Peter Greene Enjoyed Reading “Wisdom and Wit”

13 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

1. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

   August 3, 2019 at 12:28 pm

   But you ARE unique, Diane, and we who have been teachers forever, and suffer from “issue fatigue” are so fortunate to have your brilliant mind observing the story unfold, keeping us informed, as truth goes out of style in a world where everyone is entitled to their own ‘facts.’
   I have been so privileged to know you, and to be able to follow you here.

   Reply
2. Yvonne says:

   August 3, 2019 at 1:04 pm

   👍

   Reply
3. Bob Shepherd says:

   August 3, 2019 at 2:35 pm

   Ordering a copy today!!!!

   I recently bought a blank book at Barnes and Noble. Or maybe it was a copy of The Wit and Wisdom of Arne Duncan.

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     August 3, 2019 at 8:39 pm

     A one-pager?

     Reply
     • Bob Shepherd says:

       August 4, 2019 at 2:13 am

       One page? You have a generous heart, Diane.

     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       August 4, 2019 at 10:19 am

       One page for the title and copyright — undoubtedly the only factual information in the entire book.

   • LeftCoastTeacher says:

     August 3, 2019 at 11:24 pm

     Duncan’s book, How Schools Work is about test score-based merit pay. His real agenda though, destroying unions and privatization is written in invisible ink. Between the lines. When he whistles, you have to be a dog to hear.

     Reply
4. Ann Cronin says:

   August 3, 2019 at 3:48 pm

   Done! Ordered! Thank you, Diane.

   Reply
5. LeftCoastTeacher says:

   August 3, 2019 at 4:26 pm

   “Remember when Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice led a task force that decided we’d better adopt Common Core Standards as a matter or national security? Remember when everyone actually believed that teachers wrote the standards, back before we’d unraveled and spread the truth? Remember the first time that Eva Moskowitz went head-to-head against Bill DeBlasio? Remember when some people still believed the Chinese schools were a model to follow? Remember when we learned that Cory Booker and Mark Zuckerberg had made a million dollar hash of things in New Jersey? Ravitch was paying attention to all of that, and it’s here in the book.”

   Reply
6. Roy Turrentine says:

   August 4, 2019 at 7:48 am

   This might be a good time to suggest the discussion of an argument that is fundamental to history. Do great men and women lead history, especially political history, down its path like a 4-H club kid showing a prize bull? Or is there no such thing as a great man or woman, that is, is history a matter of organic operation upon the human organism, and some people just rise to the occasion presented them because conditions make it right to happen?

   I have always been an organic history sort of guy, believing that conditions produce the hero. If calculus had not risen from Newton, it might have grown from logic somewhere else (it did, of course, from the work of Leibniz of course). If there had not been Napoleon, there would have been another, perhaps Saint Just if he had not become a part of the reign of terror.

   Activists like Diane Ravitch lead us to argue for the idea that leadership motivates history, an admission that makes me recall long conversations where I argued to the contrary. We must admit that there are the tireless among us, working deep into the night to turn their latest obsession into something that would benefit society or alert society to a dramatic wrong which wants attention.

   In a democratic society, one in which the basic freedoms championed by the Enlightenment and its subsequent decisions based on contention and discussion, leadership that arises from Heroes(auto correct inserted the word Herod here) obsessed with fairness and disgusted by selfish corruption lead the people out of their darkness. Perhaps it is organic. I picture the spring with vigorous sprouting of energy of the people thrusting their heads above the soil too long compacted above their heads. But the soil was tilled by those who worked tirelessly to break the hardpan and make it possible.

   Thanks, Ms Ravitch.

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     August 4, 2019 at 7:57 am

     Thank you, Roy. That’s pretty august company to hang out with.

     Reply
7. John Ogozalek says:

   August 4, 2019 at 9:59 pm

   Yes, nice review, as to be expected, from Peter.

   And, a great comment from Lloyd, too.

   And, indeed, thanks for persevering, Diane.

   Reply
8. Involved Mom says:

   October 5, 2020 at 10:07 am

   I know I’m late to the party on this discussion, but is the Great Minds curriculum Wit and Wisdom at all at play in the wording of things here? Have there been discussions of this curriculum?

   Reply