I write this post with a mixture of joy and sadness. And exhilaration!
I have been blogging every day for five years. I post whatever interests me and whatever I think will interest you. I confess to being compulsive because I blog with passion and zeal. I have blogged in elevators and taxis, while waiting on a line or in the middle of the night. I have written nearly 20,000 posts, and you have sent me nearly half a million comments.
I won’t stop blogging, but I will try to limit myself to no more than one post a day. I will post every day at 9. I will have the best of the best (in my opinion) every day. If there is breaking or important news, I will post again. When there is a big event or election, I will post. I will post short items of importance, just a link, when I must. I will keep tweeting.
When NPE endorses a candidate, you will hear from me. When one of the supporters of public education scores a win for democracy and the common good, you will hear from me. We have to keep winning elections.
I am not going anywhere but I will spend more time working on the book than blogging.
If I can encourage you to write a letter to the editor, run for office, speak out at a public meeting, you can bet I will. I will insist that you get out to vote and get your friends to vote too.
The reason I am stepping back is that I have a contract with my publisher, Knopf, the most distinguished publishing house in America, with the best editor in America, Victoria Wilson. Knopf published and Wilson edited my last, most important book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Our Public Schools. I am going to write a new book about the growing and powerful resistance to privatization. I will rely on what I have learned from you —as I have traveled, as I have blogged, as I have read your comments here, as I have followed your work on behalf of the common good.
Of course, I will write about the BATS, Journey for Justice, the SOS groups, the battling unions, the legal battles, the electoral victories, the battles by parents against data mining, Class Size Matters, the historic defeat of Question 2 in Massachusetts last November, the historic court decision in the Vergara Case, the Pastors for Texas Children, the NAACP, the fight against vouchers, the resistance in many, many states by brave parents and teachers. And of course, the Network for Public Education, which was created five years ago by Anthony Cody and me to build and support the resistance. (Speaking of which, plan to join us at the NPE Annual Conference in Indiana on October 20-21. There will be more details on the NPE website.)
I’m not signing off. You will hear from me less often. You will get fewer posts. You will get shorter posts.
This is what I need from you: tell me what is happening in your state to fight for public education. Tell me which groups are fighting back against the malefactors of wealth and the peddlers of privatization. Tell me about your wins.
The fight continues. I have a strong sense that the tide is turning. I am not giving up, and neither should you. There is much good news to share. Books reflect the world and books can change the world. All of us acting together are changing it right now. I have never been more hopeful about the future. I want to gather the hope and inspiration that you have generated and use it to inspire even greater activism to defeat the stale and dying status quo.
Help me write this important next book. Share your stories. Help me stop the privatization train, which ran off the rails long ago. I recall being told repeatedly a few years ago that it was useless to resist because the train had left the station. When they said that, they never said where the train was heading. Not a good place. Maybe to a steep cliff. Trump and DeVos know. They tell us. The Koch brothers tell us. They want to destroy public schools. They are the “low hanging fruit.” They are driving the train to nowhere, and the “low hanging fruit” are our children.
Friends, together we are telling them that their plan to destroy our public schools is not going to happen.
It. Is. NOT. Going. To. Happen. We will show them what democracy looks like.
Keep me informed about your community, your state. They have money. We have numbers. Together, we will save our schools, our children, and our democracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good luck with the book . I hope to read it.
Joel,
I’m counting on you.
All the best in writing–advance orders will start coming in today! Re: the train metaphor, the reform train has gone off the rails, it has also taken the wrong track, and as with every train that “leaves the station”, it will inevitably reach the end of the line–and even if it crashes the barriers at the final station, stops. Thanks for all you do!
Congratulations, Diane. I hope that there will be a space in your book for the voices of public school parents like me whose schools have a lot of room for improvement that has nothing to do with a lack of resources or the life situations of its students; of parents zoned for neighborhood schools that no readers of your blog or books would send their own kids to if it was the last public school on earth; or of the large and growing number of urban parents who have opted out entirely and send their child to an open-enrollment charter school or choose to homeschool. I’m happy to help you make these connections! Happy writing and best wishes.
“Open-enrollment charter school?”
That’s a good one.
