Stager-to-Go

testing new blog

2008-12-24T01:38:00.001-08:00

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trying to solve blogger problem

2008-12-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

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The Most Wonderful Night of the Year!

2008-12-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

Spoiler alert: Don't play the video clips (below) unless you have already enjoyed the annual television extravaganza.

There is a great American holiday tradition that flies under the radar annually. It's not only funny, but heartwarming and wildly entertaining.

Every December 23rd, or the last weeknight before Christmas Eve, Late Night with David Letterman celebrates the holiday season with a special show that is not advertised or hyped. This show feels like a secret Xmas gift from Dave and the gang to me. I love this show as much as anything I've ever watched on TV.

While the longstanding traditions of the show don't sound like much in isolation, taken together they make one of the most rewarding hours of television each year.

After the monologue and usual opening bits, the festivities begin in earnest when Dave pleads with Paul Shaffer to do his impression of Cher singing, "Oh, Holy Night," just like she did on a Sonny and Cher Christmas Special, featuring guest star William Conrad, more than thirty years ago.

The impression is as absurd as the hilarious details setting up the historic musical recreation. Dave laughs with the joy known to lifelong buddies who can cause each other to burst into hysterics with the motion an eyebrow or the mention of one word.

Next, actor/comedian/radio host/raconteur, Jay Thomas comes out to fulfill two sacred holiday traditions.

1) He tells the story of being a young long-haired "herbed-up" North Carolina DJ working a promotion at a car dealership and the ensuing car accident involving the Lone Ranger. The story gets better every year with each retelling. Once again you share Dave's glee.

2) Then Jay joins Dave in a challenge of throwing a football to try and knock the meatball of the top of the Christmas Tree. It doesn't matter why there is a meatball at the top of the Christmas tree, all you need to know is that in 1998 Dave had NFL quarterback Vinny Testaverde as his guest. It was the night before Christmas (Eve) and Dave challenged Vinny to knock the meatball of the tree. After repeated failed attempts by both Dave and Vinny, Jay Thomas, waiting in the green room to come on the show ran out on the stage, grabbed a ball and triumphantly hits the meatball with his first shot. Henceforth, a holiday miracle gets repeated each year.

The telecast ends with Darlene Love and a large ensemble singing Christmas (Baby Won't You Please Come Home). Love brings down the house with the song from the classic album, A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Specter. Each year, Paul and Dave argue that this is the greatest Xmas song ever. They may just be right.

(2006)

(2005)

(2004)

(2000)

(1995)

My gift to you is a reminder to set your TIVO, DVR or VCR for CBS at 11:35 PM on December 23, 2008.

Have a safe, happy, healthy and musical holiday filled with joy!

Response to blog comment

2008-12-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

A person named, "Orangepetal," commented on my Huffington Post article. My response follows...

Orangepetal,

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. My first recommendation for the President-elect or anyone else interested in improving education is to appoint competent thoughtful accomplished educators to set policy. America is loaded with them. American learning theorists and brilliant school-level practitioners inspire educators across the globe.

While I am under no obligation to write any more than I have already done on the subject, I will attempt to write some cogent recommendations for school reform over the holidays. Of course, it is impossible to cover such a complex issue in this forum.

In the meantime, there is a large collection of my work and ideas represented at http://www.stager.org/articles.html

Happy holidays,

Gary

About Obama's Cabinet
Read the Original Article at HuffingtonPost

I've Angered Hooked-on-Phonics(R)

2008-12-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

The CEO of Hooked-on-Phonics(r), obviously a digital native, issued a global press release highly critical of my article in the Huffington Post, Obama Practices Social Promotion. I would have been more grateful if the press release honored traditional netiquette and linked to the article in dispute. I could use the eyeballs.

After all, I was courteous enough to link to their press release endorsing the nomination of Duncan in my article.

