It has now been 6 days since we asked Diane Ravitch to give permission for the release of videotapes that could verify or refute her allegation that she “never encountered such rudeness and incivility” as she did in her meeting with Rhode Island’s education commissioner, Deborah Gist.
Ravitch didn’t just make some off-hand remark about the meeting. She publicly accused a public official of exceptionally bad behavior in an entire column in Education Week that was briefly re-posted in the Washington Post before it was mysteriously taken down, and that spawned two news articles. And Diane Ravitch is a very important person, as she keeps reminding us. She has met presidents, governors, all 14 Dalai Lamas, was Joan of Arc in a previous life, and has the ability to start fires with her mind. She’s quite something.
Actually, I have no idea why she told the Providence newspaper that “Over the past half-century, I have met with many governors, state superintendents, congressmen, senators, Cabinet members, and every president since Lyndon B. Johnson (I met John F. Kennedy in 1958, when he was senator from Massachusetts)…. I have never encountered such behavior.” Would we expect that presidents, governors, superintendents, etc… would be rude? So Gist was more rude than a bunch of leaders who we wouldn’t expect to be rude. I don’t get it.
If she had said that she rode with the Hell’s Angels, lived in Paris for a decade, and was a Hollywood talent agent and had never encountered such rudeness, I would have been impressed. I mean, those people are normally considered quite rude. But to be rude compared to a bunch of politicians who are normally very polite doesn’t seem to establish much other than Ravitch’s giant-sized ego.
Ravitch has raised the stakes by making this public accusation of gross misbehavior that has caused considerable headaches for Deborah Gist. Now she has to deliver by agreeing to release the evidence. Which is it — is she the credible historian who is bound by evidence or is she the ego-starved self-promoter who weaves stories to suit her purposes? Her refusal to release the video so far tells us what the answer is.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Jay, you misunderstand. She’s saying that she has extensive experience being in situations where very polite people (presidents, congressmen, etc.) are subjected to the company of a person who is dishonest, manipulative and gratuitously abusive.
Shorter version: I’ve never seen this sort of outrageous behavior before. And that’s really saying something, because I’m Diane Ravitch, dammit!
Pyrokinesis? Ravitch’s mastery of the Dark Side grows ever-stronger…before long she will have added telekinetic strangulation and Sith finger lightning to her already formidable arsenal of logical slides, making things up, and claiming authority based on mere longevity.
Henceforth she shall be known as…Darth Muddled.
It would be a good idea if people confronted her about this shameless behavior. She’s not going to release the tapes unless the pressure keeps up. She has her upcoming public appearances listed on her website, presumably where she could be asked about Videogate directly. Journalists and concerned citizens would be wise to take advantage of this opportunity.
She’ll be in D.C. on May 24
New York June 2
Tampa June 9
Savannah, Georgia, June 17
Aspen, CO June 27-29
http://www.dianeravitch.com/events.html
[…] Island recently, and afterward alleged that she’d been rebuked and treated disrespectfully. Turns out, though, there was a camera rolling…and her story may be strictly […]