The Los Angeles Times reported here on Sean (Puff Daddy) Combs’ charter school in Harlem that will be run by Steve Perry, who describes himself as “America’s Most Trusted Educator.”
Teachers in the school will not be called “teachers,” but Illuminators.
The theme of the school is social justice.
“Students are expected not only to complete college, but to understand the importance of helping their communities. One student in Hartford created a program that provides students with a backpack filled with food for the weekend if they didn’t have enough at home, Jones said. Students must identify a problem in middle school, and work on a “social justice project” throughout high school.
“I want to impact the lives of young people in my community, and build future leaders. The first step is offering access to a quality education,” Combs said in a statement. “All our children should be able to pursue their dreams.”
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Perhaps they should just call themselves the “Illuminati.”
“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”
― George Orwell, 1984
+1
or maybe the Harluminati
And the children who misbehave will be called “Illuminaughty.”
TAGO and touche~!
You, my friend, have won the internet today.
Nah, you forgot that the schools will be run by Perry, a no-excusesionist, and I think he’d rather own the term illlooser.
Sounds good but why can’t this be done at a local public school?
Why should it be?
Too much testing. There is not enough time for long-term projects anymore. Thanks to ALEC writing the anti-public school legislation that way too many, mostly Republican legislators, have pushed through, public schools are being starved of funds because that tax money is going to private charters and school vouchers.
Their goal is the elimination of public schools, so that with privatized education, the rich can continue to get richer…this time off of educating our children. It’s criminal.
The teachers there should be called facilitators and the charter operators should be called fullofshitters.
What happens to those students that fail to “catch fire” and shine? Do they have to extinguish their torch as they get voted off the island?
I also think it’s so weird that students are called “scholars” in some of the charter schools. And, there is just something overhyped and strange about demanding that kids do social justice projects, calling them scholars (or their teachers Illuminators, really?). Why can’t these kids have the luxury of learning for the sake of learning? True, some kids will connect better to projects like this, but once you require it, it becomes perfunctory for some.There is no substitute for privilege that other people, like my own children had in their very nice, well-funded suburban public schools.
Kate, in my school we teachers are called “professors” I teach pre-k scholars. What is wrong with pupil? What is wrong with student? You CAN”T be a scholar at 3
Linguists can have a field day with all this manipulation of language.
In the real world a ‘professor’ has a PhD and teaches university students. If you are a preK teacher and this earned title is handed to you, what message do these 4 year olds get? ‘Scholars’ and ‘professors’ thus lose their dignity and their academically earned creds.
It would appear that, yes, it is indeed the goal and work of the Illuminati who enforce uniforms, robot behavior, and cookie cutter kids who cannot think for themselves nor develop critical thinking skills to become productive citizens and self directed individuals.
Some Diddy lyrics for your linguistic analysis:
“Man, I extend credit to a vagabond
Run yo’ city, and we not talkin marathons
Bang like chitty chitty here to disturb you
New CD, watch it spread like bird flu
America, fall back, you can’t stop me
Got a thing for pigeon-toed chicks who walk knock-kneed
Skin-tight jeans we call that botoxied
I’m desensitized baby, you can’t shock me
I’m the future
Always before you
(“The Fu-The Fu-The-Future-ture-ture-ture-ture…”)
Always ill”
Love all of the comments! He should just give funding to a public school with “educators” who know what they are doing. NO to charter schools.
Then, I doubt they would get all the tax credits, write-offs, hidden profit, and ego stroking that they’ll get from this school.
Upper echelon business ‘elite’ have a dismissive disdain for those who dedicate their lives to working
with children. They profess the opposite because it’s good for business, but in the corner offices they
really do preach that those who cannot do, teach.
The proof is in the pudding.
If well qualified “illuminators” are hired and there is some knowledgable leadership, perhaps their goals can be achieved, depending upon the needs of the student body. As someone who has been involved with two different “start up” models (an Early Childhood Center which became a Charter School and a Gifted and Talented Public High School) I can say with some expertise that the theories don’t always match the expected outcomes and modifications are necessary along every step of the way.
Grandiose ideas are great, but the implementations involve the cooperation of the students who might have something different in mind. Their goals often don’t match those of the adults involved in the decision making.
My advice: make sure each student has an active advisor to assist with their social justice plan and that the expectations are well mapped out so everyone is in the same page. If the project is not well defined and the student doesn’t have clear instructions with adult follow up to keep them on track, then many if not all of them will fall through the cracks.
This is the librarian within me speaking. Been there, done that.
flos56,
“… the theories don’t always match the expected outcomes …” Perhaps you were thinking of Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift (+ matching funds) to Newark, NJ Public Schools?
I think in this case, “the puff is in the pudding”
Check out the urban dictionary definitions of “illuminator.”
And. . . . It’s not nice to tease!
I want to be the gym illuminator. Give me a call, Diddy.
