John Merrow asks the question: How did this woman with little experience and meager accomplishment and a penchant for braggadocio become a major media figure?
She did, by burnishing her resume.
The media did, by basking in her harshness.
Merrow did, by broadcasting 12 segments on national TV about her.
And unions did, by their intransigence.
What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Tools are made, not born.
I found this quote while searching for something that expressed my thoughts about Ms.Rhee. It seems very apropos:
“We humans are naturally disposed to worship gods and heroes, to build our pantheons and valhallas. I would rather see that impulse directed into the adoration of daft singers, thicko footballers and air-headed screen actors than into the veneration of dogmatic zealots, fanatical preachers, militant politicians and rabid cultural commentators.”
Stephen Fry
Fry is incomparable.
Yes, Stephen Fry is really priceless.
I’d most like to see the veneration directed towards our teachers, firefighters, engineers, inventors, poets, economic rights activists, artists, architects, train conductors, bus drivers, chefs, police, and carpenters. . . . the people and similar kinds who make the great American engine run.
Add to the list doctors and nurses. . . .
I wrote the following comment to the Merrow column:
Don’t overlook the fact that the DC School Board who hired Rhee has some responsibility for “creating Michelle Rhee”. They hired her from a presumably large pool of applicants. Who vetted her resume? Whenever I applied for Superintendencies over the past three decades a head hunter sought copies of transcripts, called previous board members, principals of schools I led, the teacher’s union head, parents, local government officials, and– in most cases– personally visited the school district I was leading to confirm that what I reported in the interview was true. What happened in Washington?
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%22michelle%20rhee%22
I give the credit or demerit to Joel Klein; he created Rhee, as he did John White and so many other wretched educational misleaders.
If we’re talking about one person most responsible for her appointment as chancellor, I would say it’s absolutely Klein.
All roads lead back to Bloomberg and Klein.
Klein, the fellow who tried to remake the image of R Murdoch, whose business ethics led to hacking into the cellphone of a dead teenage girl.
And, to you all above & below, don’t forget the great villainthropist, Eli Broad.
The entire country has become one big pyramid scheme, with the Main-Scream-Media quite literally filling up the middle layers. They are the middle-men — the ropers and shills who pump up the con and take their cut before the suckers at the bottom go bust. When they get caught, they just say, “Oops! We’re sorry. But aren’t you glad you have us to tell you about the lies we couldn’t help telling you last week?”
The masses pay attention to these tools because the Braindead Megaphone of the Media does not let them know there is any alternative.
I don’t know, Palin could have been VP. It is a nation that worships idiots. Snooki or J-Wow probably could have had Rhee’s job if they applied.
Please write to Arne: arne.duncan@ed.gov
Linda, I love you (especially your “bloviated” & “bloviate” comments!), but STOP with the writing Arne Duncan!
Waste of time, my dear. Everyone, repeat after me: I will change things WHERE I am, and the change we make will spread from
village to village, town to town, city to city, state to state, all across the country and all over the world. It is already happening.
CTU. Garfield H.S. Texas. Students in New Jersey, Providence, Rhode Island, New Orleans, Lane Tech H.S, Chicago. Yes, WE
will! Stand and deliver.
WITHOUT Arne Duncan, I might add.
This is liitle off topic, but Senator Charles Grassley (R) Iowa is trying to defund Common Core. I noticed that this story is not on any mainstream media websites
http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2013/04/grassley-launches-effort-to-prohibit-common-core-funding/
Thank you, Susan. Of course I haven’t seen it. I’d heard something about it, though, as I follow Iowa–my niece teaches there, & her school is being looked at for a turnaround. Yay for Sen.Grassley
(a Republican!)–I hope this comes to fruition.
I hope so too. Here is a link to the relevant subcommittee:
http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/sc-labor.cfm
See a recent Anthony Cody column about how cultural conservatives and liberals are getting together to push back against the common core: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/04/a_progressive_and_a_conservati.html
I’d also add, echoing Retiredbutmissthekids’s point in the comment that precedes this one, that people who meet around dining room and kitchen tables have more in common with one another than they have with people who mostly meet around boardroom tables. Sensible reds and blues need to reach out to one another to form alliances when they have common cause. Nothing changes at the top until the folks on Main Street stop listening to media narratives and start listening to one another.
Years ago I wrote this letter to the editor of a local newspaper. Never published. I stand by it today and use it to respond to the this post:
To the Editor:
Re: “New to Teaching, Idealistic, at Risk of Layoff”
Why should seniority not be applied to teaching? Presidents, CEO’s, doctors, generals don’t lay off senior workers in whom years of experience is stored. Of our school’s seven recently retired teachers, all are masters who taught generations of children and teachers. New teachers are welcomed—they could be getting higher paying jobs. Yet, when forced to argue among ourselves because American culture doesn’t value educators or, apparently, children, we can’t lay off senior teachers UNLESS deemed incompetent by administrators. Learning to be a master teacher, takes years. Teaching for over 16 years, I still learn something new every day, just like presidents, CEO’s, lawyers, and generals– such accumulated wisdom grows new teachers. This conversation underscores how misguided is the dialogue about the future of education in America. NO teachers should be laid off. Teachers teach nations builders; they are molders of minds that will lead our nation. Do not disregard our children, lest they disregard us as we age.
