To Be a Hero

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1. lohvfl says:

   January 7, 2014 at 9:53 pm

   wonderful

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2. Nimbus says:

   January 7, 2014 at 9:56 pm

   T-shirts, please!

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3. chemtchr says:

   January 7, 2014 at 10:05 pm

   Well and truly said. Decent human beings, in our billions, have always been high on my list of heroes. I don’t think there’s ever been a golden age when it was easy, but we do plug along, generation after generation.

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4. Woof Thomsen says:

   January 7, 2014 at 10:23 pm

   Ah so…May Sarton…a blast from the past.

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5. Mary Myers says:

   January 7, 2014 at 10:41 pm

   Hi – do you know who is on the task force in NYS that has been convened by Tisch? Thanks – Mary Myers

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6. Emily says:

   January 8, 2014 at 1:30 am

   Diane,

   This might be off topic but what are the thoughts on the Tripod Survey. When I googled it earlier in the year it is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation (which automatically links it to common core in my mind ). But in Hawaii it is being given to my kindergartner (I’m sure other grades as well but not my first grader at the same school). How can a 5 year old accurately and honestly, ” give perspectives on what he/she is experiencing in school and classroom, address classroom climate and behavior, and answer questions regarding family background, demographics and cultural identity” ?

   Thanks again for all you and your blog does for us concerned parents and educators.

   Best-
   Emily

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   • dianeravitch says:

     January 8, 2014 at 10:50 am

     Emily,

     I do not know what the tripod survey is. Perhaps another reader can answer. For a kindergartner, I recommend the tricycle survey.

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     • Chris says:

       January 8, 2014 at 2:57 pm

       No idea but love the “tricycle survey”! 5 year olds can have amazing insight we mere adults overlook. As always, thanks for your insight Diane.

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     • Halo Mom says:

       January 31, 2014 at 9:49 pm

       Emily, A warning: I would question and oppose the Tripod Survey. The Tripod was conducted in our school district, Montclair, NJ, which is in a lot of turmoil since the hiring of a Broad Academy superintendent 2 years ago. Ms. Ravitch reported on our school district in her 1/8/14 blog. It was part of the superintendent’s “strategic plan.” Parents weren’t informed of the survey. We discovered afterward the consultants were paid $95,000 for it. The surveys ask students about their school experiences — but go so far as to ask them their opinions of specific teachers. Also, there are many questions asking students about their home lives and personal information. Apparently, there is student identifying information on the completed surveys. And the results have never been shared with us.

       The Tripod Survey is a trademarked survey administered by the “Tripod Project” which is described by the Gates Foundation as, “a national consortium of schools and districts with a shared interest in raising achievement for all students… by helping teachers improve in three essential and interrelated areas: content knowledge, pedagogy and relationships. Tripod participants use data from the project’s surveys to analyze student engagement, classroom learning conditions, teaching practices, youth culture and school climate. Their understanding of the data is
       guided by the Tripod Conceptual Framework, which includes the Seven Cs and five student engagement targets.”

       The Tripod Project is part of the “Measures of Effective Teaching” Project – created and funded by the Gates foundation with its goal to “rigorously develop and test multiple measures of teacher effectiveness.”

       (Speaking of rigorous measures of effectiveness, my two adolescent children told me “no one” took the surveys seriously, and many gave random answers to purposely mess with the results.)

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7. Castles Burning says:

   January 8, 2014 at 5:23 am

   Yes, a blast from the past and yet, I do not fully understand. Does anyone have the reference for this quote? [If you search, this blog already comes up!!]

   I am interested to hear what others have to say about what “think[ing’ like a hero means to them as I have never thought like one. Yet, I try to be a decent human being and am writing this on the day after feeling like I failed miserably–in the classroom–and a good deal of that is because what I am “trying” to do is so misunderstood or not even attempted to be understood. I mean why would one benefit from reading Ibsen’s Enemy of the People? Why would one want to understand what the humanites are? (seniors in high school)

   I am finding it harder to be a decent human being in the classroom and that should not be surprising, given all that is happening, yet it just feels awful. I am writing because maybe there is something in this quote (that I do not understand) that could help me. Thanks for any responses.

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8. dr george78704 says:

   January 8, 2014 at 5:29 am

   True heroes have moral courage, which we know is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement. However, the problem is that overly ambitious (Narcissistic PD) politicians and school administrators “think” they are doing what is “right”, because they are more interested in their own agenda, and they believe their own “superiority”. They do not listen to anyone who has expertise, nor do they empathize with children’s suffering. As John Kuhn says, it is a “creepy” thing from a dystrophia novel like 1984 or Brave New World, only this is “real”.

