Check out one of the latest by Valerie Strauss, “What Rhee’s Comments About Her Children Say About Her.” Apparently, Michelle Rhee, not to be out done by Amy Chua, publicly humiliated her own children on public radio and then called for the same in our schools. Rhee went on to extol the virtues of centralized state-run Korean schools, while espousing discredited sociobiological explanations for development and learning. Strauss does a great job of showing Rhee’s hypocrisy and idiocy, essentially ripping her a new hole through which to spew more of her silly ed deform.
Yes, that was a great response by Valerie Strauss. Americans seem to be enamored of authoritarian figures when they're doing this kind of stuff to the "other". The "other" can be immigrants, minorities, union members, other people's kids, whatever. And they love when authoritarian bullies like Rhee (or Chris Christie or Mayor Bloomberg or Joel Klein or Saint Rudy of 9/11...) take on the "others". But you can be sure they wouldn't want their own children subjected to this kind of humiliation or degradation, and you can be sure they themselves would also not want to be subjected to it.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that she admitted physically abusing her students in the 15 minutes she spent as a teacher: she taped their mouths shut, and their lips bled when the tape was removed.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the questionable (at best) claims of her miraculous test score results as a teacher, which have never been substantiated.
The woman is a sociopath, and thus an ideal public figure for the US we find ourselves in today.
Yeh, Rhee is a nasty one.
ReplyDelete