A reader whoe nom de plume is Democracy posted this comment:
“TIME magazine infamously posted Michelle Rhee on its cover, with a broom, with the title, “How To Fix America’s Schools.”
The subtitle of that cover story stated that Rhee was engaged in a “battle against bad teachers” that could “transform public education.”
The cover story was written by the oh-so-talented (wink) Amanda Ripley, who is as much a charlatan as Wendy Kopp (and Michelle Rhee) and Arne Duncan.
To the best of my knowledge, TIMEi has not published any retraction of that terrible cover story, nor has it published any cover story about the huge cheating scandal in the D.C. schools under Rhee’s “leadership.”
Such is the (sorry) state of mainstream media reports on public education.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
the same Ripley “believe it or not that “Joe Nocera of the Times recommends as a great author on education…. GRRRR
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Those who can teach and those who can’t write about teaching.
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Here’s something that Ripley left out of her story:
Michelle Rhee makes more in an hour of bashing public school teachers & their unions as the average starting teacher makes in a year—while we have to read the outrageous stuff that her supporters claim about how self-less and noble she is..
Below, we can read as one of her backers blathers about how Rhee is now “shunning high salaries” to “improve the lot of our nation’s students,” and how she was targeted and victimized in D.C. because she “put students first.”
Check out what WAITING FOR SUPERMAN director Davis Guggenheim wrote in his blurb accompanying her page in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Important People list:
(CAPS are mine… Jack… it’s in the last paragraph)
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066128,00.html
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DAVIS GUGGENHEIM:
“She (Michelle Rhee) SET A GOAL TO IMPROVE THE LOT OF THE NATION’S STUDENTS, and she has stuck to that. And she PAID DEARLY FOR IT, stepping down from her D.C. post in 2010 after Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his bid for re-election, a public rejection that some saw as A REPUDIATION OF THE TOUGH STEPS to raise the standards of the city’s public schools.
“Subsequently, SHE SHUNNED ANY HIGH-SALARY OFFERS that resulted from her high-profile tenure and INSTEAD FOUNDED HER OWN ORGANIZATION.
” ‘PUTTING KIDS FIRST’ could be a pithy slogan. For many it is.FOR RHEE, IT’S A LIFELONG COMMITMENT.”
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Hey Davis, you know who else has to “pay dearly”? The folks who have to pay to have this woman speak for an hour or two!
Ms. Rhee may have “shunned any high salary offers” after the voters of D.C. ran her out of town, but she sure isn’t shy about lapping up her $50K / hour speaking fees!
(NOTE: her 2013 STUDENTS FIRST tax forms indicate she currently makes $350,000 annually… isn’t that “a high salary?)
It’s nice that her “lifelong commitment” to “putting kids first” pays so well.
Here’s Hollywood agency CAA’s promo blurb for her:
http://caaspeakers.com/michelle-rhee/
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“In the ever-evolving landscape of education in America, Michelle Rhee has been working tirelessly for the past two decades to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world.
“From adding instructional time after school and visiting students’ homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students’ voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, Michelle has always been guided by one core principle: put students first.”
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Wow, Rhee has “been guided by one core principle: put students first.”
How touching and noble of her? Given that moving statement, I’m sure that—like Dr. Ravitch—Ms. Rhee probably donates her time to give speeches and make appearances… at most only asking to have her expenses covered.
Wait a sec. I just found something on-line. It says that… Ms. Rhee… NO, I DON’T BELIEVE IT… SOMEBODY’S LYING OR MAKING THIS UP TO HARM HER REPUTATION…
No… it says that… she actually CHARGES MONEY (???!!!) for her speeches?
Say it ain’t so!
And that, when giving speeches, she is represented by the top Hollywood agency C.A.A., Creative Artists Agency?
Well, I’m sure her pay is just a small honorarium… as, like you, Dr. Ravitch, her true motives are to improve the educational lives of children, and to make sure every child has a great teacher at the front of his or her classroom, and, as Davis Guggenheim puts it, her mission to “put students first,” while “shunning high salaries.”
What’s that? It’s NOT just a token honorarium. Let me guess…
$1,000?
$2,000?
Higher? You gotta be kidding!
$5,000?
$10,000?
Get outta town!
$15,000?
$20,000?
What? She gets more than that just for an hour or two of speaking and answering questions?
Really? It’s actually higher?
$25,000?
$30,000?
Okay, someone’s just winding me up here. There’s NO WAY she charges more than THAT!!!
$50,000!
BINGO!!!!!
$50,000???!!! I don’t believe it.
Somebody’s gotta be making that up to discredit Ms. Rhee. It’s probably some evil, corrupt defenders-of-a-failed-status-quo teachers union thugs who put adult teachers’ interests ahead of children/students’ interest that hacked into C.A.A.’s website and created… yeah, it’s probably them who are making up and spreading these lies in an effort to harm Ms. Rhee’s reputation, and protect those teachers’ own selfish interest and cushy jobs-for-life.
Apparently not.
Some enterprising writer named Molly Bloom at the on-line publication STATE IMPACT actually got a copy of the contract that Rhee uses for her personal appearances and posted it on-line.
