Catherine Truitt, the Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina sneered at critical thinking, as she put forth her own definition of what education is for.
North Carolina teacher Stuart Egan wrote:
A Little Soma Made in 1984 Cooked At F451 Degrees For You? Why Every Teacher Should Be Insulted By State Superintendent Truitt’s Words
“Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.”
– FAHRENHEIT 451
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which [leaders] control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”
– ALDOUS HUXLEY, AUTHOR OF BRAVE NEW WORLD
“The ideal set up by the Party was something huge, terrible, and glittering—a world of steel and concrete, of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons—a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting—three hundred million people all with the same face.”
– 1984
“We’ve got to redefine what the purpose of K-12 education is. Some would say it’s to produce critical thinkers. But my team and I believe that the purpose of a public K-12 education is to prepare students for post-secondary plans of their choice so that they can be a functioning member of the workforce.”
– STATE SUPERINTENDENT CATHERINE TRUITT, JANUARY 6TH, 2022
That last statement is a hell of a statement from the top ranking official for public education in the state – especially that part about free thinking.
In her short tenure as state super, Truitt has said many things to insult teachers, demean advocacy for public schools, and belittle the profession.
This is the most insulting – not just because as a teacher my job is to help students become critical thinkers, but as a parent of young lady who has graduated from public schools and a son about to enter high school, I don’t want the person who makes the biggest decisions about our schools to think of my children (and others’ children) as “functional members of the workforce.”
It’s almost like saying that our job as public school teachers is to create good workers for those who can profit from them.
Writing in “PoliticsNC,” Alexander H. Jones was incredulous. He wrote:
In my years of following state politics, I have heard North Carolina Republicans say stupid, outrageous, incomprehensible and otherwise foolish things. Pat McCrory said Caitlin Jenner would have to use the men’s shower if she ran track at UNC-Chapel Hill. Larry Pittman and others declared that the State of North Carolina has a right to nullify U.S. Supreme Court decisions within its borders. And so forth. But nothing I have heard echoing out of right-wing avenue was more utterly discrediting to a public servant than what DPI leader Catherine Truitt recently said about the purpose of K-12 education. Read on, if you can stomach it.
““We’ve got to redefine what the purpose of K-12 education is,” she declared. “Some would say it’s to produce critical thinkers. But my team and I believe that the purpose of a public K-12 education is to prepare students for the post-secondary plans of their choice so that they can be a functioning member of the workforce.” In one quick stroke, the leader of public education in North Carolina discounted and disparaged critical thinking, the foundation of an enlightened citizenry. In saying this she definitively sided with the forces of political authoritarianism and capitalist plunder, the two great foes of the American experiment that have always fought against liberal education.
Open the link and read the rest of his post.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not surprising to me because critical thinking while nothing new for SOME students has always been something missing for ALL students in public education and certainly more so since the so called standards ‘reforms’.
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a key recognition in the summation: “certainly MORE SO since the so called standards reforms”
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Hello Diane: “.. . so that they can be a functioning member of the workforce.”
There it is: The capitalist-only, transactional-only mindset, as if there were a conflict between critical thinking/becoming a thoughtful reasonable person, and getting a job.
Your note followed the below from the LA Times:
“The Republican National Committee said it is planning a rules change that would force presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination to sign a pledge that would force presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination to sign a pledge saying they will not participate in any debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.”
Straight out of the fascist playbook. First trash truth, then reasonable discourse, not necessarily in that order. Who needs critical thinking when it doesn’t matter what anyone says because the fascist gets their distorted way, regardless. Link below. CBK
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fclick.email.latimes.com%2F%3Fqs%3De08f4c1545534abc0d9e91e0c0a52b16426cea7e5cb30d34bef977190500de86541ffec0a469b11388638b205bf6894c668ff04235e874a5&data=04%7C01%7C%7C01515aee0551485cb1c408d9d7618f6c%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637777636318669162%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=LkbLNZojK9GBgu1rhZQgHuOVQrs7zb6bkmn5GFntr8U%3D&reserved=0
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2019 was a great year in my family. My daughter brought into the world a new piece of human capital. Can’t wait to start collecting data on its progress toward workforce functioning.
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You will be happy to hear that the numbers look good so far. Few defects.
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So, we are pleased so far with the functioning of model RSC4(2019), aka, “Abbie.”
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A belated congratulations!
If you haven’t read the Jan. 12 post about Jonah Edelman, it may have content of interest.
Regards
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“So far”. Just wait until pre-school which has now become the new 1st grade. ADD/ADHD meds because a 3 yr old isn’t able to sit at a desk for “learning time”. Psych referrals/meds for childhood “conflict” issues during playtime with classmates. Sorry!….I’m jaded. I really worry about the littles growing up in the world today.
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Congrats.
I hope you welcomed the Abbie-bot to the Machine.w
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Hope she doesn’t buy a guitar to punish her ma, though.
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Or a clarinet, which would be even worse
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You bought clarinets, go punish your parents
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It did eat part of a crayon, but we think this will have negligible effect on its long-term earnings potential.
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I hear eating crayons is good for boosting creativity.
And eating sand gives one grit.
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Bob: Love it. But what bothers me is the assumption that critical thinking is out of synch with workforce “capital.” THAT speaks less to “workforce functioning” than to the de-politicization of workers (aka: citizens) who work and live under a democratic Constitutional government . . . NOT FOR LONG.
It also speaks of Truitt’s severely truncated horizon. She is either ignorant or complicit . . . no other choice. CBK
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Despite the report I produced that demonstrated conclusively that art and music might encourage critical and creative thinking and thereby diminish the asset, my acquisition, RSC(1989) insisted upon expenditures on crayons and a piano. Some of these units simply aren’t sufficiently data-driven, clearly.
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Truitt “is either ignorant or complicit”
True dat
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OK. I admit. I totally made up that data, but that’s what being “data-driven” means now. Hoping for a Gates grant based on my “research.”
