Oprah on Waiting for Superman (again)

STOP THE PRESSES!!! (this applies to this entire email)  Oprah did another entire show on Friday about Waiting for Superman and this one was even better than Monday's show (which was amazing – see: www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FB34F7A3C0610E25).  Links to the five segments are posted at: www.clusterurl.com/548zo2u

 

In particular, you MUST watch Geoff Canada at the beginning of the show (video clip #1) – I've never heard a more passionate articulation of what this issue is about and the moral imperative of addressing it.  He's also come up with an even better analogy for the failure of the status quo: his former one was, "I know of no system in the world that is failing as badly as our schools in which everyone goes home at 3pm."  His new one is: "It's like your house is on fire and you call the fire department.  They come and are putting out the fire, and then at 3pm they leave.  You say, 'But what about my house?!'  And they say, 'Sorry, the contract says our day is over.'"

 

Then, Cory Booker speaks as passionately as Canada about this issue, then Mark Zuckerberg announces his $100 million grant to help transform Newark's schools, then Gov. Chris Christie appears to say he's giving his (near-dictatorial) powers to Cory, so Cory will have full mayoral control so he can do what's necessary.  VERY powerful stuff!

 

By the way, Oprah mentions on the show that she visited North Star, she and Cory talk about Uncommon Schools, and then she mentions Julie Jackson, who is principal of North Star Elementary School and is one of the all-time great legendary teachers and leaders.