Yesterday was a big day for the PS 15K community in Redhook with two red hot ed superstars, Diane Ravitch and rumored next chancellor Carmen Farina, in attendance. Actually in my book, 3 superstars if you count Julie Cavanagh, PS 15 chapter leader and one of the event organizers.
Carmen Farina has been the chair of the "Friends of PS 15 Committee" for 3 years and helped get the school a new library out of the ashes of co-loco battle with PAVE charter.
Today being the first book talk to introduce the new library as a community space, the Committee thought it fitting to invite Diane Ravitch, who graciously accepted.
Farina in introducing Ravitch, talked a lot about PS 15 and connected the struggles there to Diane's book. Carmen complimented Diane's work, pointing to her travels around the nation as she visits schools and programs and listens to what people have to say.
She made the point that there is plenty of room for agreement and disagreement but informed discussion should be at the center and Diane's work is an important part of that.
Diane said during her talk "Every community needs a great neighborhood public school like PS 15.... We need to be citizens, not consumers, when it comes to public education."
Carmen closed by saying we need to stop focusing on what "they" – the
corporate reformers – are doing and focus on what we are doing, echoing
Diane. We need great public schools in every neighborhood.
Afterburn
I'm not sure exactly what Farina was trying to say here but I agree with this point: That we are beyond focusing on the outrages and should work on organizing. How to do that effectively is another story.
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