Writes David Blaska (who is running for a seat on the school board).
God knows, Jennifer Cheatham has walked through the valley of disruption. Three of the last six monthly school board meetings have broken down in chaos — the school board and its administrators driven from the meeting auditorium by raucous social justice warriors wielding the race card. Again this Monday (03-18-19), school district leadership retreated behind closed doors. Main topic on the agenda (irony alert): the overly legalistic behavior education plan — a plan that is more cause than symptom.
The school board that can’t keep order at its own meetings? No wonder the school classrooms erupt in chaos. Then again, when you throw your specially trained “positive behavior coach” under the school bus when he tries to restore order, what do you expect?...
This noon at Rotary (Blaska and the other school board candidates were invited guests), Jen told how her Chicago-born father “came from nothing.” How her parents instilled in her a love for reading, how she drove 2,000 miles cross country to take her first teaching job in the racially mixed East Bay area of California. Inspiring stuff, and I can believe Jen Cheatham was a wonderful teacher. She is a great speaker, with a sprinkling of humor.
Then she spoiled it. Supt. Cheatham attributed her success to “white privilege.”... She told of an African-American mentor at Harvard who told her that female white teachers were “a dime a dozen.” The doctoral candidate apparently internalized that to prove to the professor who controlled her advanced degree that the quaking white girl was as “woke” as any professional grievance monger....
ADDED:
The Wisconsin State Journal also covered Cheatham's speech:
Cheatham said her mentor at Harvard, Carl Cohn, a former superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District in California, told her “white, female instructional leaders are a dime a dozen … what makes you think you could ever gain the street credibility to lead in an urban district?”
She said she initially took the comment as an insult threatening her identity as an educator, but she realized it was about opening a door “to a new conversation about who I was, about who I could become, and what it would actually take for me to lead.”
It was the first time she began to understand her privilege as a white woman, and that her mentor was trying to show her how to use her privilege to support those who do not have it, she said....
Posts
85 comments:
"you throw your specially trained “positive behavior coach” under the school bus "
You want more Blaska? Because this is how you get more Blaska.
The overarching problem is the teachers' union. Check out Blaska's answers to question #3. (We should probably elect Blaska president after Trump leaves office. The man fights! And probably knows his way around a Twitter.)
This truly is a confederacy of dunces. You have mau-mauing blacks working over white liberals steeped in their guilt for not being black.
I wonder if any of the students there learn anything.
If you can't act American, you have no future.
Apparently they need to teach that not only in schools now.
A "behavior education plan" cannot be implemented for long, because of the racial statistics. As soon as those statistics are revealed, the administrative shenanigans will begin. The school administrators themselves will sabotage the plan.
The only way to make such a plan work would be to forbid the collection and reporting of any racial statistics.
"monger guilt" - that's a keeper.
Is it time for Charter Schools, anyone?
I taught refugees and immigrants in an inner city school for 37 years. I listened to that "woke" foolishness (or whatever the then current variation of it was) the last 10 years of my career. As such I'm here to tell you that every farthing I spent on sending my daughter to Catholic schools (I'm not Catholic nor even much of a Christian) was the best investment of my money I ever made for my child's future. I'm amazed in retrospect at my wisdom. I constantly urge parents today to leave the public school system and enroll their children in a charter or private school. Home school is preferable to the mayhem and nilhilism of public schools.
Meade said...
Check out Blaska's answers to question #3.
3) Name three things you believe the MMSD does well.
Make excuses. Blame state government. Dumb down deviancy. Feed the culture of victimization. Lower expectations. Monger guilt.
Just what we need on the school board. Someone who can't count...
Take out the first sentence and, word for word, Heartless Aztec's comment could be my own.
Every student and their parents have a simple choice: Either you learn reading & writing & arithmetic or you will not be successful in this world. There is nothing racial about that choice until the race hustlers get involved. We should stop anguishing about urban school districts. The choice is clear for all students- it is up to them and their parents to decide what their future will look like.
"Just what we need on the school board. Someone who can't count..."
Haha. Obviously, if elected, Blaska won't be taking his instructions from the teacher union bosses.
And before this it was "Jew privilege", male privilege, Tutsi privilege, a storied history. That said, diversity breeds adversity.
I urge everyone to follow the link re the 'positive behavior coach' and read the article. It's hilarious, although I suspect that was not its intent.
Just what we need on the school board. Someone who can't count...
He thinks outside the box.
"He said the girl was excited about Mueller-Owens suggesting a color-coded flashcard system to express her needs if she was overcome with emotions."
I'm waving a little red flashcard right now, and expressing my need for barnyard animals to help me plant some wheat.
