20 September 2010

Top Ten Reasons I'm Not Going to the Education Town Hall, Even Though It's a Free Vacation.

  1. Several of my students this year have trauma issues.  Four days out, having just missed two, would be cruel.
  2. The organizations funding this NBC programming extravaganza all share the same viewpoint, which does not make me confident that other views will be expressed/allowed to be aired.
  3. After being in southern California, it is clear that my continued solvency is strongly dependent on not being within one hundred miles of an Alexander McQueen store.
  4. Especially when I am likely to be disgruntled and wishing to justify my vacation through avarice and dresses.
  5. They are mandating viewing of "Waiting for For Profiteers", and I have ADHD. Sitting through movies is not my thing.
  6. They are mandating chit chat with Davis "My Kids Go to Private School" Guggenheim, and I have ADHD.  Pique and impulsiveness might lead me to conclude that there is ample reason to fashion my program into a dunce cap and place it on his self-satisfied white liberal head.
  7. They are mandating viewing/chit chat (see 5 and 6) that are a renunciation of everything I do in my working life.
  8. They are mandating viewing/chit chat (see 5 and 6) that are a renunciation of everything I do in my working life.
  9. They are mandating viewing/chit chat (see 5 and 6) that are a renunciation of everything I do in my working life.
  10. They are mandating viewing/chit chat (see 5 and 6) that are a renunciation of everything I do in my working life.
Reason #7 deserves at least four slots on this list, I think.


P.S. I am not allowing myself to buy any clothes until January excepting bird print funnel neck dresses and even those only in my size, not random giant sizes, no thanks Gilt Groupe with your ridiculous e.
at

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:32 PM

    I'm very sorry you won't be there to stir things up since you are so articulate and you are speaking from direct experience. I'm afraid it's going to be a smug, one-side affair or that the person they get to be the counter won't be as outspoken and articulate as you.

    That said, I understand and respect your reasons. Waiting for Profiteers--nice.

    Re clothing purchases, I'm on a sad little budget myself, but I hope you find the bird print funnel neck dress anyway.

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  2. Anonymous11:46 PM

    Seriously? You're not going? NBC would SO regret inviting you and that is in and of itself a reason YOU HAVE TO GO.

    There are so few people who actually realize we don't need to wait for Superman.

    I hope you will change your mind.

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  3. kjt9:42 PM

    Not going and I don't want to participate in a parade that spits on me.

    I have plenty of Supermen and Superwomen in my own building-- why do I need the charter school version?

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  4. E. Rat7:40 AM

    I agree, and also...

    I think that the idea that we all have to be Superpeople is destructive in the end. Why does Harlem Village Academies have 75% turnover? Because their teachers work twelve hour days. Teach for Americans burn out during their two years because that's the organizational ethic.

    Veteran teachers are better teachers, and you can't get veterans by overworking newbies. Besides, the idea that teachers at high-needs schools are Saving the Needy from Themselves needs to be fought.

    I'm not in this to save anyone, and the idea that I could (through, apparently, fancy school diplomas and the power of whiteness) is offensive. I am out to make my community an inclusive, diverse and just space by working in concert with it.

    ReplyDelete