Gates and Murdoch like to say their interest in education is because their big hearts mean they really must help the poor wee kiddies learn better. Funny how they weren’t so interested until profit could be made, but hey, I’m just a bit cynical these days. And it’s no wonder I am when you learn […]
All Lives Have Equal Value. Right, Bill and Melinda?
May 26, 2013 By 10 Comments
A letter from Susan DuFresne: Dear Bill and Melinda Gates, Yes, I include Melinda in this letter, because as I understand it, Melinda is very involved in the Gates Foundation’s ideas and policies on public education. Your influence has won you the Notorious PhD’s aka Mark Naison’s poll: Most Influential Corporate Reformer title. As a […]
Guest Post from Peggy Robertson: The greatest fight of our lives
May 12, 2013 By 8 Comments
From Peg with Pen. Show Peggy your support by commenting how much you want her to write for us on a regular basis. The admissions of error, the requests for moratoriums, the recognition that perhaps testing has gone too far, are running like wildfire in the last few weeks. We have Randi calling for a moratorium. […]
If Bill Gates had no money, who would listen to him about education reform?
May 11, 2013 By 10 Comments
In 2013, again, U.S. political leaders and the public appear disgusted with a public education system, but this sentiment has been with us since the Committee of Ten declared education inadequate in the 1890s. We must, then, come to terms with two facts: (1) We must drop Utopian claims about education because education is not the sole key to […]
Downton Billy
May 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Since Bill Gates and other billionaire boys and girls club members are dictating education policy and coming up with new and brilliant ideas such as, “the teacher is the most important” indicator of whether students learn, perhaps he can give us some more lessons on teaching. We can start lesson one on conspicuous consumption, […]
Gates and AFT: Together At Last
March 25, 2013 By 14 Comments
This article needs a few, okay, a lot of edits. So, I’m taking the liberty of rewriting it. Go ahead and read the original article first, and then let’s see if we can clarify the real message here. Randi Weingarten, president of the national teachers union, American Federation of Teachers, has famously been praising the Common […]
Children of the Core: Our Kids are at Risk
February 28, 2013 By 2 Comments
The more and more I see how the education “reform” movement is operating, the more it makes me ill. I wish I were exaggerating with that statement, but I’m not. Every time I hear about some millionaire telling us to increase class sizes, or some high-paid wannabe teacher tells us that teachers are the problem […]
A Kindergarten Teacher Stands Up to Bill Gates
February 17, 2013 By 3 Comments
An Open Letter to Bill Gates, By Ruth Rodriguez-Fay American education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas. The current obsession with making schools work like a business may be the worst of them, for it threatens to destroy public education. Who will stand up to the tycoons and politicians and […]
The Future is Disappearing…But Why?
February 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
In my soon-to-be-released, self-published book, I do my best to help parents, teachers, and others understand why the Common Core Network is so bad for our kids and our nation’s future. (This is not a shameless plug, I promise. I have a real question here.) It’s becoming common knowledge that the Common Core State Standards […]
Continuing skirmishes with CCSS cheerleaders on Diane Ravitch’s blog
December 29, 2012 By 1 Comment
“There is no evidence that standards and tests improve school achievement. The money budgeted for standards and tests to enforce the standards should be used to protect children from the effects of poverty.” — Professor Stephen Krashen The following is my edited commentary in response to comments by a CCSS supporter on the Professor Ravitch […]
Bill Gates and the Incubators
I know–it’s a great name for a band, but it is distinctly unmusical and no fun. It’s about destroying public schools and the teaching profession in urban areas where children of the poor will be grown and behaviorally groomed in segregated corporate welfare hothouses. Who makes these cozy corporate nests possible? The oligarchs and high […]