Today, the blog recorded 5 million page views!
The blog started April 24, 2012. That’s about 14 months ago.
Wow.
As you know, the blog has no advertisements, no funding, and no staff. Just me.
I plan to keep it that way.
Thank you for making the blog a place where everyone who cares about improving education, defending childhood, respecting the dignity of the education profession, and supporting public education has a safe place to converse.
Thank you for agreeing and disagreeing and, with rare exceptions, respecting the basic rules of civility.
Thank you for tolerating my many glitches, like the times (all too often) when I forget to add the link.
Thank you for pointing out grammatical or spelling errors that are usually caused by auto-correct or my haste.
Thank you for adding your comments to stories.
Thank you for allowing me to post many of your great comments.
Thank you for sending me stories from your hometown or state.
Together we are building a movement of people who want something better for our children and grandchildren.
We want schools with small classes and experienced teachers.
We want teachers who know how to instill the love of learning.
We want our teachers to be treated as professionals, with the autonomy to make decisions for the children in their classrooms.
We want our schools to be centers of their communities.
We want the school closings and the budget cuts to stop.
What we have all learned together over the past year or so is that the issues and conflicts in one community are similar to the issues and conflicts in many other communities.
If we want great education for all our children, we will have to organize and fight for it.
Thank you for sharing in the conversation, adding your voice and your ideas.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
congratulations! you deserve it! Jorge
5 million more!
We will all be forever grateful to you, Diane.
Thank you and here’s to five million more page views….Cheers!
Thank you, Diane, for your tireless efforts to maintain your blog.
Thank you for the many posts that keep your readers abreast of the latest in ed reform nation- (and sometimes, even world-) wide.
Thank you for providing a place for us in the cyber community.
We appreciate you.
Thank you always Diane!
Congratulations Diane…thanks for all you do!
________________________________
Thank you, Diane! It is SO good to have some place to go where I can converse with like-minded people and keep up on the education news.
Whoo hoo:):):)
I think the Thank You is to you. You have brought this issue to the foredront of people’s conscienceness.
You have made Freedom Ring in your extraordinary one woman Blog which gave a voice to the silent, the voiceless, the frustrated and frightened, at a critical time in our history.Timing is everything and your timing is perfect. Much appreciation.
Thank you Diane, I consider you a fellow revolutionary for social justice and for ending the wrongful oppression of all peoples.
Diane, congrats. We all really love your blog and feel that it is part of how we are informed nationally about important issues in education.Thank you for the information.
This is just the beginning!
We all love and respect you and am sure most of us consider you as our extended family member, the wise one from whom we learn.
Thanks dear Diane for giving us this venue to share our information and to unite with colleagues nationwide. Happy summer Solstice!
Keep on blogging; keep us informed. I hope to see 1 billion readers before the end of 2014!
5 millions thanks to you!
Thank you!
Here’s a very good read by Chris Hedges, Why the US is destroying her education system
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410
Thanks for the link – I will spread it far and wide.
Diane – thanks for all you do. It’s genuinely amazing what you’ve been able to do with just one blog by yourself. But if you ever do want help, just say the word, and I think I speak for many when I say, ask and it shall be done.
BRAVA! Counting on you! You go, Girl!
Congratulations! Thank you for your leadership, insight and compassion! There is one person who can fix this nightmare — and we’re all here to help you however we can!
Congrats, Diane! Your indefatigable enthusiasm is inspiring: http://wp.me/p1ylqw-93
So much appreciation for your energy and passion and commitment
.
Leaders such as you are to be treasured.
Your Twitter posts opened my eyes to the national travesties in education reform. Thank you for keeping me informed and making it possible for me to inform many sheltered teachers. You know, the ones that don’t come up for air until June.
Thank YOU Diane Ravitch! YOU are MY teacher, and I honor, appreciate, and RESPECT what you do!
Thank you Diane for your tireless spirit. May you continue to support teachers and help us become the voices we need to be in order to educate kids according to what they need.
Deb
Fantastic! I’m proud to be one of the 5 million. Thank you for what you do!
