Morning Commentary - September 20, 2011

Hot topics: 
Occupation of Wall Street

CLASS WARFARE

Teachers strike in Tacoma - no time now - google it.


Chicago longer day story (I'm working on it.) Read Schmidt at Substance - see bottom of my blog roll -

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Lois Weiner's presentation at the GEM meeting was powerful. Even the fairly sophisticated audience seemed blown away. Video should be up by tonight. It's an hour but you will really see what neo-liberalism is all about.
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Follow up to my piece on Elizabeth Green and her class size clap-trap article in NY Mag:
In case you missed this comment:

She [Green] pretty much repeated all the cliches, all of which by the way are factually incorrect. The sort of piece that you would expect from someone who knows nothing and is too lazy  to do any research.

More class size clap-trap? Watch this video; the DOE plans to send 2^nd graders in crowded class of 36  out of their zoned school to another school, rather than hire another teacher to reduce class size; outrageous.

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/147475/fears-of-overcrowded-classes-are-reality-for-brooklyn-elementary-school.

Thank goodness NY1 reporter Lindsay Christ doesn't view the class size issue as clap-trap.

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I headed over to CUNY for the E4E Walcott appearance after the GEM meeting last night but ran into Walcott walking alone on the street, his head buried in his Blackberry. Sydney and crew were moving people upstairs to the 9th floor where they had the Kool-aid stashed. I had my press pass Sydney stopped me - "no press," she said  - "we want to have an honest conversation about education." - 'As opposed to the dishonest conversations you usually have," I said.
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Did someone win the Broad prize yet? Who really cares? Maybe chief of ed deform Broad can throw another million bucks at the UFT charter school.

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Well, I got my apology from Netflix' - er Quikster - or quipster - CEO Reed Hastings - and major ed deform supporter - Reed Hastings. People are tailing it out of Netflix so fast there is a fire hazard. I will give the streaming service a shot for a few months. Reed co-wrote a piece with Arne Duncan, Susan Ohanian linked and commented:

A Digital Promise to Our Nation's Children

Ohanian Comment: Nearly 15 million children in the United States -- 21% of all children -- live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level --$22,050 a year for a family of four. And our federal politicos make them a digital promise.
From the National Center on Children in Poverty:

Most of these children have parents who work, but low wages and unstable employment leave their families struggling to make ends meet. Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor health and mental health. Risks are greatest for children who experience poverty when they are young and/or experience deep and persistent poverty.

Research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children's well-being. But effective public policies -- to make work pay for low-income parents and to provide high-quality early care and learning experiences for their children – can make a difference. Investments in the most vulnerable children are also critical. [emphasis added]

So research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children's well being, and Arne Duncan declares, "Give them videogame graphics." And he declares worse. Insisting that learning is sequential, he declares that a computer will automatically deliver the curriculum a second grader needs next.

As to Digital Promise, if you want to see a video in which Arne's lips don't synchonize with his words, go here. If you want to see the board of directors of this "independent 501(c)(3), created through Section 802 of the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008," go here.

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More from Susan:
When Free Trips Overlap with Commercial Purposes
Michael Winerip
New York Times
2011-09-19
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1076
Winerip gives us a hard-hitting column on Parson's junkets.

Education Points of View
Susan Ohanian, commentary
FAIR and New York Times
2011-09-19
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1072
In case you hadn't already noticed, the New York Times reveals its true colors about education.

Getting teacher evaluation right
Valerie  Strauss & Linda Darling-Hammond & others
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2011-09-15
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=439
Will any other journalist in the country print this information?
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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 right for news bits.

The Work of Robert Rendo

by Robert Rendo, who holds copyright but gives permission to reproduce--as long as it's used to further the fight against ed deform.

Gotham Schools Elizabeth Green Shows True Colors on Class Size Issue

She [Green] pretty much repeated all the cliches, all of which by the way are factually incorrect. The sort of piece that you would expect from someone who knows nothing and is too lazy  to do any research.   --comment on the piece below

To me the dividing line between ed deformers and real reformers is where you stand on class size.
I've considered Elizabeth Green an ed deformer for quite a while. And I'm not just talking about her love for anyone connected to E4E. See Ed Notes: (The Insidious Nature of Green's Sunday Times Article)

Note this in her Sept. 11 article in NY Mag - Class-Size Claptrap - interesting title:

"Because what is the only way to reduce class sizes? To hire union-dues-paying teachers!"

Is that the ONLY way? Charter schools brag about lower class sizes without union teachers. Is that the answer? Hire cheap teachers?

And this:

"But cutting class sizes doesn’t always produce better outcomes—especially not when hastily imposed size caps compel the hiring of inexperienced teachers [word for word from the ed deform manual]. And there are many other factors, including teacher quality [how about naming even one factor beyond the ed deform one - like the scary P word - poverty], that affect results."

Amazing! Where is the concern for hiring inexperienced TEACH FOR AMERICA Teachers? I get it. They are from "good' schools - supposedly.

And what about this "results" stuff? We know that means test scores. I view results as my being able to spend some quality time with each child in my class to talk about things and help with the issues so many of our children face. Anyone knows that lower class size gives teachers that opportunity. But to deformers like Green they boil it down to "kids throwing things."

NYC Educator brilliantly takes the person running Gotham Schools to task subtle but one-sided reporting. It is so good I have to cross-post:

Is Half a Story Better than None?

I'm fascinated by this article in NY Mag, and the more I think about it, the more I change my mind why that is. At first blush, I thought it did a good job of encapsulating both sides of class size. But on closer examination, it kind of paints class-size advocates as fanatics, while offering little or nothing in the way of why we believe as we do. On the other hand, it portrays the other side fairly well--reasonable class sizes cost too much, and union is bad.

I've taught classes of 15, 25, and 35, and I can tell you there's a world of difference in what you can accomplish. Folks like Bloomberg, Klein and Obama place their kids in private schools with class sizes below 15, but have no problem advocating larger class sizes for our children. In fact, those who administrate schools ought to be required to patronize them, rather than utilizing them as experiments for Bill Gates and the other billionaires who want to tell us how our kids should be treated. The article states class sizes in higher grades may go higher than 27--that's absurd. In my school there are dozens of classes over 34, the UFT contractual limit, and plenty right at 34. This is what happens when you eliminate 10% of working teachers via attrition and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I hope in vain publications like New York will offer its readers the full story. It's ridiculous those of us in the field, those of us who know from firsthand experience what class size means to call it a "red herring." I'd like to see people who write such things control 35 teenagers at a time and tell me it doesn't matter.

