So says the Beginning With Children Charter School. Because they used to be a public school, they're bound by the awful UFT Contract, you know, the one that says teachers must be paid a certain number of dollars and work a certain number of hours. Because really, the entire point of being a charter is to do whatever the hell you feel like, pay whatever you like, and make teachers work 200 hours a week.

After all, if you don't do those things, where are you gonna find half a mil to pay an Eva Moskowitz or Geoff Canada? Who wants to work on some crummy principal's salary? A charter needs flexibility. Otherwise, how can you make your kids march for some political cause on a school day? How can you make the teachers come in on Saturday and Sunday for training in how to make the charter look better?

Nope, the best thing to do is just close the doors and give up. There's no money in an enterprise where working people have a contract. Maybe we could turn it into a public school, or just demolish the whole place, salt the ground, and make sure nothing ever grows there.

Because when you run a charter, you put children first. Screw the adults. And if they adults don't feel like working for free, if they insist on going home to their families and having, you know, lives and stuff, you can't put up with that! After all, the other charters don't have to pay those salaries or let teachers go home when they finish working.

So if you can't do it the way you want to do it, the thing to do is walk away. Screw the adults, of course. Let them go find other jobs, if they can. But you love the children. So, out of consideration, because you Begin With Children, when it's time to screw them, you do it last.

Let them go to some other school. If you can't get what you want, why the hell should kids get what they want either?

A few years back, Obama's basketball bud Arne Duncan opened his mouth, and out came words asserting that Katrina was the bestest thing ever to happen to education in New Orleans. This revealed several things. It spoke to a gross incomprehension, indifference, and insensitivity to human suffering. It also told us that our Secretary of Education was quite sanguine over the prospect of destroying not only union, but also public education if his BFFs could benefit financially.

Though it's been largely charterized, NOLA is still waiting for Superman, or whatever the secret sauce is that was promised by the corporatists who direct President Obama.  They have him taking vital actions like hiring lunkheads as education secretaries. This goes a long way to explain why our Prez did absolutely nothing about Duncan's outrageous remarks.

Last week, Duncan managed to reach a new plateau in ignorance, stating that Common Core would teach suburban white moms that their children are not as brilliant as they think. Obviously, singling out people by color is reprehensible, ignorant, and in itself merits Duncan's dismissal, even if he weren't as blitheringly incompetent as he clearly is. It's also sexist, of course. Most pointedly, it's a slur on our students. If a city teacher were to walk around sputtering idiocies of this sort in public, he or she would likely be facing A-421 charges of verbal abuse, and 3020a demanding dismissal.

But Duncan is different. Clearly one goal of Common Core is to persuade more well-to-do communities that their public schools suck and must be replaced by profitable corporate charters. Judging from the reaction in New York, this effort has been spectacularly unsuccessful. We know our children are not stupid simply because they did poorly on tests from Reformy John King and Silent Merryl Tisch. King and Silent Merryl, while encountering less rowdy crowds due to selective admission polices, are persuading no one who hasn't already bought into the corporate education agenda.

Some people are saying this is a clever ploy. He will go after the white suburban moms so that it will appear he isn't indifferent to urban minorities. Of course that's abject nonsense. Anywhere his BFFs can make a buck from a school closing or colocation, Arne will be there applauding. And doubtless when he steps down from the education gig, for which he is totally unqualified, there will be a golden parachute somewhere from the corporations he helped at the expense of our children.

The question then becomes this---Is this a clever ploy, or merely a stupid utterance? Either way, Duncan is unfit. He needs to be replaced, and with extreme prejudice. Otherwise, he'll be given a blank check to model his extreme prejudice against public schools. That's a quality that's 100% unacceptable for someone in his position.

 by guest blogger Fly on the Wall


It’s pretty well known that as Mayor Mike prepares to exit office, many Tweed officials are looking for new jobs. Mark Sternberg already went to Walmart. The DOE also doesn’t want its emails made public.

Why the NSA-like secrecy? Isn’t this the era of accountability? A convo with a highly placed DOE official might explain this frantic effort to hide its internal emails.

The time: in the recent past
The place: Not disclosed to protect privacy

The convo between persons A, B, and C:

A: “I graduated from Jamaica High School, before it closed.”

B: “Oh really, did you know ___? He taught there.”

A: “Yeah I did, don’t remember much about his class, it was a long time ago.”

C: “You know why they closed Jamaica High School right?”

A: “Because it was in a bad neighborhood?”

C: “No. There’s plenty of really bad schools in really bad neighborhoods the DOE never touches. The DOE has this secret list that they circulate every year. It’s super-secret like no one outside the top deputies see this list.”

A&B: “What’s the list?”

C: "It’s called where the Desirable Acreage List. They examine how big the building is, if there’s a campus, if there’s a track field, parking nearby … And Jamaica kept popping to the top of the list every year because they liked the building. So they went after it.”

