We all remember where we were for certain historical events. I was a boy of 10, my family and I on our way to Lake George when Gerald Ford was sworn in as president. When I was 17 I was in my bedroom watching Monday Night Football when word came that John Lennon had been assassinated. I was in Alfred, N.Y. when the Challenger exploded. And of course, I was at work when I got the phone call that my wife had gone into labor. But I will always remember when I heard that Joel Klein resigned.
I was pulling into the parking lot at the White Castle on 149th Street and Southern Boulevard in the Bronx when I heard the news ever so briefly over the radio. Some dude named Klein resigned a job to become Rupert Murdoch's best buddy and Mayor Bloomberg hired a black woman.
I immediately called a crack team of investigators. I relayed the information I had heard on the radio. Instantly, they fed said information into a technologically advanced computer looking for the answer to what I had just heard. It was taking quite a long time, too long. After 15 minutes, the answer came, not from the computer but through the radio station I had on originally. Joel Klein resigned as chancellor of the NYC schools, he accepted a job as executive VP in charge of "Chancellors Who Have Been Unceremoniously Asked For Their Resignations Immediately And That Have Their Best Buddies Find A Nothing Job For Them" at News Corp., and some magazine chick by the name of Cathie Black of Hearst Magazines, and formerly of USA Today has become the new anointed one. Great someone who gave us the McPaper is now going to give us the McSchool.
I was in a state of shock and disbelief. Well, not totally. The only thing I am not surprised about is that Uncle Joel went to work for Rupert Murdoch.
So what to make of this? Before we start dancing around like the Ewoks, and the population on Coruscant had after Vader was killed and the Death Star exploded, know this. Mayor Palpatine is still amongst us. The Sith Lord always has an apprentice. We are not at Episode VI yet. No, we are halfway through Episode III, 'Revenge of the Sith'. Count Dooku has resigned, now Vader has taken his place. The fight must not end.
The President of the UFT, Michael Mulgrew released this statement;
"I look forward to working with Ms. Black. As a teacher, I will help in any way I can to help the children of New York."
Lame. Wrong answer. Again I turned to the team of investigators I had hired. They were given the task to formulate a better response than Mulgrew gave. After many hours, and several deliveries from Domino's later, there was nothing. A blank had been drawn. I then turned to be 9-year-old son, catching him during a commercial break of iCarly. In five seconds he came up with what Mulgrew should have said; "After eight years of a non-educator running and ruining our schools in which there has been no positive affects on students learning, inflated graduation rates, the scapegoating of teachers, closing of schools, and several convoluted reorganizations, we call upon NYSED chief David Steiner to deny a waiver for Cathie Black, a woman who has had no experience whatsoever in education, to be chancellor of the NYC schools."
Wow, imagine that from a 9-year-old.
This is not the time for the teachers of NYC to roll out the welcome mat and bring cookies and milk. This is the time to start taking the offensive. I believe the deform movement is on the ropes. They have overreached and now the public is starting to see what is beneath the rock.
Klein was sacrificed, asked to resign in my opinion. Mayor Mike has seen the albatross that Klein has become. How else can he be the Jewish Ross Perot in 2012 with Klein around his neck? We can't let up until we get back the right for students to be properly educated in this city and the respect each and every parent, as well as teachers deserve.