I had two recent contacts with Andre Perry, and I fell in love with him. I’m no threat to his wife because I’m 82 and married.
We met for the first time on this Zoom conversation.
As you will see, he is candid, honest, open, smart, and charming. I don’t always fall for guys just because they have a great smile, but Andre surprised me.
I thought he would be super-serious but he wasn’t.
He talked about his childhood. He talked about his life as a charter leader in New Orleans. He talked about his disaffection with the white reformers and philanthropists who thought that what the schools of New Orleans needed most was to fire black teachers and staff.
The second contact I had with Andre was reading his new book, Know Your Price.
I got to know Andre by reading his book.
More important, I got Andre’s message about seeing the world through a different lens.
We grew up in very different circumstances. I had two parents and a nuclear family. He had a different kind of family, a loving family.
What you will learn from his book is to see the world differently.
That’s a gift.
What you will see is a man who thinks for himself, without regard to orthodoxy.
Watch our conversation. Watch me become charmed by this brilliant young man.
Buy his book and you too will be transformed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That was the best Zoom so far. I liked his answer to my question so much, I scrambled to grab a pad of paper and take notes. He said we are all family.
WOW!!!
Ordering this book NOW.
Hey, “Reformer”: Get a clue. It’s about the racist, systemic poverty.
Thanks once again for this interesting discussion. It is important that teachers stop looking at minority and culturally different students from a deficit model. One of the main ways educators view students this way is through test scores. Using test scores alone to determine student potential excludes a lot of minority students from opportunities, not just in charter schools but in public schools as well.
It is fair to include education as one of ways wealth is extracted from minority communities. Systemic racism is responsible for real estate red lining, police brutality in minority neighborhoods, and even in formulas for funding public schools through property taxes. Privatization and state takeovers unfairly unfairly target black communities.
Integration is sound policy for all students. Integrated schools provide more resources and supports than segregated schools. I worked in an integrated school district. We had about a third of our students that were black and Latino. We only had three elementary schools in the district. Each elementary school had about the same number of black and Latino students. Instead of having two white schools and one minority one, the district made a conscious attempt to integrate the schools which benefited all the students in the district. All students are better off when they work and learn together.
We need to fight the right wing belief that private anything is superior to anything public which the brainwashed right wing considers “socialism.” We must defend our right to authentic, democratically controlled public education. Privatization of public education is another scheme to extract local dollars out of communities and place them in private pockets. It is a disinvestment in one’s own community.
You and Andre Perry both learned that privatization of public education is a form of colonialism. It is largely about white people “fixing” black and brown people. Private charter schools and vouchers are once again a way to give minority students separate and unequal opportunities, and as MLK rightly noted, separate is never equal. I look forward to reading Perry’s book.
Well said, retired teacher!
“fixing” from afar: the deepest pain the nation’s poorest students feel is the hierarchy mentality brought to them by so many These Children Live In Deficit We Must Fix Them legislators quick to send out their missionaires
I TOO SCRAMBLED FOR A PAPER TO TAKE NOTES.
OMG. WONDERFUL INSIGHT..Thanks for this Diane.
And, as you pointed out… it will alcove down to the teacher… the expert in WLLL. What Learning Looks Like!
BTW, he noticed and remembered as I do, that meeting you was a high point.
I may not write here often, but I read everyday, and thus I know the truth and the reality of what is afoot on our landscape.
Thanks, for everything, !