Thank you, dear Poet. I blush. And I laughed out loud.
“The Midnight Blog of Diane Ravitch” (apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Hear ye, my teachers, of techy wares
The “teaching” inventions of billionaires
Of testing and Cores
Political whores
And a blogger with passion who really cares
She said to her friends, “If the billionaires roll
By software or hard, from your towns tonight
Hang a lantern aloft from the tall flag-pole
At the public school, as a signal light —
One if by Gates and two if by Broad
And I, on the opposite side of the road,
Ready to blog and spread the alarm
Through every American village and farm
For the parents and kids to march arm in arm
Then she said “good night” and with a blogger’s adieu
Warned to “Be watchful of ‘privatize’ clue’”
Just as the wealthy were meeting with pols
And paying the think-tanks and internet trolls
For “proof” that their methods were “tried and true” —
The Common Core and the testing too —
That only THEY know what to do
A propaganda that was magnified
By billions of dollars, far and wide
Meanwhile, her friends, through blogging and tweet
Wander and watch with eagle eyes
Till they read of the program to “personalize”
The learning, by students with tech, for sure
The smell of a hardware and software cheat
By usual folks, with their usual lies
Peddling wares at the techy store
They hoisted the lanterns up the poles
At the public schools, throughout the land
To the top of the masts, hand over hand
Unbeknownst to the blogger trolls
On the internet sites (paid as planned
By billionaires, who worshipped Rand)
Up the flag-pole, so steep and tall
The highest flagpole of them all
They raised the lanterns above the trees
Where Diane Ravitch saw with ease
And moved to action from the call
A flurry of blogs and a trumpet of tweet
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark
And beneath from her fingers, in passing a spark
Struck out by a blogger both fearless and fleet
That was all! And yet through the gloom and the light
The fate of a Nation was riding that night
And the spark stuck by the blogger in flight
Kindled the Land into flame with it’s heat
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the brutish billionaires tired and fled–
How the parents gave them piece of mind
(And not of the peaceful restful kind)
Chasing the billionaires down the lane
Then crossing the field to emerge again
Under the trees at the edge of the school
To banish forever the billionaire rule
So through the night, she persevered
And so through the night went her cry of alarm
Through every American village and farm
A cry of defiance and not of fear
A voice in the darkness a knock at the door
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For borne on the night wind of the Past
Through all our history to the last
In the hour of darkness and peril and need
The people will waken and listen to hear
Of the ominous danger of billionaire greed
Threat to democracy that we hold dear
Geez oh Pete. This poem is an impossible act to follow. A plain “Happy birthday, Diane” will have to suffice.
outstanding!
What a gift. Thank you for the poem.
Clever and on target! Thanks!
Too good!
Very witty! Excellent!
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🙂👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🙂🙂🙂
The people will waken and (well we can dream): LISTEN!
Thanks to all, but all I did was change a few words here and there.
Thank Henry — and Diane.
It’s kind of funny. When Diane said in a post that she wished she had a magic lantern that would grant a wish that billionaires would butt out of education, The lanterns in Midnight Ride of Paul Revere immediately came to mind. As you can tell, my mind is a bit warped.
By the way, the inspiration of this blog is priceless.
And in that department, Paul Revere had nothing on Diane Ravitch.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
SomeDAM Poet,
I adore you!!!
Happy birthday, Diane, and may you have many more healthy, happy years. Your voice is needed.
And congratulations to the distinguished Poet Laureate of the blog, SomeDAM Poet.
Zorba,
I like that: our own Poet Laureate!
Thanks, Zorba, but the main thing that distinguishes me among poets is that I am not a real one.
Mostly I just write goofy short verses and bastardize great works of poetry.
Poet, we appreciate you and not only like your work, we do consider you our Poet Laureate. 💖❤️💕
Well, you are dam good at bastardizing!
Love it! Happy Birthday to my Public Education Hero.
Magnificent poem! Happy Birthday, Diane!