Melissa Heckler
I’ve been in a lot of different classrooms and I have to say the myth of the “talented young teacher” is just a myth. They are still learning how to teach and gaining experince. The senior teachers have years of experience and deserve the respect. The young teachers I’ve seen aren’t doing anything new or magical. It is more of a movie myth.
I was laid-off after my third year of teaching. I thought it was more fair to the students to lay me off than someone who has spent more years on the job.
Only in education so we have the backward notion that those with the least experience have the most to offer. I’ve never gone out and tried to hire the newest doctor, mechanic, or any other worker.
Off topic but this just in on Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/frustrated-parents-fought-reclaim-kids-destiny-worked-010009422.html
Even Yahoo is pushing the parent trigger (though I’m not sure why I find that surprising)
We all know that the Rheefer is a North Korean plant trained to eviscerate American public education and bring down the USA so that the North Korea may eventually become the top dog nation of the world.
If she starts hanging out with Dennis Rodman then you’ll know it’s true!!!!
Rodman would make a decent Secretay of Ed. Get some new blood in there.
Hasn’t Rhee already landed one old NBA guy; and aren’t his offenses much worse than any of the crazy stunts Rodman has done over the years.
One thing that really is true is that Psy only partly redeems South Korea. Too bad we couldn’t swap the two of them out so that he was the one heavily influencing US education policy and she was the one making goofy music videos — we couldn’t be worse off.
Some people have the talent for promoting themselves; our country is full of such individuals. I think Rhee gets most of the credit for creating herself. She charmed some powerful and wealthy men and then she was off.
What I find fascinating is how the camera caught her essence early on. When the cover of Time appeared, many people saw something dark. Now “everyone” sees it.
Yes. Don’t underestimate her talent. She is an idiot when it comes to running a school, but she is a brilliant self-promoter.
What’s with all the commentary about Rhee being Korean? How deep does this mentality run?
All? There is only one reference. What are you talking about? A liar is a liar is a liar no matter what her heritage is…I could care less. She is a fraud.
Two, but mine was correct — her parents were South Korean, not North Korean. I apologize if you found my observation to be offensive, Flerp, and will try to be more of a Gentleman in the future.
Did you see what I did there?
I see two (so far). It’s good that you don’t care, but others apparently find it notable.
Do you know what humor is?
Actually, it’s Rhee herself who is always invoking ethnic and nationalist stereotypes in the most egregious fashion.
Listen closely to her current “act” that Rhee has taken on the road to promote her latest version of the same “book” (screed?) with the same hoary, mendacious theme: “Why Teachers Are Responsible For Everything That’s Wrong And Bad In Our Country” Subtitle: (“Unless They Are TFA Or Work For A Charter.”)
In all of Rhee’s performances, she’ll denigrate “American kids” and their parents for supposedly being lazy, entitled, coddled brats who “expect a trophy just for showing up.” (She doesn’t cite a source for this outrageous and vicious attack. She just feeds it, with no more proof than her ow opinion, to an audience of largely wealthy backers.
Then Rhee compounds the damage and doubles down on her sweeping—and ignorant—ethnic generalizations by claiming that “Asians work harder” and come from families that “demand much more”…blah blah blah…
Rhee’s ethnic stereotyping—which is apparently overlooked by a largely compliant media—is arguably the most blatant and egregious since George Wallace and Lester Maddox, fifty years earlier.
It’s truly offensive to hear anyone mention someone’s nationality and make judgements about them based upon it. And it’s pathetically obtuse as well.
Substitute “Black” or “Latino” or “Jewish” for “American” or “Asian” in Rhee’s promo script and then ask yourself if you think her stereotyping is any less offensive.
Puget — that is a fantastic observation. I hadn’t thought of it before, but you’re absolutely right.
Yes, and I can find the link if you want it, but she mocked the dialect of her students in Baltimore after a field trip when she had to drive them home due to some nonsense about not having parents phone numbers. Who doesn’t take permission slips and all relevant information with them when taking kids out of the school building?
She couldn’t even manage a field trip and she is telling us what to do?
So she imitated their expressions and their dialect portraying them as poorly educated. Wasn’t she their teacher?
I tend to think that Americans (such as Rhee) can express criticism of “Americans” without violating basic rules of decency, even though the generalizations are often inaccurate. For that matter, I tend to think Frenchmen or Russians or Saudis can do the same. It has a quite different effect than criticizing someone’s race or ethnicity. So we may have to agree to disagree about that premise
So screw the black and brown kids she was mocking too, eh?
