This comment came from a mother who attended the infamous meeting where State Commissioner John King announced his intention to have a dialogue with parents, then lectured the audience for over an hour, and interrupted those who disagreed with him. Having announced five such meetings, he canceled the other four, claiming that “special interests” had manipulated the parents.
This parent says she was there.
She writes:
“….I was at the Poughkeepsie Meeting. Sat in the front row, cause I wanted to look directly into the eyes of the man who has stolen the love of school from my 9 year old.
I am a mom, I have two boys (9 and 14) and we reside in the small community of Millbrook NY. No matter if the persons who did speak were teachers, they were most likely parents too….and I trust them to be surrogate parents to my children when they are in their care 6-7 hours a day.
We are a team.
So, I suggest that every parent start attending every BOE meeting and PTA/O meeting (as I have for the last 4 years, and that’s why I was at that meeting in Poughkeepsie) to show the local districts our support and encourage them to break free of the STATES hold on our children’s love of learning and their own love for teaching.
REVOLT…..great history lesson….lets stop talking about how teachers are scared for your Jobs…implementing the CC cause you have to…and lets NOT DO IT ANYMORE.
The claim from King was that local districts have some control…and I agree, so now we should show him!!!! Some of the problem is that not enough parents understand how much power we hold in the accountability dept. But, we are educating ourselves and in turn becoming more involved whether our districts want us there or NOT.
It’s time for WE THE PEOPLE…..Teachers and Parents TOGETHER….No excuses, we are just as much to blame for this mess as anyone else. Let’s listen to each other and lets take back the importance of educating our youth.
I am writing for King’s resignation. His disrespect for anyone to have a voice showed him to be the Dictator of his “Communistic Core” and I will not be silenced….this mama bear will fight for her cubs.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane.
I just watched the live stream of your URI appearance. Outstanding….great closing. They certainly appreciated your appearance and support. I watched you in the dark on my iPad in bed. The guy next to me is sleeping. Goodnight. Love to you. I hope to see you soon myself.
I was hoping to see you there, Linda! What a great experience! Well worth the late bedtime!
You were there? Are you close to RI? Bummer!
I live on the “other” side of “the river”, so the drive wasn’t too bad. Only almost hit one deer on the way home…
Glad you’re home safe. Goodnight. Live in exemplary tomorrow. 🙂
And I hope that 100% of your students learn 100% of everything you teach tomorrow!
But Linda, you now know all my best lines! Come to Boston Oct 24!
Diane, it was great to finally meet you in person. It was a great speech and it was so nice to see so many younger people in the audience, obviously in agreement with your views. There is hope for our public schools!
The number of parents oblivious to the controversy in education amazes me. Then again, the number of teachers not sensing the urgency of our cause astounds me. We must keep spreading the word and sharing news of what’s going on outside of our little spheres. We can do this. I just have to believe we can do this.
I am passing copies of Diane’s book to everyone. With the new evaluation process and the bastardized roll out in CT, people are waking up. Each district is doing it so differently from each other there is no fidelity or validity. Proficient in one town could be developing in another…exemplary in one could be proficient. This is the cluster%#% of all cluster%#%$ for sure. They rushed this. Training for admin, but drive by orientations for us. They won’t be able to get rid of anyone (the goal of this teacher reduction plan) because of this half-a$$ed process.
OMG! We ate trying to write our “Smart” Goals right now. What a disaster! At this point in the game, I’m thinking that maybe being labeled ineffective won’t be such a bad thing. I’m sure I could open up a Starbucks franchise somewhere.
Correction: We ARE trying to write our Smart Goals. Although, eating them may be as equally beneficial to our students as trying to achieve them!
One asks, “who will stop this insane machine?” The answer rests on the shoulders of parents such as the one cited above.
I watched the video of the meeting and I thought, “This is what dictatorship looks like.”
The hypocrisy of King to send his child to a private school and then mention the “children of public officials” as if those children are somehow elite made me think of communist countries and their oligarchs.
I cheered for the parents who called King out for taking back the mic so he could talk more.
If the state PTA in NY backs this guy, parents should starve PTA of dues.
