Mike Klonsky in Chicago checked out the schools where Mayor Emanuel and CPS CEO Forrest Claypool send their children.
Klonsky writes:
“I checked. No, there’s no “Grit” curriculum being taught at the University of Chicago’s Lab school or at chichi Francis Parker, the schools where Mayor Rahm Emanuel and schoools CEO Forrest Claypool send their children at upwards of $34,000 a kid.
“Professor Duckworth didn’t intend it for their kids. Fixing the poor is the burden of the rich, white and powerful.”
When asked about sending his kids to an elite school, Mayor Emanuel have this answer:
“I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think it’s a fair question, and I’ll say why,” Emanuel said. “My kids go to the same school that President Obama sends his kids to school, and nobody said anything when President Obama was leading the fight for Race to the Top. I don’t live in public housing, but I do fight for fairness in housing. I’m not homeless, but I do fight for resources for homelessness. So if it’s only about whether I as a parent make a decision, that’s not actually, it’s not about my kids, it’s about the kids of Chicago.”
Klonsky said in response:
“And what a strange analogy Rahm’s making between public schools — created for everyone– and public housing and homeless shelters, specifically reserved for the poorest and neediest of us. It’s clear that the mayor views public education as some sort of poverty agency rather than as the cornerstone of a democratic society. And therein lies his problem and ours.
“Nobody I know is challenging the right of the rich and powerful to send their children to private schools. That’s not the point. The point is that the corporate reformers now running public ed, including our autocratic mayor and his hand-picked CEO, don’t want our kids in public schools to experience the best educational practices, now reserved for their own….
“In 2011, the mayor forced a longer school day and school year on resistant Chicago schools even though he had no plan for what to do with the added seat time or how to pay for it. Again, I checked with Lab only to find out that their day and year was shorter than Chicago’s.
“Common Core? Nothing common about Lab or Parker.
“Over and improper use of standardized tests? You won’t find it in Lab or Parker.
“In conclusion — the best way to learn grit is by standing up to the bullies and pretenders who think they know what’s best for other people’s children.”
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Emanuel like his pal, Obama, is out of touch with ordinary citizens and their needs. He has made a mess of Chicago, a city with an out of control murder rate, which he seems to have no ability to handle. He is so toxic; neither Democratic candidate seeks his endorsement. Rather than address the murder rate, Emanuel chose to privatize the parking system costing everyone more for terrible service. He has treated public education and teachers with disdain. He has no concern for the neighborhoods and schools of the poor as he and his developer friends have sought to use charters as a way to gentrify neighborhoods and move out the poor. The Democratic party should be ashamed of him.
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Rahm was somewhat less diplomatic the last time he was asked the “where your kids attend school” question.
Ask veteran Chicago TV news reporter Mary Ann Ahern:
Rahm dodged the question, and then, when the cameras were off,
ripped into her for asking it.
Nice.
Here’s Ms. Ahern’s acount:
“In fact Emanuel’s temper can get the best of him. I found out
yesterday when I asked him a question about where his
children would go to school, and he let his famous temper emerge.
“(after the cameras were turned off) the Mayor of Chicago
positioned himself inches from my face and pointed his finger
directly at my head. He raised his voice and admonished me.
“How dare I ask where his children would go to school!
‘You’ve done this before,’ he said.
“This was the Emanuel we had heard about, and it was
one of the oddest moments in my 29 years of reporting.”
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/When-Rahms-Temper-Made-a-Comeback-
125919838.html#ixzz1nW3BeaIz
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Yep, a friend of mine who sends his kids to very expensive private schools told me that years ago, when their school tried some of these new math methods, they dispensed with them quickly when they realized the kids weren’t learning math. Nice that when it comes to education, the rich can afford flexibility, which every good teacher knows is needed, but of course they no longer get to be flexible in the public schools.
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How can anyone that was born into wealth and had it all their lives have grit — for instance Donald Trump. Isn’t grit earned the hard-scrabble way where people work hard to survive and improve their lives almost always one to two paychecks away from becoming homeless and hungry—something a Donald Trump doesn’t have to worry about? That is why the children of the 0.1% and their minions do not need grit.
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We can thank another privileged Harvard grad (Angela Duckworth) for the “science” of gritology — and the subfield of winnerology (the study of winnerals in jocks)
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‘Worst List”- education faculty hacks for the richest 0.1%.
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The question they’re refusing to answer isn’t about whether they send their children to private schools. It’s about why the private schools they send their children don’t adopt any of the ed reform policy and beliefs they impose on public school students and schools.
It’s a good question. They’re experts at dodging questions, so maybe reframe the question.
Ask them why the University of Chicago Lab School doesn’t rely on an extended day, teacher rankings, standardized tests and grit training IF those practices are good and valuable for public school students.
