Good news!
This blog began on April 24, 2012.
Today, September 18, it passed the one million page view mark.
That’s a lot of people across America and in other countries joining our discussion of better education for all.
I don’t want merit pay or a bonus.
I am grateful that readers here and on every continent are listening, speaking, thinking, contributing and sharing ideas about how to improve education.
Thank you!
Diane
With school starting tomorrow (and in some districts it has already started), I know you won’t have as much time to read these posts. The typical teacher, according to the Scholastic-Gates survey, works an 11-hour day. And from your comments, I know that most of the readers of the blog are teachers. I know there are also parents, principals, superintendents, school board members, journalists, concerned citizens–and, I hope, students as well.
So I will try to restrain myself, not post as many times each day. But it will be hard. People send me articles from all over the nation, and even from other countries.
My impulse is to share.
I’ll just have to develop a huge backlog. That way, when my fall schedule of travel and lecturing begins, my blog will be on auto-pilot, posting every day even if I am on the road.
I will continue to post the great comments of readers about their own insights into the education issues of the day.
By the way, my first lecture this fall will be in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on September 18. I was invited to speak by the Benwood Foundation. If you are in the area, please try to attend.
Then I will be in Austin, Texas, on September 30 speaking at the annual convention of the TASA and TSBA, the administrators and school boards. I speak in the morning. That afternoon, I will speak to parents and teachers and anyone else who wants to show up at an Austin high school, thanks to the invitation of the Austin Independent School District. I’ll post the details when I know them. Come on over, y’all.
Earlier today I published a biting critique of John White and Bobby Jindal, who are doing their best to privatize public education in Louisiana. I happen to think the pair have turned the state of Louisiana into an international laughing stock and put the future of a generation of children at risk.
The writer, who lives in Louisiana, called them vandals, said that John White is a hack, and referred to White’s staff as “the TFA Goon Squad.”
Two people wrote to say how shocked they were that I would permit such language to be used. They said I called for civility and had violated my own pledge.
I am reminded that when I used to tweet, I would find myself at the receiving end of really nasty, vituperative insults. I never responded in kind. But if I dared to show that I was offended, I could count on several reformer-types to jump in and tell me I was out of line. I have heard the same complaints in the past. These guys want a double standard; they want to be able to hurl insults and then step back and say, “you promised to be civil.”
Well, my friends, this is my blog, my living room, and I make the rules. Here they are, if you didn’t get them the first time around.
I watch my own language and tone. But there is very little that other people write that I censor.
I am not going to silence someone who cries out in righteous rage when their profession and their livelihood and their integrity are attacked by so-called reformers. I am not going to defer to those who have no respect for the men and women who teach our children every day.
I am not going to censor a writer who writes in the style of H.L. Mencken and uses colorful language.
Public officials who betray their sacred trust are fair game, and I won’t tell anyone to treat them gingerly. If they don’t like the heat, they can stay out of the kitchen, as Harry S Truman once said.
This is a site to discuss better education for all. If you want to join the discussion, welcome. But don’t expect me to silence or censor voices you don’t want to hear. If you don’t like what you are reading, don’t read it.
When this blog started, I imagined a cozy conversation among friends, which it was, in my virtual living room.
But as the weeks went on, the daily readership began to exceed 10,000, and the living room sometimes seems crowded.
I hope it continues to grow. We can move from my living room to the nearest football stadium and take turns at the microphone.
The only dark cloud, to be frank, is that a very small number of people take up a disproportionate amount of space in the comments section.
Sometimes they are angry, because they don’t like our conversation, so they jump in again and again and keep saying, “I am right and you are wrong.”
I welcome dissidence, so I welcome them too, as it keeps us on our toes.
There is room for them too in my living room.
But I remind our dissidents that this large living room has rules of courtesy.
If you become rude, if you become insulting, if you continue repeatedly to try to dominate the discussion and shout down others, I’ll ask you to step outside.
If you don’t, I’ll eject you.
Fair enough? That’s the house rules.
