Somehow the word has gotten through to the Gates Foundation that many teachers don’t like their agenda.
Teachers know that Bill Gates has told governors and the media that American public education is broken and obsolete. Teachers know he created the “blame-the-teacher” narrative. Teachers know he pushed the flawed idea that test scores of students should be used to judge teacher quality. Teachers know that Gates pumped $2 million into the anti-public school agitprop film “Waiting for Superman.”
Teachers are not dumb.
But now the Gates Foundation has launched a campaign to persuade teachers that the foundation cares.
Actions speak louder than words.
Teachers in many states are being evaluated by whether student scores rise or fall. Third graders will be surveyed to see what they think of their teachers. All bad ideas from Gates.
The public school bloggers in Seattle see this effort as a Trojan horse.
It is good Gates is listening. Now teachers must speak truth to power. Let him hear what you think.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hey Bill,
Invite me to an all paid trip to a conference in Tuscany…. It might be worth it to experience your indoctrination techniques.
RR
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Maybe he could send you to Tuscany, and he could stay back and sub for you. I’m sure other real teachers would get on board with this idea too. Sub for America!!! I would just LOVE to see Bill or Melinda or Wendy or Michelle interact with your elementary kids. Or they might try my teenagers! I’d like to see Tuscany too!!! 🙂
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After hearing that Michelle duct-taped her second-graders’ mouths shut, I wouldn’t let her within a mile of my second grade class.
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I wouldn’t want to see any of the edudeformers near a class room so that the children wouldn’t be harmed all the more.
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You guys are so right! What was I thinking???
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My school is not buying any more PCs this year…as the IT director I’m recommending we invest our budget this year in iPads. I’ve also suggest (as the art teacher too) that my art student buy their supplies at Target instead of Walmart. Teachers nationwide should let their purses/wallets do the talking. Only support companies that don’t have ties to CCSS or high stakes testing. I know it’s hard to find those companies but I find that if I google CCSS and the companies name and nothing comes up, it’s probably a safe bet.
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Good Advice..
Please spread the word!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am doing the same. I refuse to step foot in Walmart and have said others in education should do the same. I write on a PC because that is what I have but an ipad is not in the too distant future here. Hit them where it hurts.
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Bill
I think maybe your heart was in the right place ….but…the Testing Hierarchy are sitting
in their Grand Courts watching as the Quick Sand engulfs the entire Educational
System….and very much liking their POWER to fire and rehire the non-conformers who
know perfectly well that all children do not and should not wear the same size..
They know that these children have different talents that have been pushed aside for the Glorification of a Misguided Curriculum and Flawed UNFAIR Test data!!
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correction
a Flawed and UNFAIR test Data System
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Sorry, but you and Diane are wrong on one issue. Some people are most definitely motivated by greed, that’s how they got so obscenely rich in the first place.
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Success is doing the best that you can do with whatever talents you possess.
If you do the very best that you can do, you will be successful.
But that best is not good enough for the Testing Hierarchy who wants all children to do the same.
I heard the other day that the CCSS is not going away.
Wanna bet?
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Excerpts:
Critics look skeptically even at Gates’ newspaper pieces, calling them disingenuous.
The opinion articles “are a garden hose trying to put out a fire he helped start,” said Jack Jennings, who has been involved in education policy for more than four decades in Congress and with the nonprofit Center on Education Policy, which he founded.
“It’s a belated acknowledgment that they were going down the wrong path.”
Ah, the famous Gates pride. You’ll never hear the Gates Foundation publicly say they made a mistake and you certainly won’t hear it from Gates himself. Kinda like the Pope in that way.
Gates “is posing as the good cop here, but he’s responsible for the bad cops,” he said.
He’ll believe the foundation is listening to teachers when there’s evidence it is working with a wide range of teachers, not just those involved in Gates-funded projects.
Cody doesn’t want to accuse such teachers of cowing to the foundation, but talking to them, he said, “is not the same as going and really listening to unfiltered teacher viewpoints.”
Sorry, not buying it Bill.
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I’m with you, Linda. It’s a little too late for Bill Gates to claim he wants teachers to be at the table after spending years trashing us. Does he think that our memories are that short, or does he just think we’re stupid?
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He has no respect for us…never had….never will. He wants to buy off a select few…wine and dine ’em.
Money can’t buy me love:
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He’s a jerk and lies, lies, lies. Those lies just pour out of his mouth. Gates is a waste of time, but the GREEDY want his money and are will to sell themselves off for the money. What is this called? GRAFT.
