I wish you a day of peace and plenty, surrounded by friends and family. If for whatever reason that is not possible, if you are alone, I wish you peace and time to reflect.
I am thankful for you. I am thankful for the chance to communicate with you regularly. I am thankful for family and friends. I am thankful to be alive. I am thankful that there are so many of us who want to make the world a better place and who understand that we all have a common destiny.
I am thankful for the First Amendment and for the many journalists who keep it alive. I am thankful for the resistance to venality, misdeeds and ignorant policies.
I am thankful to the teachers, principals, and scholars who prepare the next generation to be wiser than ours.
My own plan is to take a short break. I don’t intend to post again until Monday. I have been blogging nonstop for more than five years, and I feel the need to slow down. At least for this weekend, maybe other times in the future.
If something important happens or if I read something that I must share, I will.
You are my friends, my community, my small virtual town. I won’t be far away.
Wherever you are, have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Diane! I am thankful that you have created this community and offer your guidance & wisdom to us each and every day. You are a national treasure. We appreciate you so much! Enjoy your well-deserved rest and we look forward to hearing from you next week!
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Enjoy! You’ve more than earned some time off! Have a Happy Thanksgiving all!
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and to you as well…Have a great Thanksgiving break.
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Thank you, Diane for all you do and all the time and energy you devote to helping us save our schools and our sanity. I wish you and yours a bountiful, relaxing Thanksgiving filled with the simple joy of being with those you love.
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Happy Thanksgiving to you Diane. You keep us informed and I for one am happy you are here!
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I will miss you while you are on break. No superlatives can express how much I appreciate what you are doing for America and its children.
Since I have photographic evidence that I had my arm around you (not in a Moorish kind of way), I guess the makes us real as well as virtual friends. Nothing make me prouder than to call Diane Ravitch my friend.
Happy Thanksgiving! – tom 🙂
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Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for fighting the good fight. Take a well deserved break.
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Happy Thanksgiving Diane!
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Happy Thanksgiving, Diane.
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Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! We are thankful for all that you do in defense of public schools!
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By the way, a woman, Sarah J. Hale, is considered the mother of Thanksgiving. She repeatedly campaigned to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, and she finally got Lincoln to listen to her. http://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-and-the-mother-of-thanksgiving
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There was a Sarah J. Hale High School in Brooklyn, but Joel Klein broke it up into six small schools.
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Hale was closed by Rudy Crew. It had long been under state review for dismal outcomes and extreme violence, and Crew deemed it was too far gone to be included in the Chancellor’s District.
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/crew-close-13-schools-overhaul-takes-aim-performers-article-1.834720
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Happy Thanksgiving. I am honored to read your blog. You are an amazing person who is inspiring all of us. Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving and a great few days off. You deserve a rest!!
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Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. You are such an inspiring woman; you are truly my idol. Keep up the good fight for our public schools.
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Thankful for you today, Diane!
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Resistance is key! You are a great role model! Keep on, keeping on, but take breaks to refresh yourself, and please have a happy and hearty Thanksgiving!
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And thank you, Diane, for your commitment, your intelligence, your heart and your courage. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Dear Diane, Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving too! If it weren’t for you we wouldn’t have the information and day to day education news. I certainly understand the need to take care of yourself, but I hope that the weekend brings you the peace and serenity you need. Don’t turn on the news, but watch the Macy’s parade.Best, Joan Davidson(your CA advocate)
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“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” [Homer]
Take as long a break as you need.
You’ve earned it!
And may you bask in the warm company of family and friends.
😎
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Happy Thanksgiving to you Duane. Thank you for all you do! Enjoy your much deserved rest.
Pat
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And happy T-Day to you Pat. We’ll both say Happy Thanksgiving to Diane, eh!
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May your time off be blessed with friends and family as well as time to sit back and “veg.” You know, of course, that if you truly intend to stay off the blog, you need to stay off the computer! I will go into withdrawal if you actually manage it, but you more than deserve the break. Thank you.
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Thanks, Diane. Have a great one!
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In Canada we had our version of Thanksgiving ( no pilgrims…) really just a Harvest festival over a month ago but happy Thanksgiving to our American friends.
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My son who lives in Canada always asks me to make turkey when he comes home for Christmas. He misses it.
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Happy Thanksgiving. We are grateful for your service to our youth, the public schools and our democracy. Bob n Kay
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Thank you for all your hard work! The world of highnstakes testing hurts all and you have been invaluable for the resistence.
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I am thankful for this blog. I am thankful to Diane. I am thankful for authors and poets. There are some DAM good ones to be thankful for. I am thankful for Peter Greene’s sense of humor. I am thankful for everything Joel, Catherine and others have taught me about the economic theories that drive our opposition. I am thankful for my students. They inspire me. And I am thankful that for once in a long time, almost all of them have a roof over their heads today. And I’m thankful I do too.
