Real reformers, please stand up. Teachers, parents protest Superman premiere. Great video

[madfloridian]

Run time: 05:38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMqPNCvAJZo   Posted on YouTube: September 28, 2010 By YouTube Member: GEMNYC1 Views on YouTube: 131   Posted on DU: September 30, 2010 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 1214

 
Here is the press release about the protest.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

"On Friday, September 24th, parents and teachers participated in a demonstration outside of the premier of “Waiting for Superman”. The film, which has garnered significant publicity in recent days, has taken the lead in framing the conversation regarding education reform. A grass roots group, The Real Reformers, reject this framework and offered an alternative voice to the conversation.

Explaining the impetus for Friday night’s actions and the development of a forthcoming grassroots documentary, Julie Cavanagh, a teacher in Red Hook, Brooklyn said, “We felt compelled to demonstrate a resistance to a film that can be described only as propaganda. The film continues to propagate myths about the so-called crisis in education and further espouses false claims about supposed reforms and reformers that are garnering much of the media’s attention right now. It is time for Real Reformers to stand up, and lead the conversation on what works in our public schools, and the policies needed to improve our public schools. There are no easy answers. Viewing charter schools as a silver bullet and blaming teachers, the vast majority of whom work tirelessly for students and families every day, is part of a larger movement to privatize public education. We must be vigilant in protecting, while improving, true public education, the pillar of our democracy.”

Lisa Donlan, a public school parent and President of Community Education Council One added, “For too long now our children have been the pawns of powerful politicians and their handpicked bureaucrats who paint themselves as reformers while they reinforce the status quo, depriving our neediest children of the quality education that is their birthright. No man, not even Superman can alter the sad reality: the achievement gap persists, our schools and communities are segregated and less money is spent on students despite tripled budgets. In the words of Frederick Douglass in 1857: "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

More at the link.

:applause: for these parents and teachers.

[madfloridian]

1. Also a post in GD from proud2BlibKansan

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9227108

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Outstanding. KR NT

[madfloridian]

3. Weren't they great?

They deserve some recognition.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. I recognized at least a couple of faces....

... from different NYC teachers' union events.

Note the relative *youth* of the participants, BTW. Privatizers push the mythology that only crusty burnouts are standing in their way.

HELLO! No one ... regardless of age and seniority.... who has two neurons to rub together wants to work in a profession where they will not receive respect commensurate with their training and licensure and in which their job security is subject to the whims and machinations of politicians, financiers and hack education bureaucrats.

[laughingliberal]

5. K & R nt

[madfloridian]

6. For parents and teachers who care about public education...

a little nudge to the top.

[Starry Messenger]

7. k & r

[activa8tr]

8. Pretty Darned SWEET !!! Loved it, and

of course, no real main media outlets covered it.
They all just ignore the important issues of the day, spend ten minutes on Eddie Fisher's many past loves and his death last week, noting about the really stuff like this.

[madfloridian]

9. Right. It won't be covered most likely.

The only coverage is for the "reformers" and their agenda.

But I loved their spirit and enthusiasm.

[chervilant]

10. Thank you,

ever so much, for this post, madfloridian, and for all your efforts to protect and improve public education.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

11. Darn - too late to rec

But happy to kick. That was just awesome - leave it to creative teachers to grab the message and run with it: "Real reformers, real reformers, please stand up, please stand up..." will be reverberating in my head for days now.

Thanks a bunch, madFloridian - I feel some hope.

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[Generic Other]

12. Good for those young people for standing up to the propagandists!

I want all the whiners and complainers to sign up to spend time in their local inner city schools. Not the suburban ones, the failing ones. One week. In a classroom. With a class. Teach. Then come report what you accomplished that made a lick of difference. Attacking educators doesn't count.

[Jefferson23]

13. Fantastic! I applaud their efforts. + 1 million. n/t

[sulphurdunn]

14. The names and faces may change,

but rest assured, "Waiting for Superman" is brought to you by the same people who brought you the run up to the Iraq War and for the same reason ($$$$$$$$$). This time, teachers are the Saddam and public schools are the WMD. The solution they are peddling is the invasion and occupation of public education for profit. Shock and Awe is their tactic of choice.

[txlibdem]

15. Real reform involves improving student outcomes

After 30 years of "revolving door" programs that have been touted as the latest and greatest thing, then they fail but are quickly replaced by another latest and greatest program that will fix all the problems "from the inside," I just wonder when parents and teachers will admit that when the "inside" is so broken, so corrupt that is will never be fixed without a top-down effort coming from outside the system.

I have outlined a winning strategy for getting children engaged in their own education which takes all the responsibility for their progress away from teachers and puts it squarely in the hands of the student and their parents where it used to be and where by rights it ought to be. No teacher can "force" an unwilling or uncaring student to learn, only by the student becoming "engaged" in their own learning process and progress. Thus my system provides positive feedback to students, allows teachers to become a knowledge resource but not the only source, and gives children the choice of learning a topic in the way that works best for them because each topic is presented on video/audio/text/and in a series of hands on and engaging learning games, students work at their own pace and can go forward or back up any amount to redo or review any of the previous tracks or topics. The teacher gets a report on each student in realtime throughout the day, at the end of each day and can easily chart students progress improvement compared to themselves and other students and historically among all students and even their standing nationally. A wealth of information on students' strength areas as well as those they need more work on and can instantly adjust their lesson plans based on the students' individual needs.

Recently, I read that Denver and Kansas City are trying a subset of my education system where students work at their own pace, receive positive feedback in the form of achievement award stickers that go on the floor of the classroom. This serves to drive each student to learn more so they can get more awards than their peers or not fall behind the others. It is stressed that this is a positive reward system and is not allowed to become a negative feedback loop for the children. When asked if they would like to go back to the "old" system (standard teaching methods) both students and teachers said they would NOT like to go back.

In summary, the current administration's focus on punishing teachers for students progress (or lack of it) is short sighted and counter-productive.