Tuesday, July 1, 2014

"Faced with the Gates of Hell"

On another post Anonymous wrote:

"NEW POST

"Facing the GATES of Hell"

Gates Foundation Protest in Seattle

"Teaching in the shadow of the Gates Foundation is an ominous and treacherous endeavor. Everywhere you turn there is another so-called “expert”, funded by the Gates foundation–with very little, if any classroom experience—who believes that their dollars have given them sense.

Gates believes in the right of the rich to control the schools and even the very idea of what knowledge is. We believe that education and knowledge should be democratic pursuits and that only through collaboration—not market competition—can we fully become complete human beings.

Gates believes the intellectual and social-emotional processes can and should be reduced to a test score. We believe standardized testing can’t begin to quantify the things that matter most in education: imagination, collaboration, civic courage, empathy, and creativity.

The problem for us is that Gates has a few more dollars than we have . . ."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This seems to be a fragment of a larger, important article. Questioner, can you post it in full length?

Anonymous said...

From another "larger, more important article":

"Philadelphia’s Broad-trained Superintendent William Hite offered the district’s employees an insulting contract: pay cuts up to 13%, benefit cuts, longer school days, and no pay increases until 2017. After 2017, any increases would be “performance-based,” dependent on the principal’s recommendation. Seniority would be abolished, as well as any payment for advanced degrees. See here and here

In addition, schools with more than 1,000 students would not be required to have libraries or librarians. No more counselors. No limits on class size. The district would no longer be required to provide teachers lounges, water fountains, etc.

This is the most insulting, most demeaning contract ever offered in any school district to my knowledge. The terms seem more appropriate to a prison than to a school, although it seems that both teachers and students are treated as wards of a cruel, harsh state. Who would want to teach in such a district that cared so little for students and teachers?

Is this what Dr. Hite learned at the Broad Superintendents Academy? Crush the workforce?

Didn’t anyone ever tell him that teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions? . . ._

Anonymous said...

Interesting that this morning's PG had an article about trying to get more African-American males into teaching. Given the direction that teaching conditions are going, why would anyone recommend this as a career to someone you care about?