Short Notes: Rebel, Rebel, How Could They Know?

Thanks for dropping by Keishla. This is what I noticed at the end of the P blog:

So don’t be fooled by Duncan’s smiles and cheerful talk. Calling it “reform,” ed deformers are now running things at the Department of Education. They are pursuing a specific plan and have zero interest in considering the views of people from outside their extremely tight DFER/NewSchools Venture Fund/Eli Broad/Bill Gates-type circle.

That’s where the Perimeter Primate blog ends. Cody’s original take on the meeting with Duncan ends like so:

The funny thing about the conversation was that the whole time, they seemed to think we had questions, and their job was to answer them. We had actually approached the conversation from a different place. We thought perhaps they might want to ask US questions, or hear our ideas about how to improve schools.

When I say evasive maneuvers, I mean that Duncan only seems to care about the teacher voice, but then has a whole 30 minute speech in the beginning of the phone call, has 5 other “people” around him to cover him, and doesn’t answer any real questions. In other words, he’s evasive, and not even trying to act like he’s answering questions based on what teachers (some who I know personally) actually want to ask. The only positive thing I notice in this, and maybe this goes back to what you’re getting at, is that it’s obvious the movement is gaining ground. I hope that’s the case.