Ed Notes Online: Delegate Assembly Reaction 2: Seung Ok

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Delegate Assembly Reaction 2: Seung Ok

Seung called a Point of Order, asking to be allowed to speak as someone from a closing school. Not one person called on was from a closing school. The Unity pre-DA rehearsals must have gone quite well. Nina Tribble was assigned to call the question to close debate, a job shared by people like Washington Irving's Greg Lindahl and our own Beach Channel's Dave Peccoraro. Some Unity idiot keeps commenting how rude Seung is. Wish we had a video (and maybe we do) of Mulgrew's condescening attitude towards Seung. He might as well have called him "boy!" Mulgrew was also pretty obnoxious with Kit Wainer, one of the true gentlemen. And TJC's Nick Licari, who you would want in the foxhole on any day of the week, was also denied the chance to address the DA because even though he led Norman Thomas for 20 years, is no longer a delegate. Sure, they let deputy mayors and politicians speak, but not Nick. I never saw Mulgrew in action much before now, but he may make us wish for Randi. Hmmm. Is that why she picked him?

Here Sueng is issuing a call to arms to pay a visit to Bloomberg at City Hall or at his home on Jan. 21. Get out the tea and crumpets Mike.

Seung Ok, Maxwell HS

I just came out of the UFT Meeting, and it looks like teacher's union leadership are selling out those schools in danger of closure. In fact. they didn't even allow me, a teacher from Maxwell HS and another teacher from Norman Thomas, to even get a chance to talk to the assembly. They talk the talk, but they absolutely do not want a citywide rally.

How is it possible, that they pass a resolution on school closings without asking for the opinions of the schools that are being closed? The resolution they passed tonight is so weak, the best they can come up with is a rally at the PEP meeting in Jan. 26 at Brooklyn Tech. How many New Yorker's even know what the PEP is? It will be too late by then! They voted down the idea of a citywide rally before that date.

Before people get the wrong idea, and start fuming about how the teacher delegates could allow this - let me explain a little about UFT politics. The same way Michael Bloomberg acts with intimidation and undemocratic rule, Michael Mulgrew (the president of the UFT) acts towards the Delegate Assembly. He learned his trade working under Randi Weingarten.

There are 3000 delagates in NYC, yet they meet in a room at the UFT that can only fit 800, and they want it that way. They stack the room with employees of the UFT union, many of whom don't even teach anymore. So they win every single vote that Mulgrew wants. In tonight's debate about an amendment for citywide rally, Michael Mulgrew called on 8 of his cronies to argue against this admentment in a row (which breaks the rules of the UFT union constiution). The UFT leadership does NOT represent the views of the majority of the rank and file teachers!

So it is up to us. They may have a few powerful people, we have the truth and thousands of people on our side. Imagine, if you will, the communities of all 22 closing schools entering Manhattan and rallying in front of the Mayor's apartment residence. He wants to mess with our community? We will go into his neighborhood...and shout our lungs out, until people realize, that he is not the civil rights leader he portrays himself to be.

Now the DATE is set. Some have decided that Thursday, Jan 21st is a great day. It's a 5 days before the PEP will make their decision!

So set the calendar, and tell everybody.....parents, students, teachers, cousins of teachers, cousins of cousins - to keep THURSDAY, JANUARY 21st open. We are going to rally, either at Bloomberg's residence or City Hall. Please visit our blog at ........to see more information as the date gets near.

http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

= Lay off our schools!!

UPDATE: Seung appeared on WBAI Thursday eve and here are some reviews:

Great job on WBAI this evening, Seung! Informative, persuasive and powerful. The students you had with you were extremely well spoken and exemplified why Maxwell should not be closed! Gloria

Seung, you were great! You really told it like it is and certainly painted a terrific picture of Maxwell. I am truly in awe of you. Peter

No comments:

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Delegate Assembly Reaction 2: Seung Ok

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