The CEO of Smarterville, purveyor of Hooked-on-Phonics(R) even took the time to comment on my personal blog urging all of you in bloggerville to participate in their philanthropic activities.

I would however like to correct the Hooked-on-Phonics press release. They repeatedly refer to me as Mr. Stager, when I am Dr. Stager or Gary Stager, Ph.D. I did spend nearly 40 years practicing with flash cards in order to earn that doctorate. It would be a shame to waste it.

Dear Santa:

All I want for Xmas is comments on my Huffington Post article.

I think I've been good, even if the Hooked-on-Phonics(R) folks think I've been naughty!

Happy Holidays to All!

Gary

Planning for Meaningful New Year's Resolutions

2008-12-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

Inspiration
In the past 24-hours alone, I've watched Dick VanDyke (on Tavis Smiley) and President Clinton (on Spectacle) each speak at great length about the value of a rich music and arts education for every child. Both men and their hosts lamented the reduction in such opportunities due to misplaced budget priorities and NCLB. (although threats to arts education proceed NCLB and even computers by decades)

A few nights ago I was moved to tears by a sappy "Mr. Holland-style" 20/20 documentary about a high musical production. I could spend my entire life collecting similar testimony.

If everybody knows that art and music education is critical to realizing one's human potential, why do our actions contradict such self-evident truths?

'Tis the season for looking in the mirror and taking stock
If you are a school teacher or administrator, you may make compromises occasionally or everyday that violate what you know is in the best interest of learners.

�?� What are those compromises?
�?� What are the consequences of those compromises?
�?� Why don't you "do the right thing?"

For 2009, make a resolution to do only that which you know is good for children first and foremost. Who knows? You might just change the world!

Obama Nominates Another Doozy

2008-12-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

Today, Mary Shapiro nominated Mary Shapiro to be the Chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shapiro is chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). "At FINRA, Schapiro leads the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business with the U.S. public. The group conducts examinations of securities firms, sets and enforces rules governing conduct of the industry, and administers a dispute resolution forum for investors." (CNBC - 12/18/08)

Yup, that's right, Ms. Shapiro's agency should have warned investors about Bernie Madoff the alleged $50,000,000,000 scam artist who stole money from Elie Wiesel, among countless others. Now she is in-charge of regulating the nation's financial industry. Fabulous!

Add Mary Shapiro to other cabinet nominees, Arne Duncan, Robert Gates, Ray LaHood, plus Inaugural bigot, Rick Warren and it's beginning to look an awful lot like a 3rd term for George W. Bush!

President-elect Obama, don't forget to get bogged down in Iraq and cut taxes for rich folks too.

Free LEGO Holiday Craft Plans

2008-12-18T12:40:00.000-08:00

I just found this gem on the LEGO web site. The LEGO Company has assembled plans for turning LEGO you may already own into simple-to-build holiday ornaments.

Download the nine holiday design in PDF format.

Time Magazine Features a Gallery of Obama Flickr Images

2008-12-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

Check it out here.

Atoms are More Valuable than Bits

2008-12-17T16:54:00.000-08:00

Hey Web 2.opians,

What do you think of this?

At Magazines, It's 2.0 Steps Forward, 1.0 Step Back
The Web may be the future for magazine publishing, but in the present, ready revenue is winning out and Web writers are getting laid off left and right

Major magazines are CUTTING their web publishing divisions to focus on print magazine publishing, the part of the business that generates income.

The current issue of Wired includes an article, How T-Shirts Keep Online Content Free.

The simple reality is that work of quality costs someone something and at least in the foreseeable future, atoms may indeed me more valuable than bits.

My New Huffington Post Article

2008-12-17T10:14:00.000-08:00

Obama Practices Social Promotion

Sent from my iPhone

Don't Forget to Give One, Get One This Holiday Season!

2008-12-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

This Obama News Just In!

2008-12-16T17:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Will Richardson for the tip!

