Last week, Chancellor Klein told the bright-eyed Teach for America recruits, “Make waves, cause trouble, rock the system, and … don’t accept dogma.” This morning he told another bunch of eager newbies, “Think for yourself.”
Here’s a warning to newcomers from one who knows: Obey at your own risk!
Deviate from the prescribed workshop model and you’ll be thinking for yourself somewhere else, not as a NYC teacher.
Tagged: Teach for America
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7 Comments:
1 Jack
· Aug 22, 2005 at 8:48 pm
I wholeheartedly agree! Our Chancellor definitely does not encourage what he preaches. How sad is this for new teachers?
2 eddie185
· Aug 22, 2005 at 9:03 pm
Anybody want to bet a quarter that Chancellor Klein is outta here after the election? Wouldn’t it be ironic if he wound up going to work for Bill Gates? They could go on the road and do standup together. Maybe Diane Ravitch could be their straight man. These folks are the saviors of public education? I don’t think so.
3 redhog
· Aug 23, 2005 at 5:06 am
Klein will has planted his standard, and I mean that in the sense of a stake or a gladiator’s spear, into the hearts of kids. The words quoted above, so dense with free-flowing fervor mimicing high-mindness and conviction,is a propaganda speech of the first and ugliest order.Vintage Klein irony and hyprocrisy. By the way, what’s your beef with Diane Ravitch? That she feels that kids should read Shakespeare and Dickens,know who Churchill and Thomas Jefferson were, know how fill out a job application with correct spelling, have an inkling where Peru is on the map relative to China, learn simple computational skills? C’mon!
4 eddie185
· Aug 23, 2005 at 2:12 pm
While Dr. Ravitch has moved to soften her image, and to make amends with certain parties in the labor movement, she has a history of affiliation with the Hoover Institute, the Fordham Foundation and the Reagan administration, and with the Checker Finns and Abigail Thernstroms of our universe. I simply don’t trust her.
5 HowardBeale
· Aug 25, 2005 at 11:47 pm
Don’t be fooled by Randy Weingarten. The contract has already been settled, and we are all just waiting the time limit for face saving. By the end of October, don’t be surprised to learn that Randy got us another productivity increase of around 14 percent in exchange for our having to come in a week early for, what else, moronic staff development. Such an agreement will make it look as if we got some kind of double digit raise when in reality it isn’t. And it will help our mayor save face as well. After all, he wanted to give us only five percent over three years. By forcing us to come in a week early for a mere 14 percent, he also wins. I will be very surprised if this site even prints this comment. I am one of the real teachers, working on the front lines. I am not a teacher’s union president making six figures and not even teaching. I am not a mayor who should get a taste of what it is like to work in his dehumanizing school system.
6 Lucy2024
· Aug 26, 2005 at 9:36 am
Does anyone really believe that the Mayor, the Chancellor, and the other DOE and UFT cronies really know what is going on in the NYC schools? (“Make waves, cause trouble, rock the system”? Is the Chancellor kidding? Does he not realize that his system is already in trouble and he does not want it rocked? Make waves? Are there waves at the bottom of the ocean?
7 ladydew
· Aug 28, 2005 at 6:17 pm
I think we don’t always understand the Chancellor. I don’t think he meant for new teachers to do those things in reference to the administration. I think he meant that they should not listen to their more seasoned colleagues. I think he meant they should shake the boat with older teachers. It seems that the more experienced teachers are the problem. The new teachers are the saviors of a system that was broken until Mr. Klein made room for change. I don’t agree with him, but I do think that is what he meant.
Otherwise, it just doesn’t make sense. If I speak up, shake the boat or express my thoughts, I may find life at work a little more difficult. Some administrators surely punish those of us who do.