Although the Internet and my email box was ablaze within announcements that Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasy had announced his resignation, and that it was reported by the Los Angeles Times, the resignation was less certain and more conditional by this morning.
Did he resign or just threaten to resign or just suggest that he might resign? Or was it part of a negotiation?
Stay tuned.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
On “All Things Considered” on NPR today (10/25) about iPads for every student. Very apropos with Deasy’s departure.
DATELINE: Friday, October 25, 2013:
I’m celebrating, no matter what.
This “brown shirt bully boy” is history.
Here’s a relevant excerpt from a great
radio broadcast:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“So they’ve given up!
“They’re finally done in,
“And the rat is dead in an
alley back of Wilhemstrasse.
“Take a bow G.I.!
“Take a bow Little Guy!
“The superman of tomorrow lies at the feet
“Of you common men of this afternoon.
“This is it, kids.
“This is the day all the way from Newburyport to Vladivostok
“You had what it took and you gave it,
“And each of you has a hunk of rainbow around your helmet.
“Seems like free men have done it again!”
“Is victory a sweet dish or isn’t it?
“And how do those lights look in Europe
after five years of blackout going in six?
“Rather pretty good. Pretty good, sister.
“It can at last be said without jinxing the campaign,
” ‘Somehow the decadent democracies,
the bungling Bolsheviks,
the saps and softies
were tougher in the end
than the brown-shirt bully boy
” ‘and smarter, too…
” ‘far flung ordinary men,
unspectacular, but free
” ‘rousing out of their habits and their homes
got up early one morning,
flexed their muscles,
learned, as amateurs,
the manual of arms,
and set out to whop
the be-jeezers out of the professionals.’
“This, they did!!!”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Norman Corwin, from his broadcast
“ON A NOTE OF TRIUMPH” in
August 1945
Listen to the whole hour here.
It so applies to today’s events here
in Los Angeles:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=4668028&m=4668044
Corwin’s work ends with a prayer:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Lord God of trajectory and blast,
Whose terrible sword has laid open the serpent
So it withers in the sun for the just to see,
Sheathe now the swift avenging blade with
the names of nations writ on it,
And assist in the preparation of the plowshare.
“Lord God of fresh bread and tranquil mornings,
Who walks in the circuit of heaven among the worthy,
Deliver notice to the fallen young men
“That tokens of orange juice and a whole egg appear now before the hungry children;
“That night again falls cooling on the earth as quietly as when it leaves Your hand;
“That freedom has withstood the tyrant like a Malta in a hostile sea,
And that the soul of man is surely a Sevastopol
Which goes down hard and leaps from ruin quickly.
“Lord God of the topcoat and the living wage
Who has furred the fox against the time of winter
And stored provender of bees in summer’s brightest places,
Do bring sweet influences to bear upon the assembly line:
“Accept the smoke of the milltown among the accredited clouds of the sky:
“Fend from the wind with a house and a hedge
Him who You made in Your image,
And permit him to pick of the tree and the flock,
“That he may eat today without fear of tomorrow,
And clothe himself with dignity in December.
Lord God of test-tube and blueprint,
Who jointed molecules of dust and shook them till their name was Adam,
Who taught worms and stars how they could live together,
Appear now among the parliaments of conquerors
and give instruction to their schemes;
“Measure out new liberties so none shall suffer for his father’s color
or the credo of his choice:
“Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream
as those who profit by postponing it pretend:
“Sit at the treaty table and convoy the hopes of little peoples through
expected straits,
“And press into the final seal a sign that peace will come
for longer than posterities can see ahead,
“That man unto his fellow man shall be a friend forever.”
Current Education Week article re. IPads debacle could be the beginning of his end. LOTS of problems.