Catharine Bellinger Sticks Her Silver Foot In Her Mouth

I have a feeling that Catherine Bellinger will give me, and perhaps all of mankind plenty of material for sometime in regards to her rantings on Whitney "The Rest Stop on I-684 Southbound in Bedford Is My Favorite" Tilson, and her own Students for Education Reform blog. Catherine, you have turned into a wonderful lackey, disciple, votary, loyalist, 'ho, cultist of Whitney. I swear he must be rubbing one out thinking how he has been able to con you.

Tell the world Catherine, your qualifications to comment on anything about urban education. You have obviously lived in a gilded cage your entire life. Sitting high and looking down from that perch of yours in Fairfax County, and Princeton you see what you want to see, and see what you are told to see, but you have no life experience to put it in the proper perspective.

Have you ever been in a real inner city for any amount of time? Have you commiserated with anyone from such neighborhoods? I doubt it. You in Princeton? Go live in Camden for a while. See how you like it and see then how it affects you.

Which brings us to your rip job of Diane Ravitch. Nice mea culpa you left in the comments the other day. Too little, too late. You don't mean it, you only said it because you got caught with your knickers down. But who am I to decide? Let's let the world decide, mm'kay?

Ms Ravitch wrote:

In the past few days, Chancellor Joel Klein has announced that he is closing nearly two dozen public schools. Some of these schools are the anchor in their communities; some have long histories as gateways for immigrant children....most could have been improved by a thoughtful plan of action, including smaller classes, better supervision, and the kinds of resources that hedge-fund managers pour into "their" charter schools.

And now your blabbering reply, which shall be dissected.

Oh Diane...have you visited Paul Robeson High School, one of the schools that Klein announced he is going to shut down?

Why are you choosing Paul Robeson High School for? Ms Ravitch, and I suggest you use this term instead of Diane, never mentioned Robeson. But......

My Breakout trip (the same group that visited you in New York) conducted college awareness workshops there for a week.

Wow!! You were there for a whole week and you were able to give your "expert" opinion already! Golly!

First of all, Robeson certainly was not the "anchor" in its community, the Bed-Stuy neighborhood in Brooklyn

And you know this for sure because.....? Please state the facts and investigation method you had used.

or if it was, it was merely an anchor of failure.

Nice one, so Whitneyesque. Thought of that one yourself?

It wasn't RESOURCES that Robeson needed, with its 40% graduation rate and only a little more than half of the students stating that they were inspired to learn.

Yes, 40% graduation rate does suck. I concede you that point. And not having the pleasure of visiting Robeson I can't and won't comment on why there is a 40% graduation rate other than to say there are so many many variables that to paint with a broad brush as you do is just wrong. But as far as resources did you look at the school budget? Did you examine all supplies? Did you delve below the surface? The students that claim they have not been inspired to learn, do you have anecdotal proof of their reasons?

The participants on my trip cited a terrible school environment, a culture of apathy and incompetence,

Who are these participants? How did they measure, compare and contrast their findings?

and students who wanted to go to college but had never been informed that they needed to take certain classes or certain exams.

And whose fault is this? Who is supposed to inform these students? The guidance department, administration, teachers? Do you have proof that these students were reliable, were speaking the truth?

Even their "honors" students had never heard of SAT II subject tests.

Seems that SAT II exams have not been called that since 2005. They are now SAT Subject Tests and the subjects are in very narrow fields. But again, please cite evidence.

This school didn't need more money.

How the heck do you know this? Have you seen the budget for Robeson?

It needed serious restructuring, and I'm confident that closing Robeson and opening new schools and giving students new opportunities will be beneficial to student achievement.

What is your training and/or background to make such a statement? This is a very pretentious comment on your part, one you make without having all the facts.

It needed to follow the "habits of high performing urban schools" listed in Sweating the Small Stuff (attached).

I have already discredited this. No more need to comment.

That couldn't happen with the same staff, unfortunately.

I shall repeat myself. What is your training and/or background to make such a statement? This is a very pretentious comment on your part, one you make without having all the facts.

Ravitch complains that closing schools "disrupts" students--true, but this is a case when you have to choose the hard right over the easy wrong.

I shall repeat myself. What is your training and/or background to make such a statement? This is a very pretentious comment on your part, one you make without having all the facts.

It might be hard to send all those students elsewhere,

It's wrong, it is unethical.

but otherwise you are just letting a culture of apathy and low expectations persist.

The culture and apathy coming from whom? Show evidence.

Catherine, it is time to break anchor from what you think you know.