I mentioned in a post this morning that I had received a letter form the Anti-Defamation League warning that comments on my blog displayed “insensitivity” and that I should take this opportunity to warn readers about the dangers of “hurtful analogies,” especially in referring to Hitler and the Holocaust.
A reader wonders if he was the one who wrote the comment that was reported as offensive to the Anti-Defamation League:
| I think that the comment referred to was mine. I am a teacher in one of the 24 “closed” NYC schools. I went back to look for what I actually wrote but could not find it but I definitely remember reading the comments after that post and being surprised at the reaction.First, let me say that I am also Jewish. Whichever members of my family remained in Poland at the start of the war, were totally wiped out in the camps. I am also a history buff, I read and make analogies. (Obviously, I am a product of a great public education, Thomas Jefferson HS, Brooklyn, NY.) If I offended anyone by my comparisons I am sorry, but I do not withdraw my statements. Let me instead, back them up.
I typically refer to the Holocaust and our situation in 2 ways and I don’t remember which I used in that previous post. First, I believe that our mayor, his flunkies, and all those trying to tear down public education are using what my World History text back in 1962, called the “Big Lie” technique. Tell a lie often enough and boldly enough and even those who know it is a lie will back down. Hitler and Stalin were both masters of the “Big Lie” and used it to secure and maintain their power. The “Big Lie” technique includes scapegoating. Again, as a Jew I am particularly sensitive about scapegoating but now, as a teacher being scapegoated, I think I have have an even better understanding of what my Jewish/Polish/Austrian family and their friends felt as they heard Hitler rant about how the Jews were responsible for every bad thing in post WW I Germany. Yes, I know that there are (currently) no camps to be transported to, but the lie still hurts every time I hear it. This leads into the second way I draw analogies to the Holocaust. As I said above, my family split just about the time of WW I. One branch came to America, the other branch stayed in Poland and Austria and were decimated. My grandma spoke German as well as Yiddish and English. Even after the holocaust, she proudly referred to our family as Austrian. From her, from other friends and family and from my reading I have learned that most German and Austrian Jews thought of themselves as Germans. Even as the Nuremberg laws went into effect, even as Kristal Nacht destroyed their businesses and homes, they told themselves that they were good Germans, important to the Reich and the minority of hotheads will eventually see this and respect them for the contributions that they made to their country. Many Jews continued this denial until they were packed off to the camps. A few days before the end of this school year, as we were sitting in the heat grading the Regents exams, my colleagues and I were being told our fate by those involved in this ridiculous hiring system. I know that the ones not hired are not going to camps but the damage to their spirits was still substantial. These are people who have been teaching for 10 even 15 years. One of the main centerpieces of their identity is teacher, right up there with mother, father, Jew, Christian or other identity labels. This central part of their identity was ripped out unjustly and with violence. Not the violence of guns but more like the violence of the Judensau when Jews were forced to bend down and kiss the statue of a pig for only one purpose . . . public humiliation. Teachers were being divided into 2 lines. The “effective” teachers who were staying and the “ineffective” teachers with astonishment and tears in their eyes who could not understand this injustice that had been done to them. As my friends and colleagues were told their fate my thoughts went back to the words of Victor Frankl, a survivor of the camps who said, “the best of us did not survive.” No, I don’t expect the Brown Shirts to be knocking on my door tonight. In fact, as much as I think teachers are being falsely scapegoated and blamed for things beyond our control, I think the real holocaust (note the lower case) is being carried out against the children of NYC. Under performing students need smaller classes which means more teachers. They also need more experienced teachers. Privatizing education siphons off money that should be going to the children and sends it to overpaid CEOs and shareholders of these charter businesses. Thomas Jefferson saw public education as necessary to maintain a democracy. Wouldn’t it be terrible if after true public education is gone we discover that Jefferson was right. I could go on about the economics of fascism as taught to me by Mr. Kraft in the 5th grade, Mr. Hudesman in the 7th grade and Mr. Horowitz in the 10th grade (great teachers among other great teachers who I remember fondly) how we can draw parallels to big business today, but this is already a very long post so I shall stop now. |
A few days ago, I received an email from the Anti-Defamation League of New York City saying that it had received “several complaints regarding references and analogies to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust that appear in the comments section of your blog.”
