Make plans to attend Occupy the DOE 2.0 in Washington, D.C., on April 4-7.
Here is the official schedule.
What a stellar lineup of speakers.
I am speaking on Thursday afternoon.
Many wonderful thinkers, activists, teachers, writers.
A great opportunity to network with friends and allies who want to change the course of American education.
Time to resist.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This sounds like a sit-in for educator/teachers. Where are the parents? I do believe the school system needs to be reformed, essentially, dismantle the current culture/system. I respect teachers but some believe they are experts in psychology and medicine, making diagnosis at ages when those diagnosis cannot be made. For example ADD and now Bipolar dx.
Some teachers their lower expectations on children with special needs; and are not qualified to provide specific services, especially, mental health (~75% of school age children receive mental health services through the school) for those children. It is a waste of financial resources to have guidance counselors and social workers doing therapy of children with mental illness without a definitive diagnosis. The school psychologists are no better…their only purpose is to perform psy-Ed evaluations in which the recommendations suit the school and not the child.
I recognize it not all the teachers’ fault but the school district …. and money, which is not being used properly. The school board members’ children seem to have no problem getting services they don’t need at the expense of those who are in need.
There are outstanding teachers, unfortunately, not many seem to teach public schools.
LikeLike
I think there will be plenty of parents there too. Some of the organizations listed are parent organizations.
LikeLike
Excuse the grammar, I went to public school.(joke)
LikeLike
Looking forward to hearing you and, hopefully, meeting you in person, Diane.
LikeLike
Diane,
Do you give special hand shake privileges to retired teachers who are much older than you are? If so I’ll see you on the 4th. I’ll be even more mature on the 7th.
I’ll see you on the 4th in any case. I’m really looking forward to meeting you and some of those who blog here. 🙂
LikeLike
Hoping to go (and perhaps to take my 11YO daughter) for as much as we can manage. Looking forward so much to seeing and hearing in person the “voices” I’ve been reading over the past few months. 🙂
LikeLike
I wish it was a week earlier,…spring break for most of us )-:
LikeLike
“Progressive education activists” were once content with attacking the common school envisioned by Thomas Jefferson and realized by Horace Mann. Now they have privatization in their sights.
Presumably, that places the common school in no man’s land. So who’s minding the “business of the state?* Or would we rather ignore the public education doomsday clock as it advances toward midnight?
*”It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.” – Jefferson to George Washington, January 4, 1786
LikeLike
Rick Roach, a local school board member in Orlando, FL, has been tirelessly fighting and boldly speaking out against high stakes tests since he himself took and failed the FCAT. Rick would be an excellent addition to this already stellar lineup of speakers. Diane, do you think this might be a possiblity?
LikeLike