A: “We did have a nice building with a track field ...”

C: “Yeah, that’s the real reason they went after Jamaica in particular. It didn’t have anything to do with graduation rates or school performance or anything like that. It has to do with desirable acreage. They still have that list, and they’re co-locating schools they tried to close if they have desirable acreage."

B: “And if you can’t close, co-locate.”

C: “Exactly. Co-locate. But first they have to evaluate the building to see if anyone would even want to co-locate there.”

A&B: “Wow.”

C: “So yeah, that’s the super-secret list the DOE won’t ever show anyone. Why they close schools."

While I face dozens of complaints about the new paradigm of endless observations, incessant testing, and listening to King and Silent Merryl recite that they understand, they really understand, but are prepared to do nothing, I continually wonder what the UFT is doing about it.

Here's what I know for sure:

1. We support Common Core.
2. We support the rating of teachers via junk science VAM.
3. We support endless observations.
4. We'd like them to kind of slow down a bit, and hope it becomes marginally less awful under Bill de Blasio.

This is not inspiring to my colleagues or me. Yesterday I was speaking to a supervisor about the Wednesday night rally in Mineola. She asked me why I don't get more involved in the central union. That was actually the most interesting question anyone had asked me for a while.

There are only a few ways to be involved in the union. You can be independent, like I am, and blog, and write for anyone that will publish you, shout from the rooftops, and hope for the best. You can even stand for chapter leader. But once people realize you aren't Unity, you can't get recognized in the DA. If you're called on by mistake, you may perhaps inspire some hilarious joke. A few months ago I saw a guy who questioned the Thompson endorsement being told he didn't believe in democracy.

The other way is to join the Unity Caucus. Then, you can go to conventions, get the coveted decoder ring, and learn the secret handshake. You can go to their meetings, you can wear a fez or do whatever it is they do. Nobody much knows what that is, since they're not talking and most members don't even realize they exist. To join Unity, you pledge that you will support all Unity positions in public. In effect, once you get in, you aren't allowed to express your own opinions in public, unless they happily coincide with those of the caucus.

Can you imagine being a chapter leader and having to support Common Core, VAM, mayoral control and endless observations? I'd hide in the basement if I were sworn to do that. Though there's an NEA poll suggesting that teachers overwhelmingly support Common Core, they clearly didn't ask any teachers in my building. I do not know a single one who supports it. Not one. And I'm seeing parents of young children, people who never gave a crap about union activity whatsoever,  furious about it. They tell me mostly about articles I've already read, but now they're telling me bearded karate guy/ troglodyte Chuck Norris is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. I'm really relieved my kid is now a senior (and yes, in a public high school).

I realize that a majority of the 14% of working teachers who bothered to vote selected the Unity Caucus. I realize that the retirees, who shouldn't be voting for anything but retiree matters, love it when they come down to Florida and give them free lunch.

But getting a voice in the UFT is a tough thing. Either shout from the rooftops until you're hoarse, or join the cabal, go to a few conventions, and shut the hell up.

It's Catch 22. The best catch there is.

I'm the chapter leader of a very large school. As a consequence, people complain to me about everything. Why doesn't the faucet work in the ladies' room? How come the kid in my third row hasn't been suspended? Why can't you get us a new contract?

I muddle through as best I can, and I get a little better at it each year. I help everyone I can, and if I can't, I can usually find someone who can. But the questions this year are fundamentally different.

Where has the joy gone, they ask. I used to think it was a privilege to have this job and to be able to teach these kids. Now they give me reading lists of things neither I nor anyone in the known universe wants to read. You know, they don't want joy. They want rigor. Who the hell wakes up in the morning and wishes for rigor? Do people other than John King walk around wishing one another a rigorous day?

Teachers come to me and talk of their children. They used to love school. Now they pretend they're sick and don't even want to get out of bed. Should 8-year-old children be behaving like that? My daughter used to read every night. Now she does homework until ten or eleven o' clock and doesn't have time for that. My son can't understand the math in his book. I had to go to his school, pretend he had left something in his desk, and photograph every page of his math book on my iPad. Then I had to get someone to explain it to me so I could explain it to him.

Now administrators are complaining to me. This is unusual because my job is supposed to entail complaining to them. They ask what I'm going to do about it. My kid has given up. He demands to go out and play with his friends. I refuse until he finishes his homework, but rather than do so, he'll sit in his room motionless until bedtime.

My kid's teacher is teaching history by posting 5 million facts on the board. My kid's supposed to memorize them and regurgitate them for the test. This is what passes for high-level thinking under Common Core. Teachers are beaten down. Children are beaten down. And at forums across the state, John King and Merryl Tisch are shouted down. They say, "We hear you," and happily do the same thing. They don't need to worry because their kids go to private schools that don't treat children like this.