Linda, if it make you uncomfortable to see people refer to Michelle Rhee’s ethnicity when they criticize her, then you and I have that in common. If you think it’s ok, then we differ in that respect. I’d prefer not to see it, but people are free choose their own words, and this isn’t my blog.
I don’t care about her ethnicity. She is an embarrassment as a human.
Although I am embarrassed she represents my gender.
My point was she should be held to the same standards and she should not be mocking her own students no matter what their color or socioeconomic level.
Can she get any more despicable?
And I think we’re seeing a repetition on a small scale in my home town, Syracuse, NY. The teachers union does nothing because “we don’t want to disrupt our good relationship with the superintendent.” The media does it by not investigating and printing her press releases without question. And the politicians and community leaders do it by accepting the falsehood that teachers are the problem. No one questions, no one protests, and the reputation grows. When you control the message, it doesn’t matter if it’s a lie.
“No one questions. . . ” As the bumper sticker read back in the 60’s QUESTION AUTHORITY!
I reserve my ire and disdain for those in authority who spout utter crap out the wazoo and never are called to task for their inane utterings and proclamations.
Does she not reflect two modern-day concepts, “cult of personality” and “branding”?
I think the masses liked her message and it is the general public who made her. If people didn’t agree with what she had to say, she would have disappeared a long time ago. Unfortunately, from my observations, plenty of people agree with her agenda (despite the lack of data to support her platform). Now she is the Teflon reformer.
Morrow is either a terrible reporter who does not do investigation or he is on some really good psychadelic drugs. “Students Last” was created by the billionaire corporatizer privatizers and hedge funds as an “Astroturf” organization to promote their destructive messages and to distance themselves somewhat. Lots of people will sell their soul to the devil for a few pennies. That is all there is to it.
I appreciate the good work John Merrow has done and is doing but there is only one person that he can—in good conscience—hold fully answerable for creating the public figure he laments:
Himself.
I was uncomfortable reading his piece that unfortunately seemed to have one main purpose: assiduously minimizing his personal responsibility for not upholding his obligations as a journalist and a citizen by placing himself in the midst of a vast crowd of miscreants, others now made to bear the heaviest part of the burden called “Michelle Rhee.”
I know it’s hopelessly twentieth century but what about “the buck stops here”—taking personal responsibility for obvious transgressions without using others as an excuse for one’s own faults?
I look forward to him doing more good work in the future but he has grievously wounded himself with this self-absolving posting.
Just my dos centavitos worth.
Merrow spends too many words on the “U” (unions) and not enough on himself (and himself alone–absent the rest of the media).
I am disappointed in his post. Merrow ought to readily recognize the weight his attention to Rhee carries.
Agreed. Especially after she told him: “want to see me fire a principal.”
Additionally, as Bob Somersby has written on his DailyHowler (http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh021811.shtml), other media figures like Evan Thomas, Charlie Rose etc.deserve the blame here. They love the narrative of the energetic young person stirring things up. (NB. Bob was onto Rhee from the beginning. See http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh021811.shtml)
Here is more from Bob Somersby:
Rhee’s results “weren’t nearly as good” as she has always said! But the data on which Mathews based this judgment were first reported four years ago. Why then have so many journalists, Jay included, seemed eager to suspend disbelief about Rhee’s ballyhooed claims?
The answer to that question takes us back many years. For whatever reason, journalists and other elites have always loved improbable claims about educational miracles in low-income schools.
For us, this story dates to Herbert Kohl’s influential 1967 book, 36 Children. In his widely-read book, Kohl described his experience as a new teacher in a large Harlem elementary school.
In his opening paragraphs, Kohl gave voice to the high ideals emerging in the liberal world as the civil rights revolution focused attention on the plight of deserving black children in our inner-city schools. Kohl described the start of his year as a sixth-grade teacher in Harlem:
…..
Alas! This was a very hopeful time for elite folk who cared about black kids! The liberal and mainstream worlds still knew little about the actual challenges faced by “inner-city” schools. But all of a sudden, the brutal history of American racism had come front and center in American life; given that ugly history, it was easy to believe (with apologies for the language) that the “dullest” children could quickly be transformed into the keenest and brightest. White liberals insisted on that belief; often, they clung to this belief in the face of emerging knowledge. We first encountered this as a journalistic problem in (we think) 1972. This episode involved a well-intentioned but defiantly wrong-headed columnist at the Baltimore Sun. (For a quick review of these instructive events, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/8/05).
