I have decided to take a break from blogging during the Christmas holidays. It is the first time I have turned off the blog since it started in April 2012.
Now, after writing 13,500 posts, after reading more than 300,000 comments, I am hitting the pause button for a few days.
If you see anything interesting online or in the local news, send me a link. I will be stockpiling posts for the re-launch.
You should rest, spend time with friends and family, read, travel, relax.
That’s what I plan to do.
I hope you miss the blog. I will be back on Monday, January 4, 2016.
Have a happy, healthy, satisfying Néw Year. Hug those you love.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and thank you for the reads!
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You deserve a break! Thank you for all you do for public education. Enjoy your time away!
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Diane, you well deserve a break. I am totally amazed at your continuous output.
I’ll look forward to your writing again. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday!
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Enjoy the time for you and Mary to replenish your goodwill.
Thanks for serving America’s children. The work you do is critically important and, no one could do it better, with greater grace, wisdom, heart, and commitment.
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Taking a break is a very positive thing to do. And, it’s increasingly difficult in our 24/7, always connected world.
I find that students come back from summer vacation, for example, refreshed and ready to go. Many also appreciate school much more after being away for a while. Plus, they have a chance to discover other interests and be outside, enjoying nature. Unfortunately, given the test and punish mentality of so many so-called “reformers” these days, any break is considered to be slacking, recess implies weakness. It’s a demented way to think -soul crushing, really.
So, thanks for leading by example, Diane. Enjoy some well-deserved time offline.
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Merry Christmas to the best advocate for public education we know. We too, will take a break and enjoy the greatest gifts of all. Thank you for all you do! Love and prayers…Debbie & Bill.
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I dunno, can you pull it off? Many times I’ve said I’m taking a break but I always come back – usually in less than 24 hours. Yes, it would be healthier if I could stick to my vow, but, well, I’m addicted, I guess. I couldn’t stay away from the blogs unless I was stuck in the middle of the desert with no wi-fi access. Here’s hoping that your resolve is stronger than mine. Best wishes and happy break!
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Thanks, Dienne, I’m already frustrated about not sharing but am building up a reserve to start Jan 4. I will be back with a roar and monitoring comments in the meanwhile.
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I’m sure that writing blog posts takes a lot more energy than reading comments, but as someone who goes completely off the email/Internet grid for at least 5 days every year, I can tell you that detaching from the comments as well will be a more powerful restorative.
I know you are a one-woman show, but surely there is a friend or trusted commenter who can lightly moderate for a few days!
In any case, enjoy the silence, have a happy new year, and see you again on 1/4.
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Enjoy your break! You deserve it!
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Happy Holidays and a restful start to the New Year, Diane!
I leave you with the Milton Friedman Choir singing “Corporations”
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Thanks for the video.
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Enjoy your much deserved break! In most schools around the nation, we also start up again on January 4th. Thanks for joining us at the front.
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“I hope you miss the blog. I will be back on Monday, January 4, 2016.”
MIss the blog? No big deal – just as if the NYT shut down for a break! (That is if the Gray Lady were ethical and morally outraged at the selling off of our democracy for the benefit of the few.)
I wish you and yours joy, happiness and energy in the New Year, Diane! Back with a roar indeed.
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Cheers.
And a well-deserved pause to say thanks a million.
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‘So glad to hear you are taking a break.
May I recommend some light reading?
“The Art of Doing Nothing” by Veronique Vienne and Erica Lennard
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Thank you for all you do for education. Enjoy your time away!
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13,500 posts? Not so hard to pick one of my favorites.
This is in the Top Ten.
😎
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One more for the road: I am also taking the next week off from social media and the Internet.
Here is a righteous rant. Change your proximity! To this I say “Amen!”
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Thanks for the accolade, Chris! Writing it was my own form of therapy. If anyone else enjoys it, then I’m even more uplifted. Peace and hope!
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I am sharing your blog post far and wide. I congratulate you and offer you this quotation from Susan Ohanian, from “Against Obedience”:
“There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolution or you stand against the needs of children, and you aid the destruction of your own profession, not to mention democracy.
We MUST build a mass movement. Revolution is the only answer.”
http://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/183270
I highly recommend the article and endorse Susan’s position 100%. It is past time to organize and revolt agains the reformers. She wrote that 3 years ago and things have only gotten worse.
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Thank you for all of your sharing. Invaluable. However, I was hoping that you would treat yourself to a little R&R. We will all be waiting patiently.
