The digital lynchmob has worked its magic and Lindsey Stone -- tell me you haven't seen her pic ?
is now fired from her job working as an advocate for learning disabled adults. The company who fired her had sent her on a field trip with other employees and on her trip Ms. Stone found it humorous to pose next to certain signs and disobey their requests. In one place she lit up and smiled next to a No Smoking sign. Her fatal flaw though was thinking people got her humor, the standard comedic convention of "opposites." It's why the Vikings in the Capital One commercials make us laugh and why Cheech and Chong's Sister Mary Elephant bits killed us in the 70's. I can't quite condone Ms. Stone's career suicide in posting the pics of Facebook where the righeous troll in search of sin but I guess given the circumstances she probably figured her friends would appreciate her humor and in typical 21st century fashion, anyone who didn't could suck it.
Well as one might have surmised, Ms. Stone was about to get a lesson in 21st Century hypocrisy by way of the internet. My nephew told me if he could figure out a way to sell digital pitchforks he'd be a millionaire. The Facebook Group "Fire Lindsey Stone" was born and before long her employer did as the mob instructed and fired her along with her co-worker who snapped the terminal pic. I added my own perspective to their roiling, pitchforked and blazing torch mix and was received about as well as the proverbial hooker in church of Easter Sunday. In my view she was making fun of a heavy handed sign and doing exactly the opposite of its imperatives. Lindsey Stone responded to "Silence and Respect" by flipping the finger and pretending to scream. She didn't pee on any veteran's tombstones, deface them or stick daisies in their cannons. She made fun of a sign that unfortunately for her was adjacent to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In short, which is always how we do things here in digital America, it could be said, in a slightly convoluted twist of logic, that she dissed "The Troops."
Americans are very thin skinned when it comes to "The Troops." After Viet Nam "The Troops" were uniformly spit on and called "baby killers" by some segments of our society. Our current returning warriors are met with a much more Pro Soldier response but that doesn't stop banks from foreclosing ILLEGALLY on them, Republicans from suppressing their votes and congress from voting down a Jobs bill that would benefit veterans returning after serving their country and putting their lives on the line. Yet we love our little magnets that announce to everyone in the parking lot and on the morning commute "I Support the Troops."
Isn't it a lot like the way everyone claims to love "The Children?" And nobody loves them louder than our current crop of privatizing "reformers" who love to bray about how they put The Children first. They put them ahead of The Adults because many of The Adults they are referring to are teachers who sadly are also forced to make a living and pay for their own kids and cars and houses unlike the TFA Trustafarians who like to go into their little global village for a few months and hob nob with the natives before they disappear into law school. an MBA program or the seemingly endless job supply of education policy hackers. So the Privatizers, inlcuding Buffalo's own Barber of No Illusions, the angry Brown Man of Chameleon Schools Inc. Emilio Fuentes. His famous blurb heard round the world included the very line I don't care about adults I care about kids! This was of course after he promised anyone stupid, distracted or desperate enough to come teach in either of his proposed testing madrassas " a haircut and no benefits." Attaboy E. way to get yourself muzzled at the next meeting and your role reduced to reading an insipid and uninspired powerpoint that nobody paid any attention to at all. I can only wonder if Americans really DO love "The Children" half as much as they claim to love "The Troops." The way our public schools are being dismantled, underfunded and dissed everywhere you look as "failing" I fear Americans might even love "The Children" more than "The Troops." Sorry, kids.
is now fired from her job working as an advocate for learning disabled adults. The company who fired her had sent her on a field trip with other employees and on her trip Ms. Stone found it humorous to pose next to certain signs and disobey their requests. In one place she lit up and smiled next to a No Smoking sign. Her fatal flaw though was thinking people got her humor, the standard comedic convention of "opposites." It's why the Vikings in the Capital One commercials make us laugh and why Cheech and Chong's Sister Mary Elephant bits killed us in the 70's. I can't quite condone Ms. Stone's career suicide in posting the pics of Facebook where the righeous troll in search of sin but I guess given the circumstances she probably figured her friends would appreciate her humor and in typical 21st century fashion, anyone who didn't could suck it.
Well as one might have surmised, Ms. Stone was about to get a lesson in 21st Century hypocrisy by way of the internet. My nephew told me if he could figure out a way to sell digital pitchforks he'd be a millionaire. The Facebook Group "Fire Lindsey Stone" was born and before long her employer did as the mob instructed and fired her along with her co-worker who snapped the terminal pic. I added my own perspective to their roiling, pitchforked and blazing torch mix and was received about as well as the proverbial hooker in church of Easter Sunday. In my view she was making fun of a heavy handed sign and doing exactly the opposite of its imperatives. Lindsey Stone responded to "Silence and Respect" by flipping the finger and pretending to scream. She didn't pee on any veteran's tombstones, deface them or stick daisies in their cannons. She made fun of a sign that unfortunately for her was adjacent to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In short, which is always how we do things here in digital America, it could be said, in a slightly convoluted twist of logic, that she dissed "The Troops."