Perhaps, instead of Diane wasting time on your shilling for charters, you could just go to the source and ask some of Moskowitz’s financiers to back you. I’m sure you’d get a warm reception.
Yes, Michael, open-enrollment. New York charter schools, as I’m positive you know, are open to any child who lives in New York State. No painstakingly gerrymandered zone lines that snake carefully around housing projects; no publicly funded investigators making sure people, especially minorities, live where they’re supposed to live; no admissions tests like G&T. And it could not be more easy to apply—see the link below (the mobile version is arguably even clearer and simpler to use). Very happy to clear up this misconception!
https://nyccharterschools.schoolmint.net/welcomeback
So many fallacies, so little time!
It takes a lot of chutzpah for Tim to claim to represent “voices of public school parents”. Sort of like Families for Excellent Schools claimed to represent them right up to the time that their CEO got caught behaving inappropriately toward women. Eva Moskowitz decided her plan to hire him was now impossible so “she couldn’t support FES anymore”.
Say what? I thought Tim and FES were about the PARENTS? As soon as their leader gets caught, Eva Moskowitz and the billionaires who support her are shutting down the organization and leaving the tens of thousands of parents the organization claims to represent in the lurch? Why would it be closed down instead of the leader replaced? Unless it was NEVER about the those parents at all, except as they could be used to promote the desires of rich white billionaires and the white charter CEO who endorses Betsy DeVos when marching orders from those billionaires come in. (Just kidding, it wasn’t because Eva knew it would make her billionaire funders happy — it was just her incredibly good judgement that told her that DeVos was the perfect embodiment of Eva’s own agenda.)
I guess when the needs of those “tens of thousands” of parents who are members of Families for Excellent Schools are balanced against the public relations needs of Eva Moskowitz, those parents are about as expendable as the many, many children put on got to go lists that Tim doesn’t care about at all.
Tim, just because Diane Ravitch understands that your claims to represent the “voices of public school parents” are about as hollow as Families for Excellent Schools — you’d abandon them all in a minute if the price was right — does not mean she hasn’t been concerned with those parents for decades.
And the concern isn’t as phony as yours is.
Wow: really? I admire and loathe your presumptuousness. You really think you have something to say to a scholar of education with 50 years of work under her belt?
There’s a Yiddish word for this–what is it? Oh, yes: chutzpah.
(T-i-m) –
from the web site you listed: “If a charter school receives more applications than seats available, it is required by law to hold a lottery. Admissions lotteries are held independently at each school during the month of April, unless otherwise stated. Parents should contact schools directly for more information.”
The charter school does not accept anyone who walks through the door throughout the whole school year as do the REAL public schools. They accept kids at certain times of the school year unlike the REAL public schools.
Joe: well put.
Charters are, on the whole, much more accurately described by some phrase that begins with “government-contractor”—because they are, openly or in disguised form, private profit-making entities that receive public monies.
Or to put it another way: when someone uses a phrase like “public charter schools” they are rheeally saying—It’s “truthful hyperbole”! Really!—that “public monies” are being used to swell the bottom line of a few owners and/or managers and/or enablers & enforcers.
😎
Public school parents send their children to public schools. Charters are not public schools. Wait a minute. What am I doing, letting myself get distracted by a comment full of contradictions and prejudices? I came to this post to express my excitement:
Another book to add to the shelves of great books I’m glad to have acquired and shared as a result of reading this blog! Yes!!! I can’t wait. You’re right, Diane, books can reflect the world and change the world. I will try to limit my comments to telling you about our battles and successes out here in my corner of the map, so that you can concentrate. Happy Writing!
Writing this as a retired History teacher, there are many things that stand out in my career. Related to your writing is an experience I had teaching about the Holocaust. In the School District of Philadelphia we already had an excellent curriculum guide and colleagues as mentors on the subject. Using this resource I was able to develop classroom materials that were quite effective. My principals even brought people around to see my classroom. I took classes on Modern Jewish History and the Holocaust at Rowan University (then Glassboro State College) with my old friend Sidney Kessler, and read everything I could. Survivors came to my students to personally tell them what it was like. It wasn’t difficult to compare the Holocaust to other experiences in American and World history, even to the personal lives of my students. But here’s the rub. How much can you do this? The emotional drain was difficult to say the least and I had to slow down, slow down but not stop. I found I was not the only teacher with this problem.
