Don't Call the Police for Marijuana Advice

A Connecticut man learned that the hard way. It appears if you call the police to ask them whether or not your marijuana plants are illegal, they will come over to your home and check personally. This can land you in trouble.

In a related matter, some guy named Arne Duncan applied similar foresight, ran a failed program in Chicago, and was elevated to US Education Secretary, where he's busily replicating his unsuccessful plan for an entire country.

Believe it or don't.

How to Get Free Publicity

1. Make friends with Michelle Obama, wife of corporate friendly, faux-Democrat Barack Obama.

2. Stock some healthy items, along with the aisles of cheap crap for which you're renowned.

3. Place these items somewhere in your megastore, next to the stuff made in some third-world rathole by people who work for 18 cents an hour.

4. Get her to talk about it in front of your logo, making it appear the American government endorses your company. Point out to President such a move will make him appear business-friendly, rather than the socialist Glenn Beck keeps saying he is.

5. Make sure she gets onto NPR, so all the liberals who don't realize Obama is a corporatist will flock to Walmart for baby carrots.

6. Then, sit and count the pile of money you've made after paying your non-unionized workers the pittance they get, largely as a result of decades of preventing unionization. Try not to publicly dive into pile headfirst, a la Uncle Scrooge.

No One Man Should Have All That Power

Who's sick of talking about Cathie Black? Me, that's who. I'm solidly convinced that the woman has, at least for now, no business being schools chancellor. We're all in agreement, so I'm officially over the topic for the moment.

Let's switch. Click with caution, the link below is NSFW (although, since it's YouTube, it won't work on DOE computers anyway):

This is maybe a bit of a Jose Vilson-style blog, so I hope that Jose will forgive me in advance for taking a stylistic page from his book (blog). If you don't read Jose, boy, you are missing out. There are few teacher bloggers whose work is more compelling and productively, provocatively, intellectually controversial than Jose's. I rarely comment at his blog because I don't often feel like I have anything to add, and I hope he doesn't think that means I'm not reading, becauise I am.

Anyway, I've been listening to the tune in the music video above, Kanye West's "Power," quite a bit lately. There are some good reasons to think Kanye is a bit of an ass, but one of the many levels on which this song works is Kanye poking fun at Kanye. The verses are riffs on the materialistic success West has enjoyed, but spit with such sarcasm and cut with the caustic refrain, "No one man should have all that power." Not all of the lyrics are appropriate for a family blog, but here's an example:

My furs is Mongolian, my ice brought the goalies in

Now I embody every characteristic of the egotistic(...)

I just needed time alone with my own thoughts

Got treasures in my mind, but couldn't open up my own vault

My childlike creativity, purity, and honesty

Is honestly being prodded by these grown thoughts

Reality is catchin' up with me

Takin' my inner child, I'm fighting for it, custody

With these responsibilities that they entrusted me

As I look down at my diamond-encrusted piece, thinking

No one man should have all that power

Now of course some of us (like, um, me, for starters) hear that line and think about Mayor Bloomberg and the like, shaking our head at how the rich and influential among us have lost their collective ways. And that's one way to look at it.

But it also makes me think of the tendency of this job to stifle our own creativity and love for our subjects that we naturally possess as teachers. We do, after all, have a great deal of power. We don't pursue it in the way that kings and tyrants, media sycophants and business moguls do. But, like it or not, we have a great deal of power to influence the young people with whom we work. And just as West's refrain, backed by a wordless and slightly eerie Greek chorus, ends up sounding like the stuff of nightmares, this job can keep us up nights, can make us think that we don't want this particular cup, that no one man (or woman) should have all this power.

I don't have an answer. If one of my students handed in this blog post for a grade, I'd probably take a lot of points off because it doesn't have a thesis statement. Maybe it's just a reminder that there are two kinds of power (at least), and we have a kind that Mayor Bloomberg and Cathie Black can never dream of having. And that can be a burden or a gift, depending on the hour of the day (or night).

Rate Mayor Bloomberg "F"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, obsessed with rating everything and everyone but himself, may be learning that only 23% of NYC high school grads are college ready. Naturally, he'll interpret this to mean the teachers are underworked, overpaid, and in need of being fired at will. The truth is this has much wider implications.

What it really says is that the test prep, test now, test later mantra of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and the other zillionaire educational experts is utter nonsense. Gates can roll out Finland as the model, but the fact is they don't use standardized tests there, they---get this---rely on teacher judgment. They don't vilify them, threaten them, hold them to ever-increasing AYP and other impossible standards. Of course, I can't imagine only 23% of their high school grads are college-ready.

Figures like these indicate that the 10 year corporatization of NYC schools has been an abysmal failure. We all know what Michael Bloomberg likes to do to schools he considers failing. Well now his system of mayoral dictatorship has been in place for 10 years. It clearly does not serve our kids. It's time for him to be accountable, man up, take responsibility, or whatever expression billionaires use when the screw up royally.

The only fair solution is to phase out Tweed and replace it with new, smaller academies. We could have one for the arts, as kids are not automatons, created simply to take tests. We could have one for hands-on science, so that we could once again have NYC entries in the Intel science contest. Perhaps we could have another for history, which Mayor Bloomberg and his cronies are so hell-bent on forgetting.

To change things around, lets put teachers and parents in charge, so people who really care about kids can help them, rather than promoting unproven, ineffectual, and pointless programs initiated by self-appointed education experts like Michael Bloomberg. In view of his utter failure to accomplish anything of value over a decade, what advice would you offer the mayor?

Miss Eyre Does Not Get Cathie Black

Well, GothamSchools beat me to it, but I'd still like to say something about New York's surprisingly good profile of Chancellor Black. I get a mysterious print subscription to New York; I cannot, for the life of me, remember purchasing or otherwise opting in to receive the magazine, and yet it comes to my house every week. (Actually, two copies come to my house every week, because, again mysteriously, Mr. Eyre also gets a copy in his own name.) Whatever. So I read it.

Anyway, I enjoyed the profile of Ms. Black very much, if only to have confirmed by a real reporter what I've been feeling for the last couple of months; namely, what is up with Cathie Black? The New York reporter, public school parent Chris Smith, doesn't seem to get it either. The woman has been on the job now for, unofficially, two months, and I still have no insight into why she wanted the job or believes she can do it well. Again, as always, I truly don't want to cast aspersions on her character so much as I really, sincerely don't get it. Don't get her, I guess.

The reporter seems similarly flummoxed by her success in publishing, though he more or less takes it at face value. And, okay, I can get that. Clearly she rose very high in that field, which is fine and all that. But Mr. Smith also points out that Ms. Black seemed genuinely shocked by how very different the demands on a public servant are from her old position. And a former colleague of Black's confirms what many of us in the blogosphere suspected: Ms. Black never faced real, angry, one-on-one, in-person opposition in her old job, maybe never in her life for all we know.