Arne Duncan is a darling of the charter school movement, Eli Broad, the right-wing Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, anti-union "Democrats" and I kid you not - Hooked-on-Phonics.

President-elect Obama eagerly awaits recommendations on nuclear proliferation from Billy Mays, Ron Popeil and the ShamWow guy.

Alfie Kohn says, "In education, parody is impossible."

What the Hell Does this Mean Mr. President-Elect?

2008-12-16T15:08:00.000-08:00

Obama said it was time for Washington to move beyond "tired debates" such as whether to approve the use of vouchers for students to attend private schools.

"We cannot continue on like this. It is morally unacceptable for our children and economically untenable for America," said the president-elect.

Is he for vouchers AND unqualified Secretaries of Education too?

Four years ago I wrote about the profound stupidity of merit pay in John Kerry's Education Plan - Do we need a tip-jar for teachers?

I'm getting tired of repeating myself.

What Do Arne Duncan & Paul Bremer Have in Common?

2008-12-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

For decades, Substance, has reported on public education in Chicago. They have made enemies in the teacher's union, school board and central administration. It's editor was terminated by the Chicago Public Schools during the Duncan/Vallas regime for whistle-blowing on standardized testing. The legal case waged in the courts for 6+ years until the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.

The following is a portion of the editorial written by the Substance team about President-Elect Obama's Secretary of Education nominee and basketball buddy, Arne Duncan:

For the past six years, we�??ve watched while Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan lied repeatedly to the public about how and why he was closing dozens of public schools. Duncan was not trying to improve public schools in Chicago for all children, but was in command of a ruthless privatization plan that is designed to undermine traditional notions of public education for urban children and replace them with a crackpot version of �??market choice�?? that exists only for the wealthy and the powerful.

The key to Duncan�??s ability to get away with the Big Lie, however, is not Duncan�??s own eloquence, but the face that he has the backing of Chicago�??s ruling class. From the CEOs of the city�??s largest corporations (organized into the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club) to the editorial boards of the two power daily newspapers, Duncan�??s lies are amplified every day, and except for the pages of this newspaper and a few other places, unchallenged in the public arena where democratic debate is supposed to take place.

After we reviewed the school closings in Chicago since 2001, when Mayor Daley appointed Duncan the second �??Chief Executive Officer�?? in CPS history, the shocking details began to become clear. Not only were poor black children being forced out of their homes (public housing reform, it was called), but they were also being deprived over and over of access to public schools.

Take some time to read Substance online and consider subscribing to the most independent journalism in public education.

Arne Duncan is the Harriet Miers of the Obama Administration

2008-12-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

Obama Education Pick BFF with NCLB

2008-12-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

But wait, there's more! All of the test-crazy, data-obsessed, name-calling, teacher-shaming, kid-harming, fact-manufacturing, union-busting, privatization schemes of the Bush Administration are on track for another four years under the leadership of President-Elect Barack Obama and his unqualified basketball buddy nominee for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

Make no mistake. The education policies of Arne Duncan and No Child Left Behind are indistinguishable. In fact, President Bush's trainwreck of an Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, practically nominated Duncan to be her successor four days ago.

Joking that she doesn't want to "hurt his chances," Spellings nevertheless put in a plug for Duncan during a trip to Chicago to help Mayor Daley dole out $350,000 in merit pay to outstanding teachers and school employees.

"He's a terrific school leader. I consider him a fellow reformer and someone who cares deeply about students. He'd be a great choice," Spellings said in a news conference at Westcott Elementary School, 409 W. 80th St.

Pressed on what makes Duncan special, Spellings said, "You all know. I mean--you live here with the guy, for goodness sake. He's a visionary leader. He's a guy who looks at results. He cares a lot about kids. He's focused and on point. He has a lot of support from this community."

Merit pay? Now that's change you can believe in!

Obama Flips Off Teachers

2008-12-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

President-elect Obama's nomination of his unqualified basketball buddy, Arne Duncan, sends one very clear message to American educators. "Not a single one of you or the leaders you respect is qualified to run our nation's public schools."