You know, I read your blog regularly and follow many of your citations. I post your writng on Facebook. It is all so frustrating. We teachers know what needs to be done, but politicians want quick fixes. Conservatives, aided by Citizens United, want to control the education of our children. Chauvinistic liberals think they have the secret and are willing to risk increased segregation to support the extremists on the right in a takeover of the lives of our children. For whatever reason, the powers that be won’t listen to us.
I read Death and Life cover to cover, word for word. I have Reign of Error, the original and your updated version. I started to read it. I read your addition to it. Not only do you know your history but you really are a good history writer and I love to read good history. Here is the relationship to my teaching about the Holocaust, the frustration level. I started reading but couldn’t keep going, too draining as we head to another tragedy for American education. I pick Reign of Error up occasionally but it’s tough. When your new book comes out, I will buy it, a hardbound copy. You deserve that. With the current administration in the White House, my blood pressure is already elevated. I will do my best, though, to read your new book.
Thanks for all you’ve done, Diane, and continue to do. You speak for all of us.
Thank you!
Hi Diane,
Best wishes for the new book! “Reign of Error” is excellent. You might find this article by a reformed advocate of personalized learning to be of interest (assuming that you haven’t already seen it?):
Thank you for your dedication to improving our Public Educational system. I was fortunate to have attended a panel discussion at Stanford University a few years ago, where you presented. Your columns are extremely informative.
I look forward your new book!
Diane….best wishes for a successful journey penning your new book! Of course, we in the field, are happy to support your efforts. And always we appreciate your blogging! Here in Colorado (I know you follow Jeanie’s blogs as a former member of the Denver Board of Education), we believe the tide may be turning. The Jefferson County Board is now sane again. The Aurora Board of Education turned over in November (the superintendent there is a Broad Academy guy….former attorney). And the Supreme Court just denied the Douglas County voucher scheme. Hope rises. As a national consultant (47 years in public education), I sense the same when I travel around the country. There are many “mini movements” happening here, there and everywhere! Thank you for all you have done and continue to do to stand up for public education and for ALL kids and teachers and school employees.
As the unofficial poet laureate of Cleveland, Harvey Pekar, once wrote (and is on his gravestone), “Life is about women, gigs an’ bein’ creative.” Wishing you many bursts of creativity with your new gig. Looking forward to adding this volume to my library!
LOL.
Wonderful publisher and better still, an editor whom you respect. Enjoy the process and save some energy for the promos, book fairs, and the rest.
When do you anticipate the new book coming out? I’ve assigned all your other books to my classes in the past. I’d love to have new discussions with the next one!
Good luck with your writing, Diane! And I hope to see you in Indiana in October!
For the second time today in these fora, let me say: I bid you Godspeed! I look forward to reading your book.
Anxiously awaiting your new book. Thank you so much for striving one! You do inspire the rest of us to keep going onward.
Thank you, Diane. Also appreciate that you will write a book and “LADY” your blog.
Keep on, Diane.
Thank you for all you do in defense and support of public education. I look forward to reading your new book, and I know it will be as truthful and honest as your previous publications.
Diane, you continue to amaze me. Thanks for all that you do to support public education and for the knowledge that you send out to those who don’t understand. You are fantastic!!! This country NEEDS what you have to say.
At least there is no concern that the information in the book will be outdated when it is published.
You could sleep for 100 years, wake up and Deform would still be as fresh as the day it was plopped.
“Timeless Deform”
Rip Van Winkle took a nap
Slept one hundred years
Woke up to Deformer crap
Minus Brittney Spears
You gave me a title
Nah, it will be a bad memory, and no one will admit that they had any connection to it.
Pass on, nothing to see here.
Diane, congrats and good luck with the writing. I hope it’s the biggest education best seller of the decade. Please forgive me for offering unsolicited advice, but here are two suggestions to help make this happen.