Finally, there's this conclusion:

As it happens, there are people in the city Department of Education working on open-minded, teacher-friendly methods of improving training and evaluation. And, obviously, not all rank-and-file teachers are opposed to structural changes. The problem is that the people who are in charge still believe that school reform is war. And nothing much about New York City education is going to change while that remains the case. 

I'm curious who these people are, and why they're working on "open-minded, teacher-friendly methods of improving training and evaluation." After all, there is a state agreement that mandates any such method be negotiated with the UFT.

Furthermore, since Bloomberg took office, I have seen nothing open-minded or teacher friendly. I have grown used to broken promises, not the least of which entails the billion dollars the DOE took to reduce class size--after which it went up every year. The DOE is engaged in releasing scores it specifically promised not to release. And studies suggest that "value-added" has no validity whatsoever. The last few lines make sense to me, but if it's true they're waging war on us, how on earth are we supposed to believe they're open-minded and teacher friendly? Do people really think teachers can be that stupid?

To say that not all rank and file teachers are opposed to structural changes is easy, but what precisely do these changes entail? We need to know before making judgments. Not all of us are taking money from Bill Gates and promoting corporate-friendly nonsense.

What we need, desperately, is a press that's willing to dig for the truth, a press that will not grant credibility to nonsensical "reforms" simply because billionaires say they're a good idea, a press that will challenge the status quo. I'm sure there are plenty of reporters quite capable of this, and I know a few that rise to the occasion.

Regrettably, those who depend on New York magazine for info are far from getting the full story here.

Here is Green's New Yorker piece:

Monday – Dueling Orgs: GEM Real Reformers With Weiner vs. E4E Ed Deformers With Walcott

This post will be added to later since I am in no shape to complete it after a late Saturday night at Steely Dan - and what a concert it was but after getting to bed near 2pm and up at 6:30, there isn't much left. However this one has been in my mind for some time and I wanted to get started.

Dennis Walcott attempts to take E4E off life support!

Where will you be Monday? Weiner or Walcott? Real Reform or Ed Deform?

If there was one event you should go to, that is the GEM meeting with Lois Weiner as the guest speaker to demonstrate that there is major interest in Real Reform vs the Ed Deform being pushed by E4E and its guest speaker Dennis Walcott. Let's get an audience that can hold its own.

Today, dueling meetings between GEM and E4E will be taking place an hour and a block apart.

The Real Reformers of GEM will be holding their monthly meeting at 5PM at the Community Church of NY (40 East 35 St, between Madison and Park) with Lois Weiner as the speaker talking about the global assault on teachers and their unions (which is the title of her book). I saw Lois do her presentation years ago and it was an AHA moment where she ties in shock doctrine on educators world wide. What I like about it is how the UFT/AFT leadership narrow misleading of the members by blaming Klein or Bloomberg for the issues we face is exposed.  See the top of the side panel for Lois' powerpoint and some news of her speech in LA. Also the post below this for the formal announcement.

We really want your bodies at the GEM meeting: a) because we love you b) because you will walk out with the tools in your head to argue down all those conservative anti-teacher family yokels you have to deal with - maybe even next week at Rosh Hashonnah dinner and c) to demo that real groups like GEM can draw people.

At 6:30 or so, Ed Deformers E4E will be meeting at CUNY just down the block with Ed Deformer in Chief Dennis Walcott, who is trying to pump up the dying group that cannot survive without infusions of cash from outside agencies to support their staff of 5 and their offices. Naturally, the pro ed deform media has seized on E4E and other so-called teacher reform groups to pump up the empty balloon.

I'll get into the articles on E4E later in the day in this post or in a separate one. Why do I say they are a faux organization? Their numbers of so-called members which is a national list is stagnant. I know this because loads of people signed their pledge just to be on the mailing list. South Bronx School did a bit of analysis of the numbers:

Three thousand? So how many of these are NYC teachers? If all 3,000 are NYC teachers that gives E4E .03947368% of all teachers in NYC that support E4E. Now considering that I have signed up twice, many others have so how is this a movement? The E4E Facebook page shows just 1,828 friends. So even if these are all NYC teachers, which they are not, that shows a percentage of .02471053%. E4E is just a steamroller.

E4E got slammed when so many of their so-called supporters were denied tenure or had their tenure extended, many on unfair grounds. See Jeff Kaufman's report on how E4Eers at his school had tenure denied for bogus reasons. How did they feel about the organization whose pledge to make tenure much harder to obtain they signed?

E4E even had to cancel a few events this summer for lack of interest.

They had a Sept. 14 event planned but that disappeared too, replaced by the Walcott event on Sept. 19, the same day and at the same location (CUNY) where GEM usually meets (though we're not meeting there this time). I'm betting they get the auditorium which costs some serious money – unless there was some pressure applied to give them the space. But why should E4E worry - they have sugar daddies.

The media black out real groups like GEM, NYCORE, Teachers Unite, and New Teacher Underground while humping Faux "teacher" group E4E.

When a reporter who was doing a story on E4E called me for comment I raised the issue of how an organization funded by DFER and Bill Gates gets credence while real organizations organizing within basically the same pool – newer teachers to teachers with about a dozen years in the system – gets blacked out. The response was a lame, "E4E has influenced policy, referencing the teacher evaluation law they like to take credit for. I practically leaped over the phone: "Are you saying you actually believe THEY influenced policy and not DFER and Gates and the rest of the ed deformers who are using them as a front group to undermine the union from within?"

MORE LATER

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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 right for news bits.

Bronx High Story at NY Times - Drilling Down - What Affects Students More – Bad Principals or Bad Teachers?

“I loved my students, they were great. My coworkers were smart and hardworking. But I have never met anyone as cruel and petty as Principal Valerie Reidy, from whom I had to endure threats, intimidation, and ultimately denial of tenure and the end of my public school teaching career in New York City.” ---Geoffrey Nutter, who taught at Bronx High School of Science for a year.

