The Public Educator is a Néw York City public school teacher. In this review, this blogger expresses chagrin to hear another teacher echoing pseudo-reformer claims. The other teacher disapproved of candidate de Blasio’s plans to alleviate poverty.
“Without success, I tried to change her mind by referring to Diane’s book and some of the information contained within it. She did not believe me when I said that the goal of Bloomberg and others were to privatize education. Instead of looking at profiteers who have used or (stolen) millions in public money to set up for-profit charter schools, her focus was on the weakest within this society. If she lived in the 19th century, her focus would be on the waif that stole a loaf of bread rather than a robber baron that paid slave wages to his factory workers and forced these same workers to buy goods for exorbitant prices at a company store insuring their indebtedness forever.”
She was, sorry to say, absorbing the message of the mainstream media. And planning to vote for a candidate who will close her school, not give her a raise, and destroy her profession and her pension.
How effective these “reformers” are if they can convince teachers to vote against their own self-interest as well as that of their students.!.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s not an example of the effectiveness of reformers but, rather, of deep-seated right-wing ‘blame the victim’ ideology. That’s the conservative hate train and they’ve used that reasoning to get even struggling middle income people to vote against their own best interests in this economy. Hopefully, if those folks struggle enough, they’ll start to realize that the right is all about big monied interests and has absolutely no intention of helping them either.
Anon: I would add that what you describe as “blame the victim” easily becomes one victim blaming another victim, aka “divide and conquer.”
It’s just like sleight-of-hand: it works best when you don’t know you’re being deceived.
That’s why the edubullies are reacting so sharply to reasoned and factual analyses like REIGN OF ERROR—with others already out and even more soon to come, e.g., Dr. Mercedes Schneider’s book (expected to be out next year).
The metrics are simple for edupreneurs. When you weigh lies against $tudent $uccess—well, one of those old dead Greek guys described them over 2,000 years ago:
“Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.” [Sophocles]
😦
Ohio got stuck with John Kasich that way. The people who are hurt most put him in office. Now we continue to suffer from their blind allegiance to propaganda and pseudo “family values”. Many still look like deer in the headlights, plugging along, doing as they are told, because they need the money their jobs provide. Yet many are not sure how much longer they can go on like this, knowing they are not really teaching, but trapped in the cycle of depending on their income to support their lifestyles. Stress abounds.
I would like to know why, while the GOP/Tea Party attempts to hold the government hostage, people at the federal DoE etc. do not continue to work. They expect nearly everyone else in the country to work for next to nothing, why don’t they set an example and do what they expect of others?
And what’s up with shutting down government websites? That’s just ridiculous. Anyone who has informational websites knows they don’t need to be monitored 24/7 by humans. And, just like utilities, there will still be bills for them anyways, even if services are not used. (I was charged $40 per month for NOT using my gas! And THE gas company has a monopoly in my area. Why has government permitted that to continue?) The government won’t pay for students who are absent, even though the bills for overhead won’t stop just because kids don’t show up. Why are they even letting big business get away with imposing high charges when services are not used?
It’s like the government is trying to prove how indispensable they are. Well, I’m all for supporting necessary public services, but if government doesn’t get back to work, whatever it is they do, and those who do it, are looking more and more unnecessary everyday –and I will certainly be remembering their names in the next election.
Oh my God. If we think that the purchasing of elections by billionaires/corporations aimed at setting public policies, based on their self-serving agendas, is really terrible now, we are on a course for that to become much, much worse, with further deregulation by SCOTUS and the development of shadow parties.
Watch Bill Moyers & Company, “Citizen United: The Sequel” http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-citizens-united-the-sequel/
Be sure to also watch Moyers’ interview with historian Joyce Appleby, author of “Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination” http://www.amazon.com/Shores-Knowledge-Discoveries-Scientific-Imagination/dp/0393239519
Considering all that’s going on right now in our world, this is fascinating and uplifting! Like Diane, Appleby is a scholar with keen insights on our past and where we’ve arrived today and, although the direction we are headed in seems very ominous, she has reasons to be hopeful for our future.
I get sick to my stomach when I think of the apathy and the ignorance that permeate my school environment–my colleagues tend to just go about their business rather than even attend association building meetings where the voting records of those incumbents who are basically allowing so much interference into our careers are carefully laid out for them.
I’m tired of the message getting lost on those who “just don’t have the time” to get involved even to attend one lousy meeting. Anymore, I do not mince words when I respond to this excuse. “If you are concerned about not having the time now to add your voice to the political picture, the future will bring you into one of two scenarios: You’ll either have a lot of time on your hands when you lose your job because you’re too expensive to keep on staff or you’ll have absolutely no time when you’re required to work longer hours for no extra compensation. Wouldn’t you rather give up 15 minutes of your life now to prevent this future?”
Divide and conquer thrives on apathy and ignorance when many are hearing the voices of those who do not collectively represent them instead of those who actually do.
I would say that you are not alone. I waa not very active in my union for several years. Then I felt it was necessary to be informed so I became more involved. People were interested but didn’t have the time to stand up to what was happening. They were/are just as frustrated now as ever. I am sure that now that I have retired that they are having the same and more problems. But like sheep they go along with all the requirements in order to keep their jobs, even though they hate what they must do. They all want to TEACH. They love the kids. But the testing machine has taken over. They want to keep their homes more than to get political. I am not sure that they will ever change.
There is finally some good news! A new poll shows the shutdown is waking folks up to the fact that the GOP is not what they crack themselves up to be.
Maybe now people will realize that right wingers only represent the 1% and this will get them to start voting for candidates who care about actual people instead of corporations/$$$$$: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/10/20903624-nbcwsj-poll-shutdown-debate-damages-gop