Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
She wanted a "respectful environment for her speaker" (Gates) but is just as guilty in creating a "disrespectful environment" against teachers perpetrated by Duncan, Bloomberg, Rhee, and Gates. And, anyone applauding her should be ashamed.
NYC Educator, if you are basing your comment off of the snapshot that is Norm's video then you aren't aware of everything that he neglected to mention and didn't show.
That included several local presidents, all non-UFT speakers, that addressed the audience and asked for the protest to happen outside without interruption.
I had posted the below in Norm's previous post titled "Video - Bill Gates at the AFT: Bringing in a Trojan Horse" but he responded by acknowledging that he is bias and he enabled comment moderation to prevent any further responses from me.
Here, copied and pasted...
"Norm, your coverage of this is just as slanted as the regular crud found daily in the NY Post.
Tell the truth for once.
There were 3,000+ delegates at the AFT convention, maybe 40 walked out in protest. Several of them were your ICE/GEM friends who were not there as elected delegates but still somehow managed to finagle their way in posing as visitors with other locals.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the video tape you provided is priceless. Watch it. That's not your hated UFT delegates leading the cheers. It's 3,000 delegates from various locals all over the country unhappy with the lack of professionalism. Look at the various union identifications they are wearing. They are clearly visible.
Why did you neglect to mention the emotional pleas before the protest from the Washington State AFT President about not embarrassing her in her home state? Others echoed her comments. Not one of them was from NYC.
Why not write an expose on how your fellow ICE/GEMers managed to get on the floor when they were not elected delegates? How did Lisa North and Gloria Brandman manage to legitimately get on the AFT convention floor?
Why not mention the interruptions during educational, political, and international resolutions from a handful of people which stopped debate on important policy to make juvenile anti-Gates comments? Why not mention how they were booed by 3000+ elected delegates?
Finally, why is there no mention of Yvette Felarca's role in the protest? Felarca tried to rally people to join the Gates protest before the previous session ended. The 3,000 delegates swatted her attempt like a fly. She then ran against Randi for the AFT presidency and lost big time. Randi received 95% of the vote. The UFT delegates alone could not have provided that landslide victory. Clearly others voted for her as well.
I was a delegate to the AFT convention and I walked out before Bill Gates spoke. I walked out to show my displeasure that someone who's in favor of shredding tenure and seniority provisions for teachers and spreading non-union charter schools, was a keynote speaker.
We did not "interrupt" or "disrupt" the speech, which had not yet begun. We exercised our free speech and right to assemble.
We were clearly in the minority, no question about it. But there were many others -- people who stayed, including UFT members -- who were unhappy that Gates was invited to address the convention.
What is so pathetic is that "the woman who would destroy public education and teachers" as shown by her absolute eagerness and total willingness to work with the Billionaire Business Boys gets so much support from the greedy fools who support anything and everything for that free trip and a few other crumbs.
She loves "this body" because she can so easily lead it by spending dues money.
If the teachers at the convention had any idea how much money Gates has put into developing non-unionized charter schools, and that his vision includes an extreme reduction in the membership -- and power -- of their union, they might not have been so willing to cheer for him. It appears to me that Weingarten is aiding and abetting Gates' undemocratic ways.
But like most Americans who aren't studying what is really going on, I'm sure 99.9% of the teachers were uninformed and clueless. They behaved like the people they are: typical Americans who were super-excited to see a famous celebrity. Seeing Bill Gates in person was the thrilling part of the convention that they later told their families about.
As an urban public school parent, supporter of teachers, and pro-public school activist, I believe that the larger concerns the resisters have are perfectly valid and deserve to be acknowledged and discussed -- at a venue other than in blogs. The opponents of today's "ed reform" desire to be heard but are constantly being ignored and shut out. They aren't wealthy enough to pay Charlie Rose to do a five-part series on their side of the story, like Eli Broad can.
Bill Gates is an unelected individual who has been manipulating public policy from behind the scenes by making use of his extreme wealth. His lack of willingness to engage in a transparent, public debate with people who oppose what he is doing -- and who do have legitimate opinions, concerns, as well as data and historical accounts to present -- is what makes it necessary for the resisters to react in a loud and angry way.
If Bill Gates is truly interested in doing what's best for America's public school future, he should purchase one hour of primetime airtime and present a show featuring himself debate Diane Ravitch.
