If you are not yet totally bored by reading about a billionaire’s vision for redesigning the high schools of America, you will enjoy reading veteran teacher Stephen Singer’s take on the vacuous production. Mrs. Jobs must have spent millions to buy an hour on four networks. What could your school have done with that money? Arts classes? Instruments for the school band? A school nurse? Free meals? Reopened the library and hired a librarian?
Instead she produced a vanity show.
Singer decided it was an exercise in desperation. The Reform brand is now owned by Trump and DeVos. Jobs had to find a way to claim that HER reform is different from THEIR reform, although it is not.
“So now that it’s over, what have we learned?
“1) Corporate education reformers are THAT desperate to distance themselves from Donald Trump.
“His wholehearted endorsement of their agenda has done them serious life threatening damage. He has exposed their racist, privileged, corporatist policies for exactly what they are. No amount of celebrities will replace that in the public consciousness.
“2) Rich people cannot set education policy.
“Steve Jobs widow may be a very nice lady. But she has no freaking clue about public education. Nor is she honest enough to engage actual classroom teachers in the discussion to find out.
“Instead of relying on the billionaires of the world, we should tax them. Then we can afford to fully fund our schools and let the people actually in the classroom decide what’s best for the students in their care. Let parents decide. Let school boards decide. Not a privileged tech philanthrocapitalist.
“3) Celebrities will do anything for money.
“The things these Hollywood elite prostitutes did last night to sell snake oil would make porn stars blush. I will never look at any of these people the same. Some of them I knew were true believers because of other projects. Heck! As much as I love Common’s new album, he does rap about Corey Booker – so warning there. Viola Davis is an amazing actress but she was in the parent trigger propaganda film “Won’t Back Down.”
“Being famous doesn’t mean you know a damn thing. We recognize their faces. We associate them with past roles and characters we loved. We think their political stands are authentic when they are often just a pose. We’ve got to stop respecting these people just because they’re celebrities.
“What will the long-term effect of last night’s propaganda be?
“I don’t know.
“I seriously doubt anyone really bought that. But you know what they say – no one ever went broke betting on the stupidity of the public.
“And that’s what this was – a high stakes wager on American gullibility.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It was nice to see Randi Weingarten together with Geoffrey Canada on the red carpet leading up to the event. They both spoke well.
I rather liked the wall-to-wall “We Are All Dreamers” T-shirts and, the brief portraits of several schools, such as the one in LA, and Furr High School in Texas were quite impressive. Good to see the constant celebration of great teachers throughout the event…
But the ratio of fluff to substance was, I thought, regrettably high…
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“…Randi Weingarten together with Geoffrey Canada….”
‘Nuff said. In case anyone is still deluded about exactly whose side Weingarten is on.
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Dienne77: “‘Nuff said.”
Did you have a chance to watch it yet?
John Merrow’s thoughtful analysis included this: “The high schools they showed, funded by grants from XQ and the Emerson Collective, looked interesting. They seemed to give students much more control over their own learning, which is highly desirable. If that is what XQ wants for all kids, they need to face the fact that this approach is not the system’s M.O. because our system was designed to sort kids. The schools in the XQ film do not do that. Those schools seem to ask of each child ‘How are you intelligent?’ and then build on those interests to see that every student receives a well-rounded education.”
I would have thought you’d concur with that perspective. And also appreciate the pro-Dreamers message conveyed throughout.
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Geoffrey Canada was rightfully discredited as an educator years ago when it became known that he was expelling students from his program for low test scores. Like all so-called reformers, his “miracles” were based on lies.
As for Weingarten, you would think that she’d at least be clever enough to not be associated with a stale brand whose expiration date has clearly passed, but you’d be wrong; thus, the ongoing demoralization of teachers, and political irrelevance of their unions.
As usual, Dienne gets it right…
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The one true statement that didn’t come until the last minute of the program, was that students need to learn the basics before they are able to change the world. What do they think we’ve been doing in our outdated, 19th century style classrooms? The kids didn’t learn to read, write and do arithmetic on their own. Teachers have been empowering kids with the basic skills of literacy, numeracy, and socialization so that they can go out into the world and do great things. Of course schools need to keep up with changing times, and that takes money and forward thinking school boards and communities. If they want to see more schools like the ones they highlighted, empower educators in public schools to bring high schools into the 21st century through grants and pilot programs. It’s not going to happen with vouchers that rob public schools of the support they need to flourish.
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Billionaires could do more to improve not only public schools, but equally important, to begin to change the racial estrangement that is at the root of all of America’s inequality, by forming a national real estate firm funded by at least $20 billion and which would buy homes for nonwhite families in racially monolithic white cites and suburbs across our nation. The United States Supreme Court recognized the inherent social cancer of our nation’s segregated communities when it ordered busing to integrate schools. We need to live together in order to learn to trust each other, to learn to truly become “e pluribus unum”. So, which billionaires will take on the challenge?
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Public schools should never become DEPENDENT on the whims of grant-makers. Billionaires with money in hand and no expertise in education have done damage to education. The list is long. Too long.
People with excess money should make sure they have not taken money from schools through tax breaks, then put their good intensions into eliminating racist policies and policies that create obscene levels of wealth in the midst of high levels of poverty.
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What a sad and desperate display of duplicity. Hopefully the show had very low ratings.
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I was beginning to watch the show and reflecting on its vacuous content when my daughter came in. She needed something, so,I,shut off the TV.
This morning, she showed me the poem she wrote about the coming of fall. It was written by an unsharpened pencil on a spiral notebook. High tech.