I have never seen so many people so dispirited and beaten down. I don't feel it for myself because I'm kind of fatalistic. I've had a good run, I still love what I do, and I am 100% positive I know better than Tisch, King or Gates what my students need. If they fire me for junk science, so be it. I'll get by.

But whatever they do, I will do everything in my power to get the truth out, and to make sure children and teachers who come after us don't have to suffer through such nonsense. King and Tisch can sit and pretend to listen today, tomorrow, or a hundred times more.

But those of us who care about education will not shut up, will not give up, will not give them one moment's peace until their agenda serves us and our children, rather than Gates, Walton, Broad, and all the other billionaires who wouldn't spit on us or our children if we were on fire.

NY Governor Andrew 1% Cuomo has decided he will work with Bill de Blasio, our newly-elected mayor, to make pre-K available for all city students. But he doesn't much like the part about people who make over $500K paying a little bit more in taxes. After all, Governor Andy has principles. He killed NY State's millionaire tax, because it's simply not fair that people making that sort of money should pay any more.

For one thing, have you seen the price of yachts lately? And don't get me started on strings of polo ponies. It's getting so you can barely afford to charter a private aircraft anymore. Sure, first-class reservations are OK, but they're simply not the same.

So Andrew Cuomo, the student lobbyist, is making sure the vulnerable rich people, so delicate they could break if you touched them, won't have to contribute an extra dime toward educating the kids who most need it. How will he find the money to avoid this tax increase? Maybe he'll take money away from older kids. Or maybe he'll hit their parents.

The important thing is, in 2016, when Governor Andy is competing with Chris Christie, or some other servant of the plutocracy, for the big bucks, he can't be seen as the guy who enabled a moderate tax increase to support our impoverished and needy children. Because Governor Andy is the neediest guy in the state. Sure, a typical New Yorker can get by on a modest salary, but Governor Andy needs millions, billions, gazillions to be nationally competitive.

It's a question of principles. Governor Andy's dad, Mario, took a principled stand against capital punishment. This was one of the things that eventually cost him his office. Governor Andy has taken a principled stand that nothing will stop his political career. And while the folks who fund him can forgive that he shacks up with the world's worst cook, they cannot spare one red cent to support New York's poorest children.

That's beyond the pale. And that's why he's Governor 1%.

It's vital that we enact Common Core Standards immediately. That's why Reformy John King has actually been compelled to go out there and listen to parents and teachers before ignoring them utterly as per usual. Because without the valuable lip service of New York's education commissioner, where would we be?

More importantly, there are books and supplies to be sold. Common Core is the only way we can teach our children to think critically, and those of us who haven't been trained in it will never know how to question anything. As Reformy John says, in front of God and everybody, anyone who doesn't like it is a "special interest." Perhaps, given they're getting in the way of the healthy commerce caused by Common Core, such opponents are communists or worse! It's too bad they haven't been trained in the essential critical thinking skills of Common Core, or they'd know that now is the time to sit down and shut up.

As John King likes to point out, this is an emergency. We haven't got time to worry about whether or not Common Core does any of the things he claims it does. We can't take time to question it, or wonder whether or not it works. And if it's damaging to our children, that's just part of the cost of business. If three of four of them fail and are traumatized by it, so be it. This is the price of opposing the status quo! Our children need this even if it's total crap, because doing nothing is not an option. And by our children, I don't mean John King's children, who go to a Montessorri school.

That's just one reason why it doesn't matter at all if the Pearson materials we pay billions for are riddled with errors. That's just another incidental cost of business. The only way we can solve the crisis that Reformy John King says we're in is to buy the materials at full price and use them anyway.

Because how can we teach kids to be critical thinkers if we don't use low quality crappy materials that they can criticize?

I'm pretty lucky in that I teach English as a second language. Apart from the fact that my students are amazing, interesting, and unpredictable, they generally have an intrinsic motivation. If you want any sort of worthwhile future in the United States, you really have to learn English. If you're an aspiring dishwasher, I suppose you could do without it as long as your boss speaks your language. Otherwise, there just aren't a whole lot of options.

I'm also certified by NY State to teach Spanish, but I've rarely done it. I always think it must be very tough to make English-speaking high school kids want to learn another language, particularly if they're just dumped into the class for no special reason. We are not good language learners, and it's precisely because we live in a huge country and have to travel pretty far to need another language. Europe is different. England, for example, is just about the size of New York State.

So why do you need a second language? My wife and daughter found out the other day. There's a new gym opening up in our town, and they both went in to check out what sort of deals they had. While they were in there, a group of Spanish-speaking people happened to walk in. The staff didn't speak Spanish, so my wife and daughter stayed there for quite a while helping them fill out forms and answering questions.

When the Spanish-speakers finally left, the folks at the gym offered both my wife and daughter jobs, and said if they worked there they could use the gym for free. My 17-year-old daughter, in particular, is thrilled, and agreed to work Monday through Thursday nights. She needs an awful lot of money, apparently.

