Russ Walsh, who works at Rider University in Pennsylvania, asks a simple question:

What if Chicken Little had 70 billion dollars? Would his comical error in believing the sky is falling have been dismissed so quickly? Would the acorn of truth have been discovered and Chicken Little disgraced? Instead of making Chicken Little the laughingstock of the barnyard, would we instead be drawing up plans for “sky proof” shelters and evaluating them with standardized quality control measures all financed by Chicken Little’s largesse? Perhaps Chicken Little would decide that the public barn on the farm was substandard and he would contract out to have charter barns built. Perhaps he would finance a project to bring Common Corn to the barnyard feed, so that chickens in Mississippi would be fed the same stuff as those in Wisconsin. Perhaps Chicken Little would be lionized in the media as the great fowl hope for the future of barnyards everywhere.

What if everything the “reformers” have been saying for the past decade and more is simply wrong? Would we believe them if their claims were not backed up by the billions of the U.S. Department of Education, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walmart family, and a pride of politicians?

No, of course not. But why do we believe them? Could it be the power of the Big Lie technique, where you say that same thing so often that people start thinking it is true.

Or does it serve the purposes of those who see a way to jump into public education as an emerging market?

Russ concludes:

Jonathan Lovell teaches writing at San Jose State in California. A few weeks ago, he sent me a couplet from Alexander Pope to steel me when angry critics lash out. These were the lines:

“Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see
Men, not afraid of God, afraid of me.” 

I met Jonathan in Berkeley last week and signed his book. He wrote a few days later that he had been reading the book aloud to his wife, a practice they both enjoyed, reading and discussing. And he sent this note:

I’ve been searching my mind for a way to adequately describe the impact of listening to this book read aloud, slowly, chapter by chapter.

Here’s the best analogy I could summon, with the gravest of apologies to John Keats:

On First Looking into Ravitch’s *Reign of Error*

Much have I travell’d in education’s realm
And men like Cremin hold in high esteem.
Round many an author have I plied my helm,
And some have made me weep, and others, dream.
But of a wide expanse had I been told
Which one called Ravitch held with sway supreme.
Some travell’d there, its wonders to behold,
And many found their thinking newly clean.

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Error speak out loud and bold;
Then felt I like some watcher in the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like Balboa, when with eagle eyes,
He stared at the Pacific. Just so your fans
Now view each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

With both affection and regard,
Jonathan

Can there be any greater reward for a writer than such a response? I think not.

Amy Prime teaches second grade in Prime, Iowa. She also writes frequently for newspapers in Iowa. This review of Reign of Error appeared in the Des Moines Register.

Prime says that if she had designed the jacket, “it would include an illustration of Diane Ravitch, sledgehammer in hand, smashing a brick wall with the words “Education Reform.” We would see bricks falling down with words on them such as Race to the Top, Arne Duncan, NCLB, vouchers, Gates Foundation and standardized assessments.”

She writes:

“Teachers who read this book will identify with many of the discussion items and will come away feeling vindicated as evidence is presented that no, our schools are not actually “failing” or slipping but are as strong as ever. Gains are being made by all students and they have been for decades. Ravitch notes, “Students of all racial and ethnic groups are reading better now than they were in 1992.” She also shows how mathematics scores have improved significantly from 1992-2011.

Some other ideas that are successfully taken to task in Ravitch’s book are: the thought that testing students improves their education (in fact it doesn’t), the belief that charter schools educate children better than public schools (they don’t), the suggestion that merit pay is a fair and motivating way to improve teacher quality (it isn’t), the idea that class size doesn’t matter (it does) and that poverty isn’t an issue once a child reaches the schoolhouse doors (it is).

The most terrifying and pressing subject matter in Ravitch’s book is the clear and present danger facing our schools due to the greed of corporate entities and persons intent on the privatization of our public schools for their own personal gain. Any politician who has not already been bought by one of these groups must read this book to be made aware of the tricks, lies, and propaganda that will besiege them during sessions of lawmaking so that they can avoid making the job of destroying our schools any easier. Anyone who reports on education should read this book to have more facts about what is really happening and have less reliance on talking points from those with the loudest voices…..

Ms. Ravitch’s book equips teachers, students, parents, school board members and other conscientious members of our American community with the statistical, historical, and otherwise evidence-based data to fight the persistent and seemingly convincing rhetoric repeated by those with the attention of the media. Her voice as an advocate, along with strong pieces of writing such as this, will lead the charge for the take back of our public community and neighborhood schools until they are stronger than ever before.

The Public Educator is a Néw York City public school teacher. In this review, this blogger expresses chagrin to hear another teacher echoing pseudo-reformer claims. The other teacher disapproved of candidate de Blasio’s plans to alleviate poverty.