We are ever so grateful to you, Diane, for your commitment to equity and tireless diligence to this critical cause. Thank you so much for providing such a vibrant forum for concerned educators, parents and community members, and for serving as an important catalyst for grass-roots advocacy across our nation.
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May God keep you healthy and continue to bless us all with your longevity!
To the next 5M!
Dear Diane,
“Just you” is just fine. Thank you for your dedication to children, your intelligence and integrity, and your gift of hope, which inspires so many people to,as the poet Adrienne Rich said, ” Act and not be acted upon.”
Best wishes, Dorothy Finwall
Diane, you are simply amazing, a real inspiration! Thank you so much!
Diane, thank you for your relentless efforts! I can only hope that your blog and everyones’ sharing will bring about much needed changes to our educational system.
We have difficulty determining what is the best way to evaluate teacher effectiveness. How do we measure or determine if we are able to turn public education in the right direction?
Please know that all of your work is raising awareness and that you are reaching out to so many people. Thank you for creating positive changes which will benefit our children and our society.
Thank you for all you do! You are a gift to this country.
Diane, you work diligently, 24/7 to keep us up to date on policies and opinions regarding public school education. I mean you work HARD! I humbly appreciate you so MUCH!
Great Job. Thank you for all you have done!
Thank you for giving us a voice.
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” [Mark Twain]
I expect you will continue to gratify and astonish us on your way to the next five million views.
🙂
Beautifully said, KrazyTA!
And Diane,
Thank YOU for you just being you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You, your energy, your writing, your advocacy, your momentum, your intentions, your insight, your integrity, and your intelligence have transformed nearly all of us into something better, more equipped, more intellectual, stronger, more hopeful, more fearless, more just, and more effective.
For that, there is not room enough or adequate enough words to express one’s gratitude . . .
-Robert Rendo
Your NPE logo guy
After the enacting of NCLB and your role in that reform, I was angry and it took me a while to get over it (Me? Hold a grudge? Heck,no) But in the past year, you have done so much to get our voices heard that I just can’t be mad anymore! Thanks!
Anna, thanks. My “role” in NCLB was greatly overstated though never by me. I had no part in writing it. I supported it for five years. I was wrong.
Beautiful word there, Diane, “I was wrong”. And what you have done with this blog takes it way beyond just mere words. Were to have so many utter those words but they’re not in their vocabulary.
Thanks for giving us “peons” (at least it seems in the eyes of the powers that be) a “national voice”.
Gracias
I am so grateful for this blog. I found it about a year ago.
Coming home after a frustrating experience with some top-down school mandates, I think I googled, “What in the %#^& is happening to education?” and Dr. Ravitch’s blog was there. It has been indispensable in helping me to understand and sort through all the reforms and absurd requirements. Many of my colleagues are now faithful readers and are speaking out.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Ditto. Me too. That is exactly how I found this blog. I wanted to know what the heck had happened to the schools in the three years I was out with a baby. My husband curses the day I found it (not really) because I never shut up about it, but I come to the blog daily to learn. (I did give it up for Lent, however, to give my husband a break). It was the right thing to do. 🙂
Yes, I love it as a way to vent and read about what is going on all over the country. 5 million hits shows how many people are angry and seeking answers.
Yes Joanna and DeeDee, Dr. Diane Ravitch’s blog provided evidence for my angst about “edu-reform”. Her scholarly posts have helped me to define my educational values and goals. It’s the most valuable professional development I have ever experienced.
I am forever grateful to Dr. Diane Ravitch.
Diane, you have it wrong this time.. we should be thanking you!
Thank you for being a hero for public education and an inspiration to us all each day! Congratulations on your blog. I am a daily visitor:)
Thank you for fighting for a great education for every child and for respect and support for all teachers and parents.
So glad you started this site. You have helped changed the landscape of ed reform by sharing much needed information.
5 million!! That’s herculean. This is my first go to source for information on education. Thank you so much for providing the most reputable news source going.
thank you
When do you sleep? Your dedication, tirelessness, wisdom, humility, spunk – you are the whole enchilada! Thank you so much for your leadership and passion.
Thank you for all the information!!
