Yeah, the DOE does seem to be run by a bunch of imbeciles. So purports Chaz when he wrote about former Beacon High School science teacher Anna Poole. Anna Poole, you may recall, set several students ablaze in 2014 in a science experiment gone awry back in 2014.

Personally, Anna Poole used the resources available to her, as is her right, to keep her job. I do not have a problem with that. However I do have several issues.

If she had been a tenured teacher would SCI have gone harder on her and not left her discipline up to the chancellor? If this had been a tenured teacher is it not fair to say that E4esaid teacher would not only have been brought up on 3020-a charges but possibly criminal charges as well?

According to a commenter on Chaz's blog there were some irregularities in her right to representation. Is this not a right as teachers that we see as inalienable?

Again, Mona Davids (She's still around????) has to stick her ignorant nose where it should not be and as always without having full information to base her inane comments on...

“I think that’s outrageous and ludicrous. It’s actually insulting, but it’s typical DOE. That’s what they do, reward poor performance.”

Mona, while not condoning nor condemning Anna, there is a difference between an accident and poor performance. Mona claims she she's smart. Prove it.

The way the Daily News implied that she got rewarded with a raise...

...currently makes a $79,484 a year — up from $56,048 on the day of the explosion.

No, she got was was contractually due her. That is it. 

What I want to know is if Anna Poole has a rabbi within the DOE. Why did she get a nice cushy gig within Tweed? How did she get it? Why did she get it? I have speculated that she must be with Educators 4 Excellence or Teach for America. Maybe she's Teaching Fellows?

I have no problem with what Chaz wrote. I disagree with him somewhat, but I respect his opinion. What he wrote was on his blog. He was not going to the, for lack of a better phrase, through the MSM to bash a teacher (yeah, I know. I have done the same, but only to TFA, E4E, and other rats. Poole, as far as we know is not a rat). Chaz did not have to go through a reporter. He was adult enough to do it on his own. Some weren't.

It pained me to see another teacher, a teacher who purports to claim to be on the side of teachers, playing both sides of the fence.

Too many teachers have been brought up on BS charges for leaving pee on a toilet seat, to carrying a cup of coffee, to leaving the toilet seat up, to not passing gas according to the way mandated in Chancellor's Regulations.

I have no problem with Anna Poole staying employed by the DOE. I have a problem with how the DOE kept her. There is something just not right about this "promotion."

This past Thursday as I was hanging out in my favorite post-work coffee house I began a conversation with another human being about the state of education in this country. Even though this person is somewhat new to teaching, this person was not drinking the Kool-Aid of the deformer and
was very bright and quite perceptive.

As we talked, I learned that this person, who shall henceforth be known in this posting as Cher, was a former employee of the Success Academy charter schools which are led by the irascible Eva Moskowitz. We both smiled and told the barista to brew up another pot of Guatemala-Antigua Original Medium Roast and soon Cher was dishing dirt on Success.

Cher had been what is known as a "associate teacher" at Success at the salary of $50,000. As an associate teacher, Cher did all the grunt work for the head teacher or as she said of what an associate teacher is nothing more than a "bitch for the teacher."

The associate teacher makes all the photo copies, writes the lessons and homework on the boards, if a child is misbehaving, the associate teacher takes that student for a walk. In fact speaking of walking, Cher shared that not only are individual students singled out for not walking correctly in the hall but entire classes as well for the smallest of infractions.

Funny how students need to practice walking in the hall. As Cher mentioned, the first month of school is spent on discipline. How to walk in the halls, how to sit down, when to sit down. In fact she shared with me how the little children are forced to sit quietly for hours at a time.

One thing Cher shared, and I did not know this, but the teachers at Success do not have to write lesson plans. WOW! The lesson plans are already pre-packgaged and given to the head teachers at the beginning of the month and all that needs be done is to copy these plans to a planning sheet.

