The next generation
Before the Facebook Saint Valentine's Massacre "Children Are More Than Test Scores" had 7,167 members then Facebook took away 7,157 members on Valentine's day 2012. We are a rag tag band of parents and teachers resisting the notion that the best measure of academic success for a child is a test score on a standardized measure. We are part of the 99%. Perhaps in those 1% CEOs offices at Facebook it was decided we grew too big. Who knows their reasoning Facebook is not a democracy.
Now we are 87, and growing.
My grandparents were Immigrants who loved two countries. We were brought up with a love of two nations. We were our family's first Irish Americans. We are proud of that fact. We salute the Red, White, and Blue every day, go to church on Sundays, and at weddings, wakes, and baptisms we dance and sing Irish rebel songs. The whole room always erupts with pride whenever someone sings Luke Kelly's "A Nation Once again". Every soul in the room on their feet singing:
"When boyhood's fire was in my blood
I read of ancient freemen,
Of Greece and Rome who bravely stood,
Three hundred men and three men;
And then I thought I yet might see
Our fetters rent in twain,
And Ireland, long a province, be
A Nation once again! "
Of course the connection is to those brave Spartans who sacrificed their lives at The Battle of Thermopylae when Brave King Leonidas dismissed the bulk of the Greek army, and remained to guard the rear with 300 Spartans against Xerxes massive army of invaders. Our fathers and grandfathers always ensure every child would learn the lesson that the sacrifice of a few could inspire great things. Long after the singing and dancing on the bus ride ride, train ride, or drive home the lesson was always continued. Every child learning silence and apathy are never the options of a free people. By the way isn't this really what the anti ethnic studies in Tucson Arizona is all about these days as well. A fear of free men and free women who are proud of two nations?
I am calling for three hundred free men and free women to join Children Are More Than Test Scores on Facebook to stand against this madness of NCLB/RTTT that is reducing our children to test scores.
On your feet:
"When boyhood's fire was in my blood
I read of ancient freemen,
Of Greece and Rome who bravely stood,
Three hundred men and three men;
And then I thought I yet might see
Our fetters rent in twain,
And America's School's no longer be testing factories, but places where Children Are More Than Test Scores Once Again.
Looking for 300,
Jesse
Guess what the Walking Man was listening to, and singing on his walk today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6DHtWJ_n4E
