"Positive Psychology, Green Dot, and Barbara Ehrenreich" on Schools Matter blog

"We are giving away our schools and now we want to get rid of transparency... so we can do whatever we want in the dark of night." -- Marguerite P. LaMotte (LAUSD Board Member)

The highly regarded Schools Matter blog has published a short, but incredibly important piece entitled: Positive Psychology, Green Dot, and Barbara Ehrenreich

No wonder even some of Green Dots' staff and teachers are completely indoctrinated with ruling class ideology. This is beyond frightening, this is brainwashing.

Here are some thoughts on the Jerome Carter (a Green Dot preferred vendor) shtick:

"As a result, I must be accountable to those in authority" -- because those in authority, like AIG, Goldman Sachs, BofA, and Countrywide have shown us a paradigm of accountability.

"I will always work hard, because this is how my dreams will come true" -- therefore, I and anyone else who doesn't succeed is lazy and/or stupid. We all know how hard AIG bailout recipient Eli Broad, convicted insider trader Michael Milkin, convicted predatory monopolist William Gates III, and the Walton children worked to amass their fortunes. That's why their attempts to "reform" eduction is a "gift." Each and every one of us could be billionaires if we just internalized the phrase "my choices will determine my ultimate destiny in life!"

Instead of a sober material analysis of the economic system, societal, and systemic causes of poverty, KIPP, Uncommon, Uplift, Idea, Aspire, Alliance, ICEF, PUC, Green Dot, Harlem Success, Achievement First, Village Academy school will teach us how to "dress for success" [1] and think positive about our prospects in the midst of an economic crises created out of the same neoliberal thinking that corporate charters and voucher advocates espouse.

At least the ruling class has made an attempt to mask their ideology and propaganda with a hip, urban veneer. Public education advocates, social justice activists, and the left have a lot of work to do in order to counter this outrageous propaganda and indoctrination!


NOTES

[1] In honor of Celerity's Executive, Vielka McFarlane, who in an act of self-colonization that would make Uncle Ruckus -- heck, even Bill Cosby or Yolie Flores Aguilar blush, gave us this quote in Not the lesson they had intended:

"We don't want to focus on how the history of the country has been checkered but on how do we dress for success, walk proud and celebrate all the accomplishments we've made."

"Positive Psychology, Green Dot, and Barbara Ehrenreich" on Schools Matter blog