Here is a video of students protesting against StudentsFirst because it supports:
1) charter schools (which in NYC do not accept a fair share of ELLs)
2) high-stakes testing
3) an anti-immigrant Georgia state legislator
The response of StudentsFirst: It claimed the students are just pawns of the teachers’ union, obviously not intelligent enough to be part of a discussion of education issues that matter.
But note that all three points that the students made are correct.
Why does StudentsFirst think that students are too dumb to have valid views about their own education?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Because to ignore would be to validate their concerns. Who knows, students who have been silent may wake up and realize what is happening to their ‘education’ and actually demand change. After all, we’ve seen the results of student protest abroad, (Arab Spring) and domestically (immigration protests, So. Africa apartheid/disinvestments in the 1980’s and the Vietnam War in the 1960’s and 1970’s) They need to be shut down. And how will StudentsFirst do that? They will resort to what they do best. Discredit and smear.
How can they even make that claim without any information? Everything that parents or students don’t agree with is because of the teachers and the union? The very people they say they want to represent, they demean once challenged. Rhee….you can’t have it both ways. You represent students and families ONLY if they agree with you.
There you go, hit the nail on the head!
Uh-oh. Students First is going to need bigger sandwiches.
Super-size me!
I remember the old adage, “Children should be seen but not heard”. I believe this is the undergirding StudentsFirst philosophy.
Maybe the public will turn against them when they start attacking children. While SF is doing this verbally, we know that Michelle and her husband, Mayor Kevin Johnson have done this physically. The More irony and hypocrisy is quite sickening.
One hopes that with this latest display, people will resign their membership (if that’s even possible).
I don’t understand StudentsFirst. Students seem to be their concern when they can be used for fundraising or photo props. When it comes to advocating for children, I guess with them that’s a different story. Students exercising their First Amendment right ( petition, assembly and speech) is something that should be celebrated not condemned as seems to be the case with SF.I’ve always benefited from students in my classroom. They’ve helped me improve projects, they’ve helped me improve my teaching methodologies and have even helped to reinforce class rules, norms and expectations with their peers. I don’t fear them; I wonder why Michelle and others do. Are they that insecure?
One has two accusations of molestation…the other has questionable class management techniques and her husband is raising the children, and they somehow manage to promote a concern for students, but only the ones that agree with them or who will not report them for any improprieties……do as we say, not as we do!
Since many of these charter schools do not encourage students to have a voice of their own it is no surprise they would not be in favor of students using their voice. In public school we teach and encourage students to make up their own minds and know their voice matters. I teach a unit of literature that illustrates young people bringing about societal change through centuries and cultures. I would be proud if my students stood against an injustice. That’s what real teachers want.
I went to the site but couldn’t see the video. I did not sign in as requested.
The irony is just too much, students against students first, they’ll speak for themselves.
StudentsFirst … Even the name is a lie.
To Dr. Ravitch and all here, Guy Brandenburg has an excellent post featuring Erich Martel’s recent examination of DC’s vaunted charter schools. It is worth a look. Sorry for going off topic, I haven’t figured out how to link things yet.
-put the cursor over the URL
– click-
-scroll down to copy
-click paste
-presto – you’ve created a hotlink
REVISED:
I forgot to include another step:
-put cursor over URL
-click mouse
-scroll down to copy
-go to text box or where you want to place the link
-click past
-the site or address should appear
-presto – you’ve created a hotlink
I don’t think the link still works: here is what I got when I went to the Optimum page: We did not find any videos that match your search criteria in Local.
Maybe someone could re-post it– I wonder who this was– the anti-immigrant legislator that SF supported Lotta candidates down here, sadly.
The video must have been removed. Did anyone copy it? Or is there another site?
It can be found here: http://www.news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=332141&position=1&news_type=news
Makes me sick. Of course studentsfirst would say that, they would say that about anybody who doesn’t agree with their “philosophy” if we should even call it that. You know this is ridiculous, especially coming from a group CALLED STUDENTSFIRST. Huh! You would think that a group that is “aiming” its agenda around “students” would want to hear what they have to say. You know, put “students first”.