Teachers, Have You Noticed?

[teacher gal]

Notice how the rhetoric of the ed deformers has changed somewhat now that their narrative has been subjected to just a little bit of critical scrutiny? Of course they still dominate the national narrative and the news media, but we ARE making inroads, I think. What do you think?

Below find link to a new post by Melinda Gates at the Huffington Post, followed by my response to her, which has been moderated out of the discussion by HP.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melinda-gates/education-nation_b_977851.html

Damage control Mrs. Gates?

There is nothing more bitter to taste than platitudes and phony flattery from those who have already done so very much to undermine confidence in our teachers and public schools.

Now it's time for real teachers who refuse to succumb to high-stake­s testing, scripted teaching, standardiz­ation, and "merit" pay schemes to spit out the ed reform narrative and identify the deformers as the real status quo in the corruption of American public education.

Remarkable that in spite of power and wealth having every conceivabl­e advantage, including control of the media to shape public perception­, the ed reform narrative appropriat­ed by the chattering class is finally being subjected to some scrutiny.

Now we hear subtle shifts in the rhetoric of the ed deformers.

From NCLB to Race to the Top, you folks do not present an education plan but a business plan to corrupt a public good whose most treasured purpose is civic.

Here is irony. It is not poverty alone that has such devastatin­g consequenc­es on academic achievemen­t but the conditions that so often accompany poverty. The most profound need our huge population of disadvanta­ged children have is the deep need for meaningful­, lasting relationsh­ips with trusted adults who care about them in a personal way. And how can teachers give their students the time and attention they need when they are so damn busy being accountable to those of you who impose your will upon them in profoundly undemocratic ways without their consent?

You, the ed deformers and our gutless politician­s would give them a laptop, lots of tests, exploding class sizes, and revolving door teachers.

Want to help our public schools Mr. and Mrs. Gates? Drop out.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. She was a guest just no on education nation on msnbc

What makes this woman an authority on anything other than Bill Gates?

[teacher gal]

2. Yeah, I know they're on today

but I cannot bear to watch. Too upsetting. Will it be the same fiasco as the first Education Nation?

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. It wasn't as bad this year

But it was still pretty pointless.

The audience is all teachers. They asked them if they thought higher pay would help retain teachers. 74% said yes. I'm thinking the other 26% were either picking their noses or out feeding the parking meter.

[sulphurdunn]

5. Just because she went to school

she thinks she's an expert on education. It's like being a couch potato who played little league and thinks he knows something about coaching professional sports. Both are common delusions. Unfortunately, hers is destructive because she can pay to affect the decision making for the game even though she can't coach.

[roguevalley]

31. The Gates are part of the cancer on our country. Idiots.

[mopinko]

47. just sayin'

she does have an actual education-

She graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982. Gates earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987, where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

Shortly thereafter, she joined Microsoft and participated in the development of many of Microsoft’s multimedia products including Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melinda_gates


i find your statement quite sexist.

[Reader Rabbit]

3. Part of the problem is that ed deform and teacher-bashing are bipartisan.

No one on either side is willing to say, "You know what? If we want to improve public education, maybe we should ask the folks that do the actual educating!" It's far too easy—and lucrative—to put the blame on teachers.

[teacher gal]

4. You are exactly right! n/t

[Daphne08]

36. Absolutely true. My grandmother was a teacher,

my aunt and uncle were teachers, my mother was a teacher and I was a teacher.

Education has been a political football for decades and decades. That's the reason teachers were granted the protection of tenure, and I'm shocked and saddened that tenure has been attacked in some of our states.

Many in the general public have grumbled about teachers for years, too, but I've never seen things so bad.

It's frightening.

[teacher gal]

37. Thanks for your input!

[Doctor_J]

50. Only if you consider Duncan and Obama Dems

:shrug:

[teacher gal]

51. Please check out DFER

Democrats for Education Reform - made up I believe predominantly of hedge fund managers. There are scores of Democrats who repeat the same information fed to them by the powers that be controlling ed reform. Sorry, but it's true.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LWolf]

6. I like your response.

Why would it be edited out? Is it somehow against HP law to confront harmful corruptors?

[teacher gal]

7. LOL I tried multiple times to post this there, even

edited it, shortened it, etc. My response was definitely and officially moderated out!

[teacher gal]

9. As Diane Ravitch has rightly noted:

"What is most alarming... is that Bill Gates is using his vast resources to impose his will on the nation and to subvert the democratic process. Why have we decided to outsource public education to a well-meaning but ill-informed billionaire?"

