This comment came from a reader:
“Dear Diane,
My partner attended this Common Core parent forum on 9.19.13 in Baltimore County, MD, where we live, and she witnessed this parent being removed from the meeting by a security guard for standing up and voicing his concerns about Common Core. I have been a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools for 22 years, and I am seeing first-hand many of the ill effects of education reform. But the fact that a parent was arrested for speaking up at a public meeting in the county where I live is chilling. Please post this video and article. Thank you!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is this America? Parents are treated like this while the state and county superintendent merely look on? It appears only one woman stood up for him? Yes, this is indeed chilling.
Typical bullying behavior by security and the school board! Read, Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault…bullying, threatening, intimidating, coercion…is that the way to better schools and society? I was an E/BD teacher until 2004 when I figured out we were nothing but animal trainers using bullying and locked quietrooms or solitary confinement to help our student’s academic acumen…yeah, ain’t never gonna work…utilizing the same bullying as that security guard. Pitiful! And yet we wonder why we are so violent and our schools so poor.
YES! Foucault nails it. He described, in that astonishingly prescient book, precisely what is happening.
There you go getting all post modernistic, post structuralist on us citing Foucault, the man who denied and defied the labels that were attached to his thoughts and being.
Subjectivization is his word for that internal process (Hacking calls it the “looping effect”) whereby folks accept what the authorities (think teachers, school, the courts, etc. . . ) say about them through grades, discipline and various other mechanisms. And the unspoken mechanisms of power (power not in the sense that most think of authoritarian power but of that internalization itself) may be just as important of a factor in how people come to view themselves. “I am a D student”, I am a quiet student, I am a trouble maker, etc. . . . These “power” factors profoundly effect, both positively and negatively, those who cannot internally, mentally resist them (and it seems that no one ever can completely resist).
There are more and more of these “community style” meetings where there is a veneer of an “open forum” taking place. Discussion is basically controlled and shut down when questions are pre-submitted and very selectively chosen. There is no discussion and the audience is lectured to. I would say the same strategies are used outside of discussion forums. At PD’s teachers are forced to fill out survey’s which also ‘lead’ in this way. Recently, SLO’s have been rolled out for teachers to complete and without proper discussion about the how and why’s of this sudden push. My department members got one PD for an hour taught by a fellow teacher who had gone to one PD at the end of last school year. Suddenly, we must complete two of these SLO’s and it is a MAJOR part of our evaluation. There is one question which is very “telling” on the SLO form we are required to use in creating these documents. The question asks us to explain how doing this SLO will be helpful to our teaching. Hmmmm.. what if I feel that the SLO might not be helpful? No spot to write about this. Also, if I say this anyway, will I suddenly be on a “teacher hit list”? The SLO requires me to select a sub-group of students and document them to prove they are making gains. Will this not effect my interaction with them because my career depends on it? I must show gains through DATA. What if I feel that devising lessons geared toward accumulated data for the SLO impedes the creative process in my subject area?? And what if I said, I have not received adequate training for how doing this applies to me in that I travel around to many schools and am not in one classroom regularly anyway. None of this matters because like in “the community forum” created by “ed reformers” there is a veneer of democracy. “Ed reformers” must be confronted on all fronts so the public gains awareness of THE GAME they play. Most unfortunate that a parent was ARRESTED (really?) over expressing concern about the education of his child and the others in the community. One has to be suspect of the jitteriness of “ed reformers” over a parent expressing an opinion not monitored in advance.
I agree: The situation in the video looks like “open forum veneer” to me– the purpose of which is to stage the scene for “public input.”
When former TFAer-gone-superintendent John White first addressed a small group of teachers in my district (only a few from each school were allowed to attend), the police were present. That said it all– the intent was to have a highly-controlled “open” meeting.
I repeatedly warn on Twitter of a very dangerous encroaching POLICE STATE. We see it proven every day. There is no respect for constitutionally protected citizenry.