She was heartbroken when her miserable cur of a father informed her she could work two weeknights maximum. It did not exactly spread cheer through the NYC Educator household. But I'm pretty proud of her, and I think she will do well and learn a lot.

I look at the Danielson Rubric and I see an awful lot about engaging the students. Active, happy kids are a big plus if they're using the Danielson Rubric. You want them to be asking questions on their own, to know there are procedures in place, and to remind one another what they are. You want them in groups, and you want the groups established for some reason or other.

And yet, Common Core is all about rigor. You read how David Coleman, or whatever expert they have this week, says no one wants to know how kids feel. That's not important. The important thing is to get them to read archaic documents with language no one uses anymore, and to have them answer incredibly difficult questions. And just in case they accidentally slip in anything that's fun in any way, you will analyze it so deeply that every last drop of fun will be utterly squeezed out of it.

I always thought how people feel is important. In fact, I thought if you read things that touched your feelings in some way, you'd like them better. I always try to find things like that for kids to read, so that reading becomes a positive experience for them. Yet now, with Common Core telling us that To Kill a Mockingbird is for fourth graders, we need to have them read incredibly tedious and difficult things or it won't be rigorous enough.

I love to read. Left to my own devices, I prefer fiction. I can do non-fiction too if I'm interested. In fact, if I'm not interested, I can plod through whatever. I read quite a few things for college that I didn't particularly adore. Beowulf springs to mind somehow.

I'm trying to imagine how I'd run an exciting or interesting class if I had to teach Beowulf to ESL students. Or if we sat and read train schedules. What time will NYC Educator reach the moon if he forces 34 teenagers at a time to read tedious crap? What sort of message are we sending our kids if we force them, from the time they're children, to read tedious crap?

The best readers are those who love to read. I don't know of little kids who fantasize about reading law books. I do know people who want to be lawyers, people who read everything, and then read the law books when they're required. But before you make the kids read "rigorous" (read "tedious") things, it's smart to make them love reading rather than hate it.

Then they'll be successful, instead of bitter and frustrated. That's why Reformy John King sends his own children to Montessori Schools, that's why Obama sends his to Sidwell Friends, and that's why Merryl Tisch pays private school tuition, even for the offspring of the help.

Yesterday I went to a PD session in which we looked at the senior English test, a test that counts not for the kids taking it, but rather for the teachers giving it. This is important to us because, as ESL teachers, our students who tested advanced will have to take the test, the test to test the teachers, the test they give before the test to test whether the teachers prepared the kids to to take the test again. You see, fully two days of instruction are lost as we explore whether or not your teachers suck, and if so, just how sucky they may be.

This particular test to test the teachers before the test is an argumentative essay. This, we're told, is completely different from a persuasive essay. Why? Well, in a persuasive essay, I would just make an argument and try to persuade you to accept it. Ah, you say, that's an argumentative essay? Well, you're completely wrong. In fact, I learned yesterday that in an argumentative essay, you give the counter argument and explain why it sucks even worse than the teachers who failed to demonstrate that their students could improve on the test after the test to test the teachers before the test.

What's really great about this test is it has almost a full page of instructions. There's nothing I like better, if I'm an ESL student who doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of English, than spending hours looking up words in a bilingual glossary. That doesn't cramp my style at all. What's style?

You need not concern yourself with style at all if you're in my class. If you're in my class, and there's a gun to my head, and Chancellor Walcott is saying, "Make this non-English-speaking kid pass or I'll shoot," I might whimper a small protest. "But...but the kid doesn't know English!" Naturally the Chancellor would reply, "The test says the kid is advanced, and I paid a billion dollars for Pearson to design it, so no more excuses!"

Well, with that gun to my head, I'd figure out just how that kid could pass that test in the fewest paragraphs possible.

1. Introduction
2. Opposing argument and why it sucks
3. Reason 1 my argument is the bestest, supporting details
4. Reason 2 my argument is the bestest, supporting details
5. (for ambitious, or really advanced students only) Reason 3 my argument is the bestest, supporting details
6. conclusion

And that's about it. I didn't bring the entire list of instructions home with me, as I can fit just so much crap in my house. And I wouldn't want to complicate my prescribed plan for the students, as they can fit just so much crap in their heads. But yes, if you're going to fire me if they don't know it, I will teach them this crap. I've taught kids how to pass many exams that required formulaic crap.

It's too bad. If anyone ever asked me to, I'll bet I could teach kids how to write instead.

Not only is Meryl Tisch chancellor of the NY State Board of Regents, she's also chairwoman of the the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. Because really, controlling the education of millions of NY State children is kind of a part-time gig. When you're as rich as Meryl Tisch, you need time to play polo, to shoot skeet, to go fox-hunting, and of course you have to run a few charities. It's just what you do.

