I messed up big time. The ad I cited was from a book tour in January.
Your Pre-written question had to make it past the moderators in which case you get 60 seconds.
I see no provision for actual classroom teachers (current union officers or not) to share the stage and to have an equal voice. From what i understand from a report by the student in LA who did manage to sneak in a sign denouncing Rhee and her deforms, Rhee and her pundit friends spoke about 95% of the time as it was all tightly scripted to give the appearance of openness and no real dialog at all.
Am I missing something?
It will happen again in Philly on 9-16.
The following link was from an event in January. Mea culpa.
http://www.phillyfunguide.com/wap/event/detail/440877608/A_Conversation_with_Michelle_Rhee_Radical_Fighting_to_Put_Students_First
GFBrandenburg's Blog 
Maybe she learned to do this the last time in L.A. when we videoed her entire presentation and then confronted her minions, True Believers, after the show with the facts of life about their guru. You can see the last time complete at George1la. They are running scared when they pull in like that.
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This is the same mindset as seen in Chicago at BOE meetings (minus making people pay to be lied to). Meaningless hoops to jump through to speak for a very short time to people who really couldn’t care less about what you have to say unless you agree with them. All to manufacture the illusion of public input on what is really a done deal. The illusion is then used as part of the usual sales pitch to the underinformed. In the big picture I think this is a diversion from the real purpose: reformers are trying to consolidate their position in anticipation of ever increasing push back from parents and tax payers. They see no light at the end of the tunnel for themselves and are trying to ossify what they have gained in the hopes of holding on to it.
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Excellent analysis.
Guy Brandenburg Sent from my iPhone so full of hilarious errors… ;-€}}
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[…] Brandenburg, retired D.C. math teacher, explains here how the “teacher town halls” […]
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A much more subtle technique than taping people’s mouths shut. Rhee has learned much since her days in an actual classroom
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I was at the L.A. event. We didn’t have to pay but there wasn’t much of a conversation. Question cards had to be submitted and the moderator chose which ones to present. If your card was chosen you were given the mic to ask your question. There was no back and forth conversation. The three speakers spoke 95% of the time indeed.
Hannah Nguyen, the student speaker, wrote on her blog the details of the L.A. Event and she reported on it correctly as far as how it was moderated. I think her blog is called inspirededucation of something like that just google her name.
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You were expecting a democratic forum? Businesses are not happy with democracy because it is slow and resists disruption… oh, wait, I thought the businesses LOVED disruption!
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So you had to reserve a ticket but now won’t be allowed in without paying? What complete and total bs!
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Is she serious? I wonder if that’s her or Temple U. If it’s Temple U, at least my alumni donations might not be going to this incredibly one sided convo.
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Remember the “nobody gives a s*** about what you think” statement of David Coleman fame? That seems to me to be the basis of all this deforming. This privileged class really doesn’t care what anyone thinks. After all, don’t they know better?
It saddens me to think of the example children are given these days- it’s all about striving for more, more, more. Kindness and service to others seem to be seen as weaknesses. Achieve more, gain more, get higher numbers, make more money, more, more, more!
Shouldn’t humans care about what other humans think, feel? If the privileged class lost all they have tomorrow, would they wish someone cared about them?
Life should be about more than “achieving.” I’m sick of hearing about student achievement. I’d much rather be concerned about student learning. And it’s scary to think about what they are learning.
We should be starting at the beginning and talking about what education means in a civilized society. It should begin with civility, no matter which “side” one is on.
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This is identical to Arne’s panel in Knoxville,TN where he shared the stage with Rhee’s ex & TN edu-commissioner, Kevin Huffman, Haslam, the governor & Knox Co Schools Superintendent and Huffman sycophant Jim McIntyre. All questions were screened- they were so soft I thought maybe Arne had written them himself.
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Please correct this post. The event is completely free and no time cap on questions.
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Oh, really? Why are they advertising that tickets cost $7 for students and $15 for adults?
Is the young woman who reported on her interaction in Los Angeles a liar?
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Check your facts and do your home work. The link in your post is actually to a book tour stop in Philadelphia in JANUARY 2013 — which has nothing to do with the Teacher Town Halls.
I repeat my request: correct your post. Not a single person was charged money to attend any of the town halls.
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Thanks for the correction.
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Rhee is the woman who put tape on her students’ mouths to keep them quiet. I question her judgement about everything, especially rating teachers.
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That incident is not the main reason why she is a danger to society and public schools.
It’s the tremendous number of lies that she’s told, starting with her resume that claimed all of these imaginary successes, and her unholy alliance with the Republican AND Demicratic billionaires and politicians who use her lies to destroy public education, re-segregate our schools, and subject our minority and working-class students to an utterly inferior education with no arts, music, projects, PE, sports, creative writing, plays, all that being replaced with math and reading test prep “taught” by untrained temporary teachers following a script.
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Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
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Rhee now pays Anita Dunn and PR consultants to salvage her “image.” Rhee can spend the entire fortunes of Gates, Broad and the Waltons for PR and to recreate her image, but she can’t create something she never had – ethics. Her three city events in Los Angeles, Birmingham, and Philadelphia have ended in triple disasters.
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