Thursday, August 26, 2010

Confucious Says...


When the Great Way prevailed, the world community was equally shared by all. The worthy and able were chosen as office-holders. Mutual confidence was fostered and good neighborliness cultivated. Therefore people did not regard as parents only their own parents, nor did they treat children only their own children. Provision was made for the aged till their death, the adult were given employment, and the young enabled to grow up. Old widows and widowers, the orphaned, the old and childless, as well as the sick and the disabled were all well taken care of. Men had their proper roles and women their homes. While they hated to see wealth lying about on the ground, they did not necessarily keep it for their own use. While they hated not to exert their effort, they did not necessarily devote it to their own ends. Thus evil schemings were repressed, and robbers, thieves and other lawless elements failed to arise, so that outer doors did not have to be shut. This was called the age of Great Harmony (Ta Tung)

While in Chinatown last week, I stumbled across this statue of Confucius. Being alone gave me the time to read and reread his words until they were engraved in my mind.

The words highlighted above stood out in my mind. Provisions are made to care for the old, the sick, the disabled and the orphaned. Jobs are provided for all. Wealth was used for the good of all.

The DOE scorns the old. Too many years in the system, especially with an unscrupulous principal can mean verbal abuse, a "U" rating or even an all expense paid trip to the rubber room (or whatever they decide to use to replace that hell hole) Extra money now is used to fund those elite charter schools run by big business and the cronies of Bloomberg and Klein.

I don't know much about what Confucius stood for, or how right or wrong many of his philosophies were, but I liked what I read here and I wish there was a way to get others to accept and practice it.

2 comments:

NYC Educator said...

I'm sure there's wisdom in Confucian philosophy, but everything I hear says it's pretty tough on women. I'd hope we could be enlightened enough to treat everyone as individuals, but after staying a few days in a hotel that played Fox in the lobby, I'm not highly optimistic.

Anonymous said...

"Thus evil schemings were repressed, and robbers, thieves and other lawless elements failed to arise, so that outer doors did not have to be shut."

It seems that the evil schemings will continue as long as Marc Sternberg is deputy chancellor of Portfolio Planning.

I would like to share this with my colleagues. Two nights ago I was watching Councilman Robert Jackson, chairman of the committee on education, as he questioned the new deputy chancellor, Marc Sternberg, and the director of OSEPO (forgot her name) about student placement especially at the high schools with respect to the ELLs and Special Needs students. So I did a google search on Marc Sternberg and here's what I found.

Marc Sternberg, Former principal of Bronx Lab HS (Evander Child Campus) is the new deputy chancellor of Portfolio Planning as of July 1st. He was also a TFA teacher who parlayed his three years of teaching to become a principal, a deputy chancellor while keeping his Vice President position of Victory Schools, an organization that launches and manages charter schools. Isn't anyone going to question this?

The DoE continues to hire administrators that have ties to charter schools organizations. There's a fox watching over the hen house! The 460 charter schools cap came with an affiliation to those people who will work in Tweed to squeeze in their preferred charter schools.

here's the link to the info:
http://www.bronx.com/news/usa/323.html

http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/SCA/AboutUs/News/GoodLuckSharon.htm