[sabrina 1]

10. The teachers Union should join the protesters on Wall St

because this is exactly one of the problems to be addressed. To keep these ignorant (Gates knows nothing about education eg nor does Murdoch) wealthy people OUT of our public services. They are not qualified and if they want to donate, fine, do that, but pretending to know something about education or medicine simply because you are rich, that has to stop. They are destroying the field of education in this education. Gates should stick to computers and try to fix what he messed up in his own field.

[teacher gal]

11. Thank you and I agree!

Wonder if there are teachers joining the protest at Wall Street? I hope so. Most of course cannot.

[msanthrope]

17. The UFT is never going to protest Wall Street.

Mike Mulgrew is going to pointedly ignore.....

[teacher gal]

19. Are you a NYC teacher?

Just wondering. I'm far away in NM but I follow the goings on around the nation. And BTW, in many respects I agree with you about the complicity of the unions. Unfortunately, however, it is precisely because of folks like Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Waltons, etc. that teachers' unions are necessary. On the whole, I think they do more good than bad but I am extremely disappointed when I see them capitulating to the wealth and power destroying our public schools.

My apologies if I am misinterpreting your position, Anyway, I'm listening.

[msanthrope]

16. You honestly think the NYC teacher's union is going to protest Wall Street?

I gotta stop laughing long enough to type--

Sabrina, the UFT is well known for its spending--it was all over the NY media this year, as the teachers faced layoffs......

UFT spends millions on dinners, parties, parking, coffee as thousands of teachers face layoffs
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, February 24, 2011

As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned.

Free-spending United Federation of Teachers brass last year spent nearly $1.4 million for the UFT's 50th anniversary gala at the Hilton - complete with a movie, a book and a paperweight.

Records show they:

Ponied up $514,000 to 16 separate caterers.
Dropped $278,417 on the annual Teachers Union Day ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria.
Bought $6,100 in gift baskets from a lower East Side candy store - and plowed $179,000 into training retreats at a Connecticut resort boasting golf, scuba diving and aqua aerobics.

Much more at link----

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-24/local/29442125_1_uft-president-michael-mulgrew-randi-weingarten-teachers-face

[sabrina 1]

22. I know teachers in NYC. They are not happy with some of what

their unions have done on their behalf. But what does that have to do with anything? Teachers, union members, can go themselves. They do not have to wait of the leadership. And if that leadership is not properly representing them, they can change it. I don't get this 'we're screwed because look at this'. That is exactly what this whole protest is about. Changing those things that are not beneficial to the American people. I have a feeling the Teachers Union will catch on as this sentiment grows and begins to effect all those whose behavior has not been in the interests of the American people.

My friends in NYC will definitely be joining this movement. The goals and the process will work as well for changing Union Leadership where necessary, as anything else. It's really up to people now.

[teacher gal]

23. Darn right the teachers do not have to wait for union

"leadership". Teachers are individuals and they need their unions to grow a pair.

[teacher gal]

27. And sometimes I don't know who I am more frustrated with...

the extremists on the right who don't even believe in public education and the "new" Democrats, like the hedge fund managers of Democrats for Education Reform, who are big-time behind this privatization through charterization push, all cloaked in the language of civil rights.

[Enthusiast]

42. PLUS ONE! nt

[msanthrope]

15. History fail for Diane....

Philanthropists don't just hand over money--they make policy. It's as American as apple pie.

I'm betting that when she worked for Bush, she didn't badmouth money taken from Carnegie, Rosenwald, Annenberg, and Broad.

We Americans like taking money from our billionaires in the form of libraries, museums, and schools.

[teacher gal]

18. "It's as American as apple pie."

Guess you're probably right. But things have gone beyond the pale and Diane has realized her mistakes in ever jumping on this particular "accountability" bandwagon.

[BuelahWitch]

30. "Who was a college dropout and born on third base."

...would be an appropriate addition to the above statement. :kick:

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Ravitch also said:

YOU DON'T IMPROVE EDUCATION BY DEMORALIZING THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO DO THE WORK EVERY DAY

[teacher gal]

33. I loved her quote which went

something like, "You don't improve education by firing on your troops."

[badhair77]

12. There are some good rebuttals on the HP site.

It's about time someone explained to her she is not the expert she thinks she is.

[teacher gal]

13. Yes, there are and I

couldn't help but wonder why mine wasn't accepted as well.

[badhair77]

14. I don't understand it either.

Thanks for posting it here, though, so we could appreciate it.

[madfloridian]

20. I have never had a single comment accepted at Huff Post.

:shrug:

[teacher gal]

21. Probably a compliment to YOU!!! nt

[teacher gal]

24. Since HP moderators would not accept

my comments earlier today, I tried again. This time rather than directly posting my actual comments, I just noted that a discussion regarding Melinda Gates' post could be found here and provided the link.

It got accepted.

Perhaps different moderators online right now, or they just got careless.

Who knows!

