TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED.
The symmetry of two ones followed by six zeros in less than two appeals to me.
So please excuse a bit of long-winded impertinence about how I view this blog.
DO NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED: “Diane Ravitch’s Blog A site to discuss better education for all.” 75 may be the new 45, but remember that Michelle Rhee literally is 44 years old and has a real staff of 120 and Diane Ravitch has a fictional staff of 92. Diane does it herself [with very occasional help from others]. A sterling contrast between the impersonal [and often fictional] accountability of those pushing eduproduct and genuine personal responsibility.
DO NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED: the commenters on this blog. With apologies in advance to many others, where would we be without at least an occasional mention of Noel Wilson by Duane Swacker, or a take down of the CCSS curricular bullet lists by Bob Shepherd, or Chiara Duggan’s detailed breakdown of the latest shenanigans [and worse] of the charterite/privatizer movement? Not to mention the pointed and revealing comments of Dienne, 2old2tch, chemtchr, Linda…and the beat goes on.
DO NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED: that some ‘stage’ in the discussion about a “better education for all” has been completed. Ensuring that every parent has the option of sending their child to a well-resourced neighborhood public school is truly the “never-ending story.” Just like the classroom, there are folks that have been in the thick of the discussion [and activism] for a while and those just joining in. That’s what genuine learning and teaching is all about—and it should never have an end point.
DO NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED: that there’s only one way to ensure a “better education for all.” Agree and act together where we can, disagree and go our separate ways where we must, but never give in to one of the fundamental principles of the charterite/privatization movement: contempt. Diversity of thought and action is a plus, not a minus, from the NPE conference and blogs and informal discussions to opt out and strikes and demonstrations.
I end with a simple reminder. This blog is Diane’s virtual living room. She didn’t have to invite us in. We don’t have to stay. Let’s make the most of her generous offer to join in a wide-ranging conversation—and perhaps more—knowing that two twos followed by six zeros is within her, and our, reach. And that one person, armed with powerful ideas, can make a difference by bringing people together:
“A decent boldness ever meets with friends.” [Homer]
Perhaps the old dead Greek guy knew someone like the owner of this blog?
😎
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nice tribute! Yes.. Ravitch certainly is a staff of one yet has incredible force while Rhee must hire 120 staff members to keep the spin going! Really says it all.
I just finished reading something that made me hopeful in terms of politics (such a rarity these days). Take a moment to read from Peg With Pen’s article from her blog on a politician/educator with some sane ideas to bring to government!
http://www.pegwithpen.com/2014/02/tom-poetter-4-congress-ohio-district-8.html
Reblogged this on onewomansjournal.
I have been following Diane’s blog from the day she began, but did not enter the conversations until last week.
Diane has her finger on the pulse of the debacle that is public education.
There is so much to address, the parent’s voices and the role they MUST play, the voice of the teacher who is in the classrooms NOW, and the voices of the veteran teachers who were shot down, and the voices of the academics who know the real research about how learning is actually enabled in any classroom.
And then, there is a deep look at the PROCESS THAT continues to this day, the one that emptied the school because there was no accountability to the law of the land, and the same one that is being used to remove any and all teachers who get too close to being vested.
I wonder at her energy and her passion, and as a 72 year old, I am astonished at her quick mind and firm grasp of the way things are… and how the might be better.
But I never forget that this was the lady who was hired to evaluate the Bush creation that would leave all children behind, and who stood up and said, essentially…. ‘you gotta be kidding!”
happy April Fools Day!
I love this. There are so many of us who wake up each morning to see what’s been posted and what you all are talking about, then use the inspiration found here to make it through the day and try to make a difference in our classrooms and communities, then read more on the way to bed, using the quiet time to get energized for the next day to come.
Though we may never reciprocate, you are all like unmet friends and this teacher feels daily gratitude for being a part of the conversation.
Ah so…dear Krazed one, you said a mouthful. I second your thoughtful and oh so clever plaudits to Diane for making all this possible. Have lost count of all the cyber buddies I have found here in the past year or so.
