As readers may recall, I started a new book last June.
I finished it and turned it over to the editor on January 15.
The manuscript was nearly 600 pages.
In print form, it should be about half that length.
If you have been reading the blog all along, you know what is in the book.
Now it’s time to catch a break.
I am taking a one-week vacation starting January 31.
The blog will still be here every day, as I will have some pieces in the pipeline and I have invited some of my favorite bloggers to write guest posts.
This will be the year that the public begins to see who the corporate reformers are and the havoc they are wreaking on schools and communities.
Diane
This is my first comment on this blog but I have been a lurker here for a while now. You are one of the sanest and bravest voices on education out there now, and I am always trying to get my educator and non-educator friends to read The Death and Life.. I really look forward to reading your new book. Thanks for all you do!
Demonizing reformers because they are “corporate” by itself is only half the story, even as praising teachers in the traditional school systems simply because they are unionized and “public” likewise is only half the story. Not all charters are good schools, but not all are bad. Not all public schools are bad, though some are. Not all gun owners are murderous thugs who want more babies to die. Not all people who want babies to die by abortion, are necessarily bad people. Perhaps this will be the year when the populace at large in many, many areas will begin to see the unintended consequences of what they have been supporting. That thought comforts Diane. It also comforts me.
I don’t think those analogies are accurate. You’re correct that the quality of teachers isn’t guaranteed simply because they’re unionized or teach in public schools. But their very existence, unlike corporate ed reform, is not inimical to the existence of public education.
Reformers acting under the aegis of corporate interest, by their very existence, stand opposed to the independence and integrity of public schools. Their goal is the utilization of a market called “public education” that is worth half a trillion dollars. This goal encourages privatization wherever possible. Their existence is antithetical to a system of democratic public education.
Those who support public education and the right of its employees to organize would do well to “demonize” particularly those corporate interests. It is they who profit from technological privatization (eg, Gates), or the weakening of unions (eg, the Waltons), or private investments in public education (hedge funders, banking interests, etc). These corporate interests bankroll most of the education reform agenda, its political servants and white papers. Corporate reform is not half the story; it’s most of the story.
PS: Congratulations, Diane, I’m thrilled to read your new book!
A sensible critique of my argument.
You go girl!
Congratulations, Diane. May you enjoy some much-deserved rest.
I’m really looking forward to your new book, Diane!
For those who will be reading it and want to get involved in supporting public education at the local and national level, but are having difficulty navigating the minefield of astro-turf corporate sponsored “reform” organizations that use opposite-world names to disguise their true agenda, I hope you have included information about grass roots organizations that people can contact, such as Parents United for Responsible Education, Save Our Schools, the National Opportunity To Learn Campaign, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, Education Law Center, etc.
Wishing you a safe and rejuvenating respite from all the turmoil!
I can’t wait to read your new book, and I’ll make sure everyone I know reads it, too!
Please do take a REAL vacation–we need you to be well-rested to continue the dialogue that you started. In the meantime, let’s EVERYONE go Garfield–in other words: STOP-”STANDARDIZED”-TESTING-in-2013. As Diane mentions in a later post, we DO have the mass. Yes WE can (& will)!
a well deserved break!
Claudia Vizcarra
Hope you are on a warm beach somewhere.
Please put Philly on your book tour. We need you!
Congratulations! Enjoy your vacation!