That was the early 1970s. But for whatever reasons, mainstream “journalists” have never stopped loving those miracle tales about low-income schools. They simply love to tell pleasing stories in which “dull” children are magically transformed into the keenest and brightest! By now, of course, we know much more about low-income children than we knew in the days of Kohl’s book; most simply put, we know that low-income kids and their middle-class peers really aren’t “just alike.” Presumably, they’re just alike on the day they’re born—but they aren’t just alike by the time they hit school, or by the time they reach fourth grade. We’ve often quoted this statement by a famed “liberal” think tank:
CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Young low-income and minority children are more likely to start school without having gained important school readiness skills, such as recognizing letters and counting…By the fourth grade, low-income students read about three grade levels behind non-poor students.
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh022111.shtml
Nice grab, Ed.
Bob Somerby was, indeed, on to Michelle Rhee long before others.
Why?
Perhaps because Bob shared a bit of Rhee’s background; he also taught in the Baltimore city schools.
More importantly, though, is that Somerby actually thinks…and he had the presence of mind to question those fantastic score gains that Rhee bragged about, gains that were, to say the least, implausible.
Which begs the question: why did no one in DC or in the mainstream media question Rhee’s bogus claims (and yeah, I’m pointing a finger of blame directly at The Washington Post)?
Then again, how many people believed the Bush administration’s goofy claim(s) of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? How many people still subscribe to supply-side economics? Creationism?
Thanks, Krazy, for this well-stated, thoughtful analysis (too many outlier comments on this post, but I understand how infuriated everyone is, as am I!). I can even somewhat understand the union piece of his rhetoric, but everyone (or, at least–I would hope–MOST people) in the rank-&-file should or does understand
that the fault lies with AFT & NEA LEADERSHIP–certainly not with union members.
Randy Weingarten has been involved with some very strange bedfellows–Broad people & others. As for Dennis Van Roekel and the NEA–well, under his leadership, an early endorsement of Obama was made in this last election–well before the national convention; therefore, without input from its membership. Rather than make the endorsement contingent on replacing Duncan, restructuring the DOE, abolishing RTTT and, therefore, pulling the reins in on “standardized” testing, Van Roekel et.al. just handed
POTUS their endorsement on a silver platter. (And–thanks a lot for that, Dennis.) And, no, no union people I know EVER liked, supported or hero-worshiped Michelle Rhee. She definitely did NOT have us at hello. In fact, a smirking “Wanna see me fire a principal?” does not rock the world of any teacher I know.
It’s despicable.
All that having been said, John Merrow, drop this agenda and go
back to the secret memo business. You uncovered it, so continue to fulfill your obligations as a REAL journalist and follow the story
to its (hopefully) bitter (for Michelle) end.
retiredbutmissthekids: I never miss a posting of yours. Keep writing & I will keep reading.
This one is spot on. In the fantasy world of some edupundits, the big bad unions are both blamed for running and ruining schools—as well as being the unfortunate victims of school district policies and situations that are driving their members out of the teaching profession in droves. The all-powerful unions are in charge—at the same time as they are helpless before the eduBillionaires and their educrat cronies and accountabully underlings.
There isn’t supposed to be rhyme nor reason to all this. As a number of posters have said before, for the charterites/privatizers it’s all about $tudent$Fir$t and educational $ucce$$ and parent disembowelment, er, empower-something [still am figuring that one out].
In truth most of the union ‘leaders’ are no more effective at leading their organizations than Michelle Rhee was in leading DCPS. The appearance of competence trumps real-world competence, a media-spun aura of moral authority trumps the moral authority won through sacrifice and perseverance, nonsense uttered with total confidence trumps the gritty and often uncomfortable truths of the realities of schools and students and parents and school staff.
Almost every teacher I worked with was [at heart] a pretty hard-nosed realist. You have to be to survive and thrive in a classroom. Teachers will make a lot more progress when they act outside of the classroom the way they do in it.
One important part of that will be when teachers insist that those who represent them don’t feel and act like they have risen FROM the ranks but that they want the ranks to RISE WITH them.
Perhaps a little wisdom from our own history: “We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately” [Benjamin Franklin, in the Continental Congress just before signing the Declaration of Independence, 1776]
Just another dos centavitos worth by me.
🙂
KrazyTA,
I’ll have to steal your thought:
“The appearance of competence trumps real-world competence, a media-spun aura of moral authority trumps the moral authority won through sacrifice and perseverance, nonsense uttered with total confidence trumps the gritty and often uncomfortable truths of the realities of schools and students.”
Very well stated. To paraphrase Lewis Black: “I took LSD when I was younger to prepare myself for times like these.”
Duane
nailed it!
Way to go KrazyTA
Ang: you are too kind. I read every one of your posts.
Although, to be honest, I have been waiting to hear from the Vickster about your refusal to acknowledge how you and your union run your school and pad your salary and guarantee lifetime employment and, well, need I go on?
Just keepin’ it Rheeal.
🙂
Hi Krazy,
Well I wish I had time to chat, but I am in a bit of a hurry. I need to press play on the movie for my students to watch while I run down to Starbucks and get a drink.
You know, with all my job protections and zero accountability it is impossible to fire me down here in GA!