First, make it a big story loaded with small stories. Reign of Error was a master work. It cut to the heart of a big subject and digested each topic with amazing concision. But it was more analytic than narrative, and as such wasn’t likely to get displayed face-up at the front of Barnes and Noble. It’s my hope that this new book will transcend the education market. Emotional stories with children and parents at the center will give it a chance. Your own ongoing story could be part of this. It sounds like you’re already leaning in that direction.
Second, embrace current book marketing methods that rely on opt-in email contact and a systematic book launch–in addition to the social media presence. If a healthy percentage of the people on the NPE email list pre-order the book, it’ll be a massive best seller.
I’m not saying Paul Tough (best selling education author on Amazon) should be a role model–you should be a role model for him–but the “landing page” for his website is an example of how book marketing works these days. (People who sign up for his email list will be the first to hear about his next book, and they we keep hearing about it until after it’s out.) http://www.paultough.com
My apologies for telling you what to do! I just hope someone on your team is tuned in to the latest book marketing ideas. Good luck.
I am thinking of writing a book too. It will be a dystopian novel about a hardworking promoter of public education who goes to sleep for twenty-five years in New York and wakes up to find they have cloned Betsy DeVos and she is still the secretary of education .
I have a title” Rip VanRavitch
Ugh
I wish you every possible success. I enjoy your written words, and your YouTube videos. May this book, be a best-seller!
Looking forward to your new publication to help parents and educators continue to fight against the privatization of public schools. “Reign of Error” provided research and documentation to confront the attacks of the reform movement. The weakening of FERPA in 2011 that removed limitations prohibiting educational institutions and agencies from disclosing student personally identifiable information, without first obtaining STUDENT or PARENTAL CONSENT was a huge WIN for tech companies. They were able to market and sell software to house all student data electronically which has been criticized and challenged because of the potential for student data breeches. The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy is a nonprofit that was started to help parents and educators protect student data. They created a toolkit to inform parents of their privacy rights https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/toolkit/. This nonprofit and the parents involved are strong advocates for children and their privacy rights and protection.
Diane, I want to believe you, but I don’t.
At other times you have told us that you will post less to the blog, and though it’s true for a bit, soon the volume goes right back up!
For the sake of our children, I hope you’ll stick to your gameplan as you write your book. The well being of our country in large part rests on a couple of our elder women: you for education and Notorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) for the rule of law. ; )
We will see
My finger itches
Best wishes on your book! Thank you!
to help you help you, Diane, I am offering the reason that the schools failed, because ONLY in grasping the underlying PLOY in the PLOT, can things be changed!
I will share a story that NAILS how ‘they’ destroyed the schools by removing the professionals who know what learning looks like. The destruction of their voices was essential, but along with the devastation of the schools came the trauma to the teachers, as wonderful dedicated AMERICANS found themselves under attack, BUT with no access to anyone who will defend them.
Teachers should not have to sue of got to courts to DEFEND THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE WORKPLACE.
In my email today, is the last chapter in the career of a wonderful man, the end-story of Lenny Isenberg, who is FINALLY having his day in court, as the state of California wishes to deal the final blow and remove his credentials so he can never work again, Over a decade ago blew the whistle on social promotion in LA, and they took him away in handcuffs…but unlike me, he fought to the end… and paid the price…losing everything
GO…DON’T MISS HIS TESTIMONY! DON’T MISS MY commentary!!!
QuickLink: LAUSD & OAH Credential Revocation Hearing for Leonard Isenberg – at Perdaily.com https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD–OAH-Credential-Rev-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Educators–Teachers_Mass-Teacher-Firings_Public-Education_Public-Education-180208-531.html#comment688961
The PRIVATIZATION of our schools were accomplished by REMOVING tens of thousands of teachers in almost sixteen thousand systems IN 50 STATES — as the media, owned by the billionaires running the assault, sold the public FAKE NEWS about those ‘lazy,’ ‘bad teachers’ and how TENURE kept them in the classrooms.
I KNOW THIS, BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO ME. I wrote this in 2000, after I spent 25 k TO HIRE AN ATTORNEY to defend myself, From LAUSD to New York City Public School and everything in between: A NATIONAL SCANDAL OF EPIC PROPORTIONS by Susan Lee Schwartz; http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html Ironically, at the moment, I was in my fourth decade of service, and I was the most celebrated educator in NY state, winning the Educator of Excellence Award (NYSEC). This abuse of civil rights occurred because the union looked away from the plight of teachers, and ended the grievance process, so that teachers had no way to fight false allegations. I met hundres like me, who were being harassed by principals.
