Saturday, December 03, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg Believes That Seventy Students In A Classroom Will Be A Win For The Students - How Clueless He Is About What Goes On In The Classroom.


Mayor Bloomberg has shown how clueless he is about what goes on in the classroom when, on Tuesday, he gave a speech at MIT that his idea of a good education would be to fire 50% of the teachers and weed out the "ineffective teachers" from the remaining 50%. Furthermore, he sees little problem that teachers would have class sizes of 70 and that a "quality teacher" who is highly compensated and come from the top colleges is all that is needed to improve education. How clueless the Mayor is when it comes to the classroom. His entire speech is on Gotham Schools and can be found Here. He also said that the teachers union is the blame for his failure to change the NYC Schools. The mayor's ill-advised speech on teachers and class size must be looked as a further "nail in his coffin" claiming to be the "Education Mayor" and as UFT President Michael Mulgrew correctly called the Mayor's speech a "Cathie Black moment"

If you follow his speech carefully he never defines what a "quality teacher" is. Except that teachers should be recruited from the top colleges. Sounds like Teach For America to me. However, we do know how the Mayor thinks and in Mayor Bloomberg failed bid to get rid of "last in, first out" LIFO he targeted senior and highly paid teachers who may have been out of favor with principals for termination. Therefore, it is very likely that the Mayor's purpose would be to have a young, replaceable, and untenured teaching staff. Consequently, it is a reasonable assumption that the Mayor idea of a "quality teacher" is a teacher that works hard for the few years they are in the classroom and leave before they are vested for retiree benefits or even long enough to achieve tenure. A tip off of the Mayor's disdain for experienced teachers was this speech he made during the height of the LIFO fight and reported Here.

Previously, I wrote an article about the Mayor's disrespect for teachers Here. Now we have his speech at MIT that knocks teachers and wants to terminate a minimum of 50% of the teaching force. Even his education reformer friends must have cringed when he made this speech. I have noticed not one education reform group has supported the Mayor on what he said at MIT.
Interestingly, I did agree with the Mayor on one part of his speech where he said that technology has not materialized as an important component of better learning. He was quoted as saying the following:

Bloomberg also questioned the impact of technology in the classroom, despite rising spending by the Department of Education on technology and e-learning.

“It may be heresy in this day and age to say so, but there’s not a lot of evidence that when you introduce a lot more technology in the classroom the results are better,” he said, arguing that what really mattered was the quality of teachers.

Mayor Bloomberg is a typical hypocrite as he thinks class sizes of 70 is " a good deal for the students" while he sent his daughters to the private Spence school with class sizes of 16-18. His speech at MIT increasingly shows how clueless the Mayor is about the classroom and his disrespect for New York City Public School teachers.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's not clueless. This merely follows the pattern set throughout "mayoral control", with the ultimate goal the privitization of profits from public education-teachers and children be dammed.

Since he didn't get LIFO, he'll push this one, knowing full- well it'll never happen.

Also, he loooves to get under teacher's skin. Here he does it again.

Don't forget, he's about three quarters complete on carving up this neat little business territory for himself and his pals, but lately there has been some grassroots opposition to his plans. This has got to gall him to no end...prepare for a new onslaught of attacks from him in the next year...shit storm ahead.

"Moi, the Great Bloomberg, can't beat a bunch of Bridge & Tunnel Morons...? Off with their heads."

Anonymous said...

I think he is a clueless and gaseous windbag. He may as well prattle on about his opinions on microscopic spinal surgery or planetary exploration. He knows nothing about teaching, surgery, or space exploration. Who listens to his harebrained nonsense anyway?

Anonymous said...

I think he has proven to the masses he is a complete moron when it comes to the education system..what pipe is he smoking?

veteran teacher said...

he wants to scare people in teaching to quit. like a previous post said, he didn't get his way with LIFO and now he is pouting like a 3 year old. It's ok, only 24 more months of him

Anonymous said...

Bloomie is not clueless. He is simply part of the 1%. The 1% doesn't give a rat's ass what the 99% are doing. As long as it makes the 1% more money, such as for-profit charter schools, no bid contracts so his cronies, i.e. Lucy Calkins can make millions that is all Bloomie cares about. He hates the teachers, he hates the parents, and he hates the kids, because why else would he say such a thing. Remember that when the Republicans try to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

Ms. Tsouris said...

This was just another tantrum where Bloomberg's megalomania was exposed. He sounds almost desperate in his efforts to decimate the teaching profession in New York City.

Anonymous said...

Hey what's wrong with Rosetta Stone teaching kids Spanish instead of the teachers???? Bloomberg loves technology!!!

Anonymous said...

While impeachment is impossible, the only options are to:
1) Make his life as miserable as he's making ours. He had stents put in; maybe the stress will make him resign for health reasons.
2) Start a petition/movement to end mayoral control of NYC schools.
We've got to stop just talking, and start acting before it's too late.
Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

It looks like someone is trying.
I just heard a report that they're still trying to subpeona his email to Cathie Black.
Of course, he'll buy them off, but I can see those stents dissolving right now...

Anonymous said...

This is getting really interesting- he's obviously got a lot to hide:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/team-bloomberg-plans-appeal-cathie-black-email-release-article-1.988250#art_comments_tab