Editiorial Comment



Bloomberg's plan to close A rated Maxwell H.S. and others like it because the city scores don't reflect the state standards is just another indication of how flawed this rating system is and how clueless Bloomberg is when it comes to education.

Bloomberg is a mean, vindictive ego maniac who cares about his agenda and his agenda only.  And the media that sucks up and buys into it is just as bad.

No matter what he says Bloomberg wants to keep the lower and middle class of NYC down.  He wants to create a class of workers who will be fit for no more than doing his bidding.  He wants to keep his ruling class elite.  It would be a stretch to put him in this group, but if there was a list of the ten most evil government officials, he would be on top.

Blame The Oncologist



The patient had a stage 4 cancer that spread throughout his entire body.  The oncologist did his best, but his best was not good enough and the patient died.  The oncologist got a U rating as was forced out of his job.

This did not happen.  Although the loss was hard, there was nothing the oncologist could do to save this patient.  Similarly, there are students that cannot be saved.  Closing schools and firing teachers will not help them. 

Nightmare

I admit, I have weird dreams. I dream in color and even dream of smells, something that is almost impossible to do. I remember hearing this in a psychology class I took in college.

Last night's dream really takes the cake. I was standing outside my period 2 calculus class when my cell phone rang. Since it was very noisy, I walked outside (impossible in the building I teach in) to take the call. My best friend (who lives in Texas) was on the phone telling me my mother-in-law was in the hospital and the doctors were ripping her apart trying to save her life. (My mother-in-law has been dead for many years.) Since I didn't know what to do at the moment, I returned to class, only to find my students sitting in the hallway, with their desks arranged in groups of 4. When I looked in the room, I saw little Chinese children on small desks and a Chinese woman stood at the front teaching them. I went to my supervisor who told me it was for the day and I should just find a blackboard and start teaching. On the way back, I saw other teachers and classes in the same situation.

The next thing I remember was walking away from the class and seeing improvements being made to the school. There was a beautiful green outdoor area and an blue amusement type train was being built. I ended up in a huge auditorium where a speech was being made telling us that the school was going to be closed down. The fact that we were an "A" school did not matter. The principal, in his black suit and his red tie, was sitting on the side by himself, not saying a word.

We all left and walked outside. All of a sudden we were at a retreat in the mountains, but the fun of the trip was gone. There was a cloud in the sky so big, no sun could shine through. The heaviness of what was going on weighed us all down. We talked and tried to make plans but we knew all was lost. The controlling powers were just too much for us to fight. The only thing left was the trip home.

Chopping Block

The high schools slated to be closed are full of kids with levels 1 and 2 on their eighth grade assessments. From studying my data, I know these kids are not prepared to do high school work and are not even close to being ready to graduate. It is no surprise that the graduation rates of these schools are much lower than that of many other schools.

Since Jamaica will no longer be accepting these kids, they will have to go somewhere else. I heard that 600 of them are slated for Van Buren HS. I guess this means Van Buren will be on the chopping board next year.

You Can't Fight City Hall and Win

I just read over Gotham School's report on last night's PEP meeting. All the work and the hours people put in were for naught. From reading Blomberg and Klein's closing remarks, it is obvious that the decision was written in stone months ago. They allowed the meeting to occur last night because they had to.

Bloomberg and Klein are still citing statistics about closing 91 schools and opening 351 new ones. Notice, the number of seats the new schools have are never mentioned. There is also no mention of the placement of the students that caused graduation numbers to be so low in the first place.

My heart goes out to all the wonderful people who worked so hard for something so right to only be stomped on by the big, rich guys.

There are parallels to be drawn between the movie Avatar and our city. We, the citizens of Gotham are being destroyed so a few others can gain wealth. (The actual story has a much greater connotation.) Maybe an Avatar will come along that will help us fight back.

Hey Bloomberg

Check out the environment Justice and his students deal with every day. Does your office look like this? Does your staff worry about health issues caused by the air they are breathing?

Oh wait, I forgot, Justice works at a school that is being closed down. Those kids, and the teachers are your throw aways. Their health and well being is of no interest to you. It is much more important to keep those charter schools looking good.

Domino Effect

As hard as I try, I can't understand the purpose of closing down all these schools. The kids with the problems will still have the problems. The only difference is that the problems will occur in a different setting.

One of my colleagues insists that the purpose of all of this is to slowly get rid of all public schools in NYC, to turn education over to the private sector. She swears Bloomberg is evil through and through and that this is the sole motivation behind the closings. I didn't want to believe this. I wanted to believe that there is an ounce of goodness somewhere in the man and he honestly believed he could improve education this way. But, in spite of what I wanted and still want, actions speak louder than words and I fear my colleague is correct. When schools like Andrew Jackson were closed down, the troubled kids had to go somewhere and many went to schools like Jamaica and caused the same problems there. Now Jamaica is on the brink of being closed. Those kids will have to go somewhere and schools like Francis Lewis, Cardozo, John Bowne, and Van Buren will be taking them in. These schools will now be faced with the same issues Jamaica faced and their graduation rates will deteriorate. It will only be a matter of time until they are closed as well.

Meanwhile, a new Jamaica will be reopened, a school that will consist of a very select group of mini schools, schools set up to succeed. The mayor will laud their success and graduation rates and wonder why the bigger schools cannot do the same thing.

Parents see this, teachers see this, even the slowest students see this, yet nothing is being done to prevent it. The media is bought and paid for with Bloomberg dollars, the same dollars that bought him his third term in office. We need to do something about these closings. We need to stop the domino effect.