I left the following comment on Oprah’s FaceBook page:
Oprah: I’m thrilled to hear that you are planning a follow-up show to today’s about education. We all knew you wouldn’t have a show about education and not include actual educators – teachers, parents and students that might have a different take on things to discuss the issues facing schools and our students. You are well known to do shows like today’s where you show only one narrow side, in this case, voiced by wealthy people with little to mostly no experience in education between them other than, um … that … well they are wealthy. We are all very pleased that this next show will feature award winning teachers from all over the country to share their successes and concerns and, well, even the failures. And I’m sure you will include students and parents too. What a great way to allow people to hear the issues from people who are dedicated to America’s children and have made this their calling. I understand you don’t have an exact date for the show yet but your staff is working on it so it will be easily contrasted to today’s show. Someone suggested that they heard it might even be a 2 part show that will span 2 days in order to really do justice to this crucial topic. That’s great!
Oprah, thanks again so much for your insight and passion in allowing your viewers a chance to really learn ALL about this important issue facing our country. Please feel free to contact me if I can help your producers make contact with insightful and articulate educators, parents and students to participate in your follow-up show about education in America.
Thank you again for your support!
I’m sure Oprah would be very happy to hear from others about her upcoming follow-up show! (wink-wink)
Learning is messy!
Your sarcasm makes me smile. Thank you. We should indeed all write little thank-you notes to Oprah on our blogs. Perhaps she would eventually see the real picture instead of whatever it is she sees through her own little filter .
I love this comment – but sad that you had to “like” her to comment.
She should be ashamed, but of course she never would be. How can you have a show about education with no educators?
Next thing you know, she’ll have her book club without inviting the authors on the show. Publishers and marketers should do the trick for those programs 🙂
I love it! I watched that episode in disbelief and my heart sunk as I listened to my family respond to it- responses that indicated they were buying it hook, line and sinker. I am disappointed that Oprah would allow her show to be so one-sided. I am not a big Oprah fan (I know- shocker) but I know there are a lot of people in this country that take her opinions as end-all be-all so this episode was frightening. And we all know that Bill Gates is the authority on everything. I am afraid that the collective opinions of these two power-houses will be too strong for people to view with a critical eye. Let’s hope I am wrong.
sadly, we are not wrong about Oprah or Bill Gates. wealth apparenty affords some people expertise on everything in this country. negating the expertise of educators is arrogant, perverse and satire that writes itself.
profiteers are commandeering public education– a”business” that could see the calling we answered mutate into marginalized wage slave positions. in the near future an educator may deliver scripted lessons to 100 kids chained to desks as a video camera monitors their class.
pensions are about to be pinched. tenure is tenuous. our unions are betraying us. teacher cleansing is escalating. rookies are being pitted against vets; colleges say education programs are no longer popular, predicting teacher shortages. attrition speaks to this as more colleagues concede the stress, uncertainty, exhaustion and frustration is killing us and our profession.”bad” teacher propoganda has people slamming us for earning fat pay checks in easy jobs with limited social value. school site administrators are often abusive. district officials are issuing directives that excuse this, denying due process and wantonly inflicting whistleblowers with reprisals (CA, GA, GB everywhere). punished for doing the right thing by people who did wrong things like test cheating scandal in atlanta is not uncommon for teachers. advocates say teachers who are punished, fired even blackballed are not protected the way other people are because we have a “different” standard. one judge overturns a jury’s verdict in a teacher’s sexual harassment case and makes her suck it up. after all, if you are a teacher you have to expect treatment like that.
as blase and blase note in Breaking the Silence, abusive administrators rarely seem to face consequences despite stacks of grievances, which are awarded in teachers’ favor but no resolution follows when the bully retalliates. witch hunts on campus are wide spread. pedogogues are put at the mercy of personality disorders who manipulate miscreants to discipline teachers instead these students with behavior problems.
class size exceeds sane, legal size as the suits have us teach to tests with profoundly flawed content and culturally biased cracks, not to mention dubious accuracy as equitable, cogent, and relevant scores, which generate data our educrats admit they have not analyzed in the 10 year tyranny of NCLB (LAT 9/10) yet impose as value added method for teacher evaluations (LAT 1/11). we do not even rate an explanation of how exactly this works–school systems are complex: scheduling, demographics, subjects, class size, remediation, language– a lot elements are not being addressed, but it seems like teachers in the trenches with students challenged by socio-economic conditions are being discriminated against-as are thier students.
tagged with failure in public schools, kids are conditioned by campus cops, overcrowding, crummy conditions, fences, discriminaton– but they become college students or part of the work force instead of criminals. but no one seems to see what their “bad” teachers accomplish when rote test taking forces us to compete with affluent asian/caucasions attending public schools, enjoying open campuses, 20 not 40 kids in english class, pta’s influence, resources and every advantage students like mine do not have.
cuts are made on campuses labeled “failing”. school staff, programs, resources, incentives, libraries, instrucional time sacraficed to a budget crisis created by educrats who will never consider cost effective concessions like laying off and dismissing any of their non essential, overpaid, often incompetent and/or unethical own. they will hire consultants to do their jobs, spend a fortune on gimmicks, waste, embezzle, perpetuate propoganda to put the blame on teachers–they will have thier way, as usual, as we are disposable scapegoats slipping on thier slope swiftly. standardized testing conspiracy theories are not so far-fetched as we see our noble profession maligned, a move to segregate students, open threats to academic freedom. civil rights are compromised with random searches on campus, Socratic discourse silenced and an obvious surge of ignorance in a country where all people are equal. some people are more equal.