Then the recent New York Times commentary on the outrageous situation at the elite Brooklyn Technical High School, A Bully on the Wrong Side of the Principal’s Desk, would lead to a collective hanging of heads and averting of eyes in the old haunt of Boss Tweed on Chambers Street
How else could an educational leader of integrity respond to the Times’ revelations? To the knowledge that, having been given a pre-publication copy of this New York Teacher exposé of the pattern of egregious misconduct by Tech’s Principal and Assistant Principal of English, and an opportunity to correct the situation without publication, Tweed did nothing? And worse, that it then permitted the Principal and Assistant Principal to mount unsatisfactory ratings against the teachers who had gone on the record regarding the damage being done to Brooklyn Tech and its students?
This is Tweed’s triumphant managerialism stripped of its ideological pretense, defending the actions of supervisors without regard for the most elementary standards of stewardship for the education of New York City’s youth.
There is little question but that the most transparent of ‘double standards’ is being employed here. Could one imagine a situation in which a teacher conducted a class the way the Assistant Principal of English did, teaching the notorious Amiri Baraka ‘Somebody Blew Up America’ poem, with its anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of September 11 and its claims that Jews were forewarned of the attacks on the World Trade Center, and still remain in the classroom, much less without an official reprimand?
And what but a ‘double standard’ can explain how a 15 year veteran educator could be hounded from Brooklyn Tech for assigning a supposedly pornographic novel [Russell Banks’ Continental Drift, a work that was a Pulitzer prize finalist] while the Assistant Principal of English taught Nuruddin Farah’s Secrets, which opens with scenes of group masturbation and sexual intercourse with a cow? Secrets appeared on Tech’s summer reading list, under the name of Tech principal, at the very same time he was pursuing disciplinary action against the teacher who had assigned Continental Drift. Scholars of contemporary literature would agree that both Banks and Farah are skilled authors and practitioners of the writing craft, widely respected in the field and worthy of study by young people of an appropriate age and maturity. But the record of grievances and professional conciliations on the Principal’s efforts to discipline the teacher who assigned Continental Drift indicate that the DOE officials knew so little about the literature in question that they kept misidentifying the author and the title of the book. It seems that all they know is how to provide unquestioning support to the principal.
For a number of years now, the New York Times and the New York Daily News have published articles chronicling the misconduct of Brooklyn Tech’s administration. They have told the story of how the Brooklyn Tech administration has consistently put the interests of Tech students last, as they closed down award winning Shakespearean programs, and kept students from participating in robotics, chess and state and national debating competitions – all programs which were run by teacher critics of the Tech administration. In January 2003 [$] and again in January 2004 [$], the Times published extended articles on the exodus of accomplished teachers from Brooklyn Tech that had taken place in response to an administrative campaign of vindictiveness, noting how the departing teachers had been received as the excellent educators they were by their colleagues and supervisors in their new schools.
It is hard to believe that Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning Carmen Fariña was unaware of this published record, or of the fact that three of the four Tech teachers targeted for ‘U’ ratings in 2005 had gone on the record criticizing the Principal in the New York Teacher article. [‘U’ ratings are so rare in Tech that in 2004, not a single teacher received one.] Yet in the October 23 Daily News article, Brooklyn Tech’s Crass Warfare, Fariña is quoted as saying that the complaints of teachers, parents and students at Brooklyn Tech are an "union ploy to pick on a particular principal who exercises his right" to give teachers unsatisfactory ratings. "He does what he feels like he needs to do,” she told the News, “to make the teachers the best possible."
Such a statement makes one want to cry out “Shame!” But an invocation of ‘shame’ would make sense only if the top leadership at Tweed had not long since surrendered its capacity for that emotion.
15 Comments:
1 redhog
· Jan 5, 2006 at 2:43 pm
“Shame” cannot be legislated or compelled. Casey has isolated and attacked the essence of the DOE. But that essence seems,like matter,to never die; it just changes form.
2 northbrooklyn
· Jan 5, 2006 at 8:22 pm
The miners who died were working in a non-union shop.
3 Chaz
· Jan 5, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Gasp, a readable and classroom related article….This cannot be the real Leo Casey!
Regardless, I agree with the article and the UFT effort to support the Brooklyn Tech teachers. However, Randi should be talking to OSI since Tweed refuses to do the right thing. OSI is supposed to be independent of Tweed, let’s see if they are since OSI would investigate and remove any teacher that uses anti-semitic and sexual material in the classroom.