A basketball metaphor might be timely.

Wake up teachers! If we don't start playing offense, teaching in the United States will enjoy the same level of joy, purpose and security as working on a General Motors assembly line.

Apparently, "Change you can believe in," stops at the schoolhouse metal detector.

Why You Should Buy Guy Kawasaki's Latest Book

2008-12-13T01:57:00.000-08:00

In late 1993 or early 1994 I saw a PrintShop created flyer on a library bulletin board announcing that Guy Kawasaki was coming to a local senior citizen center in Torrance, California. I had seen Kawasaki speak at a couple of conferences and have given away countless copies of his groundbreaking book, Selling the Dream. What the hell could one the world's best business evangelists be doing on a Tuesday night in Torrance?

I had to go and find out.

Guy arrived to speak to the local Macintosh User Group in a dingy multipurpose room. Although he had led marketing for the Macintosh launch at Apple Computer, Kawasaki, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were out in the wilderness during those years.

I remember Guy starting his presentation by saying, "I'm here to demonstrate a new program called Claris Em@iler. I know that you're an intelligent audience so I intend to demonstrate each and every feature of the software." Kawasaki was so damned entertaining that nobody seemed to mind missing an episode of Chicago Hope.

At the end of his killer demo, Kawasaki said, "Claris Em@iler will ship in about six months and cost around $100. I will sell it to you tonight for $20 (or $40 - I can't remember). I need to leave for LAX in 8 minutes at which point the sale offer ends forever. I take checks and cash."

You had to duck to avoid injury from the tsunami of money flying towards him. I worked as a consultant and author for Claris at the time and knew I could get a copy of the software for free, but that didn't make me immune to his salesmanship and I too surrendered the cash. I have never seen a more effective display of sales and marketing.

I used Claris Em@iler everyday for eight or ten years.

When I taught grant writing, Kawasaki's Selling the Dream was an invaluable text. I've enjoyed many of his other books as well.

Tonight, I went to the local bookstore to shop for holiday and birthday presents and found Guy Kawasaki's brand new book, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. The book is fantastic - like a witty how-to manual for life.

I was going to give the book to my spousal equivalent as a birthday present, but it's far too practical, like a gift of socks or can-opener. No one wants a practical gift for their birthday!

Before one of my handful of loyal readers accuses me of hypocrisy, allow me to explain myself. Sure, I have been an outspoken critic of school leaders seeking wisdom from schlocky pop business tomes. Guy Kawasaki's work is fundamentally different from books by Thomas Friedman or Daniel Pink.

I wrote

What business gurus like Don Tapscott, Daniel Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins have in common is that none of them actually ever ran a business prior to hitting the bestseller list offering business advice to others. Most of them have never been the night manager of a Seven-Eleven let alone launched or managed an innovative business venture.

They are fancy talkers.

That is their skill. Several are evangelicals. Faith or pseudoscience, along with a dose of prosperity theology, is used to advance their arguments.

Their audience is adults who dream of being rich or increase their personal productivity. Neither goal is analogous to the education of children.

Kawasaki does not write about that which he does not know and cannot do. He has launched startups, blogged, given speeches, created web sites, written books and successfully marketed products. Perhaps his most successful product is Guy Kawasaki. His books are full of common sense advice, inspirational stories and practical strategies and tactics for realizing one's potential. Kawasaki is self-deprecating, hilarious and a good guy.

He doesn't resort to junk science or fear to get our attention.

Although the book includes strategies for inventing a product, marketing, evangelism, securing financing, getting a job in Silicon Valley, hiring and firing, it also offers practical lessons in blogging, public relations, public speaking, effective panel discussions, making compelling presentations, email etiquette and much more.

Guy Kawasaki's books are not get-rich-quick schemes. They inspire us achieve our dreams and be our best. That's why the new book is perfect for CEOs, school administrators, classroom teachers and community organizers. I'll also be buying a copy for an ambitious 17 year-old friend of mine and using it as a course text in the near future.