So the New York Times has (finally) reported in print on the continuing harassment of teachers in my former chapter.... This past year, the administration moved on to focus on the Social Studies department. Legal relief on the implementation of the arbitrator's fact finding regarding the Math department's special complaint is still pending... as the article mentions, the DoE sadly chose not to take action on the arbitrator's recommendations - action which could have saved some turmoil the school - but, in the next month or two, I expect Judge Paul Wooten's ruling on the first U rating I received in retaliation for advocating for my colleagues at the school. The UFT has filed suit on the second U rating, and that will be going to court soon as well.--- Peter Lamphere

The percentage of lousy and incompetent principals far outweighs the percentage of bad teachers.

You hear so much about "teachers are the most important---blah, blah, blah" while the impact of bad principals is fluffed over, especially here in NYC where Tweed will protect serial killers if the press doesn't report it. (Check out the story of Eximius Academy in the NY Post - Bronx principal found to have tampered with students’ transcripts and may be fired - NYPOST.com and the email I received from a contact who worked there which I printed at the end of this post.) How can you compare the impact a principal has on so many teachers and students to that of a teacher? I told Joel Klein at meeting after meeting at the PEP that his protection of so many awful principals will result in great difficulty in removing bad teachers. Unfortunately, our union leaders refuse to make this point in some kind of solidarity with the principals' union.

Yesterday while I was at wrist therapy, I was next to an assistant principal at a prestigious Manhattan high school. Friday's NY Times story (At Prestigious Bronx School, an Exodus of Teachers and Criticism) on the travesty of principal Valerie Reidy at Bronx High School of Science came up and she leaned over and said, "I have the real story. It was about her U-rating incompetent teachers." Thus the spin floating around the DOE is that Reidy is fine but some lousy teachers are just out to get her because she is tough on them. I said, "I have the real story as I have been reporting on the Bronx High of Science situation for years. How do you explain the turnover rate at a top high school? Are people leaving your school?" She was silent.

I went on to tell her about the Peter Lamphere case. Peter, a GEM member, was chapter leader and received two U-ratings. By anyone's account he is a superb math teacher but stood up when the math department was decimated. He is the poster boy for LIFO. Yet the UFT leadership rather than fighting this one out in the press and at the top levels as an example of how principals retaliate for union activities - I mean what message does this send to chapter leaders? - they chose to arrange to parachute Peter out of the school. (Interesting that as a member of the opposition, the UFT/Unity Caucus/New Action tandem benefits by removing him from a large high school). I don't blame Peter for taking the lifeline with his career on the line. But it should never have gotten to that point.

Here is Peter's story at Gotham Schools last February: “Merit”? My Experience With Arbitrary U Ratings | GothamSchools. Peter and Rachel Montagano wrote a joint piece at Gotham which I linked to here: Education Notes Online: E4E: Fire Peter Lamphere and Rachel ...


Gail Robinson has a great follow up detailing the historical context of Reidy's rise to power: (Harold) Levy's Legacy at Bronx Science‎ - Gotham Gazette (blog) which is a must read.


It is interesting that former Gotham reporter Anna Philips wrote the Friday's story. She certainly knows the full background of the Bronx High Story and she did a reasonably good job, even including a former student

Sarah Hofer, who graduated in 2005, said she once planned to return to Bronx Science as a math teacher, but abandoned that idea when she saw former teachers she admired head for the door. Ms. Hofer said she now returns her alumni association contribution card every year blank, except for the words “I’ll pay my dues when Reidy leaves.”

(I had contact with a student who was threatened and punished for putting up the "Quack" cartoon on a computer at the school.I had promised Anna I would try to get him to touch base with her for this story but couldn't find his email.)

While the article focused on social studies teachers who left the school (I hear Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's brother was one) Peter Lamphere is mentioned in this context:

The complaints by the Bronx Science social studies teachers are reminiscent of those made in a special complaint in 2008. At that time, 20 of the school’s 22 math teachers accused Rosemarie Jahoda, the math assistant principal, of harassing and intimidating new teachers. In 2010, an arbitrator ruled that both Ms. Jahoda and the school’s chapter leader, Peter Lamphere, should be transferred to other schools. City education officials did not follow the recommendation.

(In fact, Peter is now gone and Jahoda is still there.) But think of it: 20 out or 22 teachers in one department as one of the most prestigious schools in the nation. It is too bad the article did not mention the 2 U-ratings Peter received as that would tie the issue to past and upcoming LIFO wars - I did a piece on how E4E is basically demanding that U-rated teachers like Peter be fired (E4E: Fire Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano).

This is not the first time the Times did a piece on Reidy: Battle Over a Principal Spills Outside a School's Walls - New York ...www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/nyregion/thecity/12scie.html

You +1'd this publicly. Undo

Jun 12, 2005 – Valerie Reidy when she was named head of Bronx Science in 2001. The battle turned public in mid-May, when staff members at Bronx Science ...

If you put "Reidy" in the search ed notes box on the side panel you get loads of article I published on Bronx High and Reidy. Here are a few nuggets:

student report from bronx high school of science

Jan 08, 2009

if you check out some of the blogs of current and former students (many of the latter at top colleges) you can see how reidy is totally despised and disrespected. it's really frightening actually. today, the principal and her cronies ...

students against mrs. reidy's mistreatment of teachers

Jun 26, 2009

to put it lightly, mrs. reidy has been notorious for not getting along with the teaching staff of bronx science. it has been in the news on more than one occasion. this time, however, mrs. reidy made a personal attack on a veteran ...

What About Principal Accountability? Bronx High School of Science ...

Sep 09, 2010

Bob Drake was one of Bronx HS of Science principal Valerie Reidy's victims. Reidy had received an honorary PhD and called herself "doctor". Drake, a real PhD made some objections. At some point Reidy was called a "quack". ...

Bronx High School of Science in the News

Jan 08, 2009

Joel Klein, who has been aware of what has been going on there, has never wavered in his support for Reidy. His inaction only reinforces the case for teachers. Too bad the UFT has also failed to use all its resources to take these ...

Mass Exodus of Teachers from Bronx Science

Oct 07, 2007

Reasons cited for departures are: interference by Principal Reidy and her sycophantic Assistant Principals in the classroom, lack of professionalism in their treatment of staff, several givings of U ratings to staff who did not kowtow ...

today's quickies

Oct 11, 2007

the animosity towards reidy by the kids seems to be more intense than that of teachers. and i received an email from a parent leader that indicates many of them feel the same. wow! reidy has united parents, teachers and students. ...

Fact finder calls on Bronx Science administrator to step down ...