Oh, will you just shut up and gimme that link!
http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2011/10/10/michelle-rhee-to-speak-at-kent-statestark-prompts-faculty-to-organize-counter-event/
What’s that? Just scroll down and you can see
a scanned copy of Rhee’s boilerplate contract? Hmmm….
Yep! There it is… In the contract posted, $35,000 is indeed what she’s getting paid to speak at Kent State, plus a bunch o’ FIRST CLASS expenses. .. (She claims here that she was discounting her usual $50,000 / hour fee because the venue, Kent State, was “a school.)
The contract posted is the actual one used for Ms. Rhee’s appearance at at Kent State University,
Why, that’s SECOND worst atrocity ever associated with that school’s history. (“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming… Four dead in O – hi – o… “)
(Watch this whole video… it’s pretty well done!)
I like how the “Purchaser”—the entity or person who hires her— sends the payment to:
“Rhee Enterprises, LLC” (PAGE 2)
Helping improve the education of children and “putting students first” is a lucrative Big Business, apparently.
There’s more on PAGE 3:
——————————————————————
“a. Purchaser shall provide the Artist with one (1) First Class round-trip, unrestricted, fully-refundable airplane tickets, or cash equivalent, at Artist’s election;
“b. Purchaser shall one (1) VIP hotel suite; Purchaser to make and confirm reservations in consultation with the Artist; Artist reserves the right to choose hotel;
“c. Purchaser to provide the Artist with meals and all reasonable incidentals;
“d. Purchase shall provide Artist with a towncar and Professional Driver for round-trip transportation from the Artist’s home to the airport, airport to hotel, hotel to engagement, or any combination thereof;”
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Yes, that’s right… Rhee demands not just a hotel room, but a “VIP hotel suite” at a hotel approved by her, as well as a towncar with a chauffer to drive her around???!!!
Come one. Be fair. Don’t beat up on Rhee because of this. You need all that if you’re going to be “putting students first.”
Item 6 is telling. Michelle or her agent crosses out the following:
——————————————————————
(CROSSED OUT WITH A PEN)
“6. RESPONSIBILITY for EVENT-RELATED TAXES. Purchase agrees to pay any and all local, State, and/or Federal rental, amusement, sales or other taxes as required by law.”
——————————————————————
Next to the crossing out, Michelle or her agent scrawls,
“TAX EXEMPT”…
… as Students First is a non-profit organization.
Awww, that’s too bad. That money would have gone to the state’s general fund for education, as Ohio schools are hurting for cash right now.
Item 9 is interesting:
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“9. ARTIST’S MERCHANDISING RIGHTS. Artist shall have the right, but not the obligation, to sell souvenir programs and other merchandising items on the premises on the place of the presentation without participation by the Purchaser, subject to local venue’s contract requirements, if any, of which the Artist is notified in writing.”
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(INSERT JOKE HERE… it’s too easy… i.e. Michelle Rhee T-shirts, action figures, etc.)
There’s also a pay-or-play clause, which means that if the event is cancelled for any reason, you have to pay Michelle her $35K anyway.
Reading this I feel like I’m watching a final scene of “THE WOLF OF WALL STREET”, where the slimebucket and convicted Wall Street felon Jordan Belfort now makes a cushy living as a “motivational speaker.”
God save us all!
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Diane, is there a way to confirm that Ripley was the author? Fascinating, if true.
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Mike, google TIME, Michelle Rhee, How to Fix America’s Schools, and the cover says the author is Amanda Ripley. The date was December 8, 2008. Still waiting for D.C. to be the best urban district in the nation. Wondering why TIME (supposedly a news magazine) or Ripley was so prescient as to deem Rhee the savior of U.S. education only a few months after she took office, with no previous experience as a principal or superintendent.
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Why is it fascinating? Is there some reason why the fact that Ripley wrote this article is particularly interesting at this moment? I’m not grasping why this was even posted.
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FLERP, when you write something that turns out not to be true, it is best to apologize for misleading people. Like saying, I was wrong. I wrote a book about testing and choice and said, I was wrong. Clear the air with honesty.
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But their livelihood depends on double talk, *not* apologies. Honesty is only for little people, such an anachronism!
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Another neo-liberal currently residing at the New American Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Ripley
What can one say about Michelle and Kevin “Sweet 15 or 16” Johnson? Both are disgraces.
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Time magazine is able to reach so many people with misinformation about these ‘garbagey’ people and yet our unions fail to reach out to the parents and kids,with weekend leafletting, to combat these lies!
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This is Duncan on Ripley:
“There’s a new book out called “The Smartest Kids in the World, and How They Got That Way.” The author, Amanda Ripley, found an interesting way to compare American schools with those in top-performing countries. She spent time with American students who did a year of school abroad, and with students from other countries who went to school in the United States.
One of the countries she compares us to is South Korea.
Amanda came away believing that these other countries are doing a lot better than the United States in education because—simply put—they’re more serious about it. And that seriousness, that sense of educational purpose, has its roots in both policy and in culture.
On the policy side, as one example, Korea is serious about developing and rewarding great teachers. That means recruiting top college graduates into teaching, training them effectively for the job, and making sure vulnerable students have strong teachers.
