“Knock, Knock, Socrates. The Matrix Has You.”

The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Oh, this guy Socrates. He just keeps coming back. Banned from blog after blog, he continues to push his pro-corporate, anti-teacher rhetoric. Having reached his final frustration, he has written a parody of some of the blogs who have banned him, including this one. I actually found it really funny, but we’ve all been saying, “don’t engage him,” and “don’t encourage him.” (His defending of Bill Bennett did it for me)

Still, you can’t help but wonder why he keeps coming around to blogs which so clearly oppose the viewpoints that he holds so dear. I don’t lurk around blogs like Eduwonks, reading their posts and commenting on everything I disagree with.

See, I’m starting to think that Socrates secretly wants to be one of us. Despite his programing and anti-teacher training, he is trying to wake up. He knows there is something wrong with the world. He just isn’t ready to unplug yet.

Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind — driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.

So what do we, in good conscience do? Is Norm like Morpheus? Did Socrates reach out to him for a reason?

Do we have a responsibility to wake him up? Can he handle the truth? Is it too late for him? And more importantly, can he handle the really bad food in the real world?

Moral dilemmas…they are what separate us from the Machines.

‘Ramp-Up’ to Joel Klein’s Friends. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect 4.5 Million Dollars.

A colleague of mine and I were having a harmless conversation about the literacy programs that drift in and out of our high school. I admitted to her that I actually own a rare copy of the Ramp Up to Literacy Guide.

I use the term rare because Ramp Up was the most freakishly protective programs I have ever seen. (I use the past tense because our school quickly abandoned its use)

When Chancellor Klein along with Mayor Bloomberg purchased the program for a reported 4.5 million dollars, it was if we had purchased plutonium or something. Everything was guarded. You were only given one manual to use and we were told not to photocopy it.

The program has a definite format and the lessons have to be set up exactly as prescribed. Teachers who did not attend the training were forbidden to use Ramp-Up in the classroom.

It was all very strange and hush hush. At the time, we had a representative from Columbia Teacher’s College, who was trying to help classroom teachers integrate literacy in the content areas. She confided to me that Ramp-Up wouldn’t let the Columbia representatives even see the materials.

I’m assuming that Teachers College was in direct competition with Ramp Up. This kind of product protectiveness might be ok when talking about toasters, but children’s literacy? Come on.

My colleague innocently asked who created Ramp Up so we looked at the manual. Apparently, Ramp-Up is a product of America’s Choice. Armed with my new knowledge that all of these educational companies are in bed with each other, I decided to look it up.

America’s Choice describes itself as a “uniquely powerful solutions to schools, districts, and states to help them bring all students to high academic standards” They also explain that they began “as a program of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.” Eventually, however, they created America’s Choice as a “for-profit subsidiary of NCEE.”

The NCEE is led by Marc Tucker, a man who bears a striking resemblance to Robert DeNiro with a toupee, and is probably best known for his 18 page “Dear Hillary” letter in the Congressional Record in which he lays out a plan “to remold the entire American system” into “a seamless web that literally extends from cradle to grave and is the same system for everyone,” coordinated by “a system of labor market boards at the local, state and federal levels” where curriculum and “job matching” will be handled by counselors “accessing the integrated computer-based program.”

Creepy isn’t it?

NCEE then founded the “New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce“,who credits themselves with unveiling recommendations calling for the biggest changes in educational reform.” You know the spiel.

As I sauntered through their website and looked through the names, I found a plethora of individuals including Mike Dolan of Cable Vision (everyone’s favorite monopoly), and lo and behold, Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools.

So, let’s back track for a moment, shall we?

Joel Klein purchases a program for 4.5 million dollars that is freakishly protective and won’t allow teachers or trainers access to its materials. As if this wasn’t enough of a disservice to children, the company who creates the program is the profit making aspect of an organization to which he belongs.

This is all done in the name of improving literacy!

As America’s Choice puts it:

“For that reason, America’s Choice has, from the outset, focused on building partnerships with districts, helping schools boost academic performance. From Jacksonville, Florida, to New York City”

What reason what that be?

Bees, Principals-It’s All The Same Thing

It seems that principals, like bees, are not entitled to due process.

Michelle Rhee, DC Chancellor and former Teach for America member was very proud to recall a story in which she swatted a bee and ate it in front of her second grade students.

Now it seems she’s swatted the principal of her children’s school.

Susan Ohanian addresses the chancellor’s leadership style in this post in which she writes:

Rhee Dismisses Principal of School That Her Children Attend

This is a disturbing account of the leadership style of the new D.C. schools chancellor, Michelle A. Rhee, who previously was a recruit of Teach for America for three years before founding The New Teacher Project, an outfit set up to train new teachers.

The Washington Post article

Whine Not! The Rubber Room Awaits.

Read this post first- it will make more sense!

Is your organization experiencing overwhelming change, high employee turnover and low morale, increases in customer complaints, or burnout from having to do more with less? Are your employees struggling to find a balance between their work and home lives or do they simply need a boost of positive energy? If so, Barbara Glanz can help you! Clients say her exciting, motivational, action-oriented presentations have given their employees a new sense of direction, understanding, and hope.
—-from the professional website of Barbara Glanz

This is just the answer for what ails Teachers in a failing school system- at least it is only a matter of time before it becomes the answer. Corporations all over the US have been hiring Glanz to provide their employees with motivational talks and training in order to beef-up production. Which companies? Merry Maids, KFC, Burger King, McDonald’s and yes, Walmart. These companies have called on Glanz to help their employees accept their lot in life and be happy in their subservient positions.

Bloomberg tooted the praises of “Who Moved My Cheese” when he first came into office. Some believed that is was an amazing doctrine of change, but those of us with brains know that it was something more devious than that. It was demoralizing.

And now the Johnny the Bagger movement is setting up shop in the schools. It seems to have bypassed the teachers and gone straight for the students, but I know that it’s only a matter of time before Professional Development is less about techniques that we can use to create successful learning-environments and more about how to take it up the rear with a smile.

And for those who cannot learn to “get over it”?

Barbra Glanz also supports creating “some special places for employees. A group of employees at one organization stayed late one night and decorated an empty space all in black. When the rest of the staff returned the next day, a large banner over the entrance read “THE WHINE CELLAR!” They brought in stress toys, cartoon books, treats, and stuffed animals, and this became everyone’s favorite place to go. You might also consider creating a “TIME OUT” place for employees who are over stressed. Because of a lack of space for this, one organization purchased a Porta-Potty!”

How about we call the Education version of this place the “Rubber Room”. You know, the place where an employee is sent to “think about what he/she has done” so that his/her negative energy and behavior does not creep into the docile minds of other employees.

And don’t forget to “Establish a Code of Conduct listing the specific behaviors you will use in interacting with one another.” and when people step out of line, recite, “REMEMBER THE CODE!” This will do wonders to uplift your workplace.”

Is this what is taught in the Principals’ Academy?