So I Read the Rest of the Article, sort of...

Darling-Hammond from Stanford was quoted in the NY Times as saying:

If one takes the lowest possible standard and accepts that as a goal, then Teach For America is great."

At first I was like, "yes! she gets it. We ARE better than what is out there." Then I re-read it.

With Matt's help.

And a few other McKinsey consultants I keep around to fetch me coffee.

Whatever. Look, when it was explained to me in a different light, my reaction was "raarrr, someone's catty!"

I've sent her five signed copies of my book. I can actually sign my name in AGaramond so if that doesn't win her over I don't know what will.

Well, actually I do: we'll have to create a VP position and hire an ex-management consultant to fix her, I mean this problem.

We Hired the NY Times to Run Our Marketing

Did you see this article in the NY Times a few weeks ago? Apparently we have hired them to run our PR.

I'm glad the writer picked a Stanford grad: It shows we are still smart, but we aren't locked into just Princeton, Harvard and Yale. Apparently some people regard Stanford as good as Princeton; I can't say as I had never heard of it before this article. But it's probably good.

The article is a perfect piece on the Teach For America eco-system (that I built, despite everyone telling me I couldn't -- check out my book if you don't believe me). A TFA Alum starts an after school project which propels a minority student into Stanford who then joins Teach For America and is wildly successful in the classroom, propelling more students to Stanford (or Yale or Harvard or Princeton – I don't care which) who will then join Teach For America, and so on and so on, just like I predicted in my book.

I asked Melissa how we got the NY Times to write what amounts to 700 words of ad copy for us in the form of a journalistic article. She just smiled. I mean it is as if an alum wrote... wait maybe the writer is an alum. We are everywhere!

Perhaps there were other things said in the rest of the article. I didn't read past the fold – I was so inspired by Flores I had to put down the paper and just sign copies of my book for hours. I sent some to Flores and her family, but the rest I'll probably auction off at Sotheby's. There is a Hampton's house I have been eyeing, and no way Finance is going to approve it.

Branding

I know, this site doesn't look right. I've begun to thought partner with Melissa on how to get this fixed, but tech doesn't return her emails either. Apparently their laser-focus is beaming somewhere else. Needless to say getting it branded is on both of our action plans–it will be done. 

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