Therefore, the UFT should formally request that OSI investigate the assistant principal and if she was found to have presented anti-semitic and sexual material, she should be removed from the school as a danger to the children.
4 Teachercoach
· Jan 5, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Shame, shame, shame on Klein and Bloomberg for allowing Brooklyn Tech to go down the tubes and for allowing good and great teachers to suffer under this nasty regime. But, then again, nothing that the DOE does surprises me. It’s clear that Klein and his minions care little about teachers; we are no more than factory workers on an assembly line. Really, does Klein have a clue what goes on in the classroom? Carmen Farina, on the other hand, should know better. She is actually an educator … with a good track record (except for her obsession with the destructive Teachers College PD!). But her quotes in the News make her sound like one of Klein’s puppets. Shame.
5 no_slappz
· Jan 6, 2006 at 7:16 am
northbrooklyn:
You wrote:
“The miners who died were working in a non-union shop.”
Do you know the meaning of non-sequitur?
Is the NYC public school system in the mining business?
Beyond the fact that human beings work in the W.Va. mine and human beings attend public school in NYC, there’s no logical connection between the two.
6 northbrooklyn
· Jan 6, 2006 at 7:33 pm
O! no_slappz, you woke up from your long winter nap!
Union brothers and sisters understand that if a worker dies it is an issue that affects all of us who are memebers of a union and are protected by that union.
What happens in a non-union shop is important to us because-even if a worker is working in a non-unon shop-what we are able to negotiate affects their negotiations.
That’s why people like you hate unions. We protect our own. And we are a kind of barometer of the the labor movement. If a union is able to move things along/push the envelope; then this is a terrifying event in the world of those who believe they rule the world.
I recommend the books of Thomas Geoghan [i know i have misspelled his name-but everyone @ barnes and noble knows who he is] for a clear, precise and really funny explanation of this perspective.
So, how’s it going in your non-union job?
7 no_slappz
· Jan 6, 2006 at 11:41 pm
northbrooklyn:
Have any teachers died as a direct result of teaching? Is teaching itself harmful to one’s health? Or is the classroom a stressful place because the state education monopoly has removed teachers’ authority?
Yes, criminal attacks on teachers occur, and they occur way too often. To stop student criminals, teachers need the power to PERMANTENTLY and IMMEDIATELY remove students from their classrooms.
But teachers don’t have that power. You can blame the state-controlled education monopoly for this unfortunate state of affairs.
Meanwhhile, as I wrote in an earlier post, if parents and students had anything to say about the mismanagement of Brooklyn Tech, the miscreants would have gotten the boot long ago. The principal and his lieutenant would have been kicked into the street long before the situation reached its current boiling point.
Private industry long ago learned that meeting the demands of the customer is the chief responsibility of the organization — in other words, the schools are responsible for educating the students to the satisfaction of the parents and the kids. Preparing them for whatever lies beyond their public school years.
It’s unfortunate that you argue against the forces that would actually deliver what you seek.
8 no_slappz
· Jan 7, 2006 at 12:04 am
northbrooklyn, another point:
You wrote:
“That’s why people like you hate unions.”
False. Unions long ago ceased to accomplish what union leaders claim.
You wrote:
“We protect our own. And we are a kind of barometer of the the labor movement.”
So what?
You added:
“If a union is able to move things along/push the envelope; then this is a terrifying event in the world of those who believe they rule the world.”
There is nothing terrifying about unions bringing about their own demise. GM will probably file for bankruptcy this year. That means thousands and thousands of UAW members will get booted in a single shot. Factories will close, and many jobs will move offshore.
Meanwhile, GM already pays thousands of union members NOT to work as a result of insane contract mandates.
If the company were permitted to make rational employment and manufacturing decisions, the mass firings that lie ahead would have come about gradually, causing much less disruption and upset to the GM communities about to get hit.
You seem to be another teacher with no grasp of economics. Since you think capitalists “believe they rule the world” I suspect you pass along this mistaken view to your students. Instilling this bias in your students will not enhance their futures a bit.
Meanwhile, capitalists do make the world go round. But they don’t rule the world, at least in any dictatorial sense. But they create the capacity for everyone to pay their bills.