As cops look more like robo-cops and they acquire armor-plated vehicles, we MUST recognize that WE are the enemy.
EVERYONE should attend meetings to prevent the militarization of police – and stop funding of militaristic “upgrades.”
Chilling is precisely the word. And the same thing is experienced by anyone who raises objections at any of the meetings spawned by the standards-and-testing regime. It has become standard practice, for example, to tell teachers at the beginning of their Common Core “trainings” (“Sit up. Roll over. Fetch. Good boy”) to keep their objections or concerns to themselves.
And then we have the upcoming “Education Nation” summit:
If you wonder what group-think looks like, just tune in to that.
I have to give credit to CCSS** for convincing me I need to get a cell phone/reader with internet capabilities so that I can have something to do during the CCSS “professional development” days. Reading a book during our last “PD” day seemed a bit obtrusive, so much so that the presenter did her best to involve me (the ol proximity trick of physically leaning on me during one of our “discuss this with your neighbor” times-which were way to frequent) without personally addressing me. Probably wisely so on her part and would have resulted in another reprimand placed in my file. And since I’ve been told I need to use more “technology” in my teaching, I could tell them that I was just looking up more material on the subject of the PD day.
**Completely Crappily Stupid Suggestions
The officer should be investigated and at the very least be required to undergo sensitivity training for dealing with the public.
I saw no provocation by the parent for the off-duty officer to intimidate and push him.
This absolutely should not stand and should be condemned by all who claim to be the public servants of Baltimore.
President Obama should go on record about this.
I better stop because I am about to become apoplectic.
TheHoward County school board should apologize for failing to give parents a fair hearing, as well as for this man’s treatment.
United Stasi….
yup
Want to have a look at the United States that we are creating? See the film The Lives of Others:
The Stasi would have given an arm and leg (and they did except it was their opponents) to have the surveillance technology now available.
Maybe we need to pull a Ceaușescu or Mussolini on those who so defy the constitution through nefarious means of surveillance.
I often think of that, Duane–about how nothing in Orwell’s Ingsoc is anywhere as sophisticated as are taps into the hubs of Internet trunk lines, massive computerized databases, sophisticated data-mining capabilities, friends who own social media companies, ubiquitous cameras with face-recognition software.
The Thought Police Helicopters of Orwell’s Ingsoc have nothing on drones the size of bumblebees that can see like eagles and hear like bats and smell like bloodhounds. Welcome to Panopticon III.
I look at the comment stream on this, and while I do see trolls blaming the “teacher unions”, a lot of the horrified populist reaction is directed against the Democratic administration.
I understand that the privatizers are fine with that slant, and in fact, I almost am myself.
How is anybody who calls himself a Democrat NOT ashamed of this administration?
It’s fully darkly humorous to have these people doing all that union-bashing given that the teacher’s unions are in almost complete collusion and collaboration with the standards-and-testing machine.
It is an error to blame Obama for the encroaching police state. It was facilitated by Americans not demanding the TRUTH about 911, it continued woth the PATRIOT Act that came straight from Hitler’s Enabling Act, which allowed NDAA, all of which is taking us into a police state.
The NWO is the puppeteer. Obama is trying to avoid their agenda (eg Summers & Syria) by taking it to the people.
Bush seemed to thrive in perpetrating the agenda – to destroy our sovereignty via illegal invasions & destroying our economy.
Raz, obviously you do not understand what is going on. Obama is in essence by the way he is governing a right wing republican. The republicans have gone so right there is really no left anymore. Democrats, almost all, are way right of center. They are with the republicans on schools and privatization and corporatization. Obama almost placed Larry Summers in again. He is one of the planners of the financial destruction with Clinton. People said no way. He is creating more terrorists. He wanted to go to war just like Bush II just to do it as no one today knows who really used the chemical weapons and if you read foreign press the analysis is showing that is may not be govt. manufactured. This is a repeat of Iraq again and it is Obama leading the way and Russia and China who have sense this time. This is Russia’s sphere of influence not ours. Who do we think we are.
