All I want for Christmas...

As an educator, all I really want for Christmas is for once to be advocated for, not against.  We are not the enemy.

Shutting out parent and community voice from an educational system is not how schools are supposed to operate.  Any business would agree that doing the same with their customers or even their employees would ultimately mean closing their business.  So why is it suddenly acceptable to do so in education?

All I really want for Christmas is to see a little consideration when making some realistic and practical changes that make sense to education.  Appointing a Magazine editor as Chancellor of the largest public school system in NYC is hardly the way to achieving success from classroom to classroom.

Turning our democracy into consumerism is a seriously misguided method of reforming education and yet this is the direction we seek to pursue.

At some point I hope that people watch what is happening in NYC and see how the neural synapses are misfiring in our state and city political leadership.

I hope others learn from the overaggressive pursuits of Rhee in DC, learn from the downfalls of Bloomberg's mayoral control, learn from the angry PEP meetings the true impact of totalitarianism that is sold as parent empowerment through "choice" but translates into the utter failure of a system that essentially targets the most vulnerable of populations.

I can't help but think that there's nothing more insulting to hard working educators than to see a complete stranger who is given the reigns.  She doesn't know any of these students or families and she is expected to make decisions in the best interest of 1.1 million children...  Good grief.

I have a feeling though, that I'll be disappointed for Christmas... Perhaps a miracle is in order...?