I am so grateful to all of the parents who attended the meeting and are standing up to these reformer bullies. Let’s hope the momentum continues.
From Texas, thank you!
*and did the NYTimes cover this debacle?
Cupcake,
Agree totally.
Reformers retreat when public school parents are informed and involved. King needs to resign by the end of the month. Increase the pressure at the local level and with the state legislature. Register complaints using the media. File open records requests for corporate contracts and for King’s correspondence. Follow the money.
State Sen. Jack Martins calls for King to reschedule the meetings or resign. http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/desk-senator-jack-m-martins-80
Do review the video.
Dear Regent Bennett,
I am outraged by your insensitive “racial remarks” (http://www.wgrz.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2746187692001) and will be requesting a through investigation into your mental and physical capabilities in which to serve as a NYS Regent. Your race inciting spin is uncalled for and
there are plenty of tapes for verification. The demonstration of your words and actions call for your removal.
With Outrage,
Charlene Myers
CC: Senators Flanagan, Larkin , Bonacic
Assembly Members: Ra, Rabbitt, Graf
I am formally requesting an investigation regarding Regent Bennett’s fitness for the position of NYS Regent.
The billionaires underwriting this agenda aren’t educators. Like John King, they may have visited many classrooms, but they show little more than a superficial awareness of what educating a child is about. The center of gravity in our public education system has been shifted by corporate reform, so that our schools are being reduced to test prep factories. This is the inevitable result of rating teachers, principals, schools and districts based on reading and math scores. John King believes this is a good thing.
Its important to understand that the problem isn’t just the common core, but also the high stakes testing that comes with it. This is what co-ops instruction, and takes the life out of education. Encouraged by Arnie Duncan, and his free-market inspired, peanut sized, vision for our public schools, lug-heads, like John King, are running school districts all over the country.
I disagree – John King knows exactly what educating a child is all about. That’s why he sends his own kids to schools that aren’t test prep factories. John King doesn’t believe that corporate reform is a “good” thing – he believes it’s a profitable thing and “good” doesn’t enter into it. He (like most “reformers”) is sociopathic, not ignorant.
King is not only “in charge” of education in New York, he is in charge of all certifications and licenses that are required by this state. Doctors, lawyers,and nurses, teachers , hair dressers, and guitar instructors…ad infinitum…..This is a frightening thought! ( Please correct me if I am mistaken. Thanks.)
His merry band of back-slappers and glad -handers, the Regents, are as hapless as he is. I’ m going to have nightmares if I watch him one more time.
I think that the Regents’ service should be for three years. No multimillionaires should ever be appointed, and each one should bring his or her own lunch. Do they think it is Mt. Olympus, and they are the only inhabitants of the territory?
We should keep having the meetings that were cancelled and invite Diane to be the speaker….then we should all chip in to pay the expenses.
The message this guy is sending is that the millions of children in his charge are not HIS “special interests.”
The word dictatorship also came to my mind. But of course, King really is a puppet being used by a larger, more sinister dictatorship. To think that he used “special interest” to describe a group when he himself is motivated by his own ambition and greed! This young and unqualified man was scared into silence. I don’t know who told him to cancel the rest of the meetings, but I can’t help but to think that this pull back was a regroup. I heard someone say what happens if King resigns? Of course it will be a step in the right direction, and I support it, but what next?
Thank you for all the good information you put out to the world. I’m very new to this world, and I am glad that a friend pointed me to your writing. I’ve learned so much!
Bienvenidos, Julia.
Join the Quixotic Quest Bandwagon!!!
Thank you for posting this Mother’s letter. It brought tears to my eyes because I know the look to which she refers…the one where the love of learning has been extinguished and the self-hate has been ignited. I watched the John King meeting online and it hurt to feel the pain and outrage of those parents, but at least it is out in the open for all to see. As citizens, we have each contributed to the “mess” and now we must be about cleaning it up. It is a “Free Willy” moment and everyone in the community must show-up and help liberate the warm-blooded ones.
I think “Corporate Core” is more appropriate than “Communist Core”. The later makes this sound like this is part of the Tea Party, something corporate ed reform is trying to pin on us.
For example:
http://edreform.blogspot.com/2013/10/tea-party-and-union-tactics.html