Private/public shouldn’t matter- good is good. Ed reformers say this themselves- they’re after “great” schools, not “great” PUBLIC schools. They’re “sector agnostics” to use the fashionable DC phrase.
I’m wondering myself why these elite schools don’t adopt any ed reform practices if ed reform practices are so fabulous and “evidence based” and all about “equity”. One would think they’d be borrowing from the ed reform playbook like crazy.
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Right on. I’d actually like to see the question posed the other way around: If Emmanuel and Claypool feel their children are being well educated, why don’t they advocate for the practices and philosophies of these private schools to be adopted in the public schools? (It should be noted that progressive, student-centered, project-based educational practices are not inherently more expensive than no-excuses, data-driven educational practices.)
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We should also demand that they publicly compare experience, length of career and degrees of education for the teachers in expensive private schools to the many brand-new teachers now being pushed into our public schools (as our older, more experienced teachers are methodically forced out.)
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As a public school teacher (and parent) in a wealthy, predominately white public school district, I have a theory. Reformers start their infiltration in our city schools on our poor communities of color. However, they have their eyes on all of our tax dollars as the end game. It makes sense that they want to get their greedy hands on the higher spending per student, they are just forced to do it differently. Our school district is near Philadelphia, Penn and Duckworth. Grit was just about to become part of our daily lives, as some of our school leaders were enamored with Dr. Duckworth. They agreed to allow research on grit in our schools and sent home letters for parent permission. However, they didn’t ask for teachers to volunteer and we were subjects in the same research. This goes against the ethical code of research, as all participants must be willing. Fortunately, our union was about to react when our school board banned all research in our district. Look at how many charter schools are on Duckworth’s research list. All of those teachers were forced to participate with no union or school board to stop the unethical practices.There are also many public school districts that are under SRC rule or simply under attack on the list. https://sites.sas.upenn.edu/?q=duckworth/pages/past-and-present-school-partners
Like always, the reformers start with our most vulnerable kids and communities. We must not think they intended to stop there. The sooner we all realize that all of our kids are the pawns to get to all of our tax dollars, the sooner we will all come together to resist. Duckworth, Persident Obama, et al. are no friends to any public school children, rich or poor, white or brown.
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You are absolutely right. Almost all university-based research has mandatatory sign offs, informed consent, on human subjects research. Duckworth may be by-passing that at her university via the Duckworth Lab structure.
That is a guess, but in any case your school board and union were on top of this. FERPA and other federal regulations should stop these experiments with students and teachers. Obama/Duncan made some holes in FERPA allowing districts to sign-off for “research” to improve student learning.
Meanwhile variants of the school/climate and social-emotional learning surveys, well beyond the GRIT, have become a growth industry for commercial tests and for more federally subsidized tech-based “real-time” data gathering in schools. See https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/sites/default/files/EDSCLS%20Pilot%20Debrief_FINAL.pdf
Please look at the example of ratings from this survey on page 26.
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“End game-all of our tax dollars.” In 2003, the Bay city area, was ground zero for the reform movement, generously funded by men like Gates.
“Our goal is to develop charter management organizations that produce a diverse supply of different brands on a large scale.”
(Kim Smith, founder of New Schools Venture Fund, which rec’d $22 million from Gates, interviewed in Philanthropy Roundtable).
Every school board in America should read the interview.
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Duckworth is at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the 7 schools in the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. CPRE is funded by Pearson, Gates, Goldman-Sachs, etc. The Consortium was founded by the Pres. of Columbia Teachers College. Due to Pearson share ownership and board position, the President was the subject of an article, “Students Urge President to Cut Ties with Pearson”.
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It’s also nonsense that people DON’T expect politicians to comply with the policy and mandates they impose on everyone else.
One of the first questions that came up after passage of the health care law was whether members of Congress and their staff would have to comply with it- would they have to shop on the healthcare exchanges. That’s a good question. Congress answered it- “yes” is the answer.
It DOES bother me that none of these people send their children to schools where ed reform policy and practice is used and I don’t care how huffy and insulted they get when they’re questioned on it. Maybe they should drop the fake outrage at the question and just answer it.
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Rahm made this clear when he responded that his concern for the homeless does not require that his family live in the shelter.
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I have another question. If funding doesn’t matter in education and they don’t want to “throw money at the problem” why do the elite schools have to spend 34k a year per student to get everyone into an elite college?
Those kids come in with every advantage. One would think elite schools could easily manage on 10k a year. They START with kids who are expected to excel.
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The degree of “eliteness” is directly proportional to the tuition rate.
Can’t brag to your fellow investment banker that your kid’s private school is costing you $10K a year.
Income is as important to outgo to the super affluent.