I just hope this isn’t the beginning of IFA (Illuminate For America)
I hope you mean physical education illuminator. Otherwise you are nothing more than a light bulb
Be careful, Arthur. Puff Daddy has a history of assaulting gym teachers. (Here’s part of one of the funny comments from the Times article mentioned: “LOL…If they have a football team maybe…Diddy could assault one of the coaches with a kettle bell like he did to one of UCLA’s coaches after his… boy got chewed out by the coach.”
Illuminate my fire?
OK maybe I’ll look for another gig. Maybe I can be a wrapper.
I like that. I’ve got one. Tyger, Tyger, burning illuminated… One more. She walks in Beauty like the night/ Of cloudless climes and illuminated skies
Wrap artist.
Wait, wrap artists work at Subway, I think. Ah, twisted language.
“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
-George Orwell
“As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.” Gore Vidal
Good catch. The quote is going into my archive of memorable quotes…at least fro me.
cx: for me
Thanks to the faculty/illuminators, the school song could be “My Future’s So Bright I’ve Gotta Wear Shades.”
And they’ll use Illuminating wands to cast learning spells on the scholars. Right out of Harry Potter! J.K. Rowling would be amused.
ILLUMINATI, n. A sect of Spanish heretics of the latter part of the sixteenth century; so called because they were light weights— cunctationes* illuminati.
From “The Devil’s Dictionary” by Ambrose Bierce
*cunc·ta·tion
noun
the action or an instance of delaying; tardy action.
Tiring.
False lights.
New reality show, seven rappers living in an active lighthouse.
Steve Perry wins Oscar for Most Unctuous Shill for False Accountability and Feigning an Understanding of Education and Humanity.
Expect lots of Puff pieces.
Are these “illuminators” going to be teaching reading, writing, math, science, social studies, art, music, etc., and will they be qualified/certified/state licensed to do so?
Bet they’ll be hiring a lot of “illuminators” from TFA!
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
from “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I hearby declare myself Viceroy of Historical Studies and all things Past Tense.
The movement to redefine ‘student’ and ‘teacher’ (and sometimes, even the word ‘school’) comes from a racist, classist belief, unsupported by reality or data, that poor children are not expected to achieve academically and they lack the encouragement and role models at home.
Some of this wishful thinking sprung from the controversial, and some say racist, work of Dr. Ruby Paine, a white woman from Texas, who writes about how to deal with poor children, especially poor children of color, in public schools.
Therefore schools become surrogate cheerleaders of ‘success’, replacing those lazy and uncaring parents of color and poverty, and instead of children being students, they become ‘scholars’. Schools are peppered with college logos, banners, pennants, and t-shirts in the rather peculiar belief that if students see these things every day they will be inspired to go to those colleges themselves one day. It’s what upper white class parents do, after all the time with their kids, after all, so of course imposing this facade on poor children of color will miraculously overcome the barriers they face daily, right?
No mention is made of the impossibility of paying for those colleges, or the fact that scholarships have decreased significantly, student loans have become the equivalent of indentured servitude, and the lack of good paying jobs even for those who achieve ‘success’ as a ‘scholar’ and get into one of the advertised colleges. No mention of how many, many poor children must work to contribute to their family’s daily survival, especially since the social safety net is now in tatters and 1 out of 4 children lives in hunger and poverty.
I’ve worked in 2 schools, in the Bronx and here in Florida, whose deluded principals bought into this nonsense. After years of implementation there was absolutely no improvement of any kind and kids still lived in deep poverty.
It’s all part of that very appealing rightwing narrative that says poverty shouldn’t matter and with the proper amount of grit, determination, sloganeering, euphemism mongering, and compliance that poor children will overcome poverty through the eradication of their home culture. No taxing of the wealthy nor expenditures by the government necessary.
Nothing new, nothing exciting, nothing with real potential. The idea of community service projects has been in play in my current district for over a decade with no apparent results regarding the eradication of poverty. It is rampant and noxious here still.
How awesome is it that my 12- and 14-year olds both just asked, “Who’s Puff Daddy?”
As Emily Dickinson said
I’m Puff Daddy, who are you?
Are you Puff Daddy too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring blog!
Some of your best, Poet. And, as Abraham Lincoln once wrote, “Don’t trust the bullwash on TV.”
I’m not certain I’m down with throwing away the name “teachers” in favor of some ethereal term like “illuminators”. I don’t like the idea that being called a teacher is somehow insufficient.
I imagine a large, rather comical looking Tinkerbell flitting around the classroom.
In 2015, Obama’s PR writers called teachers and leaders “America’s Engineers of Learning and Growth”
I wonder what forms of engineered growth he wants for his daughters?
Delighted to see a goal of helping students ” understand the importance of helping their communities. ” I think this is a goal many terrific schools have, whether district or charter.
To illuminate: “Brighten,” or “light up” Sounds what what many great teachers do.