Naturally, you haven't got time to actually do any work at these jobs, because you're busy. There are gala luncheons and charity balls, there are clothes to have tailored, and vacations to plan. There are homes to redesign and servants to chastise. So you hire people to work for you. But good help is so hard to get nowadays. I mean, here you are paying some character half a million bucks a year to run the charity you're supposed to be in charge of, and he runs off and steals a few million.

And for a few lousy million, the papers are all, "You're incompetent," and "You're irresponsible," and "How can you run a school system if you can't even pay attention to what's going on in your own backyard?" I mean, the audaciousness! Who do these people think they are?

And you're kind to your inferiors. You pay private school tuition for them because, for goodness sakes, those public schools are just awful! And you know, because you run them. The fact is, even criminals who mix in our circles ought not to have to consort with the bootless and unhorsed in those public schools.

And now they criticize you for that as well! These daily periodicals are so vulgar! Why did you get involved in this whole Regents thing anyway? You could be wintering in the south of France! Then you wouldn't have to go to those awful dinners at Governor Andy's house with Sandra Lee cooking Spicy Spam Surprise, and making those awful drinks with the gaudy umbrellas.

You give and give and give, but for goodness sake, there's a limit!

For my money, Perdido Street School is one of the very best NYC education blogs. I see things regularly I'd never know about if I weren't following him. For example, you won't learn that Bill de Blasio met with Rahm Emanuel over at Gotham Schools. It's certainly worth considering, as Rahm is clearly the scum of the earth, among the very worst of the faux-Democrats working people have to endure. While I'd rather de Blasio passed his time with people who are less insane, I have no idea what they discussed, and I don't think working teachers should let that influence their votes. Here's why:

1. You have no choice. De Blasio's opponent, Joe Lhota, thinks Mayor Bloomberg is a swell fella, loves his policies, and wants to double down on charter schools. He thinks skin color is a fine reason to stop and frisk people on the street, and wants to continue the Emperor's policies. He wants to continue the disastrous policies of closing schools rather than trying to improve them. He also wants to make sure people making over a half-mil per year don't pay another dime in taxes.

2. There's no evidence de Blasio is like Obama. A lot of us have buyer's remorse about President Hopey-Changey, who told the NEA he'd do it, "with ya, not to ya," and then appointed corporate crud Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Obama clearly favored charters and said so. He was supported by DFER. There was plenty of evidence about how reformy he was, but in 2008, many of us held our noses and hoped for the best. What has de Blasio said about charters? He's said he would charge Eva Moskowitz and pals rent. He's spoken out against colocation, and he wants to end the divisive and baseless letter-rating of schools.

3. De Blasio stands with unions. Last Friday I went to a rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall and listened to de Blasio speak about how union builds communities and middle class. He said he would end the policy of vilifying those of us who help run the city. He painted us as helping rather than hindering the city's progress, and promised this...

“I will start by actually liking the people who do the work.”

And also, de Blasio told UFT members at the Waldorf that he envisioned a city...

"where (teachers are) honored, you're respected, your work is put on the pedestal it should be put on, you're told every day by a mayor and a chancellor: we need you, we appreciate you, we thank you and we'll work together with you to help every single child in this city."

4. While de Blasio doesn't commit to retroactive pay, we are two contracts behind. Every teacher wants a raise, not having had one for five years. But Emperor Bloomberg opted to screw us in the 2008-2010 round of pattern bargaining, in which almost every other union got an unconditional 8% raise. Whatever crap pattern they offer in the next round will be seriously endangered if they decide to drop pattern bargaining by failing to offer it to us. For example, if the new pattern is 0, 0, 2 or some other such nonsense, there will be no reason for other unions to fall in line if the new mayor decides not to enforce the pattern. We are also involved in non-binding arbitration with PERB, for whatever that's worth, but whatever they decree, messing with the pattern could be enormously costly to the city.

Politicians and politics being what they are, there are no guarantees. Lily Tomlin said, "No matter how cynical you get, you just can't keep up." She's right. And I understand we can make mistakes. When UFT endorsed Thompson, it made sense to me. Wiener was then in first place, and I was sure he was the only person who could make Lhota mayor. But once de Blasio surged I refused to work against him. So did a lot of UFT folks I know (including some pretty staunch Unity members).

But the best thing we can do now is make sure we get out and give Bill de Blasio a landslide victory for the policies he publicly supports. I say vote early, vote often, and vote for Bill de Blasio.

And one more thing--the next mayor will be the first mayor with children in NYC public schools!

Today at Perdido Street School, we see one of the most absurd conceivable uses of Common Core Curriculum--rating classic books by  grade level. Reality-Based Educator quotes another fine publication:

Here’s a pop quiz: according to the measurements used in the new Common Core Standards, which of these books would be complex enough for a ninth grader?

a. Huckleberry Finn
b. To Kill a Mockingbird
c. Jane Eyre
d. Sports Illustrated for Kids' Awesome Athletes!
The only correct answer is “d,” since all the others have a “Lexile” score so low that they are deemed most appropriate for fourth, fifth, or sixth graders. This idea might seem ridiculous, but it’s based on a metric that is transforming the way American schools teach reading.