So why work?
Before I encountered the Vickster, I had no idea all this was possible!
😉
PS: I never miss your posts, either!
Thanks for keepin’ it Rheeal
I recall the late journalist Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer going on the Daily Show with John Stewart and honestly saying that they had failed to fulfill their roles as journalists during the run-up the invasion of Iraq. They let the White House present their case with little proper investigative journalism and no publicly articulated skepticism. Powell’s UN vial shaking about was the same as Rhee’s Newsweek broom.
Merrow is a coward. Jeez the celebrity she was accorded with no serious media challenge. Hopefully she will meet her due now with the cheating memo and be on the same bus as Beverly with El Paso’s Garcia making a cozy cell for three,
Can we apply RICOH and freeze all their ill gained assets now?
Reply to Ed Harris’ 4/18/13 11:10 PM comment up there:about your last quote from the Center for American Progress–I just attended a conference titled, “Reclaiming Reform” at which Pasi Sahlberg (CIMO, Finnish Ministry of Education & Culture) and–we Americans have it all backwards–rather, Pasi state, “Finnish Rule #3: Schools ready for children, not children ready for schools.” For more information, I would recommend reading his book.
That seems to sum it up for me. I’ve been baffled that someone could rise so high so quickly and leave such a charred path of destruction in her wake while doing so. I’m in my 8th year of teaching and for all that I’ve learned and developed there is so much I continue to learn and improve. From my perspective, being an effective educator takes, at the very least, a great deal of attention and patience; two things Ms. Rhee is severely lacking.
Washington Examiner, from last night: “Local Editorial: D.C. Council continues test-erasure cover-up”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-local-editorial-d.c.-council-continues-test-erasure-cover-up/article/2527540
The “blame” for the rise of Michelle Rhee is an amalgam.
First in line is Michelle Rhee. She has no shame. She lied, egregiously and repeatedly, about her brief tenure as a teacher, and, it seems, about almost everything else. And she hasn’t repented in the least. She’s still at it, big-time.
The mainstream media failed too. Start with The Washington Post, including its education “reporters.” The Post editorial page has been shameless in promoting Rhee, and even after the USA Today investigative piece on cheating in the DC schools, The Post (Jo-Ann Armao) opined that there were a host of “innocent reasons” for statistically improbable, if not impossible, score gains. And boy, did Jay Mathews slobber all over Rhee early on (to his credit, he finally acknowledged that cheating took place and there needed to be a real investigation). Yes, John Merrow is culpable. And poor hapless Charlie Rose (and Tavis Smiley). And clearly TIME magazine deserves a big chunk of the blame (excuse me, but has TIME issued an apology yet?). Throw a dart blindfolded at any of the mainstream media education “reporters” and you’re bound to hit a guilty party.
Blame also the billionaire boys club and corporate “reformers” who profess a desire to help public education, but are virtually clueless about research and best practice. That group includes Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and all their many minions and allies (like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable).
But let’s not forget A Nation at Risk, which set off the latest iteration of school “reform” with its clownish warning that “a rising tide of mediocrity…threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” That report, which was chock full of misinformation, claimed that “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” There weren’t many who challenged A Nation at Risk, even after the Sandia Report took it apart. The Sandia Report (Journal of Educational Research, May/June, 1993), published in the wake of A Nation at Risk, concluded that:
* “..on nearly every measure we found steady or slightly improving trends.”
* “youth today [the 1980s] are choosing natural science and engineering degrees at a higher rate than their peers of the 1960s.”
* “business leaders surveyed are generally satisfied with the skill levels of their employees, and the problems that do exist do not appear to point to the k-12 education system as a root cause.”
* “The student performance data clearly indicate that today’s youth are achieving levels of education at least as high as any previous generation.”
Not many people paid any attention, and that includes teachers and school administrators.
And let us add them to the mix, especially administrators who jumped on the “data-driven” bandwagon. And the consultants who plied their charlatan wares of “90-90-90 schools,” and “professional learning communities” dedicated to “data” and “common assessments” and testing. One such couple lives on a million-dollar property in an exclusive Virginia lake resort. Indeed.
And, of course, there’s No Child Left Behind (and now Race to the Top), and all the people who pushed it. George W. Bush. Margaret Spellings. Chester Finn. Denis Doyle (who founded SchoolNet, a data tracking software company, since sold to Pearson). Bill Bennett. David Kearns. The list goes on, and it includes people like Tom Friedman (the columnist) and Marc Tucker (the economist), anad organizations like the College Board, which continues to pimp its mostly worthless products (and the Common Core).
Much of the push for education “reform” is based on the “economic competitiveness” argument, which at its core is more than weak. Let’s put blame there too on those who keep pitching this nonsense, from Obama and Arne Duncan to the hedge-funders and most of the Republican party. But nonsense it is.
