David Greene, a veteran educator, has been to all the rallies to save public education, but it sounds as if he enjoyed this one the most. BATs from 38 states gathered to laugh together, dance together, and swap stories about life in their cities and states.
One of the high points came when Dave was talking to an ELL teacher from rural Connecticut (now apparently called “New Jersey east”) and discovered that she had been his pupil many years ago. Suddenly he was Mr. Greene, not Dave.
He writes:
” Of course, there were performances from adults like Barry Lane and Dell Akron, but the show was stolen by a group of high school dancers, slam poets and rappers from nearby Chancellor HS. Damn Good! I have been to many rallies, even helped to or organized some, but each time I am knocked out most by students and kids who know what this is all about and know how to fight for their academic lives. I can’t help but hold out all hope.
” Amongst the revelry, song, dance, and celebration of a few hundred teachers and their families were powerful speeches of hope, pride, and progress in our fight for public schools by several people I knew like Jesse Turner, Danisha Jones, 10 year old Wiz kid from Chicago Asean Johnson and his mom, Shoenice Reynolds’ (who both spoke at our SOS rally in NYC on May 17th).
“I was also amazed by new speakers Gus Morales, Rousemay Vega, Helen Gym from ravaged Philadelphia, Adele Cothorne who blew the whistle on Michelle Rhee in DC, and Dr. Yohuru Williams, who just blew us all away.
” However the two who stood out most to me were two candidates for Congress, the aforementioned Janet Garrett [a kindergarten teacher] and Allen Cannon from New Jersey whose raw emotion came out so powerfully as he tried to hold back tears. When two DEMOCRATIC candidates for Congress rather than Republican or Tea Party candidates jumping on the anti CC express go public at a rally like this I am even more energized.
“When I meet and chat with candidates like Allen Cannon and Janet Garrett I want to stand up and fight even harder.
” How about you?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sounds like a low turnout for organizations supported by the Union.
Thus far few pictures of a nationwide organization. No mention that any union
leaders bothered to attend and no media coverage.
Educational organizing, without political leaders and funding,
still a tempest in a tea pot.
“Educational organizing, without political leaders and funding”,….
…is indeed difficult Joseph. Grassroots organizing is always the toughest job going.
The tempest at the very beginning may have been contained in a ‘teapot’, but that teapot was shattered a few years ago and the tempest has only been gaining energy ever since.
Reblogged this on TN BATs BlOG and commented:
I know that I enjoyed this rally more than any thing else I have ever experienced. And I have experienced many things.
Many union leaders and political leaders were present. Not to mention the fact that our committee was given an audience with the DOE and Arne Duncan himself. We have made inroads for a grassroots org. with “no funding and no media coverage.” We go hard. We are Badass Teachers and we aren’t owned by ANYONE.
No you don’t go hard unless it’s within the approved boundaries laid down by the private school professor, the home schooling mom and their token teacher. If you try “going hard” you get kicked out. I know. I go hard and I have been expelled from this bunch on both a national and state level. The national kicked me out when I lambasted them for refusing to join me in an attempt to mic check Obama when he came to University of Buffalo. The state group expelled me and dozens of others because we dared to question Great Dear Leader Naison when he announced that BATS NY was going to support Governor Cuomo’s School to Prison to College pipeline. Anyone who even asked a question about this edict was expelled. So spare us your tough guy rhetoric about going hard and being badass. Teachers are not badass for the most part., they seek tenure, job security and benefits, not brawls, fistfights or confrontations in spite of what some of you have succeeded in telling yourselves. A “badass” teacher carries the same self contradicting baggage as a “cool priest” or a hooker with a “heart of gold.” In truth there are very few.
Well, Sean, your story reminds me of my days advocating for glbt (mostly gl) parity in education back in the early-mid nineties. I’d bring up same-gender marriage to a supposedly supportive/enlightened group of educators or sometimes even civil rights activists, and a sort of silent scream would go around the room. How could I risk hurting our cause by mentioning such a radical idea?!
I was kicked out, as you put it, by some of the “best,” but I simply refused to accept it. I kept showing up. It was pretty badass, I guess –look where we are today on the marriage issue, and on glbt civil rights in schools.
Just refuse to accept expulsions. What are they going to do, have you removed bodily?
