A Manifesto by the Powerful
Dear Deborah,
I am sure that you must have seen the "manifesto" published in The Washington Post and signed by 16 school superintendents. It was titled "How to Fix Our Schools: A Manifesto by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and other education leaders."
The responses to this article have been fascinating. Some have criticized the use of the term "manifesto," because a manifesto is usually a declaration of belief by those who are out of power, not by those who hold power. Think, for example, of the Declaration of Independence as a manifesto, though certainly it outclasses the superintendents' manifesto in gravity and significance! Then there is the Communist Manifesto, which sought to rally the workers of the world to take power. Then there was the Unabomber Manifesto, a screed against technology by deranged mathematician Ted Kaczynski, who managed to kill three people and maim 23 others. In 1962, student activists issued the Port Huron Statement, the manifesto of the Students for a Democratic Society, which called upon the youth of their generation to act against social injustice.
The superintendents' manifesto does not come from the powerless. It was written by men and women who are in charge of major school systems and who certainly have far more power than parents, teachers, principals, o