If she wants to help racial healing, she should step down.
Become a tutor.
Gobbledygook she spouts gobbledygook
Madison has two choices - Bkaska's path or Progressive Danes path. One will result in real education. The other in a continuation of Teenage Day Care. And not particularly good or effective TDC at that. In rality it is a dangerous form of TDC. In the end, it really is an either or choice for Madison schools.
Whatever happened to reform schools ?
One of my great grandmothers had the last name Cheatham.
She was named Jane Elizabeth but was called Jennie Bet, which may be why my grandmother named Jennie was called Trix for 90 odd years. She was an actual feminist: ran a leased hotel & restaurant and then built her own (as a homeless widow of 3 young children) after it was burned down by a fired black employee who didn't respect her white privilege.
Blaska named three things the MMSD does well, and then he added a few more. So what's the problem?
All so sad and terrifying.
Meade, I would like credit for proposing Blaska for President weeks ago!
How long before charter schools are outlawed, in the name of alleviation of disparate impact?
The possibilities of getting enough Blaskas to make a difference in Madison WI, is zero.
I have been following Blaska for a couple of years now. I started listening to him on a local radio station. I am glad he took the step and is running for the school board. It is time that someone with common sense returns to the board. I hope there are enough people in Madison who really want something done about the schools - but I have my doubts. We hear and see the news reports about student issues in the schools, but we are not in the classroom. But you can take a peek at the school board meetings and from that can only guess just how bad many classroom settings must be. I started watching (limited) parts of the school board meetings and was absolutely shocked. It is chaotic to say the least. I have never been a Mary Burke fan (current board chair) but how she and the others board members maintain their cool while being cussed at and yelled at, etc. is beyond me. I realize that they have allowed this type of behavior to go on - so much of it is their own fault. When you haven't created the necessary parameters to control a monthly board meeting, I doubt that the same board have provided the teachers with the necessary tools and aids to control the classrooms. I can not imagine being a teacher today!
I have lived in Madison for almost 40 years and both of my sons attended Madison schools and received a good education. They attended Gompers elem, Blackhawk middle and East High School and had a wide range of friends. My youngest graduated from HS 9 years ago. I never thought about sending my sons to private schools - I had attended a Catholic elem school in my hometown and wanted a much broader education for my children. At this point I don't know if I would make that same decision.
We must reclaim our schools. And I (like Blaska) want all students to succeed!
Madison pubic schools are in trouble....
Every student and their parents have a simple choice: Either you learn reading & writing & arithmetic or you will not be successful in this world.
I agree totally with that acorn, that the pyramid of the Educational Establishment rests on.
It is an acorn. Small, unassuming, simple.
To add to your above statement, I always add, The Parents shoulder 100% of the responsibility to see to it their child can read and cipher. Not a teacher, institution, concept, or political entity. The Parents
I've asked before, and I'm no closer to an answer: What is the end game for the "progressives," SJWs? They will no doubt be elected and find themselves with more power, but power to do what? None of them has demonstrated the slightest interest in the actual education of any students, white or minority. Theirs is a prescription for chaos and for control of the schools by the most violent and thuggish students. What will that accomplish? By ruining the chances of all students, they will rule over a pile of ashes. Is that their goal in life, to be the Lords of the Fly-Tip?
And before this it was "Jew privilege", male privilege, Tutsi privilege, a storied history. That said, diversity breeds adversity.
"Diversity" is just a way of marketing special privileges for the right minorities.
I am wondering if those special privileges (e.g., getting into good colleges with poor scores) makes people into social justice warriors who have to find some reason for their inability to compete intellectually. White privilege and racist micro aggressions are those reasons.
Another hypothesis is that the "diversity/White privilege" mantra is just a scam and the SJWs know it.
I don't know if Dave will make it, I don't have a vote but I hope he does, but I think that at this point it doesn't matter. He'd be a lone voice against the insanity that has gone on for too long.
I love Blaska’s answers to the teachers’ union, though I do wish he’d proofread it. (Take pride in your work, David.)
We don't really need schools anymore, because we have books.
Madison is the Democrat future writ small.
To me it's racist to think the black community needs a white woke ally as superintendent of schools rather than a superintendent who explains how to raise achievement to the level reached by charter and Catholic schools.
Students from the same zip code do poorly or do well on the state proficiency tests depending on whether they are in the Milwaukee-Madison public school woke-system or in the charter, Catholic, home school deplorable-system. If students can't do the state proficiency they won't succeed later. No college, no middle class jobs, just low-paying jobs that don't demand writing memos and reports and adding-up costs for estimates. Why do we allow the teachers' union to destroy the futures of children in the black community by failing to maintain order and teach? Or rather why do Milwaukee and Madison's black voters allow this? Is it possible that these voters think the schools WILL NOT teach what's needed for achievement and so these voters have become determined that at least no one leaving school will have a bad record - which also limits achievement?