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So long as you ‘un don’t start teachin’ that critter readin’ ‘n cipherin’.
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Greg
About the Jonah Edelman post on Jan. 12-
The Children’s Defense Fund ($20+ mil. in assets) appears to have trademarked, “Freedom Schools”. The site has a letter posted (6-4-2021) that praises the co-founder of and the organization, Stand for Children.
The co-founder’s brother worked for Gates for 10 years and now works for Biden.
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The corporate-funded TFA, posted on 10-21-2021 about the CDF- TRADEMARKED Freedom Schools.
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Is it any wonder that many who once believed in public schools have concluded that they are not functional today nor in the foreseeable future? That they do not want their children “educated” by usurpers like the NC Superintendent, Republican politicians, religious extremists, Bill Gates, Pearson, etc etc ad nauseam?
There is a small but significant segment of the population that support the concept of public education, but have chosen alternative, non-discriminating schools to realize thiss concept for their own children and/or teaching careers. Call them what you want– charter schools, independent schools, private schools, free schools, home schools, Montessori schools, Waldorf schools–some people are creating new schools so they CAN provide and teach a full curriculum of which critical thinking is a fundamental part. For some this is a labor of love, some charge tuition, and yes, some believe they are entitled to their share of public education dollars BECAUSE public education has failed them.
The stories of these alternative schools, their students, teachers, parents and curriculum are interesting and inspiring but unfortunately ignored on this site. Public school advocacy and alternative schools are not mutually exclusive.
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I agree with you 100% I am one of those “parents” who believe in the ideals of public education but cannot stomach what public education has become over the last 20-25 yrs. My 2nd child attends private HS after I watched the public system “break” my 1st born. A very reputable blogger posted a statistic that I found interesting (I can’t remember the blogger or find the post now!!!). About 12% of children attend schools other than public schools, BUT 21-22% of public school teachers send their children to non public schools. Why is that? My child’s private HS is staffed with many former public school teachers and most students are from the public school system. Makes one wonder? System is broken and no one is able to shred the red tape or oust the deforms/deformers to fix it.
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Mark: I hear that, especially in specific situations with “my children and grandchildren; but it has a big HOWEVER that goes with it at the administrative/political level named:
(1) CURRICULUM for ALL based on the principles that come down to us in the U.S. Constitution and surrounding documents, and NOT from the minds of thumb-on-the-scales privatized “owners” and invested politicians and more recently, parent book-burners, regardless of what name they go by (e.g., public/charter schools). Open that door and what comes in is one thing, and what is lost is quite another.
(2) as a matter of principle, FUNDING loses its FOR-ALL who abide here basis when it gets divied up in so-called public-private partnerships, which are not necessarily nefarious but, besides (1) above, appeal to the morals of low-life capitalists and carry constant moral hazards that do not present themselves regularly in a truly public-school environment. <–of all that Diane has exposed here, THIS should be clear to us.
Think of what’s going on with the poll workers and electors is several states. . . they are even getting rid of REPUBLICANS IF they do not kow-tow to their fascist thinking. It’s only a matter of time when education suffers such movements more clearly than now?
BTW, see the ALEC page on google where it has “exposed” some of their current right-wing fiascos.
And BTW2, if you watch Rachel Maddow, the first thing I thought of when she showed all those forged documents that, hmmmm, look all alike from different states, . . . sounds like “legislative exchange” to me. Catherine
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Mark,
And when the right wing underfunds, undermines, and destroys Medicare – allowing people to “opt out” with the federal government instead funding private health insurance companies who give special treatment to the healthy patients they want to care for while dumping the others – many more healthy people will conclude that Medicare it is not functional for them. Of course they change their mind if they get an expensive illness, but the majority of people won’t experience that until years or decades down the road and they will be satisfied.
Mark, you didn’t mention what happens to the parents whose kids are not wanted by those “charter schools, independent schools, private schools, Montessori schools, Waldorf schools”.
Alternative schools are very exciting until a parent finds out that their kid doesn’t fit. And guess which kids are most likely not to fit? Hint: not the ones with affluent educated parents.
Private schools discriminate against students who don’t fit. It’s not about how rich a kid is, but it certainly helps when their parents can afford to make sure a kid with issues has all sorts of paid outside support so as not to burden the private school. Guess who can’t afford that?
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NYCPSP– You are writing about a different group of schools and students than I am. Yes, we all know what you describe is the case most of the time.
I intended for the term “alternative, NON-DISCRIMINATING schools” to indicate that I was NOT talking about schools that select their students. When my public school cut my job in half during the Great Recession, I worked for two years at such a charter school.
Admission was free to all, there was a special ed teacher and special ed students; a few rich kids and many low income students, small class sizes, no pushing undesirable students out, and no “agenda” regarding curriculum. I made no formal survey, but the most common reason for enrollment that I heard from parents was that they were dissatisfied with public school academics, class size, social life, and/or bullying.
According to my quick online search there are 131,000 schools in the US, 13,600 school districts, 91,000 traditional public schools, 4600 conservative Christian schools, somewhat more Catholic schools, 7400 charter schools, and 32,000 total “private” schools. As for students, there are 50 million in public schools, 5.7 million in private schools, and 1.7 million home schooled.
Do you really believe ALL these schools and students are exactly the same, and the same as you describe?
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Mark
You lost your credibility when you defended the decision to sponsor a Hillsdale curriculum charter school which was made by a financially strapped college that serves Native Americans. Bradley Birzer, a history professor at Hillsdale describes at Imaginative Conservative being asked by a conservative publisher to write a book about Andrew Jackson. The Birzer book produced was, “In Defense of Andrew Jackson”. Contrast Birzer’s view of the Jackson connection to the Trail of Tears with the footnoted historians in the Wikipedia article about Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears.
People who peddle toxic products like charter schools lack conscience.
Lisa M
Why don’t you ask your child to tell the blog who she thinks “broke” her.