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Happy Thanksgiving, Diane! Thank you for all your monumental efforts to keep the public in public schools and to expose the fraud of the school “reform” movement.
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Thankful for you and all you do to keep public education alive. Thankful for all my amazing colleagues who hold heads high in the face of adversity! Thank you Diane.
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Thank you for all you do. So grateful for all your hard work fighting for public education and kids.
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No words can thank you enough for what you do. You keep hope alive! You are a big part of why I feel some gratitude on this day!
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Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family . Keep up the good fight.
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Happy Thanksgiving! I was most thankful years ago when I first came upon your blog. I appreciate all you do for the children in all our public schools. Rest, relax and enjoy your family and friends.
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Peace tonight and vigor tomorrow
!
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We had family over for Thanksgiving so I was too busy to add my greeting to all who contrubute to this place. Diane, the creation of a place like this goes far beyond political activism, providing a respite from a form of isolation many feel. Thanks for the good work.
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Thank you for all you do. Enjoy Thanksgiving! And you family. Refresh, relax, recharge! Peace.
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Thanks, Diane. You’re an inspiration. Relax and enjoy!
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Of all “major” holidays, Thanksgiving Day has the least potential for being irksome, guilty of identity protectionism or driven by balkanized loyalties and passions. It’s the most inclusive of holidays. It’s not ideology-based and harbors no invidious implied comparisons with other nations, faiths or ways of life.
It has no agenda. It is universal in appeal and relevancy. It is, in the broadest and deepest way, a “wide-size fits all” dignified celebration. A sense of gratitude has at least fleetingly passed though every person’s heart, and so the holiday has status and credibility with all spiritual traditions and for those independent of any.
Thanksgiving Day is unique.
New Years Day is associated with binge indulgence and noise. It is the culmination of a season of intensified loneliness and isolation. People who have no lover or have lost their parents can feel estranged from Valentine’s Day and Mothers and Fathers Day.
Memorial Day is a solemn day of quiet sanctity with love and sorrow as protagonists. Veterans Day extols the sacrifice of one nation’s soldiers, which is understandable but nonetheless exclusionary. Independence Day, an occasion for justified hoopla, is inherently boastful with spectacular fireworks that mime battlefield explosions. Labor Day is a worthy but politicized commemoration.
There are numerous religious holidays that are dear to adherents and convenient to motorists when alternate side of the street parking is suspended for their observance, but all theologies lend themselves to divisiveness.
Holidays that innocently glorify different ethnicities and national origins dot the calendar with colorful parades and sincerely welcome all comers to share in being #1 for the day.
But sometimes pride can be balanced by awkwardness. Thanksgiving recalls a time before the commencement of unilateral hostility against indigenous peoples. By contrast, consider Columbus Day. Citing part of Columbus’s legacy as a product of his times, critics of his undisputed cruelty to Native Americans has created justified uneasiness. That holiday has been co-opted by controversy.
Steuben Day has so far averted unpleasant historical references.
Presidents Day equally honors four dozen people, some monumentally great, others half-baked and a few quite villainous. They are honored for their job title, not for accomplishments that all our citizens drawn from around the globe can relate to.
There are also many “minor” holidays, such as Groundhog Day, but the one most exceptional is Halloween because it is somewhat exotic and whimsical. It is escapist, deliciously morbid and spurs fun parties, dreadful movies and public service announcements about razors in trick-or-treat candy.
The only holiday that ranks with Thanksgiving as an inspiration, were we but better immersed in the lessons derived from it, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
That’s one end of the spectrum. What’s at the opposite? What is the most dreadful and rueful of holidays? We can all come together on that question: Election Day!
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“It has no agenda. It is universal in appeal and relevancy. It is, in the broadest and deepest way, a “wide-size fits all” dignified celebration. A sense of gratitude has at least fleetingly passed though every person’s heart, and so the holiday has status and credibility with all spiritual traditions and for those independent of any.”
Hate to be a killjoy, but T-Day has as much cultural baggage as all the others. As with many other days the message and day has been taken over by those who seek greater profit than needed.
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Yes, Duane, Thanksgiving became a slanted propagandist-type tool to calm down and distract from the horrible story of how the Puritans took advantage of the First Nation/Native Americans.
It was but a brief moment in history that got magnified to the extent that it made everyone forget how brutal and unjust the settlers became to those that helped them and were forced to give up their land an identity.
It sugar coated a mound of fire and blood to the point where the coating was so opaque that too many forgot could no longer view what lied beneath . .
Still, it’s a less commercial holiday and it does make us give thanks.
Not a very good day for animals who serve as the meal, also.
But Norway has its ugly history too. All countries do.
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Well, Duane; I happened to drink a lot of wine this Thanksgiving, which is very different from…I mean, KIND of different fro….I mean…well, ok: it’s pretty much the same as the rest of the holidays
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Gitapik, ha-ha, me too.