Apr 27, 2010

I'm amazed that the fact finder also recommends that chapter leader Peter Lamphere, who has been active in the opposition, also transfer when the crimes have clearly been perpetrated by Reidy and Jahoda. I recently met one of the young ...

still quacking at bronx high - updated

May 26, 2008

while known for attacks on teachers (which seems ok to the anti-teacher world out there) the bronx high administration under reidy has also engaged in attacks on students and parents. i became personally involved with a bronx high ...

Political Retaliation Against Teachers by Ed Deformers Like Klein ...

Sep 02, 2010

I think the first case we (Betsy Combier) raised was that of Dr. Bob Drake, a chemistry teacher at Bronx HS of Science who was fired by PFH Valerie Reidy because he objected to her using "Dr." before her title since she was not a phd. ...

Email on Eximius Academy Principal:

I worked at Eximius(eczema/scrofula/bubonic plague)Academy from late Sept.09 after I had been illegally excessed from JFK HS until Jan. 2010 when I managed to escape.
It was the worst scene that I have ever encountered in my 23 years as a teacher.It had the feeling of a bizarre cult a la the Rev.Jim Jones and Jonestown replete with plenty of purple kool-aid (metaphorically speaking).
Tammy Smith was, in my opinion, a psychopath.
While most of us are aware of the roles that the mayor,Adolph Bloomberg , and his chancellor ,Adolph Klein, have played in the ongoing destruction of the NYC public school system we must must never forget nor forgive the leadership of the UFT and their open and ongoing collaboration with Bloomscum and his minions.They are our Vidkun Quislings,our Pierre Lavals,our Axis Sallys and our Tokyo Roses.Their betrayal and abandonment of the Eximius staff was particularly abominable.
Brothers and Sisters ,let's flush the present leadership of the UFT down the commode of history and build a powerful and militant union that will fight tooth and nail for it's memberships rights and well-being..

In Solidarity

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Oy! Is it my age or is there just so much information coming in that I can't keep up?

Here is just a selection from a daily digest from listserves:

New City Tests Coming for Teacher Evaluations. We Explain.

3.

Fwd: City Hands Off Part of Teacher Evaluation Effort to the State -

4.

Fwd: School cuts hurt: Survey & Action! AQE needs your help 

5a.

Attention Press: FMPR Statement to the Press regarding visit of Sect From: Angel Gonzalez

6a.

Fwd: [nyceducationnews] Leo Casey admits at last Bill Gates is not 

7.

Labor Notes: High SchoolTeachers in south Brooklyn create a coalitio From: Angel Gonzalez

8.

Fwd: [Highlights fr. our day in court  re charter co-locations 

9.

Fwd:open letter to Michael Moore from Sharon Higgins 

10.

Tacoma teachers strike From: guitarnboots 

5.

Fwd: [Highlights fr. our day in court  re charter co-locations 

6.

Fwd: Bill to expand charter school moves on to U.S. Senate 

7.

Fwd: [nyceducationnews] Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrato 

8.

Fwd: Dan Rather on Testing and Scoring  Industry: Sept. 20 

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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 right for news bits.

What If? The State of Education on September 10, 2001

Published in The Wave (Rockaway Beach's Community newspaper), Sept. 16, 2011 (www.rockawave.com)


The State of Education on September 10, 2001
by Norm Scott

Imagine if I issued a call for a series of radical reforms of the public school educational system that would turn every school in the nation into the equivalent of the most elite private school. How about class sizes under 20 for every single child in the system – 15 for the earliest grades? A highly trained assistant teacher in each classroom. Classrooms stocked full of supplies. A rich and varied curriculum, that includes travel to far away places. And one-on-one tutoring for every child that needs it. How about a laptop for every child? Every single child in this nation offered a world class education.

You're saying: This guy must be nuts. Doesn't he know the nation is broke and the political system is in shambles? But what if I had issued this call on September 10, 2001? Or September 10, 1991? Or '81? There would have been the same basic reaction - you're nuts - too expensive, an impossible dream.

Yet, after September 11, 2001 an estimated three trillion dollars or more materialized seemingly out of nowhere to fight two wars and fund an immense security machine from airports to just about every aspect of peoples' lives. And these costs keep rising every single day.

So, without going into the politics of it all, there is some indication here of where the priorities of this nation lie. Since I started teaching in under-resources schools in 1967 in the midst of the Vietnam War I have raised the issue of the immense defense department budget compared to what is spent on education. When that war ended there was no massive shift of money to education. There was still a cold war to fight. When that war ended in the late 80's and we entered what looks today like the enormously prosperous 90's, I didn't notice tons of money in the schools.

Then came September 11, 2001 and all hope for that world-class education was doomed. Today, the US spends more on defense than the combined total of every nation in the world.

Instead, we have seen a so-called education reform movement that has focused the blame on the teachers and their unions – in actuality a third war funded by billionaires.

Let me backtrack a bit for those new to the school wars. Over the past decade there has been a radical shift in the debate on education towards a business model market-based school system – urban schools only, of course – based on competition between schools and teachers, primarily through the push for charter schools, mostly non-unionized and stocked by many newbie teachers, often recruited from Teach for America which offers a 6 week summer training course before turning these recruits loose on the schools (most TFAers leave teaching after their 2-year commitment). Schools are branded as failures and closed down based on standardized test scores. Teachers are given merit pay or fired based on these scores. Charter schools competing for the same children are opened next to or within public schools to offer so-called "choice." Private management companies, some for profit, are brought in to manage charters and even some public schools. Enormous sums are spent on testing and data management while starving the classrooms. Anyone bringing up poverty or other outside school conditions is branded as an apologist for teacher unions or an excuse-maker or a supporter of the status quo.

The system was first implemented in Chicago in 1994 and we have had this system in place here in NYC since Bloomberg took over the schools in 2002. George Bush codified things nationally with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) around the same time. Obama has not only adopted this extreme appliance of capitalism to the schools whole cloth but extended it with Race to the Top which forces states to grovel for federal ed money by imposing narrow prescriptions on state education departments to conform to the corporate reform agenda. Not exactly a socialist, this Obama guy.

What has been the outcome? Disaster. Applying a business model that almost brought the nation's economy down in 2008 has had the same impact in education. City after city has been wracked by test cheating scandals. The Big One hasn't hit NYC - yet. (It is interesting that Bloomberg and Klein removed the erasure analysis monitoring system when they took over, claiming it - ahem - cost too much.)