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Linda,
What you want to hear and attack was not what I said. I defended the rights of NATIVE people to make THEIR own decisions regarding THEIR business with our white-dominated government.
I also said that Tribes probably understand from past history that dealing with whites is risky, and may have seen an advantage TO THEM in this deal, and it is not our business to tell THEM what to do.
But you go right ahead and try to make their decisions for them, since you know what is good for them, like Bradley Birzer and Andrew Jackson.
Apparently you also think Lisa M has no business expressing her experience and opinion here, since they do not agree with what YOU think they should be.
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Mark-
On reflection, you see the obvious contradiction in your comment?
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No I don’t. This comment, like most of your posts, is broad, predictable, and repetitive. You seem incapable of hearing anything but what you want to hear.
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Give the tribe one-half of Hillsdale’s endowment and see if they would further the Hillsdale narrative.
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Linda, and others: Let me try to explain again–with good will and apologies if I have been too abrupt– why I read this blog. I read a couple of others, but Diane does the best job of presenting a variety of education stories, AND of course I appreciate her experience and expertise, AND that of the many readers with experience in the field.
What I am NOT interested in is speculation, accusations, guesses, second-guesses, and broad conclusions. Just the facts, please.
What I AM interested in is our human and societal quest for a better future…for solving our problems……(although I am VERY pessimistic).
Education is at the heart of this, because it affects everything.
I’m not so interested in the stories of those who are content with public ed, nor those of the right wing extremists who are destroying it. (But keep me posted on the later, for my own outrage and amusement!)
What fascinates me are the stories of those struggling for positive change and improvement, attempting to find–somehow–a new and different, fairer solution, one that improves THEIR situation(s) without reducing those of others.
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Linda,
Regarding your speculation about the Tribe’s reaction to conditionally receiving half of Hillsdale’s endowment, are you asking if the Tribe can be bought? It’s not a particularly interesting question to me; my point is simply that it’s THEIR decision, THEIR land, and THEIR money.
Having lived and taught for two years on a major Reservation, I suspect it would be a contentious issue within the Tribe, just like coal, nuclear waste, water, utilities, hemp, covid, religion, state and federal relations, business concessions, policing on and off the Reservation, and gifts from outsiders are now.
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Taxpayers pay for charter schools.
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Wrong. Education is not a personal choice; it is a governmental responsibility. Of course people lose faith in government when government is run by profiteering oligarchs. That doesn’t mean people lose faith in educators. That doesn’t mean privatization is acceptable. Education is for all, not some.
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LCT:
WRONG. From the Supreme Court case Pierce vs. Society of Sisters, 1925: “The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments of this Union rest excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.”
This case came about because the state of Oregon tried to require all students to attend public schools. It was often cited by John Holt, author and advocate for home schooling, and other ed reformers of the 1960s.
When people see their “government taken over by profiteering oligarchs,” some will cease to regard that government as legitimate. Will you support the government in 2024 if trump and his cronies manipulate elections and win across the board?
Do you have faith in all educators including those from Teach for America? Betsy DeVos? Classroom teachers who support the Big Lies? (Yes there are some in our public schools)
Yes, education IS for all, and some parents and students do not like what they experienced in public schools, and find a better (for them) education elsewhere. There are thousands of schools and millions of students in the US, and they are not all clones.
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WRONG wrong wrongety wrong with bigger font than your all-caps. The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments of this Union rest excludes any general power of the State to pulverize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from private business enterprises after decimating public schools. It would be best if private schools were outlawed so that education could be fair and just, but that is not the case. There are private schools in this country, plenty of them. The case is, the Society of Sisters Supreme Court case is, a case interestingly rendered the same year as the Scopes trial, that there is no justification for robbing public schools of funding to pay for your private business enterprise. And as for the baiting in the middle of your essay, sorry, not biting.
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“The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments of this Union rest excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children…” So, the NCLB is unconstitutional. Ha.
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So is Common Core.
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And the ESSA.
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It would be indeed be GREAT if the Society of Sisters precedent could be used to eliminate NCLB, ESSA, and Common Core! I have NEVER supported ANY of that. This is my simple point–which two readers were able to comprehend, but most of the echo chamber does not want to hear:
NCLB, ESSA, CC, plus the current right wing attack on public education, etc, have led SOME parents and students (who are NOT racist and would PREFER public school) to conclude that public ed has become too dysfunctional. They believe the attacks have succeeded, deformers will continue the destruction, and some form of alternative provides a better education FOR THEM.
I then subsequently wrote that the shortcomings of SOME public schools and policies were widely documented in the 1960s by many authors and teachers, and that ed. alternatives were declared constitutional in a 1925 Supreme Court case. What is the relevance of the Scopes Trial in the same year? Does the My Lai Massacre of 1967 invalidate the Civil Rights struggles of that year? Is EVERY single alternative school run by crooks and tyrants? Is EVERY family that seeks an alternative racist and fascist? Sounds like trumper arguments to me….or a form of “shoot the messenger.” (I use capitals not to shout, but because I seem to have no way to italicize or underline.)
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So strange that blog after blog, comment after comment we learn about new developments in the ongoing destruction of public education, but few here can comprehend why SOME families have given up and are seeking elsewhere what has been lost… or they fear school shootings…or bullying has not been stopped…or because students are allowed to come to school without masks or vaccines…
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Mark, the main reason families leave public schools for charter schools, in my view, is because they are persuaded by false promises. Advertising and marketing work. They are so American. Generally public high schools don’t promise that you will gain entrance to college; many charters do.
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Mark,
So strange that you are being (intentionally?) oblivious.
“Giving up”? I don’t have any problem with families who pay for private education if they choose. As long as they don’t expect any taxpayer money, their choice doesn’t affect the funding for the kids in public schools that cannot “give up” on children in the way that every single school that isn’t public can do.
Whatever school you taught at that you think teaches every kid does not. You are deluding yourself or perhaps lying to us. There isn’t an “alternative” school in the country that has any obligation to any student it does not want to teach, period. Maybe an exception is homeschooling when a parent is the one doing it.