Both South Korean and US citizens believe that the caliber of teacher matters tremendously, and the great teachers make a huge difference in children’s lives. The difference is: they act on their belief. We don’t. We talk the talk, and they walk the walk.”
Here’s what he doesn’t tell them. South Korea gets those test scores (partly) because they have a huge private tutoring industry, and parents pay for it in addition to whatever they pay towards the public education system.
It is just astonishing to me that this is ignored. The fact is parents in South Korea are paying for those high test scores out of pocket.
Should families in the US devote more of their income to test prep? Well, I don’t know, I would say “no”, but since Duncan failed to mention it it’s a wholly false comparison- a fake debate. It’s a complete disconnect from the reality of peoples’ lives.
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/remarks-us-secretary-education-arne-duncan-national-assessment-governing-board-educati
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The US schools are a mix of many diverse cultures. You mention the SouthKorean culture takes education seriously thus one of the reason for high test scores. We’ll you can’t legislate that. Also when some students are exposed to test prep and others are not how valid are the test results. When many districts have students in their classrooms where as many as 66 different languages are their first language it is time to stop the none sense of comparing us to anywhere else in the world.
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx So agree– you can’t legislate (or you do so at your own peril).
Being as Amanda feels comfortable drawing sweeping generalizations based n visiting a classroom or 2, I’ll draw a couple of my own, based on (a)a close family friend, & (b)a relative, both South Korean. (a)was raised thro primary in SK, but came here to live w/immigrant gp’s in NJ when his parents divorced. Mom a career woman w/little time or care spent on son, Dad an authoritarian military man back in SK. He’s ended up a thoroughly American aimless kid, in rebellion against the dad & ever seeking approval of absent Mum (who has been paying his way thro BA, MA). He will probably be an [American] English teacher. (b)the daughter of traditional yet cosmopolitan SK parents, lived in many countries, married my cousin (both scientists near Silicon Valley). They throw their hands up– kids ferociously talented, & just get by $-wise as they ply their talents in innovative ways.
Yes, it’s all about culture, but culture is mixing & changing, & borders are dissolving.
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Chiara: just take the first paragraph you quote.
Students that study abroad are not typical re attitudes, backgrounds, advantages, etc.
Not the most useful way to talk about the students of entire nations and regions of the world.
😎
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In terms of culture–we’ve all said it before, & apparently., it needs to be said again. America is known as a “melting pot.” The U.S.A. is NOT made up of ONE culture. When some ignorant people (like Arne & Amanda!) compare those who receive an education here in the U.S. to other basically “one” culture countries, it is merely a fool’s exercise in futility. There is NO comparison–it’s comparing apples & oranges! Also–& this should go w/o saying–the poverty level here is quite out-of-whack compared to other developed countries (esp. child poverty). Oops!
I am reminded of the Department of Redundancy Department.
Oh, wait–the actual name is the U.S. Department of Education.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again & expecting different results.”–Einstein
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It’s not exactly secret that the neo-libs want to create their free market utopia (or really distopia) by handing over all public services to for-profit entities world wide. But top-or open secret, the chief weapon in this military-style campaign is non-stop lying using a-moral paid stooges like Ripley (a slightly more presentable Campbell Brown) to hoist the BS.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25240-a-top-secret-agreement-to-carve-up-public-services
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“For me, doing this TIME story on DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee was a revelation. I knew our schools were troubled, but I hadn’t realized the compounded effects of all that mediocrity. I hadn’t known that a child who has three bad teachers for three years in a row really never recovers. I had not realized that the difference in test scores between white and minority kids goes away—totally vanishes—if they both have effective teachers for a few years.”
http://www.amandaripley.com/blog/michelle-rhee-is-hardcore
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Chiara, I’ll bet you also believe that these ‘bad’ teachers proliferate in public schools, protected by the unions. If Michelle Rhee was right about what is ‘wrong’ with public education, why did she and her cohorts have to cheat to fix it?
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Sophie –
Chiara is quoting Amanda Ripley! Chiara is on our side, and believes we’ve gone down the wrong path with all of this testing, etc.
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Chiara was posting that link to show who Amanda Ripley is, not because she believes that herself. Chiara’s record on this forum speaks for itself.
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I don’t agree with her, Sophie. I thought it was interesting that she states that as fact. That wasn’t presented as “some research says” or “maybe” or “I believe”. It was stated as fact. I don’t think it is a fact.
I was also interested in how what she says aligns so completely with the Common Core marketing, and how the two things were sold at the same time – the book and the Common Core pre-launch. I don’t think it is a conspiracy. I think there’s a very small group of people who populate Influential Ed Reform Policy World, so they (unsurprisingly!) quote one another and sound the same.
She quotes Duncan quite a bit on her Twitter account, and he quotes her in speeches.
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Here’s a story you won’t here from Ripley.
Retired D.C. Math teacher Guy Brandenburg has dug out the data on student performance in D.C. Public Schools, and just written about…
… how Rhee’s & Henderson’s total eradication of experienced teachers from the D.C. Public Schools, (using whatever dirty tricks and pressures Rhee and Henderson could come up with)
and
.. how those veterans’ being replaced by low-coast, clueless, short-term newbies (from TFA, TNTP, and elsewhere)…
… has virtually destroyed the education in D.C. Public Schools.
