Jersey Jazzman reported yesterday that the three keynote speakers at the National Charter Schools Conference are Joel Klein, rapper Pitbull, and Arne Duncan.
Blogger Mother Crusader did some research and found that Pitbull is a flamboyant misogynist.
Would Secretary Duncan speak at a conference where another featured speaker was flamboyantly racist? Or homophobic? Or anti-immigrant? Or anti- any other group than women?
Secretary Duncan, don’t go: Show your respect for women by refusing to share the dais with a man who treats women like sex toys.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Perhaps Duncan should speak. After all, he has visited a brand of greed and cronyism on the American public that is obscene.
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Agree, shows who Duncan really is.
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Is this the lowest that privatizers will go, or will they try to top this?
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Am certain that they can top this.
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KrazyMathLady: I have great respect for you, but one of the best SpecEd teachers I ever worked with had this to say about a particularly noxious AP who was leaving our school: “Don’t say it has to be an improvement or that things can’t get any worse. They can.”
And he was right.
😦
ArneRhee&Co. continue to plumb depths that undergird even Dante’s Inferno. How can they do otherwise? They combine the mantra of “no excuses” with “give us more time to get it right!”
“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” [Philip Roth]
🙂
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But Duncan has always had problems with good judgement, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for him to be photographed with Pitbull at the charter school event, both of them with greasy grins and looking like BFFs. That will be one more great image for EduShyster and Jersey Jazzman’s blogs, and still more evidence for why Duncan should have been dumped long ago.
Pitbull’s lyrics here:
http://www.azlyrics.com/p/pitbull.html
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Sharon, I completely agree with you. If he does this, it will only put another nail in the education reform coffin.
It will reduce his already attenuated credibility.
Let’s keep all our fingers crossed.
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I hope so too. Can you imagine the picture? I keep thinking about Duncan walking around saying “You bet I agree with the firing of the teachers in Rhode Island.” Can you imagine the US Sec of Ed agreeing with the firing of these trained professionals while lauding a school run by a former drug dealer and criminal? How in the world has this country sunk so low?
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Arne, don’t go the the charter school convention. Go where all the educators are – the NEA convention in Atlanta!!
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Nothing like a good old bit of “soft target” social distraction issue, which stinks to high heaven, to get the public to look at this bit of nastiness and turn away from the greater crookery of the corporate-state education reform agenda: http://www.scribd.com/doc/106337306/THE-CHICAGO-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS-ALLERGIC-TO-ACTIVISM
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What does Pitbull know about education?
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Amy P, please read the first post tomorrow morning and you will learn what Pitbull knows about education. $$$$$$$.
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Actually we want Duncan there hugging and kissing the rap singer with the school. The more he does this the easier our job is. Let them be blatant and arrogant. Nothing could be better for us. This is messaging. Who says we cannot do the same with the same information? It sure has worked many times in the past. Get all the pictures of them hugging and kissing and then use them to paint Duncan and Obama as what they are. This is them helping us. Nothing could get better. Think it all the way through to the end of what would be best for the position. Let them help us stop them. Use their energy against them. Martial Arts and that comes from the “Art of War.” This is the way people really work through all time. Then and now.
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When I posted this (as Teachers Laugh) on Facebook, I specifically stated that it was not satire or a joke. I was flooded by messages, not comments, of astonishment. People were actually so offended by the information and blog link showing Pitbull and his show, they were embarrassed to openly post comments. The “Mother Crusader” blog post and petition asks Duncan not to attend the conference. If you are interested, here is the link. http://www.change.org/petitions/arne-duncan-secretary-of-education-cancel-your-appearance-at-the-napcs-conference-with-pitbull
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I agree with you George.
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You both have an excellent point. In Florida during the last gubernatorial primary, Rick Scott’s people posted and re-posted the photo of Charlie Crist hugging Obama onstage. For the base they were appealing to, it was the kiss of death for Crist.
For our base of parents and teachers, an Arne/Pitbull hug might help the public education cause.
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OK. Let’s think about this in terms of bridges with minority populations. Pitbull has collaborated with other minority groups. He has made money. He has made a name for himself.
Growing up in the south I have seen a lot of compassion for minorities– as long as they stay in the projects, where many people believe they belong (not me, but I am just pointing this out). Aside from crass language and liscentiousness, is Pitbull not a model for American values? I watch this type of thing a lot. I have intentionally thrown myself into situations where I was the minority because often we really only cheer for minority success if it means our own is not threatened. Pitbull is open with his less than admirable views on lust and vanity, but hell I have uncles who did the same thing (they just did not make money at it, and they were white). White America has withheld true bridges of connecting with minorities, often, because it threatens their (our) own sense of culture. This is pop culture meeting mainstream white America. This is the achievement gap. This is culture clash. But whether it is a matter of right and wrong is truly debatable.
We seem to run to Puritan values only when they serve our cause. I used to struggle with this type disconnect when I first expanded singing in churches to singing in bars . . . Could I do both? Could I lead others to The Lord with my voice in church and also entertain, perhaps touch hearts with my voice at a bar and still be solid in both (because artistic expression does have to come from a place of personal and emotional investment)? Can Pitbull live out this dichotomy too? I leave it at my summation of white girls who get knocked up and have mixed race babies out of wedlock: they make things hard for themselves, they rely on others (namely, the taxpayers), but at the end of the day isn’t a combined race child the ultimate bridge between races? Didn’t she do what a lot of us were scared to? Risk. Risk. It is not just about profits, it is about risk.
Public schools hosted integration because they were told they had to. Some things were handled well. Some were not. I wish public schools were not under attack, but the new avenues of thought in relation to minority assimilation and the elimination of the achievement gap as they relate to the reform movement are interesting. We like decency and we like order, but when people are desperate to move out of a situation they will resort to extreme behavior (like Pitbull). Music lyrics often reflect what is going on. That lyrics can reflect what could be I do believe, but the Victorian era of restraint came and went. This is where sexy meets education–something that typically does not fit. And maybe it should not, but again if you frame this in terms of minority “success” it is a very different conversation.
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Once again, the US Sec of Ed focuses on a small segment of US students who attend charter schools.
While the vast majority of kids who atrend traditional public schools are completely ignored by school reformers, unless it’s to impose some stupid new gimmick or fad nationwide.
What a joke. Hope they have a great time patting each other on the back.
Forget who is speaking at this celebrity event. Duncan shouldn’t go because Duncan should do his damn job, which is PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
We have a situation where we are faced with 16 YEARS of complete neglect of the public school system by both Bush and Obama, by the time Obama leaves office.
THAT will be the real lasting legacy of reformers. How none of the state or federal reformers did their basic job, which was NOT charters or innovation but was instead the hard daily work of supporting the schools where MOST children go every day.
Duncan should be ashamed of himself. FIRST, do your job, Arne.
I resent paying him. He doesn’t work for me OR my child.
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Duncan and the rest of the school reformers have been absolutely lousy advocates for students, because they have stood silently by and watched as states have gutted funding for public schools.
The vast majority of public school kids who attend traditional public schools have lost, big, under “reform”.
So, to the 5% of kids who attend charter schools, congratulations, and the 95% who don’t? Well, tough luck. The “adults” are off chasing fads and telling one another how wonderful they are.
THAT will be the legacy of “school reform”
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A rapper is flamboyant? And a misogynist? I’m sorry, but I find this hard to believe.
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