December 3, 2008
You scare me.
Because you dismiss nearly everything I believe in with a wave of your hand. Because you divide skills from substance with a razor which I don’t believe exists. Because I think I am perpetually lying to myself about how effective I am, and you know it.
I trust you.
Because you answer 95,000 emails in a year. Because I believe your husband when he says that you will never let anything compromise your commitment to kids. Because you would never let my smarmy sentimentality get in the way of needing to prove my excellence.
I don’t trust you.
Because pinning achievement on test scores is easy– and wrong. Because assuming the worst of people is easy– and wrong. Because hierarchical, top-down, “I don’t give a crap” change is easy– and wrong. Not wrong in its essence, necessarily, but wrong in its implementation. It never sticks in the long run. Never.
I think I know you.
I think I know something of how your criticism of schools sits with you, because I taught in the Korean public schools for over a year. Astounding in their rigor. Inspiring in their commitment to a higher purpose. Terrifying in their inhumanity.
You remind me of Seoul, actually.
Seoul is stunning, as you might know. You find parks there, filled with ancient temples laced with lapis blue and gold, graceful trees, that could make you weep. And they are ringed with five-lane highways with bumper to bumper traffic, stinking of diesel fuel and fumes; modern buildings put up so fast they collapse and kill.
Where are you, Michelle, in all of that beauty and ugliness? I’m calling your Blackberry, but I can’t see your face.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1862444,00.html
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
You know the ‘joke’ about the person who reaches the end of the internet and ponders to himself, ‘now what’?
What if Ms. Rhee clicks the last hyperlink of educational reform and ’solves’ the crisis? She rids the landscape of ineffective teachers, she raises graduation rates to A++ levels, and empowers every student (regardless of income or internet access) to masterful levels of excellence on state-mandated assessments – then what?
Does education really want successful reform? Doesn’t the system thrive on ineptitude as its sure-fire measure for sustainability?
Ms. Rhee may answer her phone with celerity, but if she answers too many of education’s most confounding questions too quickly and too effectively, a lot of people will be job hunting, and there won’t be anyone in line qualified to take their spots.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Ken, bless your artistic heart, but I think you might have read some satire into this post that isn’t actually there.
All my statements can be taken at face value– hence, pure, genuine befuddlement. Love her stuff. Hate her stuff. Never thought I could feel such obstinately opposing sentiments about policy so strongly at one time. Etc.
I think I need a cigarette and a good strong shot of Linda Darling-Hammond.
p.s. love your avatar. What is that, a cross between Don Quixote and Michael Douglas in “Falling Down”?
December 6th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I read the Time article and a longer one in last month’s Atlantic Monthly. I agree with the back and forth of your post – it’s a conundrum. Thanks for the insights based on teaching in Korea. As for the cover of Time, I would say that someone with a broom is not looking to work collaboratively.
December 7th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Thanks for the heads up to this article. I’m going to post it on my blog and make a few comments.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Me? Reading satire in something? Puh-sha (spelling onomatopoiea is hard…actually spelling onomatopoeia is hard!).
If Rhee is a crusader, well, maybe I just know that fate of most crusaders.
There has to be a reason most fail.
The avatar is all about the buggy, disproportionately large eyes. Damn the trident, forget the laptop. It’s the eyes that spell trouble.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Thanks for being a sensible voice that the situation is more complex than just “she’s right” or “she’s wrong”. At the very least, she’s different, she seems to be trying hard, and from what I hear it sounds like DC schools don’t have a lot to lose.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
[...] This is what passes for reform? Seriously? How uncreative. I’ll leave the Rhee analysis to Dina though. I can’t get myself worked up over her right now. After all, it is Friday night and [...]