I'm baaaaaaack and full of rage! Yay?

Hating Teaching from Home Since 2020.

30 August 2010

In general, I'm not a big fan of press reports, books or films decrying the Dread Teachers' Unions.  I note with interest that all the venture capitalists so hot to fund KIPP are not so hot to send their own children to KIPP.  And I am always bemused by prostisuits and educrats explaining why 37:1 is actually optimal for classrooms while their own children attend fancy private schools with 2 teachers for every student.

So when I heard Donors Choose was hooking up with the makers of Teachers Hate Children So Much or whatever the latest pro-privatization propos* is called, I gave my computer monitor a good hairy eyeball teacher look.  Sadly, it did not cower as expected; nor did it alert Donors Choose to hook up with an education ally, not some destroyers.

This did not, however, cause me to stop writing Donors Choose proposals.  I got four funded over the summer.  I had two projects still up this morning, when a donor funded all 2,200 projects in California.  My school had the most projects posted of all SFUSD - fifteen.  All fifteen got funded.  We're getting a curriculum kit, a mess of leveled libraries, cozy furniture for classroom libraries and Peace Places, basic supplies, storage carts and shelves, sensory integration and fine motor equipment, play therapy equipment, a DVD player, math games...

None of these are provided by SFUSD or the state.  Heck, they can't even get classroom mats or cots so the Kindergarten students can rest comfortably.  If we want our students to have what some kids get, we need to buy it ourselves or find someone who will.

I suppose this is a case of trampling on principle for daily reality, a pose I generally do not favor.  Still, standing on principle in front of twenty one students who already aren't getting a fair shake doesn't sound so hot, either.

*Guess who just read Mockingjay?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

E Rat, I am so glad I found your blog. You are clearly a genius. How do we find your Donors Choose projects (I object to them too as they let the state off the hook, but as long as they're there, why not choose yours?).

Anonymous said...

Have you posted to Donors Choose about the resting mats, sheets and blankets you need? I too would put in for what you have asked for, along with the requisite statement that you shouldn't have to beg for this stuff, but since you do....

Anonymous said...

I don't know you, and to be honest I don't always agree with your thinking:), but, I like your blog and I really appreciate all you are doing for the children in this city. Thanks for your efforts.

E. Rat said...

The only topic on which my opinion is infallible is modern fashion.

I will be posting a Donors Choose request for a class set of cots and mats as soon as the last slew of thank you packages arrives at the DC offices, and I will beggingly post a link to that.

Thank you for your kind words!