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. is like an anthology of Kawasaki's greatest hits. It's a quick read that you will want to consult for years to come.

Forget Jennifer Aniston & the Talent - Now I'm Really Jealous of John Mayer!

2008-12-11T01:27:00.000-08:00

Musician John Mayer is rich, famous, talented and has dated some of the most beautiful women of our time. I forgive him for all of that.

I am however insanely jealous of John Mayer for the photograph on his new Huffington Post blog, "Why Every Snarky Blogger Should Thank Don Rickles (and What They Still Have to Learn from Him)"

I've been thanked from the stage of the Grammy Awards, worked with movie stars, flown in a private jet, attended Hollywood premiers and just last week had Jackie Mason wave to me from a NYC diner the night before I was in the audience for Liza Minelli's star-studded opening night on Broadway. I've met a number of the world's greatest jazz musicians and have shared flights with Sam Kinison, Scott Hamilton, Bubba Smith, Jim Brown, Senator Robert Toricelli, Dave Winfield, Stevie Wonder and countless others.

One Sunday I missed the Jets game while trapped between Art Linkletter and Richard Lewis on a doomed flight that sat on a Houston runway for 4+ hours. I was dissed by Linkletter who was afraid I would sit in the seat of the woman he was chatting up and told I was hilarious by Richard Lewis after I made a very clever plate spinning reference. It was like the Continental Airlines version of the Poseidon Adventure, but with a cast of neurotic Jews.

This is all to say that I get a kick out of celebrities and have met a few in my time. As you can see in my online celebrity photo album, I am unafraid of asking for a photo - except just one time recently.

Last month, I was seated on a transcontinental flight a row in front of Mr. Warmth, Don Rickles. I LOVE Don Rickles and spent the 6-hour flight agonizing over whether I would violate the secret sacred coolness code of First Class air travel and ask Mr. Rickles to pose for a photo with me. I decided against it even after the flight attendants turned the cabin lights on so they could post for photos captured on their cellphones. I did get the chance to tell Mr. Rickles how much I enjoyed his show in Anaheim a few months ago and wished him well as he departed the plane, but I didn't get a souvenir.

That damn John Mayer has Grammys, babes, good looks, money, talent and now a picture with Don Rickles too. I hate him!

Teen sues former principal over 'Facebook' suspension

2008-12-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

A recent graduate of Pembroke Pines Charter High filed a lawsuit against the school's principal for allegedly violating her First Amendment rights, after she was suspended for posting negative comments on the Internet about a teacher...

...Two days after posting the information, Evans [the student] took it down on her own free will.

The student was not only suspended, but also removed from AP classes! I'm against AP courses, but was taught day one of ed school that you never punish a student with education or the withholding of education. What the hell is wrong with us?

Read the rest of the article here.

Web 2.0 is Dead?

2008-12-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

It is safe now to say that "Web 2.0" is dead. The evidence is irrefutable and it exposes the twin fallacies the concept of Web 2.0 has depended upon: 1) that people can build their worlds around - indeed, will want to build their worlds around - social networking; and 2) that social networking offers a viable, massively scalable business model.

So begins Peter Scwartz's Huffington Post article, "Facebook's Face Plant: The Poverty of Social Networks and the Death of Web 2.0."

This article echoes some of the things I've been saying for ages about educators who invest a great deal of their time, energy and allow their identity to be merged with products whose entire business model is based on borrowing money until Google bought them.

I've also been warning about cloud computing and how I don't trust the "cloud" with anything of value.

Happy 40th Birthday, Dynabook!

2008-12-08T03:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Bill Kerr for alerting me to this fantastic 45-minute video in which Alan Kay, the "inventor of the personal computer," tells the story of the Dynabook invented as a children's machine 40 years ago. Kay and colleagues trace this evolution to the OLPC XO and discuss the work yet to be done to realize this forty year-old vision.