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Why tax the rich for more in NYC? Doesn’t NYC spend something like $35-$40 billion on its 1.1 million public school children? Why doesn’t $30,000+ per kid work?
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Do you have a source for those figures, Bill?
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I wanted to watch this, but I was consumed with Hurricane Irma news and Facebook about the hurricane. I probably didn’t miss much anyway…
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I only caught the last 5 minutes was Jennifer Hudson performed.
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You can still watch it all online if you want… https://xqsuperschool.org/
Or perhaps get most of the benefit from just a few minutes… perhaps from 13:28 -15:45 and 26:00 – 31:00
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I watched the entire program and came away very confused by what is was suppose to accomplish. It just seem like a pep rally. For what, I’m not sure . . .
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Here’s a sampling from COMMENTS section from the Washington Post article on XQ:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/09/08/why-a-live-star-studded-tom-hanks-common-etc-tv-show-on-school-reform-is-a-problem/?utm_term=.958f942c873f#comments
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vgrauer
9/8/2017 9:41 PM PDT
I watched the entirety of this overproduced disaster with my jaw wide open in disbelief. Literally every segment served to refute the basic premise — as though education was just another form of fun, to be designed as childhood entertainment.
I can’t believe all those celebrities would buy into such a shallow concept. They certainly don’t need the money. How embarrassing this will be for them when they see the finished product.
At bottom this was essentially a paid promotional video disguised as a glitzy variety show. Not one single element told us anything about the concept behind XQ or why any educator would be interested in it. I for one was totally turned off and I’m sure I won’t be alone.
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Gnostradamus
It’s sickening how many millions of dollars went into this ad buy, and what those investors expect as returns (a piece of public school funding). So much money and efforts could’ve been invested in schools without textbooks, windows, or trained teachers.
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Foggytop
9/9/2017 10:05 AM PDT
These programs don’t have to offer a solution, they just need to say there is a “GREAT PROBLEM.” It is called the disaster doctrine. Do you remember “A Nation At Risk?” It was propaganda. This is also propaganda. What politician would vote against a bill called “No Child Left Behind?” …..No politician who is afraid of the next election. They even talked Ted Kennedy into supporting it. It was John Boehner’s bill, and the beginning of the endless testing mandates which hamstrung teachers, students and administrations while enriching the monopoly of publishing companies. Great article, keep it up Ms. Strauss
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Deborah Brumfield
9/9/2017 6:21 AM PDT
I watched it hoping to hear what the agenda was to rethink our schools and never heard anything other than it’s needed. I’m a retired teacher and yes public education could use a reboot but this program gave me nothing. I even messaged them like they kept suggesting and only got something back a link that went nowhere and later a congratulation text from Viola. Nothing that was of any benefit. I’m confused.
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Alice in PA
I am not saying XQ is stupid for trying, but I can they are stupid for ignoring poverty and other cultural historical factors because we all know home life is the largest factor in school achievement. There have been many successful projects for addressing SES issues, many of which have been in the WaPo many more which have not.
Again I did as you suggested and went to the website. I found it a cheerleader for charter schools, who pick their students, or examples of schools who are not really struggling. the US education system does a good job with student not mired in generational poverty.
Therefore I find efforts that do not address these students to be not useful or worthy of the glitzy TV extravaganza.
I’m tired of the root problems not being addressed!
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Jake Jacobs
9/9/2017 3:39 PM PDT
This huge display of spending, buying major network time and celebrity endorsements is a signal going out to politicians and education officials. It is saying there will be plenty of campaign cash and media support for more ed reform. The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative is doing the same thing, hiring the former Gates Foundation director from the revolving door. Netflix also intends to reshape public ed to involve streaming services.
Laurene Powell Jobs has been a behind the scenes ed reform advisor and donor to the Hillary campaign since at least 2014. The ed tech billionaires see a future with education and their tech services ingrained together so they have many levers of control for future profits, influencing public opinion, and dataming.
If these disruptor-entrepreneurs were real philanthropists, they would support best practices in the field of education without strings attached. Obviously, the concentration of wealth makes billionaires into social engineers with outsized influence in areas they would understand better if they had education degrees and taught real classes for a few years.
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Gnostradamus
9/9/2017 2:19 PM PDT
Thank you for speaking up for public school stakeholders. Today’s classrooms are so different from just a generation ago, and teaching techniques are so much more advanced. It’s sickening how many millions of dollars went into this ad buy, and what those investors expect as returns (a piece of public school funding). So much money and efforts could’ve been invested in schools without textbooks, windows, or trained teachers.
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Richard J. Sharum
9/9/2017 11:25 AM PDT
Learning begins at home, in a safe, secure environment. How can a child properly learn in an unstable home environment lacking parental involvement in the educational process? Kids that suffer from abuse and neglect can’t learn no matter what changes are made. Let’s address these issues first and focus on fixing our broken society, then we can move forward.
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David Bryant
9/8/2017 6:59 PM PDT
I caught the tail end of this show on TV tonight, and I thought it was odd how it was on all 4 networks. However, it made sense when a disclaimer at the end said “The preceding was a paid advertisement.” The best propaganda money can buy! Also, the fashion and graphics/colors used on this were weird. It felt like an 90s teen variety show. Finally, why did they drag Sheila E out of the z list and feature her playing the drums? Do any young people know who Sheila E is?
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anon242
9/8/2017 5:37 PM PDT
Have watched some of the special which seems to be 90% singing and dancing. If only the money this special cost could have gone directly to impoverished school systems it probably would have made a huge improvement in education.
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