This is priceless . Way to go, Teacher Sabrina.
It is National Teacher Appreciation Week.And Arne Duncan, the "education" secretary pens an open letter to the teachers , full of platitudes. Considering the wide gap between his rhetoric and actions (enough to drive a truck through), no surprise it came off as dishonest , to say the least. And Teacher Sabrina pens an open letter in reply.
http://failingschools.wordpress.com/...
The post is full of linky goodness. And is a one-stop shop for all things Duncan. It starts with a bang :
Actions speak louder than words. Though you often have nice words to say about teachers, what you do is more important, and your actions thus far do not indicate that you respect, value, or support teachers and our profession as much as you claim.
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And then proceeds to list his atrocities one by one. And shreds his spouting of "quality", "value", "respect" blah blah blah..... ,calls out his deforms which does nothing but degrade, deskill and demean teaching/teachers.
But here is the crown jewel :
More fundamentally, your very presence in the role of Education Secretary reflects a level of disrespect for our profession not found in others. Our Surgeon General is a career physician, who earned a full MD before going into family practice. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a career naval officer, who studied at the Naval Academy before participating in combat operations aboard a destroyer. Yet despite “working in education” for a while, you never studied education, and you’ve never taught in a public school classroom. Working in non-profits, playing basketball, and being a political appointee are not substitutes for classroom experience.
Ouch ! That last statement should hurt Duncan if he is capable of feeling any shame. Playing basketball or tutoring kids informally in your mom's school doesn't count as teaching. If so, I will qualify for the ed secretary post - I have tutored my younger siblings, friends and cousins.
The vitriol directed at teachers today is very shameful. They are blamed for the tanking economy while a single Wall street goon who caused the financial mass destruction has yet to go to prison (Duncan's blather : "We need to educate our way to a better economy"). It is happening under the watch of a supposedly intelligent, well-educated president. A Democrat. While he winks and nods at all the attacks on teachers (Wisconsin anyone?), he doesn't hesitate to insert himself into situations to show he is on the side of the corporate education deform - whether it is the cheering of mass firings of teachers in Central Falls, RI (gasp, in front of US Chamber of Commerce - that ultimate icon of "accountability") or palling around with the rabid anti-teacher Jeb Bush.
It is time for the teachers to stand up to the bully. To use some of Democrats' own words/phrases, it is time to end the "low expectations" and subject Dems to "No excuses" culture. Time to hold them "accountable" and end political "welfare as we know it" - no more "lesser of the 2 evils" nonsense. Time to take a page out of the firefighters union and put Dems on notice - perform or else "You are fired". Go teachers ! Keep up the fight and we got your backs. If we don't fight now against the attack on public education, soon we won't have anything to fight for. We need to support only those candidates who are unapologetic supporters of teachers unions and public education.
Thank you Teacher Sabrina for showing us the way.
P.S : More teachers are piling up. See here and here. Way to go !