Remarks at a Dinner Honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere.
April 29, 1962
John F. Kennedy
1962
Ladies and gentlemen:
I want to welcome you to the White House. Mr. Lester Pearson informed me that a Canadian newspaperman said yesterday that this is the President’s “Easter egghead roll on the White House lawn.” I want to deny that!
I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
I feel much the same way about Diane Ravitch. What a pleasure to read her erudite, wise, compassionate, witty posts. And on top of that, to share in conversation with the likes of the bloggers who show up here–well, that’s a treat indeed.
…and dear Robert, it was almost a year ago that you were kind enough to give me an excellent reading list to suggest to my UCLA colleagues.
It seems like yesterday.
Yes, Diane, you have done us all a tremendous service in spurring us on in our mutual education goal…and the poetry you send keeps up our flagging spirits.
Allen, always a pleasure to read your wise posts!
Yikes. Typo. I meant Ellen, of course!!!!
I do thank you, Diane, for taking the plunge into the blogosphere. I laugh, I learn, I rage, I cry, I listen, I ruminate… I am always on the lookout for familiar voices, but I hope more new voices will enter and add to the conversation (and don’t wait as long as Susan Lee Schwartz did to join in!). Diane keeps the light on.
2old2teach: “Diane keeps the light on.”
More than once I have read a comment by you and wish I had written that.
Keep posting, I’ll keep reading.
😎
“Not to mention the pointed and revealing comments of Dienne, 2old2tch, chemtchr, Linda…and the beat goes on.”
I think “rude” belongs in there somewhere, for at least one at that list.
(But ya know. . .I’m Southern).
You are perhaps unique on this blog, Joanna, in that you come to learn rather than to teach, and with questions rather than answers. I mean that in a good way.
“You are perhaps unique on this blog, Joanna, in that you come to learn rather than to teach, and with questions rather than answers. I mean that in a good way.”
I don’t think there is any way to interpret your remarks as negative, Flerp, and I totally agree with you. Joanna, your questions keep the discussion from stagnating.
Joanna Best: I would be remiss in not adding you to the list of commenters I always read.
Not because I automatically agree or disagree with you—how boring!—but because sometimes you get me doing something that is anathema to the Commoners Core, something that is toxic to the “quick fix yes-or-no” approach of the self-styled “education reformers”—
Reflect. Think back. Consider and reconsider what I may have written or implied. Life is messy, and lots of important things don’t have easy or simple answers. IMHO, suspending judgment [for as long as is necessary] is a big part of critical thinking.
As for “rude”: I have been accused of the same or worse.
I won’t apologize for it, either from me or anyone else, but it’s often a matter of one’s POV.
Let me put it a bit in perspective. Two people I consider genuine American heroes (worthy of emulation) were considered by some to be more than rude, their words and behavior so far beyond the pale that their lives were in danger.
Yet I stand by these words of theirs:
“With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will be lost. ” [William Lloyd Garrison]
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.” [Frederick Douglass]
Keep posting; I’ll keep reading.
😎
agreed. Well said, never2old!
I never miss one of your posts.
Diane has provided a forum for us to collaborate, become informed, and advocate for the public schools we love and serve. By directing parents to the blog it has become an avenue for information sharing. I wonder what it would look like for all 11 million of us to meet in one place. That would truly be a meeting of the minds!
“I wonder what it would look like for all 11 million of us to meet in one place.”
Well that might cause some kind of cosmic meltdown as some of us would have to be many to make that 11 million.
But if I were to name that place, it would have to be dianeravitch.net
“…some of us would have to be many to make that 11 million”
Actually, some of us are many, in order to protect ourselves from being recognized under a single user name by supervisors who would let us go in a heartbeat for speaking our minds and rocking the boat. That’s because we have no opportunity to join a union, have no job protections and have no other resources for survival but teaching in jobs with unlivable wages.
I don’t want other educators to go through this, so I regularly do a hell of a lot of research and provide links in support of my contentions, and I often spar with promoters of.privatization here. And yet, this is the second time this week that KrazyTA overlooked my contributions, so believe me, you would never recognize me in a room of 11 million –and I’m very glad for that.