Americans are very thin skinned when it comes to "The Troops." After Viet Nam "The Troops" were uniformly spit on and called "baby killers" by some segments of our society. Our current returning warriors are met with a much more Pro Soldier response but that doesn't stop banks from foreclosing ILLEGALLY on them, Republicans from suppressing their votes and congress from voting down a Jobs bill that would benefit veterans returning after serving their country and putting their lives on the line. Yet we love our little magnets that announce to everyone in the parking lot and on the morning commute "I Support the Troops."
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| More Love for "'The Troops" Corporate Style |
Isn't it a lot like the way everyone claims to love "The Children?" And nobody loves them louder than our current crop of privatizing "reformers" who love to bray about how they put The Children first. They put them ahead of The Adults because many of The Adults they are referring to are teachers who sadly are also forced to make a living and pay for their own kids and cars and houses unlike the TFA Trustafarians who like to go into their little global village for a few months and hob nob with the natives before they disappear into law school. an MBA program or the seemingly endless job supply of education policy hackers. So the Privatizers, inlcuding Buffalo's own Barber of No Illusions, the angry Brown Man of Chameleon Schools Inc. Emilio Fuentes. His famous blurb heard round the world included the very line I don't care about adults I care about kids! This was of course after he promised anyone stupid, distracted or desperate enough to come teach in either of his proposed testing madrassas " a haircut and no benefits." Attaboy E. way to get yourself muzzled at the next meeting and your role reduced to reading an insipid and uninspired powerpoint that nobody paid any attention to at all. I can only wonder if Americans really DO love "The Children" half as much as they claim to love "The Troops." The way our public schools are being dismantled, underfunded and dissed everywhere you look as "failing" I fear Americans might even love "The Children" more than "The Troops." Sorry, kids.
Apropos of nothing, really:
ReplyDeleteThere is an article in Newsday titled:
"NY State Teacher Evaluation System One Of The Most Costly State Mandates In Decades". The full text is posted on the Perdido Street School website.
Just try to imagine the astronomical amount of money that Buffalo has spent on the evaluation system! Don't forget to factor in the fact that the entire district was inserviced for a week in the summer, tons of coaches and ITC's and whatnots were being paid 1/200th, an entire DEPARTMENT full of the higher paid types was created to manage the nonsense of RttT, ad nauseum.
All for What???
Here is the link for the article. It illuminates the chaos and the fact that the tradeoff to implement the APPR system will result in higher class sizes, fewer electives for students and fewer teachers.
http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2012/11/ny-state-teacher-evaluation-system-one.html
Oh, one more thought! Don't forget that charter schools DO NOT have to implement the APPR. That's right!
ReplyDeleteYou will hear reasons for this that make no sense whatsoever. So, when you hear that sweet refrain that "charter schools ARE public schools", feel free to burst out laughing. Laughing is good for the soul and the Chameleons will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Ahhh, thanks for allowing me to laugh and cry at the same time. As Anonymouse says, laughing is good for the soul. So is crying. I find my soul doing a lot of crying lately. I can deal with a lot, but hypocrisy is not something that is on my list of deal-with-its. It's kind of funny, but a lot of the peops who cried for Lindsay to get fired or for the teachers to be tested are very possibly the same people people who spit on The Troops after Vietnam or offspring of those people. I just love it. Just like how the people crying for more testing are the people who send their kids to private schools. Just like the charter pushers who want the public school teachers graded, but not their own!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go now into my backyard to cry and scream and laugh at the same time. Thanks.
It's a no win situation for the Vets who give so much for our way of life,and the kids who live in poverty. Neither gets enough support or equipment to win but they are the ones's who suffer while the CEOs and politicians get big bonuses and great lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteVets get to fend for themselves when they come home with PTSD and other severe wounds, and they have to fight again to receive the treatment they need...and decent jobs. Both the poor kids and the Vets share lifetime scars for the political crap that worsened their situations.
The politicians wring their hands in public and weep for the cameras while they have $5000.00 breakfasts to pay their campaign bills and cuddle up to the lobbyists.
When we fought WWII the guys were told to get in there and win the damned war. Now they have to wait for permission to fight back. The same gang of "one percenters" who tell the Professional Military how to respond in the war zone, are telling the Professional Educators how to win in the schools. No knowledge, experience, or skin in the game...and these know-nothing greedy bastards are in charge, and screwing things up badly.
I'm joining you Mouse and Rep in the crying room...where I keep the wine. Tie a big knot at the end of your rope and hang on!
Greta Van Sustern just had a five minute panel disussion on her show about the contract and our intransigence...funny, how lawyers who turn into TV "stars" forget lesson 101 on contractual obligations. AARGH!
ReplyDelete