Citing the teacher that engaged in a business whilst sitting in the Rubber Room, Klein whined, "On Sunday, the New York Post ran a front-page story about a teacher who has been reassigned to the rubber room for more than seven years"
Klein then decided to model for the joint Assembly-Senate committee his special attire he will wear when he has complete power to discipline teachers as he so desires.
Calls to the DOE for comment were not returned.
2 comments:
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J. Edgar Hoover Lives Again-
An Artist's Challenge Is Almost Met
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Yes, I think you almost caught Mr. "Legend in his own Mind", in that photomontage Portrait.
I can state that I really do know something about the Art of portraiture- having been a Portrait Painter for the past fifty years.
For centuries the most celebrated portrait painters in history were the ones who seemed to have that rare gift for catching the "inner" character and personality of the sitter- whether the subject of the portrait was sitting, standing or re-Kleining.
One can enter any great Museum or Gallery in the world and he will always note that the painted portaits that seem to attract us the most, at first glance, are those where the artist has seen behind the superficial outer mask and observed with an amazingly heightened level of clarity the real person behind the outer mask.
Whether one studies a portrait by Rembrandt or Rubens, Titian or Tintoretto, Van Dyck or Van Gogh, it is always the same result.
We observe that the artist has captured the person's real inner character- the person's "true self", -what is going on behind the mere physical surface.
Yes- your illustration of Mr. Klein is impressively accurate to the extent that it does to a large degree sum up this most unhappy man.
That is, if we may assume the closing word of the last sentence is accurate whether from a physical perspective or from an emotional point of view.
Your portrait is painted with a "Broad" brush. That is to be expected as by necessity it had to completed in one day or one night.
John Singer Sargent and Frans Hals were capable of such pyrotechics with the brush- getting to the heart of the matter in an hour or two. Capturing the essence of a person as rapidly as a bird can fly, on lifted wings, across a verdant field of grass.
But to be totally honest, as excellent as your portait of Mr. Klein appears to be one must confess it frankly speaking cannot be thought of as quite perfect.
Yes- the likeness is there, the quality of egotistical Hubris reflected in the pose, the smug self righteous sneer of superiority in his grim and rather unattractive and unappealing face.
The obligatory whip in hand as if to say: "Walk and speak with care for I can punish and destroy those who I choose to destroy and of course dispense Discipline with a ready and vengeful hand".
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But all that said, isn't there something more that seems to slither and slide inside that follicle challenged cranium ?
A certain quality of ruthlessness and cruelty that almost escapes and defies being able to capture in a portrait.
Is there not something about Mr. Klein, a former Federal Prosecutor, that reflects a certain twisted vision of the world and how he perceives, on a daily basis, the people with whom he interacts.
What does he think about each evening as he sits back in his chauffered, black Limousine,that is always waiting for his "Imperial Majesty" near the bottom of the steps of the Tweed Courthouse.
Waiting to whisk him away from the cares of a hard day's work and carry him in silent comfort, uptown,to his Duplex Residence at 565 Park Ave.
Does Mr. Klein meditate and reflect with unbounded remorse, that there are Teachers here, there and everywhere that should, need to, and bloody well deserve to be Terminated. And the sooner the better.
Does the thought eat away at his Soul, that he cannot just push a button and make all the Teachers sitting in his infamous so-called Rubber Room gulags, just vanish, disappear and be no more.
Does it knaw away at his alleged heart that people just do not understand that Daddy Klein knows best what the City needs to do with all the Teachers who have been languishing in his Rubber Rooms for years.
Teachers like a veteran Educator, recently vilified and slandered by a Periodical referred to as the "NY Rag". A teacher who is only still sitting daily in a Rubber Room after 10 (ten) years, because that was the choice of Daddy Klein-who always knows best what is good for the rest of us.
Yes- perhaps that is what is missing in that otherwise fairly good representation of Mr. Klein.
The artist did not entirely capture for future generations that part of Mr. Klein's personality that reflects in all its horror, the morbid and most hideous ingredient of the tyrant- the petty dictator.
The conviction that Daddy Joel should, nay deserves and must be given, and accorded the power of Life and Death over other human beings.
In Mr. Klein, one can detect, if one really studies him carefully the true mindset of the stereotypical Dictator. He is indeed, as is so well known, a man who acts as if he wishes, aspires, nay demands, to become a Legend.
And surely, at least in his own confused and twisted mind,- as he alights from his City paid for chauffered Limousine each night, he no doubt is convinced, that in the world of Education, he has become that Legend- God save and protect us all.
David Pakter
http://www.OldMasterPortraits.com
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