Here’s the link:
Here’s the text:
(notice how Rhee promised private “corporate reform” donors in writing that certain improvement benchmarks would be met… and after Rhee’s four years, and after Henderson carried on with the same policies as Rhee for another four years… not only have none of them been met; things have only gotten significantly worse.)
– – – – – – – – – – –
GUY BRANDENBURG:
“So where are all those increases that Michelle Rhee promised — in writing?
“The latest DC-CAS scores have been partly released, and at first glance, they appear to show the utter bankruptcy of all of the efforts if Rhee, Henderson and their hangers-on and billionaire sponsors.
“Yes, they got rid of just about all the veteran teachers — fired without cause ( like some of my former colleagues) resigned under duress (ditto), or just plain retired (like me). And at some schools, more than 100% of the staff is turned over EVERY SINGLE YEAR as bright-eyed TFA and TNTP recruits are ground to shreds with insane demands and no support, so they quit mid-year.
By their admitted incompetence at running a school system, Rhee, Henderson et al managed to turn over 40% of the students in DC over to charter school operators, quite a few if whom have turned out to be embezzlers and con artists — or major league swindlers like one of the former principal at Noyes ES/EC just down the road from my house in Brookland .
You probably do not recall that when Michelle Rhee was still chancellor, she signed a binding agreement with the Walton and Gates foundations about all the miracles she would wreak when she got their money.
“My colleague Erich Martel ( of Wilson and Phelps) went through that list and found that NOT A SINGLE ONE of those measurable targets had been reached.
“Response from Rhee, Henderson, DCPS, OSSE, and those foundations?
“Deafening silence.
“Rhee continues to take in the big bucks (20 speeches a year at $50K each = $1 million!)
“Now, the most recent results, if DCist is to be believed, show also that there has been essentially no progress on academic goals, if we measure that by the percentages if students deemed ” proficient” on the DC/CAS since 2008, Rhee’s first year.
“I donno if you can see that but there were essentially NO increases in any subgroup since 2008 – six full years – in reading.
“I’ll post some more when I’m at a real computer.”
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Dear Amanda,
I know…it is unbelievable how poor people are suppressed by their teachers, while clearly the high-quality instruction teachers bring to fix the many problems in wealthy private schools (with all the resources, small classes and well rested/well fed kids) create successful graduates that go on to effectively inherit trust funds and paths to a life of excess and leisure. Unions and tenure in poor schools serving the most needy and difficult kids are clearly at fault, and if those slackers and whiners were unprotected and less respected those poor kids would get trust funds and jobs on wall street as well. Thankfully Rhee only spent a couple years teaching poorly and then went straight into a well connected ed-policy leadership reform lobbying line of work, cuz nothing ruins an educator faster than experience and knowledge of education.
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You are not going to have great candidates beating down the door to be teachers for $40,000 per year with little or no benefits, zero job protections and evaluations that can result in your termination based primarily on factors outside of your control. Simply put, you get what you pay for and until we make teaching a real profession we will fail to attract the best and the brightest and as a result we will continue to have these same conversations over and over again. Think about it, how many years have we been discussing how to fix our school system.
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It’s not clear that “the best and the brightest” — i.e., the most brilliant and talented and best-credentialed graduates of the elite universities — would “beat down the doors” to teach public school no matter what the pay and benefits were.
Even assuming the “best and the brightest” were beating down the doors, it’s not clear whether they would be much better at teaching, if at all, than today’s teachers are.
Even assuming that the “best and the brightest” were beating down the doors and were much better at teaching than today’s teachers are, it’s not clear how much difference it would make to their students.
And even assuming all of the above were true, there are not enough “best and the brightest” to staff America’s public schools. When you need to hire 3 or 4 million workers, you will have to dip deep into the “neither the best nor the brightest” pool of applicants.
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Chiara – The three teachers quote always bothers me. This is something Rhee says repeatedly. It is just so off. It is a ridiculous assumption. Students should have great teachers at every grade level and in every subject. Pursuing her backward and unfair policies have nothing to do with achieving this for our students.
Also the ‘Rhee Enterprises LLC’ says it all.
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Flerp: The best and brightest aren’t beating down the door as we speak and that’s for sure. Instead, they are becoming Doctors, Pharmacists, Engineers and so on. Your statements above sound asinine at best! Take a look at all of the Countries whose education systems outperform our very own and you will find that teaching within those systems is a prestigious career and candidates are indeed pooled and selected from the best and brightest you so eloquently ridicule. Also, how can you expect a great teacher when many of these individuals are teaching subjects in fields in which they have zero specialization in. You also have alternate certification programs which allow anyone with a degree to teach. Would you allow a Doctor with a degree in business to operate on you genius? These above measures were used by our Country to cheaply fill in the shortages within the teaching workforce in order to mask the true demand for quality teachers. By doing so, they have been able to keep our wages stagnant by limiting the demand side of the supply and demand model. If this Country wanted to fix our education system they could. However, that would mean a more educated populace and this would ultimately require the sharing of the economic pie with many more high income earners something that the greedy one per centers would never consent to. Furthermore, a more educated citizenry would also be able to see through the fallacies that our government has been spoon feeding us for decades.