It's almost inconceivable anyone would dream to rate books this way, but in 2013, in the United States of America, Bill Gates thinks it's a good idea. Therefore Arne Duncan and Reformy John King also think it's a good idea, and unless you're a "special interest," like a teacher or parent, you should too. I'm not trained in Common Core and am therefore an ignorant galoot who doesn't appreciate anything, but I'm a pretty avid reader. There's a quote that I heard as a child that has stayed with me for a long time:

Any damn fool can get complicated. It takes a genius to attain simplicity.
~Woody Guthrie

To me, this means if you can communicate with a large group of people you're doing a better job than you are if only few people understand, or care to understand you. There's a reason people still sing This Land Is Your Land decades after Woody's death, and that reason has nothing to do with the amount of large words Woody chose to insert. There's a reason people will still read To Kill a Mockingbird years after the silly sports book has been forgotten.

But alas, to the geniuses who invented Common Core, the qualities that make a work classic are of no consequence whatsoever. The important thing is to use as many unfamiliar, archaic and difficult words as possible. Because to them, the more tedious crap a kid can manage to slog through, the better a student it makes the kid. I've had multiple parents of young children tell me this year, the first of Common Core around here, their kids who used to love to read now cry at night and fake being sick in the morning to avoid school. That's a shame.

It's our job to inspire children, to make them love life, to make them appreciate what we have to offer so they themselves can offer something someday. Common Core doesn't understand that. A favorite book series of mine is The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency. It uses simple language, and manages to convey wisdom and humor while doing so. I've been able to teach it to ESL students, who loved it.

If you can trick kids into loving reading, they'll be more likely to read on their own, and to excel even when they need to slog through the tedious crap we all have to encournter. I went to college and had my fair share of professors who made me purchase books of awful essays just because they happened to have written one. I did what I had to do, got through the coursework, and sold or tossed the unmemorable volumes.

But that was only because I grew up in a house full of novels and mystery books. I read whatever my parents left lying around, and it was almost invariably more interesting that whatever my teachers prescribed. Kids without this advantage need teachers who will give them high-interest reading, not arbitrary crap deemed to be their level simply because it contains a lot of words.

It's tragic that ignorant, unimaginative non-educators are now dictating what our children will do in school. Is this really making them college-ready? More likely it's making them Walmart-Associate ready, or why would Gates, Walton, and Broad be ponying up for this crap?

They don't use it on their kids.

Why in the hell are we tolerating their experiments with ours?

John King just took a trip to Port Chester, New York. Speaker after speaker told him they were dissatisfied with Common Core, teacher evaluations, and the clueless way in which New York pushed reformy nonsense on everyone. No one stood up to tell him what a great job he was doing. However, after that, Reformy John stood up and announced that student privacy was fine and that he would make no substantive changes whatsoever.

After all, the last time people dared speak their minds, they didn't mind their tone. Reformy John told them the Montessori schools he sent his kids to subscribed to Common Core, even though they didn't, and then canceled all the other scheduled meetings. After all, these meetings were attended by "special interests," which is how Reformy John sees parents, teachers, and anyone else who dares criticize Very Important Reforms that will Make Money for his BFFs.

After not one single person spoke in his favor, Reformy John looked into his magic mirror and came to the conclusion that there was "consensus" about Common Core.

"I don't see it as a particularly divisive moment," he told The Post-Standard at the opening of WCNY's new headquarters on West Fayette Street. "I actually think what is most striking is the degree of consensus we see as a country around where we need to take education."

You see, if you are Reformy John King, you don't give a golly goshdarn what people say on your listening tour.  You listen the same way Michael Bloomberg listens at PEP meetings, where hundreds of people get up and object to your policies and you do whatever the hell you please. John King only listens to Bill Gates, DFER, Pearson, Walmart and Broad. They put their billions where their mouths are and are therefore not special interests.

It's amazing he has the audacity to ignore absolutely everyone who comes out to speak to him. How long are we going to put up with politicians who not only ignore us, but get up in front of God and everyone and lie about what they hear?

Let's send Reformy John back to his magic mirror, where he can look at himself as long as he likes. For education commissioner, let's look for someone who can actually comprehend viewpoints other than those spouted by Bill Gates.

I didn't much enjoy it, and she didn't much look like Olivia Newton-John. The first thing I thought of when I heard she was coming was a living room rug that used to belong to my grandfather. My daughter and I rolled it up and brought it up to the attic, where it sat for a few months.

