Hi, Bill and Melinda,
We have never met but I feel that I know you because I am so familiar with your education projects.
I have tried in the past to meet you and have a candid conversation but have never had any luck.
You were always too busy or out of town.
But I am trying again.
I will be in Seattle on February 3-4.
I arrive on the afternoon of the 3rd and am speaking at a public event on February 4 at Town Hall. The wonderful teacher-leader Jesse Hagopian is introducing me.
I have some down time and wondered if we might be able to meet at last.
Are you available to meet in the late afternoon or evening of February 3 or during the day on February 4?
Please let me know if you can make time on your busy schedule.
My partner will be with me.
I hope you can do it!
We have a lot to talk about!
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So cool!
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Oh, to be a fly on the wall for THAT conversation!
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Oh, for that conversation ever to take place!
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YES. Good Luck.
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My guess is that all you’ll hear are crickets!
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Hahahaha! Godspeed, Diane. And Mr. and Ms. Gates? Listen up!
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I am reminded of a letter I once read from Mark Twain to Andrew Carnegie:
Dear sir, I hear you have come into a lot of money. Do you have $1.25 I could have to buy a hymnbook?
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Ofc, that old scoundrel, Carnegie, partly atoned for his lifetime of rapaciousness by endowing libraries all across the United States and schools in the South for black students. I myself spent a lot of my childhood in a Carnegie library in Bloomington, Indiana.
If Gates ever got serious about actually doing good for kids in the US (as opposed to trying to depersonalize US education via computers), he could send children’s books to poor families and endow after-school facilities where poor kids could go and be fed, use a gym or library, get homework help and eye exams and warm clothing, and so on.
One can dream.
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Here, a little list for that package to every poor family in the US with kids:
Goodnight, Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson
A big, illustrated Mother Goose rhymes (very important!)
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
Horton Hatches the Egg, by Dr. Suess
Martin’s Big Words, by Doreen Rappaport
Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans
D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire (very important)
Yellow Star, by Jennifer Roy
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Roy,
You remind me of a story I read long ago about a very wealthy businessman named Russell Sage, who was a miserable miser. A little girl of about 10 wrote a letter to him and said, “Dear Mr. Sage, I was in an accident and I lost one eye. A glass eye costs $4. My family can’t afford to pay for it. Could you help me?”
Sage scoffed to his wife, “This girl must think I’m a sucker.”
When he died, his wife endowed a social science research institute in his name, the Russell Sage Institute, trying to make up for his horrible selfishness.
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Which, in turn, reminds me of this little masterpiece from Margaret Atwood: http://281849408853532262.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/0/10106697/bread_by_margaret_atwood.pdf
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You could try charming him by reading aloud from financial statements, aka Deformer/Disrupter poetry.
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Or you could read to him from A Damthology of Deform
http://damthology.blogspot.com/
The chapter called Billyan Errs starting on page 36 might tickle his fancy.
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Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful!!!!!
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It’s so wonderful, SomeDAM, Poet Laureate of the Resistance, to see your witty, charming, artful work so conveniently collected an accessible. What joy!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Resistance was hard. Resistance was long.
But SomeDAM sang us a cheering song
That made us laugh and made us strong
That we might right Deformish wrongs.
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Thanks. Glad to help any way I can.
But here’s the thing — which must drive Bill Gates absolutely bonkers. (I’m sure Melinda must have long since tired of hearing Diane’s name used in vain (in more ways than one) in the Gates household by now.)
The billionaire was beaten
By lady with a blog
Who managed to defeat him
By dissipating fog
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Don’t get your hopes up, Bill Gates is a busy man. Lots and lots of people to meet with. For example, he met with Jeffrey Epstein and a fifteen year old girl not too long ago, late into the night. And don’t forget all the time he used to spend making propaganda with Michelle Rhee, while her husband was meeting with a sixteen year old girl. Rheeformers are always very, uh, busy.
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Of course, it’s all just strictly business.
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Strictly Business
Late night business
At the port
Business commerce
Of a sort
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I have not yet heard from Bill or Melinda.
Maybe tomorrow?
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Hee, hee!
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Best of luck getting into the fortress of $$$. If you should get the invitation, be sure to bring a slingshot to finish the job along with a signed copy of your new book.