The great education historian Lawrence Cremin wrote this in Popular Education and Its Discontents (1990):
“American economic competitiveness… is to a considerable degree a function of monetary, trade, and industrial policy, and of decisions made by the President and Congress, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, and Labor. Therefore, to conclude that problems of international competitiveness can be solved by educational reform, especially educational reform defined solely as school reform, is not merely utopian and millenialist, it is at best a foolish and at worst a crass effort to direct attention away from those truly responsible for doing something about competitiveness and to lay the burden instead on the schools. It is a device that has been used repeatedly in the history of American education.” (p. 103)
And finally, let us blame ourselves – at least a bit – for letting it (Rhee, and her brand of “reform”) happen and not doing more to curtail it.
“And finally, let us blame ourselves. . .”
No way José! Some of us have been fighting this crap since the last century and have paid a heavy price, having been forced out of positions, having been come down hard upon with multiple disciplinary “meetings”, feeling the stress of being “hunted” (with no help from the vaunted union MNEA). No I refuse to accept any blame whatsoever. The rest of you who have “gone along to get along” should have the guilty conscience, not I.
I meant that a bit rhetorically, not literally. I too questioned and fought this for a long time….going back to A Nation at Risk, and the push for unreasonable and unachievable “standards” and No Child Left Behind….
I lost a job over it.
Too many – teachers, administrators, parents, civic leaders –– did what you say…they went “along to get along.”
But maybe we all could have done even more.
And by the way, I have no “guilty conscience” whatsoever.
So you object to that final sentence….what about the rest of the post?
As far as the rest of the post you pretty much nailed it. I didn’t perceive the “rhetorical” nature-one of the problems with written communication versus verbal, face to face communications.
I’m glad (in a sad sort of way) that your experiences echo mine. You’ve been there and done that, eh! I’ve shed the “guilt trip crap” I learned growing up in the Catholic schools.
I hate to go all-out Godwin here, but Rhee offered the same things Hitler did: a scapegoat and a savior. Americans lapped up the narrative of clearing out the bad, lazy, entrenched, entitled, union teachers as the magic pill for curing education because it absolved us of dealing with the real issues of poverty and inequality. Rhee masterfully created herself as a one-woman warrior against the “status quo”, the media dutifully promoted her and the American people* eagerly embraced her.
* As a whole, that is. Of course some, even many, people saw through Rhee from the beginning, just as many people saw through Hitler, but the train was already out of the station and steaming along the tracks, flattening everything and everyone in its way.
Another thing that would be interesting to me would be to trace the “lazy, entrenched, entitled, union teachers” meme itself. Did Rhee create that herself, or was she just using something already conveniently in circulation? I honestly can’t remember. We need to trace that meme to see where and with whom it originated.
And along the way those that were responsible for the train running on time, those that did not want to lose the convenience of the train, those that depended on the train industry for wealth and livelihood, and those that knew their train system brought them national pride for being known as efficient, were most all willing to follow orders…..no matter if the trains were transporting their own citizens to torture and death by the many millions!!!!! Those millions were minority groups and not regarded with sensitivity or responsibility by the “good Germans”. That is extreme history by example for those that think it can’t happen again. Good people can be a party to unspeakable atrocities!
Death can come in many ways. The child who is passed through and dropped out of a school system and can not read, or write, or know how to ask a question, seek answers through intellectual curiosity, can eventually slowly and painfully die from the inability to find sustainable work and purpose in their adult years. They die inside and the social chaos that accompanies their existence can be followed in examing the cost in social welfare services. The pipeline from school to prison path by far too many of our children is real and unworthy of our nation.
For profit prison corporations need their cells filled with human fodder. For profit schools need children at desks weighted by dollars for corporate market share and to be sorted for expediency of a work/professional future for some. It is a formula considered by some to be worthy of our capitalist society, race to the top mentality for competiton between governments, and intellectual and financial elitism by others, but it is also not worthy of our nation. This nation is supposed to take into account each and all of it’s children for preparedness, purpose, promise, and possibilities for their future.
This blog has revealed an educated group of outraged thinkers and some activist. That is good, encouraging and vital for the truth and positive change, or hopefully redirect the current education manipulated path we find ourselves on. However, pointing fingers and making statements unnecessarily personal are distracting and unworthy of the arguments needed to stay focused on getting the research (many of the bloggers are wonderful researchers with valuable information) to those that can help, like the journalists who are assigned or take on this investigation in educatlion (such as Mr. Merrow and others) so there can be some seeking of the truth and the players. Without a concert of varied passionate advocates for
the many millions of children of this nation we stand to lose their future. If this sounds too “bloviated” for some understand that
we are all hoping to do the right thing by these children and our nation each in their own way.
Well said Ronee!
Now wait for the backlash for bringing up the “banality of evil”.
Duane
Michelle Rhee invented Michelle Rhee. And obviously far too many people on different levels fell for it.
