Please take the time to read Kenneth Bernstein’s fine review of “Reign of Error” at the Daily Kos.
TeacherKen, as he is known online, has read the book carefully and taken the time to explain its major themes.
I think you will enjoy reading his thoughtful review.
I know I will take my lumps for leading the charge against the attacks on public education.
I am grateful that those with many years of experience in the classroom, like TeacherKen, appreciate the book.
These words from TeacherKen will resonate with me when I find myself the target of those who sling mud at me rather than engage in civil debate.
TeacherKen writes:
I find myself very much in tune with the thrust of this book. As important as her previous book was, Ravitch has outdone that with this magnum opus.
In the beginning, she laid out what she intended to do. As should be clear, I believe she more than achieved her goals. It is the opinion of this reviewer, me, a retired teacher who returned to the classroom to make a difference, in part at the urging of Ravitch, that this book is by far her finest work, and is something with which everyone truly concerned about education should read.
I am going to allow Ravitch to close this review, by quoting in their entirety her final three paragraphs, while noting that her final sentence is clearly a push-back at the rhetoric used by some in the “reform” movement.
If you care about the future of public education, and if you care about the future of American democracy (because the two are inextricably intertwined), read this book.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
when one reviews a book, one always wonders if the author will feel their work was treated fairly. I am honored that Diane thinks so highly of my review, but let me make clear: the effectiveness of my review is because of the effectiveness and power of her book, which is why I took the time to write so extensive a review.
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An outstanding review, Ken! It’s wonderful that you took the effort to walk people through the book, to give them a real sense of what they are going to find there.
There’s going to be a lot of trash written about this book by thugs who haven’t read it but who know how to mouth the party line and to pull out the enemies list–the unions, the leftists, the Teapartiers, etc., for their 2-minute hates.
Ravitch as Emmanuel Goldstein.
It’s really important that pieces like your review appear so that people who haven’t yet read the book and aren’t paying attention will have their HAZMAT gear on when they encounter the tidal wave of raw sewage, like the Post “Review,” that the deformers will doubtless flood the media with over the next couple of months in their effort to drown out the message. I suspect that this is what they will do and that they will end up swamping themselves.
You wrote a fine, fine piece here, and you did your country a great service by producing it. Thank you.
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thanks for your kind words, Robert.
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It’s just a really good review, teacherken. Everybody should go recommend it, because that’s how Daily Kos diaries stay alive.
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thanks, but to recommend it requires one to be registered for Daily Kos. It is free, it is quick, and you should be able to recommend immediately. There are other good posters on education there.
I will note that it is getting a lot of traffic from people who are not registered at Daily Kos. My tweets are getting retweeted. Diane tweeted it to her 60K+ followers. And at the request of the editor I just cross-posted it to the Academe blog.
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Everybody should register at Daily Kos. I stopped writing diaries, but Daily Kos is a good place to start, and others who don’t blog yet might want to try their hand. And in any case, there are good discussions to be had.
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Love the last three paragraphs:
Yes, we must improve our schools. Start now, start here, by building the bonds of trust among schools and communities. The essential mission of the public schools is not merely to prepare workers for the global workforce but to prepare citizens with the minds, hearts, and characters to sustain our democracy in the future.
Genuine school reform must be built on hope, not fear; on encouragement, not threats; on inspiration, not compulsion; on trust, not carrots and sticks; on belief in the dignity of the person, not a slavish devotion to data; on support and mutual respect, not a regime of punishment and blame. To be lasting, school reform must rely on collaboration and teamwork among students, parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and local communities.
Despite its faults, the American system of democratically controlled schools has been the mainstay of our communities and the foundation for our nation’s success. We must work together to improve our public schools. We must extend the promise of equal educational opportunity to all the children of our nation. Protecting our public schools against privatization and saving them for future generations of American children is the civil rights issue of our time.
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I love these paragraphs too!
I am in total agreement with Diane that protecting our public schools is the civil rights issue of our time. Great review Ken, and I can’t wait to read the book, Diane. Congratulations and thank you.