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“The U.S. spends more per pupil on elementary and high school education than most developed nations. Yet it is behind most of them in the math and science abilities of its children. Young Americans today are less likely than their parents were to finish high school. This is an issue that is warping the nation’s economy and security, and the causes are not as mysterious as they seem. The biggest problem with U.S. public schools is ineffective teaching, according to decades of research. And Washington, which spends more money per pupil than the vast majority of large districts, is the problem writ extreme, a laboratory that failure made.”
http://www.creativetutors.com/b2evo/blog1.php/2008/12/01/can-she-save-our-schools
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx “Young Americans today are less likely than their parents were to finish high school.” This would seem fairly easy to refute, so I was looking at the link to see if their was a cite, but I didn’t see this sentence…?
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Her go-to cite is routinely the mantra “the research shows” , namely the “research” in the chart from an unpublished book that graces page 3.
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Perhaps they are not young “Americans” – perhaps they are first generation illegals who don’t speak English.
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…and it has nothing to do with undocumented non-english speaking illegal aliens in the classroom? They act like this IS South Korea, and all of here are the same. But not.
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The U.S. attempts to educate everyone to the level where students are tested and their results compared with those of students tested in other countries. I had heard-but don’t know for sure, that some of those other countries track or filter students away to trades and only some go on to be tested. True?
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Yes because we have a bureaucracy of people who work within the school system with fancy titles whom can’t even explain what they do on a day to day basis. These crooks have zero accountability measures within their so called profession and siphon off most of the money before it reaches the two most important areas the students and the teachers. My district has a three billion dollar operating budget yet there are no basic supplies such as dry erase markers or even paper at the school sites. It’s sad but the truth is in education the further you get away from the kids the more money you make.
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true true true
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I’m still trying to figure out who should go on the cover of Time magazine when they run a story entitled “Cleaning up the Mess Caused by Education Reform.” They would be holding a mop. There are so many great candidates. If only Time would pick up the story!
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Great comment, Anne–what a good idea! However, it makes too much sense, & Time-Warner certainly wouldn’t do it.
I think it would be hysterical if Mad Magazine would do the cover you suggest (can you imagine all the fools?–Arne, she-whom-I-refuse-to-name, Millken, Broad, Bill & Melinda, Cami, Jeb, etc., ad infinitum!) What was it that Woody Allen said? A sham of a sham of an insult of a sham…”
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I have read “The Smartest Kids in the World” and it does not strike me as a neo-liberal screed. It makes South Korea’s pressure cooker look horrific and FInland, with its more holistic, humane approach, seem idyllic. It makes what I think are fair criticisms of the anemic curricula in many ordinary American high schools. I don’t see how it can be read as an endorsement of Duncan’s policies, as none of the countries it glorifies use any of Arne’s policies.
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What does continue to get curiouser and curiouser is the persistent avoidance of the more developmentally appropriate and equitable model of Finland. We are in a rat race to be more pressurized and driven, and China and India are the economic competitors that are constantly presented as education competitors as well…Really? Thos are the golden apples we reach for now? All the evidence we need to demand removal.
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I’ve always found it fascinating that while writer Amanda Ripley was totally clueless and off-base in her Time description of Rhee, photographer Robyn Twomey was spot on. That cover photo of Rhee captures her as we now all know her: someone who suggests evil, defiance, rigidity and a total lack of compassion for others. This is a woman who has “succeeded” dramatically as an American Grifter, but has failed as a human being. Like most people of her ilk, she will eventually be held accountable for her actions, but it might take a while.
A picture really is worth a thousand words.
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Linda Johnson: the photo on that cover would have been nicely complemented by the following words [a lot less than 1000]—
“You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.” [Henny Youngman]
😎
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That can’t be repeated enough, Krazy! Love it! And–also–didn’t Rhee’s mom say something very similar about her daughter (can’t remember the specifics, but it was something about her not showing much emotion or seeming to care about others–?)
I know that at least one of you readers out there can clarify this–thanks!
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No wonder why her ex husband keeps their daughters away from her and her current peddie hubby.
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To me her personal life says the most about her. So much for “students first.”
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Ponderosa, read the excerpts above and you have the answer to your question. Plus, her book starts out with a chart on page 3 that is the most laughable crock in the history of publishing. http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/09/amanda-ripleys-belief-it-by-law.html
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You’re right, Diane.
Time has become a supermarket rag.
However, it is also ripping Andrew Cuomo into tagliatelle, and I’m looking forward to the reperscussions it will have on his presidential dreams . . . .
Pass the sauce and grated cheese, please.
Poor Andy boy. . . . he’s been eating too many meals from the crappy recipes of his non-Kennedy girl friend, and he can’t think straight. Maybe he ought to pay her real property tax bill so that he could clear some of his conscience and feel better.
I hope between Time magazine and the NY Times, Moreland will be the new Disneyland of fun and enchantment for those of us who need Mr. Cuomo to fail in his world of no-tomorrow . . . . .