Just look at that video. This is democrats and Obama on steroids. We are now and have been for a time technically a fascist country. Corporations run the president, congress and the Supreme Court. Can you challenge that? So, think, what does that mean in the classic, not cleaned up, definition of fascism as in Italy in the 20’s and 30’s.
It is time to deal with reality or reality will bite us hard. Much harder than it already has. Study your history in all cultures and you will see this repeated over and over again. This is why in 1985 or so Reagan and Bill Bennett, who hates public education, put into place reducing government and history classes and now we have the results of that.
“. . . what does that mean in the classic, not cleaned up, definition of fascism as in Italy in the 20′s and 30′s.”
Yep and the perpetrators need to be “Mussolinied”
Killed?
In a rhetorical sense, mind you!
I forgot to talk about the man in the video. They tried to pull this at LAUSD with what they call “Decorum” policies or be nice. So I did some legal research and put together two pages of law and case law which stated they could not do that. That stopped that. What I saw in that video is what I call “Nazi Fascist Amerika.” Some might get upset with this. Sorry, it is just a fact if you do not have blinders on and a “True Believer” at the same time. They did not just remove the man for performing his “Free Speech” rights. I am the Director of Policy for CORE-CA. Last night I was at a dinner put on by CAB. CAB was formed to provide community imput to the L.A. Sheriffs Dept. You might be surprised to know that the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. is actually progressive in spite of what you hear on the news. All the people there work with Foster Children and some were there, working with mothers whose children have been killed and the the problems in the jails for 40 or so years. This problem is a civil rights problem of the highest order. If you cannot speak truthfully even if it upsets some people we do not have freedom anymore. That policeman acted like the Stasi or the Gestapo. This is where they are going now. It must be stopped.
This man they took out is my hero. He stood up to the powers that be on principal and also the woman who stood up next to him as the so called officer manhandles him probably at the order of those behind the table who did not want his message getting out. Whether you like a message of not the person has a right in a public meeting to express their opinion. If we do not defend that we are as bad as those who do it. This is the basis of civil rights. CORE-CA puts on the larges Martin Luther King Day Parade in the U.S. to celebrate the message of Dr. King. Interestingly enough the family that puts on the parade is the L.A. King family not related to the MLK family but long time friends with them. This parade is televised nationally. Now you know who does it.
Therefore, we defend the rights of this man to say what he or anyone else wants to in public. I have had them go all the way many times but fear has stopped them many times and the police don’t want to mess with me as a friend and myself stopped Roy Romer three times from eliminating the LAUSDPD. If not for that “Who Knows.” Sir, you are my hero and a symbol of what it takes to stop this insanity.
So I did some legal research and put together two pages of law and case law which stated they could not do that.
That’s awesome, George!!! You are one of the heroes for doing that.
It’s infernally brilliant and cynical that the Overclass would have a Black man, and a Democrat, be the face of developing world, IMF-style austerity and the police state needed to defend it. Look no further than the MSNBC’s, Daily Kos’ and MoveOn’s of the world to see how effective it has been in splintering potential opposition.
In the world of contemporary US politics, as in professional wrestling, there’s has to be a bad guy, or heel, to be the target of the crowd’s anger. The House Republican’s serve that purpose, while Obama plays his part and provides his impressarios with a higher net return than they could have otherwise expected.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose. Unless the rules of the game, or the game itself, is changed.
Why is this not national news!? That security guard was almost violent!
I hope that everyone who is a reader of this blog will continue to follow the case of this man who spoke up at this meeting and that those who live in Maryland will keep the rest of us informed about what happens to this man.
This kind of thing cannot be allowed to continue to happen. It’s time that there be a test case, a Montgomery Bus Boycott moment.
“Is this America?” the parent asks. Well, yes, this is what our country is starting to look like. I saw a cartoon recently that featured a sign reading .
Free Speech Zone.
The sign was planted on the moon.
