Our reader and commenter, known to you are Virginia Parent, is Michele Boyd. She worked very hard to elect pro-public education candidates in Virginia. In this photograph, taken before the election, she gives Danica Roem some good reading on education issues. Danica was one of the people I endorsed for election to the House of Delegates, on the recommendation of Michele, Rachel Levy, and others on the ground. She is one of the brave Democrats who has come close to taking a majority of seats in a legislature that was gerrymandered to maintain Republican control. Danica knocked out one of the most reactionary members of the House of Delegates.
In case you can’t read the print, Michele gave Danica the following: Daniel Koretz, “The Testing Charade”; Pasi Sahlberg, “Finnish Lessons”; and my last book “Reign of Error.” Can’t go wrong with those three.
Congratulations to all of those and who fought to stop Trumpism in Virginia.
You sent a message to the Nation and gave hope to people who had lost it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Read those books Danica (and internalize the lessons they teach)! We will have a standardized test ready for you to take next week. 🤣😂😜 May I suggest to add another book by a mentor we all admire, “The Death and Live of the Great American School System” and, considering the district you represent, James McPherson’s “Battle Cry of Freedom”? But mainly, keep Virginia Parent happy and involved. You can’t do much better!
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This is all too beautiful for words. Congrats, Danica, and blessings on you, Diane, for endorsing her! Wonderful wonderful wonderful. This is how the light gets in.
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Very cool. And, Bob, well put….blessings on these people.
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Congratulations, Danica Roem and Michele Boyd.
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With the right leadership, Virginia will be able to move forward and combat Trumpism. Great choice of books!
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Gosh, thank you Diane for writing a post about Danica Roem & me. Blush….thank you all for your good wishes. Danica will soon be my Delegate…Delegate Roam!
Delegate Roam was a reporter for our local newspaper for 9 years & is a self-described policy wonk. She was excited to receive these good books & told me as soon as the election was over she couldn’t wait to read them. 🙂
During our education event that evening for parents & teachers, as a reporter would, she asked me which state in the U.S. currently has the best education system educating the whole child that Virginia could emulate. I told her that I’d get back to her with an answer.
In Diane’s opinion, it’s Vermont.
Can anyone please share any firsthand information about Vermont’s ed system to help us out?
Thanks!
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Get a large group together and invite Vermont’s Commissioner of Educatuon to visit Virginia. Her name is Rebecca Holcombe. She is a breath of fresh air.
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A great idea…a breath of fresh air just like Dr. Northam!
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Send me your mailing address and I’ll send you a copy of my new book in which I show how the standards and testing regime is state sponsored discrimination “Infidelity to Truth: Education Malpractice in American Public Education*”. I’ve kept it short and as concise as possible. Email me at duaneswacker@gmail.com.
*In it I discuss the purpose of American public education and of government in general, issues of truth in discourse, justice and ethics in teaching practices, the abuse and misuse of the terms standards and measurement which serve to provide an unwarranted pseudo-scientific validity/sheen to the standards and testing regime and how the inherent discrimination in that regime should be adjudicated to be unconstitutional state discrimination no different than discrimination via race, gender, disability, etc. . . .
P.S. If I have recently told you I would get a book to you, please bear with me as I am literally writing this while on my back. I’ve been laid up for the last week with low back issues in which the pain is limiting my upright capabilities to about five minutes at a time before I am laid back down in excruciating pain. I’ll get to sending them out as soon as I can.
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Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well,Duane. Take care.
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Thanks, John!
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Thank you for the offer of your book, it sounds good. I, too, am sorry to hear you’re not feeling well and wish you a speedy recovery,
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Congratulations. You did it !
Now the important thing is to get the messages in these books and tap the wisdom from Vermont to a larger audience. The work is really just beginning. Make the content and lessons in these excellent books relevant to every elected official and the school administrators who is being courted by tech companies and budget-busting failed experiments in “reform.” Tap into existing reading clubs, online discussions, and anything else to keep at bay the mighty forces intent on using this generation as guinea pigs and eliminating the voice of teachers, parents.
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