All those who think that Tom Friedman of the New York Times should stop sharing his ignorance about education signal by giving me a "harumph!" Hey, one of you didn't "harumph!"

It's time for Tom Friedman to flatten his flat views of education and go back to what he does best; find a cab driver in some 3rd world country to give him the facts of what is really going on.

Wait, bad idea. He just might find a cab driver here in New York that is a former TFA or E4E suck up and take that person's word for Friedman thinks is wrong with education in this country.

To paraphrase the Kinks, Friedman is;

On planet Earth there is an illusion,
That Tom Friedman's going 'round in a state of confusion.

I picked up yesterday's New York Times and started to read Flat Earth dude's ode to what he doesn't know about education. Of course, he began with the PISA scores.

THE latest results in the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which compare how well 15-year-olds in 65 cities and countries can apply math, science and reading skills to solve real-world problems were released last week, and it wasn’t pretty for the home team.

But did Friedman read this? A true comparison with other countries involved in PISA? Gosh, he is a reporter, a columnist, he works for the newspaper that gave the world the truth about the Viet Nam War. Why is he so hellbent wrong?

In today’s hyperconnected world without walls — when more Indians, Chinese, computers, robots and software can perform more average blue-collar and white-collar jobs — the only high-wage jobs are increasingly high-skill jobs.

How can one compete against countries that pay their "middle class workers" a few dollars a day? I'll say it again. My wife has been to MAINLAND China many times on business. The factories OWN their workers. The workers live, breath, everything and anything, for the factories. They live and die there. They eat, get married, and die there. China is government run Capitalism, we can't compare ourselves to them. It's like comparing the Yankees with Manchester United.

Ten years ago a designer like my wife could make over $125k. Now that same designer is lucky to make $60k? Why? Not because those in China are better, but because they are cheaper. My wife knows Photoshop and Illustrator as much as the next person does in China, but she costs more and won't put in 18 hour days. As a country, how can we compete against this?

First, to be in the middle class, they will need to be constantly improving their skills over their lifetime. 

Isn't this the same as it always been? The problem is not the schooling but the culture. No one wants to start off at the bottom anymore. No one wants to grunt it out anymore.

When I was 16 I worked at McDonald's on Central Ave in Hartsdale. All the afternoon, evening, and weekend employees were from the local high schools. Now, a few are. I was happy to make $2.90 an hour and to work my butt off. Now, high school kids look down on McD's.

 And third, countries that thrive the most will be the H.I.E.’s — the high imagination-enabling countries — that attract and enable talent to be constantly spinning off new ideas and start-ups, the source of most new good jobs.

Not happening in the USA with all this testing. Also, not happening here with kids not being kids anymore.

It found that the most successful students are those who feel real “ownership” of their education. In all the best performing school systems, said Schleicher, “students feel they personally can make a difference in their own outcomes and that education will make a difference for their future.”

¡Uno momento por favor Tomas! Is this not what teachers, at least the cool teachers, have been screaming, shouting across your flat earth for quite some time?

“students whose parents have high expectations for them tend to have more perseverance, greater intrinsic motivation to learn.” 

Hmmm, I think what  what Friedman is saying here is that education begins in the home. 

A story if you don't mind. A month ago I received a call from my son's social studies teacher telling me that he was delinquent in several homework assignments and this was affecting his grade. Without dithering, I asked her to keep him in at lunch until the problem was solved. Teacher was happy, son was pissed. Too bad for my son. 

The highest performing PISA schools, he added, all have “ownership” cultures — a high degree of professional autonomy for teachers in the classrooms, where teachers get to participate in shaping standards and curriculum and have ample time for continuous professional development

 But we as teachers are not allowed to think independently. Like a nail sticking up we are hammered down immediately. We are made to teach to a script, listen to a failed software designer explain our jobs, incompetent leaders abound, what then Mr Friedman are we to do?

So teaching is not treated as an industry where teachers just spew out and implement the ideas of others, but rather is “a profession where teachers have ownership of their practice and standards, and hold each other accountable,” said Schleicher. 

FACE PALM TIME!
 
Look below. I copied and pasted. I am not that talented.

. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . . .``~.,
. . . . . . . .. . . . . .,.-”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“-.,
. . . . .. . . . . . ..,/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ”:,
. . . . . . . .. .,?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\,
. . . . . . . . . /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,}
. . . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`^`.}
. . . . . . . ./. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:”. . . ./
. . . . . . .?. . . __. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :`. . . ./
. . . . . . . /__.(. . .“~-,_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,:`. . . .. ./
. . . . . . /(_. . ”~,_. . . ..“~,_. . . . . . . . . .,:`. . . . _/
. . . .. .{.._$;_. . .”=,_. . . .“-,_. . . ,.-~-,}, .~”; /. .. .}
. . .. . .((. . .*~_. . . .”=-._. . .“;,,./`. . /” . . . ./. .. ../
. . . .. . .\`~,. . ..“~.,. . . . . . . . . ..`. . .}. . . . . . ../
. . . . . .(. ..`=-,,. . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . ..(. . . ;_,,-”
. . . . . ../.`~,. . ..`-.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..\. . /\
. . . . . . \`~.*-,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..|,./.....\,__
,,_. . . . . }.>-._\. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . ..`=~-,
. .. `=~-,_\_. . . `\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . .`=~-,,.\,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `:,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . `\. . . . . . ..__
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`=-,. . . . . . . . . .,%`>-- 

 We’re going through a huge technological transformation in the middle of a recession. It requires a systemic response.

Yeah we are. So why then are the students at PS 154 in the Bronx, my school, using a $250k Mac lab only to use it for ST Math and RAZ Kids? Where is the outrage by NYC Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who generously gave the school the Reso A monies?

But Friedman of course couldn't write a column without a little dig.

Democrats who protect teachers’ unions that block reforms to give teachers more ownership and accountability, and who refuse to address long-term entitlement spending that threatens to deprive us of funds to invest in the young, are harming our future.

Please see the above Picard face-palm above.

There is no escape for the state of confusion that Friedman possess. Whichever way the wind blows is where one will find Friedman bloviating the latest

It's easy to bash the Bush family. Yes, that Bush family. Poppy, W, and especially Jeb. It easy, but I find it necessary. However, I will keep my wrath from Poppy and W, and instead target Jeb? Why Jeb? It seems lately that Jeb has decided to come to the forefront of the education deformer debate and put him self front and center. We all know the smoke and mirrors that Jeb used to show that he was the "education governor," but in reality, Jeb and his policies were failures.

So it is with great wonder and befuddlement why anyone would take anything by Jeb Bush seriously. Jeb Bush feels he has a mega mind. So would then anyone who takes him seriously be a groupie? A Megamind if you will.

It came across to us here in the SBSB newsroom that the Megamind groupie does have a bit of a man crush on Jeb Bush. The crack team at SBSB came across a paper, or rather an article that was credited to Jeb Bush which was passed around like the holy grail. "Giving Every Student a Digital Learning Experience," which was published this past January in Education Next, which by the way is one of the official mouthpieces of the deform movement, shows the ignorance the former Florida governor possess and the idiocy of anyone, think the Megamind groupie, who thinks Jeb Bush is a person to be quoted.

Jeb Bush starts by blabbering; Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a challenging, high-wage job that doesn’t require a basic understanding of technology.  Nearly everyone in our 21st century workforce – doctors, librarians, mechanics, and teachers to name a few – uses and interacts with varying degrees of technology on a daily basis.

Yes, that must have been quite a stretch for Jeb to think that or say that, or probably, tell his speechwriter to throw that line in, but it is true.


To get those challenging, high-wage jobs, today’s students are going to need college courses, vocational certification, or job training, many of which will be offered virtually. 

But, he shows us his true colors here. He shows that he is now beholden to the Tom Vander Ark's of the world in which technology is not just another tool for the teacher and the classroom, but rather a replacement for the teacher and the classroom.  Curious as to why Megamind didn't see this one.

Schools must equip students with the knowledge and skills they will need for future success, and today that means using a technology-inclusive education.

Curious, hmmmm. "Schools must equip?" A "technology inclusive" education? These seem like code for less teachers, less salaries, more money in the hands of the consultants and the software people.


