January 1, 2020 9:00 am
To everyone who reads this blog, I thank you and wish you a happy, healthy New Year!
Thank you being part of this wonderful community of people who care passionately about children, education, and the common good.
May you find many reasons for joy, many reasons to celebrate, many reasons to feel happiness in your work and your daily life!
Look around you and find the goodness and the beauty in one another and in nature.
Dedicate this year to supporting the common good and helping others to have a fulfilling life.
Stand up for justice, equity, and decency. Be not afraid.
Work for a world without hunger, disease, tragedy, and want.
Find the good and praise it!
Diane
Posted by dianeravitch
Categories: Education Reform
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Wishing the same to you and all readers, Diane!
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By Ohio Algebra II Teacher on January 1, 2020 at 9:06 am
Happy New Year to you and thank you for all you do for the nations kids, their teachers and parents. I think 2020 is going to be a better year for authentic public schools. The election for state offices including governor is going to be a referendum on PK-12 education.
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By Patrick Wiltshire on January 1, 2020 at 9:07 am
And by that I meant Indiana!
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By Patrick Wiltshire on January 1, 2020 at 9:08 am
Happy New Year to another Hoosier!!! This state has a lot of problems with a GOP governor [Holcomb] and a GOP dominated Congress. Gerrymandering is alive and well in this state. So is voter suppression.
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By carolmalaysia on January 1, 2020 at 2:06 pm
Happy New Year, Diane, and followers of this blog!
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By retired teacher on January 1, 2020 at 9:40 am
You are a shining example to us all, Diane, of. . . . I almost said “fearlessness,” but that’s not exactly right because fearlessness is a characteristic of folks who are not quite so bright. You are a example to us, rather, of being driven by truth and compassion to say the difficult thing, even at considerable personal risk. What courage it took to write The Death and Life of the Great American School System when this book meant alienating a lot of old friends and allies and so many very powerful people! Diane is someone who had a seat at the oligarchs’ table and said, “Sorry, but you know, there are too many people outside who are hungry.” So, thank you, there, for your moral leadership, Diane. I expect Slaying Goliath to make a lot of positive change in the world.
“Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.”
As a young man, I was full of optimism for the future. All round me, there were people protesting the amoral war in Vietnam, the sexism that had for millennia prevented women from achieving their potential, the horrific inequities of systemic racism and inequality of opportunity. I really believed that we were all going to beat tanks into ploughshares and get back to the garden. Then all those hippies grew up and voted for Ronald Reagan.
And here we are, in 2020, with a moronic, treasonous, child-man president who makes wasp larvae look intelligent and ethical, facing enormous existential risks, in a culture in which our media think it more important to report on Kanye West’s latest conversations with Jesus than on how much cheaper and more effective healthcare is in the rest of the OECD than in the United States. And here we are facing enormous existential risks–stark environmental degradation, extreme economic inequities, whole countries burning as a result of climate change, powerful new technologies for dystopian command and coercion and control of populations that Stalin could only have dreamed of, emerging technologies for eugenic/dysgenic bifurcation of our species, an entire political party willing to follow Putin’s puppet off the cliff into nationalistic, white Supremacist madness. But I look at the young people coming up, and I think of the example you provide, Diane, and of those teachers in the streets, and that youthful optimism I had returns like a green shoot cracking through a sidewalk.
I don’t expect a Happy New Year. Turbulence ahead, folks. Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be quite a ride. And maybe, just maybe, the car won’t go flying off the coaster and crash in the middle of the Midway.
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By Bob Shepherd on January 1, 2020 at 9:43 am
Bob, Diane et al.,
“It is always darkest before the dawn.”
We can make it a Happy New Year!
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By David Kristofferson on January 1, 2020 at 9:49 am
A wonderful new year to you and yours, David!
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By Bob Shepherd on January 1, 2020 at 2:39 pm
Tanti auguri di Buon Anno, MMXX! Best New Year’s wishes to Diane and all the amazing folks who frequent this extraordinary blog. I give this blog multiple A+s for excellence in consistency, productivity, prodigiousness and advocacy for our precious public schools.
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By Joe Jersey on January 1, 2020 at 9:51 am
Joe Jersey,
Yes, indeed.
Happy New Year to ALL.
And thank you, Diane and everyone else … for sanity.
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By Yvonne on January 1, 2020 at 10:51 am
Happy New Year! Thank you for your incredible dedication and perserverance.
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By Michael Brocoum on January 1, 2020 at 12:11 pm
Well, let’s make it Happy New Decade!
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By Máté Wierdl on January 2, 2020 at 11:29 am
Dear Dr. Diane –
Happy New Year to you and yours!
A bit presumptuous on my part perhaps to speak for others, but it’s with confidence I thank you on behalf of many teachers, parents, students and other ardent defenders of public education for opening your virtual livingroom to any and all on your blog.
Joy and a bit of fun to all in 2020!
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By Christine Langhoff on January 2, 2020 at 8:32 pm
Christine, 2020 is the year that we knock the stuffings out of the stuffed shirts!
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By dianeravitch on January 2, 2020 at 10:52 pm
Happy New Year to you, Diane, and readers!
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By wdf1 on January 3, 2020 at 12:08 am