Then she and my wife and I drove to my sister-in-law's house to wait out the storm. My mother-in-law got it in her head that the house was going to be hit by a tree, and she was pretty vocal about it. I got on my laptop and was pretty surprised to find two rooms in the Hampton Inn in Garden City. They were maybe 200 bucks a night, which I thought was pretty steep. But we went, and they actually had power for an hour or two. Nothing quite like

When we got back home the next day, the streets near our house were still flooded. Somehow my daughter and I had found long rubber boots, and we walked through the water to what was left of our home after six feet of water flowed through it. On the way, we met two Newsday photographers who were taking photos of photos flowing through the water.

But when we looked at the photos, they turned out to be photos of my family and my mom's family. My daughter and I spent the next two or three days hunting for photos, and we accumulated a whole bag of them. Daughter said she would scan them all, but has thus far not kept that promise.

Six weeks later, we had all new walls, floors, furniture, ceilings and appliances in most of our house. Nothing like a natural disaster to inspire a remodel. It's pretty nice now, but if I had it to do over, I probably wouldn't move so close to the water.

Six weeks felt like forever, but I now know we got back fairly quickly. I know people who were out of their homes for six months or more. I know others who actually tore down and rebuilt their homes. And I now see on TV a lot of people who still haven't gone back. So I suppose we're pretty lucky.

I just keep waiting for Reformy John King to get on TV and claim Sandy was the best thing to happen to NY education, like his role model Arne Duncan said about Katrina and New Orleans. Can you believe anyone who said something that monumentally stupid is the head educator in the United States?

Aside from our recovery, one more thing for which I'm thankful is that Arne Duncan is not my kid's teacher.

I watched the hearings last night broadcast over the internet from Port Chester, NY. It appeared to me that parents there, while not raising their voices quite as much, had precisely the same concerns as the Poughkeepsie parents Reformy John labeled "special interests." The standards, they said, were rolled out without any proof of their validity, there is incessant testing, first graders are circling multiple choice answers instead of learning--you know, the usual nonsense that does nothing to help Pearson's bottom line.

The woman who moderated regularly scolded the troublesome parents to stop talking, that their two minutes were up, and got impatient when people who'd waited three hours to speak demanded the chance. She then spoke about how wonderful it was that King John gave them an additional few minutes rather than turning them away like dogs.

This article, evidently trying to be "balanced," appears to quote extensively from some Common Core propaganda sheet or other in between reporting what real people actually said:

Common Core is a state-led effort that seeks to provide consistent standards and appropriate benchmarks for all students, regardless of where they live, and prepare them for college and the workforce. It is a product of bipartisan effort by the National Governors and the Council of Chief State School Officers and was developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators and experts.

I'm wondering who those teachers were. Certainly no one ever consulted me or anyone I know. I also suppose, as did one of the speakers, that neither I nor anyone I know was prepared for college, since I've never been exposed to the wonders of Common Core. The article also quotes someone who didn't actually speak in order to provide a pro-Common Core point of view. But the speakers I heard had no love for it, or for Reformy John. One demanded, to applause, that he be fired.

King John said the state was doing a swell job protecting student privacy. I trust the King about as far as I can throw him. Leonie Haimson, who actually cares about public school children, says otherwise, and I believe her.  Reformy John also said would entertain minor changes, but that he was fully committed to both Common Core and junk science evaluations.  I would very much like to see King committed, but I'd prefer it be to an institution from which he can do no further harm to our students.

It appears to me all we got from the King last night was the lip service he saw as beneath him in Poughkeepsie. I don't believe he will entertain the UFT's request for a moratorium on high stakes, as that might somehow affect the bottom line of Pearson and his other billionaire BFFs to whom he answers. Ex-NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was able to take his position and get a cool gig working for Murdoch. Why would King want to jeopardize his golden parachute simply because his programs fail the students, parents, and teachers of New York State?

After all, tuition at those fancy Montessori schools doesn't grow on trees, and the King doesn't want to have his own kids stuck in the same drill and kill system he so passionately defends for ours.

Today I played fiddle for a band at Terrhune Orchards in Princeton, New Jersey. There was apple picking and pumpkin painting and all sorts of kid-friendly stuff so I brought not only my family, but also a friend and her 3-year-old daughter. It's a nice day trip for kids, though I'm not sure how much longer they'll be doing it. It was a bit on the cold side out there.

We had to play four hours, and on the way back we were starving. Route 1 is full of chain restaurants and we picked the one that offended the most people the least. They had Sam Adams Octoberfest on tap, which made it seem a little better than it really was. But what I really noticed was the family that took the booth next to us.

They had two young children, one of whom was crying loudly. A waitress tried to calm her down, telling her about the wonderful coloring contest they were having, but she was having none of it. In fact, she wouldn't calm down until Mom and Dad plopped a laptop in front of her and started playing video on it. Their son, a little older and a little calmer, knew how to open his and was  already wearing his earphones, oblivious to the noise little sister was making.

I watched these two kids, no more than seven years old, and felt relieved they lived in Jersey. It's likely no one I know will ever have to teach them. They cannot sit down for more than one minute without being entertained, and appear to have every expectation that's what will happen each time they sit down. They don't talk to Mom and Dad except to cry until their laptops are opened and their earphones are placed on their heads. And they eat while they watch their laptops.

