I’m Diane Ravitch and I’m Tired of Your Shit (A Review of Reign of Error)
Diane Ravitch
Pardon my flippancy, but didn’t NYU professor Diane Ravitch already tell you what to do in The Death and Life of the Great American School System?
When I was asked to do a review of this book a month ago, I had just started reading a few chapters of her last page turner, soaking up every word while getting mentally ready for the new school year. Bulletin boards needed posting, school cabinets needed stocking, and this book needed reading. I know, I was supposed to read it back when it came out, but … well, no excuses, right?
I was so late to the last party that I almost missed this one. Then again, like pre-emptive strikes on foreign territory, her detractors came out of the woodwork, droning her blog, her tone on Twitter, her allies, and her person before she even got a chance to announce the book to the general public.
If you read the last two Ravitch books back-to-back, you get the sense that, yes, she’s tired of telling pseudo-reformers where to take their nonsense. Reign of Error, a progressive educator’s playbook for debunking the current set of myths tattooed on the well-toned arms of everyone from StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee to U.S. Secretary of Education’s Arne Duncan, was written for the haters as well as her choir and congregation.
Her last chapter in TDALOTGASS, “Lessons Learned,” was a culmination of looking at the