Why Australia Worries Me About Barack Obama

2008-12-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

One year ago, Australian voters returned the Labour Party to federal prominence after nearly eleven years of leadership by John Howard, George W. Bush's "Mini Me."

That should be good news to a proud liberal like myself, right? Well, not so fast. While the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks fluent Mandarin and may be a terrific Prime Minister, his education policies are as profoundly stupid as those many rank-and-file conservatives.

This should come as no surprise since politicians drop 100 IQ points when discussing matters of education. If you need any evidence, remember that No Child Left Behind was co-sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy and Congressman George Miller who hold onto the worst educational policy in history with two clenched fists.

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard is youthful, articulate, capable and dangerously stupendously ignorant on education matters - a deadly reality for Australian children since she is also the Federal Minister for Education. Although she has proposed more than a billion dollars in what could lead to a laptop for every Australian student, the plan is so ill-advised and ham-fisted that not even the Aussie edtech community trusts it. Since Australia invented 1:1 computing in schools, it would be nice if Deputy Prime Minister Gillard took some time to be advised by my colleagues with twenty years of classroom-based 1:1 expertise.

The Rudd/Gillard Government are also pushing national curriculum, school report cards and decidedly anti-teacher union policies for a Labour party. They may accomplish what their conservative political opponents never dreamed of.

The lesson of Australia's recent election is that good liberals can be as wrong on education as conservatives. I recently wrote about my concerns regarding President-Elect Obama's education plan in Why I'm Scared to Death About Obama's Education Policies.

Below is an article I hoped would be published by an Australian newspaper. It was inspired by the Australian government inviting New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to tour Australia as an educational savant. I was horrified that one of the worst, most divisive and least qualified education leaders in American history would be embraced by another nation I adore. This is doubly horrifying since Mr. Klein is often mentioned as a potential Secretary of Education in an Obama Administrator.

Read my article, recently published in the Australian political blog, Crikey, below and please share your thoughts in this blog's comments.

Nothing Good Can Come of Chancellor Klein�??s Visit
As an American teacher educator and consultant I have enjoyed the great privilege of working with dozens of Australian schools and thousands of teachers over the past eighteen years. My work has taken me from the most-troubled to the most affluent schools across your nation. The world is indebted to Australian educators for their innovations in primary education, literacy development and 1-to-1 computing.

Therefore, it is from a position of expertise and vast experience that I question this month�??s tour of Australia by New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. Had Deputy Prime Minister Gillard not invited Chancellor Klein to �??share his reform experience,�?? I might have suggested he visit Australia to learn a thing or two about education. His seven years in New York City have failed to demonstrate even a rudimentary understanding of teaching, learning or leadership. There is not a sliver of difference between Chancellor Klein�??s education policies and those of George W. Bush. In fact, you might call Klein, the �??Donald Rumsfeld of education.�??

Mr. Klein is not the first ideologue with no education qualifications and simplistic get-tough theories to be put in-charge of a large American school district. He may just be the worst. Upon being named Schools Chancellor by the billionaire mayor of NY, Michael Bloomberg, the duo�??s first order of business was to suspend democracy and eliminate elected school boards, as well as parental involvement across the city. Now accountable to nobody, but his mayoral benefactor, Klein changed the district�??s organisational structure so many times that chaos ensued. Klein spent millions on public relations, British examiners and smearing critics while cutting services to students. Class sizes are up. Morale is down.

Anyone with access to Google could easily learn that Klein�??s claims of miraculous test score increases have been discredited by experts across the political spectrum. This is particularly tragic since under his leadership, NY City schools have been turned into Dickensian sweatshops where frightened administrators browbeat otherwise creative teachers into following scripted curricula in order to increase student test scores. Klein�??s heralded school report system with which he seeks to shame schools into increasing test scores have proven invalid as schools nationally recognized for excellence have earned low marks.

