REALITY BASED EDUCATOR SAYS GOODBYE TO BLOGGING WHILE ENDORSING MORE

I'm very late to the dance today but felt it was necessary to comment on the final post from Perdido Street School.  Reality Based Educator is one of the best bloggers on education and politics. He threw in some good music posts as well.

I don't think I have felt this sad about someone leaving a column (that's kind of what we bloggers are) since Russel Baker retired as the Observer.

Tributes have been pouring in for Reality Base Educator all day in the comments section on his blog, on Facebook and on other blogs such as Ed Notes and the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association.

Harris Lirtzman said this in a comment:

I'm not religious, hardly, but as St. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7--"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

You have. Be well. Get some rest. We all salute you.

It was always amazing to me that Reality Based Educator is a full time teacher.  There were so many posts. When did he have the time? I'm lucky to get out one every couple of days.  He was posting every hour it seemed.  When did the man sleep? His posts were so well written too.  He is truly a gifted writer-analyst.

Unlike some of my friends, I never met Reality Based Educator.  I don't know his name or email address.  He personally remained a bit of a mystery to me right up until his last day of posting.

His final advice to save our profession and union was to endorse MORE in the upcoming UFT election. I couldn't agree more! This is taken from that last post.

If there is any bright light in the maelstrom of deform that we inhabit these days, it is the advent of a parent-led movement against the powers that be and their corporate backers to transform schools into one size fits all factories and children into interchangeable widgets.

On the union side, there are many great folks pushing back against the union leaders in the AFT, NEA, NYSUT and UFT, trying to end top-down unionism and make the unions more representative of the views of the rank and file.

In NYC, that movement is led by the people at MORE and before I go from the blogging scene, I want to say that I fully support the MORE candidates in the coming UFT elections and hope that we can finally get some people into the UFT leadership who fight for teachers and the teaching profession rather than sell us and it out piece by piece.And with that, I say goodbye and good luck. 

We wish Reality Based Educator all the best and hope to see him blogging again in the near future and maybe even meet him in person.

UPDATE:
Chaz and DOENUTS have also chimed in for RBE this weekend as has B-LoEd Scene.