Diane, there are many, many of us around the country who long thought of you as one of the nation’s finest scholars. I still maintain that your Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms is the best single book ever written on a topic in education. It is certainly the best that I have read, and I have read many, many such books. It’s a book that transforms readers. No one who reads it with understanding can be the same teacher, administrator–hell, the same person–afterward. That single work would have been enough to have ensured for you a profound and lasting legacy. You could have stopped there, and with your other scholarly work, content to wear the laurels you had won.
But we should expect more of our public intellectuals. We should expect that they will, when they are needed, roll up their sleeves and wade into the political muck. This you have done, courageously, and doubtless at considerable cost in old friendships and lost time that could have been devoted to other projects. You have become our Ida Tarbell, our Sinclair Lewis, our Ida Wells-Barnett. I know that I speak for untold thousands of teachers. You have earned our undying respect, gratitude, and love.
Thank you
Not content to write history, Diane Ravitch decided to make some. And we should all be enormously grateful for that.
Thanks, Robert, I will be 75 on July 1. I am in a race against the clock to do what I can where I can when I can.
dianerav: I hesitated to use this but you hinted at it so here goes.
IMHO, in my lifetime there have been and are very very few public figures that this applies to:
“Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” [Mark Twain]
And why sorry?
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” [Mark Twain]
Never too soon to say
Thank you for having the courage to stand up when so many around you preferred the safety of keeping their seats.
🙂
Thank you, Robert. That is a beautiful tribute. I am humbled by the comparison to the great muckrakers. They inspire me. I will go back and re-read them this summer. If words can change society, we will win.
Thank you Diane for being here, writing, talking and fighting the fight for all the kids.
Thank you, Diane! It takes a big person to say that they were wrong publicly – even more so to work to make it right again!
Your blog Diane, as well as your links to other bloggers throughout the country connects us all in Public Education. Together, we will make a difference. Thanks for all you do!
Thank you, Marcia. Those who support our children, our teachers, and our schools must recognize that the attacks are national, they are premeditated, and they use the same playbook. Accordingly, we must organize to stop their raid by using the tools at hand: not money, because we don’t have it, but social media, which is free, and the power of our numbers.
As in “free public education”? There is nothing “free.” What you must mean is that you can freeload on something someone else is paying for. As for “numbers,” that too is a false concept. It should read “rational numbers.” How many teachers are rational on these matters? On this blog, so far, I count three.
Well, as Winnie The Pooh would say…”Oh, Bother!” WHAT are we going to do with you, Harlan? Are you trying to be the devil or the devil’s advocate? You can’t just let Diane have her special moment or happy day; have to be negative instead of positive. (Flick him off like a piece of lint Diane–no worries!) I do give Harlan props for visiting this blog and reading every morsel of knowledge on it. And, Harlan, bring on your scathing retorts because with each one you help to increase the total count of page views thereby contributing to Diane’s success. I’m curious if you count yourself in the number of 3 teachers on this blog that are rational about these matters? If so, I could make a text connection to a little folktale called Three Blind Mice. Oh, Harlan, you are not the only one who has found your voice. Thanks to Diane Ravitch, many educators are beginning to find theirs…and look out because they are also starting to use them. We may need a Teacher Protection Program before this reform movement is
all over with, but I feel stonger knowing that there are so many other like minded people out there. Ms. Ravitch, you are supremely the highest form of awesome and you deserve at least 5 million thank
you’s for your work on behalf of education, educators, public schools, and the children who attend them. Don’t let anyone steal your joy today because you bring an abundance of it to others (and it is much needed and appreciated!!!)
Not trying to be anything but truthful. Diane can take care of herself.
Truthful? That’s funny.
Linda: Think of me as a reporter. Truth is when words correspond to reality. I’m just trying to say what I see. Diane is right about the nature of good education, public or otherwise. Her work here is a true national service. I do not think she is right about the true root causes of the pressure on it. Those wounds public education inflicted on itself, sort of like not maintaining one’s immune system. With a weakened body, then the parasites began to attack it, the opportunistic diseases. But, unfortunately, the public education cadres aligned themselves with the feckless Obama, and that’s like going to a doctor who bleeds you. If they had promoted economic growth and LESS government spending, the recovery from the recession would be well under way by now, and the funding pressure on the schools less intense. Nevertheless, the bill for bloated union contracts ultimately had to come due sometime, just as they did in the auto industry. And that was returned to marginal profitability only by downsizing. All of this has nothing to do with me personally. It’s just what is. A mirror to reality can sometimes be cruel.