Enough. Speak truth to power, and support those who do. I
Another “veneer moment”… a friend of mine in NYC is very active in protesting the closing down of public schools and the “sharing (or shall I say take-over) of charter schools that share space in public schools in NYC. I was visiting and attended a meeting at Brooklyn Tech led by Eva Moskowitz and gang. The auditorium was split in two. On one side were the protestors (and many refused to enter the room on the grounds that the “discussion” was staged and that the Moskowitz crew had bussed charter school students and parents from all over NYC to attend a local protest! And yes, I saw with my own eyes about 4 buses pull up and all those who got out wore orange t-shirts (ionically like the prison uniform color) with some charter school caption on them. The event was totally controlled. No dialogue allowed. And these very bar bouncer-like looking men strolled ominously on our side of the aisle just waiting for us to cause “trouble”…. Guess they were part of the same training as the thugs who arrested the parent in this article!
Am I the only one that found it interesting that Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance, is BLACK, as WELL AS THE “SECURITY GUARD.”
None the less, is this man a SECURITY GUARD OR COP? Does MD allowed cops to twilight as security guards then quickly hide behind their badges when its convenient for them?
Cowardly if you ask me.
None the less, its a GREAT example of RACISM if you ask me. Pure and Simple. Not only a violation of this mans freedom of speech but it appears that he’s being targeted because he doesn’t agree with the BLACK MAN.
http://angryhillbilly.com/2013/09/23/man-is-arrested-for-peaceful-disagreement-with-school-officials/
Thank you, Mr. Robert Small. I will now be at the next Baltimore County school board meeting speaking out.
As a local, let me clarify some things – Dalllas Dance, the new boss at Baltimore County Public Schools, is so inexperienced he’s having to work in a classroon for two years to meet minimun qualifications in Maryland. First big event in the job? A Conference/Party starring Arnie Duncan, another mega-mind.
They are trying to sell Baltimore County on charters/privatized schools and all that they entail, but we are NOT beaten down enough, yet.
Reblogged this on Crazy Crawfish's Blog and commented:
I don’t agree with all the comments related to black versus white racism, but it would appear they could have let the man ask his question and then move on. Most of the proponents of CCSS are not capable or prepared to defend them in an open and honest format, so they stage “open” meetings like this one, to pretend to be interested in hearing the opinions of parents and teachers. Many parents in Louisiana have had special invitation only meetings to theoretically discuss CCSS, only to be lectured for as many as 11 hours by officials bearing bizarre charts and unsubstantiated statements, assertions and quotes. Gates and the Feds bought many of our politicians and education leaders, but they did not do a very good job of selling this to parents. Now the leaders who were legally bribed into endorsing standards they did not understand are finding themselves on the hotseat, with only Jeb Bush riding to their rescue. If they arrest a large group of parents protesting this, you can consider CCSS over as well as the careers of many politicians. . . It will be interesting to see what happens this Saturday. . .
I hate to disappoint everyone who is working him/herself into a frenzy over this incident, but first off, the guy is free and the charges were dropped over 7 hours ago. I figured people here would have seen that by now and commented. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/53087825/ns/local_news-baltimore_md/#.UkESbWTwLVo
That said, there seems to me to be a lot missing from that video. It’s just enough to make it as completely one-sided as possible, and yet I can still determine that the man’s behavior, while certainly not justify either his being physically intimidated, touched, or arrested, could easily have been out of order.
I know that the assumption is that he never was given a fair chance to speak. And maybe that’s true. But absent more evidence, I like to keep my mind open.
What I find particularly disturbing about some of the comments here is the amount of pure speculation – maybe the board told the guard to do X. And maybe not. Maybe the guard is a guy who handles any sort of defiance or refusal to cooperate with a lot more menace and physicality than should be the case. We know nothing about him, his record as a policeman (if in fact, he is one) or as a security guard.
And anyone speculating that this is some national policy coming down from Obama, Arne Duncan, etc., has lost his/her mind.