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Will be reading Diane’s new book this week. Can’t wait for it to arrive. Should be very interesting.
Read Kyle Smith’s New York Post piece and must say there’s a great deal there to digest. Some of his points are exactly what I’ve said here over the past couple of weeks.
Still am unable to come to grips with Diane’s aversion to competition in our schools. Coke v Pepsi, Ford v General Motors, Verizon v Comcast, Microsoft v. IBM, Apple v Samsung, and the list goes on. The lack of competition implies a monopoly and that’s never good for concerned parties, in this case students. A monopoly is also what’s gotten the USPS in the situation they’re in – not good. As well, competition is at the heart of our free market economy. It’s made our lives better in untold ways.
Teachers will not be cutting each others throats if competition is instituted in our schools. They simply don’t have the time, for one thing. They’re too busy trying to get through their day and reach every kid. And competition between neighborhood schools and charters should be a healthy situation where, hopefully, both schools can benefit from their successes.
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Are you a retired teacher from Scituate public schools? What do you do now?
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Yes, Linda. Thanks for asking.
Currently, I pay fairly close attention to what’s going on in the world of education reform – or try. As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s a ton of information to examine. CCSS, attempts to reauthorize NCLB, technology entering the classroom, charter schools (some good, some not), teacher evaluations, Diane’s new book, and much much more. To me, it’s all very interesting and a nice way to stay connected with what I did for 35 years.
Will also be working on a second book this winter; ed reform related, of course.
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Linda, What he does now is troll the Net promoting the market-based corporate “reform” agenda that is destroying public education. He also labels those who disagree with him as having a “blind allegiance to irrationality.” See: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/08/tony_bennetts_day_of_reckoning.html
Don’t expect him to be reading Diane’s book for any purpose other than to launch attacks against it, as well as against anyone who agrees with her or acknowledges the research base she provided in support.
You can expect to see more of his own “irrationality”, as demonstrated here, such as by citing Gates as an example of model competition, when Gates spent his career thwarting competition and running his own monopoly. Notice he also failed to mention any of the losers, such as Netscape?
People who act as if there is an “invisible hand” that is ruling markets typically ignore the fact that cut-throat business leaders like Gates purposely attempt to manipulate markets, to undermine the competition and gain the advantage. There are high risks and inherent losers in this paradigm. It is not set-up to be a win-win proposition. It’s rigged on many levels, the least of which is that 50% will always be in the bottom half and subject to sanctions. Those who support the business model in education are gambling on unproven strategies, promoting unregulated practices and they are are willing to sacrifice half of all children, teachers and schools to the losing class.
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Why not competition among genuine public schools offered from the bottom up by genuine community advocates? Sure, good idea to foster diversity and debate in a democracy, but that’s not what we have with the privatization campaign to endow corporate charters with public tax levies and public school buildings. The financing of school board takeovers by outside corporate money tells us who is leading this charge into the public sector, not parents in the community. With the billionaire boys’ club behind this latest assault on the public sector, we have every right to push back against the swallowing of the schools for anti-union, extra-community marketing. Make “choice” truly local and democratic, not national and autocratic, and many of us will applaud instead of crying foul and fraud.
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Well said, Ira!
What we are seeing isn’t anything like creating more freedom in U.S. education. Top-down mandates and crony capitalism we ARE seeing a lot of. Thank you, Ira, for calling out the Doublespeak.
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LInda: under a posting on this blog today entitled “An Excerpt of ‘Reign of Error’ in Salon and a Virtriolic Attack in the NY Post” there was a comment by jean sanders that led me to this comment on Kyle Smith. Context: a writer for ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY is recapping a various reviews of a movie—
“Special mention goes to the New York Post‘s Kyle Smith, who really, really, really doesn’t like the movie and comes up with many colorful ways to say so. “The chick comedy-drama Catch and Release may look bland, but it’s not. It’s worse. To rise to the level of blandness, it would need to have a few gallons of Tabasco dumped into it.” And that’s just the beginning. Read the whole thing for an exercise in hilarious hostility.”