How is this NOT racist?
Why would she apologize for being who she is? The concept is nonsensical.
I was taught by my dad, as an employee, get the boss to define his expections of me. My responsibility then was to get measurable metrics how I would be evaluted.
Education Phd's are idiots near as I can tell. Yes I'm guilty of prejudging, those in education administration seldom prove me wrong.
This Administrator should have talked about her goals and how she was going to meet those goals and how they would be measured. It's a shock, the color of her skin is meaningless to her performance.
"White privilege" is a perverse idea. It seems one must feel sorry for the fact that ones ancestors, collectively, were brave, ferocious, intrepid, and very very clever. The European conquest of the world, of which all Althouse readers, probably, are the beneficiaries, was a glorious feat, the most important world-historical fact of the last millennium.
We are the heirs of mighty men, and our only obligation to them is to match their prowess.
The "white privilege" pushers seem to me a gang of bitter beggars. Its a beggars place to be humble, as they are supplicants.
Charity is an obligation on the mighty, but gratitude is likewise an obligation on the beggar.
...mentor at Harvard who told her that female white teachers were “a dime a dozen.”
Sounds like the dialogue from the HBO series The Deuce about how pimps work their 'hos.
[Updated]
Tribe. Nothing more. Nothing less.
How is this NOT racist?
"Madison School District vows to do better for African-American students"
"#1: Every child is on track to graduate ready for college, career and community.
#2: The district and every school in it is a place where children, staff and families thrive.
#3: African-American children and youth excel in school."
#4: Madison School District vows to come up with more interesting fantasies.
"How is this guy Meade getting away with hogging a thread with multiple posts and even some "back and forth"?
I thought moderation was supposed take care of that. "
Is Meade self-moderating again? I didn't think that 12-step program was going to work!
It is primarily about the parents' involvement, or lack thereof. I have done volunteer tutoring for the past 8 years, first six in San Diego, last two in Lincoln, at public schools whose students are (overall) from lower income families, with a lot of recent immigrants. It's pretty obvious when the parents don't care. And that typically isn't the case with the recent immigrants.
Since so many students share the same teacher at some point, the bad ones have a disproportionate impact. Example, a K-5 school, with 4 classes for each grade, would have 24 teachers. One bad one, or 5% of the teacher population, will affect 25% of the student population.
If “White Privilege” is a shorthand way of saying that the people around you expected you to work hard, get an education, follow the rules, and exhibit the sort of behaviors that eventually lead to success, then that’s that’s one thing, and I can see why black people are envious.
As to what Meade and Heartless Aztec said about schooling. After we divorced, and then she died, my ex, my family, and I went to great trouble and expense to keep my son in Canadian schools when I worked in the USA. One reason we did so is that in the 80s I briefly taught in an American high school. It was bad then, it was worse 15 years ago, and seems worse now.
Bad schools are actually a tractable problem. Vouchers and end the teachers unions. This is also winning politics for the GOP, since it pits black parents against teacher unions. The Democrats will pick the latter.
Buwaya
Please please write a book or start a blog.
So Jen's White Privilege renders her worth as "dime a dozen". Got it!
Does anybody anywhere think reparations would have any impact whatsoever on these scripted dramas? What would race grievance hucksters to with themselves?
So white women have no credibility? What a profoundly racist and sexist idea.
Nothing permanently cripples minority kids more than inculcating them with notions of their ethnic superiority over and mass victimization by whites.
It's child abuse against children of all races.
BTW, I find the Blaska posts amongst the most interesting. As a Canadian who spent 20 years in the states, I try to convince my countrymen of the most important fact of American politics: Trump is middling awful. Canadians see him as something new and terrible, which is so very wrong. In these posts I have examples from a local level of the pervasive awfulness of the political class.
buwaya said... "gratitude is likewise an obligation on the beggar."
Dependence rarely produces gratitude in the recipient. It breeds resentment.
Althouse, no wonder you want to move. You pay 18,000 in property taxes and this is what you get?
This truly is a confederacy of dunces. You have mau-mauing blacks working over white liberals steeped in their guilt for not being black.
Yes. But then the White Guilt leads to voting for guys like Beto. Feels good, completely made up. I can see how Cheatham ended up where she is .
Thanks Meade!