There are conspiracies, and there are ‘conspiracies.’ But more often, there are bozos who underestimate blowback against what they think is something they have well in hand. And there are individual meetings handled the way whoever is in charge locally chooses to handle them. Did the people in charge here order that guard to kick ass and take names? Maybe. Or were they as surprised as anyone that this guy got forced out and then arrested on trumped up charges? Pretty difficult to say. Well, if you aren’t sure that you have the real story on this. If you do, please explain it to me in words I can understand. I like words that connect to . . . facts, evidence, the sort of stuff that is likely to be admissible in court or at least not so implausible, speculative, hearsay-based, etc., that no reasonable judge would admit it.
This has been quite a day. I’m reading insane stuff on the Common Core everyplace. I’m reading that Bill Ayers wrote the Common Core, was in cahoots with Linda Darling-Hammond, Obama, and I think they’re throwing Castro and Hugo Chavez into the mix because Ayers has been to both those countries. Think I’m kidding? Try this lovely blog on for size: http://www.dissidentprof.com/ and particularly here: http://www.aim.org/special-report/terrorist-professor-bill-ayers-and-obamas-federal-school-curriculum/ with the ironic heading, “accuracy in media” at the top.
Then for your smoking plea sure, try this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezTIYd5UFRY or try reading at this website: http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/
Discover that Soviet communism is still alive and well. That there was a secret pact Reagan signed with the Russians to “merge” US & Soviet education (I really should have been more alert in the ’80s). And lots of other fun facts. My personal favorite, which I picked somewhat randomly from Charlotte Iserbyt’s magnum opus, THE DELIBERATE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA (you can download it free here: http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/DDDoA.sml.pdf
is the meeting that took place in 1928 (see pp.14 -15), involving, among others, John Dewey and E. O. Thorndike, in which they discussed a “new math” curriculum explicitly designed to, yes, dumb down, America’s youth. This is just too amazing not to quote in its entirely:
A DELIBERATE MATH “DUMB DOWN” WAS SERIOUSLY DISCUSSED IN 1928. A TEACHER NAMED
O.A. Nelson, John Dewey, Edward Thorndike (who conducted early behavioral psychology experiments with chickens), and other Council on Foreign Relations members attended a Progressive Education Association meeting in 1928 at which O.A. Nelson was informed that the purpose of “new math” was to dumb down students. Nelson revealed in a later interview with Young Parents Alert that the Progressive Education Association was a communist front.
According to the National Educator (July, 1979):
Mr. O.A. Nelson, retired educator, has supplied the vitally important documentation
needed to support the link-up between the textbooks and the Council on Foreign Relations. His letter was first printed in “Young Parents Alert” (Lake Elmo, Minnesota). His story is self-explanatory.
I know from personal experience what I am talking about. In December 1928,
I was asked to talk to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On
December 27th, naïve and inexperienced, I agreed. I had done some special work in
teaching functional physics in high school. That was to be my topic. The next day, the
28th, a Dr. Ziegler asked me if I would attend a special educational meeting in his room after the AAAS meeting. We met from 10 o’clock [p.m.] until after 2:30 a.m.
We were 13 at the meeting. Two things caused Dr. Ziegler, who was Chairman of
the Educational Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, to ask me to attend…
my talk on the teaching of functional physics in high school, and the fact that I was a
member of a group known as the Progressive Educators of America, which was nothing but a Communist front. I thought the word “progressive” meant progress for better schools. Eleven of those attending the meeting were leaders in education. Drs. John Dewey and Edward Thorndike, from Columbia University, were there, and the others were of equal rank. I checked later and found that ALL were paid members of the Communist Party of Russia. I was classified as a member of the Party, but I did not know it at the time.
The sole work of the group was to destroy our schools! We spent one hour and
forty-five minutes discussing the so-called “Modern Math.” At one point I objected
because there was too much memory work, and math is reasoning; not memory. Dr.
Ziegler turned to me and said, “Nelson, wake up! That is what we want… a math that
the pupils cannot apply to life situations when they get out of school!” That math was
not introduced until much later, as those present thought it was too radical a change.