Link: http://popwatch.ew.com/2007/01/26/rtr_tk/
When it comes to Smith’s review of REIGN OF ERROR, I think we just need to strike the word “hilarious” from the phrase “hilarious hostility.” Or perhaps we might rewrite the last sentence: “Read the whole thing for a painfully tedious exercise in tired clichés.”
Might the same be true of a commenter or two on this blog?
Just my two centavitos worth…
🙂
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What a crock.
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Competition is fine but not with my tax dollars. Why should corporations be able to compete with school I’ve already paid for. Why should there be competition for neighborhood schools we hold near and dear and have already paid for? There are just not enough ‘tax’ dollars around to foster competition for competition’s sake. We paid for OUR schools and we staff OUR schools with a board WE’VE elected…not a company we have no control over! So come and compete with your charter school but be prepared to also pay for them with your own company dollars not MY TAX DOLLARS!
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I loved your comment on Chaltain’s review, Paul. Listen to this, everybody:
“Her blind allegiance to preserving public education at all costs has, in my mind, alienated her from many seeking to improve our schools – all schools.”
Yes, this struggle is to preserve public education. Her allegiance isn’t blind though, Paul. She backs it up with prodigious scholarship, and it as shared by the American people. You should read this book with an open mind.
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Thanks, chemtchr. I also have a strong belief that we should preserve public control of the police, firefighters, beaches, parks, and other parts of the shrinking public sector. Anyone who wants a private education is free to pay for it. But their desire should not cancel the public need for free public schools, accountable to the public, not to a private corporation.
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In this case “blind” allegiance was intended to have a positive connotation. It’s not uncommon for people, myself included, to become focused on what they perceive as the right path; everything to the contrary, be damned. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Again, my primary question for Diane’s view is her aversion to competition to improve our schools; and to eliminate/minimize the public school monopoly. The public school monopoly simply makes no sense. Cavalier attitudes have caught up with this union dominated institution and people are tired of their attitude.
And if her views are shared by the American people, why are the American people not up in arms over the reforms? How many remained to hear her talk at the not so long ago Washington rally? How is the Bad Ass Teacher movement working out?
Her book will unquestionably be a big seller, but the result of it will be?
I’m still waiting, with an open mind, to have her convince me that her views are the way to go. It hasn’t happened yet. Convincing and compelling arguments have yet to be presented.
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Paul, I used to think like you do. What’s wrong with having choices. But then I saw what was being done with these choices. The “competition” is rigged. Even with it rigged, public schools, on average, still perform better that their choice counterparts. Even so, they are in no danger of being closed. They don’t have to abide by the same rules. The thing is, we had choice before all of this reform nonsense. It was called “private schools.”
The funny thing is, my parents could have afforded to send me to a private school back in the 70’s and 80’s. They didn’t because the education provided by the private schools and the public schools was equivalent. It was the same with most of my friends. I had a few that went to private school, and the only major difference was that they had Bible classes in addition to everything else. While my parents could have afforded it, I cannot. And yet, if I could, I would put my kids in a private school so that they could escape what reform has wrought. I would love for them to get the education that I got back in the day.
As for teachers cutting each other’s throats, you’re right in that competition between schools is mostly a non-factor. At least, when charters and vouchers first started up here, no one in my school worried. We knew we were better. And we were. But because of those other reforms (merit pay, evaluations tied to testing, etc.), teacher’s are cutting each other’s throats. Morale is in the cellar. Teachers who just a couple years ago were saying things like “teaching is my life,” “I can’t imagine doing anything else,” and “I can’t wait for the first day of school” are now saying things like “the only reason I’m still here is because of the kids,” “only x amount of days until the end of the year,” and “I can’t wait until I retire; I hope I make it.” Speaking of, congratulations on your retirement. If you did so recently, you picked a good time to do it.
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Cynewulf,
You stated, “The thing is, we had choice before all of this reform nonsense. It was called “private schools.”
