Saturday, June 29, 2013

Charter School Hustling 101, Old School Miami Style

UPDATE:  Please sign the petition I created asking Arne Duncan to cancel his appearance at The National Alliance of Public Charter Schools Conference with Pitbull.

A few days ago I posted a picture I stumbled across when doing some research on the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools website.


Their conference starts tomorrow in DC, and the lineup of keynote speakers, as you can see above, is downright bizarre. Jersey Jazzman, musician that he is, took a look at Pitbull's lyrics, and it paints a pretty ugly picture of Pitbull's attitude towards women. In fact, I'd dare say it depicts him as a misogynist.

Being the researcher that I am, I dug a bit more to see if I could find anything to confirm that Pitbull's attitude toward the female gender is less than exemplary.

And I didn't have to look too far. If you care to watch the following short video from Pitbull's TV show la esquina, you will see a clip of an episode where Pitbull paraded contestants for his "Miss 305" pageant to his posse. It's a truly tasteless display, and makes quite clear that Pitbull sees women as sex objects and little else.


But the episode titled Hustling 101 really takes the cake.
It's book smarts vs. street smarts when Fademaster bets Chingo that he can sell more merchandise on the street – even if Chingo has the help of a college graduate with a marketing degree. (emphasis mine)


It starts at the 8:00 minute mark, and it's a PAINFUL six and a half minutes. The female "college graduate with the marketing degree" (who is seductively panned head to toe by the camera) attempts to help Chingo sell his wares by using marketing strategies to inform the public about his products.  

Fademaster just calls up a hot girl and has her dance. If you want her to keep dancing, you have to buy something. 

Fademaster wins.

Pitbull congratulates Fademaster, saying:
"He did it old school Miami style. 2 Live Crew, put them in a bathing suit and let them do what they do." (emphasis mine)
yeah, THAT 2 Live Crew
Women shouldn't bother with a college degree and charts and graphs. In Pitbull's estimation they should just put on a bathing suit and "do what they do."

It is simply mind boggling that Pitbull has been given a charter school in Miami.  It's called called SLAM! 
Sports Leadership and Management Charter Middle/High School’s mission is to provide an innovative, in-depth educational program preparing students for secondary studies and beyond through an emphasis of sports-related career preparation. 
The school philosophy is the mechanism through which the mission will be achieved. In order to produce college bound and career-oriented graduates, the school believes it must provide Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships in the educational program. (emphasis mine)
Relationships? His charter school will focus on relationships? Let's hope the folks tasked with running the day to day operations of this charter have more respect for young women than Pitbull, and don't also subscribe to doing things "old school Miami style." 

Pitbull is paving the way for a new kind of "street smart" hustler to cash in on charter schools.  Looks like he'll give the "book smart" Wall Street hustlers a real run for their money.

But as we know all too well, in the end it's the students and parents who really get hustled.

Arne Duncan should pull out of this conference IMMEDIATELY. For the Secretary of Education to share a stage with Pitbull as a  charter school founder and "civic leader" makes a mockery of the entire public education system.  


left: Pitbull's saintly photo to promote the conference
right: Pitbull's not so saintly photo after a 3:00 am arrest in Miami

18 comments:

  1. Truly mind boggling. I'm curious as to the choice of focus for the school. Why not a charter focused on music? The whole thing is so odd I can't even comment coherently. But, yes, Arne should be backing out of this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I heard Arne Duncan is a happily married man with 4 children? That's why he hired a good-lookin rapper that has 6 children with different women (wink-wink!)??? Well, maybe it's the CHANGE we've been hearing about??? Yeah - it sure ain't rock 'n' roll, USA. It's da New World Order, endorsed by Dr Pepper, Fiat, Dodge, Beer co. Booze co...porn co. all that for our beloved kids!!! Thank you, Mr Duncan. You DO have good taste...
      (Glad I have no kids).