Lack of experience is understandable. But lack of humility and lack of growth are not. And if Ms. Black would just come out and say why, other than that "I'm a good manager" prattle, she wants to lead a school system and deeply believes she is the right person for the job, that would go a long way towards fostering a tiny shred of goodwill--because right now, as she at least seems to have enough insight to understand this much, there's not a whole lot out there for her.

Getting to Know You

It's encouraging, on rare occasions, to see major media face reality straight-on. While upstart GothamSchools lingers behind the curve, pushing blather from union-busting billionaire shills, Daily News columnist Michael Daly steps up to highlight the hypocrisy of Emperor Mike lecturing demonstrators about democracy. Having attended numerous hearings, I'm very encouraged to see such a mainstream voice describing them to a wide audience.

I've seen criticism of Mulgrew's remarks comparing Bloomberg to Egypt's Mubarak.  Actually, he was far from the first to make that comparison. Speaker after speaker said it. And sitting there, with what purported to be a panel  (though filled with Bloomberg appointees), one could certainly mistake if for a democratic process. However, if you know that Bloomberg controls the majority and fires anyone who disagrees with him, it's tough to sustain that illusion. Daly writes:

...the folks in that auditorium at Brooklyn Tech had no more real voice than the folks in Egypt.
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black and the ruling majority of the panel on stage are mayoral puppets. They hardly even pretended that whatever the people in the auditorium had to say made much difference.

"Not one person on the panel was actually listening," said Charm Rhoomes, who was there Thursday night as the mother of a student at Jamaica High School and the president of its PTA. "Even Cathie Black. She was on her BlackBerry."

Anyone who's attended these meetings knows the score. There's little immediate practicality in getting up to speak, as you'll certainly be ignored. That's why it's tough to discount the frustration in the crowd manifesting itself in chanting and loud criticism. I'm open to better ways of getting through to the likes of socialite Cathie Black, (whose behavior, it must be said, has been snide and unprofessional, whose contempt for the people whose children attend public schools is palpable).  I haven't got any, though.

I'd planned to go to the demonstration and go home, as it broke my heart to see the school closings, but a UFT contact alerted me to the walkout and persuaded me to stay later. At first blush, the UFT walkout seemed a good idea, showing we knew the futility of staying. I'm now getting messages we should have stayed all night, disrupting the meeting to the point where they could not have voted. Would delaying the meeting a week have really prevented the vote? If so, how? Wouldn't they have simply taken the vote at another venue? It's worth examining. Certainly playing by Bloomberg's rules hasn't benefited schools like Jamaica, blatantly closed on false premises.

Frankly, as someone who gets up at 5 AM to go to work, the notion of staying all night holds little appeal for me. Perhaps that's part of the DOE's plan--wear out the public and then do their dirty work in peace. Last year they stayed until the wee hours of the morning, waiting out most of the crowd. The main difference this year was most of their critics left earlier.

One important thing is what we agree on, and what many are finally, finally, beginning to see--that the dictatorial reign of Mayor4Life Bloomberg is an outright affront to democracy. That's our common ground, and that's what we build on.

The question is simple--what's the best way to do it?

Don't Leave Your Phone Charging at the House You Just Robbed

This is a potential problem for modern burglars. It turns out the police can simply call your contacts and figure who you are. This may prove problematic for young Cody Wilkins, now charged with ten burglaries. While such actions might ease your electric bill, they carry unforeseen consequences.

Nonetheless, there's always a new wrinkle in the quest to become a master criminal. Maybe they should have PD days and do group planning. I see kids all over the building sneaking their phone chargers into wall outlets. I suppose if I can dissuade them from lives of crime this won't prove too much of a problem long-term.

The Party's Over

Cathie Black and Mayor Bloomberg's rubber stampers at the PEP met with a raucous welcome last night at Brooklyn Tech. Amidst cries of "Black must go," "Bloomberg must go," and other chants of an even less complimentary nature the fake school board went about its business of pretending there were decisions to make. Of course, everyone in the auditorium knew all the decisions had been made long ago, just as everyone knew at Deputy Chancellor John White's phony hearing at Jamaica a few weeks ago.

The first speaker was an unforgettable Tony Avella, the NY State Senator elected with the UFT's help. Tony was the only Democrat in the state to beat a sitting Republican, and he asked why on earth a hearing over Jamaica High School's future would be in Brooklyn rather than Queens. Of course it was to keep the community out, as they're always raising nasty objections about their neighborhood being decimated---not to mention other things Cathie Black and Michael Bloomberg don't wish to be bothered with.

I've no doubt Cathie Black's snappy remarks about birth control or Nazis murdering children go over very well at ritzy cocktail parties.  Doubtless she's shocked that public school parents, the ones who don't get invited to fetes in Park Avenue penthouses, don't seem to find them that funny. And the juvenile "Ooooohhhh" with which she greeted their concerns about the future of their children the other night did not go over that well either.

I walked out, along with most of the crowd, reluctant to watch the Mayor Bloomberg's odious and utterly undemocratic PEP do their rubber stamp thing. What on earth was NYC thinking when it determined the best thing for the future of its children was to turn it over to the richest man in New York City, so that he could do whatever the hell he felt like with them?

Here's the thing--I've never seen anger like this before, even at these meetings. It's palpable. Several speakers made references to Egypt, rising up against tyranny. Mayoral dictatorship is a bad policy and must end. And absolutely everyone at the meeting last night could see that New York City has had just about enough of it. Those feelings aren't going away, and neither are any of the people who took their time to show Ms. Black she's not in her penthouse anymore.

Cathie Black Does Not Get It, to Put it Mildly

Cathie, Cathie, Cathie. Where do I begin?

You have to know that there were a lot of people--myself included--who were willing to give you a chance as Chancellor. You failing at being Chancellor would no doubt damage schools and kids, something none of us wants. As much as we were skeptical of a total outsider coming in and running the schools, a lot of us hoped (perhaps against hope) that you would nevertheless have a successful and productive run at the job, for the good of everyone involved.

But you don't seem to understand that you are now a public servant, just like everyone you now supervise at the DOE. You are not accountable to stockholders, but to stakeholders, for whom the issues to which you were (maybe?) listening at the PEP meeting on Tuesday night are matters of, if not quite life and death, certainly life itself. Your sarcastic response to a crowd, even one which, I'll grant, was pretty unruly at that point, was not becoming of a professional of your stature. Teachers are frequently warned against deploying biting, negative sarcasm with students; the fact that you don't seem to know this gives your detractors more fuel for their fire of criticism.

Most of the commenters at the City Room blog linked above were pretty harsh, though certainly civil and fair. They characterized the response as unprofessional, inconsiderate, and displaying a certain lack of consideration for the common woman and man. I have to say I agree. I've been unpleasantly surprised, Ms. Black, by how unprepared you seem for this position in every aspect. One could forgive, maybe, a certain lack of finesse with the minutiae of DOE policy and educational thought were it handled openly and honestly and with a strong dose of modesty and consideration. We're not seeing that. Mostly I'm just struck by how the basics of Teaching 101--civility and respect towards the students, patience, humility, a willingness to learn from those gone before, the courage to listen as well as speak--seem to be lost on you. It's hardly shocking, then, that 80,000 teachers wonder how they can respect you as their ultimate supervisor.

