Paul Thomas has the advantage of nearly two decades as a high school teacher and now a teacher educator at Furman Uniiversity, one of only four teacher education programs given. High rating by the non -professional National Council on Teacher Quality.
Thomas has already called for a moratorium on privileged white men pontificating about race, class, and gender.
He previously made this recommendation because of Mike Petrilli’s paean to the good old days of selective and segregated schools, preferably with no excuses.
He here extends the moratorium to include the prolific champion of reform Rick Hess. Paul is exercised by Rick’s ideas about how teachers can earn a ” place at the table.”
Whose table? Who else will be there? Who built the table? What or who is on the menu?
Whenever anyone offers you a place at the table, think of that brilliant episode in “The Twilight Zone,” called “To Serve Mankind.” If you haven’t seen it, do so.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
72% of people polled have “trust and confidence in the men and women teaching in public schools”
Click to access 2013_PDKGallup.pdf
Politicians would kill for that kind of number on “trust”.
Sadly, they didn’t poll on “trust and confidence” in ed reform pundits, but I bet they wouldn’t get anywhere near 72% 🙂
Why would reformers imagine public school parents wouldn’t want teachers “at the table” when education policy is made? Is this just a belief of theirs, something they believe that they are assuming most people agree with? It’s a little nuts, quite frankly.
I’m a lawyer and I can tell you, there wouldn’t be “reform” of the legal system without lawyers “at the table” because that’s just crazy.
Also, could these people be more patronizing and insulting? Who said this individual gets to decide on the terms, tone and seating arrangement at the table?
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“I’m a lawyer and I can tell you, there wouldn’t be “reform” of the legal system without lawyers “at the table” because that’s just crazy.”
In keeping with the OP, I feel like I’ve entered the Twilight Zone where “reform” of public education can happen without teachers at the table and no one bats an eye. I’m thinking that just 10 years ago that couldn’t have happened. Was that the point of demoralizing teachers all along? Keep them busy and demoralized and they won’t question a thing.
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In Carter’s White House Diaries he states, at the establishment of the DOE, that he is fully in favor of it as long as teachers are not involved.
To me, the problem of excluding teachers from the conversation looks like it goes way back. My lifetime, basically.
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Joanna, I think you’re right. I think that issue has always been there. I do think, though, that what little power teachers had has steadily been eroding and with it the probability of getting a decent seat at the table.
Out of curiosity, did Carter elaborate at all on his thoughts on the matter?
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Yes. One of Serling’s most famous episodes. To dine at the table with these sharks means that you are the meal.
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Available on YouTube !
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)
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Kudos to Pleasantville Schools in NY for choosing to not sit at the table created by those who would deliberately silence, or preferably ignore, their voices. The dilemma remains that poor districts cannot afford to give up the funds that come with the strings. But can they afford not to?
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I loved that episode. Teachers and their associations need to start to be more aggressive and proactive or they will end up like the American people who use to make TVs and other world class electronics. Teachers need to have their own Public TV debates / discussions on the correct direction for Public Schools and why their direction is the better choice for American Public School Children. They do not need to worry about Private School Children because they are already getting the best education money can buy and in many cases Public School parents are now paying for that education! I have been a Public School mathematics teacher for 40 plus years and have spent time at all levels from Pre-K through University level, but I will never allow my Grandchildren to attend today’s Public Schools due to the regressive reforms that are not in the best interest of the students and their future choices for career opportunities. Today is another SAD day for our Public School children because we the people have not done enough to get the attention of the majority of Public School parents and I do not understand why parents of students at schools in wealthy high school communities like Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, New Trier in Illinois, Newport in Washington, and Mission Viejo in California as examples do not do more to stop all of this waste of limited resources on unnecessary testing or at least redirect these limited resources into areas of need such as improving the schools students access to technology or updated student facilities. I am ashamed that my Grandchildren get to learn Chinese and Spanish starting in second grade while Public School children spend much of their day preparing for a test that is only helpful in determining if their teachers and/or their school is an A or an F rated school and the argument that these test results are going to be used to improve instruction is a political lie and even if true, the improved instruction would have as its goal to do instruction differently to improve test scores and would not be used to improve student learning and future career opportunities unless they are going to bubble in scantrons as a living! I do not understand why Americans are so apathetic to what happens to their children and why Public School teachers did not see this regressive reform coming from Arne and our President because he would not attend the NEA annual conference in DC or the AFT convention in Chicago just before being nominated to run! Hilary did not dodge this responsibility to show up in support of Public School children. Maybe she understands the needs better because she actually went to a Public high school. Few politicians have attended Public high schools and fewer have their own children currently enrolled in them. I guess then it is O.K. for them to dictate how Public Schools should be run.
Sent from my iPhone
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Speaking of seats at the table, we are so thankful that you, Diane, got a seat at Melissa Harris Perry’s table this morning on MSNBC. Apparently MHP is the one host at the progressive network not forced to buy in to “Education Nation”. It was refreshing to have you afforded the time to fully and cogently lay out the arguments made in your book against privatization and charters. I know, as a middle school teacher in a suburban district , that my kids’ parents would never allow what is being done to the poor districts by the corporate deformers to happen to their schools. And my wife, who is a life skills teacher in Philadelphia, was smiling, for a change, after watching you. The truth does set you free.
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Don’t be too complacent. The reform agenda does not present itself full blown at your doorstep. It sneaks in with mission statements and a call for data proving that a school is addressing its goals effectively. It lurks behind every complaint as to why my child’s class/school didn’t get to do the same project that child got to do in that other class/school. It announces itself in the introduction of top down management for efficiency that used to rely on collegiality and collaboration. It arrives in benchmark tests and the proliferation of standardized testing. It grades teachers with mile long checklists, unannounced walkthroughs, and requires extensive teacher reflections to help in measuring attainment of professional goals. It hands scripted lessons to a teacher to be followed “with fidelity.”
What has been done in the large urban districts is disgraceful, but don’t kid yourself that the reformers are not active in your neighborhood. It’s just not as blatant and on the surface seems logical to folks who are comfortable in the business world.
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TAGO!
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I’ve seen the Twilight Zone episode you mentioned. A very thought-provoking message it presented. Now about that table. I don’t want a seat at it. I want cosign the damnable thing to the flames and build in it place a better, sturdier table that shows genuine craftsmanship and is made of only the finest materials, and lay upon it a menu with a set of choices that are much more appetizing, appealing, and satisfying. (Sorry if I went overboard with the metaphor, but I think you get my message.)
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Sometimes Diane, I do feel like I’m in an episode of To Serve Teachers, paid for by aliens such as Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and the Waltons. And yet there are many good people out there who are decoding these alien cookbooks, and alerting us through blogs like yours and the Badass Teachers Association.
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“It’s a cookbook!” Great episode. Yes, I often feel I am in the Twilight Zone when I hear of the increasingly ludicrous decisions by the power’s that be. I also do not want to be invited to the table as it currently exists. Teachers and administrators should not be guests at the banquet. They should be the ones planning the menu and preparing the food, not the ones who are offered scraps when everyone else is done,
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