Steven Singer, teacher, was outraged by the cover of TIME that said it’s nearly impossible to fire bad teachers but tech millionaires have figured it out.
He writes:
“It is IMPOSSIBLE to fire a bad teacher.
“Unless of course you document how that teacher is bad.
“You know? Due process. Rights. All that liberal bullshit.
“Thank goodness we have tech millionaires to stand up for the rights of totalitarians everywhere!
“A slew of Microsoft wannabes is taking up the mantle of the bored rich to once again attack teacher tenure.
“They claim it’s almost impossible to fire bad teachers because of worker’s rights.
“You know who actually is impossible to fire!? Self-appointed policy experts!
“No one hired them to govern our public schools. In fact, they have zero background in education. But they have oodles of cash and insufferable ennui. Somehow that makes them experts!
“I wonder why no one wants to hear my pet theories on how we should organize computer systems and pay programmers. Somehow the change in my pocket doesn’t qualify me to make policy at IBM, Apple or Microsoft. Strange!”
And be sure to read the imaginary editorial meeting where they decided to let know nothing millionaires tell schools how to do their job.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wanted: The reformers who are guilty of killing public education. You have created so much negative karma that the only place for you is Deasy’s Teacher Jail. http://www.examiner.com/article/wanted-the-reformers-who-are-guilty-of-killing-public-education-1?cid=db_articles
That is too good for them. There is a maximum security prison in the middle of the outback in Australia that is a 3 plane ride from anywhere. They spend all day everyday building and tearing up the best 4-lane highway in Australia. They will never be heard from again.
LOVE IT, GOOD POINT!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
I always thought, but never said until now that business reformers could not understand how education works so they turned it around to their own understanding. Sometimes things are worth more than a bottom line.
…and, after a decade as a union rep, expect false allegations to remove ‘bad’ teachers.
“. . . expect false allegations to remove ‘bad’ teachers.”
Been there and had it done to me.
Awsom! Tech million and billionairs only care about influencing future consumers of their products. Politicians only care are campaign donation. US/Foreign charters only care about forging a new empire for there own needs and culture. Only the US school teacher really care about the community and the students which they serve. But everyone realizes ,”The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” Parents for the love of God and your community… please choose regular public schools where you are in charge of raising your child and real choice is represented through you and your involvement in the local school boards..
The problem is and always has been poverty not public education school teacher.
Bernie Sanders and Bill Moyers discuss pointedly about who are in control and red herrings to watch for.
http://billmoyers.com/episode/bernie-sanders-breaking-big-moneys-grip-elections/?utm_source=General+Interest&utm_campaign=b04c5ed8cd-Midweek_0903149_3_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4ebbe6839f-b04c5ed8cd-168321157
I used to be a Certified Systems Professional. I am still a certified Data Processor. Thus I am far more competent to comment about what Bill Gates has produced than he is to comment about my teaching.
Microsoft started when Gates and Allen BOUGHT someone else’s operating system.
Microsoft as a company was predatory towards smaller competitors.
And despite that, Microsoft regularly produced expensive software that was (a) full of bugs and (b) totally insecure to attacks by any half-competent hacker.
Oh, and Gates himself was far from visionary in his own field: he was quoted once as saying “640K ought to be enough for anyone). That was because the way MS-DOS was set up it could only address that much memory. Trust me, the high tech revolution would not have been possible had we remain limited by that TINY amount of memory. We now talk not about K (1024 bytes) or Megabytes (where the prefix Mega- stands for millions) but Gigabytes of memory – billions.
The fact that Gates is rich beyond belief does not even mean he is brilliant in his own field.
Steve Jobs was brilliant, even if his personality may have been not the nicest.
Gates will offer pronouncement that demonstrate how shallow his thinking is: I was present at the Teaching and Learning Conference when he made his truly ridiculous comment about standardized electric plugs.
I go back in computers way before Gates. In the early days of my career, starting in the Marines in the mid-1960s, the primary form of input was punched cards. These were often labeled “Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.” I think we should remember those words when we consider what the reforms championed by the likes of Gates are doing to children.
Make of this what you will.
This may be a bit off topic but has anyone heard anything about either of these two groups: TURN (http://www.turnweb.org/resources/) or CEC (http://cecillinois.org/members/)? If you notice one of the member of CEC is the Gates foundation. I only ask because a person working for Danielson, who has now said she now works more for CEC than Danielson, was talking about TURN with union members at a Danielson PD meeting. I thought that seemed a bit like a conflict of interest or pushing an anti union agenda. Does anyone know more about either of these two groups?
Cary444,
The only TURN I know is the Teachers Union Reform Network, headed by Adam Urbanski of the Rochester Teachers Association (NY).
Unfortunately,many seem to feel that the alleged “experts” in this situation (i.e. – the so-called “educators” themselves) are pretty much abject failures when it comes to truly educating our nation’s youth. With that in mind, perhaps it’s time to give those “tech billionaires” a go at it; at least they’ve proven themselves to have the ability to do SOMETHING right…..and surely they can’t screw up the education system any worse than the present crop of “teachers” has already.