She’ll stop at nothing to promote herself. We’ll end up seeing her somewhere as a judge on American Idol or as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Quite the different image than than the teacher who duct taped her students’ mouths shut . . .
But she were to go to jail, imagine the reforms to the prisons she could bring.
HA! Very very funny. Sadly I think she actually will end up on dancing with the stars or some other show. Now Im depressed.
Merrow has a statement on his blog re: blaming the unions:
john merrow 19. Apr, 2013 at 7:07 am #
I spoke at length last night with a prominent union leader, someone known for what I suppose one would call militancy. That leader said that he/she agreed with my point, that the intransigence of some union leaders created a strong backlash that helped created “Michelle Rhee.” I wish some of those writing in reaction to what I wrote had been in the conversation.
I am not trying to get off the hook. We, the media, went overboard. And I took care to make the point that teacher union militancy was itself produced by the exploitation of teachers.
Go look at that Jack Steinberg clip and ask yourself how Joe Q Public, union member or not, might react to his assertion that no teacher can ever be held accountable for his students’ learning or not learning.
Teachers should be held accountable for their students’ learning in the same way that pediatricians should be held accountable for their young patients’ health. To continue the analogy, what we have today is a system that has gone so cartoonishly overboard with teacher accountability that it is akin to a system that is poised to strip pediatric oncologists of their licenses to practice medicine because so many of their young patients die as compared to other pediatricians. After all, “cancer is not destiny”.
Ron,
Have you posted this on the link to Merrow’s article/confessional/deflection?
Duane
No, but if you think it should go there, I’ll do so.
See latest comment….are some playing both sides?
Susan 19. Apr, 2013 at 7:53 am #
Your blog was linked by Diane Ravitch, which probably explains all this dogma that’s come your way.
I think it would help for Merrow to read it, so yes please post it.
Ron,
Are you arguing that teachers should be sued for malpractice when they cause harm by deviating from accepted practices?
Teachingeconomist — I don’t know where you’re getting that idea from, but teachers can ALREADY be sued for deviating from accepted practices, so long as the litigant can PROVE that damages occurred specifically due to the deviation.
I could conceivably go to five different doctors to consult them about the same symptoms and get more than one diagnosis as well as five different treatment plans. That doesn’t necessarily mean I can sue four of them for being “wrong”.
Not sure what your point was other than the typical yawnworthy smug smirking we’ve all come to expect from the Rheeform crowd.
I think you are correct that you could only sue a physician for malpractice if the physician actually treats you, not for giving you bad advice, but I am not positive about that.
In any case, as I have argued in the past, I believe that when the government assigns a student to a particular school the government has an obligation to do more supervision over the school than when families are allowed to choose from a variety of schools.
Teaching, the important detail then must be what constitutes “treatment” and whether or not (or how) this may be applied to teachers.
In any event, as I have already said, teachers can ALREADY be sued if someone can prove that damages were a direct result of their actions. For example, I would say that a parent would be well within their rights to sue if a teacher taped their child’s mouth shut and then pulled the tape off, causing their lips to bleed.
In union-free states, there wouldn’t even need to be a lawsuit for such a teacher to lose their job, as due process wouldn’t need to be followed.
Would you say that a teacher who would do such a thing should lose their job, and be considered a disgrace to the profession?
You see? I can be smug and smirky, too.
No doubt the definition of treatment has been worked out in the case law.
The situation you discribe sounds more like assault than malpractice. I would think a failure to diagnose would be a sort of malpractice that could be common to both teachers and physicians.
We can’t be charged with malpractice when we’re not allowed to practice…maltesting, maybe….and we can charge Gates et. al instead…okay?
Flerper, can you help us?
Assault, then?
Would you agree that someone who admitted to having assaulted a child should have no place in education?
Would you agree that they should never be appointed to a position where they would be in charge of telling other teachers how to do their jobs?
Yes I would agree.
Frederic Loewe: “Just you wait, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait You’ll be sorry but your tears ‘ll be to late You’ll be broke and I’ll have money Will I help you? Don’t be funny Just you wait ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait.”
I am not understanding your posts, huh?
Joanna is using song lyrics to get her point across. Some creative use of music, eh!
Teachers unions need to Shanker Up. The “rubber rooms” at New York Public Schools were a big embarassment for us. I know that the issue is complicated, but the public sees something like that and a Michelle Rhee gets created, as Merrow says. Unions need to take control of the accountability side through Peer Review and National Boards.
We teachers need to Shanker up. Merrow is right. The rubber rooms at NYC public schools were a big embarassment for us. Even though the situation is complicated, the public sees something like that and a Michelle Rhee crawls up. Unions should take control of accountability through peer review, National Boards, or another innovation.
The problem isn’t with teachers; it’s with a thirty-year propaganda campaign that said public schools were no good because they were public.
