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Re: ‘Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire'
Posted:
Feb 22, 2007 7:02 PM
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> Kirby Posted: Feb 22, 2007 4:09 PM
> >None of the strategies I've just spelled out are
> >denied the "leafy" (I liked that) suburban schools
> >either, many of which wallow in an inferiority
> >complex compared to their big brother and sister
> >inner city counterparts, peeling paint
> >notwithstanding.
>
> I wonder what you mean.
I mean not every American city runs in the same ruts.
Here in Portland, we have these old inner city schools
that actually have a pretty strong reputation, with
more recently constructed schools in the leafy 'burbs
having no real call to feel superior, unless maybe
a propensity to snobbishness is simply inbred (a common
enough flaw).
> >As the article points out, there's a lot of pride in
> >being a part of some resistence, stereotyped on the
> >right as Marxist, as that's a dogma they're very
> >comfortable fighting, especially when today's kids
> >think you mean Groucho.
>
> If we can get anything straight, let's get this
> this straight. It is the ed school ayatollahs who
> say Freire is the way. Then, I read Freire (unlike
> you, evidently), and discover he is a garden variety
I've read some Freire. We've been around the flagpole
a number of times already.
> marxist. What am I supposed to think of the
> ayatollahs? So, you can just forget about my side
> "stereotyping" these guys as marxists. These guys
> are marxists, self-confessed.
I'm sure there are bona fide Marxists in the mix that
you fight.
> Unless the ayatollahs read Freire and they do not
> not recognize plain vanilla marxism when it bites
> them on the nose. Therefore, the ayatollahs either
> knowingly or unknowingly cleave to this failed
> ideology. I am not sure which is worse but, either
> way, get rid of them.
You'll find there's still a resistence though, based in
real world concerns, such as the existence of FEMA
villages long past their pull dates. Surely you don't
need a list of our nation's woes. Obviously, like that
Peace Treaty put it, the status quo is unacceptable.
You say vouchers, I say more cut throat competition
among the public schools (like in sports), and not just
among "the protected" (whatever that means).
> >...it's back to fighting his old nemesis (the other
> >Marx) and doing unsolicited promos for his
> >"protected" (whatever that means) model NYC schools
> >(which I'm sure must be wonderful).
>
> Now that hurt. I thought I explained "protected"
> rather well, and the concept is important. There
You said there was a statute in one case, a court order
in some other case. But don't feel you need to explain
any better. That's an internal affair of the Empire
State's, not necessarily a model of anything for the rest
of the country.
> were three, and now eight, high schools in NYC that
> everybody wants to get into, and tries if he thinks
> he has half a chance. Around 26,000 students compete
> for maybe 4,000 seats. Do you not find that
Sounds grossly inequitable, definitely not a system to
imitate or emulate in any way.
> interesting? Do you not want to know what it is
> about these schools that makes them so attractive?
Begging the question, but OK, tell us.
> And, are you not the least curious why, if the NYC
> population so much prefers these schools, why there
> are not two dozen more just like them? Or, really,
> why is not every high school like them?
I have a feeling we're about to find out...
> The short answer is that the ed school ayatollahs,
> and their running dogs in the DOPE ("Dept of
> Public Education"), loath these schools and do
> everything in their power to undermine them, so they
> certainly are not going to create more such schools
> if their hand is not forced. The only reason these
> schools remain in existence is because state law
> protects them from the DOPE. Get it? NY State
> government, in Albany, passed a law that says the NYC
> DOPE may not change the way certain, named high
> schools function. Do you not find that weird and
> revealing? Why would the state have to pass such a
> bizarre law? You may assume the worst.
I shall. New York State is like some mideaval despotic
serfdom, where a Fascist DOPE, run by running dog
Marxists and/or others in the Cult of Freire, do
everything in their power to keep schools under their
command from competing with the crem du la crem, which
need special protections to keep from being pulled under
by the jealous hoards.
