Helen Gym is a model parent for all those who hate the status quo.
Please read this article about her. I hope you will be inspired by her example.
She lives in a city (Philadelphia) and a state (Pennsylvania) where the politicians have written off the children. They don’t matter to Mayor Nutter and Governor Corbett. They have written off the schools and children of Philadelphia.
But these children matter to Helen Gym.
She is fearless. She is well-informed.
She speaks truth to power.
If every city had a Helen Gym, this nation would get turned around. And soon.
She is definitely on the honor roll of this blog.
And while I don’t use the four-letter word that she used in the last line of the article, I can understand why she responded as she did. I would think it even if I would bite my tongue and not say it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I admire and am in awe of the skills with which she argues her points. After the article, she also has posted comments to reply back to her detractors. Powerful writing.
Hannah: agreed!
Does anyone have any doubt now why Michelle Rhee—even with two other celebrity “reformers” to back her up—didn’t want to be on the same stage with Diane Ravitch, Helen Gym and Pasi Sahlberg on Feb. 6 at Lehigh University?
Strictly gauging by the power of their ideas and the ability to use logic and facts, the “$tudent $ucce$$” team would have been at best the equivalent of fourth- or fifth-stringers, i.e., benchwarmers only if the bench was very very long.
The “better education for all” team would have been first-stringers all the way, with great depth if someone had had to cancel, i.e., no bench could have been long enough just to fit all the varsity players. *Think I’m exaggerating? Team Diane up with Dr. Mercedes Schneider and Gary Rubinstein, just to mention two that easily come to mind.*
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Thanks for posting that, Diane – Helen Gym is almost as amazing as you.
Absolutely a brilliant woman. I agree with Hannah, powerful writing, both in the article and the posted comments.
If there was a true democracy and the politicians cared about our children in Philadelphia, Helen Gym would be on the SRC. But they dont.
I’m grateful for her, though.
Helen, your my kind of gal with that last line!!
Helen is my hero . Read the article in the inquirer . Go Helen! hopes she reads your blog. Courageous and strong..
It’s never easy to see a profile of you in print but the upside is that the article captures the growing pushback and community/educator/parent-led movement away from what’s come to be seen as a destructive corporate ed reform agenda. The sad part of course is that Philadelphia schools have been damaged so severely after 12 years of state takeover and reckless experimentation. It will take a lot to turn it around. But whether its Sue Peters in Seattle or Bill de Blasio in NYC, there’s hope that the political possibility finally matches the community needs articulated for so long. Thank you so much to Diane and all of her fabulous readers. Hopefully the full article will become available online later this month.
Helen Gym—
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.” [Frederick Douglass]
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and and to incur my own abhorrence.” Frederick Douglass
Most Krazy props for acting on some of our best American traditions.
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Way to go, Helen Gym!
Helen, I wish we could clone you. Keep up the fight. There are many who stand behind you. Thank you for fighting for the kids.
Helen must be having quite an impact because her opponents resort to name-calling.
I tell my students that this is a sure sign that an adversary is losing the argument.
It’s parents like Helen, with their relentless, straight-forward, no-nonsense approach that will bring sanity back to public education.
I have known Helen Gym for several years now and find her to be one of the most credible and articulate advocates I have ever met in my 40 years of service to the school community of Philadelphia. She understands the game of corporate reform and has the courage and conviction to speak out as a concerned citizen.
She is one of the most highly respected advocates in our community and deservedly so. She has earned our respect.
Her detractors are mostly all people who have an agenda to privatize our schools for their personal profit and self-serving interests, and everyone with their eyes open understands that.
She by no means represents the status quo. She is a forward thinking advocate for democracy in education and the best practices in public school governance and leadership.
I am honored to have met and come to know such a Great person, and hold her in the highest of esteem.
Agreed Rich! I am honored to have advocated with her during those protests last year. She is fierce and articulate. You, too, Rich are a force to be reckoned with. Thanks for being an encouragement to others advocating for education.
“Powerful figures often look for the exits when she approaches”
my kinda’ gal!
I know essentially nothing about Philadelphia’s public schools and literally nothing about this parent’s situation other than what’s presented in the article preview, but as a general observation I’ll say this: there is no greater hypocrisy than to put one’s own children in a selective/unzoned/screened/lottery school while staunchly opposing choice and alternatives to residence-based school zones.
These programs cream, they destabilize and take away resources from local schools (and in New York are often co-located with traditional district schools), and they create a system of haves and have nots–just as charter schools are alleged to do.
If there’s a meaningful difference here that I’m not seeing, please explain it to me. Or, alternatively, just come clean and say you’re okay with co-locations and choice provided it doesn’t cost any unionized teachers their jobs.
You’re better off leaving your statement at “I know essentially nothing about Philadelphia’s public schools and literally nothing about this parent’s situation.” Sounds like it’s up to you to get more educated than to demand the opposite.
Your comment does nothing to address his. Does this hypocrisy matter? And what about founding a charter school? While I’d agree that her charter school serves a very important niche demographic, her dialogue is anti-charter. How do we decide if these small– and often elite– schools get public funds, detracting from neighborhood schools? If the issue is that selective schools create an imbalanced system of haves and have-nots, even well-intentioned charter schools are a problem.
Maybe it’s because when someone opens with a statement declaring utter ignorance of a situation and person they are critiquing, it’s not worth responding to. Your statement that just because she started a charter everything she has done and said is automatically rendered null, void, useless? Tell that to Al Shanker too by the way. You read literally 800 words on this person but by all means go ahead and use those 800 words to criticize rather than find out more. If you have criticisms of charters then criticize charters but don’t presume you know this persons position on charters anymore than you know her.