So where to from now? It would be flip of me to say that you should continue to let Deputy Mayor Walcott and Deputy Chancellor Polakow-Suransky do most of the talking for you. Maybe for the next week or so, at least. But long-term, you need to come to terms with who you're serving, ultimately--children and their families, not Mayor Bloomberg--and decide if you're the right person to carry out that role.

NY State Gets Priorities Straight

Governor Andrew Cuomo has a 70% approval rating. This, of course, is because of his incredible judgment. How wise of Mr. Cuomo, facing a 10 billion dollar deficit, to let a millionaire's tax expire, thus losing 5 billion dollars. After all, those millionaires need that money. Mansions don't grow on trees, and good help is hard to find. Sometimes people demand money to work, and if the geniuses in Florida don't reverse Obama's health plan, they may even be forced to provide insurance sometimes.

In any case, our Governor has boldly decided to make up the money he's given the millionaires by cutting things that don't affect them, like public education and health care for the poor.

Planned spending on Medicaid programs and local school aid would each be cut by $2.85 billion, closing roughly half of a budget gap now projected at about $10 billion, one of the largest in recent history.

No self-respecting millionaire worries about that stuff anyway. And Governor Cuomo has had it up to here with that CFE nonsense, demanding reasonable funding for city kids. Let them go to Dalton if they don't like it! The state's coddled them enough.

It's hard to believe that Cuomo, who's vowed to take on the unions, is a Democrat. Isn't it traditionally the Republican role to do that? If Democrats are now the enemy of working people, why do we need Republicans? Does this make them an anachronism?

And actually, if the role of the Democrats is to protect the interests of the rich at the expense of working people, why do we need them either? If they can get away with such nonsense in New York, they can do it pretty much anywhere. Interesting times.

Ain't they?

Young Whippersnappers

I suppose it isn't giving much away to say that I work in a small high school, staffed primarily with younger teachers in the first few years of their careers. I've mentioned a few times already how happy I am with my no-longer-exactly-new position: how much I respect and trust the administration, how much I like and admire my colleagues. We are a hardworking bunch and, dare I say, the work pays off. We have good results in more ways than one. It is a demanding but not unpleasant place to work.

Yet my school also puts lie to the idea that younger teachers, full of our storied vim and vigor and passion for raising student achievement, are necessarily also anti-union. Our chapter meetings are well-attended and our COPE drive was very productive. We have an active consultation committee. Our CL reminded us to grieve any scheduling issues in a timely manner. And during breaks in the PD today, many of us scoffed at Mayor Bloomberg's pathetically obvious posturing regarding teacher layoffs. If anything, the great deal of effort we put into our chosen careers makes us all the more astute about our rights and all the more wary of protecting that for which we have worked so hard.

Yes, our work is for kids and their families. Without them, we would have no work, and, as I have said before, the only real accountability we truly face is accountability to them. But it would be hard to comfort ourselves with all of the achievements of our students if we are unable to afford a decent home somewhere near our work, if we watch our retirements slip away, if we can't afford quality medical care when we are ill. These things matter. To say that they matter is not to say students don't matter; it is to say that we are working, and working well, at a very difficult job, for which we deserve fair compensation under the terms to which we agreed.

Anyway, today just reminded me that to be young is not to be a martyr or to be unconcerned with the politics of our careers. If anything, the younger teachers need to be thinking more about where we will take the UFT and the labor movement when we are running the show. If the union is, in someone's opinion, unconcerned with raising teacher quality or student achievement, how can we get on that without endangering due process, fair pay, and decent benefits--the core of that for which the union has always fought? That should be our question, not eagerly offering up ourselves and our futures for "solutions" that will likely prove, if not illusory, divisive, short-sighted, and ultimately damaging for all involved. Including, dare I suggest it, the children whose teachers will be overpaid, underworked, and inexperienced forever.

GothamSchools--Civil or Biased?

Yesterday I got an email suggesting GothamSchools' call for civility in its comments was motivated by criticism of its main community section writer--a member of a Gates-funded group openly dedicated to eradicating basic union rights. (Like all other such groups, it does so in the name of helping the children whose schools Gates money aims to close.)

I wrote back it was a coincidence, and that the move was possibly long overdue. After all, I'd just seen a commenter imply someone was paranoid over concern revised Gotham policies might cause his ID to be leaked to the DOE. The DOE has sent teachers to the rubber room for bringing plants to school, for using school fax machines, and for who knows what else. I think there's plenty of reason for wariness. The same commenter said to Mr. A. Talk:

You sound just a bit overly paranoid. What evidence is there that the “regime,” as you delicately term it, gives a hoot about bloggers posting their professional perspectives here? 

In fact, the DOE has been specifically known to monitor blogs. Joel Klein seemed acutely aware of Education Notes Online when he saw fit to embrace Norm Scott at a PEP meeting.

In any case, my correspondent emailed me back, saying look carefully at the picture they chose. It's their resident Gates front group member, (the one they feature without regard to taste, accuracy, or quality), and the guy who calls people paranoid (for fearing a Department that is right now proposing to fire 25% of NY City teachers). I was pretty surprised. Is that what Gotham considers a model?

Couple that with the fact that GothamSchools and the New York Post have been closely following the Gates union-busters (though the Post has yet to give a group member a regular column), and you have to stop and think. I don't expect much from Murdoch publications, but I hope for better from Gotham.

In fact, Gotham prints bits of Gates-funded PR unedited and unchallenged. I noticed, as did Michael Fiorillo, the absurd assertion that the group was “Founded with the goal of injecting teacher’s voices into citywide education policy debates.” It's preposterous on its face to say that about a group whose main purpose is eradication of union seniority rights for teachers, but that's what the group publicly states, and that's what GothamSchools presented, sans a single modifier, like "the group maintains" this. In fact, the people running this particular anti-union group are not even teachers anymore, somehow managing to work one day a week.  Perhaps they make up for this with the largesse of Gates and who knows who else. I don't know and I haven't seen much in the way of investigation from Gotham.

Fiorillo writes:

In paragraph three, you write that opponents of the group criticize it “for failing to understand the importance of protecting senior teachers.” This shows a lack of understanding of what seniority is; it is not about protecting senior teachers, but protecting  all employees from arbitrariness when layoffs occur (and in many other instances, as well). That arbitrariness affects senior workers is a fact of life, but it is far from limited to that. Seniority also protects workers from vindictive administrators.

New teachers who intend to make  teaching a career - which clearly does not include the founders of this group, as with so many ed deformers - are also protected by seniority, since if they are laid off it guarantees their right of return when hiring begins again. Your phrasing narrows the scope of the issue, and subtly reinforces E4E’s agenda, which is to pit teachers against each other.

