Teacher to DeVos: No, I’m not ‘hostile’ to change. We just don’t agree on the changes schools need.
Pennsylvania teacher Peter Greene has a message for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
DeVos, a Michigan billionaire whose nomination by President Trump sparked unprecedented opposition for an education secretary, has been speaking out recently about her critics and about protesters who greeted her at a D.C. public school when she visited last week. On Feb. 15, she gave a speech at the Magnet Schools of America 2017 National Policy Training Conference and said:
“Last Friday, a handful of protesters tried to block my entrance into Jefferson Middle School Academy here in D.C. While I eventually made it in, and had very constructive conversations with Chancellor Wilson, many D.C. administrative leaders, some terrific teachers and Principal Dohmann, the protesters’ behavior is a reflection of the way some seek to treat our education system — by keeping kids in and new thinking out. Friday’s incident demonstrates just how hostile some people are to change and to new ideas.”
Some of those people beg to differ. Green, a veteran teacher of English in a small town in Pennsylvania, is a critic of DeVos and her passion for school choice over traditional public schools, in which he teaches. He published the following post on his Curmudgucation blog.
By Peter Greene
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke recently to a gathering of magnet school folks, and opened up by suggesting that “some people” are “hostile” to change.
I just want to be clear. I am not hostile to change. In fact, there are some changes that I would love to see.
I would love to see a change in the rhetoric about failing schools. Instead of declaring that we will “rescue” students from failing schools and offering lifeboats for a handful of students, I’d Teacher to DeVos: No, I’m not ‘hostile’ to change. We just don’t agree on the changes schools need. - The Washington Post: