Category Archives: Uncategorized

There is a new documentary out that every teacher, parent, student and concerned citizen needs to watch. It is called Dying to Teach: The Killing of Mary Eve Thorson. Mary Thorson has been mentioned here before. She was the Illinois middle school teacher who committed suicide by standing in the path of an oncoming semi on Thanksgiving Day, 2011. She was only 32 years old.

The filmmaker, Myra Richardson, is herself a former Illinois school teacher whose career fell victim to the machinations of education reform. The film for Ms. Richardson has been a labor of love; love for Mary Thorson, a teacher she did not know personally but with whom she has a kinship nonetheless. Upon hearing the story of Mary Thorson, I too felt a kinship with her. I sense that most of us who teach for a living cannot help but identify with her tragic story.

This commentary was written by a veteran education advocate who must remain anonymous because of a career situation. All sources are cited.

The billionaire-funded education “reform” operation Parent Revolution recently announced that its longtime director, Ben Austin, is leaving. I’ve followed Parent Revolution (PRev) since the beginning, so to mark the occasion and the new year, I’m presenting some informal history and observations – including predicting the likely fizzle of yet another once-hailed fad.

PRev has fallen drastically short of its own projected impact. PRev created the “parent trigger,” whereby a 50%+1 majority of parents at a school can sign a petition forcing “transformation” of the school, or forcing it to close. The parent trigger was originally projected to turn many “failing” public schools into charter schools. In reality, since its founding in 2009, it has turned just one public school into a charter, inflicting ugly divisiveness on the community…

Anthony Cody’ book The Educator And The Oligarch meticulously documents the efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation’s efforts to “reform” public education.  But more than a well-researched book, Cody documents how his criticism of the Gates Foundation led to a public dialogue (through online posts) with the foundation about the efficacy of the Foundation’s intent to change public education.

If you’re looking for evidence about the Gates’ plan to reform schools, this is an excellent resource with 350 references to articles, books, public speeches, YouTube videos, online documents, and personal communications.  Cody does an excellent job of weaving in these references with classroom-based insights about what might happen to public education if Gates is successful.

In 2012 Cody “received an email from a highly placed individual in the Gates Foundation” (p. 55).  This opened a dialogue with officials in the Gates Foundation and led to a series…

Teachers: Refuse to be willing victims.

Parents: Refuse to be willing victims.

Children: Ask your parents and teachers to rescue you from being victims of the corporate education coup now occurring across America.

As school resumes in January, resumption of the despicable form of teacher/parent/children abuses must not resume. High stakes testing from K-12 is unlike anything experienced by any adult in America. The “new normal” is over ten years old and abnormal.

How can you and all of us overcome this billionaire boys club profit machine called education reform?

Stop the tests which stops the data which stops the highly profitable flow of money away from public education taxes into the pockets of wealthy multinational investors in the club.

What must we do to stop this abuse.

Attend and/or support the January 16-18 the United Opt Out National Conference: Standing Up for Action in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Panelists will…

I have decided to break precedent today. This is the only post you will see.

I wish you and your family a happy, healthy New Year. I hope that 2015 is a year of dreams fulfilled, mountains climbed, happiness achieved. I hope all of us are able to meet the inevitable challenges and setbacks with heart and fortitude. I hope we learn and practice the virtues of patient struggle, unflagging endurance, the ability to build alliances, and the willingness to seek common ground with others.

2014 was a rough year for me, physically, and I am glad to bid it farewell. I spent most of the year thinking I would never walk again without a walker or a cane. I’m happy to report that I am walking without either, thanks to the intervention of a wise rehabilitation specialist in Cincinnati who built a rigid (temporary) cast for my bum leg…

Thank goodness for Peter Greene, who finds the time to read reams of think tank reports and even the daily and weekly promotional materials produced by the U.S. Department of Education. He even reads the Department’s official blog, which regularly reminds the citizenry of what a good job the Secretary and the Department are doing, what a great contribution they are making to the improvement of American education.

Peter Greene came across a recent statement from Arne Duncan that is supposed to be his personal reflections on what he has learned as he traveled the country. Peter says he actually didn’t learn anything new. What he learned is that he has been right all along!

Peter writes:

Many people are unclear about the meaning of “learn.” Learning implies a change of state, a movement from not-knowing to knowing, from not-understanding to understanding. The world has a large supply of…

Politicians continue to fret about scores on tests and to ignore the causes of poor academic performance. They have this strange belief that more testing will raise test scores and that they need not address the underlying causes of low scores.

Consider this report from politico.com:

“THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA: Nearly half of U.S. children have gone through a traumatic experience like exposure to violence, economic hardship, family discord or mental health and substance abuse. And for the one in five children who’ve been through at least two traumatic experiences, the consequences can be dire, a study in this month’s issue of Health Affairs says. Those kids were twice as likely as their peers to have a chronic condition and special health needs. And they were 2.5 times more likely to repeat grades in school. The study: http://bit.ly/1stwY81

According to news reports, the new federal budget strips all funding from Race to the Top. Good riddance to one of the worst, most destructive federal programs in history. Historians will one day tell us who cooked up this assault on teachers and public schools. If states wanted to be eligible for part of Arne Duncan’s $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding, they were required to adopt the “college and career ready standards,” aka Common Core, even though no one had ever field tested them. States had to agree to evaluate teachers to a significant degree by student scores, even though there was no evidence for doing so. States had to open more charters, transferring control from public to private management. States had to create massive data systems to track students.

RTTT was an all-out assault on the teaching profession, public education, and student privacy.

Perdido Street…

Film-maker Brian Malone of Malone Media has completed a documentary about the corporate assault on public education. the film is called Education, Inc.

Please take a look at the trailer and let Brian know what you think. His email is brian@malonetv.com

Find it here:

https://www.facebook.com/edincmovie

Trailer