that is beautiful and so ... true
― sarahell, Friday, 30 November 2018 20:43 (five years ago) link
agree
― the late great, Friday, 30 November 2018 21:08 (five years ago) link
it even inspired a short lived tumblr that was just memes that were like
https://i.imgflip.com/2nv7yo.jpg
anyway i'll leave it at that lol
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 30 November 2018 21:36 (five years ago) link
I feel like there are people that are drawn to activism because they are into slogans, and shouting slogans, and shouting the same slogan over and over again. ... or rather, they stick with activism because they like that part
― sarahell, Friday, 30 November 2018 21:51 (five years ago) link
My Occupy memory was going on a march, and I was with two noise scene pals, and we just started making up slogans to shout that were in the same rhythm as what everyone else was shouting, because we didn't want to be dicks, but also we were bored.
― sarahell, Friday, 30 November 2018 21:53 (five years ago) link
fabulous first sentence of a noel
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 November 2018 21:58 (five years ago) link
*novel too
Yeah. Shouting repeated slogans at protests and marches is on the same level of crowd participation as music groups who have their lead singer do that "Hello, Modesto! Are you ready to ROCK?!... I can't hear you... Louder!" crap.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 30 November 2018 21:58 (five years ago) link
i think college was my first introduction to the differences of mentality between arts and activism ... I was helping making signs for a LGBTQ thing, and the other members of the group commented, "Wow, your signs are so creative!" in the way that people that tend not to do very creative things with their lives will respond.
― sarahell, Friday, 30 November 2018 22:12 (five years ago) link
btw silby was right about charters from jump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/28/ed-school-dean-urban-school-reform-is-really-about-land-development-not-kids/?postshare=7611445550109548&noredirect=on
― 21st savagery fox (m bison), Friday, 30 November 2018 23:22 (five years ago) link
I tutor a smart, STEM-centric Latino kid who's understandably bored as hell with rote LCD public school busywork
Not your issue I know, but my kids go to a public school that is surrounded by charters, and in the PS some parents got together, realized STEM education was lacking there, formed a STEM committee, and now a ton of STEM related stuff happens at the school. It didn’t even take much to get it going, and we all meet and email and figure shit out whenever we get a minute because, frankly, fuck the charters, for all the reasons man alive lists up there.
― Position Position, Saturday, 1 December 2018 02:53 (five years ago) link
not feasible for all communities
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 04:43 (five years ago) link
eg: low income, non-college educated iimmigrant communities
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 04:44 (five years ago) link
but hey, congrats! i really respect that. kids are lucky to have you :)
don’t get me wrong, our families are incredibly involved. we have a full time pta and community volunteer coordinator on staff.
but many of my kids have parents who are not literate. they don’t have email at home or work. they can help in many ways, but probably not in building STEM education
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 04:47 (five years ago) link
you know we are embroiled in a massive labor dispute rn. we have unionized and though the university claims to have accepted it, they also appear to some people to be retaliating against us
anyway in response to these charges, they (university admin and legal) sent us a letter in which they repeatedly argued that we as teachers need to view their actions “with the lens of positive intent”.
in my experience, i have found that all teachers i know have extended me this courtesy, as have district staff. at least to my face!
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 04:52 (five years ago) link
i mean to say district employed teachers - not charter school employed teachers - have generally extended us that courtesy, of not seeing our efforts as efforts to undermine them
though there are definitely people who show up to school board meetings arguing that we should have our charter revoked - in the most recent case, affluent and college-educated families were apparently lobbying for access to our school
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 04:55 (five years ago) link
anyway, i hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the banality of evil, that’s my story and i’m sticking to it
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 04:57 (five years ago) link
I think the con argument have been laid out pretty well.
I think is on you to make the pro case tighter and more convincing.
I am willing to listen, but please understand that DeVos et al make your case harder.
― fajita seas, Saturday, 1 December 2018 05:19 (five years ago) link
heh
it’s not on me to do anything
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 05:41 (five years ago) link
for the sake of my mental health i’m not committed to changing minds in any way other than doing my job
prolly good cause i’m not that good at it, amirite?
― the late great, Saturday, 1 December 2018 05:55 (five years ago) link
This is online the only thing on any of us is....line
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 1 December 2018 06:14 (five years ago) link
lmao I legitimately love reading things like this, panicked bosses scrambling for moral high ground is up there with "thank you for joining us on our startup journey" as a schadenfreudegenre
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 1 December 2018 06:18 (five years ago) link
"we don't think of you as employees you're family until you're no longer useful"
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 1 December 2018 06:19 (five years ago) link
― the late great, Friday, November 30, 2018 11:43 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― the late great, Friday, November 30, 2018 11:44 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It’s a title 1 school, so obviously a huge amount of the community there are low income. I do agree it’s not feasible in all schools, but I think mostly due to how receptive the schools are to adapting to new ideas. My wife works in a transfer school, many of the stories she comes home with are impossibly sad and/or terrifying, but the administration there are very open to just tying shit and seeing if it works.
