – bad information, wrong target, bad resolution, privatized effort – and we’re still in it.
Third – can there be one blog somewhere on the great internet that the comments do not turn into over-the-top bashing of politicians – or at least if you want to bash, stick to the topic: education. I and many do criticize Mr. Obama for not getting us out of NCLB AND RTTT.
Finally – we all need to keep our eye on the ball. The issue is excessive testing, privatizing education, reducing schools back to factory models and the list goes on. Dr. Ravitch has opened the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people who have been asleep at the wheel.
Jere,
First, you stated “Sadly, Mr Obama got us out of the war. . .” The only war that you mentioned in your comment was Iraq, therefore the “the” can only be interpreted to be referring to Iraq. If you meant to say the “Obomber got us out of war” as your reply-“got us of war”-implies then your ignorance of Obomber’s increasing illegal wars of aggression, see Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, and now evidently Chad, is stunning. (and that is the tip of the iceberg as far as where the troops are involved in other countries affairs.)
Second, while I agree with you that NCLB and RaTT, like almost all the illegal wars of aggression that this country has perpetuated over the last half century are sold on lies, innuendo, misinformation etc. . . that does not mean I missed the point.
Third, you are the one who brought politicians into the debate. I was just trying to clarify your misinformation.
And I agree that Diane has helped open the eyes of many on the inanities that are standards, standardized testing, data driven decision making in reference to the teaching and learning process, NCLB and RaTT.
It’s just that some of us have been fighting this stuff since the time that Diane was supporting it. (and I’m glad she had a change of heart). And some of us have paid a heavy price for speaking out, you know like being harassed and forced out of our supposedly “tenure” protected teaching jobs with the all powerful NEA union thugs doing absolutely nothing other than providing a person to sit in meetings with the administrators to prevent them from lying so much in the “disciplinary” letters that made up my file. NEA’s advice: “Move on to another school district”. Thanks for the support, eh!
Well, it’s fitting that TFA missionary temps, the foot soldiers and junior officers of privatization, are always referred to as “the best and the brightest.”
From the blog:
“As with George Ball before her, Dr Ravitch’s recommendations were systematically ignored not only by the administration that appointed her, but the administration which replaced it.”
Correct me if I’m wrong Diane, but I don’t believe that she recanted until well after her stints in DC, not until at least 2005-6.
The analogy with Vietnam, and every war since, should make it plain that that no amount of pleading and rational argument about the destructive effects of their war against public education will stop these hawkers of Educational-Destroy-In-Order-To-Save (EDIOTS).
They know what they do … and they plan to just keep on doing it … the gleam of gold in their eyes and the clang of Ka-Ching in their ears has rendered them insensible to every human concern.
An excellent paralllel. Thanks for posting, Diane.
We teach history and tell our students that a primary purpose is to learn from history in order to not repeat our mistakes. I wonder, do we REALLY learn from history? What will it take for us to learn that the stove really Is hot? Will is require a national-level, educational “bailout” of bankrupted education before more people of influence, like Ravitch, realize there is no “reform” in “reform”?
While Vietnam is an appealing analogy, what is actually happening is closer to the Structural Adjustment policies forced on developing countries (and currently on the Social Democracies of Europe), a key feature of neoliberal economics since the 1970’s and 1980’s. In some cases, debt was used as the lever to enforce these policies; in others, such as Chile under Pinochet, it happened at the point of a gun.
Typical of neoliberal Structural Adjustment policies are deregulation (think alternative teacher certification), austerity (think fiscal crisis and budget cuts) and privatization (think vouchers, charters, etc.).
In other words, imperialism comes home to roost.
Yep!!
See John Perkins one of the “Economic Hit Men” employed by our government to force foreign governments to align with the neoliberal structural adjustment policies. Interview found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
As you state indeed, “imperialism has come home to roost”.
A great analogy. I will take it one step further and say that they are treating our teachers the same way they treated Vietnam Veterans. They are blaming them for failed policies. RTTT legislation prompts bad testing and teacher evaluation policies along with an untested Common Core Curriculum. These policies are certainly not the answer to helping students learn or receiving the best possible educational experiences.In fact they do just the opposite. Designing extremely difficult tests that students fail and a unfair teacher evaluation system that makes teachers look ineffective is not the road to help our students.Our teachers are being blamed for poverty,family issues,special needs of students and every ill of society. They are being spun as the “Bad guys” just like the Vietnam soldiers were blamed for a bad war and failed policies created by politicians. We need to learn from history and not blame the people we send to the front lines to do difficult work. Our teachers are fighting a war aganist illiteracy and ignorance and they need all the help they can get. Vietnam taught us not to blame our troops but to support our troops so they can get the job done. We need to transfer that lesson to education and stop blaming our teachers and start supporting them so they can be successful at the difficult task of teaching on the front lines of education.