Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Had Enough BS, Bronx Science? We're Going to Help Stop It.

UPDATED: Wed. Jan. 4, 11PM
 To many observers his handling of the situation at Bronx Science was a classic indication of what can happen when people with little experience running schools control them. Faculty and parents disputed Levy’s notion that a scientist would be the best pick for the job.
Gail Robinson Tweet on corporate slug/chancellor/Sharpton bagman Harold Levy responsibility for BS disaster: As the situation at Bronx HS of Science gets ever more acrimonious, some background on how it began. bit.ly/nFH6Xy
This was dropped through the transom. And I hear this is not coming from teachers. Did I tell the story behind the audio of my speech at the PEP on Dec. 14 (which you can access on the side panel) where I accused Walcott of being a phony, claiming the DOE wanted quality teachers when they want to fire superb math teacher Peter Lamphere, a fugitive of Valerie Reidy who was parachuted out of BS to a safe haven while the DOE still supports Reidy?

When I originally posted the audio it was of poor. So I get an email from someone I did not know with an audio file of my 2 minutes lifted off the audio of the meeting at the DOE web site. Who was this person? A parent at Bronx Science. So anti-Reidy feelings runs through parents, students, alumni, some of whom are involved in this action on Thursday.

I don't know if current students are willing to risk a Reidy demonstration of "democracy" where students who express their opinions are treated like they were in a gulag. I've mentioned this before but years ago I was contacted by a student who was accused of pulling up a cartoon from Ed Notes that disparaged Reidy. He was threatened with expulsion despite denying it and his parents had to take a day off from work and he was suspended. A few years later when he was elected to student council Reidy had him thrown off. No wonder she wiped out the social studies department - they clearly can't teach history where the word "democracy" is mentioned.


Background:  Search the blog with "Reidy" for multiple articles. Here is one.


Comment 3 from a student:
I'm a student at this school. Perhaps I lack insight on school curriculum, DOE regulations and maybe just plain sense. However I can say one thing, most students at the school agree that most of their favorite and best teachers left the school. These teachers loved what they teach and how they teach it. They may have not always stuck to the "standard" teaching processes but their students always became well educated and informed in the subject. I believe one of the problems is simply that there is really no set way of teaching and Ms. Reidy needs to understand that. I admire her "formula for success" but it is simply to restrictive and inappropriate for a school of such a high standing.
-PANcakes
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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

4 comments:

Michael Paul Goldenberg said...

Norm,

What's the comment about not learning more through "pure discovery" about? In my experience, there is no such thing as a "pure discovery" curriculum, and that particular shibboleth is usually one I find most commonly on the lips of very anti-progressive math and science educators and their supporters. I'm curious why it appears on your blog and what it portends.

ed notes online said...

I don't know the details but Reidy radically redesigned how people should teach at the school and I believe may use that term but through her lens it is distorted and they did a witchhunt for people who didn't conform. This seems to be coming from recent graduates not teachers.

Anonymous said...

I'm a student at this school. Perhaps I lack insight on school curriculum, DOE regulations and maybe just plain sense. However I can say one thing, most students at the school agree that most of their favorite and best teachers left the school. These teachers loved what they teach and how they teach it. They may have not always stuck to the "standard" teaching processes but their students always became well educated and informed in the subject. I believe one of the problems is simply that there is really no set way of teaching and Ms. Reidy needs to understand that. I admire her "formula for success" but it is simply to restrictive and inappropriate for a school of such a high standing.
-PANcakes

Dr Bob Drake said...

It does the heart good to see that the protest I started with one parent and one former guidance counselor in May, 2005 has gathered momentum. But it is sad that six years later the situation has only gotten worse. Word is she will retire in 2013.

I met a guy who interviewed for the math AP position that later became so controversial. He said that he lost interest after meeting Ms. Reidy.

I wish the protest well today, and will rush there from my current job to catch the end of it.