Duane, Tgvg was always the most anxious of holidays for us growing up. My family was dominated by a volatile, verbally-abusive grandfather who could ruin any holiday. w/his inflammatory racial & political comments. Tgvg gave him ample time to get soused watching football, which brought out his aggression. He came to that table ready to pick a fight.
Ron ha-ha, spent 20 yrs as a NY’er, really related to the susp of alt-side pkg regs causing us all to celebrate misc other-ethnic holidays…
RE: Halloween & its morbid pub-svs announcements: “Black Friday” is beginning to assume a similar profile, w/folks doing extreme elbow-jostling shopping amidst dire warnings of product defects, scams & frauds.
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I enjoy the holiday. It’s one of my favorites. Good food, hang out with the family, etc. . . . This year I let my great nephew hear about the negative side of joining the Navy-ha ha! He understands but like many young people he has no means ($$) of going to college and doesn’t want to get in heavy debt.
Be that as it may, we have a tradition that started in the sixties when at our grade school (CYC-Catholic) the fathers played the 8th grade boys soccer team (sorry no girls allowed back then). My age group and the year above us always had a pretty strong rivalry due to some having brothers in both age groups. I and a few others were picked to play up with the 8th grade team when I was in 7th. My 8th grade year was the first to beat the dads, so we made a big deal out of it (cocky lil’shits we were).
Anyway, when I was a senior in HS, we challenged to the now college dudes to a game of bone crush football, no pads, tackle, etc. . . We met and played, up at the old grades school. Well we kept on playing each Thanksgiving, turning the football into a soccer game-The Grog Bowl, in which we now play with the teams divided by over 30 and under 30. Festivities start at high noon when the oldest local rock station plays “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie. Some of our grandkids are now playing! It was a nice day, upper 50s and dry yesterday and the turnout was over 100 people out to watch and play and meet up with old friends, some of whom we only see at the game. The night before we meet up for a “Pre-Grog” party. This year was the 45th annual!
So I didn’t mean to denigrate T-Day, but just had to point out what I thought to be a misleading statement.
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Duane, what a great way to enjoy the day! Nice tradition.
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Enjoy a break from the action, Diane! WE, the nation’s public school community of educators (present, past and future) owe you a debt of gratitude and for that, we are ALL grateful!
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Typo: I meant “one-size fits all”; not “wide-size”!
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Couldn’t resist posting this even though I’m certain you have seen the article.
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Diane, Happy Thanksgiving to you & your family. I’m very thankful to you for this vibrant space. Go ahead, take a nice long break– still catching up on all your terrific Nov posts! And if I run out of those, I always find more nuggets I missed by searching bees in my bonnet in archived posts.
XOXO!
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I am thankful for you, Diane. Thanks for standing up for teachers and children.
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Happy Thanksgiving, Diane. Spending part of my holiday weekend reading “The Reign of Error.”
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Diane
et al
Happy Thanksgiving and to a restful weekend
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Here’s a nice Thanksgiving message from Seth Meyers, a tribute to his favorite teacher who recently passed away:
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Thank-you for sharing this moving segment.
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I am grateful that there’s at least one clarion voice for public schools –Diane’s –and that this voice is that of a learned free-thinker –able to resist the groupthink of the reformers, but also the groupthink of the education establishment.
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I cherish the first amendment as well. (After living under communism, and in an Islamic kingdom, I have more reason than most). I have seen up close and personal, the horror of religious bigotry.
Please keep in mind, that no journalist keeps the first amendment going. Journalists are the beneficiary of the first amendment, of course.
It is the soldier, not the journalist, which keeps freedom of the press in our nation.
It is the sailor, not the priest, who keeps freedom of religion alive in our nation.
It is the marine, not the orator, who keeps freedom of speech going in our nation.
It is the airman, not the gun salesman, who maintains our right to keep and bear arms.
It is the civilian contractor, serving in a foreign post, and not the lawyer, who maintains your right to consult with an attorney.
And so on.
Remember these servicemen, when you exercise your rights.
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Charles, many journalists have been killed in the line of duty.
Trump’s attacks on freedom of the press are attacks on the First Amendment and a violation of his oath of office, in which he pledged to support and defend the Constitution.
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Those who serve in the military certainly play a major role in protecting this country from foreign interference, but all those people you dismissed play an equally important role in maintaining those freedoms within our own borders and in defining our role on the world stage. Being a soldier or military support personnel is not the only way to protect and serve our country. There are certainly times when we have and may have to protect our freedoms with military force, but military service is far from the only way to do so. Just watching the antics of the current regime in Washington should tell you that. It ain’t the military that can protect us from that.
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I don’t think there’s any need to downplay the role of any one person and their profession in order to prop up that of another in any situation.
Definitely not in protecting our rights in this nation. We all play a role. An important role.
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I gained five pounds this long weekend, so I’m not not thankful for that.
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Me too. Back to the gym after school.
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