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1) Anatomy of a Teapot Tempest: Debunking the
Disney Conspiracy. Never have so many written so much for so little
reason.
This story began last Thursday, when
Leo Casey, a special representative and vice president for academic high
schools for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, posted "Disney
and Me: On Being Erased From Official Corporate History," on UFT's
EdWize blog.
His post opens with:
"On the Disney Company's corporate website, the reader will find
a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been
recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of
1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will
reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category
of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but
the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is
missing.*
"I am that missing teacher. My name disappeared some time after I organized
a public letter, signed by twenty-five American Teacher Award honorees,
protesting Disney's sponsorship of John Stossel's Stupid in America, an
ideological broadside against public education and the teachers who labor in
our public schools."
Casey goes on to describe how he came to win the award, and finishes with:
"Neither
Robert Iger nor the Disney Corporation ever answered our letter of protest.
To date, the only response has been the one that removed my name as the
Social Studies Teacher of the Year from the list of 1992 honorees. Given the
reason why Disney erased my name from the honor roll, that action is perhaps
best understood as the final honor of the American Teacher Awards."
The asterisk at the end of the first
paragraph refers readers to screen shots of the current Disney honoree page
and the Google cache of the page as it used to look. And, sure enough,
Casey's name is missing from the current page. Casey posted these, he
states, "in anticipation that this listing might change once again in
response to this posting."
I didn't become aware of Casey's
accusations until late Friday morning, and only because Steve Perez, UFT's
web outreach coordinator, decided that the story was such a blockbuster it
deserved attention far beyond EdWize's audience.
Casey's story was picked up and championed as evidence of the petty evils of
corporate America by
The Daily Gotham,
AFT's NCLBlog,
Daily Kos (where it reached "recommended" status),
MyDD,
BuzzFlash, and several other lefty blogs. Even the estimable Joe
Williams of the
Democrats for Education Reform gave it a sympathetic ear. Only
Eduwonk expressed some skepticism.
Even after all the extra exposure, the story didn't pass the "so what?" test
for me. But because Casey had posted links to both the old Disney page and
the new one, I took a look. I had only two questions: a) Were the other 24
honorees who signed the Stossel protest letter missing from the new page?
and b) Were any honorees who didn't sign the Stossel protest letter missing?
It wasn't simple to compare. Hundreds
of teachers received the award in the 16 years Disney ran the program. The
old list was in alphabetical order, irrespective of the year of the award,
but the new list was in chronological order. I first checked to see if
Casey's name was, indeed, missing. It was. I checked the names of the other
24 signatories to the Stossel letter. Every one of them remains on the new
page.
Strike One. We now have to believe that
Disney was angered by the Stossel letter, but chose to take out its petty
vengeance not on the honorees who signed it, but only Leo Casey, the man who
put it together.
So was Casey the only missing name? It
took a bit longer to check, but as it turned out there are 25 other honorees
who didn't sign the Stossel letter, have no discernible connection to Casey,
yet are missing from the new page. They are:
Karen Butterfield – Visual Arts – 1993- Flagstaff AZ
Colleen Mary Callahan – Performing Arts – 1991-
Minneapolis MN
Lauradis Cardet – Foreign Language – 1990 – Metairie LA
Todd Coleman – Early Childhood – 1993 – New Castle PA
Carolyn L. Cotton – Vocational Arts – 1990 – Bristow OK
Judy Darden – Early Childhood – 1992 – Kingsport NY
Beverly Y. Davidman – Mathematics – 1994 – New York NY
Stephen Fox – Physical Education/Health – 1991 –
Puyallup WA
Katherine K. Fujii – Science – 1991 – Wahiawa HI
Rebecca Goldman – Early Childhood – 1992 – Boston MA
John E. Guardia – General Elementary – 1990 – San
Antonio TX
Janet Walton Hayes – Physical Education/Health – 1990 –
Friendswood TX
Herbert Lee Holland – Performing Arts – 1991 – Los
Angeles CA
Virginia Honomichi – Athletic Coach – 1991 – Baldwin
City KS
Margaret Myrick Ingram – Mathematics – 1990 – Vero
Beach FL
James K. Jackson – Vocational/Technical Education –
1995 – Mundelein IL
Avis Johnson – Athletic Coach – 1995 – Harrodsby KY
Rick Moore – Vocational/Technical Education – 1995 –
Liburn GA
Jimmy Nations – Early Childhood – 1990 – Dalton GA
Ellen Perry – Early Childhood – 1991 – Columbus OH
Joan Powell – Athletic Coach – 1992 – Colorado Springs
CO
Danny Prado – Foreign Language/ESL – 1992 – Moundsville
WV
Joan Shover – Physical Education/Health – 1992 – Blue
Springs MS
Robin Silverman – Foreign Language/ESL – 1993 –
Hopkinton MA
Neil Van Steenbergen – Social Studies – 1990 – Long
Beach CA
All of the missing honorees are from
the years 1990-1995. The ones who could be traced have had full and varied
careers in education. One was a private school teacher. One became the
director of a charter school. One is a director of the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards. None of the other missing honorees appears
to have any prominent union connections. In fact, Michael Marks, who just
completed a six-year term on the NEA Executive Committee, remains on the new
page.