How dumb is that. Union Teachers supporting Bill Gates. Voting against your own self interest! Very smart. When you have been a good teacher for many years, you become to costly to have on staff, then find our butt on the street, are you going to ask Mulgrew and Randi for a job? Teachers better wake up! Thanks for your blog, because folks from other parts of the nation are getting to know Randi and her wannabe successor Mulgrew. I don't buy the rhetoric but the actions.
Seeing this clip of Gates at the AFT convention was almost surreal for me, a teacher with seven years' experience teaching in the NYC public schools. This may be an extreme analogy, but given Gates's anti-union animus....It's like she invited Hitler to speak at a synagogue on the Jewish high holy days.
I am a career teacher and--with Weingarten's and now Mulgrew's recent actions--am so disheartened with the state of affairs and very worried about what the future will bring to NYC students and teachers. I see many of these small schools that Gates has funded as mainly a way for the DOE to give principals more power to intimidate teachers (over grades, passing more students who haven't earned it, etc.) and to break the power of the union.
Furthermore, given this controversy and the fact that there is a difference of opinion among AFT members, the proper actions of a union leader would be to encourage discussion and debate among members--perhaps put a policy decision to a vote. But instead, Weingarten invites Bill Gates to speak! This is so outrageous and is further evidence of the erosion of democracy within our union.
In response to Anon 2:43 you mistakenly point out that all 3000 delegates are elected! In NY elected means a group of UNITY people passing around sheets for signatures. Hundreds of strangers asked me to sign their sheet. I wouldn't exactly define that as elected. I too had hundreds of signatures but when I found out I had to "donate" 100 bucks to UNITY I thought forgetabout it! I agree with the comment about the membership having a say as to who the key note speaker should be( but then again when do we have a say about anything?) I thought the mantra was "not to us, but with us" oh, I forgot, that was last year. This year we are fighting smart.
12 comments:
She wanted a "respectful environment for her speaker" (Gates) but is just as guilty in creating a "disrespectful environment" against teachers perpetrated by Duncan, Bloomberg, Rhee, and Gates. And, anyone applauding her should be ashamed.
Interesting the contrast between Ms. Weingarten's account and what actually happened, right there on the tape.
NYC Educator, if you are basing your comment off of the snapshot that is Norm's video then you aren't aware of everything that he neglected to mention and didn't show.
That included several local presidents, all non-UFT speakers, that addressed the audience and asked for the protest to happen outside without interruption.
I had posted the below in Norm's previous post titled "Video - Bill Gates at the AFT: Bringing in a Trojan Horse" but he responded by acknowledging that he is bias and he enabled comment moderation to prevent any further responses from me.
Here, copied and pasted...
"Norm, your coverage of this is just as slanted as the regular crud found daily in the NY Post.
Tell the truth for once.
There were 3,000+ delegates at the AFT convention, maybe 40 walked out in protest. Several of them were your ICE/GEM friends who were not there as elected delegates but still somehow managed to finagle their way in posing as visitors with other locals.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the video tape you provided is priceless. Watch it. That's not your hated UFT delegates leading the cheers. It's 3,000 delegates from various locals all over the country unhappy with the lack of professionalism. Look at the various union identifications they are wearing. They are clearly visible.
Why did you neglect to mention the emotional pleas before the protest from the Washington State AFT President about not embarrassing her in her home state? Others echoed her comments. Not one of them was from NYC.
Why not write an expose on how your fellow ICE/GEMers managed to get on the floor when they were not elected delegates? How did Lisa North and Gloria Brandman manage to legitimately get on the AFT convention floor?
Why not mention the interruptions during educational, political, and international resolutions from a handful of people which stopped debate on important policy to make juvenile anti-Gates comments? Why not mention how they were booed by 3000+ elected delegates?
Finally, why is there no mention of Yvette Felarca's role in the protest? Felarca tried to rally people to join the Gates protest before the previous session ended. The 3,000 delegates swatted her attempt like a fly. She then ran against Randi for the AFT presidency and lost big time. Randi received 95% of the vote. The UFT delegates alone could not have provided that landslide victory. Clearly others voted for her as well.
Maybe your perspective is just skewed and wrong."
I love that woman. She is very smart and we are lucky to have her as our President. Contrast that answer to the screachers in the opposition.