See kids get technology today. My son, bless his heart, at the age of 8 showed me how to use the DVR. My son, at the age of 5 knew to go to ESPN.com to find out the sports scores. He knows Youtube, he knows it all. The vast, vast majority of young students (I am going with young because by high school kids these days seem to be able to do anything) understand how to use technology. What they don't yet know is, aside from word processing and research, is how to incorporate those tools that are ALREADY OUT THERE AND FREE into their education.

Yet less than 10 percent of our nation’s students are benefiting from digital learning. 

Translated: Less than 10 percent of the nation's students are not benefiting from  consultant's latest cure all which will cost millions of dollars in no bid contracts.

Thankfully, state leaders are recognizing the power of digital learning and the impact it has on students’ future success. 

Thank God for Tom Vander Ark and others like him for their knee pads they bring to every golf course they go to with a legislator. Look, state leaders don't care about the education of students. They just care about what they can get out of it for themselves. 

Michigan and Alabama were the first states to require an online learning experience in order to graduate high school...... This year, Florida passed an online course requirement. 

Learning experience, Gracie?  I can share a learning experience I know of in Florida. A student took phys. ed. online. He was at home, and the computer told him to do 20 jumping jacks, run around the block a few times. When done, just click completed. Can you imagine the abuse????


This reminds me of when I took drivers ed. at Maria Regina High School in 1980. The final exam was being passed around like Whitney Tilson would if and when he goes to prison. The instructor was reading the paper and we were passing the exam around to get the correct answers. Jeb, where is the accountability for students? Where is the give and take, the social skills, the discussions that students need to not only learn, but to become well rounded human beings? I guess Jeb doesn't care as long as the coffers of his cronies are enriched.


Equipping every student with a personalized digital learning experience is a must in today’s digitally-driven society. Digital learning can customize education with high expectations and ensure that all students graduate from high school with the knowledge and skills to succeed in college and careers.

What is this digital learning experience?  I mean everything now is an experience. Going to dinner is now a "dinner experience", giving birth is now a "birthing experience", blogging is now a "blogging experience."

Customizing education? Does that mean we give the students spinners and spoilers? Maybe a little flame paint job? Education is not Bergdoff's in Palm Beach where you have your own private shopper to customize your "shopping experience."

High expectations only come about through technology? No! High expectations are there to begin with as a teacher. In fact, this customizing of the "educational technological experience," is if anything dumbing down education and lowering expectations. In fact I will go so far as saying that expectations are actually being lowered to assure that each student is regarded as the same mindless drone. Nothing more than a cog in the continued manipulation of those that claim they are for students first. 

Technology is a tool. It is like a book, or a piece of chalk, or even a pencil. It is part of the learning process, part of the classroom experience (pardon the pun) it is not a means unto itself.

Project based learning in the opinion of myself and the crack team does concur will lead the students to a full smorgasbord of learning pleasures. Even in the days before computers there was nothing better than project based learning.

In the summer of 1976 my parents sent me to a sleep away re-education enhancement school/camp. I recall that for one week we researched the Mormon church. It's history, it's beginnings, etc...We gave what would be considered now a rudimentary presentation. But ever since then, I have had a fascination with the Mormon's. Not to be the point of converting, but to a point where I can hold my own in a conversation with those on mission.

Why must we pay monies for what is already out there for free? Give me a computer (only Apple), a good internet connection and MS Office and wonders can be accomplished. Hell, give me an iPad, or even an iPhone, which unfortunately, can't be bought on NYC FAMIS, and wonders can be accomplished.

Students will be eager to finally wish to write, and write well if they could produce their own blogs, or websites. Students will learn how to filter out information using the Internet. Students can work on their presentations skills and verbal skills with podcasting. Students can learn how to edit stories, videos through iMovie. Artists can be birthed through the use of basic Photoshop, or Illustrator. Books, can be read, and students be more eager to read because the books on electronic and thus more stimulating. And I know I am leaving a lot out, but I am meeting a friend I haven;t seen since 1977. So another time OK?

Why this re-inventing of the wheel when the wheel that is being used as either not been tried out or has never been flat? It's because the ignorant, the few, the Tom Vander Arks do not care for the boys and girl of color, but only the presidents on green.

Why anyone who wishes to be taken seriously as a educator would use this Jeb Bush article as an example of how to use technology in education is beside the crack team.