I expected better from Gotham and thought I should let them know. Their civility piece suggests the following:

If you have a correction or a criticism of our coverage, the fastest way to reach us is by email. We do read the comment threads (though often not immediately) and will occasionally respond, but commenting isn’t the most efficient way to get our attention.

I did so. (In fact I regularly email journalists, with comments both positive and negative.) In this case, I received a response that, at best, "dodged" the issue--precisely what the reporter accused UFT President Michael Mulgrew of having done.

It's remarkable that Gotham devotes such energy to people who shill for billionaires while utterly ignoring the hearty group that rallied outside City Hall, braving the miserable snow day to protest school closings. This was organized by GEM, a real grassroots group as opposed to an obvious corporate front. Not only that, but it was supported by many other groups including, but not limited to, Class Size Matters and the UFT.

Gotham is of course free to cover and feature what it chooses.  If it wishes to portray itself as unbiased, however, it needs to examine those choices more carefully.

And Now for Something Completely Different:

When I was in college, I played in a bluegrass band with a guy named Gerry Tenney. He was the banjo player. Years later, I came across this video with Gerry singing A Hard Day's Night--in Yiddish.

Never heard anything like this before:

False Premises, False Promises: Corporate Education Reform and the Hostile Takeover of the Public Schools

By special guest blogger Michael Fiorillo

I. The Fallacy of the Knowledge Economy

     One of the most oft repeated fallacies and falsehoods that underlie efforts to privatize the public schools in the US is the claim that we have entered a “knowledge economy” demanding high levels of education and skills, and that (teacher’s) failure to facilitate this will result in the US becoming less “competitive.” This rhetoric is used by proponents of the corporate restructuring of the schools, from Barack Obama and Arne Duncan on down, and is meant to signify the importance that college and preparation for it hold for future employment prospects. The not-very-hidden implication is that the Chinese will have us all eating cat food if we don’t put our children’s noses to the grindstone of longer school days, longer school years and curricula dominated by high-stakes tests. That the people proposing these policies, starting with the President himself, would never in a million years allow their own children to be subjected to them, is news not fit to print.

     Having rejected education’s now-quaint role as developer (along with parents) of healthy, well-rounded human beings, and as part of the foundation of a democratic society, policy makers now focus almost exclusively on its vocational role in training the future workforce for a market economy. Thus, teachers are obliged – under the threat of having their schools closed and loss of their livelihood - to prepare students for this brave new knowledge economy, which according to those controlling the debate requires high levels of education.

     It sounds sensible - after all, a college education has for decades been a ladder to economic advancement – and is rarely questioned, but is it true? Unfortunately, just a brief look at the current realities of the labor market in the US, as well as projections for the future, show it to be a gross falsehood.

     In a May, 2010 report the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said that, “Retail salespersons, cashiers, general office clerks combined with food preparation and serving workers, and registered nurses were among the occupations with the highest employment in 2009…”

     The report further states that, “In addition to the occupations mentioned above, the largest occupations included customer service representatives; elementary school teachers, except special education; and general maintenance and repair workers.”

     As for all those high paying, knowledge economy jobs, well, sorry: “Most of the largest occupations are generally low paying. Thirty of the forty occupations in Table 4 had average wages below the US mean of $20.90 per hour or $43,460 annually.”

     As for the future, our knowledge economy’s prospects don’t look so hot there, either. In a BLS report on occupational projections for the years 2006-2016, Table 3 shows that 19 of the 30 occupations with the highest predicted growth in this period require only short or moderate on-the-job training, and only 7 require Bachelor degrees or above. Of the total projected job openings, more than twice as many positions will require only short or moderate on-the-job training versus those occupations requiring a professional, Masters or Bachelor degree. The largest projected needs will be among home and personal care aides, home health care aides, and in retail sales.

     So in fact, the guilty secret of those screaming, “It’s all about the kids!” is that the occupations which the majority of public school students are being trained for are dead end, low-paying, high-turnover jobs that require little or no education beyond high school. And if you think about it, this is congruent with the education that teachers are increasingly being forced to give them: authoritarian, repetitive, tedious, dull and closed to larger worlds and opportunities.

     “So,” the self-proclaimed reformers will say, “that just proves the importance of a college degree!” Unfortunately, no: for even highly educated and skilled workers are seeing their prospects diminish as a result of outsourcing enabled by digital technologies. According to Sarash Kuruvilla of Cornell’s Institute of Industrial and Labor Relations, “…many highly-skilled US jobs such as financial industry equity research, data modeling and actuarial analysis are being outsourced to India.”

     Kuruvilla also reports that other high-skill occupations being moved to Asia include “engineering services…particularly in aerospace and civil aviation, software research and development, and in animation…” The health industries will also not be spared, with “medical research jobs, including those in radiology, drug discovery and testing, and clinical trials… moving to India.”

     The inference to be drawn is clear: whatever connections may have existed between post-secondary educational achievement and economic advancement have been broken, and to claim otherwise is false. This is significant for public school teachers, since they are being herded into a forced march, and having their living standards threatened, based on the constant repetition of these false premises.

     As Richard Rothstein wrote in a report for the Economic Policy Institute, “Much of our educational policy in recent years has been driven by the inaccurate belief that if only all students could qualify for post-secondary education and become ‘attractive job candidates,’ all youth would then obtain well-compensated jobs that took advantage of those qualifications.”

      The truth is that factors other than education (such as investment flows, the relative balance of power between Capital and Labor, and between sectors of Capital itself) have a much greater influence on income and living standards. Even if the science and technology jobs are there, they don’t pay enough (or at least not enough to compare with creating algorithms for high-frequency trading programs at hedge funds and investment banks, which is where more and more math and physics majors are winding up).

     

     According to a report from the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, “a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy”) and its Draft Agenda on the Steering and Funding of Research Institutions, “…overall the supply of graduates in science and technology continues to rise, although a few countries have seen a decline in specific fields such as chemistry and physics. Furthermore, there is little evidence of strong upward pressure in wages for science and technology professionals (gee, could outsourcing have anything to do with that? MF). In fact, poor career prospects in the scientific occupations are often cited as one of the main reasons behind the decline in scientific studies among young people. (italics mine).”

     In other words, Mr. Market has spoken, and unless you’re a trader or executive at a Too Big to Fail Bank, or are starting a charter school, he’s going to pay you less, no matter what your educational achievement.

     What’s the point of all this for teachers and supporters of public education? It’s that one of the major themes in the dominant narrative about education in the US, that (unionized) teachers (with due process and seniority rights, and pension and health benefits) are failing to prepare students for a future bright with unlimited prospects, prospects they would achieve if only their deadbeat teachers didn’t stand in the way, is straight-out false.

     The reality is that, the prospects for the overwhelming majority of young people are being foreclosed upon by those who control investment, and who see their continued prosperity as depending on the enlargement of a weak, transient, low-paid, low-skilled service workforce, to include teachers, whose every move is determined and electronically overseen by management.