It went on:
“In researching the complaint, we see that you defended the postings on free speech grounds. As a staunch supporter of free speech and the First Amendment, ADL has historically fought hate and offensive comments not by censoring, but by fighting bad speech with good speech. While you certainly have the right to leave the material up, we believe you have an opportunity here to address the insensitivity of the comments with your respected voice, rather than allowing them to go unaddressed.”
“We urge you to use your speech–as an educator and blog moderator–to address the hurtful analogies, and encourage readers to think about the impact of their words.”
(signed)
I was surprised when I read this as I am very sensitive to hate speech. In addition, I am Jewish. Members of my mother’s family were annihilated in the death camps in Hitler’s time. None survived.
I couldn’t think of what he was referring to. Last Sunday, when I first saw the email, I responded and asked if he might point me to specific examples, but I have heard nothing more.
Using the search function, I scanned the comments, and the only exchange that I could find was in the discussion following a post called “For the Children?”
When someone complained in that exchange about a reference to Nazis, I replied:
“Commenters exercise freedom of speech.
So do I.
So do you.”
I will not tolerate hate speech on the blog. I have the power to delete comments. I have deleted comments that I thought were beyond the bounds of civility. And I am not going to spell out the rules beyond that, because this is my blog and I will delete whatever offends me.
But having said that, I think that historical analogies are acceptable, even if they are overstated.
The supreme irony here is that in 2003, I published a book called The Language Police, which was a plea against censorship in schools, textbooks, and tests.
The book ended with these words:
“Let us, at last, fire the language police. We don’t need them. Let them return to the precincts where speech is rationed, thought is imprisoned, and humor is punished.”
“As John Adams memorably wrote in 1765, ‘Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write…Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.’”
I believe that.
So, dear readers, consider yourself informed of my views about the importance of free speech and the free exchange of ideas.
Diane
I started this blog on April 24, three months ago.
I began with the following entry:
I decided to start my own blog because I was overusing Twitter and treating it as a miniblog, which it isn’t.
My weekly blog at Bridging Differences is great fun for me, and I love the format of exchanging letters with Deborah Meier. That format creates a certain aura of informality and encourages me to speak freely in a non-academic tone, the way one speaks to a friend. So, I don’t know where this will go, and I don’t know if I will succeed in remembering: 1) how to access my new blog; 2) my user name; 3) my password.
But if I can overcome these hurdles, I look forward to writing blogs on a near-daily basis, unconfined by the 140 character limit of Twitter, thus relieving my Twitter followers of the cascade of tweets that now clutter their Twitter feed from me.
Now it can be told.
I have posted on more than a “near-daily basis.”
I have posted more than 600 pieces, many written by you, the readers.
I have stopped overloading the Twitter feed of my followers on Twitter.
Instead I overload your mailboxes with anywhere from 5-20 posts daily.
Some of my very best posts are written by my readers, for which I thank you.
My readers are teachers, principals, parents, and people who care deeply about education from all over the world.
A friend wrote today and said that he liked the blog. I said that I always react in my head to everything I read. I used to mutter silently to myself. Now I have a blog and I can write a post on the blog instead of muttering.
So, if I am cluttering your mailbox, I apologize for that. You are free not to read the posts.
But I am having too much fun to stop.
And, one thing more, I have no idea how to access the blogsite. I just click on the latest comment to get there. Someday, I’ll have time to learn that little detail.
The good news is that I do remember my password. That’s an accomplishment.
Keep sending me your local news and comments. I learn from you every day.
Diane
In response to a post about Bill Gates’ prediction about the future of American education, a reader writes:
| “Corporate society takes care of everything. And all it asks of anyone, all it’s ever asked of anyone ever, is not to interfere with management decisions.” – Rollerball (1975) |
I didn’t see “Rollerball” when the film was released in 1975. It is a dystopian film about the distant future in 2018. It is not so distant anymore.