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I wonder if I am the only person who has ever looked at the David and Goliath story as the first story of man vs technology. From the Luddites to John Henry, people have pushed against technology. In the David story, a bronze Age people were confronted by iron workers and their weapons, and won. I was reading last night in Richard Rhofes’ wonderful book, “Energy”, how the teamsters on Oil Creek attacked the pipelines that stole their livelihood as infrastructure developed around the delivery of oil.
It is probably true that Gates would look at educators who reject the idea of machine-based instruction as modern-day Luddites, refusing to give in to the inevitable machine. I have to admit a sort of anti-tech bias in my thinking.
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Roy,
Read Paul Thomas’s “Beware the Road Builders.” A parable for our times. The engineers arrive, meet with the village elders, lure them with promises of progress, get their consent, then bulldoze the heart of the village.
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Beware the tech builders!
The Road Ahead*
The road ahead
Is filled with dead
The road kill kind
You often find
When kids are fed
The techno ed
Title of Bill Gates’ book, the proceeds of which went toward flooding schools with techno ed
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Yes!
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I think you need a neutral moderator for that conversation, Diane, someone like, you know, Bob Shepherd.
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Melinda is quoted as saying she loses sleep over gender inequality. She ought to know since her money destroys the profession that has lifted the most women into financial independence. Her plan to save women, as touted in the media, is to jump start women’s advancement… but, not in education nor, religion (she’s Catholic). Melinda is a rich wife who has puff articles written about her.
Diane is an accomplished woman who earned her position in the field of education. She champions equitable spending, democracy, Main Street and, school environments characterized by quality and personal interface, like the schools that Melinda’s kids attend. Melinda’s interest in education is narrowly limited to creating opportunities for profit-taking by Silicon Valley at the expense of community tax dollars.
A Diane and Melinda meeting would be like Florence Nightingale sitting down for a conversation with Chris Christie’s Bridget Kelly.
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A common thread-
Personal use of public property, Gov. Chris Christie and, Bridget Kelly – alleged drunk driving, NY Assemblyman Brian Kolb and, Mrs. Kolb
In 2012, “Republican Brian Kolb, NY Assembly Minority Leader, congratulates his eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan…”
In late 2019, Kolb warned New Yorkers about the dangers of drunk driving.
On Jan.1, 2020, Kolb is arrested for drunk driving and allegedly initially blamed his wife, citing women as bad drivers. (Reportedly, he later admitted to police that he was the person driving.)
Questions- Where would men learn hypocrisy and, to blame women for their own failings? Where would men learn to expect women to accept the lot of blame? And, where would men find women who are likely to cover for them?
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I think you should invite them to join you at the public event! And there are some Silicon Valley types who can join you at the Bay Area one, which is in the heart of Silicon Valley.
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Diane–good luck. I think you’ll get an interview from Rachel Maddow (hah!) before you get one w/Bill & Melinda.
And–BTW–Rachel definitely should be interviewing you, esp. after Slaying Goliath tops the N.Y.T. Best Seller List for 52 weeks.
Even if not (& do we care about these things?), you’re a “get!”
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Do not hold your breath.
People like Bill Gates and Donald Trump only keep kiss-ass, brownnosed bootlickers and kowtowing lackeys and flunkies inside their bubble and never let anyone else in.
I WANT Bill Gages to prove that I am a liar.
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Hi, Bill
I’m going to be in Hell on the 15th of January and wonder if we could meet — again.
Sincerely, Jeffrey Epstein
PS Bring your SPF 20 million sun tan lotion
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The truth spoken.
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LOL
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Dear Diane.
We heard you know something about education. It’s gratifying that you know about our many projects. Melinda and I would love to talk with when you’re in Seattle. Unfortunately, we’ll be at the Super Bowl the first weekend in February. Perhaps, you can send us a note summarizing your ideas.
Best, Bill
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p.s. The guests in our Super Bowl box will be Robert Kraft and Ghyslaine Maxwell.
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Jeffrey Epstein can not make it this year because he is indisposed — or perhaps “disposed” would be more accurate.
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Thanks, Fred. There’s bound to be some excuse.
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Just In: Press Release from Gates Foundation
Bill Gates announced this morning that his philanthropic foundation will donate $1 Billion to buy up all copies of Diane Ravitch’s forthcoming book, “Slaying Goliath.”
Mr. Gates said he was doing this as a public service to ensure that this book reaches #1 on the New York Times’ Best Sellers List.
“We are always trying to find creative ways to use our wealth in service of the public interest. Fully supporting Ms. Ravitch’s work will further this objective.”
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LOL.
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