     The interests of those controlling investment, and those controlling the debate about education, have decoupled from those who perform the work of society, and they are propagating these falsehoods in order to extend their control and enrich themselves by taking over the public schools.

"MTA Bus Service Is Suspended Until Further Notice, But We're Still Not Sure If School Should Be Open"

Snarky headline aside, I think we're all relieved that we can stay home today. Mr. Eyre directed my attention outside just before I hit the hay last night, and I was not looking forward to shoveling my car out in the dark this morning. I am a hardy soul, mind you; I come from a region that gets its share of wintry weather, and I have driven in snow enough to not be freaked out by the prospect. But today is a ridiculous day to try to have school. Good call, I say, Ms. Black.

But.

But.

When I woke up in the wee hours this morning to find out if I'd have to stay awake or if I could go back to bed as soon I finish this post, I noticed I had a text message from NotifyNYC from 12:40 a.m. When I read the text, I learned that MTA bus service was "suspended until further notice."

All bus service. In the whole city.

My first reaction was that if school wasn't closed, I would actually have to take the day off. I do drive, but the bus is my backup in snowy weather, and with no buses running, I figured it was far too dangerous for me to attempt the commute.

I found out, of course, a few minutes later (via text) that my worries were over and I could enjoy a lie-in. Great, but you do have to wonder why school wasn't called off when the bus decision was made. If it's too dangerous for ginormous buses with chains on their tires, it's clearly too dangerous for most cars, and many kids and teachers who depend on the bus will be actually unable to get to school. Did they really need another 4 hours to think about it? Did they think everything would be cleared up by 5 a.m.?

5 a.m. is not a magical hour (as those of us who typically wake up around this time can attest). Suspension of bus service is a pretty good sign that people can't or shouldn't attempt a commute. Call it earlier under such circumstances.

Anyway, enjoy your day of grading and lesson planning in your sweatpants on your couches. Miss Eyre will be back in a few hours, after a few delicious extra hours of sleep.

Convenience Itself

If you, like me, find Presidential addresses too sickening and disingenuous to sit through, check out the education wrap-up at Schools Matter.

Riding Rupe's Gravy Train

One of the best things about taking a gig with good ol' Rupert Murdoch is he doesn't care what you do with your spare time. You can make a few mil a year, and in your spare time, you can chair Education Reform Now. You remember them? They're the folks who started bankrolling our pals at Educators 4 Excellence. Gotham Schools mentioned that after commenting on the E4E lovefest with Joel Klein.

And now, waddya know, Joel is in a position to fund them even more, surreptitiously or otherwise. So now, when Joel fumes about how much he hates having job protections for Americans with families and mortgages, he can fund a bunch of people who agree, keep them on for a few years, and then fire them to save even more money. It's a win-win.

Oddly, the piece about Joel Klein's continued sellout tour didn't merit mention in Gotham. Maybe they consider Joel old news. After all, he's been replaced by Cathie Black, who's not only devoid of any educational experience (Joel apparently taught for a few months), but is of an entirely different sex. That she shares every single policy position, without exception, is neither here nor there.

Anyway, DFER calls Education Reform Now it's "non-partisan partner." Perhaps that's why they selected Joel Klein to run it. It's well-known that Joel Klein is absolutely non-partisan about education, except for his opposition to teacher tenure, LIFO, raises, contracts, class-size reduction, decent learning conditions, workers' rights, democracy, Mom, or apple pie.

Other than that, I'd vote for the man myself. Anyway, congratulations to Joel Klein on that new gig, and congratulations on that nifty new pension. After all, what's important is making sure those who've devoted their lives to educating children don't get a dignified retirement. Since you've devoted your life to nothing of the sort, you deserve everything you get.

Just make sure, when you're trying to retroactively destroy government agreements with the working class, that there's a loophole for you. Losing pensions is for the little people.


Card via Leonie Haimson

Your Predictions about the New English Regents Here

As we high school teachers kick off Regents this week, the English teachers among us will have no doubt turned away dozens of students looking for their scores on the English Regents. The English Regents was given two weeks ago, two weeks before any other Regents, because it is a brand-new test format and the testing gnomes in Albany will need to norm it and curve it and all that before they establish what the raw cut score is.

I'm interested to see the results of this process. I scored the exam at my school, of course, and I was underwhelmed by the results. When I first saw the new exam format in the fall, my first reaction was one of something like revulsion; namely, "This test is so darn easy." But I don't know that the students at my school did all that well on an exam that I thought was lowballed quite a bit.

I think, then, what comes out of Albany will likely send a message about what direction testing is really going in. If we have a huge passing rate, it will signal a retreat from (at least paying lip service to) the idea of higher standards and more difficult tests. If we see a precipitous drop from scores in past years, then perhaps we can expect a continuation of the tough-love policy on students, which might not be such a bad thing. But if Regents passing rates are going to go the way of the proficiency exam results in elementary and middle schools--that is, that they'll be factored into a "teacher report card" grade of some kind--then we as teachers will need to be even more involved with what these tests represent and what they actually measure, as well as with what the scores are and where they come from.

What are you "reading" into the new English Regents?

What's Going On?

Marvin Gaye asked, but no one's answered yet. How on earth have public employees become the bad guys? How have we, one of the last bastions of the middle class, become the scourge of society?

It's all about money, actually. The government hasn't got enough. Municipalities are struggling. Why? You need look no further than the President of the United States, who, in these tough times, extended tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. Chuck Shumer said let's make the cutoff 1 million per year, so as not to inconvenience those impoverished Americans scraping by on $250,000 per annum. Even that was not good enough, and projected losses in tax revenue are astronomical. So someone has to pay.

Could it be the rich? Absolutely not. Rupert Murdoch, who just bought off Joel Klein, runs a 24/7 "news" network prodding downtrodden Americans to loath taxes, and he's been enormously successful. Thom Hartmann points out the rich are paying half of what they paid before Ronald Reagan took office,  before we had all these deficits, before we financed wars by borrowing from China. In fact, Hartmann suggests that extending the tax cuts even for the middle class may have been a mistake:

We’d been discussing taxes on the air and the fact that Denmark has an average 52 percent income-tax rate. I asked him why people didn’t revolt at such high taxes, and he smiled and pointed out to me that the average Dane is very well paid, with a minimum wage that equals roughly $18 per hour. Moreover, what Danes get for their taxes (that we don’t) is a free college education and free health care, not to mention four weeks of paid vacation each year and notoriety as the happiest nation on earth, according to a major study done by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

Some things are worth paying for, but here, we're all cowboys. We ride around, watch Fox News, and don't bother checking their veracity. But as cowboys, it's every man for himself. Unless you're wealthy. Then Barack Obama will step up and say you get a break. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo will do the same, and so will our esteemed Mayor Bloomberg. Why would the richest man in New York City raise taxes on himself when he can simply attack unions?