― Position Position, Saturday, 1 December 2018 11:53 (five years ago) link
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, November 30, 2018 10:18 PM (yesterday)
Agreed! ... I would hope that any boss with a shred of self-awareness feels their soul slowly dripping out of their body when writing stuff like that. This one is a classic too: "We are grateful for all your hard work and commitment (but we are going to stab you in the back now, just fyi) "
― sarahell, Saturday, 1 December 2018 19:22 (five years ago) link
speaking of the thread title, charter teachers in chicago have just gone on strike--first time union-backed charter instructors have struck in america:
https://www.facebook.com/ctulocal1/videos/611496532599239/
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 4 December 2018 17:36 (five years ago) link
that's our union too (AFT)
speaking of which, another local high-profile charter in our town just decided to unionize and reached out to us for advice
wonder if charter unionization is going to become a trend
― the late great, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 18:04 (five years ago) link
some folks like jane mcalevy in labor have been hollering for a while now that charter teachers & health care workers are the most strategic sectors of the economy (both growing & increasingly essential) and so the places all organizing should be concentrated (e.g., decidedly not in fast food restaurant organizing where the 'strikes' have little to do with what we'd have called a strike 50 years ago)
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 19:36 (five years ago) link
“all”?
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 5 December 2018 19:53 (five years ago) link
this thread really took off while I was away!
short notes: I feel like it's lazy to generalize tlg's employers as "the good ones" but overall in the charter school landscape, that might be somewhat close to true? there's something useful to building things up incrementally, especially when districts have a lot of social and infrastructural constructs that are slow to change. the unionization of charter schools is a good hint as to what might be essential that the less scrupulous charter school organizers, i.e. corporations, might be trying to work around
as for non-charter solutions to provide specialized education, which I think came up on this thread or the california one: the school system I attended had a magnet high school w/vocational programs that shared a building with a magnet academy with AP classes. they've since split into different adjacent buildings. my experience having taken a lot of courses (three in eighth and ninth grade, two class periods in 10th/11th, and four my senior year) at the magnet was that it worked really well despite the transportational logistics. having all of the area high schools within a 10 - 20 minute drive of the magnet school was how it worked -- the class periods were staggered so buses were available at multiple times during the day for transit to/from the home high schools.
since then, the academy school with AP classes has changed so that all teachers are cross-certified as instructors with a local community college, so any college accepting credit hours from the cc means kids don't necessarily have to take AP tests. the district has at least one montessori-style elementary school and a downtown elementary school for commuters now as well, although I'm not sure about the admissions policies. fwiw it's a district with about 32k kids from grades K - 12
― mh, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 20:16 (five years ago) link
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, December 5, 2018 7:53 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
idk the vast majority, i'm overstating to underline the relative emphasis
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 21:17 (five years ago) link
charter teachers & health care workers are the most strategic sectors of the economy (both growing & increasingly essential) and so the places all organizing should be concentrated
I was actually just thinking about this the other day and how that is otm
― sarahell, Monday, 10 December 2018 18:56 (five years ago) link
if that's interesting to you you oughta check out jane mcalevey's most recent book! it is all about this and has good case studies
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 10 December 2018 21:17 (five years ago) link
oh i guess i also said that in the post. it's just very good is all
cool!
― sarahell, Monday, 10 December 2018 21:21 (five years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dw4XLa3WsAA3bWo.jpg:small
― mookieproof, Monday, 14 January 2019 15:14 (five years ago) link
said the man whose wife is, uh, involved in charter schools
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2019 15:14 (five years ago) link
what the FUCK does that even mean?
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Monday, 14 January 2019 18:32 (five years ago) link
I mean I understand what it means, but it's so question-begging as to be almost nonsensical
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Monday, 14 January 2019 18:48 (five years ago) link
he's got to be winding people up deliberately, that's so stupid
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 15 January 2019 16:38 (five years ago) link
he's said dumber
― mh, Tuesday, 15 January 2019 17:06 (five years ago) link
How a couple worked charter school regulations to make millions
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:23 (four years ago) link
nice juxtaposition with the chait tweet image in the previous revive
― mh, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:55 (four years ago) link
So gross. I don’t know how anyone can choose to make money like that. And I’m *shocked* that they’re super-religious.
― DJI, Friday, 29 March 2019 21:24 (four years ago) link