Amid today's aggrandizing articles in all the papers about Michael Bloomberg donating over $1.1 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, is the news that Bloomberg was a rather unmotivated C student in high school.
He belonged to the math club, but otherwise was uninvolved in his school's clubs and activities and was overall an unmotivated and rather average student.
Given Bloomberg's obsession with evaluating teachers based upon test scores and given his administration's insistence that if a student fails to improve academically in school, it is ALWAYS the fault of the teacher, I wonder what Bloomberg would say about his own teachers.
Was Bloomberg's C average and lack of motivation in school his responsibility or were his teachers at fault?
If the Bloomberg administration and the Bloomberg NYCDOE had held power over Michael Bloomberg's high school teachers when Bloomberg himself was getting C's in high school, Bloomberg's teachers would have been rated "ineffective" for not motivating Bloomberg to be a better student and for not "adding value" to Bloomberg's test scores and grade average.
This is an interesting, because Bloomberg has been pretty upfront about his lack of motivation for school when he was a kid and has said in the past that it wasn't until he got into Johns Hopkins that he began to flourish as a student.
Bloomberg never became an A+ student, but he did improve enough to get some A's and also become involved in social clubs, activities and his fraternity.
How is it the fault of Bloomberg's high school teachers that Bloomberg didn't become engaged by school until he got to college?
To be frank, it's not - this was Bloomberg's academic trajectory, to basically just get through school and not really hit his stride until college.
In fact, Bloomberg may have become such an overachiever later on in life because he was so unmotivated earlier on and the memories of those times perhaps spurred him to become a self made billionaire who puts his name on everything he owns.
In any case, what we do know is that it was not the fault of Bloomberg's teachers that he was an unmotivated C student in high school any more than it is the fault of NYC teachers that some students do not achieve the kinds of test scores and grades that Bloomberg and his Tweedies think they should.
We need look no further than Bloomberg's own academic transcript to see the proof for this.
I bet Bloomberg wouldn't admit to this, but if his education reforms had been in place during his own high school career, his teachers would have been held accountable for what was essentially Michael Bloomberg's own fault.
It's also interesting that in his autobiography, the self-identified "education mayor" has literally not a word to say about schools or education.
ReplyDeleteAnd he managed to get his name on his book twice - BLOOMBERG by Bloomberg.
DeleteYou have to wonder how bad this guy's Napoleon complex is that he has to put his name (or his mother's name, or daughter's name, or ex-wife's name) on literally everything he owns.
Likewise, the CEO of Governor Cuomo's ed Rephorm commission, Mr. upward failure Dick Parsons was somehow deemed fit to preside over a bunch of ex Bain employees, members of the Aspen Institute and Broad Institute's directors, Reform edders and the like for the purported mission of improving education. Parsons quit high school and ended up with a GED then wandered off to Hawaii where he was known to spend a lot of time in the bar and playing cards. He wasn't seen in many classrooms though and ended up dropping out. Later, with the help of Nelson rockerfeller he ends up valedictorian of his law school class at Albany. The bald faced hypocrisy and unbelievable balls for lack of a better word of these people is simply stultifying. I am connected and you are just a goddamned 50K teacher so shut the hell up and let me reform you or I will use my connections to get rid of you one way or the other. Welcome to public ed in 2013. Here's the definitive Parson's article, it is even worse than you might imagine : http://thedailybanter.com/2012/05/exclusive-failing-up-with-dick-parsons/
ReplyDeleteIn Bloomberg's world of course it is the poor teaching for his C av. He never makes mistakes and it was never his fault. So if high was boring and uninspiring it wasn't him. Maybe that is the source of his anti-teacher attitude. And then again do the profs at Johns Hopkins get the credit for his success there?
ReplyDeleteLots of Bloomy's luscious money is probably going to the Johns Hopkins School of Education. Those "educators" are hot for data and research based garbage. I will just assume that Bloomy dangles money at that Education school to further their research that amazingly coincides with his proposals and viewpoints. Their reformy arm, Johns Hopkins "Talent Development Secondary" sucks up RTTT money in the urban districts. Check them out. They are infiltrating Buffalo like bedbugs. They hire any reform-minded jerk with a BA to come into the schools and tell teachers how to do it! I will further a guess that Johns Hopkins will be involved in the creation of a "Bar Exam", also.
ReplyDeletePerfect example of "money talks"! Check out the Johns Hopkins School of Ed twitters to hear them crow about their cutting edge anti-public school research. Here is just one example of the reformy/scholarly stuff they publish:
Three steps for better American schools
Rewriting No Child Left Behind, funding Common Core standards, encouraging classroom diversity are keys
January 07, 2013|By James Campbell
Education policy wasn't a significant issue in the 2012 presidential election, but it needs to be one in 2013. Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with public education, and no small wonder: studies continue to show that our schools, once the envy of the world, have fallen to the middle of the pack or worse. Such concern prompted a task force led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former New York City School Chancellor Joel I. Klein to issue a report for the Council on Foreign relations stating that the "The United States' failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country's ability to thrive in the global economy."
If given the opportunity and just to satisfy Bloomberg's megalomanical ways of control, he would probably exhume all his high school teachers and rate them "ineffective" just to bring a point. That his education policies will not die even if you're dead.
ReplyDelete