A milder course by Dr. Breckner was substituted but it was also worthless, as far as
understanding math was concerned. The radical change was introduced in 1952. It was the one we are using now. So, if pupils come out of high school now, not knowing any math, don’t blame them. The results are supposed to be worthless.
[Ed. Note: Mr. Nelson was formerly assistant principal at Wilson High School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as Johnson High School in St. Paul. This writer was fortunate enough to verify the above story by calling a teacher colleague of the late Mr. Nelson. Also, members of the “Young Parents Alert” in Lake Elmo, Minnesota provided the writer with an audio-cassette of the speech he gave at a Young Parents Alert education conference on April 28, 1979.]
Not sure if anyone is still with me, but the “evidence” above is about as convincing to me that this is all completely true as is most of the Internet blather I’ve been reading much of the day, week, and month.
Folks, it would be really great if people could resist the temptation to blather and go off the deep end. But whether you’re on the Left or the Right, blather is blather. When Diane Ravitch, Alfie Kohn, Richard Rothstein, the late Jerry Bracey, and other scholars and journalists of integrity publish books, I know I’m going to read something that is grounded in reliable well-sourced research.
I wish I could say the same about a lot of what’s being written about the secret truths hidden or not hidden in the Common Core. Just to remind people, I oppose the Common Core and have from Day 1. If they revise it, I will still oppose it. If they let me WRITE the entire thing, I would oppose it. It’s bad policy motivated by greed.
BUT, that doesn’t make every dumb criticism folks level against specific elements of it true. Nor is every local beef at a school board meeting a sign that the country has been taken over by the forces of darkness.
Just thought I’d say that out loud.
I am in Baltimore County and will describe the circumstances regarding this situation as I have heard them. Before I begin, please note that I am a teacher in and parent of a student in this school system. This forum was set up as informational, with no public comments. People were permitted to submit their questions to the BCPS Superintendent, Dr. Dance prior to the meeting ( I have no idea how far in advance). Dr. Dance is very pro Common Core and standardized testing. While Dr. Dance was speaking, a man (Robert Small), disrupted the meeting by asking questions and sharing his viewpoints. I have been told that several attempts were made to have this parent stop, which he ignored. He was then confronted by the police officer (I haven’t seen the video). In our local paper it stated that “Small was escorted out when he refused to stop talking. He said to other parents, You are sitting here like cattle. Is this America?” A police report said that Small tried to push the officer away, and he was later charged with second-degree assault of a police officer.” I have also been told that after the meeting ended, officials spoke with and answered questions from the audience.
In my opinion, the parent seems to have been out-of-order within the context that the forum was set up in. Did he need to be physically removed – I have no idea. However, I applaud him for challenging the Superintendent and calling attention to the real issue – that the public has had no voice in the decisions regarding curriculum at the local level. Now that this story is spreading – maybe some more people will hold their school and state education officials accountable for the damage they causing.
There is an associated situation within Baltimore County Public Schools and the implementation of the Common Core that is heating up. Baltimore County Public Schools is presently beginning implementation of the Common Core Standards. For the Elementary level, BCPS signed a 5.3 million dollar contract with a company called edCount LLC to write the new curriculum in conjuction with school system staff. This was after previous, costly curriculum rewrites were shelved. Apparently edCount was fired and BCPS will not disclose how much of the contract was paid out. The curriculum had to be patched together over the summer. It wasn’t finished when school began and teachers received little to no training on it. Materials needed to teach with were not provided. The curriculum was available on a “new digital platform” which is cumbersome and many of links were broken or missing. Teachers are working until all hours of the night trying to prep the lessons with no support from the school system. It is a collossal disaster. Dr. Dance was quoted at a recent school board meeting stating that, “We are building the plane as we fly it, but let’s be clear our passengers are safe.” Has anyone ever heard a more ridiculous statement?! This man is in charge of a school system with over 100,000 students. More people like Robert Small need to speak out!!