Lest we forget

This photo reminds us of how horrible the Holocaust was and teaches us that we must never let it happen again.

However, we have not been taught the early warning signs of a holocaust to come, much less how to go about stopping it before it gets out of control.
Last week I spent my time in the rubber room reading this book, "Unmasking Administrative Evil".

According to its authors, the Holocaust could not have happened without the complacent compliance of thousands of law-abiding, church-going people who were just doing their jobs. "Without the full complicity of professional civil servants (and a myriad of other professionals), it is virtually inconceivable that the mass murder of Europe's Jews could have been accomplished." Those working in economic affairs, tax collection, social security, statistics, railroad service, foreign currency, and municipal government carried out essential roles in the killing process, while believing themselves to be uninvolved.

But there are other psychological mechanisms involved as well. One is called the "Dirty Hands Choice" in which one knowingly and deliberately inflicts pain and suffering on others for the greater good. Today we call it collateral damage. The other is called "Moral Inversion" in which something evil has been defined as something good.

I think that we should become very concerned when Dirty Hands and Moral Inversion become systemic as it has in the New York City Department of Education.

My holocaust alarm went off when I realized that corrupt Department of Education administrators were encouraging children to lie. I have now learned a term for it: Moral Inversion. The DOE justifies this moral inversion with the Dirty Hands Choice--we need to do "whatever it takes" to replace "failing" public schools with private charter schools in order to "leave no child behind". Veteran teachers are seen as one of the primary obstacles to this hostile private takeover. Because they are tenured, "extraordinary measures" must be taken to get rid of them, such as framing them for things they didn't do by encouraging children to provide false testimony.

This is not a conspiracy theory. People smarter than I am have tried to figure out where the holocaust started, how it was driven, and how and when it might have been stopped by whom.

If we learn how to recognize preholocaust conditons, and take measures to stop them, we can ensure that it won't happen again.

Moving Forward

Spring vacation is over, and tomorrow I go back to the rubber room. Even though I knew I was headed there, it was still a shock when it actually happened. However, after meditating on my new status, I now realize this isn’t the last stop. I did have a plan, which was to become a writer after my teaching career was finally over. The rubber room is probably my last stop as a teacher, and my first stop as a writer.

When I walked into school as a teacher, I was prepared to teach science to 150 students every day. The conditions weren’t perfect, but I did my job to the best of my ability because I enjoyed teaching, and I thought I was doing something necessary and important. Besides, what else was I supposed to do with 150 adolescents? The kids themselves drove instruction.

No one drives my writing but me. There are no deadlines, no editors, no bill collectors. Conditions still aren’t perfect. I have to overcome my own mental state that cycles from worry to fear to anger to sadness, and then back around again. I am surrounded by people who are dealing with the same emotions in their own individual ways. Some are loud, some are silent. Some are gregarious, some are introverted. Some are welcoming, some are hostile.

Some are conflicted about who deserves to be here and who doesn’t. Which of us are BAD teachers and which of us are GOOD teachers falsely accused of being BAD?

This is my take on the subject. No matter what people have done to get sent here, no one has done as much damage to children and their education as Bloomberg and Klein. In any given year a teacher has access to 30 students in the elementary grades, and about 150 students if they are middle school or high school teachers. The “damage”, whatever it might be is contained to single or double digits.

Bloomberg and Klein have instituted a corrupt and fraudulent system that abuses millions of children per year. Principle P. is one of many principals who have been trained to institute and perpetuate the BloomKlein regime in their schools. They can each abuse hundreds to thousands of students per year.

The people who really deserve to be in the rubber room are not here. They are sending scapegoats in their place. This, for now, is what I want to write about.

Last Stop: Rubber Room

I was reassigned to the Queens Rubber Room today.

Happily there's a song that fit's every occasion. This one is dedicated to billionaires everywhere.



Note: On November 15, 2011 I came back to this post in order to link it to another song and found that it had been removed by "The Owner". I suggest that "The Owner" go refer to this post. I have now reestablished the link.