Combat Zone - Shapiro, Arthur

. .

Résumé :
Although in plain sight daily, a highly successful war against the public schools has been hidden in the shadows of public consciousness. Only very recently have several people written articles about this war, with the only book calling it a war being written in 2002. Neither the public nor educators have become aware of the far-reaching extent and effectiveness of this war. This book treats this war as part of an extensive social movement that is conducting wars also against government and science, as well as against women, immigrants, the poor (but not against poverty), and, certainly, against unions. However, the book focuses on the war against the public schools. It sets the stage in Chapter One, Checklist for Destroying Public Education, followed by Chapter Two, How the War Plays Out on the Battlefield - Seven Examples that illustrate and prove the thesis. One example involves a private for-profit company that took over a school district in Michigan, but found that they couldn't make a profit running the high school. So what did they do? They simply closed it, leaving the students high and dry. We provide a chapter analyzing the considerable profits being made by entrepreneurs, businessmen, politicians, testing companies and charter schools. We then describe and analyze the overt and covert attacks on our kids, on teachers and on public schools, such as the clever idea of grading schools A, B, C, D, or F, thereby undermining public confidence in their local schools. We focus on the arsenal of weapons aimed at the public schools, such as privatization, intrusion of politicians into educational decision-making, vouchers, using merit pay and Value-Added Models (VAMs) to evaluate teachers, charter schools, extremely intensive testing, the standards movement, etc. We look at unintended consequences and conclude with attempts at peaceful resolutions and developing reconciliation strategies.

Biographie:
Arthur Shapiro has been a senior executive and consultant with the world's leading spirits and wine companies for 30 years. During this time, Shapiro held top management positions with Seagram Spirits and Wine, including a decade as head of marketing for the U.S. and the Americas. Other marketing assignments in the U.S. and globally included: New Products (U.S.), Marketing Services (Global), SVP Marketing (Asia), and EVP Marketing (U.S.). While at Seagram he was chosen to Ad Age magazine's Power 50 and Marketing 100.

In 2002, Arthur founded AM Shapiro & Associates, a consulting company with expertise in both the spirits business and general consumer marketing. His clients have ranged from the large multi-nationals liquor companies to those in startup modes. He is widely known and respected in the spirits and wine industries.

Currently, Shapiro is a part-time marketing consultant with a full time passion for storytelling. In 2010 he being writing and publishing his stories, strong opinions, lessons learned, and commentary on his popular blog, Booze Business.

Mr. Shapiro began his work life in marketing research and public opinion polling working for such companies as Yankelovich, Skelly and White and the Roper Organization.

Inside The Bottle, delves deeper into the people, brands and stories that abound in the alcohol industry.

As he describes it, The spirits and wine industry is fascinating. It's an industry that, despite its size and growth, is small. It's a business of people, relationships and stories... lots of stories. It's about marketing and sales; about brand building; about brand image and product excellence. It's also a window on a world most people know little to nothing about.

In addition to writing about the industry, Arthur is also a playwright and member of the Dramatist Guild. More recently, he has turned his attention to filmmaking and screenwriting and is a founding partner of Warwick Street Productions.

He is a native New Yorker and currently lives with his wife on the Upper East Side of NYC. Arthur is an alumnus of Hunter College (City University of New York) and has an MBA from Fordham University GBA. He has taught marketing and marketing research at Fordham in 2005.

Inside the Bottle: People, Brands, and Stories, is his first book.