Dystopian films and novels are warnings, not predictions.
I just finished re-reading Brave New World, which I must have read fifty years ago. There is so much about the novel I didn’t remember. It bears re-reading. I was struck by the planned rank-ordering of people. No need to test them to put them in their status as Alpha or Beta or Gamma or Epsilon. The rankings were selected at the time the babies were conceived in giant incubators. Every child is conditioned to believe that his ranking is just right for him. Those at the top look down on those at the bottom. And those at the bottom are happy they don’t have the responsibilities and burdens of those at the top.
Testing works like that. It gives each child a test score and says that she is “advanced” or “proficient” or “basic” or “below basic,” or some other terminology. There is some movement up or down to keep children hopeful that maybe next time….But eventually everyone understands which label they have, and it defines them. They are “advanced,” and they go to an Ivy League school. They are “proficient” and they get into a good state university. They are “basic” and they go to community college. They are “below basic,” and they drop out or get a GED if they are industrious.
The genius of our system is that students are taught that they get what they deserve! They are their ranking. This echoed as I read Brave New World?
In the novel, the entire state is planned to make everyone happy all the time, to have no time to think or criticize or dream. Like Bill Gates, the planners of this world want everyone to be busy all the time and engaged all the time. That’s how society works best, when dreamers and individualists are outcasts, and everyone else is busy and engaged.
The other thing that makes this world work well is its emphasis on consumerism. Everyone is taught from infancy that old things are worthless, everything must be new. Toys are multi-part, complicated and costly. Reminded me of my last foray into Toys R Us. Every toy had many moving parts, the parts could easily be broken, and the whole thing was made of cheap plastic. I didn’t want to buy anything. I got restless and left as soon as possible. At my grandson’s fifth birthday, he got 20 gifts, each of them a complicated thing in a box. At one point, as he was opening them, he said with a note of disappointment, “Oh, it’s another box.” I understood what he meant. O Brave New World.
About 7 pm EST yesterday, my Internet service died a quick death.
When it went down, it took out my access to the Internet, the telephone, and the television.
That happened as I was trying to post the news about Camika Royal’s article on Huffington Post.
I had to use my cell phone to get it posted, my cell having 3G.
Where I am now (not in NYC), cell phone service is spotty, and I had a hard time getting through to the local cable company.
The upshot was that I was offline for 24 hours.
I got Internet access back about an hour ago, and am still waiting for a repair crew to restore the telephone.
Fortunately, I had scheduled the posts that ran today well in advance.
You don’t think I write a post every five minutes from 6 am to 7 am, do you?
I have already written posts for tomorrow, and I will add more as the day progresses.
The good news is that I was able to write a new chapter for my book during the day, as a result of not being online every minute.
There is no bad news, other than the fact that I had to interact with Cablevision’s automated telephone system several times, which is a certain way to raise my blood pressure and reduce me to futile shouts, screams, oaths and unmentionable curses.
Diane
Just a couple of days ago, I said I wouldn’t blog on weekends. Yet, here I am, reading the news, reading my emails, and having a reaction to everything I read and impelled to share. It’s a Sunday. I just posted a blog. I violated the rule I just announced. Oh, well, they used to say that a woman reserves the right to change her mind. I have changed my mind about NCLB, testing, accountability, choice, competition, now I’m blogging on a Sunday.
I’ll try to stick to my book, but when I read something that catches my attention, I can’t resist reacting and sharing.
I think of this blog as my own hometown newspaper. I’m the editor and the main writer. I have lots of other reporters, most of whom are teachers or parents or principals or superintendents. They write for my hometown newspaper too.
There are times when I think, “Stop me before I blog again.” But most of the time I think, this is too much fun. And I am glad to say that there are thousands of readers who log on every day to read my hometown paper.
So, if I said you wouldn’t get a blog on a weekend, forget it. I’ll send out a post whenever I want–mostly from Monday to Friday– and do my best to write my book despite the seductions of blogging.
