Back and forth with Jonathan Alter on corporate influence in public schools:

Don't Believe Critics, Education Reform Works:Jonathan Alter

"...but what’s wrong with business executives or other interested outsiders devoting time and money to public schools? Would it be better if they ignored them as they did for so long? That went well for this country...."

K Webster's response on the undue influence of corporations on our public schools:


Mr. Alter: I leave it to others to debunk the absurdities of the rest of this article. But, Re: "what’s wrong with business executives ... devoting time and money to public schools? " If businesses executives would shoulder their share of the tax burden instead of milking this country for all its worth we would not need their "largesse" to fund our schools. And public schools could get back to the business of supporting the minds of our children to handle the complexities of this world.

So, "what's wrong with it"? We don't want business executives in charge of the ethos of our education system by buying their way into positions of influence. Because, speaking of your ironic comment, "That went well for this country...," I think we all know how that ethos has played out for everyone else. K Webster

On Jun 5, 2011, at 11:23 AM, alterjonathan@gmail.com wrote: In your view, What's the motive of business in this context?

K's response: Thanks. Fair question. But whether the motives are sinister or utterly based on good intentions, has no bearing on the prospect of undue influence of an outside interest in a public school. Everyone comes to this issue with a perspective honed by their life and outlook. I do too.

For example, those of us who are white and/or those of you who come from moneyed backgrounds will have an ethos (spoken, acknowledged, known, aware - or not) out of which decisions get made that impact those who are, for example: not white, not moneyed. And frankly, we are not smart enough to be making those decisions. Business has a vested interest and a belief that their method, their ethos, is the way forward. I understand that - of course they would! I fiercely disagree with that ethos for many reasons.

The number one reason is that it doesn't work. It is not even working in the business world - except for the very very few. I think that no single influence should hold sway in schools, and certainly no influence without a thorough, ongoing and transparent vetting by the communities and teaching staff that a school intends to serve or employ.

We've seen over and over again the presumption of "rightness" of a dominant and dominating culture/class/race/gender that gets proven so wrong in the light of progress. But probably more insidious in all of this, is the gutting of public funding for education, which leaves parents and those who would fight for children (especially children who have been targeted by racism or economic depravation) hunting for the "goodies" that corporate sponsorship has in abundance. How do you turn down that offer? Even if you don't understand it or have time to investigate the long-range consequences of it?

Many small businesses in my community have stepped up and do step up to share their wealth because they believe in the principals who work hard to make the local schools excellent. They give [them] the money and assume [they] will know how to spend it. Of course businesses large and small should donate funds to schools!

But not as a substitute for the paying of a fair share of their taxes so that WE the public and those who run our schools get to determine what gets spent where and for what. The destruction of the infrastructure needed to create schools that are truly open and public is in no one's best interests. Everyone's ethos ends up being too narrow to be allowed to determine a school in any way. That takes a collaborative effort with all minds engaged, but particularly those who are most impacted by the end results.

Thanks for asking. Yours, K Webster

On Jun 5, 2011, at 1:44 PM, alterjonathan@gmail.com wrote:

We totally agree on taxes and the shame of corporate power in this country. That has nothing to do, however, with the Gates Foundation and others funding education models that have been proven to work.
- Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry



K Webster response:
But while Bill Gates dabbles in his experiments with our children's education Microsoft engages in off-shore tax dodges and a host of other manipulations in order to avoid paying very large quantities of taxes in this country.

 I'd rather have those taxes in hand and directed by electeds, parents, communities, students and people who have knowledge
of the field (by successful years worked in schooling and/or by years of study and degrees) who would choose where the money would
best be spent in the public interest. Even if there was disagreement, that is a conversation worth having!



It doesn't work to have education policy be driven so powerfully by an individual (no matter how savvy he or she feels themselves to be). It just strikes one as sheer hubris that someone who hasn't spent much time in the field of public education either as a consumer or as a worker (nor elected -later comment)
 should feel entitled to influence on such a broad scale.



Again, the ethos matters. Business in this country is all about competition. I think we are fast learning that ruthless, mindless
competition ultimately does not beget a good or even functional world. There is a point to some competition- when you push someone else to be their best and they push you to do the same.
 But this pervasive corporate kind of competition breeds insecurity and insecurity does not breed thought it breeds panic. You
 may "survive", even "win", but it is a poor winning that is self-serving and narrow and a low functioning intelligence that must focus on survival rather than letting one's mind "soar".



