How To Counter the Counter-Revolution?
Dear Diane,
Blue skies overhead, green leaves popping out daily, and yellow, blue, and white blossoms. It eases the pain of seeing the work of so many wonderful people over so many years get torn down—whether it's for money or for a dearly held belief in the marketplace.
The money part is what's driving it along—the "belief system" has been around for a long time, and it's the infusion of billions of dollars into a coordinated public relations campaign on every level imaginable that has given it its current revolutionary power. Yes, it's a radical and revolutionary (or counter-revolutionary?) full-scale campaign to keep the trappings of democracy, but roll back 250 years of reform. On every front.
You and I "happen" to have spent between us almost a century (not quite) with our eyes focused on schools. We have had rather sharp differences over the years about K-12 education. (I ran across some of our much earlier correspondence the other day and ... Wow!) But underneath it there was an unspoken shared conviction about the importance of public education—of a democratic society with all its warts. As we smelled the oncoming counter-revolution in the air we both became very nervous. I stopped worrying as much about defending
Blue skies overhead, green leaves popping out daily, and yellow, blue, and white blossoms. It eases the pain of seeing the work of so many wonderful people over so many years get torn down—whether it's for money or for a dearly held belief in the marketplace.
The money part is what's driving it along—the "belief system" has been around for a long time, and it's the infusion of billions of dollars into a coordinated public relations campaign on every level imaginable that has given it its current revolutionary power. Yes, it's a radical and revolutionary (or counter-revolutionary?) full-scale campaign to keep the trappings of democracy, but roll back 250 years of reform. On every front.
You and I "happen" to have spent between us almost a century (not quite) with our eyes focused on schools. We have had rather sharp differences over the years about K-12 education. (I ran across some of our much earlier correspondence the other day and ... Wow!) But underneath it there was an unspoken shared conviction about the importance of public education—of a democratic society with all its warts. As we smelled the oncoming counter-revolution in the air we both became very nervous. I stopped worrying as much about defending