There's a great book called What's the Matter with Kansas? It paints the image of the poor, the downtrodden, all marching to the rich man's house with torches and pitchforks, declaring, "We're here to lower your taxes!" That about sums up what's happening. Make no mistake, the current attack on teachers and unions is part and parcel of an overall attack on the middle class.

How do we get the word out to snookered Americans who get all their news from MSM?

Snow Picnic Out There

I always go in on snow days. My wife speculates it's because I'm out of my mind, and some days it's tough to maintain otherwise. It gives me something to consider while navigating the icy roads to Fun City.

I remember once driving west on the Long Island Expressway, cars crashing to my right, cars crashing to my left, and hearing then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani advising me not to come in via my AM radio. I wrote his words on the board, for the amusement of the handful of kids as crazy as me.

There is a delayed opening procedure, introduced by former chancellor Harold Levy. It's been utilized precisely once, during a transit strike. Actually, thus far it doesn't look so bad out there today. But wouldn't it have been a good idea, if they were going to open the schools last Wednesday, to at least allow for the inevitability of thousands being unable to arrive on time? Wouldn't thousands more teachers and students have shown up had they been given time to dig out, to walk through the snow, to wait for that bus or train?

Every other area school system closed. Every private school was closed. Mayor Mike "Accountability" Bloomberg (who refuses to even say where he was during Snowmageddon) didn't see fit to announce whether schools were open until 5 AM. I don't know whether he or socialite Cathie Black know there's a delayed opening procedure in place. I've seen even less evidence that they care one way or another.

If they were truly concerned about NYC public school students (We already know how they feel about teachers), they'd at least give them a fighting chance of getting in.

Why I Will Not Join Educators 4 Excellence

Ruben Brosbe at GothamSchools penned a column explaining his motivation for joining Educators 4 Excellence, the "grassroots" (and I'll try to limit my snark after that) organization that supports higher salaries (good), more rigorous teacher evaluation (good, maybe), ending seniority-based retention (possibly not so good), and, it would seem in effect, further diminishing the role of the union in debates over salary, evaluation, and retention (definitely not good). As someone who has long been suspicious of E4E, I'll take his challenge to disagree passionately without, in his words, "vitriol" directed at him personally.

I don't want to join E4E, first of all, because I'm already a dues-paying member of an organization that is supposed to represent my interests and I find that what E4E stands for runs counter to those interests--or, at least, what those interests are nominally supposed to be, whatever your views on the UFT may be these days.

I don't want to join E4E because I passionately resist the condescending leadership of two individuals who loved teaching and loved children so much that they quit to run a, um, "grassroots" organization. For that matter, I don't want to join E4E because I feel that they have not been honest about who is backing them and where their funding is coming from.

I don't want to join E4E because I hope to someday be a career educator who would like to enjoy the rights that I've paid to have defended (and in some cases, like my pension, actually paid for, myself, personally).

I don't want to join E4E because I have no reason to believe that there are vast armies of defective teachers against whom I must defend myself and my career. Is it still safe to say that I find most of my colleagues to be at least my equal in dedication, responsibility, intelligence, and professionalism?

I don't want to join E4E because I dislike having to sign a loyalty oath to attend an event that is billed as a "conversation." And I have to tell you, I heard about that on GothamSchools and assumed it couldn't possibly be true, so I went to their site and tried to sign up for the Mulgrew event without signing on to E4E itself. And it turns out that that's true. Say what you like about, say, the Tea Party--even they wouldn't require me to sign some statement of beliefs just to show up and hear someone talk.

I will not speculate at all on Brosbe personally. I follow his columns on GothamSchools. I like some of them. I don't like others. If he reads my columns here, I imagine he probably feels the same way. I don't need to assume that he has a list of reasons just like mine for his support of E4E--I know that he does, because he wrote that column. And if he doesn't call into question my professionalism or dedication because I disagree with him on this particular issue, that's fair. If he, or anyone, does, then that will say more about their agenda than words ever could.

Mayor Bloomberg's Dream

Following up on Miss Eyre's post of yesterday (which was quoted in the New York Times, mistakenly attributed to me), Mayor Bloomberg indeed has a dream. Essentially, it entails firing anyone he wants, whenever he wants, for whatever reason he wants.

Likely it will be the principal making such decisions. Goodbye, chapter leader. Goodbye, delegates. Goodbye, pain in the ass loudmouth who's always telling everyone about the unsafe conditions in the auditorium. Hello, teacher willing to rendezvous with principal Tuesday afternoons at the Comfort Inn. In a merit system, things will be different.

Who will be the first to wash the principal's car? To fetch the dry cleaning? Who's gonna make that run to Starbucks for a double half-caf soy latte mocachino with extra sugarless whipped cream? Who will come in on weekends to build that rumpus room the principal's been pining for? Who will pay for the permits? Who will tutor the children the principal's been neglecting, what with all that time at the Comfort Inn? Who will put the hotel bill on a credit card that can't be traced to the principal?

Meanwhile, Barack Obama gave a trillion dollars to the richest Americans in the country, Andrew Cuomo gave a billion to the richest New Yorkers in the state, and President Barack Obama is looking into ways to streamline regulation on those very same people, the ones that drove the economy into a ditch. For us to bail out.

You can't make this stuff up.

Mayor Bloomberg Has a Dream

Boy, you spend a few days away from the blogging world and look what happens. Cathie Black proves once again that she isn't ready for prime-time, making this optimistic, open-minded blogger feel more foolish and dispirited by the day. E4E pops its head out again. A popular GothamSchools blogger may or may not be a deformer-crowd shill. But I'm all better now, ready to bring you this story via Gothamist: Mayor Bloomberg has a dream.

That's right. Mayor Bloomberg used a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration to validate his choice of Cathie Black for schools chancellor. Reeeeeeealllllly makes you wonder what the Reverend himself would have made of this situation. My guess is that he would have been, to say the least, unamused. Bloomberg was booed during the event, to no one's surprise. He could have reiterated his disappointment in Ms. Black, perhaps acknowledged the remark's inappropriateness during this time of remembrance of the civil rights struggle. Nope! He chose to remind the crowd how much better he knows than we the little people do.

At this point, you really have to wonder if Bloomberg, Black, et al. just do not give a--well, this is a family blog, but you get my meaning--about their constituents. I used to think that all the billionaire comments were a little exaggerated. But they clearly see no need to take into consideration the perspective or the concerns of those who, unlike them, send their children to public schools, commute to work without the help of personal drivers, or park their cars on public streets.

A commenter at Gothamist asked, "Is he really that self-unaware? I just can't believe anymore that he doesn't know. It's gotta be some kind of act." Well, Gothamist commenter, either he really is, or it is an act--an act for his billionaire buddies. We're stuck with this guy for three more years.

This day reminds me how much poorer our country is without that voice who always spoke truth to power, who would have had a thing or two to say about dreams to Mayor Bloomberg.

Puke-O-Rama, Dude!