Haim, a last bastion of good sense, heroically battles
these well funded orcs, now at and the very gates of
civilization, and otherwise known as Ayatollahs (if we'd
like to offend Persians) or Mafiosi (if the ethnic
Italians deserve our ire). But mostly they're just
Marxists, pure and simple. Easy to bully, easy to tease.
I'm amazed and agog at this little storm in a fish bowl,
and wonder if it anything to do with what goes on in the
rest of the country. Or has New York always been this
go it aloner, with its own history, its own destiny? I
think to some extent, that's the case. NYC is special,
and yes, very worthy of our love (despite all these
cultists in Marxist pajamas and their vigilant slayers,
like Zorro here, our masked Haim Pipsqueak or whatever
he calls himself).
> Mark Twain Middle School differs in some details
> but is otherwise analagous. This middle school
> (grades 6-8) is so attractive that quite young
> children bus in from all over Brooklyn (an enormous
> borough that would be, on its own, the 8th largest
> city in the U.S.) and from two other NYC boroughs,
> Queens and Staten Island, to attend this remarkable
> school. This school was brought into existence by a
> court order, and remains protected from the DOPE by
> that court order. I.e., in this case, it is a
> federal court that prevents the DOPE from having its
> nefarious way with the school.
>
> In case you are wondering, the case was,
> Hart v. Community School Board of Brooklyn
> 383 F supp 699 (EDNY 1/20/74 72C1041)
>
> I.e., final ruling came early in 1974, and the DOPE
> has not been able to do a thing about it since. (And
> not for lack of trying.)
>
> Finally, the two other really great schools in NYC
> NYC are the Hunter College schools (elementary and
> high school), but they are not NYC schools, at all.
> They are creatures of Hunter, a college in the CUNY
> system, and the schools are chartered by the state,
> even though they were chartered long before the
> charter school movement and they are not thought of
> as charter schools. They are more like the
> laboratory school of the now defunct University of
> Chicago School of Education.
The vocabulary is mushy here, and I encourage us to just
accept that all public schools come into being by
charter, of one kind or another. I think the term
"charter school" should be phased out as redundant, at
least within the public sphere. Like *of course* it's a
charter, what else would it be? The interesting
questions are more like *when*, *by whom*, *why* and
like that.
Anyway, your pointing to CUNY reinforces what I was
saying about lessons learned: local neighborhoods,
blessed with activist educators (like koreducators in
Portland), might network with local inner city colleges
to bring new charters into existence, wherein novel ideas
get tried, including more cross-enrollment in the higher
grades, i.e. more kids earning college credit earlier in
their careers. That's not a discovery unique to New
York, and it doesn't take a state standards movement to
make it happen.
> The important point is that the most successful
> schools in NYC are the ones that are, in one way
> or another, protected from the NYC DOPE. Either
> state law or a federal court says that the DOPE
> cannot control the schools, or the schools do not
> belong to NYC in the first place. They are protected
> from the DOPE. Protected schools. Get it?
I get it, but I also get that your specific drama in
NYC is of limited relevance, and I wonder if you're
entirely blind to that fact. I mean, even to confine
ourselves to the USA or UK or China or Japan would be to
think inside a box, relative to what "math-teach" might
cover as a list. The specific internals of New York,
while perhaps of some interest and relevance to the rest
of us, is not necessarily a smart guide (I think you'd
agree, as you describe it as very broken). After all,
you have all these cultish DOPErs to contend with. Poor
you. Good luck with that.
> >Also, Haim is typically ass-backwards in wanting to
> >control via money.
>
> Oh, and your theory is what? That you should do
> do whatever you like and we should foot the bill
> whatever it is? Great job if you can get it.
>
> Haim
> Je me souviens
I've told you before, we're not trying to get you to
foot our bills. DC is after us to help bail out Uncle
Sam, because of our Bonneville Power surplus, originally
committed to serving our needs in the Pacific Northwest.
We're not here to ask NYC for handouts, but nor should
you assume we're here to take note of NYC's druthers,
either, when it comes to charting a future. New York
publishing wastes a lot of wood pulp, from my standpoint.
We're not a huge client for your tree killer BDTs.
Kirby
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