Who are these people pushing the agenda? Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Family, Rupert Murdoch, and numerous hedge fund managers - you know, all those millionaires and billionaires who have demonstrated so much concern about poor kids. David Sirota writing in Slate calls it: The bait and switch of school "reform": Behind the new corporate agenda for education lurks the old politics of profit and self-interest.
Google the article for some enlightenment on what is behind the curtain.

We have branded these people as ed deformers while the people putting forth the ideas in the first paragraph are "Real Reformers." It is a David vs. Goliath battle but as the defects of the ed deformers continue to show up daily, there are more and more defections from their camp, with Diane Ravitch being the biggie and celebrities like Matt Damon joining the cause, thus giving the RRs a puncher's chance.


Choice in schools but not in politicians
Ed deformers throw around the words "school choice", as if people were shopping for varieties of corn flakes in a supermarket. So I found the recent local political races affecting us in Rockaway interesting. Wave editor and former teacher Howie Schwach said it as well as anyone in last week's edition – The Least Objectionable Candidate. Schwach just about everything objectionable in each of the 4 candidates. Convinced me.

I too held my nose as I voted. As I wrote in my last column I felt I really had little choice when it comes to my core issue - education. I did receive a nice call from Phil Goldfeder who said I would be surprised. Of course he used the ed deform stock expression - we must hold on to our talented young teachers – which I told him is code for an attack on teacher seniority protections. He said he didn't realize that. We'll see where he stands when Bloomberg comes after "Last in First Out" this year. He promised he would hold the line.

If Anthony's Weiner had still been running against Bob Turner instead of the hapless Weprin, I still would have has little choice since Weiner also supported the ed deform program. (By the way, if Weiner hadn't self-destructed I'm not sure he would have won given that Turner had 40% of the vote the last time.) Turner of course a MOC - More Objectionable Candidate since he doesn't believe in government and drinks tea. But I do expect him to support putting a Jerry Springer show in every pot.

Excellent Analysis of ATR Issue from Marjorie Stamberg

Today will be a busy posting day with so much information coming in, so if you can catch up over the weekend.
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LAST UPDATE: 11:15 - I forgot to include a link to some excellent ATR sardonic wit that our pal NYCATR posted: The Love Letter of Ms. R. ATR - NYCATR welcomes a new contributor, Ms. R. ATR.  We predict that she'll be a star. 

ALSO DON'T MISS: The Nobile-Barr Virus continues to rage

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Here is a great analysis of the ATR situation from Marjorie Stamberg. Marjorie and I disagree on a bunch of issues but on the ATR situation she has been on target from Day 1. In fact Marjorie, along with John Powers, were the orginators of the movement to battle for ATRs years ago. They were both part of District 79 when it was dismantled in 2008 and so many colleagues became ATRs. They organized a rally in front of Tweed that so threatened the DOE and the UFT that they signed a new agreement on ATRs the day before the rally and then the UFT tried to divert people from the rally to UFT HQ with a wine and cheese party - which I taped - that led to a resolution at the DA banning taping (see the video links below Marjorie's post).

Marjorie puts a rational list of demands on the table. As we build the GEM ATR committee, we will take a good look at these demands and create an ATR lobbying effort within the UFT.

In a convoluted way, the actions of Marjorie and John helped initiate GEM. John was coming to ICE meetings and and at times so did Marjorie to get us to support her efforts. Angel Gonzalez and I went to the ATR meetings they were holding and ICE publicized the events. But after the rally in November 2008 there seemed to be few plans for further action. So we formed an ICE ATR committee at an ICE meeting in December 2008. John Lawhead made the connection that ATRs were mostly created by closing schools which were affected by high stakes tests - so we expanded the committee to cover all these issues and held our first meeting in January 2009. How that evolved into the current GEM is a long and convoluted story. If interested, read it here: A History of the Grassroots Education Movement.

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ADDENDUM FROM JAMES ETERNO: She says 19 schools aren't closing because of a court order. This does not sound right. We lost in court and are closing. Please clarify what she means.
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Marjorie Stamberg's Notes on the Absent Teacher Reserve

Permanent Positions and Full Rights for ATRs!

Below are some notes based on conversations with teachers who have been living in the surreal world of ATRland. According to the UFT’s latest figures, some 1,500 of our colleagues are caught in this limbo, where their rights are trampled on.

In the 2005 contract with the NYC Department of Education, the UFT agreed to allow principals to select the staff at “their” schools. It was also agreed to abolish the UFT job transfer list, where a teacher whose school was closed, or who wished to change schools, could transfer to an opening on a seniority basis, by license area.

 Many of us opposed this at the time as a dangerous attack on teachers’ job security. The upshot was the ballooning of the Absent Teacher Reserve consisting of teachers who have been “excessed” through no fault of their own, as the DOE capriciously shuts down and reorganizes schools as part of its program of charterizing, corporatizing and privatizing public education.

Teachers in the ATR pool have been made into scapegoats by the media which claims that they are “bad teachers” who should be fired and are supposedly costing NYC taxpayers millions of dollars to sit around doing nothing. These claims are bald-faced lies in the service of a union-busting agenda.

In fact, as a recent audit by NYC Comptroller John Liu’s office shows, 95 percent of all ATRs are working in schools, three-quarters of them are teaching, and almost half of those who have been in the ATR pool for two or more years have been assigned to the same location for at least two consecutive years! (“Audit Report on the Department of Education’s Utilization of the Absent Teacher Reserve Pool,” September 6, 2011). They are only in the ATR limbo because principals don’t want to pay their salaries.

Our ATR colleagues need the support of all teachers. As every teacher knows, “If You’re Not an ATR Today, You Could Be Tomorrow!”

Last spring it was urgent to fight against Mayor Bloomberg’s threatened layoffs of thousands of teachers. Due to our fight-back, the mayor was unable to change the “LIFO” (“Last In First Out”) seniority rules which are a basic union protection. Bloomberg had to back down on his layoff threats which would have paralyzed the schools and been disastrous for students.

Today we must demand that the more than 800 school aides and other staff who have been laid off be returned to work. And we need to come to the aid of our ATR colleagues under attack, out of elementary solidarity and to protect the jobs of all teachers and staff.

Stymied in its efforts to lay off teachers, the DOE simply “excessed” them. There would be hundreds more placed in the ATR purgatory except that a court order is still blocking DOE efforts to close 19 schools.