There isn’t an “alternative” school in the country whose obligation to provide for one of their students doesn’t end the very moment they can get rid of the student. Period.
And the incentives are huge when an “alternative” school has a student who is too much trouble to teach to dump that student. Sometimes it is couched in polite language like “counseling out” and having their panel of “experts” convince a parent that they are doing it for the kid when it is all about getting that kid out.
“Alternative” schools are great for the kids that fit, just like segregated schools are great for the kids whose parents want segregated schools.
It’s not public education. It’s fine to “give up” if you are still fighting FOR public education and not pushing ugly lies to undermine public education. And one ugly lie is that alternative schools don’t dump students as soon as they are no longer cost-efficient to teach. And the definition of “cost-efficient” includes “will those students prevent us from recruiting and retaining the students we DO want to teach”.
That’s always the bottom line with “alternative” schools – whether parents pay out of pocket for them or whether those schools take public funding directly from public schools so that those public schools have less money.
Does the presence of a student prevent us from attracting the students we do want to teach? If it does, alternative schools dump them.
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NYC:
So strange that you are being (intentionally?) oblivious.
“As long as they don’t expect any taxpayer money”–Some public school supporters ARE demanding what they see as “their share” because public ed isn’t meeting their basic expectations like safety, proper funding, freedom from right wing political agendas and censorship, etc. I’m not advocating, I’m just saying… sorry it’s not what you want to hear.
Also, if you think “public schools cannot ‘give up’ on children,” you are deluding yourself (I will not accuse you of “lying to us”). In the first of my 17 years teaching in Title One schools, I worked as an at-home tutor for elementary school kids who had been expelled for repeated bad behavior (this was a NYS district of around 9,000 students). I had my choice of 22 students who were receiving NO services–despite state regulations– from this public school district because their alternative school program with a capacity of 80 was full, and the district had no funding to expand the program, nor hire sufficient at-home tutors even if they had been available.
For context, this was several years before the Campaign for Fiscal Equality was decided in our favor–and that of many other poor city and rural schools. In our case, we were spending $11,000 per student per year, while the neighboring suburban district was spending $15,000….and of course had NO students not receiving services.
I was limited to 3 students per day, and most of these were fairly long term assignments. When one student left the program, or the district alternative school had an opening, for one, we would soon get another expelled student. There WERE other at-home tutors, but I don’t know how many because we all went to different homes to tutor different students. But there were 22 students (less the 1-3 that I worked with) NOT RECEIVING ANY EDUCATION when I started, and about the same number at the end of the year. At that time I was hired for a regular classroom job in the district, which I continued with for 6 years before moving out West.
The following year the Fiscal Equality lawsuit was decided in our favor, but after 10 years, per-pupil funding was STILL not equalized, due to legal complications with taxes, budgets, and 3 equal branches of state government. Last I heard, the suit went back to court.
Diane, do you know any details about the current status of this?
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Mark, the city schools won the lawsuit filed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity but the state has not yet paid. I think that there is now a possibility that may change. I’ll check and let you know.
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It’s difficult to understand the statement some make that they support “failing” schools. If one supports a public school, why say the school stinks? Doesn’t make sense. It leads me to think there are people who believe in public education in principle but not in practice. That seems a stressful tightrope to walk, like saying, “I love the United States, and I am immigrating to Finland because I hate the United States.” I understand, but I also do not understand.
By the way, I only mentioned Scopes because the context of the time period has meaning when discussing historical events. The period is interesting, but let’s not make too big a deal. Inciting hysteria is not my intention. Deep breaths.
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“my team and I believe that the purpose of a public K-12 education is to prepare students for the post-secondary plans of their choice so that they can be a functioning member of the workforce”
Trugrit is not saying anything that Deformers have not been saying — of st least thinking — forever..
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Exactly! I give her credit for speaking the truth. Most upper admin in DoEds think this way but choose to say nothing while mandating the “college and career” readiness garbage. I didn’t/don’t like DeVos one bit, but she was honest about her feelings. Cardona….likely just another deformer that has decided to keep his mouth shut?
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Among the responses to the NC State Superintendent of Schools’ dumb comment:
She said the quiet part out loud.
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Now that would be a good John Oliver/Daily Show/Colbert montage. A reel of Republicans said the quiet part out loud.
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American democracy and civil rights are incredibly fortunate, beyond calculation, to have Diane Ravitch as their advocate.
Washington D.C. has all of the earmarks of a decision-making locus that would destroy public education. The halls of power are influenced by the money of education oligarchs like Bill Gates, Walton Heirs, and Bloomberg. It is a city with a proportionately huge number of private conservative religious colleges whose faculty and administration influence legislation and policy. It is a southern city that has both a legacy of racial equality (MLK,’s influence) and racial segregation. It is known for duplicitous actors who mask their motives, those who operate under the guise of fairness while conniving for authoritarianism.
I could not be more grateful for Diane’s commitment to the common good.
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The outsized influence of money has curtailed the functioning of democracy. Corporations are dictating policies because they can afford to hire lobbyists. The most recent example is the CDC’s decision to reduce Covid isolation to five days instead of ten. This egregious decision was reached because the CEO of Delta wanted this change, not the scientists that work at the CDC.
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RETIRED: Hmmmm . . . Scotus’ decision this week about not mandating vaccines/testing for big businesses? CBK
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Yup. Notice how we can get infrastructure passed as commerce requires roads and bridges, but we can table about voting rights and and all those projects for working families.
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RETIRED: Infrastructure: Funny you should mention it. But dontcha know that INFRASTRUCTURE is what oligarchs don’t need or use, so why should THEY pay for it? CBK
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retired teacher says “This egregious decision was reached because the CEO of Delta wanted this change”
I always that it was abundantly clear why the isolation time was reduced — because huge percentages of people who work in HOSPITALS were having to isolate for 10 days. And HOSPITALS were experiencing terrible understaffing. Delta can cancel flights. Hospitals cancelling beds in the middle of a pandemic was a disaster.
