CAT Tracks for March 20, 2012

CAT Tracks for March 20, 2012

Ran across the dumparneduncan.org website when I clicked a link in my daily Education Week e-mail stating that A Million Teachers Prepare to March Out the Classroom Door, an entry by anti-ed reform blogger Anthony Cody.

I usually agree with Anthony's posts and have re-posted several. However, in my humble opinion, this was not up to his usual standards...seemed a matter of picking and choosing statistics from the just released annual "MetLife Survey of American Teachers".

(CAT Tracks Editor's Note: Here is the link to a "portal" to the complete series of MetLife surveys. If you want to cut to the chase, click here for a 130-page PDF version of the most recent survey.)

Anthony takes issue with a recent blog post by Rick Hess (an ed reform advocate whether he wants to admit it or not.) Anthony quoted an inflammatory line from the post that piqued my interest. Not a fan a Rick, I followed the link to the "offending" post only to be disappointed in the context of his remark...not offensive at all.

Sigh...

And then came Arne Duncan...

...the link to the petition calling for President Barack Obama to "dump Arne Duncan".

Hey, I'm in petition mode...

...just signed the petition to Pat Quinn and company to keep their hands off of my hard-earned teacher's pension!

But...

...this particular petition?

Not so much.

Regular readers are aware that I am NOT a fan of the basketball-playing, unfortunate deer-in-the-headlights-looking Stooge of Education. Arne the Duncan is a classic case of having friends in high places...being in the right place at the right time.

Incompetence, thy name is Duncan.

BUT...

...who put Arne Duncan in position of Secretary of Education?

Did Arne Duncan rise up and seize the office?

NO!

President Barack Obama put him there...and offers his support and praise at every turn. Arne Duncan is NOT some rogue government official...secretly pushing his own agenda, undermining an unknowing, too-busy-to-notice President of the United States.

A call to "Dump Arne Duncan" (although pleasing to my eyes and ears) misses the point of who is to blame for the current attack on public education and public school teachers.

It's one of two things:

Arne Duncan is some kind of real-life, modern-day Svengali, able to dazzle and mesmerize his unwitting boss into carrying out his personal agenda, or

Arne Duncan is a ventriloquist dummy, mouthing whatever the puppet master thinks and believes.

Assessment Question:
What term would best describe U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan?

A. Svengali

B. Ventriloquist Dummy

Okay, it's time for me to step into my Steve Tilley mode:
“Have you seen Arne Duncan? OK, then you know what I’m saying then.”
I choose "B".

So...
If you don't like the act, do you replace the dummy or fire the ventriloquist?
Then there was Harry S. Truman...
"The buck stops here."

A test of friendship and loyalty...
If this petition effort gains steam, President Obama will be faced with a ticklish choice:

A. Stick by his basketball-playing buddy, fellow-Chicagoan Arne Duncan...and risk losing the support of thousands upon thousands of teachers who literally went door-to-door all across the country in 2008 to help get him elected, or

B. Throw Arne Duncan under the school bus and hope that he fools some of the people, enough of the people...again.

As for me...
...my choice is "C. Whatever".
I'm a CSI: Miami fan...
...particularly of its theme song.
No matter what your choice, President Obama, I've made my choice:
"Won't Get Fooled Again"

POSTSCRIPT: My personal protest begins today...one less vote for President Barack Obama in today's Illinois Primary. Today, it won't make a difference. Come November 6th?