   When school policy makers say they are doing what is “best” for children, but it is the opposite of what children need and is harming children, that is “insanity”. It is “delusional” thinking and narcissistic denial. When teachers, principals, and school administrators participate in that abuse to children, they are perpetuating it.

   Speaking up against this abuse to children does take courage, but stopping it and refusing to participate takes “real” courage.

   In her book, Childism, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl discusses a narcissistic form of child abuse that has developed, as well as the politicization of child abuse. Her insightful book points to what we can recognize as “real” in our current society…..society has turned on its children.

   The “real” heroes are those who will stop talking and take “action”.

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   • NoBrick says:

     January 8, 2014 at 9:06 am

     “It is “delusional” thinking and narcissistic denial. When teachers, principals, and school administrators participate in that abuse to children, they are perpetuating it.”

     Good luck with that concept.
     I’ve touched on it before to no avail.
     On one hand we have the so called “Reformers” who know
     nothing about education, don’t care about the children, and are
     only “in it” for the money.

     On the other hand, we have “Educators” who know about education,
     care about the children, BUT continue as a “Cog” in the
     Abuse Machine, FOR THE MONEY, to keep their job, to pay off
     their student loans, support their family, and on and on.

     “Speaking up against this abuse to children does take courage, but stopping it and refusing to participate takes “real” courage.”

     Real courage, or the “Wit” to understand the “Reform Abuse”
     is NOTHING, until it passes through their hands to the children.

     Direct action or wait and see, exposes the gap between
     Professed Values and Actions.

     “The “real” heroes are those who will stop talking and take “action”.”

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9. Greenthumb says:

   January 8, 2014 at 5:40 am

   http://www.news10.com/story/24390045/lawmakers-call-for-re-evaluation-of-common-core

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10. Ellen T Klock says:

    January 8, 2014 at 5:40 am

    Sad, but true. Who said? “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.” It’s like a caucus race (Alice in Wonderland) where running just keeps us in the same place. What a shame that changes wrought can only be through super human effort.

    In other words, if even heroes like Diane Ravitch are ignored by the people making the decisions (and she’s not easy to ignore), then how much harder is it for us mere mortals’ voices to be heard. (As I’ve said before – we need to be like the Whos – in Horton Hears a Who by Dr Seuss – and all cry “yop!”).

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11. Alexander says:

    January 8, 2014 at 6:22 am

    We need to cry STOP! STOP administering the tests if you are a teacher. STOP allowing your child to be tested if you are a parent. STOP allowing the delusional school policy makers to abuse your children. STOP allowing your tax money to support child abusers.

    Start thinking of testing as a “plague”, because that is exactly what it is, a psychological plague causing mental illness that will strip our children of their spirits, their identity, and their natural gifts. It will cause them a lifetime of depression, anxiety, addictions and codependency. This moral decline has created schools that are institutions for producing mental illness. We are the “bystanders” doing nothing but observing this moral decay and allowing the Russian prediction of the US collapse to become “real”.

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    • Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

      January 8, 2014 at 11:11 am

      AMEN, Alexander. WE ALL NEED TO BE NON-COMPLIANT. We are being BULLIED by those who talk about school bullying. It’s a sham.

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    • Duane Swacker says:

      January 8, 2014 at 11:31 am

      “STOP allowing your tax money to support child abusers. Start thinking of testing as a “plague”, because that is exactly what it is, a psychological plague causing mental illness that will strip our children of their spirits, their identity, and their natural gifts.”

      Sooooo. . . , “Situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into the principal’s office wherever you are ,just walk in say “Principal, You can get Anything you want, on the Quixotic Quest Bandwagont”. And walk out.

      You know, if One person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and They’ll get rid of him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, They may think they’re both faggots (especially in Kansas) and they’ll harass and fire both of them.

      But if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in Singin a bar of the Quixotic Quest Bandwagon song and refusing to give the test. They may think it’s an Organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day? I said, Fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of the Quixotic Quest Bandwagon song and refusing to participate in these educational malpractices. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

      And that’s what it is, the Quixotic Quest Anti-Standards, Anti-Testing and Anti-Grading Movement, and All you got to do to join is read and understand Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” every time it is referenced here.

      (needless to say apologies to Arlo)

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