Peter Greene, a high school English teacher in Pennsylvania, here reviews Arne Duncan’s friendly chat with two teachers. In this chat, he assures them that Bill Gates does not have a seat at the table. Just look at that table! Do you see Bill Gates? No, all you see is Arne and two teachers. Proof! Bill Gates definitely does not have a seat at that table.
Peter reminds us that there are people–like you and me–who see the world as it is, and not as the masters of the universe want us too.
Were you fooled by Arne’s guileless reassurances.
Or did your spleen explode, like Peter Greene’s?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This has been the distinguishing feature of the corporate raisers all along, their utter dishonesty about their true goals. If they had an honest theory about how public education could be improved in the public interest, they could have brought it up for widespread public discussion and debate, the way things are supposed to be done in a critically thoughtful and democratic society. But no, they know that if they told the truth about their end game then the public would see that it’s calculated to destroy public education for all time, not improve it. So they lie, lie, lie, and just keep lying. I guess they consider that business as usual — lying is just the new advertising.
In this video, Duncan talks in a friendly collegial tone to re\presentatives of a our nation’s teachers, agroup THAT, IN FACT, DUNCAN WANTS TO DESTROY, and that his CORPORATE MASTERS ARE PAYING HIM TO DESTROY.
That’s not hyperbole. This is EXACTLY what is going on. When talking to teachers, Arne puts on the facade of “I’m your friend”… “you’re whom we want input from”, and and on and on… while the truth is…
ARNE DUNCAN WANTS TO DESTROY THE TEACHING PROFESSION.
I first heard words to that effect two-and-a-half years ago at UTLA’s LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE from Warren Fletcher, my current union president:
(go to 06:30)
———————————————-
WARREN FLETCHER, UTLA PRESIDENT:
“Well, I’ve been through a lot. In the past our reactions to each successive wave of bad educational ideas would have been what you might expect: ‘We’re professionals. We’ll do what’s best for the kids despite these bad policies. We’ll just get through this.’ That’s what professionals do!
“But the challenges we face today in Los Angeles are different. THE GOAL of the phony ‘reform’ movement IS NOT TO CHANGE YOUR JOB; IT’S TO ELIMINATE YOUR JOB.
“THEIR GOAL IS NOT TO CHANGE THE TEACHING PROFESSION; IT’S TO ABOLISH TEACHING AS A PROFESSION.
“Teachers are college educated professionals. You are not easily taken in. You see what the current school board majority is trying to do to your profession and to your students. I know that every one of you is ready to stand up and take this fight to the District, ready to take back our schools.
“You are not alone. Your union stands with you.
“We are public school teachers and we are proud of it!”
– – – – – – – –
Indeed, one of the goals of the “reformers”—a goal that goes hand-in-hand with overall privatization—is change teaching from…
————————————-
CATEGORY A … a profession with requires exacting education, extensive expertise, a demanding training period before actual practice… much like that of doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. … a career job that last decades…
and convert it to …
CATEGORY B… nothing more than a low-level service job that requires the most minimal education, almost no expertise, and little if any training period (just gimmicks from godawful books written by “experts” like Doug Lemov) … like fast food, retail sales at a store, janitorial, etc. … not a career job… and with no job protections, or due process for firing… a few years and out you go, to then be replaced by a next round of similarly poorly-compensated, short term workers…
—————————————–
CATEGORY B need only be paid a pittance and can be abused and over-worked with impunity, while CATEGORY A requires considerably more compensation. If the money-motivated privatizers are going to make a decent profit while taking over all or much of what is now public education, the the work force has to be the latter.
I remember talking to a TFA Corps Member at a school site, telling her that doctors, lawyers, and engineers need exacting education, extensive expertise, a demanding training period before actual practice… and so should teachers.
Her reply, “Yeah, but those are different from teaching; those are REAL professions.”
THUD! Sound of my jaw hitting the floor. (That’s part of what they’re taught during their five weeks of training… oy vey!!)
The other agenda is that corporations—including those not engaged in raping and pillaging of public educatin—and rich folk will have their taxes drastically cut as a result of all this. Those corporations will have higher profits, higher price for their stock, and happy stock-holders as a result. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN CHILE… thanks to decades of the dictatorship there, and no democratic process to stop privatization.
That’s why the so-called “corporate reform” privatizers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars vilifying the current teachers and their unions—documentaries, movies, op-eds, foundations, etc. Those unions are getting in their way of their rampage towards profits. The privatizers desperately need to destroy the public’s faith and confidence in teachers, and pass so-called “right-to-work” laws that will destroy unions. They want to do to education what they did to the housing industry, and to Wall Street… education is the next realm to conquer, rape, and pillage. These are the same folks.
However, you’ll notice that in the schools that these well-heeled folks send their own kids, you have teachers with multiple degrees, decades of experience… schools that include full-time dedicated libraries / librarians, arts teachers/ program, music teachers / programs..
Unlike the McSchools they want for the kids of the middle and working classes, these schools have small class sizes, and no (or very little) time spent in a cubicle with on-line or digital teachers. 100% (or close to it) of their kids’ instructional time is spend with live teachers of CATEGORY A above, and because of the small class sizes—12-to-1, 10-to-1, that attention is often 1-on-1… again, totally unlike the McSchools they want for everyone else’s kids.
(typo) corporate raiders …
or is it razers?
Groucho Marx :
Who are you going to believe: me or your own eyes.
lol
Teachers have always been kept in the dark beginning at the district level. Administrators, especially those at headquarters, have made decisions many time without consent of teachers. If not for our union, we would have probably been runned over and backed over.
This could possibly have been the reason why we “don’t make waves” (being kept in the dark and relying on our union make us naive). If not for the easy access that technology brings today, how many teachers outside of their jobs would inform themselves beyond their classroom walls about corp. takeover? Corporate vultures knew teachers were in a vulnerable situation and capitalized on it.
I only hope the 2 teachers interviewing Arne are luring him out into the open, instead of being his cheerleaders. BTW Peter Greene, I bust out in hives when I hear Gate’s voice. So, Arne can lie all he wants about his non-education connections with Gates, but I think getting hives is a dead give away.
I don’t think those two teachers bought it either.
Even Duncan can’t be dunce enough to think that anyone is buying. He’s just gotten so used to mouthing the scripts given him that he now has no editors whatsoever. These statements just roll out of him, no matter how ludicrous, without ever having passed through editing for plausibility.
Duncan is just a third string basketball player. He calls for accountabliity, but egads…where is HIS accountability. Oh…forgot, he is ONLY accountable to BIG money and those who fund political campaigns—as Jon Awbry writes, “CORPORATE RAIDERS.”
There must be a “mouthing the scripts” webinar course. NY’s Ed Commissioner King displays the same, hive-inducing skill.
love his article. Obviolusly written by a teacher, it was creative, humorous, rich and imaginative. Next to the sychophant robots doing the video you can see why most teachers are such great people and those who use education to further their careers and kiss up to the rich are a strange breed bending down to kowtow to the rich and losing the richness of their souls in the process. .I think I’ll keep my soul and kowtow to no one.
My liver blew. I am so weary of listening to the empty rhetoric . It is so insulting.Despite
Their portrayal of us,most teachers are highly intelligent. Our biggest weakness is kindness. Otherwise we would never put up with these fraudulent morons.