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Dear Diane, Thank you for the blog, the insight and the inspiration to continue the fight for the right to be educated. I wish you rejuvenation, happiness and peace,
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Quite frankly Diane, being a teacher, I am addicted to this blog, eager to find out the latest. But you’re so right. Like any important cause worth fighting for, people can drive themselves batty if they don’t give the spirit some oxygen. Sometimes I think this blog contributes to my courting of cautionary blood pressure levels because of most of the outrageous things happening to public education. But enjoy your break from this and here’s to a strong new year in hopes that we will continue pushing back the full-frontal assault on our communities. Thanks for your time and help.
Peace & Good Will,
English Ed
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Even if you took a permanent break from blogging, you would have achieved the impossible.
“High Tide for Reform”
Tide is turning
Going out
Parents rising
With a shout
Organizing
Opting out
“Leaders” learning
Of a rout
“The Fog Lifter”
The billionaire was beaten
By lady with a blog
Who managed to defeat him
By dissipating fog
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Truth be told, I will miss this blog’s wordsmith.
But a break will do us all a world of good.
And put new energy into your digital quill!
😎
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Me too. I’m joining you in the real world, Diane. Unplugging from the cyber world is good. Good for kids. Good for grownups. Goodbye, screen! Time to boot up a different routine. Go Diane!
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So glad you are taking this necessary pause. Wishing you and your family a peaceful and joyful holiday. Thanks for all you do and we’re happy to see you back in 2016, the most powerful year to reclaim public education ever!
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Perfect timing Diane. I hate when I go camping, floating and fishing and come back to a weeks worth of postings. Won’t have to worry about that this time. Rest up take care!
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You’re going camping in December? Further south than Missouri I hope. In any case, you’re a better man than I. Happy camping.
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The Eleven Point River (part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways) is in the last tier of counties before Arkansas, about 4 hours south of here. We’re having to wait a day to leave as there is massive flooding all over Missouri. The flow volume at the river is at 23,200 cubic ft per second. Considering that the highest rate recorded in 95 years was in 1943 at 5030 cu.ft/sec I’d say that’s a once in a thousand year flood.
Anyway the weather is supposed to be quite nice, upper 40s in the day and mid 20s at night (yes we sleep in a tent). Over the years we’ve certainly been out in colder by far with teens as the high and lows in the negative but hey, I’ve got plenty of natural body insulation. I made a “winter” sleeping bag about 25 years ago that works quite well in anything under 35 degrees. Got to have the right clothing, gear, etc. . . needless to say.
Hope you all don’t get too snowed in with the northern remains of that moisture that came through here. Sounds like you could be in for a “good” one!! My favorite holiday song verse: “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”!
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Diane,
I sent you a Priority Mail Packet that is supposed to arrive in your post office box today. Certainly by next Monday.
When you follow the link I included, you will come upon a treasure trove of succinct sayings. Many of them are inspiring observations about children, parenting, schools and teaching. Others summarize in a single sentence an aspect of the attack on our public schools that is pure madness. For example, rating teachers on the test scores of students they never taught.
First of all, you can enjoy this reading yourself, during your much earned break. Many of us marvel at your ability to scan so much input and send out blogs every day. We all wish you well on the brief vacation you are taking!
Secondly, this is a major new resource for all of us to put to use. It will be highly effective for reaching the millions of Americans who still know nothing about all this except “making students college and career ready.”
Sincerely, Henry Kranz
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I hope you miss the blog.
No doubt about that All best in the year ahead
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Laura,
I appreciate your reporting, at this blog. I’d like to know more about the Gates and Walton-funded “Education Pioneers”. Is the organization on your radar or, of interest to you?
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Well….if we are on break for a while….maybe I could ask for help in deciding…..
If I have been bothered by a mystery for close to ten years,(not on a daily basis, just recurring when triggered), and I have been thinking about either writing about it in a structured way, or turning loose of it, accepting that there is no hope of discovering anything more than I have. Maybe there was nothing out there, anyway.
My nephew, Matt Grossmann, and his wife Sarah Reckhow handed me a Christmas present……”To Joe. from Mark Zuckerberg”. Huh? The book is “The Prize”, (who’s in charge of America’s schools?)…a bit of a joke on me…..professors can be a laugh riot!
The author is Dale Russakoff, and Sarah was one who wrote a review of the book for HistPhil. Much of the book’s material appeared in the New Yorker, in 2014, but Sarah characterizes the book as masterful, with a broader portrait of Newark’s political landscape….lots of drama..a page turner. She mentioned Cory Booker as one of the big personalities, with battles fraught with racial conflict and mistrust of outsiders.