[teacher gal]

25. Anyway, here's a kick while I sign off for a little while.

[Starry Messenger]

26. k&r

[teacher gal]

28. Shamefully bumping this back up because

what is being done to public education (and it has been in the works for decades) so well exemplifies what is being done to our country and democracy itself. You see the same forces at work, dividing and conquering ordinary working Americans, over issues like Social Security and Medicare. We are also witnessing the neglect and gutting of public libraries, including school libraries, while billions are handed over for "accountability" testing.

[StarsInHerHair]

29. it's HUNGER! when you are REALLY hungry let's see you memorize for a test

it's not "poverty" so much as the side effects, & the #1 is hunger.

[DirkGently]

34. I'm so sick of business tycoons presuming to tell ANYONE ANYTHING as though money confers wisdom.

Yes, Bill Gates really IS evil. So's Mrs, apparently.

Jesus.

[teacher gal]

35. I think they are more likely blinded

by a staggering arrogance that comes with staggering privelege and wealth. For all practical purposes they occupy another planet. They seem to have no conception of the need for a public, for community. And why would they?

Perhaps they really mean well, I just don't know.

[ellisonz]

39. I don't doubt their sincerity. I doubt their logic.

[DirkGently]

45. Sure. But we also have an overall conceit in this country that business people know best..

They don't.

[teacher gal]

54. Agreed

It is the big mega corps. that have such staggering arrogance and have an almost idolatrous worship of unfettered capitalism.

And my heart goes out to small mom and pop businesses that are forced to try to compete with the huge monopolies. Walmart, for example, which is involved bigtime in the decimation of public education. To them, it's just a business opportunity. That's it.

They march across the country like Atila the Hun, taking what they want.

[ellisonz]

38. She's no expert. I watched the whole thing - moderated by the GOP's own Brian Williams...

...and she did not make a single tangible proposal. It was like a church bake sale. She's a ditz.

The Los Angeles Unified School District just fired all of its remaining 3-hour a day library assistants. Classroom sizes average 20+ kids at the elementary level and then 35+ for middle and high school. They can barely even read the instructions to the standardized test, much less a great book. Cheating is rampant. This is about the basics; the opportunity to learn and a proper environment in which to it in. Giving laptops to 1st graders is not going to fix our education system.

:argh:

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. If the laptops can teach them to read, I'm all for it.

But if they're just playing games, the laptops are a waste of money.

[ellisonz]

43. You gotta walk before you can run...

I think the main logic behind the laptops is that we're supposedly becoming a digital society. But the truth is that not a single one of us on this message board learned to type before we could write with a pen, or use the internet before we could read a newspaper or a book. In a country where libraries are shutting down, newspapers are collapsing, and public college's are finding that students need remedial language and math education; you have to start with the basics. We're not even talking cursive or algebra, I'm talking basic grammar and arithmetic. I think that elementary school is way to early to be going beyond basic typing. They're going to use computers for the rest of their lives, shouldn't they have to learn to do it on paper first?

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[teacher gal]

46. Can you tell me how Jonathan Alter did?

He's terrible. Really big behind all this phony accountability mess.

[Enthusiast]

40. Your response was moderated out ?

Wow! See, this is why I stopped reading and participating in HP.

Your contribution is excellent and it certainly didn't deserve to be censored.

[teacher gal]

44. Yes, then later, yesterday evening

I posted it again just for the heck of it, doubting it would go through, but it did! So my response is both there and here now.

[Citizen Worker]

48. Attention ALL Union members: we ARE the Union. Not the institution. We are the Rank and File and

it is OUR Union. Don't wait for the leadership to lead, the Rank and File should take the role of leader.

[bertman]

49. REC. Thanks for posting this. There are a lot of very wealthy people who have

good hearts and would do the right thing if they were exposed to the realities of life that the working class faces daily. Sad to say, it is highly unlikely that they will know what it is like to be poor, to try to raise kids with one parent and little income and no family support.

I am finding with my upper middle-class friends that they too are oblivious to the plight of the unemployed and the underemployed. Not because they are bad or don't want to help, but because they are caught up in their own frustrations, personal troubles, jobs, families, etc. so they are in a sort of cocoon of ignorance. It's easy to think that they are uncaring and uninvolved due to selfishness or lack of compassion when they are just as overwhelmed by life's demands as the rest of us--only they still have a good income to cushion them from the harsh realities. When they are informed about the reality, most of my liberal friends respond by trying to learn more and trying to help. One problem is HOW to get them educated about these problems in a world where there are so many distractions and diversions.

As far as HuffPo, I got tired of being moderated out of the conversation so I didn't sign up again. There are a lot of good commentaries on the site but I choose not to be a participant. Too time consuming to read and post, plus the censorship factor that is obviously a problem with some of their mods.