Although I have not posted anything in a while, I still read this blog daily and share its entries with anyone who will take the time to read them. This year has been the teaching year from Hell as my district fumbles with the Common Core. I am on the radar with my principal lately (it’s my big mouth: Mom always said it would get me in trouble!), but I refuse to be silent on important issues. Those who don’t drink the Kool-Aid of reform are labeled as “negative” and I’ve been reluctant to write more on here.
Fitting tribute for a leader and scholar who invites and incites the rest of us to collective action in supporting public education …
Thank you Krazy!!! Just what I needed to read and remind myself of as I concluded the first crazy day administering SBAC to my students.
Thanks Diane and TA. This is a great series on Ohio charter schools put out by a newspaper and a group of public colleges. The journalism students involved in the project are (probably!) doing all this research and it must be very time-consuming. I appreciate the series and all their hard work. They’re creating a database.
This is on transportation costs, which is yet another area I guess this state never considered when creating a parallel school system. Unlike 99% of the reporting, they looked at the impact of this on PUBLIC school students:
“It’s an unintended consequence of school choice. State officials have forced traditional public schools to crisscross their cities to pick up and deliver children to privately run charter schools, often while cutting transportation to their own kids.
The cost for the door-to-door service is significant: About 44 percent more per child, according to an analysis of statewide data.
Charter school advocates know it’s a big expense for school districts, but there is little evidence that they have offered much support in the legislature.
“Transportation is probably the second or third largest issue for all public schools,” said Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition For Quality Education, a school choice and charter advocate. “It’s a problem not only for charters but it’s a problem for districts. In our view, whatever it is today, it’s going to be worse next year because of the cost of fuel, because of the state funding.”
“It’s a financial juggling act for everybody,” said Adler, who added that his organization has never calculated how many charter students get a ride to school or how many public school students must walk.”
“In Akron, students who live within two miles of a school must walk. Even if a child enrolls across town in an Akron school, such as the Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts or the downtown science and technology middle school, parents must arrange transportation.
However, enrollment in a charter school (many of which advertise free transportation) usually guarantees a ride at the expense of Akron schools — a district that is attempting to economize by closing or merging school buildings.
Akron has closed 19 schools in the past decade as 21 charter schools have been added.
In Akron this year, for example, there was a direct relationship between the addition of busing for charter school students and the cancellation of busing for its own public school students.”
Come one. How is this fair to the public school kids? This will be news to people in this state. It simply isn’t discussed. There’s never any mention of how public school kids are affected. I genuinely don’t understand it. How did we get to a place where these kids aren’t even considered when these laws are passed?
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ohio-s-urban-districts-cut-services-to-provide-busing-to-privately-run-charter-schools-part-3-of-3-1.477343
Krazy T.A.; Thank you for keeping your moral compass pointing towards sanity when the rest of us need to calibrate ours in an insane world. Of course, we share a great debt of gratitude towards our host for all she has done. She is an honest scholar and a true humanitarian.
Well Said!
Good post, Krazy! Am missing Duane & Linda (you guys must be too busy…teaching!). Duane, since Diane’s gaining new readers all the time & the opt out movement is growing, we need one of your resounding Noel Wilson comments (especially the “I say NO!”), so that all newbies may be informed. Also, guys, cut out those silly–now in COLOR! (wonder how much THAT co$t u$!!) Pear$on scorer recruitment ads in the employment section of your local newsrag.
And, as for you 2old2tch, it’s an honor to know you.
RBMTK,
Thanks for thinking of me!!!
Had spring break last week and spent Fri-Thurs of it camping on the Current River in southern Missouri (part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways), floated and fished a couple of days. When I go do outdoor stuff I make it a point to not “bring along work” and generally focus on “being in the woods”. Then it takes me a couple of days of just reading and hardly responding to catch up with the “educational news of the day” here and other blogs. But I am now caught up and have been reiterating the fact that, although necessary, much of the anti-deform, especially on CCSS and standardized testing, rhetoric focuses on secondary and tertiary concerns. And that we need to focus on getting the primary concerns/objections-Wilson’s work-out to the forefront.