It was clear that whatever the reason
for the omissions, it wasn't related to the Stossel letter. There are other
indications:
* The Google cache of the old page was
created dated October 1, 2007. While anything is possible, it's hard to
believe that the person in charge of that particular page of the vast Disney
web site managed to hold onto such a petty grudge for 19 months, only to
discharge it in such an obscure manner.
* There were subtle differences that
suggested the new page was not entirely created from the old page. Awardee
Dorothy K. Kohrherr became "Dot." Jean Hurd Savoy's city was changed from
Washington, DC to Columbia, Maryland. Rachel Anne Sennert became Rachel
Ayars. Dr. Robert Taylor's subject was changed from English to Language
Arts. This suggests that at least some information for the new page was
entered by hand, not transferred wholesale from the old page, raising the
possibility of error.
All of this prompted me to post "Leo
Casey's Disney Conspiracy Debunked" on Intercepts. It wasn't long
before my blog entry also began making the rounds, though hardly at the
viral rate of the Casey tale (I lack a web outreach coordinator).
Soon Eduwonk updated its original post,
as did DFER, after which Joe Williams wrote an
additional mea culpa for not being sufficiently skeptical. The
Home Education Blog Blog called it "an excellent illustration of what it
looks like when a mass of fellow ideologists teem like lemmings over the
Cliffs of Mindlessness and into the Sea of Outrage."
A couple of intrepid souls on the other
side of the political spectrum braved the stigma of their fellows and ran
the story. NYC Educator posted three entries over the weekend: "Poor
Leo," "What
Do They Do All Day in UFT HQ?" and "LeoGate
– Day Three." Daily Kos diarist Mitch Gore posted "When
a Disney Witch Hunt Goes Off the Rails," stating Casey's claims "border
on the bat-sh*t crazy."
On the other hand,
JD2718 doesn't think it matters much if Casey's accusations are true or
not.
All of this got Casey's attention, and
he posted an
"update" to his story. Read it for yourself. Then read my response at "Leo
Stands By His Fantasy."
I also contacted Disney about their web
page. Without referring to Casey, his claims, or any of the ensuing
nonsense, I informed them that some honorees were missing from the updated
page and that "I would be very much interested in knowing the sequence of
events and timeline concerning the update of that particular page." I
received a human being response from Walt Disney Internet Group Member
Services that my e-mail would be forwarded to the appropriate department for
review. That will probably be the end of it, but I thought someone should
try.
Why am I telling you all this? Is it a
moral lesson about our current political climate? Is it a cautionary tale
about the Internet? No.
All I want is for you to see what I did
to check Casey's speculations and compare it to what Casey did to check his
own speculations. Then make your own judgment.
2) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from November 26-December 3:
*
Breaking Down Union Resistance and
The Lines Are Drawn in Toledo. A union runs into union roadblocks.
*
Has NEA Waited Too Long? An NEA presidential endorsement may be on its
way. But does it matter anymore?
3) Quote of the Week. "Looking at those teacher salary numbers in
West Bend made me sick. $60,000 for a part time job were (sic) you 'work'
maybe 5 hours per day and sit in the teachers lunge (sic) and smoke the rest
of the time. Thanks God we won on the referendum. But whining here doesn't
stop the problem. Weve (sic) got to get in back of the kids who have had
enough of lazy, no good teachers and are fighting back. Kids like Eric
Harris and Dylen Klebold members of the Young Republicans club at Columbine.
They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a
time! Too bad the liberls (sic) rip them; they were heros (sic) and should
be remembered that way." – posted by "Observer" on the Wisconsin political
blog bootsandsabers.com. "Observer" turned out to be James Buss, a
teacher and former president of the Oak Creek teachers' union. He was
arrested last Thursday. (November 30
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) |
