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Cathie Black’s qualifications, or lack thereof, will be discussed tonight at 9 PM EST at;

blogtalkradio.com/bronx-teacher/2010/11/17/the-mind-of-a-bronx-teacher

Harlem Village Academy is a ruthless creamer. After kids get held over for the first or second time they get referred to the Committee on Special Education for special education. Then HVA asks for a placement in a community school because the child’s disability can’t be accommodated at HVA. It’s a clever way to keep the bright, hard-working kids who sit and track the teachers with nary an off-task comment out of their mouths but the others get pushed out. Is that the model we want for all our public schools? 

Thanks for the good correction, Anna. You’re right, I’m concerned that Cathie Black is being held to a very different standard than Klein was. Ironically, she would be good at the job. I hope this doesn’t get lost in all the criticism of the Mayor’s high-handedness.

Ms. Steinem, I am disappointed in you. You used to be one that spoke up for people. Particularly, people who at the time weren’t allowed to have a voice for themselves.

Now, you’re sounding off for the rich gentry. The elite does not need you as a voice, they already control the media. Your involvement here comes across as nothng more than perhaps you feel obligated to her for helping you start your magazine (and also making a lot of money). This is an argument that you shopuld stay out of, you are discrediting your past accomplishments.

As men shouldn’t dictate what’s appropriate for women, a rich white person that lacks propoer education credentials that sends their child to a Connecticut boarding school should not dictate what’s proper for the minority public school children of New York City.

Dear Gloria Steinem: As a feminist who has admired you for years, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assumed your knee-jerk support of a woman with no experience and an anti-union, anti-teacher agenda is merely misguided. As a teacher, I am outraged at your support. Teaching is a female dominated profession where the teaching corp does the impossible every day. Yet they are being scapegoated by the likes of Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg. Why should we assume that Ms. Black, their heir apparent, will do anything else? She was chosen as someone who would further their agenda to privatize public education. The outrage isn’t because she’s a woman, it’s because of the hostility to professional educators that’s parading as “reform”. Your implicit support of this is very disheartening.

If Black is being held to a different standard, in part it’s because of Klein’s record. Which she has been hand-picked to continue. Plain and simple.

To A Teacher

I don’t think she’s really being held to a different standard, rather, I think she’s bearing the brunt of a lot of anger toward what Joel Klein and Bloomberg have done in New York. I am a feminist, no one fought harder for Hillary Clinton than I did. I have admired Gloria Steinem since adolescence, but I do not see the outrage toward Cathie Black as sexist. It is more like all the teachers and parents whose voices have been ignored and whose interests havea been stomped on by Bloomberg and Klein are shouting in unison, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Most teachers are women – too bad Gloria Steinem can’t be bothered to stand up for them.

And you know what? Even if Cathie Black is being mocked for things only a woman would be mocked for, it’s a small price to pay if it shines a light on how terrible for children, teachers, parents and public education in NYC the Bloomberg/Klein education agenda has been. Ms. Black has not said anything in support of treachers. She has not said she disagrees with demonzing the teachers’ unions. She has not said she will stop the testing mania that is crushing the creative spirit of students and turning schools into test-taking factories. So, boo hoo if someone is calling her a socialite with no credentials. My support goes to the women and men who have dedicated their lives to doing the real work of education: the teachers. They have been denigrated and disrespected and publicly mocked ever since NCLB began … who is speaking for them? Not Cathie Black. Not Gloria Steinem.