“Without success, I tried to change her mind by referring to Diane’s book and some of the information contained within it. She did not believe me when I said that the goal of Bloomberg and others were to privatize education. Instead of looking at profiteers who have used or (stolen) millions in public money to set up for-profit charter schools, her focus was on the weakest within this society. If she lived in the 19th century, her focus would be on the waif that stole a loaf of bread rather than a robber baron that paid slave wages to his factory workers and forced these same workers to buy goods for exorbitant prices at a company store insuring their indebtedness forever.”

She was, sorry to say, absorbing the message of the mainstream media. And planning to vote for a candidate who will close her school, not give her a raise, and destroy her profession and her pension.

How effective these “reformers” are if they can convince teachers to vote against their own self-interest as well as that of their students.!.

Cynthia Liu, the founder of the K-12 News Network and a public school parent in California, urges President Obama to read “Reign of Error.”

Liu warns him that he won’t like it, but that is exactly why he must read it. He must listen to views other than the ones he gets from his staff and the Department of Education, which no doubt gives him a rosy picture of the great success of Race to the Top.

Liu writes:

“Those babies and toddlers you kissed grew up some, and are now entering kindergarten and first grade. In some states, children as young as first grade might be taking tests on art instead of actually creating art, or doing worksheets for “homework”. Under such age-inappropriate instruction, the joy and curiosity most children are born with seeps from their spirits like air from a balloon, the sparkle of excitement in their eyes and important questions like “why?” and “how?” stop. And their parents are MAD. Not at teachers, but at unending tests, one-size-fits-all data-driven instruction, forty and fifty kids per classroom, and important things still missing from the school day like art, music, physical education, science, history, and more. You see, that’s what Gen X parents grew up with — orchestra, marching band, jazz band, choir, three school plays a year, wood shop/industrial arts, school librarians and school nurses. ALL THAT IS GONE IN MANY SCHOOLS. Parents are mad because those who went to American public school decades ago know that our children are getting less now than we had then. That’s wrong. President Obama, parents, and teachers, are increasingly mad at YOU.

Liu admires President Obama. She thinks there is still time to get it right.

A blogger called ” Don’t Forget South Central” reviewed
“Reign of Error” in relation to the children and schools of that
much maligned and abused city. This is a cry from the bottom of the
well, who knows that his or her dedication has been met with
contempt by the powerful. A sample: “Reign of Error concludes that
disparaging schools makes it easier for the public to accept their
destruction and re-creation as private entities. Schools are being
closed in cities nationwide and its all based on a false premise,
that schools are failing. We are not failing! We are working with
children that come to school under the most difficult circumstances
in recent memory. Has the Great Recession affected you? It has
affected families from poverty even more so. Yet our graduation
rates are up. More children can read and do math. We outscore
students from other countries when you factor for poverty. Reign of
Error rejects the labeling of schools as failures and rightly
assigns responsibility to district administrators who fail to act
when they become aware that a school is under-resourced and all
they offer is labels and blame. “Just as the Chicano art mural
above rejects the label of minority, we educators reject the label
of failures. Hold us accountable for what we is within our reach
and fix what isn’t. How to start doing this? Read the book.”
.

Louisiana blogger Jason France blogs as Crazy Crawfish. He worked in the assessment and accountability of the state department of education, so he has the inside scoop on data manipulation for political posturing and glory.

In this post, he worries about being too late, but I would say he is just in time.

“Reign of Error” gave him the political and historical context he needed.

He writes:

“Just like everything else I suppose, I came later to the battle to fight the privatizing charlatans reaping our children and our tax dollars for their private jets and seedy agendas. This book will very likely become my anti-reform bible. It has allowed me to catch up on a lot of the background I knew only vaguely. If you are coming to suspect something is wrong in the way our education system us being attacked and run into the ground, once you read this book you will have no doubts left. A Nation at Risk did correctly identify a problem that our nation will face in the future, a poorly educated, poorly prepared population. However it was a little ahead of its time. Our nation is at risk for being dumbed-down and privatized into obscurity by the wealthy and greedy forces (from both political parties) lining up at the public trough to gorge themselves on education dollars earmarked for our children. Diane’s book helped me see the bigger picture and larger context for our fight to save our society from those who would rape, pillage and enslave our children as the barbarian tribes ravaged the Roman Empire – when it reigned supreme. I dog-eared many a page while reading this book, for future blog posts and supporting references. If you are looking for a historical perspective on where we have been, how we have come to where we are, and where our education system is going if we fail to intervene, this is the book you need to own.”