Am I one of them, Harlan?
Harlan, you can at least thank Diane for having this blog to air your bizarre, uninformed/underinformed, odious, self-absorbed, condescending yet hysterical, hard-to-take-serious rhetoric . . .
Common etiquette would compel you to say thank you to our host.
Harlan, being mean and vituperative does not mean you have to part with graciousness . . . .
Robert Rendo: I thought you understood that the “new manners” includes the “new math” and the “new humility.” That you could even think of tossing around a phrase like “part with graciousness.” How very quaint! How twentieth century!
IMO, you need to get up to speed in the rapidly evolving excellence that is overwhelming big gubment public education. [Refer to a commenter above for the quoted words.] For example, if in doubt about how you can determine that three is the number of “teachers” on this blog who are “rational” when it comes to “rational numbers,” you need to turn to Webster’s Cagebusting EduExcellence-to-English Dictionary. It’s really quite simple, combining twenty first century math and manners and humbleness in one stirring phrase: 3 = Me, Myself, and I.
So with profuse apologies to Billie Holiday et al., just one bit of lyrical Rheeverse:
Me, myself and I
Are all in love with we
We all think we’re wonderful
We do
Mr. Rendo, honestly, even you can’t disagree with that heartfelt sentiment, now can you?
🙂
Robert, I believe that Harlan did begin graciously, saying, “Diane is right about the nature of a good education, public or otherwise.” and I am happy for the dissenting, various voices on this blog. I for one learn from all of them.
I do wish we could start thinking past the old left-right frames. We’re way past that. The United States has long been a “State Socialist” Capitalist Country–that is, one in which large capitalist enterprises are heavily subsidized and patronized by, and essentially dependent upon, the federal government and, in particular, upon the departments of defense and homeland security, and both parties, the Dimocrats and the Repugnicans, operate this corporate welfare machine for the benefit of their Lords, the captains of our industries.
KrazyTA,
I agree 100% with your post. I was being sarcastic when I asked if Harlan thought I was one of the rational teachers. I assure you that I don’t use HU as a looking glass to reflect who I am as an activist and public school teacher.
I mean, we could all probably use HU as a looking glass, but only if we can put up with a mirror that has cracked or a mirror that is likely to be used in a fun house.
I have learned a lot from HU, and I actually ingtersect with his views when it comes to bad government no longer representing the interests of the average person here in the States. But I still believe in big government when it feels the pulse of its citizenry and acts in its behalf. Look to western and northern Europe or Australia, where despite many grave problems, there is far more equality and more robust social contracts than there are here, many have which we have allowed to erode and that our state and federal governments through their neo-liberal or ultra conservative lenses (I hope you hate labels as much as I do!) have taken eroded.
I believe very much in free markets and capitalism, but I also believe we who make more money (I happen, through fact or perception, incluse myself in that category) should pay into the common good to assure a successful, dignified life for all, i.e. social security, a one payer system for healthcare, public education, small class size and remediation and supplementation when needed. We no longer have a balanced brand of free and open markets. . . We have a succinct corporate welfare.
What we have is an unfettered and indifferent system of winners and losers, and no longer the stronger, who remain strong and rich, helping to ensure the middle class and weaker segments of the population, a section that is rapidly growing.
But who among us can honestly say that such conditions over a few decades won’t lead to revolution or systemic violent civil unrest? Or higher crime rates, such as what the growing middle class in Brazil face when on the way to work?
I declare “DOWN!” with the Penny Pritzkers, the Rupert Murdochs, the Obamas, the Bushes, the Bill Gates, the Donald Trumps, the Mark Zuckenbergs, the Randi Weingartens, the Joel Kleins, the Michael Bloombergs, the Scott Walkers, and even most of the GOP and Democrats (this is a very condensed list). . . . Throw them all into one big giant Moulinex food processor . . . . Now that’s some imagery!