Like, dude, the kids in my class are like, puking their guts out? So, like I just figured I'd write about it, and stuff? And people are all,

Why is this moron allowed to share with us his idiocy? 

and

TMI 

and stuff in the comments?  But like, it's important, dude, to tell the truth, like, sometimes. Like, if I had a kid who had a you know, accident, I would have to, like, write my next column about it.

So anyhoo, like, when I wanted to support the release of value-added grades, and everyone was all like, "Dude, they're inaccurate and invalid," and everything? Like, Gotham Schools let me write about how even though I was supporting it, I was, like, still cool and everything? And, like, Gotham Schools is SO KEWL, because, like, they don't even make me write in my bio that I'm a member of Educators4Excellence. So I'm, like, in a group funded by Bill Gates and stuff, and they don't even tell anybody! And I'm also in a video with Michelle Rhee, and like, at Gotham, I don't even have to say why! They just say, I'm just, like, a teacher and stuff! So, I don't look, like, uncool!

Wow! How cool is that, dude?

So, like, I'm learning a LOT. For example, like, once, I like controlled the class? And I, like, figured once I did that I'd never have to do it again? But, like, the kids acted up again, and I was, like, surprised and stuff. Who could figure that once kids misbehave and stop they'd ever do it again? Or that anyone else would ever not listen to you, like ever, once someone finally listened to you? Anyhoo...

So, like, I noticed that in my school we had, like, stuff in Spanish? But not other languages? So I figured I'd, like, write about it and stuff? I was all, like, hey dude, why there wasn't stuff in other languages? So, like, I just figured every other school just had what my school had? Because I, ya know, go to my school and stuff? Anyhoo, then I heard that there WAS stuff in like, Chinese and Korean and Urdu, and, like, a whole lot of other languages and stuff? That Joel Klein's video for ESL parents was, like, dubbed into a WHOLE BUNCH of languages? And someone told me that, like, a lot of people can read numbers, even if they, like, speak other languages and stuff? But, like, I didn't check it out, and, like, no one at Gotham Schools checked it out either, but no one said anything, so it was, like, cool and stuff. So I was all, like, WHEW! Like, that was a close one, dude.

So, anyway, dude, that's all for now! I have, like, lots of other stuff to say, and stuff. Like, in my newest column I figured out when there are less kids, there's like, less noise? Who would've thunk it? So anyway, like, be cool!

L8R, dude!

Where Would Martin Luther King Jr. Stand?

My blogging buddy Reality-Based Educator has a post about MLK and economic justice. He mentions that the charter school moguls would have you believe he'd support all their nonsense about privatization and union-busting. "For the children," supposedly, MLK would have them not only abandon the concept of union, but also support billionaires like Bloomberg and Gates as they attack the pensions, salaries and working conditions of the middle class. Supposedly, he'd support them in their efforts to destroy the teaching profession, one avenue for many to said middle class.

Actually, MLK was quite opposed to such measures. Here's an early quote from him on what union-busters label "right to work,"--actually the right to enjoy benefits the union negotiated without paying the union--thus weakening it and imperiling its very existence:

"In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped."   

Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK also understood, as many Americans do not, that unions are precisely what brought us out of the dark days of the 19th century:

"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome."
-- MLK Jr., Illinois AFL-CIO Convention, 1965.

Let's respect his legacy. Let's not allow demagogues and ignoramuses to urge us back to those days. Even this week, Andrew Cuomo is airing ads promoting his anti-union vision for the future of New York. Let's give Andy a call and let him know how we feel. Next Wednesday there's a PEP meeting at Brooklyn Tech. Next Thursday night there's a hearing to once again try to close Jamaica High School based on blatantly false statistics.

None of us can be what MLK was. But this week we have several chances to stand up, just as he would, to those who'd destroy us to further enrich their rich friends. I'll be calling Governor Andy, and at Jamaica for sure.

How about you?

Hello New York,

I'm NYC Schools Chancellor Cathie Black. After careful examination of the overcrowding problem, Mayor Bloomberg and I have come up with an innovative solution. As you know, many people have criticized me for having no background in education, for not having an advanced degree, for not having attended public schools, for not having sent my own kids to public schools, and some have even tried to block my appointment because of all this nonsense. What they don't understand is that I'm a problem solver. Along with Mayor Bloomberg, we've worked this whole thing out.

In fact, there is no overcrowding problem. We've got more than enough facilities to accommodate a reasonable amount of schoolchildren. The problem is that too many of you are having children, and all too frequently at that. We are, therefore, rolling out a multi-step program to deal with this. First, we will make condoms available free of charge for all public school parents. We will have training films available on the internet that will show you how to use them. Honestly, people who would irresponsibly overburden public schools with their prodigious offspring should not be having unprotected sex. It's simply irresponsible.

But that's only a first step. Mayor Bloomberg and I will be introducing legislation introducing financial penalties for people who have more than one child. Naturally we will exempt those who can afford private schools. Nonetheless, it's simply irresponsible to saddle society with all these additional expenses. Sure, there are those who think taxing the rich is the solution to every problem, but there will be no new taxes in NYC. They would hurt business, and wealthy New Yorkers should not bear the brunt of those who choose to fornicate irresponsibly.

Should these measures prove ineffective, we will explore the Sophie's Choice option. Now a lot of naysayers will complain this measure is extreme. However, it will only be utilized in the case of parents who fail to follow the first two options. And, of course, it will not apply to those of us in the top 2% income level. We've suffered enough already, and along with Mayor Bloomberg, I'm working to ease our pain. In any case, any parent, with any income, who wishes to avoid that measure, or indeed any of the above measures, can simply pay private school tuition.

And we're not simply passing this unilaterally. We're going to fully utilize the process set out in the governance measures that are sometimes misleadingly referred to as "mayoral control."  We will first propose this plan to the Panel for Educational Policy, where the Mayor has only 8 of the 13 votes. The 5 votes that don't belong to the mayor are free to vote however they like.  We will also have a public hearing and give everyone 2 minutes to express their opinions. Like we do with school closings, it's our practice to let the public say whatever they want before we do whatever we want. In New York City, we call that democracy.

What could be fairer than that?

Dear Cathie Black,

After only several days on the job, I've gotten to see the real you--a person with a quick and ready sense of humor. I mean, who else would've thought to solve the overcrowding problem via birth control? There's some out-of-the-box thinking! And then there's that crack about many "Sophie's choices." How many people would consider likening public school options to those of a mom who had to sacrifice one of her children to the Nazis?

Not only that, but you sent 1.1 million kids to school on a day when every other area school and private school closed. Your boss told everyone to stay off the roads, but you had no problem making 80,000 teachers come in. Boy, what irony. Finally, after everyone figured you could never outdo that last thing, after asking all of them to come in, you canceled your own school visit.

Anyway, after reading all that, I was sure you'd enjoy this. An entire box of stink bombs for only $7.99. You could come to schools, set them off soon after your arrival, and avoid all those nasty questions from those uppity teachers, parents and students. And think of all the hilarity that would ensue! You could accuse the teachers' union of setting off all those stink bombs and get the tabloids to write editorials in your support.