I asked Sarah—if I wrote to Dale, is there any chance she would see my letter—and could I mention your name? Maybe and ok were her replies.
Tim Bacon was a special education student allegedly beaten when he was 15 by a basketball coach…(the report to family services was removed after about four years). When he was 21, the president of the board of education, Veronica O’Brien, was helping him consider a lawsuit against the St. Louis school district…..she was a figure of controversy as you can see in you tubes on the site of political activist, (now a st. louis alderman) named Antonio French—-her controversy was mostly with the the coach who had been alleged to have beaten Tim in 2000…
In August of 2006, someone shot Tim…..12 bullets. I thought there was not adequate follow-up on the shooting……and after a few months, a columnist for the PD told me a homicide guy had told him the 12 bullets had nothing to do with any school issues….just a gambling debt…..(his angry reaction at me for sharing what he told me has always made me wonder why—-was the information given me so I would just shut up about it? I have always wondered if the killing was somehow related to the desire to have the state take over the school district to make sure the right people were in charge. I have a you tube “A little piano-a little history-judge susan block did not say very much” by Joe Prichard…..it might be under kjoesharastuff.
So…to understand the drama I have always recognized as significant….here are a few names to google if anyone wants to say forget it, or something more encouraging, or asking for explanation of how I see things…feel free.
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Diane – Yay! You are setting a wonderful example for all of us – one of the best presents I ever got was a bag filled with things for a “me” day! So often, we go, go, go & do things for everyone else but ourselves – we need to take care of ourselves so we can give our best to those who matter! Happy New Year to you & yours!
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Tim Bacon….allegedly beaten at the age of 15, shot to death in 2006. Floyd Irons…the accused coach, who finally did serve four months in prison for something completely unrelated, several years later. He is still very highly regarded. Judge Susan Block, who ruled on whether the report should be in family services. Veronica O’Brien, board president and ally of Tim and his father. Peter Downs….I never heard him say anything about this….he was a progressive board member….the not welcomed by charter school advocates. Diana Bourisaw….superintendent at that time…. Robert Archibald, board member opposed to allotting 20,000 dollars to protect Veronica …..anonymous sources were saying she was next on the list to be shot. (Archibald was more famed for his museum contract in St. Louis). Antonio French…now an alderman—his blogs from his activist days, Pub Def, are the source of much more information about the schools than anything in the somewhat restrained Post Dispatch and Public Radio—Peter Downs worked with him on a lot of that—Steve Giegerich…..he wrote some drafts of the report of the murder which…….seemed to be too lengthy to be used by the PD…..they used a shorter report from their reporter named Bill Bryan when they printed the story. Mayor Slay, and Peter Herschend, who was president of the state board when they decided to take over the st. louis school district………the voters were choosing the “wrong” people. This is not to say they would kill anybody…..but they were not happy about the elected school board in 2006 and 2007.
That’s enough….probably more than anyone else wants…..
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A guy from St. Louis was featured in a column by Tony Messenger…..he has written a sensitive book about the rate of suspensions for black elementary children…huge numbers of comments from St. Louis people who think there is no suspension issue…..it is just nonsense. They smacked me around for my praise of the article….http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-activist-author-tries-to-provide-role-models-for-black/article_6123ad81-7c6d-5541-857f-750d51cf0c98.html
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You are so deserving and need a break. The best to you for 2016! You are a beacon of light in education and hopefully, the decisions makers are paying attention to you.
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Good for YOU, Diane. You deserve a break. Take care; Be well.
Malama….
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Oh no! I have withdrawal already!
Seriously, have a great rest!
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I’m glad you’re taking a break. You deserve it-you were even blogging within days of your surgery!
For a link for later, a member of the Utah state school board says that he thinks that the new science standards are incomplete because they don’t mention God. I wish I were making this up. http://www.sltrib.com/news/3265989-155/school-board-approves-update-to-utah
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Happy New Year
And a parsnip in a pantry.
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Have great vacation!
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WELL DESERVED. Enjoy yourself. You have definitely earned it.
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Enjoy!
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Happy New Year, Diane. Have a lovely vacation.
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Good for you Diane! I thoroughly approve. But thanks as well for all you do to sustain us in the fight for a quality public education for ALL our kids!
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“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Rest Diane. This is your time to recoup and to take care of your soul and mind. Your untiring service to the public can wait until you’re fully rested. Enjoy this time away. The public loves you and wants what’s best for you.
Happy New Year!
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Diane,
We love you and will miss you, but a break is critical! Don’t think about ANYTHING; just relax and enjoy time with your loved ones. There is great power in simplicity . . . .