At recent so-called “job fairs,” ATRs turned out in the hundreds, but the principals refused to even bother to turn up to interview or hire. This profound contempt for ATR teachers is part of an organized media campaign instigated by the DOE.

Starting on September 15, principals have been told to place ATRs in all vacancies and long-term absences in the schools. So one thing we can do right now is to report all vacancies to the union chapter leaders, especially where there are ATRs in the same school.

According to the citywide agreement, after one year ATRs who have provisional positions should be offered a permanent assignment if the principal and the teacher agree that there is a “good fit”. However, many principals don’t want to hire an experienced teacher, conscious of his or her rights, when they can get two new hires for the same price. There are many ATRs who have been working in the same position year after year, and yet the principal still refuses to give them permanent assignments.

ATRs who are not given provisional positions are to be treated as subs, and moved from school to school wherever there is a need. Clearly this is an agenda to harass these teachers out of the system!

Back in 2008, when the DOE recklessly reorganized the GED program in District 79, “excessing” hundreds of teachers, we demanded that every teacher in the ATR pool must be given a permanent position. We must continue to demand that today. After the 2008 fight in D79, including a demonstration of more than 200 UFTers in November of that year, the ATR issue has not gone away, despite the toothless “Side Agreement” with the DOE.
 

The UFT must insist that:

·        Schools place all ATR teachers before any new hires are placed.

·        ATRs should be given permanent assignments with full rights.
There are also a number of things that the union can and should do, now.

·        There should be regular citywide UFT meetings for ATRs to discuss together, and to get the latest information from the UFT leadership. In addition, we call on the UFT to form a special ATR functional chapter so that teachers placed in this terrible situation have representation and advocates to demand that they be placed and their rights be respected. At present there is no body in the UFT that has this task, and ATRs are mostly left to fend for themselves.

·        Even within the framework of the present contract, the union can and should provide oversight and encouragement to principals to request the ATR be kept in the school, and not bumped from place to place. This requires advocacy on a case by case basis. It is obvious this is only good pedagogy to have a teacher familiar with the school administration, the faculty, the students, and the individual curricula.
In addition, ATRed teachers have raised a number of the many unresolved questions about their situation:


·        ATR union rights
What provisions are being made for ATRs to express their rights as full dues-paying UFT members. Where are their voting rights in the UFT chapters? This is particularly acute if these teachers are being moved from school to school.

·        Evaluations
 If ATRS are in numerous schools throughout the school year, how will they be evaluated? It is hard enough to be in a single school without a permanently assigned classroom, But when one is never in a school long enough to develop rapport with the students as well as collaboration with a principal, the other teachers and the school staff, how can a teacher possibly get a satisfactory rating?

·        Paychecks

Many teachers do not have direct deposit. What is the procedure for receiving their paychecks in a timely fashion? Who is responsible and where will the bi-weekly checks be sent for pick-up?
·        What evidence is there for assuming the statistics will be any better by June 2012? It is clear that principals still have huge economic pressures on them which forces them to go for the lower-paid and lower-seniority teachers. There is also evidence of systematic age discrimination which the UFT has not directly fought.
Overall, we must make clear:

With the budget cuts, there has been much talk about larger classroom size. There is no need for overcrowded classrooms with almost 2,000 teachers available to fill full-time positions. There is talk of lack of space. Again, except for certain districts in Queens where the DOE has failed to build new schools despite plenty of forewarning, this is an artificial shortage, created by the DOE’s campaign to hand over available classroom space to charter school “co-locations.”

Even though thousands of students and parents, particularly from the African American, Latino and Asian communities most affected, have loudly (and repeatedly) denounced this attack, Bloomberg and his minions at the DOE keep up their school-wrecking operation. But they can be stopped if we use our power and act together.

Marjorie Stamberg
UFT Delegate
Member, Class Struggle Education Workers
September 15, 2011

Breaking News: Leo Casey Admits He Was Wrong About Bill Gates

UFT's Leo Casey in his review of Brill’s book finally admits Bill Gates is no friend to teachers and has “become outspoken in his anti-teacher pronouncements"  (as though this was a recent development.) -- Leonie Haimson

UPDATED FROM COMMENT AREA: This one really nails one of the ideological aspects:

Michael (above) is exactly right. It's a disgrace. What makes Leo's "turnaround" so unpalatable to me is that I don't believe that Leo believed what he thought and wrote in July 2010. He uses a certain leftist, ivory-tower, screed that paints all those who oppose the Unity/UFT program (lots to talk about there) as being rigid, moral purists or antiquated vanguards of the left. Leo has always understood the "evils" of Gates; his goal is to spin it all to help allow Unity to find wiggle room for further appeasement and capitulation. Contrary to what others may feel, Leo Casey is the most important Unity man in the UFT. He is Unity's "brain," organizer and "spin-master." If you don't believe me, consider the following: Why does Randi want him to move to DC and work with her? And this is absolutely another sound bite from a soul-less man named Leo.

Leonie Haimson takes down Leo Casey in this post to the NYCEnews Listserve.

But before you go on, review this video I made of the walkout at Gates's speech at the 2010 AFT convention in Seattle as they were booed and hooted at by delgates led by the Unity Caucus delegation from NYC. Watch Randi say how proud she is of them.



 

UFT's Leo Casey in his review of Brill’s book finally admits Bill Gates is no friend to teachers and has “become outspoken in his anti-teacher pronouncements"  (as though this was a recent development.)

In July 2010 in same blog, Casey attacked me for calling Gates the most dangerous man in America – absurdly comparing me to a member of a primitive tribe “ who develops rigid and inflexible conceptions of the politically impure, and then devotes nearly all of its energy to attacks on every possible source of pollution of the politically pure, no matter how minor a threat it might be.”

Never mind that Bill Gates was not a minor threat to teachers or to public education, but a very major threat, making this point hard to swallow.

But he went on:

To borrow Henry Ford’s attack line against Walter Reuther for a headline that describes Gates as “the most dangerous man in America,” as one blogger did during the AFT convention, is to indulge in a form of hyperbole that quickly shades into unrecognizable caricature. While there certainly is enough in the educational stance of a Gates to take issue with, this sort of discourse is more in the vein of a sectarian calling out “Impure! Impure!” than it is a serious political engagement. In its rigid identification of the politically impure and its promiscuous definition of the political enemy, it has all the marks of a sectarian politics of self-marginalization.

