I, Isaac Asimov, do enthusiastically and wholeheartedly,
refer, endorse and give the highest and most praising recommendation
to DAVID SCULLY.
DAVID and I go way back to the summer of 1969
when he withdrew from st peters college
during those hectic days of student strikes and campus takeovers.
DAVID lived in SOHO that summer, before they called it SOHO!
He had a summer job in Midtown on 6th Avenue
at Avco Embassy Pictures, working in the mailroom.
He did a fair amount of deliveries that summer,
including a film delivery to the suite of Sophia Loren nearby on 5th Avenue
which he thought was pretty cool.
DAVID would browse the many fine bookstores of NYC on the way home
where my books with my name were quite prominent
ASIMOV
DAVID never read any of my fiction works,
but I don't begrudge him that.
He assiduously devoured my nonfiction works on Science and Math.
He's spread the glory of my name far beyond what it deserves,
almost to the point of blushing embarassment.
I've tried to correct him about this more than once,
but this is the one point where he insists
that I am wrong and HE is right!
Well, who am I to argue?
But I can say that DAVID has a clear grasp
of many of the Math and Science concepts
which I endeavored to explain clearly.
My HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION TO DAVID SCULLY
as an excellent Math and Science Teacher!
********* ********* *********
CARL SAGAN
I wholeheartedly echo the sentiments
of my very good friend, ISAAC ASIMOV!
DAVID and I became close in the 1980's
when, I believe, he spent billions and billions of hours
watching my PBS Special "COSMOS."
In fact, when DAVID did his student teaching in Physics,
he found a student whose father had videotaped the series
(now, videotaping is...well...let's just say
it's the old fashioned way of downloading).
Well, DAVID used that video to make the class
more and interesting for his students.
But DAVID's enthusiasm for the subject
hardly needed any embellishment from me.
My HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION TO DAVID SCULLY
as an excellent Math and Science Teacher!
********* ********* *********
ALBERT SHANKER
I first became acquainted with DAVID around 1989
when I went to Stanford to debate a Berkeley Law Professor
about Privatization.
Privatizing public schools was the topic and
I took the opposing position,
mostly because I thought it was a way to segregate schools.
But, the truth is that there were
many strong arguments in its favor
and, as all educators know,
I've always been a strong proponent of school reform.
DAVID was there a few years earlier at UC Davis
when I debated on a team with Tom Sowell
against a team with Bill Buckley on the same topic.
As usual, Buckley avoided answering questions
and argued dirty and low, talking about
"visiting me the next time I was in jail,"
which was nothing but a cheap shot
about the courageous stands I took
to defend my belief in the Teachers' right to strike.
But, when I went down to Stanford in 1989,
I'd been tipped off by the Law Professor
that DAVID would be there.
He was easy to spot in the assembly room before the debate.
He stood alone, and observant, in the center of the room,
dressed in a suit for the debate, like a New Yorker would,
and boy was he surprised when I came over and greeted him!
Well, he put on no airs.
He was still a young man, and he was there to learn,
not to debate me.
At the time, I believe, he was disillusioned with
the sacramento area public schools he'd taught in.
Who wouldn't be?
After all, DAVID's a NEW YORKER!
And he always was!
He knew New York education and culture!
Why! When he worked at the the assessor's office
at the county of sacramento with the fart-joke-telling
former military officers,
he got so disgusted with them, he exclaimed,
"I can't stand being around you fart-asses.
I never should have let my parents make me
quit my Wall Stret job when I was 17."
Of course, those pea-brains mocked him for that,
beliving it was an impossible lie.
But it was true,
and I know that DAVID still misses New York,
which is home to him.
DAVID has in his file a strong recommendation
from his friend and colleague,
Richard Haro, from Stanford who was the
Dean of the Science, Math & Engineering Dept
at Sacramento City College when DAVID was there.
Richard wrote this of DAVID,
"Mr Scully is a serious and very mature person
who has a devotion to quality in education.
I have had numerous meetings with him
during the past five years..."
You all know my love and devotion to New York City Schools.
I KNOW that DAVID will enhance our schools
and the education that our students will receive
in his presence and under his guidence and encouragement.
My HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION TO DAVID SCULLY
as an excellent Math and Science Teacher!
********* ********* *********
DIANE RAVITCH
DAVID and I became friends as far back as the 1980's
when he first made my acquaintance reading some of my articles.
He was in the sac state teacher ed program then,
and it was only 4 years earlier that DAVID HAD
SHAKEN SAC STATE AND SACRAMENTO TO THE FOUNDATIONS
when he established a student organization
and wrote newsletters
requesting a civil university dialogue
about liberal fascist political correctness in 1982.
Of course, things haven't gotten any better since then.
One only has to remember the Kavanaugh hearings of last year
to realize that.
They were furious with DAVID at the highest levels at sac state,
but it was all their fault.
They started it
by luring him to "The Graduate" sports bar to network
where they just treated him like a sex toy boy
and peppered him constantly with racial and sexual insults.
Still, he remained civil
and just requested a civil dialog
about the nonsense they were saying.
But they just mocked him,
and he finally satirized them back 100 times more.
I knew that they meant DAVID no good
when they accepted him into the sac state education program.
Legally, they had no reason to keep him out,
and would have been on legally shaky ground had they done so.
But they let him in and harassed him again
and came up with a pretext to get him out,
and "make him a failure,"
but he just shrugged it off again
and went to another college to finish
the hurdle to his credentials.
I ADMIRE HIM FOR THAT!
IT'S WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE!
THAT'S WHAT MRS. RUBY RATLIFF WOULD HAVE DONE!
Well, DAVID went to the university of the pacific
to finish the credential hurdle, and there,
at UOP, Faye Haisley (she was the dean of the program) felt up his thigh
while they were interviewing him for admittance.
How hypocritical those california education bureaucrats are!
Could a male dean get away with his hand on a girl's thigh
in a group interview, no less?
Of course not.
Well, DAVID kept up on education issues over the decades.
He's thoughtfully read almost every one my significant books,
if not all of them,
and he rightly surmises that I got a bit carried away
with the prospect of becoming U.S. Secretary of Education
when Obama got elected.
I conferred on DAVID
the title, "Doctor of Education" in 2010
after he sent me his ebook,
www.davidscully.com/TheTruthOurGraduateStudent.htm
I believe DAVID's ebook belongs right there in the Pantheon
with "Up The Down Staircase"
as an indictment of our school politics.
What a shameful vendetta they've held against
this most honorable educator DAVID SCULLY these many decades!
My HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION TO DAVID SCULLY
as an excellent Math and Science Teacher!