Comments on: As some celebrate news for early childhood ed, others continue to protest

By: Felicia Olivieri

Felicia Olivieri — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:42:12 +0000

I read the new way of testing a teacher’s effectiveness and I completely agree with this method. My children have long since moved on to college. At the high school they attended in Concord, there was a math teacher if you want to call him that, who did not, does not in his 9 years teaching, teach using the “direct method” of instruction. His modus operandi is to list on the board the pages/exercises students need to complete. He states if a student has a question to raise their hand. Well, you can bet he gets a lot of raised hands. If a student raises his/her hand, asks for assistance in a polite way they are told to re-read the page. If the same students asks again for help, he sends them to the office for “misbehavior”! How has this teacher “gotten by”? Teachers’ Union. It saddened me for years to see so many good students get turned off to math, but it is no wonder with the likes of this teaching professional! More power to the Los Angeles Times for publishing teacher names & more power to Arne Duncan for endorsing this vital information to parents!

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:43:15 +0000

These people don’t need to picket,moan and complain(and insist the money falls out of the sky), they just need more of other peoples tax money over and above what they already take(LAUSD and OUSD are some big sinkholes to fill with tax money). Maybe OUSD needs 1/4 of a million dollar campuses like LAUSD(nah, it wont help)These parents need to disperse from the protests and collectively volunteer their time at local public schools, and teach their children respect discipline and the importance of education. It is mostly the parents fault that children do not learn, parents are the example for kids to follow and sadly many parents are failures themselves. Schools are not about babysitting, they have a serious purpose and the kids need to understand that and take advantage of the opportunity to gain knowledge.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:06:25 +0000

Not familiar with these groups, up close, but I can’t see that fighting for these early education centers is ever a bad thing, no matter the tactics.

In fact, it seems like OPT and BAMN are working a little activist “good cop-bad cop” to keep the authorities honest. This victory was only a partial and temporary reprieve, after all.

If I was Tony Smith, I’d take a teacher’s salary before I’d admit to giving up on some of the poorest pre-K children in our nation.

By: Turanga_teach

Turanga_teach — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:30:59 +0000

Honestly, though I hate to see a cogent, crucial topic devolve into an anti-BAMN whingefest, their shenanigans drove me out of OEA involvement five years ago: I agree with many if not most of their principles, but found their practices deeply divisive and off-putting. There are a lot of nuances involved in advocating effectively for longstanding change, and I just didn’t see that in action with those folks.

By: Jesse James

Jesse James — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:18:59 +0000

I’ve always felt BAMN to be a silly organization. As part of OEA and during negotiations, they’ve been obstructionist, yet seem to claim to be progressive. I don’t think the shrieking bullhorn gets action, has it yet? I wish, since you posted this video, there would be more coverage of this group.

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:54:57 +0000

My mother told me, “if you don’t have anything positive to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Well, (un)fortunately, I don’t always listen to my mother. BAMN is civil rights gone wrong. They seem to have a penchant for taking a good positive cause and adding a caustic negativity to it (at least the Oakland chapter does). There is no balance, just “fight the power.” They literally seem to troll around looking for an opportunity to fight (as long as a TV camera is nearby). It’s a sad commentary that they have so infested OEA that the president (who’ll never admit it directly) had to distance herself from them.

When will OAKLAND (not just parents) be together and work together instead of just point fingers and fight one another? I go to other communities and they actually discuss issues and solve problems together. What a novel concept?!?!? It seems all they do in Oakland is fight, fight, fight. “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

“Fighting the power” is still an important tool to gain and maintain rights, but if all you have is that hammer, everything looks like a nail when in actuality, it might be something entirely different.

If BAMN truly mean “By Any Means Necessary” they need to march their butts to the Republican Districts that prevent a budget, prevent spending on education and essentially allow all this stuff to continue with less than 50% of the vote. Protest in their neighborhood and stop making the city of Oakland look like an insane asylum. Plotting a takeover of a pre-school is just juvenile an ineffective – and that’s been my experience of BAMN.

I’m sure this will win me no fans, but who needs fans anyway.