There is very little learning in hgh schools without discipline and civil behavior. I thaught for three years in an inner city Catholic high
School full of tough kids. However, the discipline was firm and rigorously enforced. Teachers had to assign 30 minutes of written homework
every day, or they heard about it from the administration, and students had to wear school uniforms. All this “discipline” was effective.
The school had a 93% college acceptance rate in 1969, the year I left.
n.n. saidAnd before this it was "Jew privilege", male privilege, Tutsi privilege, a storied history. That said, diversity breeds adversity.
My peeps are still browned off with the Angles and aren't any too pleased with the Picts either.
The left's drive for total control proves their embrace of diversity is a fallacy and a con.
Ideological capture is a thing. Black racists are allowed to control the process and there are no adults there to put a stop to it.
"Diversity" is just a way of marketing special privileges for the right minorities.
Diversity is a doctrine and process to normalize color (i.e. unprincipled) judgment including racism, sexism, etc.
"Does anybody anywhere think reparations would have any impact whatsoever on these scripted dramas?"
Yes, it would put an end to them! Just look at the improvements in race relations brought by the election of Pres Obama!!
Great thread here... Madison schools are no different from every public school system run by political correctness in democrat strongholds Nationwide.
Iowan says "the parents" are responsible for their kids learning to read and write or not. See Father's Day in the underperforming areas at issue for a partial answer to why this ain't gonna happen.
Thirdly, for those of you keeping count, this Meade guy seems a forth to be reckoned with.
think reparations would have any impact whatsoever
They may. However, reparations should be allocated to all Americans affected by slavery and diversity, especially the human rights leaders who sacrificed blood and treasure to stand against slavery, and their descendants who stand against a persistent diversity.
Unknown said "Does anybody anywhere think reparations would have any impact whatsoever on these scripted dramas? What would race grievance hucksters to with themselves?"
Most who would receive a reparation payment would have little to no expertise in handling a lump sum of money. Just as with lottery winners; reparations would quickly be spent, most likely foolishly, as that is human nature when one receives a windfall.
The race hucksters would then demand more to offset white privilege in profiting from the services/products that said reparations were spent acquiring. It's a zero sum game.
If Madison fixes it's public schools who's going to clean toilets and work in the cafeteria at University of Wisconsin?
Cheatham should probably check out the Doleazal method.
The school had a 93% college acceptance rate in 1969, the year I left.
Sounds like my high school, Leo High School in Chicago.,. All black student body with lower middle class parents,
Also tuition paid 95% oil time.
You have to be willing to tell race hucksters to "Fuck Off!" If you can't do that, then you can't really do your job.
My mother taught me that guilt is a destructive emotion and that she hoped to never make her children feel guilty. Strive to do the right thing, acknowledge error, take responsibility, feel regret when I did wrong, learn how to apologize and try to make amends, for sure. But guilt leads to nothing good.
Smart woman, my mother.
meanwhile a dane county judge, has reversed all the reforms with a stroke of a pen,
"How is this guy Meade getting away with hogging a thread with multiple posts and even some "back and forth"?
We'll allow it under the local issue/local commenter rule.
more details here:
https://www.wispolitics.com/2019/dane-county-judge-issues-injunction-preventing-enforcement-of-extraordinary-session-laws/
@Richard Dillman, 1969 is a half century ago. How do those schools do today?
"Cheatham should probably check out the Doleazal method."
Suicide is her best option.
@Big Mike. The school I taught at was all boys. It merged with a girls Catholic high school. The successful merger produced very a
successful co-ed school with a very high college acceptance rate and excellent sports teams. And they still educate inner city
students. I’m still on their email news list serve and get regular updates on their achievements.
Blaska is distorting the quote, I think, her advisor was challenging her white privilege and asking her to overcome that by showing how she could make a difference in a diverse community. Whether she has done that of late is up for debate.
I'm starting to see this as a stunt. The nervous breakdown in front of a crowd. It should always be viewed as someone trying to cover their failure with victim-hood.
Aaron Reardon was the Snohomish county executive. He was the bright, and shiny star of the local Democrat party. He was the invited speaker to a graduation ceremony that I attended. I was amazed at how he could sweep you into his story of impoverished childhood, and broken family. Alcoholism and abuse. He really reminded me of Billy Jeff with his ability to craft a story, and draw you in.
He became much more animated as he told his story, but think Leni Riefenstahl. I was convinced the guy was having a nervous breakdown on stage under the bright lights. He walked right up to the edge, and then stepped back. I don't recall his exact closing technique, but I was appalled. Wow! I thought this guy is a snake-in-the-grass. A master manipulator.
He was later forced to resign when his former mistress complained about the government job that his new mistress received.