Penny J. Culliton
Temple, NH
God knows I’m over BATs and their constant selfless promotion and self-aggrandizement. Their snide dismissals of anyone not toeing their party line, their petty insults and dismissals of anyone who speaks anything other than fawning praise of their dear leaders, the condescension of their founders, who have zero K-12 teaching experience combined, towards actual teachers, and their tendency to tell each other how “amazing” they are all the time, is extremely nauseating. BATs speak truth to power? Please.
THIS!
This was NOT a union “sponsored” event as our members are union and non-union alike and from every political party. Teachers and attendees financed their own trips, often rearranging family vacations in order to bring their children. After all, it was a celebration of them. This was a truly amazing grassroots accomplishment!
Search BadAss Teachers on Facebook and join us!
Which leaders were present and spoke at the Rally? Surely Randi must have been there, oh no, she is the world traveler when her members are protesting. She decided to go to Ukraine when her members were in the streets with the spring testing. Hope everyone a great time, but these questions need to be asked. we can not point to any sign of progress or coverage except talking to Duncan from a lawn chair.
Word has reached me that Randi is now organizing an action to protest the kidnapped girls in Nigeria. Does she think she’s the FBI now? Could she not gain access to the Malaysian Air crash site to protest that too? It’ so painfully obvious that this is a person abusing the trust of her constituents while tap dancing around the elephants in the ed reform room and searching “causes” that sound swell on a bumper sticker but have zero, squat, zilch to do with the business of running the largest teacher’s union in America. Does she think Americans will like us if she finds enough worthy causes to lose herself in? And does she think none of us notice that she continues to refuse to take on the enemies of public education mainly because she is their puppet and they are her masters? If the voting wasn’t rigged she’d be working for Pearson or Gates by now.
Sean Crowley, do you have any evidence that the voting at the AFT was rigged? Please present it. Randi was re-elected with some 97% of the delegates. Did you have other information or are you a union-buster working in disguise?re-
Diane, the AFT vote is indeed “rigged,” in the sense that it is nothing but an empty, pro forma exercise, where the results are determined ahead of time.
This is due to the fact that the union is a one-party state that is completely dominated by Unity Caucus, which has controlled the UFT/AFT for over half a century, requires the signing of a loyalty oath before joining and to maintain membership, and which has a gerrymandered vote for officers and convention delegates which gives undue power to retirees.
How much credibility do you give to the leadership of an organization where the majority of voters for President must sign a loyalty oath?
Correct: very little.
The UFT is one of the few unions in the country that allows retirees to vote for officers and convention delegates, and changed its by-laws last year to give them even more proportional weight in elections. As has often been pointed out on this site, the national union remains controlled by New York’s UFT, which with the exception of a brief caretaker administration after the death of Sandra Feldman, has always been controlled by Unity Caucus members.
It’s a bitter irony that retirees, who will be among the last to enjoy the benefits won by the UFT when it was run by Albert Shanker, who unlike Weingarten was a real trade unionist, are the effectual guarantors of the sell-out misleadership whose catastrophic collaboration with the so-called reformers will all too-likely insure that no teacher under the age of forty will receive a pension and be able to afford a comfortable retirement.
Anyone who would like some “proof” of teacher apathy, consciously cultivated powerlessness and demoralization in NYC should look no further than the fact that only 18% of active teachers voted in the UFT officer elections last year, which also determined the convention delegates who just reelected Weingarten, with the overwhelming majority of votes cast by retirees.
Weingrew are quite happy with that, as it guarantees the shamelessness with which they grovel before Bill Gates, in Randi’s case, or before our Reptilian NY Governor Cuomo, for whom Michael Mulgrew serves as a semi-official concubine.
You can pretend all you like that Randi and her pawn Mulgrew run a democratic organization, but the sad reality for working teachers is that UFT/AFT elections are far less competitive than elections in your average banana republic, and those results have absolutely nothing to do with teacher’s satisfaction with the job the misleadership is doing, but rather are a measure of their apathy, demoralization and sense of powerlessness, all of which are carefully and cleverly cultivated by Unity Caucus which, aside from the so-called reformers, is it’s chief beneficiary.
Those of us in New Jersey over or under 40 may have no pension at all due to 20 years of political machinations. Has Randi taken a position on our pensions? Nope. She is taking sides regarding Ukraine and Nigeria. I am sure these are worthy causes. However, Randi is President of AFT and John Kerry is Secretary of State.
