The ATR System is NOT Rational

The post below is from David Hedges, editor of the blog Dedicated To All ATRS in NYC

David Hedges

"My Way or the Highway"

 

A little homework, unless homework assignments are against the law...

Try this question out on people you know and on a few you don't:

"Do you think moving teachers from one school to a different school every week, for the whole year, is a wise way of running a school system?"

Psst: On the surface, it looks like a dumb question, but Bloomberg's DOE has been doing exactly that with its senior faculty members- the ones who were the most loyal to the profession, those who had stuck by the more challenging schools, even the schools were in serious academic trouble.  Teachers cannot wait for the DOE to help them.  The only "help" Bloomberg's DOE knows how to give is to close the schools and reassign the excessed teachers with degrading jobs as substitutes.  Is this the private sector's only contribution to public education?  Fire the teachers?  Turn the voters against the teachers?  Whisper sweet promises to the parents and use teachers as the scape-goat.  Scape-goating one part of the population while coddling the other, smacks of a dangerous precedent.  Perhaps the mayor isn't at fault: he's just encouraged by a group of grinning idiots?

After Bloomberg tires of blaming the teachers, might he go after the students, next, for spoiling his plans?  Grumpy Mike, stop blaming everybody else and look at your plan, from a civil, pragmatic point of view.  You wouldn't last an hour as an ATR.  I don't think you'd be making all kinds of political promises to Speaker Quinn to stay in the job as an ATR for an extra term, now would ya?

The people, the voters, the parents, and the students, need to get Bloomberg back on the collar.  His policies have run rabid.  He is far to insulated from the consequences of his decisions to be trusted as a decision maker for our future.  He's a boss, not an educator.  The essential question is, what have we learned about what politicians do when they get all the power they ask for?

Ask your friends.  Post their comments. 

Thank you.