“Rhee the Reformer: A Cautionary Tale”
April 1, 2011
A ton of smart people have already written a lot of smart critiques of “Erase to the Top”– otherwise known as the unfolding story about testing “irregularities” in the DC Public Schools under then-chancellor Michelle Rhee. (RheeFirst has a collection of all the coverage here.) So I won’t do a whole big prose-y deal today– it’s been done.
However, as far as I can tell, I am the first to tell this story in the style of Dr. Seuss. Enjoy 🙂
37 Comments
leave one →
Failing Schools 
So this is your inner Seuss? Well done. Made me smile a lot.
Glad we’re on the same side 😉
Thanks, guys!
Great job., really sound. I will do what I can to spread this around!
Thanks, and thanks for rhyming!
Love it! I hope the ending comes to pass, and soon. 🙂
Amazing!
Yeah!!! Saturday Morning Cartoons!!!! Yeah!!! It’s like School House Rocks!, all over again!
Love you, Sabrina! You’re my shero!
Love it Sabrina, and, Dave Orphal’s comment above gives me an idea…
This is so creative! I posted a link to it on a listserve that I belong to. They will LOVE it! Thank you.
Love it, put it onto my FB account! May it spread far and wide!
Well done, well done. Truly enjoyed your great story.
Sabrina, this is a brilliant parody! I especially enjoyed the sidebar comments by Yertle the Turtle. I’m hopeful that Rhee (finally!) might actually be held accountable for her actions.
The reason why standardized tests should not be used as the critics of our public education system have been doing is presented in our book, “The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don’t Tell You What You Think They Do”. Your story is informative and entertaining as well. It really captures the problems facing school reformers today. Thanks again, I’ll be posting a link to your “creative writing” on our web site.
Thank you, Sabrina! Posted a link on my Facebook page. I hope you get a million hits. I teach children of poverty in Florida–our new Governor tried to hire Rhee to be an Education consultant. Thank God she was too busy on the talk show circuit to take the job!
@paxgirl – Yes, our illustrious NJ Gov. Christie tried to hire her, too.
Just watched via @n2teaching’s link on Twitter. Amazing, powerful, humorous, and absolutely accurate! Thanks for the writing you do!
Nice Job!
Well done…well said. So sad…wondering if things will turn around quickly enough for this generation of children.
*applause*
The reason I think this is wonderful is not because you made it rhyme or because your pictures are cool. It’s not because I really like Michelle Rhee sitting on top of a bunch of DC CAS tests, or because I was actually told a number of times by a psycho administrator while teaching in DC, “you just can’t stand to see black and brown children succeed.”
No – the reason this is wonderful is because it captures exactly the essence of what I think Rhee’s character really is. And it doesn’t do it by telling. It does it by showing.
It might be a little over the top – that’s the point of satire – but I think it is the best way, by far, of capturing and communicating our perspective.
Really nicely done. Thanks.
I loved this, and I’m sharing it wherever I can.
This is effin brilliant. Awesome.
Do you think you could write a sequel that would star “Scott Walker” (aka the dictator of Wisconsin). I think the Star bellied Snitches would suit him just fine!
Scott Ahab Walker, hijacking the Ship of State to go on a wild white whale hunt? That one?
Brilliant, I’m still living the madness in DC.
Kudos to you Sabrina Smith, this was beautiful! Work like this has the power to destroy the tyranny of well-monied special interests like Students First. XOXOXOXO!!!
Really brilliant! I’m always amazed at how a well written story, poem, or song (this is kind of all three) can get the point across so much better than a long essay.
Brilliant. You have before you an alternate career!
Can I get a signed print?
That is SOOOOOOO awesome!!!! Let the truth ring out!
Hey There. I discovered your weblog using msn. This is an extremely well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to read extra of your helpful info. Thank you for the post. I’ll definitely comeback.|