We need a whole new paradigm, and fresh way of thinking and believing.
It’s up to us and future generations. We still vote, we still spend money and can throw our weight around to show the ruling elite how we feel about their policies.
Mr. Shepherd,
I agree with everything you say. Perfdectly put.
As far as labels go, I proudly see myself, waxing Don Quixote, as a European style Socialist Democrat. I have some ties to France, and I speak French and Spanish. Whereas I have not lived, worked, or voted long enough in France, my wife has, as had my father-in-law (Paris for 17 years, working in a car factory in the outskirts).
My wife’s cousin’s husband is Guy Bergelle, a leftist, urban studies academic at the University of Paris, and my father-in-law’s brother-in-law was Andre Gautier, a deputy in the Assembly Nationale. Andre’s prime mission was to make sure the French government did not hoard taxes for its cronies but actually used the money to truly reconstruct Paris after WW2. Money was strictly to be used for public trusts, such as subways, telephone lines, airwaves, public schools, hospitals, roads, sewers and municipal water.
We can use an Andre Gautier now. Bernie Sanders is the closest we have, perhaps.
Normally, I don’t normally name drop. I’m not impressed by names or lineage. But after immersing myself in the cultures of Spain and France for the last 15 years, and really talking with and socializing with the average working class peron there, I have developed a keen sense of right and wrong, and I have an overwhelming sense that the United States is on the wrong track with its citizenry. Yet the people need to wake up and unify also, no small or easy task given our history of state sovereignty and diversity and our allowing ourselves to become dumbed down.
The people in Spain and France and now Italy are taking to the streets in protests and demonstrations like never before because of austerity and because banks have been bailed out too often and are sitting on piles of non-meritorious and now uncirculated money. SO many of my peers ask me why they are have so manyh demonstrations (literally 1 million in the streets of Madrid last summer).
They, across the pond, are wondering why we are not . . . .
Coming to this blog is a daily must on my calendar, even when I am exhausted and think that I can not bear to read about one more smite upon my profession, I still come and read. The intelligence, the heart and the determination that I find here buoys my spirit and channels my resolve to organize, to agitate and to educate those who would be our allies in this struggle to save our schools and teach our children well.
Betsy,
You are the best! My hope is that as teachers and parents and others learn about what is happening across the nation, they will grow the will to resist, organize, fight it. Throw the rascals out and elect people with a brain, a heart, and a passion for improving the lives of children and families, not corporations.
Thank you for connecting us. You are so right that the playbook is the same. We can learn from each other.
That could be 5 million people, minus the 1/2 million times I’ve clicked on this site, so maybe 4.5 mil. Great stuff!
All thanks go to you, Diane. The revolution is underway.
Thank you Diane for your continued inspiration. The tattered piece of paper when you wrote Just Say no to Race to the Top (and you listed 10 reasons) is still on a bulletin board in my office. How honored I am to know you.
We can never, ever thank you enough Diane, for all you have done for the children, parents and teachers of America. YOU started it all by pointing out the wrongdoing and writing about it. I know that all of us cannot wait for your book and your book tour, so that we may say thanks in person. You are a national treasure!
I would like to make a suggestion to other readers of this blog. Unlike the deformers, Dr. Ravitch doesn’t call for financial support of the work that she does. She researches, thinks, writes–all considerably less costly than are the undertakings of the deformers (buying legislators isn’t cheap)!
We can all support her work by preordering her new book and by letting others know about it:
Ordering mine now.
And thank you for doing it! Is that 3 million a sum total or current (today’s) viewers? Either way, great!
I think we should follow up on the NY Time editorial conclusion that America is not facing a skill-gap–but a wage gap.
It undermines rationale #1 for the “crisis” talk.
For more information see website: http://www.deborahmeier.com
Thank you Diane for being one of the bravest warriors for public education during this critical time in history. I believe you will one day be regarded as an individual who stood up with courage and conviction, just as Rosa Parks did in her time. I am honored to share this space with you. Adding my voice with others who believe in democracy and truth is a responsibility of all who believe in America. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn from you and others. History will one day look back at you with pride and deep respect.