Forgive me isanson. How is meeting with Puppet Duncan an accomplishment? Is he relinquishing RttT, Common Core, VAM, merit pay? Is he giving up on TFA and the plan to replace urban teachers with suburban teachers?
You are addressing one tipsy from the bottle of BAT-ism. They believe Duncan deigning to allow them into the same room with him, then yawning and checking his watch as they read from their notes is some kind of an in your face. He’s forgotten all about them by the time the door shuts behind them,
Sean Crowley, for 10 minutes, Arne had to listen to people who didn’t bow and scrape and say, “yes, your majesty.” That is a small victory.
Actually, Sean, I think it’s worse than that: the Great Dear Leader’s triumphal report on the BATs meeting with Duncan and his apparatchiks included a statement that those fine people at the DOE “like” BATs.
I’m sure they do, as this embarrassing, tone deaf online ego validation and pep rally, autocratically led by non-public school teachers, is guaranteed to further marginalize efforts to save public education and discredit it.
I already have a self-seeking fraud claiming to represent me as head of my union, and I don’t need someone to ignore the work others have been doing for years, stride to the center of the stage, grab the mic and proclaim himself as my leader.
Local media wasn’t there; that was VERY disappointing. 😦 I can’t be the only person who Tweeted Valerie Strauss – multiple times! – from the March. I did find a couple of local reporters on Metro doing a story about the opening of the new Silver Line and they said they’d seen “some sort of something going on” back at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro, but they had no intention of going to see nor of telling anyone else at WUSA. Was any pre-event publicity sent to local media?
As for pictures, I have a fair few: some terrific signs, great banners, and lots of good T-shirts. And many great speeches and performances; I agree, the high schoolers were nothing short of FANTASTIC, and I found Danisha Jones’, Helen Gym’s, and Adele Cothorne’s speeches especially inspiring. 🙂 Oh, and the rapping by Jeremy Dudley was absolutely wonderful; I managed a short bit of video before my phone memory filled up. So few BAT’s have pictures of themselves as Facebook avatars, and some also use pseudonyms, so while I was hoping to meet more local BAT’s, there was no way to know who was who in a lot of cases. I wasn’t able to stay for the entire event, but for the time I was there, I enjoyed soaking up the inspiration.
The attendance was definitely enough to not be embarrassed about, but also MUCH lower than I had hoped to see given the hue and cry about how many BAT’s there are in the national organization. All that aside, it was dispiriting to see the lack of media coverage of the event. 😦
Why should the media cover a rally of 500 in Washington, D.C.? Rallies and marches much larger than that fail to garner any national media attention; in D.C., they’re a dime-a-dozen. This is one of the main problems with BATs; when you suppress all dissent or criticism, you start to believe your own hype and see conspiracies about the “corporate media” where none exist. Get more than 1% of the 50,000 BATs you’re always touting to show up, and you MAY get some media attention.
Lord have mercy – if this is where it is at – we are all doomed. The name of the organization itself shows a certain mentality and God knows what kind of teacher it would attract – probably those that need to look for other kinds of work. I certainly would not want my son to sit in front of such a teacher. How about a more intelligent name to start, and then an event with more intelligent and valuable discussion where we might hear and ask about:
1. preventing wasting monies on technology especially in the lower grades
2. teaching methodologies that make sense and that we can all lean from
3. innovations that make running a building more efficient
4. providing for students’ basic needs such as bathrooms that provide them a place they can feel comfortable to go instead of holding it in (that in itself will raise test scores!!)
4. providing organic and healthful foods and being educated as to their origin and just how it got to their table
5. innovations period!
6. taking part in worthy causes such as saving the SS United States http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crumbling-ghost-ship-ss-united-states-fights-to-return-from-the-brink-of-the-grave/2014/07/30/c8a25464-181a-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html?utm_source=Big+U+tops+Washington+Post+front+page&utm_campaign=Big+U+on+front+pg+of+Washington+Post&utm_medium=email
Let everyone leave the event feeling more enriched and more educated. And students need not be there to entertain – this is not their place. This is a cheap way to use them for a matter that is for educators to take care of – not their students. Sorry!!
What a great article on SS United States, David. I have posted the link on the Editorial Board page of the Encyclopedia Titanica, where many of us are old transatlantic liner fans.
That being said, addressing all the items you suggest above might well scatter the force of education activists fighting to — at the very least –point out that the emperor has no clothes, to use a cliched but an apt phrase. As Thoreau wrote, it would scatter the force of the group (rather than focus its energies).
