“I’m 87, this is not a good time for me to die because I have to stay and fight!” Diane Ravitch during our conversation on her new book, An Education – How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else. I had mentioned that the last chapter, Final Words were frank yet poignant. I should not have been taken aback by Ms. Ravitch’s decision to write so candidly. At the beginning of our meeting I eagerly announced to my esteemed guest how revealing the intimate details of her childhood and family were unexpected. Instead of dismissing my surprise she volunteered that writing explicitly about her life, especially the early years were essential to providing the reader a well-rounded picture of how she eventually came to change her mind about almost everything. 

For many years, Diane Ravitch was among the country’s leading conservative thinkers on education. The cure for what ailed the school system was clear, she believed: high-stakes standardized testing, national standards, accountability, competition, charters, and vouchers. Then Ravitch saw what happened when these ideas were put into practice and recanted her long-held views. The problem was not bad teachers or failing schools, as conservatives claimed, but poverty. She denounced privatization as a hoax that did not help students and that harmed the public school system. She urged action to address the root causes of inequality. Ravitch shares how she came to hold conservative views and why she eventually abandoned them, exploring her switch from championing standards-based curriculum and standardized testing to arguing for greater investment in professional teachers and in public schools. Bringing together candid reflections with decades of research on education, Ravitch makes a powerful case for becoming, as she calls herself, “an activist on behalf of public schools.”

Diane Ravitch is a historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University‘s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Previously, she was a U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. Her blog at DianeRavitch.net has received more than 36 million page views since she began blogging in 2012. Ravitch writes for the New York Review of Books. She married Richard Ravitch (who later served as Lieutenant Governor of New York) in 1960; they divorced in 1986. While her husband worked in the family business, she stayed home and raised three sons, the second of whom, Steven, died of leukemia aged two; his brothers went to private schools. Her longtime partner is Mary Butz, a retired New York City public school principal who also administered a progressive principal-training program. She and Butz were married on December 12, 2012.

Over at Life Elsewhere Music Vol 388 we include the following – Peter Perrett – Proud To Be Self-Hating (irony and provocation)

In my opinion Perrett is one of the most important voices in the history of rock ’n’ roll. Previously I have ranted on at length about the importance of Another Girl, Another Planet. And, each and every time I mention Peter’s name I have to caution myself from once again waxing lyrical about his iconic voice, his songwriting and his well-known dependancies. Yet, here we are many decades on from the original release of Another Girl and Peter Perrett is against all odds making pivotal music. On 9th August 2025, Peter Perrett alongside 531 other people was arrested at the protest organised by Defend Our Juries against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group by the English Government. Perrett – who is Jewish – has been supportive of Palestine for numerous years. Of the song, he says: “Usually I write music about love and the human condition. However, I haven’t been able to write whilst watching the horrors unfold over the past two years. I needed to write this song; it has been cathartic and exorcised demons.” Peter tells us the single is available to stream globally as he hopes this song will “open hearts everywhere to the genocide happening in Palestine. Happy Hanukkah/Christmas to all my Zionist Friends 🇵🇸 ☮️ Please share 🙏 To spread peace, goodwill and empathy throughout the Universe”.