Don’t you remember that first that 5 day isolation change only applied to health care workers? In a perfect world, they would get the full 10 days but hospitals were about go into a major crisis! so they made it 5.
But immediately, thanks to the media always amplifying right wing propaganda, the message was “why doctors not everyone else?”
Which of course left a Hobson’s choice. It was problematic to defend that the medical staff working at close quarters with the people most likely to die if they are exposed could only isolate for 5 days and tell everyone else to wait 10 days.
It wasn’t really defensible to allow health care workers to only isolate 5 days except that the even worse choice was to just turn people away from hospitals or given them sub-par and dangerous care with half a staff.
But that’s what happens when Democrats have to make the choice of two equally bad things and they choose what I would argue and support as the least bad.
Can you imagine trying to defend a policy by amplifying the message to Americans that everyone who works at hospitals will be the most likely to infect you with covid?
The 10 day isolation versus 5 day isolation isn’t why covid is spreading. It is spreading because almost everyone I know has had negative tests right before testing positive and people are spreading covid before they know they are infected — not 6 – 10 days after.
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Amen to that!
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Linda I even think people like Gates MAY have a well-meaning streak hidden in all the hooplaw. If anyone is “infected” with capitalist-only limitations in their thinking, it’s oligarchs.
However, (see my note to Mark above), it’s at the administrative/political level (at the foundations of the difference between public and private) that the damage is done and that, overall and over time, will rot democracy at its core: curriculum and funding, both of which interact with the fundamental goals of education, e.g., becoming a functional worker.
As an example, just the whole idea of classroom size, and teacher/student ratios, flows “down” from how we think about and manage (pedagogy) those two aspects of education.
Catherine
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Jan Resseger provides one of the best analysis of our need to protect and defend our common good. While she is alluding to the educational uselessness of cheap vouchers, she does it against the backdrop of “The Privatization of Everything” by Cohen and Mikaelian. It is one of the best point by point explanations of why we must defend our democratic public education. Resseger like Diane is a true critical thinker. https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2022/01/13/32912/
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Yes, Gates means, well, to make Gates wealthier.
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Gates means wellthy
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He’s a philucropist
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I like your use of commas, Bob. My mom has a sweatshirt that says:
Let’s eat, Grandma.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Punctuation matters.
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Ha! I have put that on a whiteboard many times!
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Those “functional members of the workforce” are being led by a toilet full of turds that do not float and when flushed, clog the sewers.
The result: “The Great Resignation: Why Millions of Workers are Quitting”
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1007914455/as-the-pandemic-recedes-millions-of-workers-are-saying-i-quit
I think there is at least one good thing that came out of the pandemic. Many people of all ages, me included, bunkered down at home. Many workers were allowed to work from home. My son-in-law was one of them. My daughter says he’s more productive at home for the company he works for than when he had to drive to the workplace.
Some workers were fired or laid off. After almost two years, most us, including me, were introduced to a different lifestyle and many, like me, really like it. Hell, I love it.
Why should workers return to the pre-pandemic world where many had to spend hours in traffic everyday going to work and returning home, were not paid a living wage, worked long hours in two or more jobs and had to put up with crappy bosses.
For me, a retired person who put in his 45 years driving to work and back, I’ve made my mind up, I’m not returning to what was normal before COVID. Before COVID I drove to meetups. I’d drive to restaurants a half dozen times a week to eat alone or eat with friends. Every two weeks, I filled up the car’s gas tank. Since March 2020, the car has had its tank filled four times, not 50x like the two years previous to the pandemic. I spent 45 years stuck in traffic going to work and returning home. I hated it. I still hate it, but now I have a choice to avoid it.
Now the MeetUp groups I belonged to before the pandemic meet on Zoom (and we are not all retired – some are still young enough to have to work), and I’m not driving as much. My car insurance dropped about $60 a month because one of the factors for the cost of car insurance is how many miles we drive annually. Eating out several times a week is costly, too. In the last two years, I might eat out once a month and then I’d pick up the food and eat in the car before driving home.
So, I love it that many younger people are waking up to the insanity of a world were workers are seen as cogs in a machine. And they are rejecting that life.
I have no problem with Trump Republican libertarian fascists driving everywhere, not wearing masks, not being vaccinated, crowding into bars to party, et al, and being infected with COVID, while all the rational people stay home and avoid going out and mingling in public with the toxic MAGA mob.
Let the MAGA mob be the cogs in that labor machine that does not value them as people.
What will happen to the economy when the majority of people stop eating out and avoid public places as much as possible?
If the private sector only wants Trump’s braindead, zombie, MAGA fascists that do not have a critical thinking bone in their bodies, as customers, they can have them, but those businesses are going to lose a lot of money without the rest of us as customers.
The workplace CEOs and bosses will also have a lot of problems finding people to work for them in the toxic environment that MAGA mob leaves behind them wherever they go.
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A lot of teachers enjoyed working from home as well. This is one reason why it may be hard to entice people into the teaching profession (along with all the other reasons that don’t entice people into teaching).
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Lloyd Lofthouse
Although I agree with many of your points they are not without consequence. Nor is the picture quite as clear as to who is resigning and changing jobs . Sure by sheer numbers Leisure and Hospitality have the highest quit numbers. Percentage wise the industry the working class likes to glorify manufacturing has twice the quit rate as hospitality. Partially a reflection on the fact that in aggregate they are no longer good paying Jobs.
In spite of a lot of nonsense about the stimulus causing inflation. It is your(my) behavior by far that is more responsible. From the Stimulus you have to subtract lost income to see the affect on consumer spending.Only direct payments to consumers get spent on consumer products. Delta and American aren’t buying new refrigerators. . The shift in spending behavior away from services has put twice as much money in American’s pockets(2.5 trillion ) looking to chase after goods as all of the direct payments to individuals. Even before you account for lost income . The clogged up supply chain is caused by all that excess cash saved on eating out and sending clothes to the dry cleaner….. looking for a place to spend it; on still limited goods. Thus inflation.