So I guess I marginalized myself by telling the truth about Gates .  Not clear exactly what the AFT did by inviting him as keynote speaker, which Casey posed as entering into a “dialogue” with him.   You can’t talk to Gates w/out letting him be your keynote speaker?  Is that the best way to establish a dialogue or instead a sign of submission?

In any case, his original attack column and a follow-up one where he tried to defend his position got loads of negative responses, without me having to say a word.  Seems like most of the teachers who commented agreed with me that inviting Gates was a sell-out.  Check them out. 

But I guess that he has figured out that even playing nicey –nice w/ Gates and inviting him to speak at the convention did not pay off.  Now Casey writes:

Teachers and teacher unions have not sought out this class warfare. To the contrary, the American Federation of Teachers made an effort to establish a dialogue with Bill Gates, inviting Gates to address our last national convention in Seattle. This overture had its critics, but it would be a serious mistake for unions to talk only to those who agreed with us. By the same token, we need to be honest about the results of our efforts at dialogue: Gates has become outspoken in his anti-teacher pronouncements. There’s not much left to discuss when he assumes such a posture.

Okay, does that mean he won’t be invited to next year’s conference?

Also check out the novelty film we made modeled after the 1984 Apple Commercial which ironically was attacking IBM - who dey? - while a very short time later Microsoft almost wiped Apple off the map as they became the new IBM.





Social Note:
Off to see Andrea Boccelli in Central Park. If it doesn't rain.

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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 right for news bits.

GEMers Join ATRs at Washington Heights Job Fair to Enthusiastic Response as DOE Insanity Escalates

James Eterno has a new post at the ICE blog indicating just how insane the ATR problem is becoming:

DOE ESCALATES ITS WAR ON EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS

Tuesday was the day for the latest ATR job fair where experienced teachers had to line up for what we have been told were very few positions. Next week there will be another one of these pseudo hiring halls.

Meanwhile back in Jamaica High School, there is nobody covering the library as the librarian was excessed and has been assigned as an ATR to a school in Long Island City. Therefore, the library is closed most of the day; it is only open because there are no classrooms available so some teachers, including myself, are teaching there. In addition, 35 classes at Jamaica are oversize as our phasing out school is squeezed into a smaller part of the building.

I was also informed by another friend who was excessed from Jamaica that she has nothing to do at her new school. 35 oversize classes at Jamaica with no librarian and teachers are sitting around as ATRs in other schools doing nothing. How can the DOE, the union, the press and the public allow this to happen?

Read it all here:

Yesterday there was a mandatory job fair for Manhattan and Bronx ATRs (posted at NYCATR blog). The GEM ATR committee has 3 members present, one an ATR herself. They distributed a leaflet to ATRs (see a modified version at the end of this post) and the response was incredibly positive. GEM began receiving responses from ATRs through the evening.

The GEM ATR teacher sent this:

I was totally not expecting the enthusiasm with which I was greeted. People were putting their hands out to me to take the flyer. Many people responded to my statement of trying to organize atr's, because the uft is not, with, good, thank god, great, oh thank you so much....

Following is an account by GEM's Angel Gonzalez, where he reports an astounding number - that over 50% were Black and Latino. (Sign the diversity petition letter to Mulgrew - link on side panel.)

Sept. 13, 2011
Washington Heights Armory, 169th Street Manhattan

Over 300 ATRs (excessed teachers) lined up for another DOE sponsored job fair where most will not find permanent jobs. It was another one of those summer mandatory futile job searches where ATRs are obligated to attend and where only a few will land a job. Most at today's job fair were clearly senior veteran higher-paid excessed teachers and over 50% were Black and Latino.

Principals generally will hire the younger inexperienced teachers who are paid less and tend not to know their labor rights -- thus more compliant to the whims of administrators. Many of those young teachers are graduates of the Teach For America pool where they are inculcated with anti-union and anti-veteran teacher propaganda. Principals, facing mounting budget deficits and cuts, would be foolish to hire seasoned teachers who earn salaries between $80 - 100K yearly when the bargain is to hire two at those prices! The deck has been unfairly stacked against older higher paid ATRs.

At his job fair today, some expressed the hope that maybe the city will offer them an early retirement buyout. Others shared anger at the UFT leadership for abandoning them in the 2005 contract which
bargained away their right to seniority rights transfer. Now starting in October, those ATRs cannot find a steady classroom job will become substitutes who will be assigned weekly to different schools in their districts to cover for absent teachers. This agreement by the UFT with Mayor Bloomberg to turn ATRs into traveling subs can force many to quit due to the untenable and unpredictable situation.

Bloomberg persists in seeking to eliminate tenure and the just "Last In First Out-LIFO" state protections. Should layoffs occur, without these protections, ATRs will be surely the first targeted for firings. Be on the look-out also for Bloomberg's allies in our schools --- a nefarious group called
E4E (Educators for Excellence) is aggressively organizing to win over the hearts and minds of our newer teachers in this deceptive anti-tenure and anti-experienced teacher campaign that unjustly and cruelly blame them, instead of government, for the problems in our public school.

In Chicago and Washington DC excessed teachers are given from six to nine months to find placements or else are fired. We can't let this happen here too. We can't allow our brothers and sisters to be dumped like collateral damage in this charter-privatization assault of our schools. Excessed teachers should be guaranteed a job elsewhere as was the case prior to 2005. As schools continue to be closed to replaced with charters, hundreds more of ATRs will be created. It is estimated that it costs today the city $100M yearly!

As ATRs and as UFT members we will need to organize ourselves and mount the necessary political pressure to defend tenure and to restore seniority transfer rights. Clearly no UFT officials or UFT organizers were present on the lines today to promote, defend and organize in the just interests of ATRs.

A few blogs in the defense of ATR nightmare stories have emerged. Check out NYCATR.blogspot.com and post your stories and perspectives. Suggest pro-active fight-back strategies against this humiliating situation that should never have been allowed to happen.

GEM ATR Committee organizers, including Bob Godfried and Angel Gonzalez, were at today's job fair distributing leaflets and sharing our views.

ATRs R Us! Join the fight-back.
Be on the look-out for our upcoming meetings.

Angel Gonzalez
Contact GEM-ATR committee at: GEMNYC@gmail.com

A newer generation Chapter Leader asked Angel a question:

One thing...I was wondering if you could write about seniority rights transfers.  I don't know exactly what that is, but I know that it is an important piece of the ATR puzzle.

