I have seen the enemy, the enemy is not a homeless mother

Let's keep truth simple, a homeless mother should not go to jail for trying to get her child a better education in a public school system rooted in inequality.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are." 
Is this the America we want? An America where schools are places where the quality of a child's education depends on their zip code? Tanya McDowell is not a criminal she is a mother trying to beat a system that is rooted in inequality. The people are tired of education reforms based on competitions, lotteries, and zip codes. I have seen the enemy, and the enemy is not the homeless, but a system that goes after a homeless mother. 

I have seen the enemy,

Tanya McDowell is not the enemy,

Parents are not the enemy,

Children are not the enemy,

Teachers are not the enemy,

The enemy is education reform that reduces children to data,

The enemy is education reform that shames teachers,

The enemy is education reform that claims equity is a lottery,

The enemy is education reform that closes schools rather than supports them,

The enemy steals from the poor to give to the rich,

The enemy promises hope by making schools compete,

I walked against the enemy,

I marched against the enemy,

I will conduct Teach-Ins in Selma Alabama this coming Saturday at the Selma Jubilee, 

I am holding a Save Our Schools Town Hall meeting in Connecticut this March 31,

I will occupy the DOE in DC that house of the enemy on April 1 & 2,

The enemy is not homeless American mothers,

The enemy is the 1% who believe public education is a competition, not a system rooted in equality.

Still marching,

Jesse 

You can read Savy Sister's blog telling it through her tears in the link below:

http://www.the-savvy-sista.com/2012/02/tanya-mcdowell-sentenced-to-12-years.html

If you are wondering what the walking man is listening to on his walk this morning it's I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD3jsS-sL1Q 

Where is the Love, Y"all

Today I reject the distrust, 

Today I reject the haters of teachers, 

I reject the fear mongers of our schools are failing. 

Today I took a stand, today I did something, and so can you. 

I reject the notion that teachers are best measured by unreliable value added measures. 

I reject New York's release of teacher ranking based solely on student test scores!

Valerie Strauss's "Answer Sheet" gives the academic response here: she outlines the fallacy of  well. She embeds reference links to the studies challenging Valued Added Measures.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/nyc-releases-teachers-value-added-scores--unfortunately/2012/02/24/gIQAtbVXYR_blog.html#pagebreak

My thinking is accountability yes, but this is ethically and morally wrong. This is the new Scarlett Letter for teachers. First they reduced our children to data, to capital, and turned our children from God's gifts into test scores. Now they are doing the same exact thing to teachers. Shame is not education reform, and in the end does more harm than good. It will turn teachers away from working in poor urban and rural school districts. It will demoralize teachers, and hurt children, parents, and local schools. Maybe that has been the plan of NCLB/RTTT all along. A plan to destroy our public school system.

Shame on New York City's DOE.

Mrs. Stanfield my high school English teacher shared Pastor Niemoller's words with us when we were reading Elie Wiesel’s “Night”.

 Pasto Niemoller said:

"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Mrs Stanfield my only African American teacher in high school taught her students about Pastor Niemoller and Elie Wiesel not because it might be on some bubble sheet test, but because it mattered. It helped to shape the men and women we would become.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Mrs Stanfield for making a difference in my life.

So today I live her lesson, I resist, today I fight back, and I reject shame reform. 

Join me on Facebook by liking:

https://www.facebook.com/TeachersAreMoreThanTestScores?notif_t=page_new_likes

In the meantime let's all sing:

“Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

It just ain't the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin'
in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all” (Black Eye Peas Where Is The Love)

Walking tall today listening to "Where Is The Love" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZVxjH04aIY

Respectfully,
Jesse The Walkingman Turner

Got Hereos

Looking for some heroes members? Look no further than these teachers from Trumbull Connecticut who said: Thanks, but no thanks.
That sums up the letter fired off last week by some Trumbull teachers who have decided being recognized by Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, an education reform advocacy group that favors charter schools and changes to teacher tenure laws, isn't such a great thing.
Here is the link.
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Teachers-reject-education-award-3357555.php

In November, Trumbull High School was recognized in three top 10 lists -- for best academic performance among low-income, Hispanic and African-American students -- published by the group, also known as ConnCAN. The New Haven-based group has released such lists for six years.