But there are other consequences for workers in Cities like NYC . Only 13% of office workers are back in the office FULL TIME. So working from home is great . It certainly does benefit the relatively wealthy workers who have that luxury. It will be devastating to low wage workers (9.4% unemployment NYC ) who depend on providing services from Restaurant to Retail…. . Eric Adams is begging employers to force workers back to the office. Why would you when you can reduce your costs by renting less space. Affecting real estate and construction as well.
Worst are the implications for Democracy as disruptions in the economy continue. A good part of the reason Republicans want to prolong the chaos of the virus. Republicans will win when people fret about inflation and the economy. .And to share a line with NYCSP the media is hyping inflation way beyond its reality. Comparing gas prices to 2020 when the world economy was in stages of lock down. . Not pointing out that now is the time to sell that car you hardly use. Then buy it back in 6 months when new cars start rolling off the assembly line.
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Do any of us believe that the public money should be spent so industry should be spared the expense of training its workforce? How can we call this anything but a tax on the poor for the good of the rich? It is very wasteful to train people generally and then specifically for particular vocations, especially those vocations that require special vocational understanding of technology.
What should we be teaching? How to tell truth from fiction. How to understand our world. How to tell if unscrupulous political leaders are using our hard-earned money to pay their friends instead of building a better world.
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I actually said the same thing today on a building trades FB page about government providing very specific training instead of employers. But although this sixties lefty agrees with you about education being directed at a Jeffersonian vision of its role in Democracy. I don’t think it ever has except perhaps when Louis Powell had his s… fit. in 70.
So if Public Education has a higher function, perhaps it should be to acquire the skills to keep on learning. That serves multiple purposes.
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test
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I agree with you, Roy, about vocational training, but believe strongly in the general wood and metal shop classes we had in 7th and 8th grade many decades ago. Shop, PROPERLY taught–
Teaches many basic skills and coordination.
Has many academic connections: materials science, chemistry and physics, botany, metallurgy, human history, history of technology (not computers but how science is applied) environmental science, exploration, etc.
Develops perseverance, safety awareness and work ethic.
Offers an active break from seated classroom work.
Can provide an INTRO to a rewarding career.
Can introduce a student to life-long hobbies.
Can save students lots of money and time as adults (home repairs, and when not to, etc).
Should be offered to ALL students; also should include what we used to call “home ec.” (Also properly taught).
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When I was in school, Mark, “shop” was taken only by boys; girls took home ec. I hated home ec. We were taught rudimentary cooking skills and sewing skills.
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Diane, check out:
1. Edible Schoolyard Project website; founded over 25 years ago by Alice Waters at MLKjr Middle School in Berkeley.
2. Woodworking with Kids book by Richard Starr; an account of his years teaching K-8th graders near Hanover, NH. There are several other books of the same or very similar title, but this is the important one- white cover with rectangular photo in center. Many photos of kids in action.
3. Sloyd (in Wikipedia); still a required part of curriculum in Scandinavian countries; orig. woodworking, but expanded to metal and textiles; brought to the US late 1800s but died out after several years.
4. Sounds like sewing is not your thing (mine neither) but for detailed accounts of the traditional sewing skills of Inuit women–including the sewing of thermal underwear from the feathered skins of small birds, see the book Arctic Adventure by Peter Freuchen, who lived with the Inuit of NW Greenland for 15 years starting in 1910. Decades later, as a member of the Danish underground, he became #1 on the Nazi’s “most wanted” list; book reviews and photo on Goodreads and Amazon.
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The best book I have read on the subject of handwork is “Shopcraft as Soulcraft.”
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Thank you for reminding me about that book. I really should read it, but passed when it first came out because I dislke the noise, speeding and entitled behavior of so many bikers.
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Superintendent Of Houston Suburb District Stands Up For Education and Against HATE Citing His Own Family As An Example Of A Better Future Just Ahead.
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Superintendent Mark Henry closed Thursday’s 1/13/22 raucous school board meeting by denouncing trustee Scott Henry’s racially divisive remarks and taking a stand for a diverse workforce, empathizing with those hurt by the trustee’s statements Monday with a heartfelt, personal testimony of his own evolution.
His comments came at the tail end of the four hour meeting where a number of parents in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD voiced concern during public comments about the newly sworn-in Trustee Scott Henry, who ran for election with a goal to rid the district of so-called “critical race theory” with two other candidates, Natalie Blasingame and Lucas Scanlon.
After reminding everyone of the school closure on Monday in observance of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Henry shared how his “unique” family looks different than when he started in the top district role 11 years ago— something that as a small-town East Texas native, he never imagined for himself.
He has three adult children and welcomed seven grandchildren in that timeframe, he said. Two grandchildren are half Hispanic and half Asian, two grandchildren are half Asian and half Caucasian, one grandchild is half Caucasian and African-American, and one grandson, whom he refers to as his “prince,” belongs to Henry’s daughter, a member of the LGBTQ community.
“So I have a true modern family,” he said to the audience late Thursday night. “The point I’m trying to make is: 10 and a half years ago, I never dreamed my family would look like my family looks. But you know, my family turned out just like it was supposed to. I have a little bit of everything in my family and I love them all.”
He explained how diversity among teachers can help students through the lens of his biracial granddaughter.
“When she was in school, she saw someone that looked like her and that made a difference in her life,” Henry said. “And so it does make a difference when kids see others that look like they do. And my little prince, my 3-year old, who is a child of my daughter, he needs to see people that look like his moms. It’s important.”
He said finding more diverse teachers can take new approaches.
“The way you come up with a diverse workforce, you go look at different places than you’ve never looked before. You go to Prairie View A&M, you go to Texas Southern, you go to the (Rio Grande) Valley. You go to places where there are people that are the best and they can come back here and give us that diversity we want and they can be the best like other people. So that can happen.”
