Diane Ravitch Notes from Inauguration Day | A site to discuss better education for all

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Diane Ravitch Notes from Inauguration Day  

Peter Greene Confesses: Trump is Right: I am Flush with Cash and I Don’t Teach Anything!

6by dianeravitch / 38min

Peter Greene admits that Trump called him out. Peter is rolling in dough because he is a teacher. He has a maid and a butler and a Lexus and a BMW. His school is flush with cash. When he is in school, he is careful never to teach anything to anyone, certainly not to the beautiful ones. If he makes a mistake and accidentally teaches something, he could be in trouble with the union. Oh, no! It’s th

YESTERDAY

Ombudsman for the New York Times Admits the Paper Suppressed the Trump-Russia Story During the Election

19by dianeravitch / 8h

Liz Spayd, the public editor of the New York Times, published a shocking report on the newspaper’s tortured decision not to report on the federal government’s investigation of communications between the Trump camp and the Russian government. The title of her article: “Trump, Russia, and the News Story That Wasn’t.” The federal investigators did not want the story to get out because they did not w

Hackers Called “Anonymous” Warn Donald Trump

3by dianeravitch / 9h

The hackers’ collective called “Anonymous” sent a series of tweets to Donald Trump warning that they have damaging information about him and plan to release it. This is a dangerous world we live in. Hacking should be illegal. It is theft. It should not have been done to the DNC or John Podesta and should not be done to Trump. Trump invited the Russian government to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.

David Sanger: Trump’s Dark Vision of “America First”

14by dianeravitch / 9h

For those of us old enough to remember the origins of the term “America First,” it reminds us of Charles Lindbergh (the political part of him), Nazism, anti-Semitism, and a determination to let Hitler seize all of Europe. Trump made “America First” a theme of his inaugural speech. It seems to be the definition of his foreign policy and his economic policy too. David Sanger, veteran reporter for t

DeVos Vote Delayed: Contact Your Senators!

54by dianeravitch / 10h

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions delayed its vote on Betsy zdeVos from January 24 to January 31. Maybe a few senators became indecisive when they saw how uninformed she was about the Department of Education, federal laws, and policies. Maybe they were shocked to hear to hear her say that it was up to state’s to decide whether to comply with the federal law that prote

Washington Post Fact Checks Trump’s Gloomy Inaugural Speech But Overlooks His Smear of Education

31by dianeravitch / 10h

Trump has spent most of his days living in a billionaire’s bubble, most recently in a gold-plated penthouse, so to his limited vision, the rest of us live in squalor. Everything’s a mess, everyone is poor (other than the members of his cabinet), the cities are crumbling, no one has a job, the schools are “flush with cash,” but no one learns anything. The Washington Post fact checked his speech an

Notes from Inauguration Day

14by dianeravitch / 17h

There is a certain expectation that a new president’s inaugural speech will unite the nation and present a vision of a better future for all. Ever surprising, Trump used his inaugural speech to continue the dark and divisive themes of his campaign. Things are terrible, and he alone cane save us. George Will, the conservative columnist, called it the most dreadful inaugural speech ever. https://ww

John Merrow: Stopping by Washington on a Snowy Evening

9by dianeravitch / 19h

I didn’t know John Merrow was a poet. But he is. Stopping by Washington on a Snowy Evening Whose swamp this is, I think I know: Hails from Kenya, name starts with ‘O.’ He’s been dumped. I’m President Trump It’s time for that loser to go. He came to Washington talking about ‘hope.’ Nobel Prize or not, that makes him a dope. To that mope, I say ‘nope.’ Let’s go find us some chicks to grope. That ho

A Century of Skills Movements

10by dianeravitch / 20h

I wrote about this topic in 2010. Year after year, decade after decade, some educational “authority” tells us that the world is changing fast, and that the schools must teach useful skills, not academic knowledge. The article appeared in the AFT’s American Educator magazine in spring 2010. If I were to rewrite the article today, I would add the Common Core to the list, because it is a collection

Forbes: A Frightening Portrayal of “What Life Will Be Like Under Trump”

25by dianeravitch / 20h

Melik Kaylan, writing in Forbes magazine, has spent the past two decades reporting on foreign affairs, with much time spent in authoritarian (“populist”) regimes. [Please do not ask me to explain why an authoritarian regime is called a “populist” regime; I don’t know.] Kaylan begins like this: This column is about what life will be like under Trump, based on discernible patterns in other countrie

Carol Burris: Betsy DeVos Did Not Tell the Truth

65by dianeravitch / 21h

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, has spent countless hours working with lawyers to get the tax status of our organization established, one that is charitable (c3) and one that is political (c4). She knows the laws, and they are exacting. When she heard Betsy DeVos tell the Senate committee that she was not on the board of her mother’s foundation and that the l

A Poem by W.H. Auden for Inauguration Day

12by dianeravitch / 22h

This is one of my favorite poems. September 1, 1939 I have read it for years. I thought I understood its meaning. But it reads differently now. More ominous because more personal. More relevant.

Michael Winship: 12 Great Films About Demagogues for This Weekend

4by dianeravitch / 23h

Michael Winship writes the daily Bill Moyers & Co. blog. Here he suggests a dozen classic American films about demagogues. These will help you get through the weekend. There is, of course, “Elmer Gantry.” And “Citizen Kane.” My favorite on the list, appropriate for now, is “The Manchurian Candidate.” Think of it as “The Siberian Candidate.”

Greg Fuchs: Make America America Again

13by dianeravitch / 1d

I believe that art and humor will help us survive the next four years, because both express our untrammeled spirit and encourage individuality and freedom of thought. Greg Fuchs sent the following comment and poem, which he wrote: “Art, music, and poetry can transform the greed and hate. It can empower all of 

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