That’s a joke headline. True that it’s my birthday but I write what I choose every day. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong, but I write what I choose. This is a freedom I gained when I realized that I’m free from ambition. At my exalted age (82), there is nothing to tempt me. I don’t yearn for a job or an appointment to anything. I don’t seek money. I have enough.
So I will share some hard-earned lessons.
Do what’s right and let the chips fall where they may.
Don’t worry if you have enemies. If you stand on principle, it will confuse some people and anger others. Don’t let the naysayers turn you round or intimidate you. In my case, they are paid to try. No one pays me, so that’s a source of freedom too.
Don’t be too certain. Listen and learn. Weigh the evidence. You might be wrong.
If you realize you are wrong, apologize and make it right. When you have made a mistake, don’t dig in. Admit it. Apologize.
It’s okay to change your mind when you learn new things. Emerson said that “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…”
Stand up for people who don’t have a voice. If you have a megaphone, as I do, share it. Use it to protect the weak and vulnerable.
Don’t be afraid. Illegitimi non Carborundum. It’s a fake Latin phrase but it makes sense.
During a global pandemic, wear a face mask. Only fools refuse to wear a mask to protect themselves and others. The Lone Ranger and Batman wore masks. Wonder Woman didn’t but she would have if it were necessary to save lives.
Read myths to your children and grandchildren. I read D’Aulaires’ myths to my children and grandchildren. Read the myths of many cultures to broaden your children’s understanding and appreciation of others and to see the oneness of humanity.
Read poetry. I have a long, long list of my favorite poets. I read poetry for solace and inspiration.
If life gives you lemons, you know what to do with them.
If you want to help me celebrate this milestone, make a donation to the Network for Public Education. That’s where it will do the most good. I don’t want for anything. I would like to get rid of every worldly possession except the clothes on my back, a change of clothes for the sake of hygiene, my cellphone, a few books, soap, and a toothbrush. After months without a haircut, I am tempted to shave my head. But I don’t have enough courage to be that bold. Maybe next year.
Happy, Happy Birthday, Diane.
Thank you for all you do.
May your day be filled with ONLY ALL GOOD THINGS.
Happy Birthday, fellow 82-yr. old.
I am not yet your exalted age, but close, and I am fascinated to see that I have learned much the same lessons as have you, even to the point of having considered cutting all of my hair off.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to one of the great thinkers of our time. Thank you for all the sound advice. By the way I read the D’Aulaires’ myths to my children when they were growing up. I am going to order another one for my grandson.
Happy birthday! Thank you for your inspiring words of advice. Although our present world has me nesting, I appreciate your yearning for simplicity. (But head shaving may be too high maintenance.) Enjoy your day, and keep on slaying dragons!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of the most fantastic people who exist today. All of us who know what you stand for want many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many happy more years for you!!!🍰🌹🌺🌸
Happy birthday Diane. Thank you for all you do for our public schools, our children and our educational system. May you be blessed with continued heath throughout the coming years.
Happy birthday. You inspire me every day to keep up the good fight. I turn 72 in October and hope to keep up with you. Thank you for the blurb for my co-authored book with Jeanette Deutermann and Lisa Rudley and two of my graduate students on the opt-out movement.
Happy Birthday, Diane! Thanks from this teacher for validating much of what I have long suspected about the dysfunction in our public schools. Enjoy your day! Do you have a nice cake?
Happy birthday, D!! Mine was yesterday! Summer birthdays are the best 😀
Indeed;HAPPY BIRTHDAY.!!!
God bless
and keep up your great work and enjoy many, many, many more birthdays.
from one of your devoted followers.
Happy birthday, Diane!
Happy Birthday Diane,
It is not surprising that the teacher that is you gives us the gift on your birthday. Thank you every day for the insights and bold stance, and explanations of the confusing issues, too.
And, on your birthday, thank you for giving us the gift of your words and wisdom.
Yom huledet samaich to the best existence proof our species has of the boundless good that encyclopedic knowledge combined with open-minded rational thought and megadoses of compassion and decency can do.
Happy Birthday and thanks What you wrote brought a big smile to my face. Fred Harrison
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Happy happy birthday, Diane! Thank you for raising my consciousness & intellectual level every day through your blog!
You’re on the same page as a pop fiction hero, with that stripped-down backpack of necessities: I shall henceforth think of you as Jackie Reacher 😉
Buon compleanno e Tanti Auguri! Thanks for all the great advice on your special day and especial thanks for this wonderful blog that helps to keep me sane and arms me with valuable information to fight off the privatizers and libertarian phonies.
I should also shave my head but don’t currently have the nerve to do it. But you look, you don’t need to shave your head.
Happy Birthday to one of my biggest heroes! Thank you for keeping us so informed!
🎂🥳❤️🌈❤️
OMG, Greg!!!!! THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!! This little video is equivalent to a year-long master class in composition!!!!!!!! One could easily teach such a class based on this alone. SO PLEASED that you shared it!!!!!
It really is good, isn’t it? I’m a Steve Reich junkie and her interpretation could not be better. I hope he’s seen this.
Happy Birthday, glad I checked in.
A very happy birthday to you, Diane. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for always trying to teach all of us the things you have learned. Thank you for being a national treasure and yet remaining a down-to-earth human being..Please stay well and continue the important work you do.
Happy Birthday and many more in reasonably good health. I am older than you but certainly not wiser.
Happy birthday, dear Diane! Thank you for every day you are out there fighting the good fight, for many of us can’t, at least with our names. You truly care about teachers, staff, and students, and your blog has taught me so much that I have passed on.
Many happy returns!
Thank you for living long and writing and posting year after year. We all know so much more because of your efforts. 🙂
Happiest of birthdays, Diane. I’m loving your blog entries today! You are an inspiration!
Happy birthday to you , Diane. Your wisdom makes me pause & think. Your blog keeps me informed, and I am grateful for the connections with other scholars and colleagues. Am finding my voice again as a Latin teacher who speaks out on issues of public concern—and draw strength from this forum.
Although I make a monthly donation to NPE, I’m adding a little more today with my appreciation to you for all you do to support American public education, teachers, and a common sense approach to teaching students. Thank you. All the best. -Kelley Ranch
I can only say ALL OF THE ABOVE!
You are a great teacher.
Happy Birthday.
But neither the Lone Ranger’s nor Batman’s mask would have done any good to prevent spreading of the coronavirus because it did not cover their mouth or nose.
Jesse James and other bank robbers , on the other hand, were way ahead of their time.
We could all wear Spider-Man costumes, although I would have trouble telling my students apart. If we all wore Spider-Man, everyone could shave their heads. Eyebrows too!
Happy Birthday, Diane! It’s your birthday, so I write what I choose, ha ha. Seriously, thank you for listening to me and putting up with me. Thank you for listening to teachers when everyone else ignored us. Thank you for teaching me about teaching and about history, especially educational-political history. You inspire me to stand up for justice and equality. You constantly strengthen me to never let the attacks and criticisms of the test-centric opposition bring me down; I am a much better teacher for reading this blog every day.
You show me how to listen more and admit being wrong when I’m wrong, no simple task for me. You help me respect others even when I don’t agree with their views. You teach me to stand up for others, and not just my students — today is my official first day as union rep. You have given me five feet of knowledge and more. The poetry! Especially the poetry. Most importantly, you are the most crucially authoritative David in the world, she who fiercely faced Goliath when he threatened to destroy public education entirely. There’s no one in my book who deserves a joyful birthday more than you. Happy Birthday!
David, you are the real deal. David. Together, we will beat the Goliaths.
You should see the smile on my face about now.
OK. I never was much into this whole birthday thing. My tendency has been, when it’s someone’s birthday, to say, “Happy birthday. Heck, happy every day!”
But it’s worth taking the time, occasionally, to take stock of these wonderful people in the world and to celebrate the characteristics that make them so. So, I’m going to share a few things I’ve come to love about Diane Ravitch. She is compassionate, reflective, cultured, witty, wise, decent, articulate, indomitable, industrious, really freaking smart, highly educated (no, I’m not talking about her schooling, which was significant, but about the level of education that comes from a lifetime of learning).
About that articulateness. Recently, I attended another of the online conversations she’s been having with great figures in the Resistance Movement (what I used to call the Counter Rheeformation), and I started making a list of incredibly pithy, profound, beautifully articulated comments from her. (I type really fast and can come close to transcribing in real time.) I ended up, after the hour or hour and a half, with a list of knock-down great sayings from her almost long enough for another edition of “The Wit and Wisdom of Diane Ravitch.” LOL. Sometimes, she just astonishes me.
I hesitate to comment on her appearance because people seem to feel that they can do this with regard to women as a matter of course, and that’s just not OK, but given the comment, above, about shaving her head, I can’t resist. Shaved head or no, she is, at 82, drop dead gorgeous.
But you know all this. When I despair of the vileness and stupidity and meanness and lack of integrity and wokeness and development of many of my fellow third chimpanzees on this planet, I remind myself that, in stark contrast, there are such as she in the world.
And on the birthday of this beautiful being, it’s thrilling to watch what unfolds. Some public figures have PR departments. Ravitch has the many who, as I do, love her unabashedly.
Aw, Bob. I’m blushing.
Happy Birthday!
Thank you for doing the fantastic job you do with your books and the website.
Happy birthday to the one, the only Diane Ravitch. You are truly unique and wonderful. Enjoy!
Happy Birthday, Diane! Have a great day!
Silver-haired or hairless
D is truly fearless.
A tiger 🐅 in the fight
To set the wrong things right.
Nice poem, Fred.
Diane, happy birthday. You are in a good place in your life, it seems. I rely on your blog, and Rachel Maddow, to keep me informed. Thank you for your contribution to sensibility.
Wishing you a very happy & healthy birthday, Diane. You are the one who gave us the great gift of your blog. Think of all the lives it changed for the better, through your advocacy & vital information. Yours is the blog equivalent of the vital news program Democracy Now! “To all our listeners & viewers around the country & around the world.”
Thank you for reaching/informing so many because, together, we have–& we still can–make a difference. Many more happy, healthy birthdays, Diane!
Happy birthday. Shave your head if that’s what you want. There is a solution for the times you might want hair on your head. There are a lot of choices when it comes to “wigs”. Find the styles and colors you love and make sure you buy ones that fit your head size.
Have some fun, and Google “women’s wigs”. Or go to Amazon and do the same search there. Wigs come in every color and style, literally.
Then there are things designed to help hold your wig on: removable glue to velvet bands.
Someone reading this is going to think I wear a wig. I don’t. One of the characters in a future novel I’m writing is the one interested in wigs, but I had to do the research for her because she is fictional and cannot do it for herself.
Happy birthday, Diane. You are my hero. I wish you health, happiness, laughter and love
I did not get to read the blog until late. Putting in a floor. Where you are it is already the day after our birthday, so happy belated. Thanks for letting us all into your kitchen for a chat every day.
Happy Birthday, Diane. That is terrific- I like best the part about The Lone Ranger wearing a mask. I bought your book for your birthday so you should hear the distant sound of a cash register. Thank you for your thoughts and efforts.
Kindly,
Diana
Belated Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday 🎂🎊🎈 & thanks for being a light in the darkness.
Happy Birthday! Celebrate YOU . . . !