Response to Anonymous:
I was a delegate to the AFT convention and I walked out before Bill Gates spoke. I walked out to show my displeasure that someone who's in favor of shredding tenure and seniority provisions for teachers and spreading non-union charter schools, was a keynote speaker.
We did not "interrupt" or "disrupt" the speech, which had not yet begun. We exercised our free speech and right to assemble.
We were clearly in the minority, no question about it. But there were many others -- people who stayed, including UFT members -- who were unhappy that Gates was invited to address the convention.
The future will tell who was right.
What is so pathetic is that "the woman who would destroy public education and teachers" as shown by her absolute eagerness and total willingness to work with the Billionaire Business Boys gets so much support from the greedy fools who support anything and everything for that free trip and a few other crumbs.
She loves "this body" because she can so easily lead it by spending dues money.
If the teachers at the convention had any idea how much money Gates has put into developing non-unionized charter schools, and that his vision includes an extreme reduction in the membership -- and power -- of their union, they might not have been so willing to cheer for him. It appears to me that Weingarten is aiding and abetting Gates' undemocratic ways.
But like most Americans who aren't studying what is really going on, I'm sure 99.9% of the teachers were uninformed and clueless. They behaved like the people they are: typical Americans who were super-excited to see a famous celebrity. Seeing Bill Gates in person was the thrilling part of the convention that they later told their families about.
As an urban public school parent, supporter of teachers, and pro-public school activist, I believe that the larger concerns the resisters have are perfectly valid and deserve to be acknowledged and discussed -- at a venue other than in blogs. The opponents of today's "ed reform" desire to be heard but are constantly being ignored and shut out. They aren't wealthy enough to pay Charlie Rose to do a five-part series on their side of the story, like Eli Broad can.
Bill Gates is an unelected individual who has been manipulating public policy from behind the scenes by making use of his extreme wealth. His lack of willingness to engage in a transparent, public debate with people who oppose what he is doing -- and who do have legitimate opinions, concerns, as well as data and historical accounts to present -- is what makes it necessary for the resisters to react in a loud and angry way.
If Bill Gates is truly interested in doing what's best for America's public school future, he should purchase one hour of primetime airtime and present a show featuring himself debate Diane Ravitch.
Why should any teacher owe respect to someone who is funding the destruction of public ed, teachers' unions, & teachers' jobs?
Or to a union president busy selling out her membership?
The teachers in the audience mocking the dissidents = clueless fools.
How dumb is that. Union Teachers supporting Bill Gates. Voting against your own self interest! Very smart. When you have been a good teacher for many years, you become to costly to have on staff, then find our butt on the street, are you going to ask Mulgrew and Randi for a job? Teachers better wake up! Thanks for your blog, because folks from other parts of the nation are getting to know Randi and her wannabe successor Mulgrew. I don't buy the rhetoric but the actions.
Seeing this clip of Gates at the AFT convention was almost surreal for me, a teacher with seven years' experience teaching in the NYC public schools. This may be an extreme analogy, but given Gates's anti-union animus....It's like she invited Hitler to speak at a synagogue on the Jewish high holy days.
I am a career teacher and--with Weingarten's and now Mulgrew's recent actions--am so disheartened with the state of affairs and very worried about what the future will bring to NYC students and teachers. I see many of these small schools that Gates has funded as mainly a way for the DOE to give principals more power to intimidate teachers (over grades, passing more students who haven't earned it, etc.) and to break the power of the union.
Furthermore, given this controversy and the fact that there is a difference of opinion among AFT members, the proper actions of a union leader would be to encourage discussion and debate among members--perhaps put a policy decision to a vote. But instead, Weingarten invites Bill Gates to speak! This is so outrageous and is further evidence of the erosion of democracy within our union.
The AFT is DONE. Randi has sold you guys out and you are no longer to be considered a respectable entity in the fight for public education.
In response to Anon 2:43 you mistakenly point out that all 3000 delegates are elected! In NY elected means a group of UNITY people passing around sheets for signatures. Hundreds of strangers asked me to sign their sheet. I wouldn't exactly define that as elected. I too had hundreds of signatures but when I found out I had to "donate" 100 bucks to UNITY I thought forgetabout it! I agree with the comment about the membership having a say as to who the key note speaker should be( but then again when do we have a say about anything?) I thought the mantra was "not to us, but with us" oh, I forgot, that was last year. This year we are fighting smart.
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