      Delete
  2. Wow. Is this even real? How to Klein and Duncan retain ANY kind of credibility or worthiness to be involved in how I do my job as a teacher, or in policy/practice in the education of MY children? I understand they won't be seen bustin caps in any videos, but where are they when it comes to lifting/praising/funding and freeing regular schools to do the things charters do? Restrict, starve, then criticize regular schools and show up for the midway sideshow illusionists?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Regardless of what the man does or says in his professional life as an entertainer, if he is doing good things with his money and is prepared to us it to help educate kids in his community then let him do so. The good that the school can do should not be clouded by the means by which the money came to be spent in that direction. Pitbull obviously has a large market in our society. The parents of the kids that will go to his school most likely listen to or have even purchased his music somewhere along the line. If it is acceptable to them...then it should be acceptable to everyone else. This is really a decission that the people of that community need to make for themselves. We have no need or business casting judgement or trying to make decissions for them. If the school opens its doors in August and there are enough kids to fill the seats then that was the decission of the community. If there are no kids in the seats then that community has said they will not stand for or accept what Pitbull is offering their community. PERIOD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bazy, would you say the same if he were a mafia boss? We need to research who is advocating. It is important!!

      Delete
    2. Apples and Oranges...but no one seemed to care when the Mafia was supporting the Catholic Church...Just sayin.

      Delete
    3. How did the Mafia's supporting the Catholic Church work out though, in the end? I am thinking your example is actually a nonexample. Please allow me to share that my family, (I was very young & even before I was born), the Italian side of my family spoke out about the mafia's contributions quite vocally. So you see, eventually, it ended up blowing up in the church's face. I always liken these situations to my baking: you can use the best of all ingredients for your chocolate chip cookies, but if you use one single bad ingredient, it will spoil the entire batch.

      Delete
    4. yeah...'good for the economy', ha ha ha!!! Our culture is gone down the drain, yet, they still wanna sell via porn MONEY - the WORST thing you can teach a kid - like, hey, Girl, go, become a prostitute, sell your body, make lots of money and buy a nice little boutique selling school books and baby clothing...call it Success!
      Nah. We got to reinforce MORAL VALUES to our kids; that it's NOT all about money, and it shouldn't be...Respect for women, men, and parents is much more important than making money as a Miami Hustler, and then being endorsed by mega corporations to sell to our kids. Why can't we find great talents who have good moral values to be a role-model. The guy is talented, yes. But I do NOT want my kids to follow HIS footsteps.

      Delete
  4. "if it is acceptable to them....then it should be acceptable to everyone else."

    really?

    when it comes to improving education and the lives of kids and social progress, we might want to aim a little higher than that. and certainly a lot higher than pitbull--regardless of the market segment he lays claim to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When it comes to money coming into the school system...I will take it any way that I can get it. Would it be any different if it were a company that makes something that you consider disgusting...because I have it on good authority that Alcohol and Tobacco money both make it into the school systems in certain communities. I have never heard such a fuss though until Pitbull tried to give of his money so freely. When the government backs out on us...where do we turn. If you dont want people looking elsewhere for funding then bring it yourself, vote for the people that will bring back the government funding or get out of the conversation altogether.

      Delete
    2. Bazy, have you read somewhere that Pitbull is GIVING money to this charter school? I haven't seen that anywhere. The point is the STATE is paying for this charter school.

      Your reference to alcohol and tobacco money is odd and pretty off topic... But we will have to agree to disagree here, I don't think public schools should "take money any way they can get it."

      Delete
  5. I'm just not understanding the supposed mission statement at all... lots of big words but no meaning. Wat exactly will this curriculum be focused on? Sports marketing? Sports commentary? Playing sports? Entertainment law? Watching sports? Stop using random educational reform words and pretending it speaks to a purpose!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't see the point here. What's wrong with a woman celebrating her body and the power it has to make men go blooey and empty their pockets? Fun is made of the purported college graduate because she clearly doesn't have the faintest idea what she's doing. Charts don't sell products.

    OTH developer-founded charter schools suck and Arne Duncan's evil for supporting them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Superman has arrived!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is quite seriously my favorite comment ever.

      Delete
  8. So Paula dean can't have a cooking show because she used a racial slur 30 years ago but Pitbull can have a charter school when he demoralizes women daily???? This is what our country has come to....

    ReplyDelete
  9. http://www.slammiami.com/

    ReplyDelete