This morning I had the pleasure of coffee and chat Downtown with Diane Ravitch, author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education," which was voted the education book of the decade in a recent poll.
Ravitch -- who was assistant secretary of education in the elder Bush's cabinet and was appointed by Bill Clinton to the National Assessment Governing Board -- is a research professor of education at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is also a respected education historian and writer.
She is here in Milwaukee for the first time ever -- which seems surprising considering how much she travels -- to speak tonight at the UW-Milwaukee Union. Her talk is part of the School of Education's Urban Forum. The event kicks off at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Here is the interview I did with Ravitch when her book was published last year.
This morning we talked about my Brooklyn high school -- which Ravitch (who lives in Brooklyn) knows well, having written about it on a few occasions -- and we discussed WEAC's recently unveiled "Bold Reforms" (which she had heard a little bit about) and MTEA's reaction to them (also on her radar; how does she keep up?!).
We discussed looming budget cuts at my child's MPS school and the education scene in general in Milwaukee these days.
Her hard-as-nails review of "Waiting for Superman" in the New York Review of Books also came up. There's been talk that her well-aimed pin-poke at the inflated success of the Davis Guggenheim "documentary" -- did you know there were reportedly staged scenes? -- helped fizzle Guggenheim's chances for an Oscar.
If you miss her tonight, Ravitch returns to Milwaukee at least two more times this year: Oct. 27, giving the keynote address at the Wisconsin Education Association Council Convention, at the Frontier Airlines Center, and 10:30 a.m. And the following day at noon at the Administrators' and Supervisors' Council Conference, Clarion Hotel, 5311S. Howell Ave.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