MY EXPENSIVE ATTORNEY HAD TO THREATEN TO SUE the NYC Dept of Ed, when the principal colluded with a 12 year old, to allege corporal punishment, and so, the superintendent, (with NO HEARING, no investigation, not even the putting out of charges) wrote a letter finding me guilty. LOL.. if it weren’t so tragic an end to a teacher like me.
At the top of the schools, WERE ADMINISTRATIONS WHO WERE Not CONSTRAINED BY LAW… THANKS TO THE FACT THAT THE UNIONS WERE THEIR ONLY LEGAL DEFENSE for their CIVIL RIGHTS! Here is Isenberg’s post on this subject :http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
THAT is why the schools failed… they got rid of the the teachers, and as John Taylor Gatto says in his book, “Weapons of Mass Instruction,” the schools are dumbing us down and ending democracy which depends on SHARED KNOWLEDGE. http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/hirsch.pdf
Now the KOCH brothers https://dianeravitch.net/2014/12/05/north-carolina-plans-to-adopt-koch-funded-social-studies-curriculum
and ALEC can control what our future citizens , whom we call KIDS, will know.
https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Schools-Have-Stopped-Teach-by-Ron-Madden-American-Culture_American-Education_American-History_American-Revolutionary-War-171008-797.html
And here in Forbes , Diane is what can be done, if you get the attention of the public…. as I know you will– Bring the Real Teachers back.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/12/06/how-america-is-breaking-public-education/#3cbaf3a37f18
That’s a surprising article in Forbes. But I think what the author is missing is that all these education reform ideas are not missing the target, they are not well intentioned. On the contrary, they are right on target since they serve perfectly the ultimate goal of destroying public education, so they do want to drive great teachers out of the profession.
On the OpEd link which I am copying here a second time https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD–OAH-Credential-Rev-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Educators–Teachers_Mass-Teacher-Firings_Public-Education_Public-Education-180208-531.html#comment688961…. you will ALSO find a wonderful dialogue by myself with Dan Geery http://www.opednews.com/author/author1198.html another brilliant, dedicated teacher who fought against the Utah top dogs who were bent on removing the PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONERS i.e teachers —who would never change from using learning methods that work , for the crap put forth by Gates, Pearson and the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf.
Also,YOU WILL FIND links to the INCREDIBLE the whole story of Lorna Stremcha — in Montana —who fought to prove how the principal of her school set her up to be assaulted….when the union was no where to be found. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIF2kVwW1r0&sns=em
YOU WILL FIND THE LINKS TO NAPTA http://endteacherabuse.org/index.html where A DECADE AGO Karen Horwitz posted the stories of thousands of teachers— who found themselves thrown out of their careers without any regard FOR THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS.
The reason the schools failed HAS BEEN ‘OUT THERE’ ON TEACHER BLOGS AND WEB SITES FOR 2 DECADES but the media remained silent… and the stories scattered in 15,880 school systems in 50 states made it possible for them to HIDE IN plain Sight!
NO ETHNIC MINORITY WOULD HAVE ALLOWED THIS ABUSE.
GO TO ALL THE LINKS— this is WHY THE SCHOOLS FAILED, AND WHY THE PRIVATIZATION movement was enabled.
Feel free to join the conversation at this site which is read my millions. It is worth becoming a member so your voice can be heard. My series on eduction, https://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html and my Quicklinks to important articles, as well as my comments, with my wonderful links.
I have almost a million views.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD at a site where many very bright people read what the media does not tell them. JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT OPED News (OEN) sign up as a free member. https://www.opednews.com/populum/register.php?f=&t= Content: Registration with OpEdNews |
I wish you every possible success. May your book be a best-seller. I enjoy your written words, and I enjoy your YouTube videos.
Thanks for all your help. Take care.
Thank you for your years of keeping this blog going. I am looking forward to reading your new book. I’m sure it will be as important a tool in the fight against public school privatization as your last one – and well worth stepping away from frequently posting here.