If you want to complain about “accountability,” take a look at principals and higher administrators who almost never lose their jobs but are moved around from school to school, to the central office, or from district to district when they screw up.
The “good ol’ boys” club is the problem, not with supposedly “terrible” teachers, you know, those who are too old or “make too much money” on the salary scale.
That good ol boy club contains many who have XX chromosones.
Teachers are never transferred when they screw up? I think the public is unaware of how much we teachers HATE bad teachers. The fact is though that there are not many bad teachers out there. I’m saying let’s be careful not to sound like we want to protect bad teachers. Let’s agree that we can implement programs that fairly identify poorly performing teachers (not using VAM) and let’s direct the conversation toward attracting good teachers and developing well the teachers we have.
But when we knee jerk on this issue and ignore the fact that some things our unions have done have made us look stupid, we end up empowering the types of people – the good ol boys and girls.
Is Mr. Merrow ignoring the well-reported path that many young, ambitious TFA-ers have taken to public office, as district superintendents, school board members, and congressmen and women?
TFA-ers who are very young without much of a track record and thin (or even inflated) resumes typically can’t possibly win races unless they have considerable financial and logistical support.
Why is it conspiratorial to think that TFA-ers like Rhee are groomed for these positions? We know money from Gates, Walton, Broad and others is employed to shift public opinion. It pays for funding of front groups like Stand for Children, TeachPlus and DFER, It pays for marketing, push polls, focus groups, ads, op-eds and other pr.
How likely is it that Rhee’s meteoric ascent and her incredibly fabulous news coverage is mostly sheer good fortune because she is attractive?
Ret. Teacher and activist Fred Klonsky’s opinion. He can’t exactly see how Mr. Merrow can pin this on the unions.
Merrow may (?) be repenting of his love for Michelle Rhee, but it sounds like he still embraces her “reforms”. If only the union hadn’t been so “intransigent” and had been willing to work with her, maybe she wouldn’t have had to go to the lengths she did. At least that’s how I interpret what he’s saying about unions.
With all due respect, I think people here are too close to this subject. Step back. Michelle Rhee was created by the education reform movement. The education reform movement was a reaction to at least the following three things: (1) the realization that America’s role as the world’s economic superpower was ending; (2) high crime and dysfunction in America’s cities and urban schools; and (3) the realization that spending on public education was growing faster than inflation. These factors led to the conventional wisdom that America’s schools were failing. They were failing because American students weren’t measuring up to their global competition on standardized tests. They were failing because a feel-good, loosey-goosey approach to education focused too much on students’ self-esteem and not enough on academic standards and core knowledge. And they were failing despite the fact that we were spending more and more money on education every year. The solution was “education reform,” through charter schools, merit pay, voucher programs, national standards, tenure reform, etc.
That discussion’s now about 30 years old. Crime’s down, at least in most cities, and at least for now. But America is still a waning superpower. With few exceptions over this time, spending on public education has continued to grow faster than inflation. And now we’re in the Age of Austerity. That means all of this is likely to get worse, not better.
I don’t get the focus on “who created” Michelle Rhee, unless it’s just an exercise by which people who used to support her can now distance themselves from her. She’s a product of the reform movement. If it hadn’t been her, it would have been (and indeed has been) someone else. And there will be more after her, because we are still in the heart of the education reform era. We’re still fretting about America’s global competitiveness, we’re still worried about where the money’s going to come from, and it’s still the conventional wisdom that “something has got to change.” This is probably why Merrow sees the unions as “intransigent.” Because he reflects the consensus that something’s got to change, and from that perspective, almost all of the things that have to change are things that the unions are charged with protecting.
No, I didn’t enter the teaching profession 28 years ago to improve the global competitiveness of our country. That’s not my job. Teachers are not the reason America is a waning superpower. Please take your appeal to the elected officials who are using the teachers as a whipping boy for all of society’s ills. You can’t sell that bull$hit here.
Linda, I’m not saying that’s why you became a teacher. I’m saying that’s been one of the talking points for think tanks and newspaper editorials for 30 years, and it’s based on real concerns that have not been and aren’t likely to be allayed. I don’t think this is very controversial, although it may be depressing.
“it’s based on real concerns that have not been and aren’t likely to be allayed”
AND the real concerns will never ever ever will be resolved if the only solution is to fire bad teachers and find “great” teachers, while taking away our due process rights, demeaning our profession, infiltrating schools with temporary interns, taking away our creativity and ability to design lessons, forcing standardized testing and a national curriculum down our throats while tying our worth to test scores.
Do you see…if the only solution to our societal and economic problems lies with the devastation of one profession, the situation will only get worse not better.
It is a deflection from the responsibility of our leaders and our society to take responsibility. It is easier and more popular to blame one group.
So I think it is VERY controversial because it is a diversion with the true intent to destroy the unions protecting teachers and their due process rights. Their plan is good enough for the poor and middle class children.