It would be yet another win-win for the visionary leadership of New York City schools.

Deals with the Devil

After years of the DOE reneging on promises, stabbing us in the back, planting nonsense in the tabloids, complaining about contracts it signed, deals it made, UFT leadership still shows far too little evidence of having learned anything. Months back, UFT President Michael Mulgrew made a deal to incorporate value-added metrics into teacher ratings. This has great potential to backfire, just as Ms. Weingarten's deal to examine value-added has, rather spectacularly, blown up in the faces of all the UFT experts who deemed this a good idea.

Ms. Weingarten was determined not to be a stereotypical cigar-chomping union boss, forever demanding more money and better working conditions. And indeed, with inflation, teachers are not making more money. Ms. Weingarten didn't hesitate to toss away decades of hard-fought professional rights for a compensation increase that failed to match the NYC inflation rate. For this, she won accolades from anti-union zealots like Rod Paige, and 5 minutes of admiration from the anti-teacher, anti-middle class tabloids--before they went back to trashing us at each and every opportunity. Then her new BFFs made a propaganda film called Waiting for Superman that gleefully cast her as the Antichrist.

There is no upside to making unenforceable deals with people who can't be trusted, as the class size debacle clearly demonstrated. Still, UFT leadership does not admit error, ever. This stubborn inflexiblity is an unfortunate quality they share with Mayor4Life Bloomberg. On both their parts, this policy is wrongheaded and counterproductive.

It's time for Mulgrew to break from Weingarten, wake up, and realize we've had enough. Teachers are demoralized and cynical, and with good reason. No more trying to show what swell folks we are by giving in to unreasonable demands of demagogues. No more selling out the few rights we have left for pennies. No more kowtowing to those who'd destroy us, like Bill Gates (who attacked teacher pensions right on the heels of the AFT lovefest in Seattle).

And not one word of a contract until we get what the other city workers got. No givebacks, and if that means no new contract, so be it. No surrender on ATRs. No surrender on last in first out.

The sad fact is, once they give in on those things, we may as well not have a union anyway.

Because, if they want to maintain union in anything more than name only, we've got no more to give.

SUVs Make It to Bloomberg's House, so Schools Are Open

8.8 inches of snow at Central Park. The mayor says stay off the roads. The MTA says don't come in. But NYC teachers should risk their lives and brave the storm. 1.1 million kids can do the same.

Here's how he decided--if the dual SUVs that drive Mayor Bloomberg to his favored subway stop can make it to his house, that means dual SUVs could make it to yours as well. That's why the mayor waits until 5 AM to tell you whether or not to come in. I mean, heck, if his chauffeurs can make it, so can yours. And if you really didn't want to hassle with the snow, maybe you should have taken the private jet to Bermuda, like it appears the mayor did during Snowmageddon.

A commenter just pointed out that NYC doesn't even bother with delayed openings on days like today. Hundreds of area schools are closed, but city kids don't even get extra time to come in.

In their infinite wisdom, the Tweedies have canceled field trips. After all, it's dangerous to travel in this sort of weather.

Snow News

I just received a phone call telling me my daughter's school would be closed tomorrow. That's what happens when the community has a government that cares about its residents.

Mayor4Life Bloomberg, on the other hand, is not letting New Yorkers know until 5 o' clock tomorrow morning.

Thoughts on Class Size

As high schools prepare to reorganize for the spring semester* in the next few weeks, I'm thinking about class size, and so are some other folks. Large class sizes are, as a rule, problematic here in NYC. It's not so much the size of the class itself; rather, it's the ever-widening scope of what teachers are asked to do, multiplied exponentially as classes grow larger and therefore ever more demanding on the time of teachers. It's also the wide range of students that can be found in the now-typical heterogeneous classroom.

My class sizes tend toward the small size--mid- to upper-20s--for high school classes, and yet I yearn for their being smaller. I am asked to tutor students individually and in small groups; offer multiple opportunities for make-up work; contact parents frequently about grades and behavior; tailor lessons to multiple skill levels (more on this later); assist students with staying organized; and, at the same time, deliver rigorous, complex lessons that will help students to be prepared for the upper echelons of high school and college. As you can imagine, you can plan rigorous, complex lessons, OR you can babysit, counsel, monitor, and cajole. It is very difficult to do both, and becomes ever more difficult as one or two or three more kids transfer into your class every month.

As well, in one of my classes in particular, the wide range of current skill levels is astonishing; I have children, according to one recent assessment, reading on a 3rd grade reading level and children who are ready for senior-level AP classes in the same class. In the same room. At the same time. Meeting the needs of all of these students is already difficult; it is made much harder by trying to accommodate so many of them.

Large class sizes, as Nancy Flanagan points out here, are not necessarily deal-breakers. You might need 40 or 50 students to put together an impressive orchestra or choir, all of whom would certainly need to be in the same room at the same time. Highly motivated and independent students probably also do fine in large, fast-paced classes. But students who need a great deal of emotional support, disciplinary structure, and redirection to stay on task naturally do better in smaller, quieter environments with an adult or two or three who can focus on them more exclusively. Administrators might do well to get a sense of where Nancy is coming from as Regents Week approaches* and re-organization looms large.

*What? Regents Week is coming, you ask, rubbing your eyes blearily in disbelief? Yes. We are almost halfway to summer. Pat yourself on the back!

Updating Mark Twain

I'm fascinated by the discussion about cutting choice words from Huckleberry Finn. I've never taught it, but I have taught Of Mice and Men, which uses racial epithets. I explained them the best I could, and placed them in context. However, I teach kids from other countries, and decided I did not wish to be the person who introduces them to such vocabulary. That may be irresponsible on my part, but I don't care. I find such language distasteful, and I don't much like explaining why it's used. I never taught it again, and don't plan to.

Actually, I don't much like this sort of language. Dickens, beautiful and flowing though his language may be, struck me as outrageously anti-Semitic. Much of the language precludes my using it in my classes simply because it will baffle my ESL students. But I wouldn't use it even if they could perfectly grasp it. Nonetheless, that was the coin of the realm back in his time, just as racism pervaded American culture in the times of the aforementioned novels--as it certainly does now.

That said, I wouldn't teach sanitized versions of classics either. Who has the right to "correct" an American icon like Mark Twain? Not me, that's for sure. I'd rather read the original and judge for myself. Unlike my students, I've heard all those words before. It would be one thing if Twain himself were around, but unless Doctor Who brings him back in a Tardis, I don't think we'll be seeing that anytime soon.

What do you think?

Best Stay off Sarah Palin's Hit List

A US Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, was shot outside a Safeway today. The gunman shot her in the head, then turned his attention to the crowd, killing at least 6 bystanders. She was apparently on Sarah Palin's target list, as a candidate to be defeated in the midterm election.

Did one of Palin's followers take the target list literally?

Time will tell.