NOVEMBER 30, 2008
Michelle Rhee Makes Time
A hat tip to the Washington Post for this AP article noting the figure on the cover of this week's Time magazine: District education czar Michelle Rhee. One item that's sure to make waves in D.C., where, earlier this month, voters overwhelmingly indicated that they favored Barack Obama: Rhee strongly considered voting for Republican candidate John McCain. According to the report, Time quotes Rhee saying that she is "somewhat terrified of what the Democrats are going to do on education."
Does Rhee fear that President-elect Obama is likely to weigh in on the side of the teachers' union in the District's ongoing royal rumble in the schools? Or does she merely prefer the platform outlined by John McCain and the Republicans? Back in July, the New America Foundation's Sara Mead at the Early Education Watch blogobserved that McCain's education plan "emphasizes school choice, alternative teacher certification, teacher performance pay, bonuses for teachers who work in high-need schools, and greater school-level decision making authority." That certainly sounds like Rhee. And although both Obama and McCain said during the final presidential debate that Rhee stood with him on the issue of school vouchers, only McCain was right (says Marc Fisher).
This cover illustrates a couple of interesting phenomenons: fame-for-D.C. and outright sexism. Rhee may be a bureaucrat with a lot of authority, but with all due respect, she is still, at the end of the day, merely a bureaucrat. Yet by nabbing the cover of Time and a profile in this month's Atlantic Monthly, Rhee appears to be this city's biggest celebrity.
And yet her high profile does not afford her much respect. No celebrity not famous for flashing her underwear can expect quite such negative treatment by the media as Rhee. In both Time and the Atlantic, she is depicted as a mean old schoolma'am. In the Time cover, at least, she is symbolically (if cheesily) projecting authority. The Atlantic picture is a deliberate effort to make her look like a wraith. A caption underneath a photo accompanying one September 2007 Washingtonian profile mentions that Rhee is mounting a "charm offensive," but by the photo alone, you wouldn't know it.
Now, no one is owed a pleasant smiling photo by the press and an editorial photo ought to capture something of the story in the subject. But isn't this humorless, ball-busting teacher stereotype tired? Does Rhee really need to be captured holding a broom? And do you think a man in her position would be depicted so?
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The inclusion of the broom on the cover photo is indeed puzzling, when it's quite possible that she does not know how to operate one.
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I have two points to make. I'm sure a lot of other people are thinking the first one, while the second one might be limited to my odd way of thinking.
1) The Washington Post couldn't even write its own article about this? They had to use an article from the Associated Press? Lame.
2) Holding that broom and wearing such a dark outfit, my crappy monitor makes it look like Rhee is wearing a witch's costume. Or maybe she is wearing a witch's outfit, not costume, because she is a witch?
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I'd hit it.
After a case of Natty Boh.
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Why is she this famous? Has she actually fixed anything yet? Seems like a lot of posturing for someone without much to stand on.
This article in the City Paper seems to be a good overview of her hype outside the DC area.
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The broom seems an appropriate "cleaning house" analogy. I support what Rhee's doing. Someone needed to step up- too much opportunity and too many lives have already been wasted.
But the challenge is difficult enough without external forces getting involved, and this sort of additional national exposure will certainly broaden and intensify the conflict with the national union.
I guess I'm trying to say that, even though the article reads as favorable to Rhee, I'm not sure the article will be be favorable to Rhee or, by extension, to DC kids.
Then again, this was probably inevitable when the local wouldn't even bring the contract to the members for a vote.
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broom + choice of wardrobe (facial expression) = :(
i mean just weeks after halloween? it DOES make her seem like a witch.
and if she's fixing something, couldn't she write like an equation on the board or like make sure the kids show up for class? that room seems so sterile and she looks about ready to do some serious damage with that broom.
but i wouldn't trade places with her - time cover or not. they've had decorated u.s. army generals try to shape up the schools and they've quit, calling efforts futile. getting congress to move is too hard. by design, the system is doomed. the deck is stacked against her, but for the sake of d.c.'s schools, its kids and the future, everyone should really be rooting for her.