I get irritated when my daughter takes out her phone to text someone when we're eating. She thinks I'm nuts, and I'm not saying she's wrong. But we don't do that at the table.

I wonder how those young children will behave when they're at school, and expected to actually interact with people. It looks to me like Mom and Dad find that inconvenient and have taught them there's no need for it.

What an odd thing to teach your children.

Last night we had parent-teacher conferences. I always like to meet parents face to face, even if I don't speak their languages. As an ESL teacher, I spend half my conference time frantically searching for translators. I can speak Spanish, but that's about it. Our school hires a bunch of translators, but some are in great demand and I drag students or anyone I can find to help.

Yesterday I was pretty lucky. One of my new students speaks a language I don't, but her mom spoke perfect English. She told me she was born here, but moved to another country.  Her daughter grew up there, but last year they moved back here.

She enrolled her daughter in a religious school run by people from her national background. But she claimed her daughter spent a whole year there and learned nothing. I found that hard to believe. I asked how that could be. Apparently, almost all the people in that school were American-born. The teachers said, "Oh, she doesn't speak English," and pretty much dumped her in a corner by herself.

The girl was miserable. She cried every night, and begged Mom to take her back to her country. For this, Mom paid $5,000.

This year she came to our school. She was placed in the beginning ESL class, but three days ago was transferred into my near-beginner class. She took a seat between three Spanish-speaking girls who I'd previously deemed inseparable. I'd actually wanted to break them up and use them as buffers between people of our primary language group, but they thwarted my plan by behaving fairly well and speaking English virtually all the time. The new girl is best buddies with them, and now they all speak English exclusively.

She's very happy. She wakes up eager to go to school. She participates avidly, and I'm confident she will do well in my class. Her attitude strongly suggests she'll learn English quickly and do well in other classes as well. Mom is over the moon at her newly well-adjusted and contented child.

"I should have sent her to public school in the first place," concluded Mom. The papers can trash us from here to eternity, but we know how kids like that need to be treated. Clearly not everyone does.

This comment from professional Unity-New Action apologist Peter Goodman appears at Gotham Schools:


It's a fact that VAM has never proven to be effective, and it's a fact that anyone who fails the junk science part of this plan must be rated ineffective overall. It's another fact that city teachers can get those ratings based on test results of kids they've never met, let alone taught. No one even understands this system we have, and I see no evidence that Goodman is the exception that proves the rule. In case he thinks those stats preclude problems for teachers over junk science VAM, take a good look at Syracuse.

In Syracuse, for example, fully 40 percent of the teachers were deemed to be “developing” or “ineffective” and must create improvement plans — a much higher failure rate than most school systems.

The "guys and gals" who "negotiated" the plan on the union side left it in the hands of John King, in case anyone forgot, and are busily reminding us the plan they'd negotiated with DOE was better. This, of course, is after they assured us this plan was great because we could negotiate it, which we did not. According to Gotham Schools, arbitrator John King imposed more evaluations than either DOE or UFT wanted.

Previously, UFT leadership assured us this plan was great because it was only 40% junk science rather than 50. Like many people, I was surprised to learn that 40 equals 100 when you fail. Frankly, I don't sense UFT credibility on this with working teachers is all that strong anymore.

Illuminating though can be to get the insights of someone long out of the classroom who supports UFT policies all the time no matter what, mayoral control, which we also supported, hasn't worked well for us. Common Core, with no field-testing whatsoever, isn't working out all that great either. Don't just go by teachers--ask parents who watch their young children grappling with developmentally inappropriate tasks. UFT calls for a moratorium on high stakes fall on the same deaf ears that call parents "special interests." If the "guys and gals" did such a swell job, why do we even need a moratorium?

With all due respect, comments like Goodman's don't reflect the remotest notion of what's going on out here with those of us who actually work for a living. While I'm beginning to see this as UFT party line, I hope for all our sakes they come up with something better.

I pity the chapter leader who has to tell members facing high-stakes evaluation, "Take a deep breath, the guys and gals at UFT did a swell job."

Today's post is by Faith Humperdink, writer and editor at Gotham Charter Schools.

After we ran an innocent little piece encouraging teachers to take photos of their classes for Gotham Charter Schools, we received this message:

You need explicit permission to take photographs in a school building and any employee who does so without it runs risk of dismissal. Employees also need explicit permission from parents or guardians of any students if you are going to publish their photos.

In this climate, teachers whipping out their prohibited cell phones and sending photos to Gotham Charter Schools is not the best of ideas.

I never take photos in the building, only from the street, and I never take photos of students. When I did video projects with my kids last year I got written consent forms from every parent before sharing them with anyone. 

Why do you always write about charter schools? Don't you know that 94% of city students go to public schools?