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Mike makes me think that perhaps it is time to challenge the “right” of the rich and powerful to send their children to private school, if there is indeed a right and not a legal educational loophole for the rich and powerful. Private schools are a way for the rich and powerful to circumvent the laws public schools must follow–like the pernicious testing that is currently tyrannizing the public school sector. Private schools and the thinking that private schooling is a right allow the rich and powerful to practice racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and academic segregation without the kind of consequence to themselves that would accompany such practice in other areas. It is a practice that perpetuates and legitimates inequality. Perhaps if we want to reform our public schools, we should start to have this conversation. If the children of the rich and powerful had to go to public schools, I have no doubt that many current objectionable policies would not exist. Nothing like personal experience to motivate people. It should be noted that Finland, the oft cited model for public education, does not have private schools.
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It’s one for one and none for all
or all for one
and one for all.
We have chosen the former now it is time for the latter.
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We Found Defiance. https://vimeo.com/165373808 “And the sign said if schools are for profit we will love all we have gained.
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CHIARA: “It’s a good question. They’re experts at dodging questions, so maybe someone should reframe the question.
“Ask them why the University of Chicago Lab School doesn’t rely on an extended day, teacher rankings, standardized tests and grit training IF those practices are good and valuable for public school students.
“Private/public shouldn’t matter — good is good. Ed reformers say this themselves- they’re after ‘great’ schools, not ‘great’ PUBLIC schools. They’re ‘sector agnostics,’ to use the fashionable DC phrase.
“I’m wondering myself why these elite schools don’t adopt any ed reform practices if ed reform practices are so fabulous and ‘evidence based’ and all about ‘equity’. One would think they’d be borrowing from the ed reform playbook like crazy.”
————————————–
Some did ask that at the recent NPE conference last month. (BELOW)
The private school leaders don’t adopt any of this because they know very well that all that stuff is not “good” or “fabulous” or “evidence-based.”
On the contrary, they know that all that stuff sucks to high heaven. That’s why the same ed reformers who are shoving it down the throats of unwilling middle and working class public school parents — John King, Campbell Brown, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, etc. — spend tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition so that their own children are kept as far away from it as possible.
When one its prime architects David Coleman justifies those “reforms” with statements like this… (VIDEO BELOW) … who can blame them?
Could you imagine a teacher or say, an administrator at the Chicago Lab School (Obama, Cunningham, Rahm Emanuel send/sent their kids there), or Sidwell Friends (Obama), or Harpeth Hall (Michelle Rhee & Kevin Huffman’s kids), or Lakeside (Bill Gates) got up and said in a classroom setting, or a school assembly, or a schoolwide event with all the parents in the audience:
“The reason that we don’t allow your kids to engage in personal writing here at the Chicago Lab School, is that as you grow up in this world, you realizes that people really don’t give a sh%# about what you feel, or about what you think.”
I’m sure that would go over well.
There was an interesting exchange on this during the recent Peter Cunningham & Jennifer “Edushyster” Berkshire forum at last month’s NPE Conference.
Peter Cunningham makes the argument that, in either the public, charter, or private school spheres, any implementation of “the whole package” — Common Core standards, testing, evaluation based on tests — is NOT about improving the quality of children’s education or curriculum.
That’s quite a slip on Cunningham’s part, as everyone else in the corporate reform world makes the argument that it IS, indeed, about increasing the quality of curriculum and education. Cunningham’s ally Campbell Brown even wrote a Washington Post op-ed to that effect: (though she makes sure her own kids are spared Common Core)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/political-attacks-on-common-core-are-driven-by-pandering/2015/02/27/bfbf9f80-bad8-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html
Improving the quality of curriculum and education is not why the elite private school leaders would choose or not choose adopt, or even need any of “the whole package.” Instead, Cunningham points out that the real purpose is to increase teacher quality in public (but not private schools), a purpose necessitated by the existence of teachers’ unions’ contracts in public schools, but not private schools.
By that, Cunningham means private schools don’t need “the whole package” while unionized public school districts do need it. He argues that, without the job protections that come with union contracts, private school administrators can fire any teachers whenever they choose. He calls this “organic accountability.”
However, in a unionized public school setting, “the whole package” — Common Core standards, testing, evaluation based on tests — is needed to get around those union contracts that block “organic accountability.”
( 57:57 – )
——————————————–
BERTIS DOWNS, PARENT: “Standards, testing, evaluation based on tests. The full reform package. If it’s such a good idea, why isn’t it in place in private schools where most reformers send their kids?”
PETER CUNNINGHAM: “The quick answer is because that in private schools, you have organic accountability. Parents pay the money, and if they don’t like it, they leave.”
BERTIS DOWNS, PARENT: “Well, we (parents) are taxpayers, and we’re paying money, too. We have the Constitutional provisions for an adequate education. So if (the whole corporate reform package) helps to make (a child’s education) more adequate, or more sound and basic, or more whatever the Constitutional provision is, don’t you think they’d be doing that in private schools, too? If it was such a good idea, wouldn’t (private school leaders) just on their own be doing it, if it was such a good idea?”
