No one has been more effective at describing and fighting the spread of GERM than Pasi Sahlberg, the Finnish educator now working to reform education standardization in Australia.
I recently visited Pasi and his family in Croatia. He and his Croatian-born wife have two beautiful children, ages 7 and 3. The boys are tri-lingual (English, Finnish, and Croatian). The older boy is learning Chinese.They have no television. The children play.
Read Pasi’s classic book Finnish Lessons, which demonstrates that there is a better way to educate children and prepare teachers, and his recent book with William Doyle, Let the Children Play.
Unbeknownst to Pasi, some musical talents put his ideas into song.
It is only a few minutes. Watch and enjoy.
You can also watch Pasi’s wonderful presentation at the NPE national conference in Indianapolis in 2018, where he used this song in his talk.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
These policy planning documents from the California charter lobby are just amazing:
“The current Vision focuses exclusively on charter schools. It is silent on what is supposed to happen to the rest of public education. Thus far, we have not been able to agree about what we want the public education system to evolve into. For many years, we did not suffer blowback due to our inability to craft a shared vision for what the traditional system is supposed to evolve into. That is no longer the case. People are being led to conclude that the growth of charter schools presumes damage being done to public education more broadly and that is leading more people to oppose charter schools. We also have many within the traditional system who assume that the charter school movement is one big replacement strategy because we believe that nothing of value can be found within the traditional public school system. This leads many educators within the system who could be our allies to opposeus in ways that they wouldn’t if they felt that there was space and opportunity for them within the future that we envision.
By showing that we believe that all public schools can evolve to become more charter-like, we are signaling that we believe the end state we are moving to is one where, yes, all public schools will be charter schools or charter-like schools, but that we believe a part of the equation is that many existing public schools will be able to remake themselves so that they may play an important role in the future of public education. ”
Incredibly generous of this lobbying group, right? That they are willing to perhaps ALLOW public schools to play an “important role” in public education, if they convert to charter schools.
The arrogance is just breath-taking.
The charter lobby is designing K-12 education systems, with no input or consent from the public. The public isn’t even told of the plans.
It certainly explains a lot. It explains why ed reformers lobby so hard to stop investment into existing public schools and public school students. They plan to eradicate those schools. Why would they invest in schools they hope to close and convert to charters?
Click to access 20181027-1353-Cassy_Horton-For_Your_Review-_Executive_Summit_from_LAAC_Leadership.eml_ExecSummitAgendaPreReadMaterials.pdf
This is unfair to public school students. It is not fair to designate their schools as incompatible with the “vision” of this movement and then not invest in them. They will be harmed by this. They ARE being harmed by this. They are being put SECOND to this ideological dream of privatization.
“The arrogance is just breath-taking.” Year after year after year…
“Thus far, we have not been able to agree about what we want the public education system to evolve into.”
The ed reform echo chamber, “we”, cannot agree on what they want the PUBLIC education system to look like.
No input from the public. Zero.
When the paid lobbyists for ed reform settle on what they want the “public” education system to look like they will then inform the public. Until that time they will continue to mislead the public by insisting they support existing public schools when they in fact do NOT support our schools , or our students. Because if they told the truth they would never get elected.
GERM is a contagious disease that must be eradicated. Its symptoms are lies, testing, merit pay, standardization, competition and privatization. The antidote is well funded, equitable public education, integration, professional teachers, student centered learning, wrap around services for poor students and getting money and politics out of public education. At least Australia has the good sense to acknowledge that standardization of education has been a failure. If they are bringing Sahlberg to consult, they are looking to make a positive change in their public schools. In our country while most people understand that so-called reform has been a flop, GERM continues to spread by the contagious billionaires that spread privatization through wealth and a government that continues to incentivize sending public money to private pockets.
Thank you, retired teacher. Love you comments.
GERM is the way the rich wants to TAKE CONTROL of the entire planet. SICK.
GERM resistance has not reached the US in all of its glory. Other wise ESSA would be dead and along with the charter industry.