“Cy-Fair has 13 percent Black teachers,” Henry said during the Monday meeting. “Do you know what the statewide average is for Black teachers? Ten percent. I looked it up. Houston ISD, ya’ll use as a shining example, do you know what their average percentage of Black teachers is? Thirty-six percent. You know what that dropout rate is? Four percent. I don’t want to be 4 percent. I don’t want to be HISD.”
His remarks went viral and caused an uproar among parents, local community members and local political leaders calling on him to resign.
Superintendent closed on Thursday by joining the group of board trustees to apologize for Scott Henry’s comments.
“Mr. (Tom) Jackson makes it very clear that the board is the policy arm of the school district and the superintendent is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the district,” Henry said of the board president. “When any of the people that I’m responsible for hurt, I hurt. To our African American employees: I’m so sorry that you’ve hurt the last few days and I apologize that you’ve hurt. And I’ll do my best to make sure that that does not occur again.”
Henry’s heartfelt personal story was meet with a standing ovation from some parents and community members in the audience afterwards, just before the meeting ended. Others applauded him online.
“Dr. Henry’s closing statement was powerful, honorable and genuine,” wrote Facebook user Ronda Reyna, who is a former licensed specialist in school psychology at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, according to her profile.
“I believe he is the best Superintendent I have ever worked for, and I worked for him in two districts. He is the best leader to navigate this organization at such a time as this.”
But some called for further action from the superintendent.
“If you really feel that way, do the right thing and fire Scott Henry,” wrote Carla Rooney.
“As the Superintendent, your job is to address the good and bad head on and you chose to tip toe around it,” wrote Teniesha Marie Biagas on Facebook.
“Black teachers, parents, staff and students are giving all y’all a side eye. Please reprimand Mr. Henry.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Cy-Fair-ISD-Superintendent-Mark-Henry-shares-16775641.php
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The fact that two people on opposite sides share the same last name (Henry) makes this story confusing
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Perhaps she confuses critical thinking with being critical?
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The word that came to mind is “dolt”…as in, she is a….
Wow. A depressing state (North Carolina) of affairs.
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This pedestrian, narrow-minded statement seems unusual coming from a teacher, although I expect there are other pedestrian, narrow-minded teachers out there, especially among those with Pruitt’s apparently spotty and slight teaching resume. What makes it extraordinary is that it comes from the mouth of a state director of public education.
Nevertheless that is predictable when a governor elevates such a person to senior advisor on education [McCrory, 2015-2017]. Which got Pruitt another plum (?): “chancellor” of the new NC branch of a Utah-based CBE-style online university [3,900 students]. WGU is a multistate org with a total of 120k students [ave age 35] spread across its 9 branches– graduation rate 42%… DofEd’s OIG audit concluded in that year (2017), declaring WGU should not have been getting govt student loans due to lack of student-teacher interface. Others disagreed… Four yrs at that gig gets Pruitt the top spot… as NC continues its slide into ed no-man’s-land.
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And then there is Virginia.
“According to Slate, the controversy centers on a bill pre-filled by Rep. Wren Williams (R-Va.). As the Republican war on Critical Race Theory (CRT) continues, the latest piece of suggested legislation in Virginia “proposed a new standard for regulating high-school social studies curricula in the state, including a requirement that students learn about ‘the first debate between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.’”
Yup I just learned Frederick ran for Senate in 1858.
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That is hilarious.
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I’ve been hearing good things about him.
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You must be traveling to West Palm .
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LOL
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Yet another example of an ignorant right-wing extremist in a position of power. I wonder how many families are saying “This is the last straw. Do we have any other options?”
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Oops! Forgot to clarify that I am NOT against public ed, just curious about how good people cope and react, when something that is important to them is being destroyed.
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Are you asking whether the “good people” are doing exactly what the Republicans want them to do and abandoning public education?
Some “good people” are complicit with the Republicans’ plan to completely destroy public education. “Good people” help amplify Republican propaganda — “public education isn’t worth saving, just leave”.
You helped amplify the lie by your false claim that there are “alternative” schools that teach all students just like public schools do.
How do good people cope and react when something that is important to them is being destroyed?
They TELL THE TRUTH.
If you were telling the truth, you would actually be promoting alternative schools that are part of the public school system and overseen by the public school system, the way Deborah Meier did when she started Central Park East or the way that LeBron James’ Akron school did.
At the very least, you wouldn’t push the same false narratives about alternative schools that help undermine public education.
You would make it very clear that alternative schools have no obligation to teach students and therefore they will always have an advantage over public schools — but only for students those schools do want to teach. For as long as the alternative school wants to teach them.
You cannot push false narratives. Those “alternative” schools had the same advantage long before Common Core and No Child Left Behind.
Any school that isn’t part and parcel of the public school system has an advantage. The reason I don’t have the same problem with public magnet schools as I do with charters or “alternative” schools is because they neither present themselves as something they are not, and they are overseen by the same people who oversee public education. Magnet schools don’t demand extra resources as a reward for their “good teaching”. They are recognized as having an advantage – even if that advantage is only because of a lottery.
If a public magnet school no longer wants to teach a student, that is dealt with by the public school system. The public school system has the obligation to that student. The public school system can’t crow it is “better” by pointing at their magnet school because the school that the students who left the magnet school are still part of the system and in the schools of that system.
I’ve always thought the system has it backward. If any alternative school wants funding, public schools should be able to delegate 25% of their most difficult to teach students to every “alternative” school that receives any public funding.
That would change everything, don’t you think? How would your alternative schools do if 25% of their seats were assigned to the students that the public schools no longer wanted to teach?
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Oops! I’m lying again and you saw right through me. I better call Bill Gates or one of my republican gov.pals and get a new cover.
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Mark, the state is indeed paying off its Campaign for Fiscal Equity. They are getting thr money now, $532M as the 1 st year payment of a three year phase in of $1.3B.
