RheeFirst! » Teacher (and victim of StudentsFirst’s Change.org petition scam) to Michelle Rhee– “please don’t count me as one of your supporters”

RheeFirst! » Teacher (and victim of StudentsFirst’s Change.org petition scam) to Michelle Rhee– “please don’t count me as one of your supporters”:

Teacher (and victim of StudentsFirst’s Change.org petition scam) to Michelle Rhee– “please don’t count me as one of your supporters”

by admin

Written by Christal Watts for her blog. Read the entire post here.
“Somehow I accidentally signed Michelle Rhee’s stupid petition on Change.org. This is the e-mail letter I received from her organization today. When I went to the “StudentFirst” facebook page to post a comment, I came to discover that even after “liking” their page, you cannot post a comment outright, instead you have to comment on one of their articles (which all come from their website – also misleading). …”
My response:

Dear Michelle Rhee,
Please do not count me as one of your supporters. Your attacks on public education, teachers unions and teachers across the US is nothing short of repulsive and repugnant. Millions of teachers, myself included, have long put students first and continue to put students first, even though we do not have access to the millions of dollars that your organization has. I don’t count as my friends privatizers who outright seek to dismantle public education. Instead, I count among my friends regular, middle class people who believe that a quality education comes from providing a quality educator, one is who is given the time and resources they need in order to teach their students.
I have been in urban education for over a decade and I have taught children who are a true cross section of this great nation, kids who live in poverty to kids who live in gated communities, kids whose parents are high school dropouts, to kids whose parents have Phd’s. Kids who are Asian, Hispanic, African American, African, Filipino, and European Americans. And, not once have I ever felt the need to tape any of my students’ mouths shut with tape and brag about their lips bleeding afterwards. That story you told is one of a teacher who is a bad teacher. Perhaps that is why you rail against bad teachers because you only need look in the mirror to see what a bad teacher looks like.
Sincerely,
Christal Watts