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Good for you and thank you. I love you, many people love you, but I suspect we don’t – I don’t want–to think you are a goddess! The bar is already too high! Thank you for all of your wonderful work. Respect, and love.
And after Jan 4 we’ll all be here!
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It’s amazing you haven’t taken a break until now and you’ve certainly earned it. Thank-you for giving us the language of resistance.
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Rest, restore, and read a really good book.
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Enjoy your well-deserved break! Thank you for being there for us.
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Good for you! Enjoy! For later — a great article in Commonwealth Magazine about the differences in charter enrollment compared to regular public schools — with lots of data backing up the conclusions! http://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/charters-better-than-or-just-different-from-district-schools/
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We all need this break. Thank you, Diane, for all you do for us teachers!
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Happy Holidays, Diane! And I agree with you that breaks are healthy indeed. You’re setting a good example for all of us, again.
Quick Question: If we do come upon an article of interest, to what email address should it be sent? Thanks and Happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing you in North Carolina in April!
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A LINK:
Now, more than ever: Support Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf in his courageous stand to defend public education ! Stand with your brothers and sisters in Pennsylvania.
In spite of the facts that lawmakers haven’t proposed an acceptable budget, and the budget is now 6 months overdue, Governor Wolf is standing against lawmakers’ attempts to continue strangling public education.
This week, for the second time in the latest 3 months, Wolf rejected a still-deficient state budget. The latest budget proposal, according to Wolf’s office, doesn’t even add up, it doesn’t balance, and meanwhile:
“…… underfunds education and uses gimmicks that will actually lead to a $95 million [further] cut in funding for our schools…”
It’s not just about the money. Lawmakers are also trying to link requirements for state micromanagement or annual closure of the 5 ‘worst’ schools in Philadelphia. An arrogant, punitive attack on our one district.
Believers in Public Education must stand together:
Whatever school district you are in, whatever state, please take a moment to send Governor Tom Wolf a short note(s) of your support for his defense of public education:
http://lucidwitness.com/2015/12/28/pennsylvania-is-failing-in-philly-public-schools-so-close-schools/ .
Twitter : @GovernorTomWolf
Facebook : governorwolf
Email form: https://www.governor.pa.gov/contact/
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Enjoy your time off. Everyone deserves a break. Happy New Year.
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A link to Newsworks/WHYY edit and publication of my blogpost linked above:
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/speak-easy/speak-easy-feature/item/89334-pennsylvania-is-failing-phillys-schools-so-close-the-schools&Itemid=&Itemid=219219&linktype=hp_speakeasy
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CELEBRATE PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR TOM WOLF’S COURAGEOUS STAND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION!
In spite of daily partisan attacks for over six long months, day by day, Tom Wolf has refused to give in to those politicians trying to further damage public education and trying to take away more local control.
Governor Wolf is an amazing breath of fresh air in a national ocean of “contrived failure” claims about Public Education.
We all need to hold him up as a hope and an exemplary thoughtful leader.
He needs our support now more than ever! From my blog:
.
Now, more than ever: Support Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf in his courageous stand to defend public education !
A NATIONAL show of support ? Add your State, 50 States wide, plus Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands !
In spite of the facts that lawmakers haven’t proposed an acceptable budget, and the budget is now 6 months overdue, Governor Wolf is standing against lawmakers’ attempts to continue strangling public education.
He has just this week, once again, vetoed damaging budget cuts to Public education in Pennsylvania.
It’s not just about the money. Politicians are also trying to link requirements for state micromanagement or annual closure of the 5 ‘worst’ schools in Philadelphia. An arrogant, punitive attack on our one district. Politicians(?) making decisions and laws about academics (and school closings) instead of the experts: educators.
Politicians have already had a 15 year track record (since they took over the school district of Philadelphia) of academic failure and fiscal disaster in Philadelphia. School bonds are now junk. Equal access for children has been trampled on. Mental Health and the neuroscience of childhood trauma in particular are foreign concepts to politicians.
Governor Wolf was elected with a mandate around restoring health to Public Education. A loud public voice is needed in support of Wolf.
Whatever school district you are in, whatever state, please take a moment to send Governor Tom Wolf a short note(s) of your support for his defense of public education:
http://lucidwitness.com/2015/12/28/pennsylvania-is-failing-in-philly-public-schools-so-close-schools/ .
Twitter : @GovernorTomWolf
Facebook : governorwolf
Email form: https://www.governor.pa.gov/contact
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thank you for all you do ! love you lots !
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