Angel responded:

Good question on important right that teachers had in UFT contracts prior to 2005 contract (when was voted up because carrot of $100K was dangled and now DOE and UFT collaborate to ensure most will not get that $$$$). Seniority rights transfer = if you were excessed you would bump someone else in that license at your school or someone else at another school in your district schools.  You would be guaranteed a job elsewhere and seniority in the system played a role.  The principal could not reject you. Obviously, as with all contractual clauses there are problems.  But those would need to be worked out. Don't know all the legaleeze and exact contractual guidelines of the past --- folks in ICE/uft are (esp. James Eterno) who is working with our ATR comm.

Firefighters and police have this seniority rights if their stations are closed.   It is only fair and common sense for a community to have the best experience workers to provide services.

Being an ATR is a scary and humiliating experience.  Heard that one teacher in Canarsie threw herself down stairs (seeking to collect compensation) since she could not fathom herself as wandering atr going as sub from school to school.

Here is a version of the leaflet handed out at the job fair. I'm going to make some copies and hand it out at the citywide chapter leader meeting this afternoon.

Attention ATR’s – What’s REALLY going on here?
Help fight off the destructive actions of the DOE done in the name of "school reform", as well as the poor decisions of the UFT leadership resulting in the loss of job protections and the unwarranted closure of over 100 of high schools (& middle schools) over the objections of parents, students, alumni, teachers, community, etc. The Bronx & Manhattan has been particularly hard hit - we've lost every community high school with the exception for De Witt Clinton, which survives only due to their powerful alumni association. Many of these high schools were around for 75-100 years educating generations of New Yorkers.
Bloomberg developed a "final solution" to purge the system of senior teachers: close large community middle and high schools, eliminate seniority transfer, require principals to consider salary in making staffing decisions. These actions created a large pool of ATR's (unassigned teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve). A critical component of this strategy is the repeal LIFO ("Last In-First Out" state civil service seniority protections) which would result in the firing of ATR's who are unable to secure regular teaching positions on the open market. Despite Bloomberg's vigorous efforts, the state legislature did not abolish LIFO, thus creating the unusually large pool of unassigned ATR's. With the failure of this strategy, the DOE is trying figure out what to do with all these, mostly senior ATR's. The current strategy appears to harass them by using the unassigned ATR's to cover absences, in lieu of the day-to-day subs. In October they will be moved around each week to different schools. Expect a new assault on LIFO this year.

If your only sources of information are the D.O.E dispatches from Tweed, the UFT newspaper or the compliant mass media, you are not getting the whole picture. Please check out blogger NYCATR" - with lots of useful information for ATRs: http://nycatr.blogspot.com/. Also, look into list of other teacher activist blogs on the right sidebar for more insights. An excellent blog for ALL teachers to get an overview of what's really happening is, "Education Notes Online." ednotesonline.blogspot.com

The Grassroots Education Movement, a group of educator activists, has formed a committee for those working as ATR’s. Our goals include providing information to people in this position and organizing this very vulnerable group. We expect to hold a meeting soon. Contact: The Grassroots Education Movement - gemnyc@gmail.com

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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 right for news bits.

An ATR Sends Mulgrew a Letter

Good Day All!

As most of us know, the board has an inaccurate count of just how many ATRs are out there, and being that twenty-five plus schools were shuttered/given over to charters, it is fair to say there are far more then a mere 1200! For I doubt highly that all those teachers in the 25 schools were permanently placed, and I know for a fact that there are numerous colleagues of ours, who, like myself have been floating around for the last five years now since this mess began!

That being said, I sent a letter to Michael Mulgrew, (which has yet to be responded to), requesting information on how the ATRs are supposed to be evaluated for our end-of-year assessment. This is a very SERIOUS issue because with the new "agreement" on how ATRs can be used/placed many will have the possibly of having anywhere from 3 to 10 different supervisors! As it stands at the moment ATRs are being assigned for periods ranging from one to three months at any given location, with the possibly of being moved afterwards! So what criteria could possibly be used to evaluate them, since more than likely they will not be given teaching assignments and more than likely used as subs and to do scut work. Given that the three "U's" and you're out is being pushed-HARD, this needs to be clarified immediately!!!!!

If anyone out there has some information, please share it, and also do raise this issue, educators are under attack in every possible area and this seems to be just another tactic to trim our ranks, especially with 2,000 NEW TEACHERS having been hired for this school year!!!!!!

Collegially,

(Name redacted)

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Seeing Zombies - and Not at Tweed

Peggy, Zombie drummer, Carol

It was a long day yesterday and all because of The Zombies.

No, I wasn't at Tweed but at the Jimmy Fallon show last night. And therein lies a tale.

I was a fan in the 60's. But the band disappeared in 1967 just as they released "Odessey and Oracle" an album that has become a classic.  Ron Argent formed Argent and Colin Blunstone did something else. A few years ago there was a 40th Anniversary (March 2008) reunion. Our friends Mark and Peggy called to say they bought all of us tickets. Only problem was the concert was in London. So we went. They performed the entire Odessey and Oracle album as the entire band was together for the first time since they broke up. Oh, what a night.

We saw them in July in NYC. By that time Peggy was a major Zombie groupie and when she saw they were appearing again in London that April, off we were again.

I wrote about it.

We caught another Zombies concert like we did in London last March and in NYC in July. One of their most famous songs, She's Not There, was clearly written with Randi Weingarten in mind. I discovered the original lyrics in a dusty Zombie archive in the British Museum.

Well, no one told me about her
The way she lied [about the 2005 contract]
Well, no one told me about her
How many people cried [ATRs, in the rubber room, and in Washington DC]
Well, it’s too late to say you’re sorry [for agreeing to merit pay, longer days and year, potty duty, etc.]
How would I know, why should I care [hell, I'm retired]
Please don’t bother trying to find her
She’s not there [or here- thank God]....

When Peggy heard the Zombies were coming to NY she got in touch with her daughter's friend who works on the Jimmy Fallon show and suggested they book the Zombies. And so they did. And so we got tickets for last night and a tour backstage and we got to hang out until they came out after the show - and a chat with the drummer. My puss even got on TV a few times. I have to watch the episode again to see how awful I look (the 4 of us were by far the oldest in the room and I was the oldest of the 4- so that makes me....).

It was really a fun evening with the highlight being Time of the Season. Here is the direct link of the video doesn't work.



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 right for news bits.