Deborah and Diane

Check out this wonderful piece by Diane Ravitch addressed to Deb Meier at their blog.

Did We Bridge Our Differences?

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2010/11/did_we_bridge_our_differences.html

Deb was a hero of mine from my early days as a teacher as I experimented with an open classroom. I wanted to check out her work in the early 70's but never got to do it. I only got to meet her at a symposium at NYU on the Shanker bio in Sept. 2007. Diane was also on that panel (interesting that it was Shanker who introduced Diane and Deb in the 80's). I had been introduced to Diane by Leonie at the big St. Vartas church rally in Feb. 2007. I was taken aback since I had heard she was on the other side.

While I was not too aware of Diane as a controversial figure, my friends in the anti-testing community had viewed Diane Ravitch as being in the enemy camp. Indeed, when I posted that she was to receive the John Dewey Award at a UFT Spring conference I received an email from the late Jerry Bracey asking if we were going to picket.

Now, of course, Diane has become a major hero for so many teachers. But Deb as part of this remarkable blogging duo has also maintained her status as a major progressive educator. (Diane's post touches on many of the issues that divided them but I will comment in a follow-up to this post.)

Interesting that it took watching many of her ideas put into effect and distorted for Diane to see where things could lead, while people like Deb could see it coming from the classroom perspective years before.

I know so many teachers that Diane has reached out to and they have been thrilled to hear from her.
One thing I noticed as I read the introduction to Diane's book and how she saw the light: I knew that stuff 30 years ago from seeing the impact of high stakes testing on my school, my students and my colleagues. How does such a smart lady miss that? But she answers that as looking from an airplane can distort things. Diane deserves credit for seeing that research alone isn't enough but day-to-day teacher experience - the much maligned anecdotal - are never to be discounted.

Yes, I am from the "Don' need no stinkin' research school."

______________

Also read Diane's great review of Waiting for Superman:

The Myth of Charter Schools

___________________

Don't forget to check out tonight's radio show (unfortunately I have rehearsals for The Odd Couple). I hope you heard last week's show with Leonie. Both Arthur Goldstein and Diane Ravitch called in. Congrats to South Bronx Teacher who has gone from totally snarky to a major force in the anti-ed deform blogging and now radio world, while maintaining his humor and snarkiness. His continued growth and influence has been a pleasure to watch.

Fidgety Teach will be guest on South Bronx teacher radiocast Tuesday night at 9pm

She is Rubber Room inmate and now in purgatory at Court St. due to the vindictiveness of Kristine Mustillio.

Fidgety is a menschette.

The story about what was done is here:

http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/2010/10/very-special-internet-radiocast.html

The link to the radio show is here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bronx-teacher/2010/11/03/the-mind-of-the-bronx-teacher


http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com

Deb Meier on Teacher Unions and KIPP

From The Nation

TEACHERS' UNION

I'm rarely cheerful these days about matters that relate to schooling in America. But the decision by teachers at a KIPP NYC school to join the United Federation of Teachers, joining two other KIPP schools where the teachers are already union members, lifted my spirits. As the favorite flavor of school reform these days, KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) is perhaps the fastest-growing charter school network in the country. The organization of KIPP, which some schools are resisting, suggests that even those teachers attracted to "boot camp" reforms can see that America's young people shouldn't be in the hands of Ivy League volunteers who dedicate a few years "in passing" to education. Precisely out of loyalty to their students and to KIPP, some have begun to see teaching as a lifetime commitment that requires teachers' voices to be heard. A young KIPP teacher told me that he and his colleagues were looking to revise some aspects of the KIPP model as they became more experienced.

The organization of KIPP teachers refutes those who relentlessly and falsely suggest that unionism is a crutch only for weak teachers, or that without collective bargaining we'd easily produce good schooling for one and all. In some fifteen Southern states, teachers are denied the right to collective bargaining--and those states are among the lowest educational performers in the nation. What these KIPP teachers are telling us is that the best schools, regardless of their pedagogical philosophies, are those in which powerful and unafraid adults join the young to create powerful and unafraid schools.

DEBORAH MEIER

Klonsky and Meier on Arne Duncan

From Susan Ohanian

Obama’s Choice for Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, Seen as Compromise Between Divided Strands

by Mike Klonsky and Deborah Meier

Democracy Now
2008-12-18

http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8375

Susan says:
There is a lot of game-playing and positioning in this discussion. Is Mike Klonsky keeping his options open, or what? Duncan as a "centrist" candidate when he says?

I think Arne Duncan has the potential to be a good Secretary of Education, and I
think he has some real positives going for him.

Read Henry Giroux and Kenneth Saltman on Duncan's corporate brand of schooling and Obama's betrayal of public schools.


After reading Susan's comments I took a good look at what Deb Meier said. Read it all but here are just a few words and though I think she is being careful, she makes some important points:

So, first of all, I think we’re—it’s not two sides. It’s sort of a—it’s different views about the purpose of education, and there are different views about how human beings learn well. And I think there’s a very predominant view right now that gets—has been called by the name of reform and that has nothing to do with red and blue. It’s a kind of market view of education, though. And I
think there are a lot of people on the red side who are more close to my views and a lot of people of the blue side who are more close to Arne Duncan’s views. And that part does worry me, maybe even more than it does Klonsky, my friend Mike Klonsky, because it’s—I think we need a different discussion about what the point of education is.

[O]nce you’ve posed the issue as being union lackeys or reformers—and the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, a variety of magazines, as you mentioned earlier, have said there are two sides: unions lackeys, people who want to—who are worrying—you know, who are dependent upon the union, and on the other side are real reformers. I think it made it hard for the union to speak for its own membership on this question. And the history of reform has almost nothing to do—I shouldn’t say that. There has always been a struggle between these two wings in reform. But they have posed me as an anti-reformer, as though there are—since I’m not for market-style reforms, this testing mania, this narrow focus on prepping kids for a small selection of skills, that makes me a dupe of the union and an anti-reformer and someone who doesn’t care for the future of the economy or democracy. I think it’s been posed that way for so many years now.

Deborah Meier Nails What Teaching Is All About

Thursday's final forum of the year featured legendary educator Deborah Meier whose every word resonated with the audience, which was large and enthusiastic. From union democracy - yes, great teachers see more importance in unions than getting merit pay - to the lessons of the classroom to being active as a teacher - if you are too afraid to stand up against teaching lies, can you maintain your integrity as a teacher - she covered so much. And her relationship with Diane Ravitch too. I was mesmerized as she articulated so much of how I viewed teaching but have found it hard to express. A true kindred spirit who I hoped to meet up with as a young teacher but never connected with her.

We broke everyone - veteran teachers, new teachers, people studying to be teachers, etc. into groups and the discussions were wonderful. I taped as much of these as I could in addition to Deborah's presentation and will get this inspiring stuff up soon. Deborah left us with a vision of hope in these despairing educational times. So keep an eye out.