Klein takes pride in the retention of students while research demonstrates that holding children back does not lead them to catch-up, but does increase dramatically their probability of dropping out . He unilaterally banned cell phones from schools over the safety objections of parents and then proposed a scheme in which students would be awarded cell phones for improved performance. In some neighbourhoods, corner milk bars charge poor students $3 per day to store their phones on the way to school. He extended the school day by thirty-seven and a half minutes each day and killed off extracurricular activities in the process.

Recently, the New York City Council held its first oversight hearing of the school district in five years. When one Councilman compared Klein�??s leadership to Marshall Law that has kept parents severed from the educational process, the combative Chancellor served up a scrumptious Orwellian confection. Klein offered a faux mea culpa and apologized for not acting quickly enough to follow-up on the millions he spent to hire �??parent coordinators�?? in each school and admitted that he had waited too long to create the post of a �??chief family engagement officer.�?? Klein�??s administration is full of similarly hilarious job titles.

Klein is considered a tyrant, bully and worse by teachers in his schools who indicated that 82% believed he had little confidence in his teacher�??s expertise while 85% believed that the emphasis on standardized testing has failed to improve schools. His tenure has been marked by a constant attack on tenure, teacher rights and unionization. Klein has not resisted an opportunity to engage in union busting, intimidation or teacher bashing.

Klein may be best remembered for the sordid period of the �??rubber rooms.�?? I am the last person to defend incompetence or malfeasance on the part of teachers. Any teacher accused of crimes or infractions should be removed from the classroom and be afforded due process in a swift and deliberate fashion. Despite his prosecutorial experience Klein has failed to remove �??bad teachers�?? from the system while violating the civil liberties of countless others who may be wrongly accused.

Run afoul of Klein or his enforcers and you may find yourself with the more than seven hundred teachers assigned to what are known as �??rubber rooms�?? across the city. Rather than engage in the process of firing accused teachers or putting them on leave, Klein prefers to humiliate and punish them before any guilt has been proven. These 700+ teachers must report to a �??teacher reassignment center�?? where they stare at a clock all day, five days a week. If this were not sufficiently Kafkaesque, Klein employs psychologists who use dubious assessments to determine fitness to teach. It doesn�??t matter that the 7th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals deemed such quackery illegal, get a memo to visit the good doctor and your next stop is the �??rubber room�??. A veteran educator named �??Teacher of the Year�?? by Mayor Giuliani has spent close to five years in a �??rubber room.�??

Why is a foreign bank, UBS, sponsoring Klein's visit, especially during a time of global financial collapse? Surely there are ethical concerns in both the United States and Australia regarding such a gratuity to a public official.

How expensive could this trip be? A Qantas Boomerang Pass costs approximately $2,000 and would allow Klein to visit several cities. Then he could stay in the homes of educators like so many Americans who visit Australian schools. Better yet, he could spend some his personal millions for a proper Aussie holiday, one that won�??t destroy the educational future of Australian children.

Gary S. Stager, Ph.D. is an educational consultant, journalist and Visiting Professor of Education at Pepperdine University. He earned his Ph.D. from The University of Melbourne. The views expressed in this letter are his own.

Ask ISTE a Simple Question

2008-12-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Last year, more than 100,000 generous Americans invested in the One Laptop Per Child's Give One, Get One promotion (as explained on this web site created by my Masters degree students). The promotion made it possible to make a personal laptop computer a reality for hundreds of thousands of children in some of the world's poorest countries.

Since ISTE seeks to be the premiere educational technology advocacy group in the world, it seems curious they have done nothing whatsoerver to promote the efforts of One Laptop Per Child or the Give One, Get One promotion ending at the end of the year.

Why not take a minute to contact some of the folks listed here on the ISTE web site or its Board of Directors and ask them why the International Society for Technology in Education is silent on connecting the world's poorest children to the 21st Century?