The recognition comes with a citation that is available for viewing on the school's website.

At first, staff members were proud to be recognized for doing their part to close the nation's worst achievement gap.

That all changed last week, said Nick Banks, a Trumbull High English teacher and union vice president, when he and others started looking into ConnCAN after the group threw its wholehearted support to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's education reform plan. That plan would increase funding for charter schools, in part by making local districts contribute financially toward their operation.

Malloy also wants to link student achievement to teacher evaluations and force teachers to re-earn tenure -- or the right to due process -- every five years. Banks said he heard ConnCAN's chief operating officer, Patrick Riccards, state repeatedly that for the reform plan to work, it had to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

That prompted Banks and eight or nine union representatives at Trumbull High to craft a letter to ConnCAN, which received approval from Tammy Baillargeon, president of the Trumbull Education Association.

Signed by TEA, the letter, in part, states: "We do not recognize or value your opinion of our performance and we view our inclusion in your 2010 State of Education Report as an opportunistic ploy to further promote your privatized agenda on the backs of hardworking public school teachers.

"Our inclusion in your list is not what inspires us to succeed with all of our students; it is our drive as highly trained, highly qualified educators to provide a rich public education for our students, free of the influence of corporate agendas," the letter continued.

Banks said he is not one to turn away a compliment but simply does not want an award "from these people."

Rather than an educational advocacy group, Banks said he considers ConnCAN to be a business out to "profit off of the public education system."

Riccards said Thursday the award is not the teachers' to return.

"We provided an award to Trumbull High School," he said. "It's unfortunate that the leadership of the local union doesn't want to be recognized for the fact that they are doing a good job."

Riccards said ConnCAN is a nonprofit advocacy organization that wants to ensure all students have access to great public schools.

"For too long, all we've done is talk about what's wrong in public education. This is one of the times we get to applaud those doing a great job," he said.

Never before, he said, has anyone tried to turn down the award.

Banks said Trumbull High principal Robert Tremaglio was surprised when teachers told him of their request to give the award back. Tremaglio could not be reached for comment. The teachers plan to meet Friday with Superintendent Ralph Iassogna.

In an email, Iassogna said the district is pleased with the growth in student performance and extremely proud of the hard work and efforts of the staff. He did not comment directly on the ConnCAN recognition.

Banks said the teachers also intend to go before the Trumbull Board of Education on Tuesday to read their letter to ConnCAN into the record

Every state has some Privatizing Charter Group like ConnCAN.  They are are actually a lobbyist group they show up at every leglslative hearing pushing their let beat up on teachers and public schools leglislation. They claim to represent the parents, but everyone who shows up is emplyed by them. 
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Teachers-reject-education-award-3357555.php#ixzz1nMy2Fyp7

What really makes these teachers heroes in my book is they are not only rejecting an award, but sending a very strong public message to Connecticut's Governor Malloy and his new Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor a message that taking over 20 million dollars from regular public schools to give charter schools makes no sense.  Connecticut is talking about rewriting tenure rules, new teacher regulations, and evaluating teachers based on valued added state mastery test scores. The talk is 45% of a teacher's evaluation will be based on testing.
Connecticut legislative hearings have been overflowing with testimony from parents, teachers, university faculty members, and community groups questioning the governor's new proposed school reform initiatives, and the state's application for an NCLB waiver.
 

You can even sign their petition against privatizing public schools as well.
http://www.change.org/petitions/keep-private-companies-out-of-public-education 

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to on his walk today it   is Mariah Carey's Hero:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IA3ZvCkRkQ 

Teachers are my heroes,
Jesse