Thanks for all you do. Good luck with the book.
Sally O
Your book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, was my aha moment in 2010, and I have followed you since. Until that point, I could not figure out why teachers and public education were so vilified. Aha!
That book and Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools are cornerstones of my hs library Badass book collection which I share freely w/ students, teachers, and admins.
I am a BAT who attended NPE for the first time this year in Oakland and also attended every summer BAT event since 2014. In Oakland I committed to monthly contributions to NPE. I am proud of my support for public education, the profession I love, and the students in my care. I follow NPE, BATs, J4J, you, and other pro-public education initiatives. Thank you for your leadership and guidance.
Rosemary,
Thank you for your dedication!
Go for it, Diane! I live in Midland, Texas, and would be happy to try to answer any questions about the resistance to privatization here (but there are many others who would do just as well.) I live in one of the hotbeds of advocacy for charter and voucher schools. As I’ve said many times, almost every charter school is a voucher school-in-waiting.
A couple additional thoughts….(and I’ve been thinking about your upcoming pause from this blog, Diane.)
I’m curious as to the very beginning when you started this blog… what was THE very first post and what were your thoughts as the site took off? Maybe you’ve mentioned this sort of thing before and I just missed it. You certainly have had a unique vantage point in terms of technology, education and our society. How did the blog affect you? How is all of this affecting us, too? Maybe these are topics you might mention in your upcoming book? Would love to hear about that.
Have you ever considered having an assistant curator (for want of a better word) for this blog? Perhaps someone (or someones) who could carry on for you and give you a true break? You would be a sort of editor-if-chief and the assistant a type of managing editor? Of course, your voice and perspective can’t be replaced. But this blog has taken on a very important life of its own, not just for those of us who read you daily but I think for the nation at large.. There are certainly some great people on here (and written about on here) who can see the picture. Mercedes comes to mind immediately though, of course, she’s got her own blog.
Anyway…..just a couple thoughts. My daughter and her friend need to be dropped off to go to a speech and debate tournament in a few minutes. 6:15 departure then working hard all day. A shout out to all the speech and debate coaches and students out there who keep this great activity going. It’s REAL learning -not phony test stuff.
And, thanks again, Diane. We love you.
” the train had left the station. …They are driving the train to nowhere, and the “low hanging fruit” are our children.”
That’s a terrible analogy: where did trains, full of children, go 75 years ago, during WWII?
We have only one option: stop the train, turn it back, and get the children and teachers off.
Here is a theme for you that I see in education. Whether it fits in your book is obviously beyond me.
From its inception, education has been arguing about which of two models of educational approach should exist. To a certain extent, this tension has permeated schools and brought people to the relationship they develop with their community learning institutions. One model is the authoritarian model exaggerated by the No Excuses description above. The other is the intellectually liaises-faire model suggested by books like Summerhill and experiments that emphasize the personal relationship between students and teachers. It seems to me that the success of one or another institution has been laid to one or the other of these poles of educational philosophy.
Realizing that this is a sort of Hegellian view of education, I still feel it is accurate. You can see this tension as far back as references to the English tradition in Charles Dicken’s’ Hard Times or L. M. Montgomery’s Anne series. Other authors have referenced this tension by touting some teacher that transcended whatever system they found themselves trapped in or created heroically their own vision. Professional literature mirrors this tension.
The tension between these two ideas inserts itself into the public vs private fight by providing one or another pole for a school to pull for in a public way, thus creating a marketing idea. Those who see school in one direction or another are attracted to the idea and become the “market” for the school.
This tension worked its way out during the middle part of the last century in public schools. Since the teacher was respected, some teachers tended toward strictness and others tended toward the other pole. Each teacher had to arrive at the relationship he/she divined to be right for the class. Modern reform efforts have been characterized by the effort of those who administer schools to push teachers away from this decision, narrowing the vision of the school to one paradigm. Most of the charter/private visions are based on one philosophy, arrived at in the mind of one purveyor, motivated by the need to bring home the bacon, numbers of successful students.
Thus the present push for education reform can be seen as a continuation of this age old question: whose vision?
“From its inception, education has been arguing about which of two models of educational approach should exist.”