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The Fatal Flaw in your CCSS-RTTT $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ scheme is not necessarily the standards themselves.
If you Big Money Men had properly chosen your CEO’s for Education from the Teachers that are the experts..you would have seen early on that teachers have been teaching those standards and critical thinking for years and years..
I would say to Bill to look carefully at the wonderful **Dilbert cartoon that absolutely puts it all in perspective..
I do not have a link to the cartoon but it goes something like this.
Students in the Classroom consists of
Alligator, Monkey, Dog, Elephant, Giraffe, Turtle, and a Fish
Testing Teacher.
Ok students
Today we will take the end of grade test .
Instructions;
Climb that Tree- (Instructor points to 70 foot tree)
All of you are expected to obtain a Level 3-Climb 3/4 to the top or a Level 4-Climb all the way to the top of the tree.
If you attain a Level 1 or a Level 2, you must repeat this course. …
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Bill
Are you the fish, the alligator, the monkey, the giraffe, the dog, or just you/
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Bill,
Your program has a virus that needs to be deleted!
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I thought it was Billy that was the virus!
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Sheep in wolves clothing….
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Dear Bill,
Once I wondered how George W. could sleep at night, after he recklessly went to war in Iraq and caused the deaths of Americans, allies and Iraqis.
Now I wonder the same about you. Think of the harm you have caused to thousands of communities, their schools and their children. Some of which can never be undone.
You and your friends Oprah and Arne have devoted billions of dollars and many years to manipulating American public opinion.
But did you bother to beta test any of the ideas you and your fellow ed-preneuers are pushing on our children and districts?
And you know that important services for children, especially those children with special needs, will have to be cut so the districts can afford to buy those harmful tests and other questionable ed-tech products. That spells the end of careers for teachers, school nurses, aides, and social workers. These are our neighbors. They live in our communities, which is a world away from your 43,000 square foot home.
Have you attended any of the CPS school board meetings?
Have you seen the mothers and children crying, pleading to save their schools?
Well, we have. And we know that CPS cannot be trusted. Young professional families are leaving the city in droves. When CPS signed the Gates Compact, it kicked off the closing of 59 schools. This is an American tragedy. It is a tragedy for democracy. And it is a clear sign of the great political influence you have bought so easily.
With all your money you helped to make even wider an already enormous class divide that is eroding our democracy. You helped to create huge distrust between our countrymen based on your abuse of wealth and power.
And you and all your friends in high places have acted as if we commoners were too stupid to ever begin to figure it out. Perhaps that is because so many of the media are happy and eager to trumpet your propaganda. Yet another blow for democracy we can thank you for.
How is it that you and your wealthy friends can jet into Tuscany or North Carolina or where ever and devise intricate plans that create enormous suffering for your fellow Americans — especially poor children?
While you are in Tuscany, you might read Dante’s Inferno.
For your lack of compassion for young children on whose backs you and your friends in Silicon Valley and Wall Street want to make obscene profits, what ring of hell do you think Dante might have assigned you?
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Where’s the link to get money? That is how he gets people to do what he wants isn’t it? So basically they are saying we were wrong. Sorry for all the millions we poured into trying to get you fired? I wonder if other reforms could be simply the best of the bad ideas?
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Too little too late, Bill.
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Look at how Gates made his fortune. THAT is the reason he is trying to destroy public education.
This is all about forcing “online” garbage on K-12, which is nothing short of a disaster and a complete violation of what is known about child development. But Gates and his ilk promise to make a ton of money from it.
“Teachers” in online “schools” are little more than call center employees. They don’t do anything approaching “teaching.”
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Gee, thanks, Bill. I am so pleased that you have finally invited teachers to the table. I wish I could join you, but your policies and those of your cohort have already permeated the educational system. You ought to be able to find plenty of fresh young teachers who don’t know any different to aid in your continued destruction. Then you can truly blame us for your flawed policies. Sorry, Bill, but I won’t take responsibility for your attack on the teaching profession. This is one lazy, good for nothing teacher that you had a hand in destroying already.
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Never believe a thing this guy says as he has a genetic problem that forces him to lie and act like he cares. Sociopath anyone????
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I don’t think he’s a sociopath, but over the last few years I have wondered-seriously- if he may be on the spectrum. He reminds me in many ways of those spectrum-y little boys I have taught who don’t seem to understand how to get along with others without offending and alienating them.
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