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I did not see the picture but perhaps she should have been riding the broom.
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I remember the cover of Time magazine very well. I also remember well Rhee’s masking lips story.
Rhee’s Original Recounting of the Lip-Taping Incident:
http://nyceducator.com/2014/04/rhees-two-takes-on-her-taping-incident_17.html
“For me it was 18 years ago that I first graduated from college and I got my first teaching job, but I can remember it like it was yesterday. I mean I have these vivid memories in my head. So, I’m going to tell you a little bit about some of them. I can remember like it was yesterday the day that I was in the classroom and I didn’t have very good classroom management in my first year of teaching. And so I was trying every single management technique that I could. Some of them really not so good, but I remember the day that we were particularly rowdy and we had to head down for lunch. And my class was very well known in the school because you could hear them travelling everywhere because they were so out of control. And, so I thought, OK, they’re particularly amped up today so I got to do something about it. So, I decided, OK, kids, we are going to do something special today. I lined everybody up and I was like Sshh, gotta be really quiet on our way down to the cafeteria. And then, I took little pieces of masking tape and put them on everybody’s lips [laughter begin]. And I was like you can’t break the seal. Don’t move your lips. So, all the kids were OK. I put them on all the lips and we’re going down the hallway. I was like my gosh this works so well. And we get down to the, you know, to the cafeteria. And they’re all lined up outside the cafeteria. I was like tape the tape off. And I realized that I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand. So, and like the skin is coming off their lips [big laughs] and they’re bleeding. And so I had class of 35 kids who are crying [more big laughs] and other teachers are walking by and like what are you doing.”
Interesting that Chiara chose South Korea to compare with the US. My friend tells me the following:
After the war – Korean War
“I was 9 when I started school at Pyung Chon elementary; I was the only one from my family attending at that time. The school building was a simple long one story, rundown building with six classrooms and a teacher’s room. There were about 30 students in each classroom. There were no desks or chairs. We sat on the dirt floor. We had to buy our books from other students. They were old and pages were often missing.
I walked with about 16 children from my neighborhood-first through six grade children. … The students took turns cleaning the classrooms. As we waited for the cleaners we played. I walked with 16 other from my neighborhood. It was over an hour-long trek through the rough and rocky mountainous terrain from Myngjlin to the school in Pyung Chon.
We didn’t go to school on bad rainy or snowy days. On light rainy days we got wet on the way to school.In the winter the school closed for three long months because of the cold weather. We had no sweaters, coats or gloves. Everyone wore layers of clothes, all the clothes and socks we had, had multiple patches; we wore rubber shoes.
We found the long walk through mountainous terrain … path was rough and rocky with a stream running through it. …
My coed school was about ten minutes away. The main two-story building was used as a hospital during the war. It needed a lot of repair, so they built a temporary school behind the main building. The many classrooms were constructed with see-through-boards for walls with dirt floors. There were few old chairs and desks but not enough for all 70 students. Whoever got there first got to have them. Others sat on the floor.
…for many students, sixth grade terminated their formal education, so they could get a job working at factories to help their families or send their brothers to school. My father told me that I could go to middle school; I became more attentive so I could pass the entrance exam.
I promised my father that I would get a job after middle school. More than 50 percent of my class didn’t go to middle school in my class. …”
Chiara, writers make a mistake when they compare US schools to the school in foreign countries. Common Core tries to put them into one mold but you can’t. Each section of the country has unique assets. There is a major contrast between suburban schools with inner city schools. A big contrast can be seen between rural and urban schools especially out west and mid-west.
If our higher ed schools are below standard, why are our colleges and universities flooded with foreign students from around the globe?
My two daughters teach in two different universities and see the high enrollment of foreign students. Also, why is there such a high suicide rate in some countries? Parents place great pressure on them to achieve.
High performance, high pressure in South Korea’s education system
http://monitor.icef.com/2014/01/high-performance-high-pressure-in-south-koreas-education-system/
High performance, high pressure in South Korea’s education
…According to the report, suicide was the biggest cause of death among people aged 15-24 in 2011.
The implications for university participation at home and abroad
The human cost of performance pressure and the unemployment rate among university-educated youth, is giving rise to doubts about the value of a college education…”
The US had great schools and teachers and slowly the corporate world is destroying the great educational system we had prior to the CCSS.
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Who will start busting Commerce groups in order to go after the few bad apples?
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Time is part of the problem. They have published several articles about “reform” efforts. The recent Joel Klein piece on teachers was poorly researched as well. Would be nice to know if they are on board with the Rhee crowd or just lazy.
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I include an entire 1/22/2011 piece by Valerie Strauss entitled “What Rhee’s comments about her children say about her”:
[start quote]
Suddenly parenting styles are in the news, thanks to Yale law professor Amy Chua’s new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” which espouses Chinese traditions of child rearing that, in Chua’s case, included rejecting her kids’ homemade birthday cards for their lousy quality and forcing one of her daughters to do 2,000 math problems a night after she came in second in a math competition.
(Why didn’t you and I think of that?)