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Fisher was only partially right about Rhee on vouchers: he was basing his conclusion on a quote from her saying that she wouldn't oppose any plan that increased choice for parents, and so by extension Fisher concluded she was pro-vouchers. Rhee has since clarified that while she doesn't actively oppose vouchers, she "disagrees ... that vouchers are the remedy for repairing the city’s school system". (quote from the City Paper article.)
(Whether McCain or Obama was right about her stance is all an issue of semantics: if you take not opposing X to be the same as supporting X, then McCain was right, but if you take a preference for A over B to not supporting B, then Obama was right.)
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"Frowning like a specter," mocking people in a "drippy, grating voice" to a national journalist, failing to smile or nod, reading her BlackBerry when people talk to her, walking out of meetings held for her benefit without a word of explanation...
That's an unusual way to mount a charm campaign...wait, "charm offensive." Interesting choice of words.
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Look up the definition of butterface, and I think you'll find that Time cover image next to it.
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"And yet her high profile does not afford her much respect."
Here's how the math works:
Woman + ethnic minority + noble profession + government job = halo of media respect (usually).
...unless you add the secret negative ingredient:
+ votes Republican
In which case, lack of respect and possible sexist, racist editorial comment/cartoons are sure to follow.
The flip side to this formula is that voting correctly will subtract even the worst sins from a white male Democrat's equation!
Like:
+ former KKK member
+ left 28-year old woman to drown
...etc.
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I think the Time article reveals how Rhee's top down, mean spirited and dictatorial approach has serious weaknesses. Why does she feel like she needs to treat people- parents, teachers, elected officials, funders, community members, etc- with such disdain? I really don't understand how people can applaud this approach. We should demand that Rhee treat all people like decent human beings. Her contemptuous manner towards just about everyone is unproductive and should not be tolerated.
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Did anyone else get the impression that Rhee barely gave Time any time at all. There are a few brief quotes, a lot of information we've already read on other sources and a lot of background on the DC schools. I don't get a clear impression that she is seeking celebrity status or buttering up even the media (as some critics seem to think).
And as to, "Has she actually fixed anything yet?" - It's true she has made more changes in less time than almost any school chief in history and most of those changes make completely sound sense (closing redundant schools and cleaning out an historically abyssmal teacher-pool). But demolition is faster and easier than building. I can rip out the ugly in my basement in an evening but it'll take 2-4X that time, plus more effort!, to build something better.
To all the folks who complain, get off your arses and get to work. She can't teach every kid, inspire every parent, change every lightbulb. Where are the parent groups organizing to SUPPORT schools and change? The harder she pulls to improve, the heavier the weight of folks who fear the changes she brings. We gotta turn that around.
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Cut her some slack. DCPS have been in steady decline since Brown v. Board of Education, and accelerated decline under two Barry and one Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly Whatthef**keverhernameis administrations. It''ll probably take another fifty years before the temple is cleansed of the moneychangers.
And by then, all the Chinese and Indian immigrants will have gentrified ALL the white people out of Shaw and "the plan" will have reached fruition.
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When Time asked her to pose for that cheesy broom shot, why did she agree?
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Don't you mean schoolmarm?
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schoolma'am = schoolmarm
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I'd invite Kristin to describe a front cover that could be deemed 100% free of sexism.
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McCain's education plan "emphasizes school choice, alternative teacher certification, teacher performance pay, bonuses for teachers who work in high-need schools, and greater school-level decision making authority." That certainly sounds like Rhee.
I admit I haven't bothered to read Obama's education plan, but I have (finally!) been reading The Audacity of Hope, and right there on page 162 he says "In exchange for more money, teachers need to become more accountable for their performance--and school districts need to have greater ability to get rid of ineffective teachers." This comes right after his advocating for alternative teacher certification and right before chastising teachers' unions for intractability. What exactly was Rhee terrified of again?
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didn't you people read Roald Dahl as a child?
it's those pointy black shoes that are a dead giveaway to her witchness.