Anyway, it’s unfortunate that you are unable to recognize how much you would benefit from a competitive education environment. What’s worse is that you don’t see how the kids would benefit from competition in education.
9 redhog
· Jan 7, 2006 at 5:43 am
There were hundreds of documented safety violations in that mine. No problem for management; it’s cost-effective to poo-poo them. Anyway, it is socialism ( a dirty word to no-slappz, no doubt) to attend to such matters. They are not important, unlike champagne that’s gone flat.
Had the mine been unionized, there would have been some effective oversight of conditions and perhaps a stoppage of labor organized, pending corrective action.
10 NYC Educator
· Jan 7, 2006 at 7:56 am
Yes, the mine workers need a union like the UFT. Then, they could negotiate contracts for more work, less pay, and poorer work conditions and shameless, overpaid apologists like Leo Casey and Redhog could doubletalk them into why they’re better off that way.
If the UFT leadership had any shame, they’d let high school teachers select their own leadership. How dare Leo Casey pontificate about the “tradition of union democracy” when it suits him, and concurrently support our active suppression.
11 Kombiz
· Jan 7, 2006 at 10:08 am
The fact of the matter is that one of the first things I saw on television after the accident was family members wishing the UMWA was representing the workers at Sago. There’s been a great deal of discussion on other blogs about what the tradegy means if anyone wants to be part of those discussions. I would recommend, Scott Shields and Matt Stoller over at MYDD for a start, though there’s much more. With all due respect no_slappz, we don’t live in an Ayn Rand novel.
Secondly, personal attacks in the comment section stop here at this thread. We can discuss a whole slew of issues without personal degrading other commenters and writers. I’ve gotten emails, and seen posts from other bloggers who think the tone is too harsh here. I’ll be doing an upgrade to the site soon, and it’ll mean a relaunch a new slew of inquiries for posts on nyc education issues. I’d like to ask for a semblence of civility in discussions.
12 NYC Educator
· Jan 7, 2006 at 10:46 am
Denial of fundamental democracy to high school teachers, dues-paying UFT members, is grotesque and intolerable. Edwize’s choice to pointedly ignore that issue, and the choice of Edwize writers to ridicule it, is unconscionable.
We cannot, in fact, discuss “a whole slew of issues,” but only those endorsed by Unity writers. Furthermore, there is a distinction between “personal attacks” and attacks on outright deceptions and plainly hypocritical postions taken by Edwize writers.
“Personal attacks” certainly entail things like invideously comparing UFT members critical of Unity to sixth graders, or referring to them as unruly juveniles.
That, apparently, is all fine and good with Edwize.
Good luck on your new venture.
13 no_slappz
· Jan 7, 2006 at 12:35 pm
redhog:
You wrote:
“There were hundreds of documented safety violations in that mine. No problem for management; it’s cost-effective to poo-poo them.”
Poo-poo them? You’re joking? The lawsuits stemming from this catastrophe won’t be painless.
You added:
“Anyway, it is socialism ( a dirty word to no-slappz, no doubt) to attend to such matters.”
Perhaps you should check on the history of mine safety and miner deaths in all those socialist paradises around the world before you comment on this issue.
You concluded:
“Had the mine been unionized, there would have been some effective oversight of conditions and perhaps a stoppage of labor organized, pending corrective action.”
Maybe yes, maybe no. Since citations for various violations were issued and corrective action was NOT undertaken promptly, it seems to me the government failed to enforce the rules. On the other hand, when safety inspectors are sent by private insurance companies, you can bet profit-motivated managements would take corrective action unless they want to watch profits decline and insurance rates skyrocket.
14 Chaz
· Jan 7, 2006 at 2:25 pm
kombiz:
I agree that Edwiz is no place for personal attacks. However, it goes both ways. Further, an education blog should be about education not about world events, Jack Welch, and political action issues. You seem to accept these nonsense articles from non-classroom Unity educrats while refusing articles that are critical to the contract and Unity.
We already have the New York Teacher as a propoganda piece, we do not need a blog that only accepts pro-Unity articles and then complains when teachers disagrees with those articles.
15 no_slappz
· Jan 7, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Chaz:
You wrote:
“…we do not need a blog that only accepts pro-Unity articles and then complains when teachers disagree with those articles.”
Looks like we agree on this point.