Now we hear from Michelle Rhee, former D.C. schools chancellor and rock-star school reformer, who recently said the following about her two children and aptitude for soccer:
“We’ve lost our competitive spirit. We’ve become so obsessed with making kids feel good about themselves that we’ve lost sight of building the skills they need to actually be good at things.
“I can see it in my own household. I have two girls, 8 and 12, and they play soccer. And I can tell you that they suck at soccer! They take after their mother in athletic ability. But if you were to see their rooms, they’re adorned with ribbons, medals and trophies. You’d think I was raising the next Mia Hamm.
“I routinely try to tell my kids that their soccer skills are lacking and that if they want to be better, they have to practice hard. I also communicate to them that all the practice in the world won’t guarantee that they’ll ever be great at soccer. It’s tough to square this, though, with the trophies. And that’s part of the issue. We’ve managed to build a sense of complacency with our children.”
I could ask why she is insulting her children in public to make a point, but that would be so American of me, so I won’t. Instead:
1) Rhee doesn’t blame the soccer coach for not raising the level of her children’s play. Instead, she blames their own lack of ability — which she notes is such that all the practice in the world might not help them be great.
2) It seems fair, then, to ask, why Rhee insists that teachers should be held solely accountable for how well students do; she has even argued that it is fair to take a child’s standardized test score and use it to evaluate his or her teachers and determine their compensation. Hmmmm.
2) I’m going to assume that Rhee’s comment that her children “take after their mother in athletic ability” is not an argument that genetics is dispositive, because, of course, that doesn’t leave much room for improvement by means of education. It also justifies telling kids that all the practice in the world at something won’t make them great.
But Rhee says all this in the context of how Americans have “become so obsessed with making kids feel good about themselves that we’ve lost sight of building the skills they need to actually be good at things.”
Yes, a self-esteem movement in this country did exist, and yes, it did go overboard in trying to make kids feel great about themselves, and yes, it is true that telling kids (and adults) that they are great doesn’t make them great.
That doesn’t mean that bashing kids over the head is a better approach to getting the most out of them. Ultimately, they just wind up with a bashed head. (And yes, as always, there are exceptions — Chua’s children, for example, who seem to have turned out to be lovely people and who defend their mother’s harsh parenting approach. But the failure of one extreme is hardly a case for another extreme.)
Getting back to Rhee’s recent comments, she further said:
“Take as a counterpoint South Korea, where my family is originally from. In Korea, they have this culture that focuses on always becoming better. Students are ranked one through 40 in their class and everyone knows where they stand. The adults are honest with kids about what they’re not good at and how far they have to go until they are number one. Can you imagine if we suggested anything close to that here? There would be anarchy.”
Her comparison to South Korea is perplexing. She seems to be holding it up as some sort of model for American schools. Yet the South Korean education system works much differently from the kinds of systems that Rhee herself supports in the United States.
For one thing, the South Korean system from kindergarten through high school is run by a centralized government administration. Rhee, a champion of charter schools that by definition operate outside central bureaucracy, can’t be in favor of that, can she?
And yes, South Korean students do exceptionally well on international tests. But consider this, from an article in Asia Times Online:
“What the stats don’t tell is how drearily authoritarian classes often are. Flair and creativity are rarely rewarded. Instead, teachers drum into students a ton of stuff they must learn by rote so as to jump through hoops leading up to the all-important university entrance examination.”
And there’s this, from a 2010 article entitled “The Reluctance of Korean Education in the Face of Change” in the Academic Leadership Journal :
“In general, the Korean system of education does not seem to value student creativity as a notable asset and thus it is hard for people with new innovative ideas to move to the forefront of the system in order to bring about positive change and to create something so great that the whole world would give it merits in the form of a Nobel Prize.”
This can’t be what she supports either, can it?
Rhee doesn’t believe in social promotion, but, in South Korea, grade retention is not permitted (nor, for that matter, is it permitted in Japan — or Finland).
Rhee has evolved into a national spokesperson for modern school reform. That’s why what she says is important. But when she says things like the above, it is fair to ask whether she is, in fact, the best person to be at the forefront of a serious reform movement.
[end quote]
Link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/michelle-rhee/what-rhees-comments-about-her.html
At least the reason some people listen to Bill Gates is because he is a multibillionaire.
So remind me: why does anybody listen to what Michelle Rhee pontificates about?
😕
P.S. But Michelle Rhee does excel at something: anyone who can take “her” students [leave that co-teacher out of this] from the 13th percentile to the 90th [although she can’t prove it] must be something special. After all, she’s got all that masking tape…
😎
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Here’s a great article countering Amanda Ripley’s and Michelle Rhee’s “We love South Korean schools!” mantra:
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2013/08/do-korean-students-agree-with-amanda.html
The article quotes where Ripley says that she loves “the hamster wheel” approach to education that drives kids to suicide. (the number one cause of death in South Korean children 15-20)
At the bottom of the article, check out the photos tweeted by South Korean school kids. Read what the kids wrote on their signs:
“15 hours a day of school? Kill me. It’s the reason why kids (commit) suicide”
“Kill the school.”
“School is like prison.”
“Guys, you don’t know anything. (South) Korean education system sucks!”
“Why do I live?”
“Recently, we forgot our mothers’ face(s).”
“I escape school here now.”