I think that the unexamined piece in all of this is that when you have corporate or business interests trying to play a big role in education
that world-view imbues everything. I don't want us to be trying to create job training programs for future competent workers for companies - I want us trying to create schools and institutions that encourage students to own their world, that invite curiosity and compassion, that reward investigation and inspire their naturally scientific minds. Children love to learn and they will figure out their world if we give them the room and support to do so.



I guess that's why I don't think these models work. They are based not on a human model- on what makes a human successful- but on a corporate model that has a very narrow, very pale definition of a successful life.



Last, I read an interesting book, "How Lincoln Learned to Read". It's all about how people learned what they needed to know: Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Ben Franklin, Elvis Presely, etc. It changes the discussion to a more interesting, more complex one as regards education. 

Thanks.
K

What is Possible: A Woman’s Journey from Iran to America

What is Possible: A Woman’s Journey from Iran to America
Her daughter wants to keep bouncing on the two big mattresses that lie on the floor, but Azadeh is tired. She’s been up all night. She catches a glimpse of her child’s eyes inviting her to play. She tosses aside her weariness and starts tumbling and laughing with her little girl. It’s a scene repeated in different ways in different homes. A parent rallies to fulfill a child’s wish to be close and alive with them.
Who we know shapes our world: our children, our parents, our partners and their families, the neighbors and friends we create community with and the boss we work for. Sometimes our most life-changing relationships are not the ones we “chose” to have, but the ones that chance causes us to build.

I met Azadeh while visiting an old friend and so began our “unplanned” twenty-five year friendship. Getting to know one another has been a chance to see life freshly through another’s eyes. I grew up Catholic in Buffalo in a working class home with many siblings and little money. Azadeh and her brother grew up Muslim in Teheran in a formerly wealthy family. She heard Farsi and the poetry of Rumi. I heard Yeats from my Irish mom. But despite our differences both our childhoods were tumultuous, difficult and fantastic.
Azadeh taught herself to be bold. She cannot bear to have anyone face a hard time alone and has had to find her voice in order to help. It has catapulted her into action and speech despite her shyness and fears of not being smart. She does her advocacy work in a language she learned at 16 years old.
During the days of 9/11 this city felt compelled to respect no barrier in our compassion for one another. People tried to lend a hand in whatever way they could: from the heart-stopping courage of first responders to the simple act of offering water to the dust covered and dazed who streamed from downtown. We all met and loved complete strangers that day.
Azadeh too, went out to lend whatever comfort she could that day. She found herself at one of the Centers helping those who were searching for their loved ones. A young blond man, a carpenter’s belt around his waist, was waiting for word of his brother. He had heard news of the attack, jumped into his truck and raced from Canada. His face was rigid with rage. No one would go near him. But it was cold and Azadeh saw that he had no socks. Softly, she came over and stood next to him. A few moments passed, and she started speaking to him, feeling foolish and inadequate. He said nothing. She kept talking. She asked if he needed socks. No reply. She kept trying. Finally, she asked him gently about his missing brother. His face contorted, he bit his lip. She was afraid, wondering what he might do in his grief and anger, but refused to leave his side. Then, in a sudden movement he turned towards her, eyed her squarely, wrapped his arms around her and sobbed.
Azadeh is a Shia Muslim. It took quiet courage to walk into that center, on that day. But there is a true kinship that drives all people whether they were born here or arrived later.
Who we know, whether for a few minutes or for a lifetime, shapes our world: Azadeh, her daughter, the broken-hearted stranger, the rescued and the rescuers of 9/11, the friendship of two people from a world apart. We all try to meet one another in that place of human possibility. What is possible there we don’t really know yet, but it will take a world of different minds to find out.
K Webster is a community organizer in New York City’s Lower Manhattan. She is the Co-Chair of an activist community garden on the Lower East Side and the Chair of the Chinatown Working Group’s Education and Schools Working Team. She is an artist, organizer, former construction worker, mom, wife and daughter and proud of her working class Buffalo roots.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Park51.