Learn About KnowledgeBase's Educational Materials Store - Or Start Shopping (Purchase Orders Are Welcome)!


Buy "Follow The Leader" (changED - Volume 2) - The Album / Mixtape!


Buy changED (Volume 1) - The Album / Mixtape!


Subscribe To Our Podcast Via Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Amazon Music | Pandora | Pod Chaser | Podcast Index | Email | Android | RSS


Reach – Then Teach (Character Education Guide)

Character Education Crossword Puzzles (Volume 1)

Common Core Math
Word Problem Of The Day

Writing Your First Business Plan (Writing Project)


(All titles available at our Teachers Pay Teachers store - an online marketplace for educators!)

Sunday, September 29, 2013

The BIG Picture: Beyond "Ravitch vs. Rhee"



Both Michelle Rhee's and Diane Ravitch's views of public education are relevant - much like the differing views of W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington (regarding the uplift and advancement of African-Americans).

Civil discourse - especially between dissenters - promotes growth.

It treats differing views as diametrically opposed points on the same circle, and subjects both to a bigger picture - one where the *circle* is more important than the *points* ...


Ravitch vs. Rhee
Like W.E.B. vs. Booker T.?
Well, could be ...
We shall see

Both raise fair points
Both are followed by throngs
Neither has the answers
Neither embraces their wrongs

Pray that purpose trumps agendas
And for civil discourse
That the immovable object
Meets the irresistible force

The object is a system
Never designed to achieve
But rather to control
What we think and believe

Protected by the "old school"
Attacked by the "new new"
By doing the "same ole, same ole"
Wrapped in rhetorical "fru fru"

The force? Original thought
That inspires us to think
And recognize the kool-aid
Then refuse to drink

Kindly refuse this political seduction
Focus instead on work and production
Reach - then teach
Practice - don't preach

Help Johnny read & write
Think, count, and create
To lead by first serving
To love, grow and relate

Challenge him to say
But to do even more
And to handle success
Like he's succeeded before

To influence his circle
By continuing to "be"
Ignore "being somebody"
Trying to create history

To make his dreams manifest
Even if no one else sees
And to stick to his guns
Even if no one else agrees.



To learn more ...
  1. This Is Only A Test, by Jonathan Kozol (New York Times Sunday Book Review) (September 26, 2013)
  2. The Two Faces of American Education, by Andrew Diblanco (New York Review of Books) (October 10, 2013)
  3. TWEET (9/28/2013): Rhee's and Ravitch's views r relevant - but r 2 pts on same circle. The *circle* is more important than the *pts*. http://bit.ly/1fyiYbd


Copyright © 2013 Derrick  Brown. All Rights Reserved.

No comments:

Copyright © 2020 Derrick Brown and KnowledgeBase, Inc. All Rights Reserved.