WE had choice? You or your parents may have had choice but the reforms weren’t written for you. The reforms were written for the millions of urban school youngsters of color who had no choice. Now, with the cap being lifted on charter schools in many states and charter schools popping up everywhere, poor/minority families finally have a choice as to where they can send their children to school, a choice previously afforded only to families of wealth. They’re no longer stuck with the public school monopoly dooming them to yet another generation of failure.
That’s the choice I endorse.
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Do they have charters in Scituate, Paul?
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As if all teachers in every nation have conspired to provide an inadequate education to poor children. Your ignorance is glaring. Your are just spitting out the pro-reform propaganda which was crafted to support profiteers, so they can create their own schools that feed at the public funding coffers and our country can continue to ignore poverty.
“International Tests Show Achievement Gaps in All Countries” http://www.epi.org/blog/international-tests-achievement-gaps-gains-american-students/
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Yes, Paul, we had choice. I know a couple families who sacrificed much, worked several jobs, etc. to pay for private schooling. I know of some private schools that offer scholarships. In addition to all that, the school districts around here allow parents to pick their public school of choice as long as they provide their own transportation if they are not zoned for that school. And, yes, some families choose to find ways to make that work.
My main point, though, was that all of this “choice” with charter schools has not yielded anything better than what was already available. The effect, though, is a corrosion of the public school and putting in its place a charter that is no better and that is often worse. How is this helping the urban school youngsters of color?
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“A monopoly is also what’s gotten the USPS in the situation they’re in – not good”
So I guess the USPS problems have nothing to do with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (Passed by Congress in 2006), requiring the USPS to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future and to pay all of that money in the next 10 years.
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That’s clearly part of the problem with the monopoly, especially one doctored by the union.
Unions have been good in many instances in this country but in many instances they have outlived their usefulness. Union members paying 10% to 20% of their health care premiums while the public picks up the rest of the tab? Unreasonable and irresponsible. I paid 50% of my health care premiums for 35 years and was thankful just to have the coverage.
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And so do many of us. You don’t speak for all teachers nor all unionized teachers. Keep your stereotypes to yourself. You are sounding more ignorant with every comment.
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Another great article along the same lines I hope you will consider featuring from an Alaska school board member. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130914/alaska-can-avoid-school-reform-fairy-tale-thats-turned-nightmare-across-us
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What is this competition between schools? How about competition between students trying to do the best they can? A good student can find a good education just about anywhere. It really depends more on the student than the the school. If you want better teachers, pay teachers more and make teaching a desirable profession instead of destroying it. They are just making teaching something no one in their right mind will want to do. Sickening! Teachers aren’t producing widgets or products. This business model will never work.
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Can’t argue with anything you said. The older I got (and the more I matured), I realized more and more that the onus was on me as a student to get a good education. It took me a while to realize that what I took for granted was not something, in the grand scope of history, that was a guarantee for most people. And that if I didn’t care about my education, why should anyone else? Anyway, nice post.
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Kudos to Dr. Ravitch & Teacherken!
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Not a Daily Kos fan, but that was a great review, teacherken, and gave you my traffic for whatever that’s worth. I’ll also be returning to see what else you have to say. Well done, sir.
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I have a request for Reign of Error at the public library. If you believe Diane’s book should be part of the discussion, ask your library to acquire it. The “reformy” books are there already, waiting to be countered with evidence and compelling argument. Public libraries, like public schools, are part of the mechanism of a democratic society.
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Without distracting from attention to this book, I wanted to mention that Prof Kevin Welner of Colorado University, often cited here, and his family had to be evacuated from the Boulder Colorado area because of the flood. For those interested in helping, here is an facebook message I just received:
Kevin Welner (friends with Alex Medler) also commented on Alex Medler’s link.
Kevin wrote: “Thanks Van and Joe. The Red Cross is always a good place to contribute. The United Way has also set up a fund specifically for the Foothill communities like Jamestown: https://www.unitedwayfoothills.org/floodrelief. I must say also that FEMA and the Nat’l Guard (our tax dollars) have been great — as well as so many volunteers.”
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