Of Mussolini, On-Time Trains and the Bronx HS of Science

>>>We are living through a dark age in American education. (Many parallels to the McCarthy era, seems to me.) The public, with encouragement from our ruling economic and political elite, has taken its eye off the ball. It seeks to blame public school teachers as a class for the deficiencies of urban public education as a whole. In fact, teachers have little to say over what and how they teach. Mr. Nutter’s experience is case-in-point. In another era, Bronx Science would be pursuing accomplished professionals who had their own ideas about teaching and learning and about life itself. The school would be begging them to stay. In this dark and dull age, by resorting to the blacklist, by enshrining mediocrity, dishonesty and conformity, our urban school policymakers seem to have lost their way.
Post-Mussolini, some wise pundit said, “It’s not enough to have the trains run on time; you have to know where they’re going.” In the case of modern urban education, our policy makers seem to have let the train jump the track altogether.>>>>

The background: NYC's ( one time) most prestigious HS has been led for about 10 yrs by an anti-teacher,anti-union, ed "reform" zealot. She cleared out the top ranks of the faculty in the first couple of years. ( including many Ivy League PhDs) and has been working her way down thru the ranks. Most of the Social Studies Dept ( including Marc Kagen, SCOTUS Justice Kagen's brother) was forced out last year. Geoffrey Nutter, Lit teacher and accomplished poet and author, was harrassed and fired around the same time. He appealed. NYC school bureaucracy sat on it for a year and a half. Local paper ran a story on Mr. Nutter's plight. Bureaucrats *immediately* mailed out a denial of appeal to Mr. Nutter.

Sweet. Whatta system.

This column ran just after that.
http://www.riverdalepress.com/stories/Teacher-rating-system-must-change,49486?page=1&content_source=