Cher told me how that the official work hours for staff are from 7 AM-5 PM. The problem is that faculty meetings are called to start at 4:45 PM and this inevitably leads to teachers staying at the school way past 5 PM and not getting paid. Worse for teachers is the Wednesday after school training held as the plush Success offices in Harlem.

I asked Cher about the naughty dirty rumor that Eva and Success counsel students out who do not pass muster. Being a person of high moral quality Cher was only able to discuss what she had seen personally and felt she was unable to speculate on the rest of the school. When I told The Crack Team of Cher's ethics they all gave her a thumbs up.

Cher told me how a student in her class was consistently misbehaving. The parents were called in time and time again. The behavior was not changing and at one point the powers that be at Cher's school finally said, "There is nothing more that we can do." The student, who was from Africa, was let go. Put on irrevocable waivers.

This seems to be part and parcel of what happens to special education students at Success. Cher told me that while Success does accept special education students, that IEP's are ignored and no modifications are given special ed students and that Success has the same expectations of special ed students as they do for general ed students.

While we applaud at putting the bar high for special ed students and we can't think of one teacher that doesn't, the bar should always be set at levels for special ed students that are attainable and which correlate to their IEP's. Never should expectations be set so unreasonably high solely to make a crazy headmistress of a charter school chain look good, oh, and to make some money.

Students have their lunch recess planned out for them with activities. No being a child and just spazzing out in the yard.

Students in 2nd grade start getting prepped for the exams in 3rd grade.

Staff is told that there are to be no interactions with the co-located school at all.

One thing Cher told me that is somewhat puzzling. Many of the teachers in her Success Academy are current TFA'ers. I was always under the impression that TFA can't place teachers in charter schools. But oh well, most of the rest of the staff are former TFA'ers. Go figure.

Ever wonder how some of the money is spent at Success? Check out the Happy Hours that Success splurges on for it's staff. No 6 foot heroes, only the best bars with top shelf booze and quality food. The Crack Team wonders if Eva gets snockered at these.

That's pretty much what Cher shared with me. Hopefully Cher will share (pardon the pun!) more.

It is interesting to hear this stuff about Success first hand. The more and more that I hear about the evils of Success and Eva the more I come to realize that Eva is in it for herself, that she believes that only white people know what is best for the boys and girls of color, and that her time is coming to a end soon.

Imagine if you are a mommy and one day you drop off your son at school. As you leave him and head to work, thoughts of his learning, exploring, and creating are going through your head. You smile as you arrive at work with those wonderful thoughts still in your head.

As you walk into your job you dream of how much school means to the future of your son. You want him to have a love for learning and for school, something that can, and should last a lifetime. But then one day things change. For the worse.

Today, the Daily News reported that the KIPP Star Washington Heights Elementary School on W. 177th St two young boys were detained into "tot cells" to cure their behavior. According to the Daily News, these rooms (The size of a small closet) had a single mat, a single light and a window 2x3 feet in the door (seems like something out of a Viet Nam War prison camp). The students were left in there for 15-20 minutes.

Oh, these two boys were FIVE AND SEVEN YEARS OLD!

Teneka Hall, mother of one of the boys said;

“He was crying hysterically...It’s no way to treat a child.”

On December 3rd her son Xavier had to be rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital because he wet himself and his panic attack was so severe, that that EMS was called.

Another boy was detained a dozen times since September for acting out in class.

What did these boys do to deserve such barbaric treatment? They didn't clap in proper cadence?

Now we all know the militaristic tone of KIPP. I have seen it first hand in which students must sit with their backs at a 90 degree angle. That they must respond in a cadence, and where there is any show of individuality it's hit down with a hammer. But this is just too much. Who would suggest such a thing?

Psychologists suggested such a thing. Who are these psychologists and did they actually evaluate the students? If so, were the parents informed of the evaluation, and then, did they give permission? According to KIPP spokespeople, "...they only sent children to the room when their safety became an issue and they discussed using the tactic with the kids’ parents, who approved it.