Strange. Eerie. Weird. NYT is subjecting the ED "reform" movement to scrutiny.

And ... dare I say it.... to actual *criticism*. This is apparently the second pounding Mr. Brill's gotten in 2 days. From the *Times*. Historical archenemy of unionized *everything* and esp. of unionized ps teachers.

As for Brill: I'm reminded of something Judi Dench said of Cate Blanchette in" Notes on a Scandal": "Is she a sphinx? Or simply *stupid*."

Por ejemplo, could he really be this clueless:

>>>I hear this all the time from teachers, but when I asked Mr. Brill, he said, “I didn’t see it as the rich versus the union guys, although now that you say it, I can see how you could draw that line.”>>>

Mother of jesus. I can't decide whether to be heartened or appalled.


ON EDUCATION
Teachers Get Little Say in a Book About Them
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: August 28, 2011

Can an education reform movement that demeans and trivializes teachers succeed? It’s hard to imagine, but that is what is going on in parts of America today.

In Steven Brill’s new book celebrating the movement, “Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools,” teachers are literally the least of it. Of the three million who work in traditional public schools, three are interviewed by Mr. Brill on the record; their insights take up six of the book’s 437 pages.

Nor do charter school teachers fare much better. At Harlem Success Academy 1, which produces top scores on state tests, Mr. Brill describes how teachers working around the clock continually burn out. Like kitchen appliances, they last a few years and then need to be replaced. One teacher describes being “overwhelmed, underappreciated and underpaid” and tells Mr. Brill, “There is no way I can do this beyond another year or two.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/education/29winerip.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=winerip&st=cse

Hopefully it stung quite a bit for "the paper of record" to find that they'd been relentlessly and uncritically flogging snake oil for two years.

They have so carefully advanced ONE side of the debate only.... and caricatured the other side so consistently over the years .... that it seems there may be some kind of breakthrough here.


It ( the review) is just so COMPLETELY out of character.

I don't believe for a nanosecond that the publicly stated goals are the actual ones.

Two different things.

and "taken down." She is dangerous, deceitful, and has served as a "Trojan Horse" into progressive circles for those on the RW who want to destroy education--for a buck. About time the NYT goes after all her cronies and compatriots.

At last.

The gods are good.

Thanks for posting this. I threw a link in my response to Proud's thread, without looking for it first.

It was no contest.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/StevenB


After Words: Steven Brill, "Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools," hosted by Diane Ravitch, NYU

About the Program
The founder of The American Lawyer magazine and Court TV tells the story of a coalition of unlikely allies in the fight to change a school system that many parents believe is failing the nation's children. He debates education solutions with former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch.

But I had to laugh at his body lingo. Arms in front of him, bent at the elbow w. his hands hovering protectively in front of his face. Ravitch went ezy on him if you asked me. ( Such a lady!)

Thanks for the link.

Diane had Brill for lunch. A beautiful thing.

It's been so long since any major news source has held these hucksters accountable that it almost feels like we're in some kind of bizarro world!