I’ve been hearing a lot about Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Education of the DC school system. I haven’t read anything about her, though, but after reading this Time article, I want to read more. Something to whet your post-Thanksgiving appetite:
She says things most superintendents would not. “The thing that kills me about education is that it’s so touchy-feely,” she tells me one afternoon in her office. Then she raises her chin and does what I come to recognize as her standard imitation of people she doesn’t respect. Sometimes she uses this voice to imitate teachers; other times, politicians or parents. Never students. “People say, ‘Well, you know, test scores don’t take into account creativity and the love of learning,'” she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. “I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t give a crap.’ Don’t get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don’t know how to read, I don’t care how creative you are. You’re not doing your job.”
Not sure if you saw the profile on her in Fast Company a few months ago but it was very good as well:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/128/the-iron-chancellor.html
josh
Michelle Rhee is a bitch who knows nothing about teaching… self-absorbed power junkie who spews cliche and draws attention because she’s young, Asian, and bloodthirsty.
@virginia: you might not agree with her policies, but i find what you are spewing to be reprehensible and reductionist in the worst kind of way. there’s a civil level of healthy discourse and this is not that.