“(South) Korean high school is like a prison.”
(These last two have girls with paper tears taped to their faces.)
“I’m suffering now.”
“I want to run away from school.”
“I want to kill myself.”
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I thought they’d run into some problems calling for “transparency” 🙂
“The founder of a high-profile group seeking to weaken teacher tenure laws refuses to reveal who is funding her efforts, despite her organization’s stated aim to “bring transparency” to education policymaking. Campbell Brown, a former CNN news anchor who founded the Parents Transparency Project and the Partnership for Educational Justice, rejected the request for details about her funders during her appearance on “The Colbert Report” Thursday night to discuss a new lawsuit.”
Good Lord. Is there anything less transparent than ed reform? You need a FOIA request before they’ll release anything. State legislators in Michigan can’t get anything on the EAA. They even have to file a demand.
Do they really want to bring this up? It’s a huge weakness. Yes, by all means, let’s have some “transparency”. We can start with the donors.
http://www.ibtimes.com/push-against-teachers-unions-campbell-brown-refuses-release-names-funders-1646402#.U9wd3PHOJso.twitter
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Chiara: I don’t and can’t poke fun at people; I can only point out how they ridicule and caricature themselves, especially (or so it seems) when they are being their most serious.
If what you wrote is true, then the founder of the Parent Transparency Project refuses to be, er, transparent?
😱
“A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth.” [Joseph Conrad]
😏
Once again, when it comes to puncturing the thin-skinned conceits of the self-styled “education reformers,” it’s the leaders of the “new civil rights movement of our time” that do all the heavy lifting.
We can only watch in amazement as they alternately horrify and amuse us with their antics.
😎
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More on Ripley’s off-base writing:
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And more….
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/06/american_schools_need_better_teachers_so_let_s_make_it_harder_to_become.html
She recommends raising the bar on entry to education schools, but not raising salaries.
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The blind and the corrupt writing about the blind and corrupt. What a mess.
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Mercedes Schneider just posted an in-depth expose of fellow Louisianan Campbell Brown’s background, connections and motivations.
A MUST-READ:
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Thanks Jack!
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Agree, Schneider is a must-read. Thanks.
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Sooo unfortunate for all these scam artists that we have an authentic educator & research whiz who can fill us in. AND she is a REAL Dr.! Thanks, Mercedes!*
Also–reply up there to Dan McConnell @ 7:38 (actually, to other readers, as well)–one of the biggest problems is that the between the U.S. D.o.Ed., ALEC, & all the State Depts. of Ed., there is mass confusion about WHO and WHAT our students should be (somewhat on the order of the debate about whether a KitKat bar is a cookie or a candy-?)–that is, in comparing American students to Asian students (S. Korea, China, etc.), we are pressure-cooking them. On the other hand, I see the ALEC plan is to turn America into the next Haiti (or, simply, a third-world country, where oligarchs & dictators rule, all the wealth is owned by that 1%, & the middle class & literacy {the corporate-owned,watered-down media~in Haiti, media reports in French, NOT the language of the majority of Haitian people} disappear from the face of America.) Yet another case of, “If you can’t dazzle them w/your brilliance, baffle them w/your B.S.”
*Re-referencing the first two comments, to emphasize that, in the face of all else–yes, WE can…& we WILL take back our schools & our democracy!
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It was also Time Magazine who named Cami Anderson (superintendent of Newark Public Schools whose 1 Newark plan is being investigated for civil rights violations) as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. (http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112115,00.html). US Senator, Cory Booker (who was then mayor of Newark) nominated her. Time Magazine is recklessly inaccurate. Cory Booker has recklessly built his career on the backs of school children and their communities, and Cami Anderson should be removed from her position as “stupidintendent”. She has violated the City of Newark and she destroyed District 79 in NYC. Campbell Brown seems to have replaced Michelle Rhee as the face of school reform. When will Time Magazine bestow honors on her?
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It isn’t just limited to print media. 60 Minutes has for years peddled “reform” propaganda. Lesley Stahl was usually the chief reporter spewing the neoliberal line in those misleading stories.
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Right you are, susan! NONE of those shows are worth one minute to watch any more–“20/20” (more like CBS’ “48 Hrs.” &/or their ridiculous “What Would YOU Do?!” I’d like to hear Barbara Walters’ opinion on this!); “Nightline” (stories about the Kardashians & other fluff/nonsense–if Ted Koppel were dead, he’d turn over in his grave!).
Investigative reporting on “news” shows no longer exists. On ehas to watch well-made documentaries (no–NOT “Waiting for Superman”–talking about the updated “Koch Bros. Exposed” & “Walmart: Low Prices, High Costs,” & some truthful, well-made ones on HBO, such as “American Winter.” But–as with everything else–one has to be able to afford cable to watch any of these (as PBS has also gone down the tubes, as well).
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One of the good 60 Minutes segments featured the Robinhood Foundation, which is ostensibly eliminating poverty in one fell swoop through the agencies of a charter school.
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time magazine is better for wrapping fish than reading. Once in a while, they lasso a competent person to write an article but, it’s not worth the effort to find that exception.
Is the funding for time, from the hedge fund cabal?
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