IT WON’T BE OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED UNTIL JANUARY 21, BUT YOU CAN PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY FROM YOUR BOOKSELLER OR AN ONLINE BOOK DEALER (PLEASE PATRONIZE INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES, IF YOU STILL HAVE ONE NEAR YOU!).
I PROMISE YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED!
IF YOU COME TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION IN PHILADELPHIA MARCH 28-29, I WILL PERSONALLY INSCRIBE YOUR COPY OF THE BOOK!
Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight To Save America’s Public Schools
In this incisive, meticulously researched book, Ravitch (education, New York Univ.; The Death and Life of the Great American School) argues persuasively that the U.S. school privatization movement has resulted in poor test scores, the closure of public schools, and attacks on the teaching profession. Ravitch blames the so-called school reformers, whom she renames the disruptors, such as Bill Gates, Alice Walton, Michelle Rhee, Mark Zuckerberg, and Eli Broad, who spend millions to replace public schools with charter schools and private institutions that are run like businesses. Though disruptors view themselves as opposing the status quo, Ravitch contends that they are doing everything they can to maintain it. She devotes most of her book to the resisters, or the teachers, parents, and union leaders who have taken on the disruptors and are working to keep their local public schools open. Through this lens, Ravitch discusses the Common Core teaching standards, standardized testing, the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant program, and Teach for America.
I am fortunate to have an independent bookstore near my home and will be pre-ordering the book tomorrow. Congratulations. I hope every presidential candidate will find time to read and understand the main ideas.
Or at least an education staffer who isn’t a TFA alum who can write a memo on it.
In these dark days of Trumpism, reasons for optimism are the spar to which the shipwrecked passenger cast from the ship of state and close to drowning clings. Goliath is such a spar. It’s a celebration of those who have pushed back against the oligarch-led disruption and deformation of our educational system and the damage that the paid minions of the oligarchs have done to kids and teachers. But it’s more than just a lot of cheering stories (though it is that and we need those–reading this, you will find yourself cheering again and again). It’s also, effectively, a manual for the Resistance, a how-to book, detailing a way forward not only for teachers but for workers generally (so, it has profound import). And, of course, it is imbued with the defining style, wit, intelligence, compassion, and moral clarity we’ve come to associate with the de facto leader of the Resistance, Diane Ravitch. But in stark contrast to, say, Bill Gates and our Narcissist-in-Chief President, the greatest leader in the Resistance Movement not touted and thanked in this book is Diane Ravitch herself. So, let me do that here. Thank you, Diane, for all that you do, every day, because you give a damn about kids and teachers.
Goliath is one of those books that make things happen. Tremble, oligarchs, for our Boadicea is in the field, and millions are ranged behind her.
We are in a phase transition, like a pot of water just before it starts boiling. Or, to change the metaphor, there’s a war going on, and this is the chronicle of its beginnings, of the many battles the good guys have won recently, and an explanation of how we’ve won those battles and thus how we can win the war. It’s an inspiring, moving work. Ever the historian, but here treating very recent history, Ravitch details an important piece of the current phase transition in this book. And like all truly great historians, she presents the concrete facts, not a lot of blithering generalities. The generalizations she does present–the roadmap to a better world in the making–are earned.
Need a shot of optimism for the future? Find it here.
Why the optimism? Well, read the book and find out.
Millions are ranged behind her, millions of people, not millions of dollars but millions of kids and parents and grandparents and teachers who still care about democracy.
cx: “and against the damage”
A little grammar note. There are those who will claim that the following sentence
Goliath is one of those books that make things happen.
contains an agreement error, that “make” should be “makes” because it agrees with one. However, the truth is that either verb can be used, but the two sentences, with the differing verbs, mean different things. The sentence as written means, “Goliath belongs to ‘the set of books that make things happen.'” The sentence with a plural verb, “makes,” would mean “Of some group of books, Goliath is one that makes things happen.” I meant the former and so stand by my usage.
I mention this because it’s an interesting grammatical issue and because it provides an example of an instance in which the rule found in a lot of sloppily edited and thought-out schoolbook grammars fails, or requires qualification.
I aint gitten it. Too durn compli…kaumpli…hard.
Have you read Dreyer’s English? I found it highly entertaining.
Dreyer’s English, of course, really is, in fact, rather good and very funny, actually! (my attempt at getting into one sentence as many of his unnecessary words as possible) Thanks for the recommendation. Enjoying this a lot!
I love the delight he takes in the promiscuousness of English, which has borrowed so indiscriminately from other languages. And yes, “a little grammar is a dangerous thing!”
“Cliches should be avoided like the plague.” –Benjamin Dreyer
2019 started so well for me with going on strike. It was the most valuable experience for so many reasons. 2020 will begin well too with Slaying Goliath. To a good New Year.
Bless you, LeftCoast, for taking it to the streets!