Why I No Longer Follow Diane Ravitch’s Blog
When I retired from teaching and began reading blogs, I was excited to find Diane Ravitch’s very active blog. She posted things I had been thinking and saying for years about CCSS, overtesting, and VAM. Diane Ravitch is an education policy analyst, an author, a research professor at NYU and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. I admired that she had originally supported No Child Left Behind (NCLB), but later publicly reversed her position. She was David against Goliath, fighting big business and politicians in their grab for education dollars.
My idol, unfortunately, has clay feet. Too many of her posts are now only about politics. She says that none of the candidates support her position on education, but she has chosen a candidate to support anyway in post after post after post. She supports one candidate with vehement enthusiasm and works against the other with vehement invectives. What happened to education? She says her blog is “A site to discuss better education for all.” What happened to that discussion?
I do not want to invite one-sided trash into my heart and mind. I want to work towards the best educational system possible for our children. I’m leaving Diane Ravitch behind.
education pathways 
I went to school for teaching, and was appalled at some of the things I seen when interning. The curriculum is horrible. The children were miserable. It was a hassle creating lesson plans I felt were appropriate, to find out they did not reflect well with CCSS and benchmark standards. I was defeated.
I ended up getting my associate degree in secondary, but changed my major when I was accepted to University. I just don’t have the heart to stick through.
However, because I live in a place that is full of Title 1 schools, I want to focus my new degree on being able to open a non-profit tutoring and aid center for children of low-income households. Atleast there, I can implement teaching/advising methods that have worked and will continue to work.
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I used to encourage potential teachers, but I can’t do it any more–not under the current system. I think your idea is great and I wish you well with it!
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This election has brought out the worst in everyone. It is truly frightening.
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