I believe, in the Western world (and beyond), the caring approach to education won out. For some reason, reformers are trying to turn back the wheels. I think some of them are genuinely nuts, but I think most reformers are not idiots, they saw how unpopular (and ineffective) the military approach has been, so they want to bring it back to make public education unpopular, so that they can take over. Once they took over, they won’t maintain the ancient military approach—they will operate with 21st century tools to control the masses, like making kids computer addicted.
Can’t wait to read your new book. Thanks for all you do!
Diane, I wish you the best with your book project. I hope you cover the sad history of the diminishment of the NEA and the AFT. in my opinion these two organizations have failed public education and the members. Beginning back in eighties and the “Nation at Risk” report these organizations have sadly back off and failed to put up a fight against the anti-public ed. movement. (your research should look into the Mass. Pioneer Institute and so called ed. leaders as James Carlin and Peyser). Getting measly raises for members while selling out on principles such as years of service and tenure protections has made teacher unions into “partners in crime”with the political right and Koch brothers. I believe your book should have a chapter dedicated to the sad history if union disempowerment. I wish you the best with your research and writing! Sincerely, Bill Murphy, Ed.D a retired president of Mass State College Ass.- an affiliate of the MTA/NEA
Sent from my iPhone
Dr. Ravitch, two things, first I live in Indiana and would like to attend the conference in October. Where will it take place? Second, as a native Hoosier who just returned to Indiana from teaching in Oklahoma, I learned the teacher evaluation here is tied to test scores and through reading your book Reign of Error, the chapter on merit pay stirred my thinking to how can I as one teacher begin a grass roots effort to lobby my state representative on the folly of such practice and they take it seriously rather than drinking the ed reform Kool aid that created such a practice in the first place? Any suggestions you have are welcome! Look forward to your new book!
Thomas E. Grayam
History Teacher, Warsaw Community School Corporation
Tom, the NPE conference —our 6th—will be held in Indianapolis Oct 20-21. I think it’s the Marriott. Watch the NPE Website. The early bird tickets cost the least.
Thomas Grayam: How great to hear from another Hoosier!! I live in Schererville in Lake County. I repeatedly have sent Indiana blog articles written by Diane Ravitch to state Senator Niemeyer and Representative Slager. It’s like beating on a drum loudly and neither of them listens or understands that their actions are hurting children and teachers in this state.
I do welcome knowing that there is another Hoosier who realizes the damage GOP politicians are doing to education. I’m retired from Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois.
CarolM,
I suggest you check to see who funds the campaigns of your state legislators.
Congratulations Diane. Good luck with your book. Thank you for writing it and for bringing us all together. This fight is lonely sometimes so it has always been reassuring to be able to come to your blog.
Dr Ravitch,
Godspeed with your book. We’ll miss your multiple posts per day but will anticipate your pub date. The community you’ve created will carry on albeit with fewer posts.
Good Luck Diane! You might have heard but here in Texas, there is a growing push back against state legislators that have worked to undermine public education. Texans for Public Education is now 20,000 strong. We are bi-partisan and agree to block vote to turn the tide in Texas. Empower Texans which is a very small group of very wealthy who buy elections and have tried to do away with public schools, is running so scared of us that they have stooped to things like getting teachers to whistleblow on their co-workers and schools. It backfired when we took to Twitter with the hashtag #whistleblower to say all the wonderful things teachers and public ed does. We hope to change the face of Texas this coming election.
Bettie,
I was born and raised in Houston, where I attended public schools K-12.
I wish you luck in changing the legislature and restoring respect for public schools.
Start by using your big boot to kick out Lt Gov Dan Patrick.
I can’t wait to read your new book when it is finished. I read most of your blogs each day and find your truth to need no fact finding. I am an indexer and would like to index your book when it is completed. Keep up the good work – there are many of us who plug to keep the common good still alive for the common good.
Cherry Delaney
Thank you, Cherry.
Write On, Dr. Ravitch!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Pastors for Texas Children has started a movement that has extended beyond Texas and now happing in other states. They have rallied the religious community and educated them about the privitization movement. They are getting involved and standing up for educators and the children who attend our public schools.