PETER CUNNINGHAM: “I think some of them do. Private schools don’t face the same issues. Those parents are free to use their tuition, and go wherever they want.”
————-
“those same issues” to which Peter refers are presumably the union contract with job protections that “Tim” uses to justify private schools being given an excuse not to employ “the whole corporate reform” package.
In short, this is all about union busting.
For more about Common Core, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and watch Dr. Duke Pesta’s lecture… and try to keep an open mind:
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The Common Core is a paternalistic, micro-managing tool that seeks to control public teachers. It disrespects their skills and training. It does not improve instruction and raise standards as the tests are often developmentally inappropriate and poorly written. Testing does not improve outcomes for students and raise standards. The Common Core is a symptom of the mistrust and disdain the Obama administration has for public schools and teachers.
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“By that, Cunningham means private schools don’t need “the whole package” while unionized public school districts do need it. He argues that, without the job protections that come with union contracts, private school administrators can fire any teachers whenever they choose. He calls this “organic accountability.”
However, in a unionized public school setting, “the whole package” — Common Core standards, testing, evaluation based on tests — is needed to get around those union contracts that block “organic accountability.”
That excuse seems easy to rebut though: charter schools aren’t unionized yet they get the “whole package” of Obama/Emanuel ed reforms and they can fire teachers are will.
Charter schools have “organic accountability” yet ed reformers invented “the whole package” in charter schools.
Tell Cunningham to come up with a better excuse. That’s just lame.
Has anyone considered the possibility that Rahm Emanuel is just really bad at his job?
I know he’s The Best and The Brightest but has anyone considered the obvious? He’s a lousy mayor. Maybe it’s just that simple?
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Retired teacher
I agree it’s “lack of trust,” but of a very particular kind.
It’s not that they think teachers can’t be trusted with traditional education. Ironically, quite the opposite is true.
The people behind Common Core (Bill Gates) did not trust that teachers would ever willingly accede to replacing traditional education with their free-(for-all) market version. (Gates actually said back in 2009 that the whole point of the CC standards was to create powerful markets — supposedly to “serve” teachers(right)
And the mistrust of Gates and others for teachers was actually quite warranted (these people are no dummies), because most teachers would not willingly have gone along with their plans.
Teachers had to be coerced though testing, VAM, firings, teacher shaming in the papers and on the internet, school closings, NCLB waivers, and withholding federal funds.
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Jack,
Most parents who heard (Coleman) say what he did would never allow him to have any say whatsoever in their child’s education — to say nothing of letting him within 1000ft of any school.
That guy has some serious abnormal “issues” (with teachers and probably his parents, as well)
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“Trust in Villify”
“Trust in Villify”
Is the rule
“Test ‘n’ VAMify”
Is the tool
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Chiara: yes, when it comes to rheephorm and rheephormsters, it’s just that simple—
They’re lousy at education “stuff” [as Bill Gates puts it].
😎
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If Cunningham insists that the unionized public schools “need the whole package” because private/charters can fire teachers anytime, then what about we teachers in Right to Work states? Since we can be fired at any time, shouldn’t we get out of this “accountability” crap, particularly Common Core and the endless testing?
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Our local school district is a university community. about 85% of the students come from families with college education. Most of the students who perform below prescribed levels on standardized tests fall into the 15% whose parents have high school education or less. These students get tracked into “remedial” or intervention programs to try to raise their test scores. This continues from elementary into secondary grades. This means that such students end up using their elective periods for things other than traditional elective courses — music, drama, student newspaper, yearbook, student government, robotics, etc. And when you look at the demographics of those elective classes, predictably they are made up almost 99-100% of students from college educated families.
There is internal segregation in the schools, and it extends to the social interactions that students have. Students from college educated families don’t interact much with students with families having high school education or less.
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The Deutsch 29 blog has an interview transcript of Harvard’s Roland Fryer. (He’s a participant in the May 20, Harvard GSE conference for politicians.) Fryer sinks down to a level, where IMO, he shows contempt for students who aren’t in the wealthy suburbs, like his, in Boston.
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“Rich kids Don’t need Grit”
Rich kids don’t need grit!
Rich kids don’t need it*
They’re really very fit
Like Billy Gates and Mitt
*another word works too
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Rahm is featured on the DFER fund-raising page, called the “DFER LIst”. In the photo, Mayor 1% appears dressed for an afternoon of golfing, in the company, of the hedge funds backing DFER. At the website, there’s a tab, where the rich and poor can click to “max out” their contributions, at $5,400, for his campaign. Unfortunately, the average Chicagoan has to buy food for his/her family, instead.
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