Que viva Wilson.
Thanks for the good post, Krazy. Am missing Duane & Linda (you both must be too busy…teaching!), especially Duane’s resounding, “I say NO!” with the Wilson tutorial
(please repeat–blog newbies need to read this). Also am pleased to know 2old2tch, a goody but not really an oldie. And–sorry if this is cringe-worthy– experience is, indeed, the best teacher.
Diane – I was shopping at the Co-op in Davis and there is a magazine called Yes! It is a indie type magazine like Adbusters. Did you know most of the Spring issue is on corporate reform and all its ills? Do you have a copy of it?
Caligirl, I have seen YES online but not in print. Sounds smart
You can subscribe to them either free or for a nominal fee.
Thank you KrazyTA for the tribute. Well stated and apparently agreed to by the majority of Diane’s readers.
Thank you Diane for your vigor and your rigor. You report more in one day than most bloggers do in a month. Your analyses are deeper and more on target than most of the “gotta write 200 words today” bloggers who are more concerned with AdSense marketig than content that actually says something.
I have not previously commented because too many times someone here beats me to the punch and adds here what I am thinking or feeling. I have become wise enough to not respond when my anger is still flaring, so when I would go back to comment after cooling down…someone had already been there. I have also gained the wisdom to check sources before I make a claim. When I had done my research and came back to write…someone beat me to it!
And that’s OK. The comment section of this blog is a huge repository of information, data, and wisdom. I appreciate the wide spectrum of views and opinions represented here.
I am an experienced biological sciences teacher with 22 years in the public classroom and a few more years at the university level. I am an award-winning teacher at local, state, and national levels. I believe in excellence in all I do. I have been viewed by my peers as an educational leader in educational practice and policy.
I am one who has worked with test-makers and product vendors – arguing of more authentic experiences for students and less trivial “paperwork” for teachers. I have used my classroom for pilot testing our state’s end of course exams and provided the state science specialists with pages of suggested revisions, until the state changed the rules and I was no longer able to view the exams for myself.
I am one who fought the current reform changes at my school, in my district, in my state, and at the national level while serving a fellowship in DC. I have lost essentially every fight, except when I was at the tables of US Govt. agency roundtables and committees. Folks there were VERY receptive of the input of an “on-the-ground” teacher and generally listened carefully. That is, except for one agency and parts of another two. Do you want to guess which? Yes, the most troublesome interactions and attitudes came from the Department of Education. Every time. Some individual members of offices within the NSF demonstrated outright bigotry for teachers/educators who did not have a PhD after their names. A sub-committee on science that came out of the Whitehouse also ignored the input of actual educators.
I am here to tell you that for NASA, NOAA, NAS, NIH, much of the NSF, and the US Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Defense, Interior, as well as a host of important NGOs were interested in what was actually happening in our classrooms and were very hungry for and sensitive to data. DoEd gave lip-service to data and essentially ignored the voices of classroom teachers.
I am one who was finally worn down by the daily grinding away of independence and creativity by the evaluation system imposed upon us by the state (Indiana). I quit rather than sacrifice either my standards or my integrity. I put up with the daily drama of teenagers for 22 years, but reached my limit when the daily drama of adult administrators made doing the right thing nearly impossible.
Thank you again to Diane for this venue and thank you to all who frequent and inhabit this blog for your support and encouragement.
Kirk A. Janowiak
“Janomac”
You have far more credentials and experience than I will ever have, which is probably why you are smart enough to keep your mouth shut before jumping in. We need to hear what you have to say even when you don’t have time to provide all the documentation a scholar wants to provide. I have the luxury of just spouting off because no one expects me to really know anything.
” I have the luxury of just spouting off because no one expects me to really know anything.” LOL! I think we are birds of a feather!
Hooray for Diane. Hooray for all of us. Stay alive and stoke the passion for truth!