Well... doesn't time fly when you're having fun? Are you having fun yet??? I'm not sure I am...
Is it the Irish or the Chinese who have that wonderful curse: "may you live in interesting times!"?
I'm living in interesting times; in the past month, I've been busy moving house and going on fall camp with my youngster and 100 K-8 other kids and 30-odd(?) parents.
And we, as a species and a planet, seem to be living in interesting times. And on many levels it feels like time is running out...
The earth - our mother, who will survive without us but without whom we are doomed - is under constant assault (some would say rape).
And some of our own kind seem intent on raping the rest of us and generations to come, for the power and control that comes with their actions.
I've been spending a great deal of time, energy and focus helping fight a rearguard action to save public education from privatisation. This education 'deform' agenda has been playing itself out for a long time, behind the scenes. It appears the final stage of implementation is occurring now - its come out of the closet and is being pushed down the public throat in a propaganda extravaganza this week by the 'bought and paid for' media, including NBC, CBS, Time and Oprah...
Some of us started posting comments and criticisms of the Summit on NBC's Education Nation facebook page
Basically we were saying: "Hey there - you're having a national Summit about education, your panel is stacked with reformers, as are your sponsors, and you've forgotten to ask the two major stakeholders - parents and teachers - to the table. What gives?
No answers to our repeated questions and once we started putting up posts that gave stats and data and suggested well qualified, articulate people who should be on the panel, we (me and some of America's best known anti-reform critics) got booted off. And so one of us set up an alternative page for like-minded dissenters...
I dont know if we can win this one...
If you ask me, the only way out of this is actual, physical national protest...
I hate being the pessimist here... but "Seattle nice" and civil discourse aint gonna cut it in this fight.
We can't match the money or the press coverage (unless the NEA/AFT (teachers' unions) get off their arses, work with us & spend some big money - but so far they've been totally inept or they're part of it).
The only thing we have - if we can unite and mobilise it - is big names and numbers. The longer we wait, the more people are exposed to the propaganda and believe it...
Only physical protest - lots of loud noise - is going to stop this., because the agenda is almost completely implemented - this media blitz is the final push... another six months and its a done deal...
I wish I could get people to see this... Everything I've predicted for the past two years has happened, on the timeline I expected, here in Seattle and nationally...
The Mayoral loss in DC will not stop it - people seem to think Broad Foundation plant reformist Chancellor Michelle Rhee is gone because Fenty is. But that's not a given, the public haven't made the connection between Rhee and Eli Broad and the national takeover of the education system/administration. And, if she goes, Broad/Gates will slip someone else in there - that person might have a different style, but the agenda will be continued...
I keep pointing people to the Broad/Gates Lines of Influence maps:
as well as the links on the Broad website showing where superintendents and "fellows" are working across the nation:
and to the blog Broad Report:
There are no important/places/cities/communities that are now untouched... If Broad/Gates haven't reached critical mass yet, they soon will...
We need to challenge that with our own unity and voices...
There are many groups working against this 'deform' agenda - Parents Across America, United 4 Kids, Save Public Schools and dozens of others around the country. I wish they would all unite under one banner, bring in all the teachers, community members, minority groups... Only something as big as the anti-Vietnam war protests is going to stop this...
Our problem is we have no time... and our failure to stop this will hurt our kids and will take 20 years to run its course before we get the chance to turn that around...
I truly don't know how to get people to understand this... One needs to feel it in one's gut - and know and understand history and the forces behind it all...
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