Diane Ravitch Defends Detroit: Organize

[Hannah Bell]

Last night, I went to hear Diane Ravitch speak, at Wayne State University <http://focis.wayne.edu/>. In the heart of Detroit, on the Cass Corridor, a neighborhood in a once-proud city that is now ground zero for post-industrial unemployment.

Ravitch's speech was dynamic. It's gratifying to witness someone preach the truth, without notes, for about 75 minutes, on a comprehensive range of educational topics and passions. The audience was jammed with urban educators. Ravitch's remarks were punctuated with church-revival murmurs and exclamations ("Say it, sister!").

Ravitch pulled no punches. She spoke eloquently of what happens when corporate--and often white-- outsiders think they know how to "fix" the schools that serve poor children: "efficiency," cutting back to narrow "basic" curricula, credentials over substance, patronizing the educators who have been faithfully serving until the private-manager cavalry arrived.

At one point, Ravitch asked how many in the auditorium (perhaps 500 people) were teachers. A forest of hands went up. She applauded, and the audience joined in. Then she said--it's a good thing you're applauding for yourself, because the media is conspiring to make you look greedy and incompetent, beginning with your unions and your due process guarantees...

On behalf of Teachers' Letters to Obama <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166176941518>, I asked Ravitch how teachers can organize to preach our own experienced truth, if our unions have been rendered toothless and the media juggernaut has overwhelmed reason and research...

-Teachers need to build their own networks of social capital.
-Form and join groups. Read good books to arm yourself with information.
-Know that the struggle will last for a long time.
-Refer to other high-achieving nations as models--countries that have systemically designed their public schools and their teaching profession as long-term investments in civic excellence. It can be done. So don't give up...

Marginalization and disengagement of a strong, well-informed teaching profession is the strategy of those who believe free public education is a drain on the growth of capitalism. If they shoot more holes in the great ship of the American Common School, eventually the noble idea that everyone deserves genuine opportunity will drain away.

In education policy, we are witnessing a power grab of epic proportion; the very folks we hoped would lead us toward equity and opportunity have decided that it's easier to rely on the market. Oh well. Never give up. Never give up.

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2010/09/diane-ravitch-in-detroit-shes-all-over.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. A voice of reason in an insane debate

Thank you Diane. You give me hope.