Diane Ravitch and the Pattern in the Rug
On June 5, 2012 FairTest will honor Diane Ravitch with the Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education Award at the
Julia Richman Educational Complex, 317 East 67th St., New York City. If Ravitch's longtime nemesis, Gerald Bracey, were alive today, I think he would applaud this choice--or at least not protest it. For even though she helped to sew the rug whose emerged pattern now horrifies her, Dr. Ravitch's transformation is testament to the capacity of humans to learn from our mistakes and, more importantly, to exhibit the guts and fortitude to share that learning with others. Diane has done both with grace, under pressure. From FairTest:
Julia Richman Educational Complex, 317 East 67th St., New York City. If Ravitch's longtime nemesis, Gerald Bracey, were alive today, I think he would applaud this choice--or at least not protest it. For even though she helped to sew the rug whose emerged pattern now horrifies her, Dr. Ravitch's transformation is testament to the capacity of humans to learn from our mistakes and, more importantly, to exhibit the guts and fortitude to share that learning with others. Diane has done both with grace, under pressure. From FairTest:
Diane Ravitch is an internationally renowned and respected historian of education. Formerly a supporter of testing, test-based accountability, and school choice, she had the courage to publicly renounce her previous position after seeing the wreckage caused by No Child Left Behind. For the past two years, she has tirelessly toured the nation, encouraging educators, parents and other citizens to stand up against the relentless encroachment of high-stakes standardized testing on the minds of children and the lives of educators.I would argue that without her 2010 book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System . . ., this weekend's OCCUPY the DOE in DC would be a much smaller event--perhaps not an event at all. Her book has served as a central primer for educatng a generation of future teachers and parents on the reality of the status