Thanks for the reply – I would really prefer a more professional approach in calling out of those that are not helping, or rather ruining public education. In my opinion, true educators must be highly articulate and professional at all times. Point to that which undermines a student’s success. Forget about stupid names, rallies and all that nonsense. Just like those we educate, we must call attention to ourselves in a good way – if not the battle is lost before we begin and we are all doomed. The SS United States met headwinds with grace – let us do the same.
David,
Professionalism will not save us. The reformers are attempting to deprofessionalize our occupation.
Wow DDG! A bit holier than thou, I’d say. And getting “the vapors” over the name, goodness. This was not an event to ask questions…the questions have been asked over and over again in the group and by the group. It was an event to sit out in front of the DOE and get noticed, to get to some face time, and to celebrate teachers and amazing students (something Arne, US Secretary of Education – for everyone – NEVER EVER does). Amazingly talented students performed in the face of having arts removed from their schools to pay for these stupid reforms. Other amazing student activists from Newark spoke and shared their enthusiasm and determination with the audience. DOE employees were looking out their ivory tower windows…coming outside to eat lunch and listen. This may have been the first time some of them ever realized that not everyone was a okay with what their boss is doing. Not to mention there being a whole day devoted to activism and leadership the day before the rally.
Thinking that a group of educators referring to themselves as “badass” is unprofessional is not the same as “getting the vapors,” but thank you for illustrating the characteristic BAT smugness that many professional educators find more offensive than the silly name.
We need to be “holier than thou” as would you want your son or daughter to be educated by a “Bad-ass”??? Not my son – sorry! There is a justified anger – BUT there is a sloppiness in the fight. And if you are sloppy you are going to give the other side the ability to win. My advice – don’t be sloppy, and for God’s sake don’t be a slob. Articulate the truth poetically – with passion. Clean up your anger. Then you will be in possession the sharpest knife of all – used peacefully and for good will.
Also – I am not familiar with “the vapors” – I mean I know what water vapor is – but I do not understand how you are using this term. Can you explain? I am quite serious.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx It’s a big tent, room for BAT’s & Network for Public Education as well.
“The vapors” is something a gentile Southern belle would suffer from when something would offend her delicate sensibilities. In other words, a snide put down BATs apply to anyone that questions their name. Their other favorite put down is to accuse one of “pearl clutching.”
Where is St. Ravitch to demand that we are in this together, and that to attack the BadAsses is to give support to Broad and Gates. Oh, I almost forgot–that one is only used when Randi and Lily are being criticized.
Sorry, Jim Horn, but your logic is not comprehensible to me. I favor a united front of the friends of public education against high-stakes testing and privatization. There’s room for you too.
However, defenders of public education show their resolve, they deserve admiration. Whatever, the tactic they employ to strengthen their cause, they deserve regard.
Rifts behind the lines, disappear at victory.
My hat’s off to Dr. Ravitch, the Badass teachers, Edushyster, Mercedes Schneider and all who are engaged in the fight.
Oooooooh, I hit the hot button saying something unkind about protected species Randi Weingarten. When Diane Ravitch tells us to join BATS and hang around with them and to be nice to Randi it reminds me of a parent who insists their kid play with their friends’ kid even though they have no idea how creepy, mean and anti social that kid is. For some reason they allow themselves to linger in a blindspot saying I can’t see anything wrong with them and that’s good enough for me, so what’s your problem? Thanks for asking but I am a better union member than any of your well placed celebucator pals like Randi and Mikey and here is the ridiculous blog I have been pounding out between little league, my wife’s career, driving 6 kids to their appointments and and trying to keep my head above the manure heading into my 28th year in this career.
http://b-loedscene.blogspot.com/2014/08/campbell-brown-25-from-uranus-ed-reform.html
Our criticism of Randi causes no division among the ranks. Randi inviting Gates to be a keynote speaker, Randi taking millions from Gates and Randi supporting Gates and CCSS causes the divisions. When we complain we rocecognize these divisions. When you tell us we shouldn’t complain we realize you are out of touch with many of us.
Sean,
We are not complaining. We are merely restating the obvious. We are not winning the war. We are not even fighting it. My friends in the outside world have no idea what I am talking about and I consider myself fairly articulate. My cousin who lives in Bethesda, Maryland is an admirer of Rhee for all that she did for DC! Lately, I have come to think we have already lost.