This is the first time that any of us has experienced Thanksgiving in the midst of a national pandemic. Many people will heed the advice of doctors and cancel their family get-togethers. Others will gather in small groups, hopefully with masks and social distancing. A strange holiday, as will be Christmas and New Year’s.
I want to wish you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving and wish you the strength and good health to persevere. The pandemic will not last forever.
On a personal note, I want to let you know that I am taking a weekend break. It’s something I have not done since I started the blog in April 2012. Right now, there are only a limited number of topics that seem relevant. Whether schools should be open or closed; the joy in seeing Betsy DeVos no longer in charge of the U.S. Department of Education; speculation about who might replace her; and intense concern about whether President-Elect Biden will resurrect the failed Race to the Top strategies or whether he will forge a new path that actually supports students, teachers, and schools instead of punishing them.
These are all important issues. I will turn to them again on November 30, when I resume blogging. If something important happens in the next few days, like Biden naming the new Secretary of Education, you will hear from me. Or if I want to share something. If not, silence.
Stay well. Protect your health and that of your loved ones.
Thank you for all you do everyday! Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and break, Diane.
Thank you for all you do.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
You definitely deserve a break. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
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Three plants on the shelf below my den window say, “It is only right that we greet you this great day by saying, “Happy Thanksgiving.”
Three plants: Carol, we see you every day on your computer and we keep alert to when special days come. It is only right that we greet you this great day by saying, “Happy Thanksgiving”.
We adore you and thank you for giving us great plant food, occasionally, and giving two of us just enough water to survive. The third one of us, on the far R of the photo, only likes ice cubes. Oh well, to each his own.
We also want to thank everyone who reads Carol’s emails for acknowledging that us plants are intelligent. We are speaking in English to our great friend Carol Ring.
We are only plants that live on a shelf beneath Carol’s large window inside her den. But we are intelligent. Don’t underestimate what plants can know or what we can do. Carol gave us a chance to speak out on this marvelous Thanksgiving Day.
Love yourself as much as possible and then love others a wee bit more. That is what God wants all of his human friends to do. We care about the planet but we are plants that can do nothing except bring beauty into Carol’s life.
Goodbye. We three plants are done with our message for the morning. Have a Happy Thanksgiving if you care about the earth, please work to take care of it. Signing off now. Three plants in Carol Ring’s den. We are now happy. Goodbye.
Happy Thanksgiving Diane and everyone!
Love and safety to you and yours this holiday and every day, Diane. And the same to the whole Ed Deform Resistance community!
Diane, You certainly deserve a rest.
Thank you for this wonderful blog and keeping many of us from going bonkers.
Buon Ringraziamento a tutti! All the best to everyone and to the indispensable author of this blog, Diane Ravitch. We would all be very diminished without the advocacy of Diane and the very talented folks who frequent this precious and necessary meeting place. Thanks, D.R.
I love this holiday, even as I recognize its strange origins in mythology. I love the family part of it, and I intend to enjoy my family as much as possible. To all of yu who are so graciously allowed in this place, a wish for a wonderful day. May the peace which passes human understanding fill our lives.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! With vaccines on the horizon, please stay safe. Diane, enjoy your much deserved break.
Happy thanksgiving. Sad that my mother-in-law will be alone today. We’ll zoom her.
Here’s an article that people may or may not find worthwhile.
https://www.thecut.com/amp/2020/11/covid-19-pandemic-kids-mental-health.html
A well-deserved respite
Sent from my iPhone Peter Goodman Ed in the Apple
Happy Thanksgiving Diane!!
I am thankful for you and this blog. Enjoy time away.
Have a great one!
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Diane, and to all the wonderful folks who populate her blog comments. Stay safe.
Happy and safe Thanksgiving to you too, Diane, so that next year’s will be even better.
It’s good to take a break from the screen. Happy Thanksgiving.
LCT,
Not abandoning the screen! Reading everything here.
Hurray! It’s a joy to know we are still connected even when taking a well deserved break.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the people whose thoughtful posts enlighten me – today I give thanks to all of you.
Happy Thanksgiving. It has been great to battle billionaire ogres with you again this year and we are winning.
Thank-you so much Diane for all you do to support us and public education here in the United States. You make the world a better place! Enjoy your break.
Thank you for doing all the work to run this blog! Many media outlets will not cover charter school corruption.
Happy Thanksgiving🦃🍽🍁. I am thankful for you and this blog. Enjoy your time off!
Best wishes to all and stay safe and healthy! This is the first Thanksgiving in four years that I haven’t faced with utter dread.
Great choice Greg! I love this song–and the album from which it is drawn.
This is the first Thanksgiving but one in some 25 years when I haven’t cooked a feast for family and friends. I love feeding people. It feels bizarre. But I am thankful that these people whom I love are staying safe.
Diane and all – Have a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving
Have a well deserved rest this weekend, Diane! And Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
I thank you every day for this blog, Diane. Blessings to you and yours.
What am I thankful for? I am thankful for Diane and all here and elsewhere who care and do far beyond immediate family and friends to defend public education and democracy.
And I am thankful for people who have the courage to change their mind. Yep.
HTG to Diane and all who follow her blog!
I am thankful today.
I am thankful for my marvelous students, right now spread out all over the country and even across the Atlantic, but still able to visit my virtual classes. (Many fled the California fires among other things.) I’m thinking about you! I hope you’re all safe and able to eat well today. I hope you’re all thankful for what you have, too, people who care about you (even the ones who sometimes have trouble showing it).
I am thankful that I get to do what I was meant to do, to teach at a public secondary school, and even keep teaching online during a pandemic.
I am thankful public school is still a thing.
Therefore, I am thankful for Diane Ravitch and the Network for Public Education.
I am thankful for the teachers strikes that also helped change the game. When we fight, we win!
I am thankful that you all honor teachers. I feel honored here.
And I’m thankful that your responsible quarantine is safely over, Diane. Oh, and I’m thankful for aroma of turkey. Mmmm.
Hopefulness to all…
Sent from my iPhone
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I’m thankful you are taking a break, Diane!
I hope everyone will be thankful for our caring, unselfish, brave and resilient nurses who are working so tirelessly through this pandemic. This interview is one you must watch.
Christine Langhoff: Thanks for the video. I sent this to a number of people, including Trump supporters. Hopefully PBS is not considered ‘fake news’ and that a nurse who has seen COVID-19 patients has an aura of truth.
This country is a MESS!! Nurses don’t have health insurance nor proper PPE.
Some people still don’t believe COVID019 is anything but a hoax. We can thank our Great Dear Leader for that brand of ignorance.
We have much to be thankful for! Thank-you to you & your family.
Wow! No time off since 2012…?
You’re an inspiration, Diane. Thanks so much for all you do (and you do a LOT).
Enjoy the weekend.
Hope your Thanksgiving was excellent and relaxing.
With some extra time today during my breaks from lesson planning, I read a bunch of posts on Peter Greene’s blog. Data is the topic of the week and the curmudgucation blogspot is on fire. I was particularly interested in the post about SEL and also the post about what the Tampa Bay sheriff is doing to children in Florida.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.
“Not what we say about our blessing, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” — W.T. Purkiser