I’m Russell Winn and I love education and educators, but what we have here in Huntsville City Schools seems focused on wiping out both.
Stephen King writes, “Truth is in the details.” About this he is correct; I’m afraid that’s why the administration of our system seems hell bent on obscuring the details of nearly everything they do. For that, I’m trying to call them out.
As I tell my students every semester, I’ve got the greatest job in the world: I get paid to irritate you. Irritation is necessary. If we’re not irritated, we fall asleep and miss everything that’s going on around us. I don’t get paid to irritate the HCS administration. It’s just an added bonus to letting them know that we’re awake. And we’re paying attention.
If ya want you can follow me on Twitter @russwinn or email me at geeks@geekpalaver.com.
Oh, and thanks for reading!
Where are the Geeks? Run out of palaver????
Just busy . . . Check out the new post.
Thanks for your effort to spread the message. Have you seen the movie “Waiting for Superman?” I encourage you to watch it ASAP and this will bring understanding where there seems to be little sanity at this time. It doesn’t mean that things will be any better but you will have a clearer undestanding about the true root causes and not just the symptoms of the $20 million dollar shortfall. Watch it and get back with me with your thoughts and then maybe I can share some more behind the scenes information that could give inspiration for futhre post!
Richard Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.Ed.S.
Huntsville Achievement School
Director and Principal
P.S. Here is the link on Amazon and you can rent it for $3.99. If you find it as worthwhile as I did please let others know about it. I feel like the Lone Ranger in this matter. This movie does not address Special Needs students but if the needs are so great for these students it must be exponentially greater for the children with Special Needs and learning differences. Also our local Republicans will be sponsoring a Charter school bill in Montgomery next week that is why David Blair said what he did last night.
Richard,
Thanks for the link and the recommendation! Interestingly enough, I checked this out last week from the library, but with all the events, I didn’t have time to watch it before I had to return it.
I will check it out again and give it a viewing.
Thanks,
r
http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Superman-Geoffrey-Canada/dp/B003Q6D28C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302295632&sr=8-1
I will try one more time …here is the link for the movie that I encourage you to see. You can speak with Keith Kizer for a recommendation for the movie and its impact on he and his family.
Richard Reynolds
Check out the article “Got Dough? How Biillionaires Rule Our Schools” at http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=3781
Thanks for the link. This is a frightening article. I’ll do a post on it once I’ve digested it a bit more.
I can’t believe we have not met.
I am a former teacher now teaching teachers at UAHuntsville. I also write on corporate corruption of schools.
Last year I published a volume on the Gates Foundation. I was asked to do the same with the Broad Foundation, but I was so disgusted that I turned the offer down.
I appreciate you doing this work, and I’d like to buy you lunch…ASAP.
Best,
Philip
Thanks for the kind words; I’m just a dad looking out for his kids, though. No need for a free lunch for that!
You call that a smile?
Greetings,
The email contact address above doesn’t seem to work.
I am told you and I are doppelgangers. I’ve read a few of your posts and it would seem we are. I’ve been arrested 16 times by Albuquerque Public Schools publicly funded private police force, for asking inconvenient questions at the public forum of school board meetings.
It looks as though my resolution will will have to come through litigation; I’m in the process of filing a 1983 discrimination lawsuit.
I have found the hardest part of standing up alone, is the wondering, why? Know you’re not alone. Gandhi wrote; first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
I loved reading about your standing at the forum waiting for an answer to a budget question. I would stand at the forum, ask which one of them would stand up as a role model of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students, as would wait two full minutes for one of them to answer. No one did of course, and the silence was deafening.
Keep up the good work!, good luck and God’s speed.
Cheq,
Thank you for your note. I agree that we do seem to have much in common! Thank you for standing up in Albuquerque; I have miles to go before I catch up with your record of 16 arrests. It’s both good to know that there are others doing the same work, and at the same time sad to know that careless administrations exist throughout the US.
Thanks for the encouragement. I send it right back to you. Thank you especially for your service as a teacher.
(Also, I think the email is working now. Thanks for the heads up on that.)
r
Check out this post I found about how standards and textbooks are determined in the state. I know for a fact we in Huntsville City have not been given a choice about textbooks in many years. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we got samples of all the state approved textbooks to review and cast a vote for.
http://alabamaschoolconnection.org/2013/10/07/who-decides-what-gets-taught-in-our-classrooms/