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Thank you Diane–that’s great news, and it’s about time, 15 YEARS after the positive decision in the courts! Where can I find more details? Specifically, I’d like to know if underfunded districts like mine ($11,000 per year per student in 2006) were brought UP to the level of neighboring suburban districts (e.g. $15,000 for our neighboring suburban district in 2006) or if the funding formula was changed so both now have today’s equivalent of $13,000 per student. In other words, where is the money coming from?
The defense back then was that suburban districts (like our neighboring district) were simply wealthier communities, and thus–by their own choice–paid more taxes of all types and were entitled to more school funding per pupil. The other part of the problem was that NYS’s funding formula was so complicated, manipulated and added to that–as the joke went–“Only two people understand how NY schools are funded, and the both died years ago.” Where can I find more details in a concise and readable form?
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P.S. By “phase in” of $1.3B, do you mean that in 3 yrs. underfunded schools will be receiving an additional $1.3B EACH year from then on?
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I believe that is a one-time payout. But I am not an expert on CFE.
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Mark,
We agree NY state schools need more funding.
Where is the political will to do that when some parents — the most affluent ones, the ones whose kids are least expensive to teach — have no incentive to fund public schools anymore?
You probably realize that school funding is based on an “average”. Two students can be from the exact same background and have very different responses to being taught in a school with 30 students per class.
I found your example of providing home tutoring to students that are expelled to be disingenuous. You somehow “forgot” to mention is that the school district has a legal obligation to provide that, which is why you were hired. Alternative schools do not. Those 22 students couldn’t sue – they would just rot.
Because what you also “forgot” to mention is that it isn’t just that those “alternative” schools would never want to teach those students.
You are correct to note that a public school system can illegally and improperly fail to provide the education a student is legally entitled to.
“Alternative’ schools have no such legal obligation at all. Their only obligation is to tell students to go to the public schools instead of theirs when they dump them – even if it is the middle of the year.
You didn’t answer my question. How about if every “alternative” school that gets public funding is required to fill 25% of their classes with the most difficult students that you bemoan the state is not serving. Those 22 students would be sent to the “alternative school” instead.
You kept writing that no one was addressing this, and now I challenge you to support having 25% of seats in “alternative” schools reserved for the most difficult students in public schools — the ones that public schools are “failing”. Can you at least be honest and admit that such a policy would probably result in many of the other parents leaving?
Reality check — the schools that work at those that EXCLUDE. Parents choose alternative schools that EXCLUDE. That is certainly understandable if that school works better for their kid. There are publi c schools that also exclude.
The only difference is the lies that those schools tell. Public schools systems that establish schools that they readily acknowledge exclude also establish other schools that don’t exclude, and they are also judged and criticized on what happens to the students in the schools that don’t exclude.
Your “alternative” schools – when they are publicly funded – try to distract from the fact they exclude or they simply deny it.
They do what you did at the beginning and make claims about their “alternative” school not excluding.
Those lies are a big reason that there is no political will to properly fund public schools.
All students are not expensive to teach. Some students are. Public schools don’t get to choose which to teach. “Alternative” schools do.
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NYC said:
“You didn’t answer my question. How about if every “alternative” school that gets public funding is required to fill 25% of their classes with the most difficult students…”
That would be fair and worth trying out. I did not answer your question because it is irrelevant to my point, and is yet another example of your twisting my words so you can hear what YOU want to hear and attack it.
I’m not talking about that kind of charter school. I KNOW they exist; I KNOW they are wrong; I KNOW they constitute the vast majority. I keep repeating that, then try to explore OTHER situations/choices/models and each time you call me a liar: “disingenuous” and “can you at least be honest” you say. You put other words of mine in quotes to indicate what you have decided is my purposeful misuse and distortion: “forgot” “alternative” “failing”
Since I am unable to convey my ideas to you, and you are determined to only repeat your analysis of a different, real and very serious problem while calling me dishonest, I see no purpose in any further discussion
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Now, that’s a hopeful sign. When a discussion becomes pointless and repetitive, it should not continue.
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Mark,
Alternatives schools exclude students.
ALL alternative schools exclude students.
Why not just acknowledge that, for the record?
Is it because it makes the rest of your criticisms about public education meaningless?
I offered all kinds of solutions — alternative schools that are part of the system like Central Park East and LeBron James’ school and alternative schools committing to saving 25% of the seats to students whoa re the most difficult to teach. Let the alternative school figure out how to get those students to school or be criticized for not doing so.
Excluding students is not public education. You are just pushing right wing rhetoric.
When will you stop claiming there are alternative schools that don’t exclude? It isn’t true. No alternative school – nor the people who have the power to hire and fire the administration of the alternative school – has any responsibility for a student once they are no longer a student at that school.
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Mark,
All alternative schools exclude. Stop trying to push the false narrative that you are referring to a non-existent kind that doesn’t.
However, within the public school system, there may be “alternative” schools that exclude students, but since they are part of a larger system, there is a check on that exclusion. Because the people who run those alternative schools are directly answerable to the people who run the schools that don’t exclude. The entire system is judged by all its schools, not just on the schools that exclude.
But you don’t seem to be talking about those kinds of alternative schools. You seem to be talking about the privatized alternative schools, that are incentivized to exclude students because when they do, the completely separate system that oversees that school doesn’t have any responsibility to those students.
You are still pushing the false narrative that there are privately operated alternative schools that don’t exclude despite being incentivized to do so, not just for bragging rights, but because excluding some kids makes the parents of other students more satisfied.
And that’s what you won’t acknowledge.
But that is what honest public school systems with magnet and choice schools do acknowledge. And yet their critics still attack them for all the struggling students in the schools that don’t exclude.
If you believe in public education as you claim you do, you need to stop undermining it by presenting some false idea that there are “alternative” schools that don’t exclude but still work very well.
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Rep. Wren Williams touts school choice and charter schools.
Stand for Children, racist Georgia Gov. Talmadge, Hillsdale College and Wren Williams advance(ed) school privatization. Given its rhetoric, which one of the four might appear to be an odd fit?
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