Can't say enough about 12 years of Catholic schools. (Although 1 year of public kindergarten did no harm.)
How did I become anonymous? I guess Catholic schools of '62-74 deficient in social media skills.
I'm so glad to be quit of Blue State residency. I salute Blaska for fighting the good fight and hope he can continue to have a positive impact. I became a Florida resident in time to vote for Gov Desantis and have been impressed. Compare and contrast the following with what Blaska is facing (cribbed from freebeacon):
"Right now, 100,512 Florida students receive scholarships to attend 1,807 private schools across the state, but those vouchers are paid for through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC).
The FTC was created in 2001 and allows taxpayers to make private, voluntary contributions to non-profit scholarship-funding organizations (SFOs) that can then be awarded as scholarships to eligible students for private school tuition. It is mostly funded through corporate donations.
The FTC scholarship program – capped at $873 million this year – is administered by Step Up For Students, a non-profit SFO created by the Legislature.
According to Step Up, two-thirds of the students who received scholarships last year – more than 70,000 – are African American or Hispanic with an average household income of $25,756. The federal poverty guideline is $25,750 for a family of four."
Educating 100000 kids.
Costing the taxpayers nothing.
Guess who hates it?
The FL gov and legislators (now in session) ant to move forward by increasing participation by 15000-25000 kids, but this may require some general fund money.
Guess who hates that too?
Whatever happened to reform schools ?
Oh.....they are out there!! It's just that nobody is sure which school it is.
How are the Madison "alternative" schools doing?
I shot some video at one of those many years ago..and it seemed all fluff to move kids along. Sounds like all their schools are in that camp now.
I still think making camera feeds of the classrooms available would help.
My children were educated in the magnet school portion of the Chicago Public Schools [CPS]. I have lots of war stories.
But, pardon my language, it's the fucking Democrats. They've been running the Windy City since 1931. The school board and the executive board of the teachers union have been dominated by POCs for the last 40 years. Outside of the magnet schools, for the majority of the students, the system sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Bent over the cannon and entered dry.
And it's much the same in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Philly, et. al.
When will we the people hold the fucking Democrats to account for this travesty?
One of my great grandmothers had the last name Cheatham.
And she went on to help found the famous law firm Dewey, Cheatham and Howe.
"Does anybody anywhere think reparations would have any impact whatsoever on these scripted dramas? What would race grievance hucksters to with themselves?"
What, electing a Black President didn't fix it? You would think it would have at least some tiny positive effect, but just the opposite.
Grievance is so powerful in our culture and politics now that nobody will give it up no matter what you give them. They can always keep the ransom and their grievance, which is just awesome. Therefore reparations can never accomplish the goal, and with it being such a purely racist idea, it's crazy to even consider it.
they listen to the eloi claxons, now one should consider that desantis's margin was in part among African American women, who were concerned over their children's education, I remember as well the initiative that polly Williams had about choice in the milwaukkee area, along with then mayor jon Norquist whatever became of that?
One cultural value I wish we'd import is less sentimentality. Everything here drips with it.
@chuckR,
The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program is funded mostly by corporation donations because those corporation get a one-for-one tax credit against their Florida corporate income tax. So every dollar donated reduces taxes paid to the state by the same amount. This is not "costing the taxpayers nothing." If those corporations didn't get the tax credits and instead paid corporate income taxes, and those taxes were used to fund the scholarships, the economic effects would be the same as they are now. It's just relabeling some taxes as "donations" and dedicating them to paying scholarships.
According to your figures, about 100,000 scholarship costing $873 million are awarded. That's roughly $8700 per scholarship, which seems a bit high given that Florida Tax Watch reports that the maximum scholarship is $6447 for 2017-18. But this is still less than the state spends per pupil in the public schools, which Florida Tax Watch says is $10,856.
"Blaska is distorting the quote, I think, her advisor was challenging her white privilege and asking her to overcome that by showing how she could make a difference in a diverse community."
No, roesch/voltaire. That IS the quote; that is the point! That this woman had "white privilege" -- that such a thing exists in the first place -- is one of the Left's most successful fables. That her father "came from nothing," that she drove 2,000 miles to her first teaching job. Such privilege! That she got into Harvard grad school -- only because she was white? To serve as an acolyte to a tenured black professor? (Who race-shamed her good and hard.) That a black student with similar credentials would have been turned away by Dean George Corley Wallace III?
I'm doing a candidate forum in front of a typical liberal group. I close by saying the Old Man never told me about my white privilege when he handed me a shovel and told me to muck out the old red barn. That anecdote got a resounding round of booing. Such heresy.
Post a Comment