A legacy of love informs teachers, to not speak against hatred is to act for hate

 Pastor Dietrich gave his all to stand against hate in Germany

Dr. King gave his all standing against hate in America

My teachers, are asking how do we deal with this hatred showing its face in America? Sadly, hatred in America not new. What is always new? Is our individual opportunities to stand against it. Please, don't waste this moment to speak up, stand up, and act against hatred and racism?

German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, highly respected theologian and Anti-Nazi dissident returned from the safety of studying in America to Germany to speak out against Hitler's Nazi Germany.  He did this when everyone opposed to Hitler was trying to get out. He was an outspoken member of the clergy in Germany during that time when many others remained silent. He would eventually be arrested, and executed by SS in April 1945 just weeks before American and Russian troops would liberate Berlin. He left us, a legacy of love that defines morality in the face of evil. He said: “Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Pastor Bonhoeffer legacy informs us, when we do not speak against hatred we act for hatred. History informs us, hatred and racism is not new in the Americas. We carried it with us on those first ships across the Atlantic from the old world to the new world.
Every slave grave marks us. It's embedded it into the very fabric of our nation's constitution, in the Three Fifths of Clause that labels Black slaves as property. There is an 500 year old legacy of hate here. I say meet it, with what our Quaker brothers and sisters called their oath "Speak Power to Truth".  To not speak truth is to act for a lie. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” 

So, teachers, we must speak, we must act, but let us do it with the dignity and the love of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We have no pictures of an angry Dr. King.

We have no recordings of Dr. King screaming in anger.

We have no recordings of Dr. King calling anyone names, or slurs.

He preached with the moral vigor of a saint.
More than any other American, he represents our nation's moral compass of love, dignity, and grace. 

His activism was so full of dignity and love, that I often think his living was as close to Jesus as any human being has ever come.
Please teachers speak against hate,
Please teachers speak for love,
To not to speak against hate, is to act for hate.
After Heather Hayer's murder in Charlottesville, our children need teachers of moral action more than ever. 
But speak, with the dignity, love, and grace of Dr. King, and the fearlessness of Pastor Bonhoeffer. 

Their shoes are too big for me, but with God's grace maybe someday I might grow in them just a little.
Silence and apathy are not acceptable,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

--> If you like to listen to the song comforting my heart through the hate on my walk today. It's Northern Ireland's Omagh Community Youth Choir singing "Love rescue me"
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xNmhhB3fjw  

Why isn't everyone walking? A Walking Man SOS

Facebook shared this picture from 7 years ago this morning. It inspired me to revisit that moment, and to tell the wold. I am still walking!

This above picture is my first walk to Washington DC from Connecticut as I crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge from Camden New Jeresey to Philadelphia. I had hoped for a change in the policies of No Child left Behind from President Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Instead I found more of the same.

The 2008 United States Impact Study on "Reading First School", the center piece High-States Testing policies demonstrated K-3 students exposed to NCLB reading reform interventions, actually lost comprehension at in every grade. The only group that demonstrated growth were the control groups. The schools not using any Reading First Reading programs. Reading First Grants continued to be funded for nearly 8 years. In defiance, of the annual data indicating they it's failure. They were finally ended, but not after billions of dollars were spent on failed reading programs rooted in high-stakes testing. As an educator this also opened my eyes to the fact the United States Department had no real clue as to what works and doesn't work.

When Secretary Arne Duncan announced with great fanfare, and every single state department of education in all fifty sate his "Race To The Top" policy? I understood, this policy would be NCLB focus on high-stakes testing on steroids. As an academic and literacy expert I spoke up against it everywhere. No one in Washington, at the state or the local level seem to follow the data on the failure of high-stakes testing policies, or the harm they were having on our children.
No one heard me, people thought I was some oddball. What does an oddball do?

I decided to walk to Washington DC to Connecticut to protest high-stakes testing policies.
BECAUSE,
When our federal, state, and local legislators refuse to listen,
When our public school administrators refuse to listen,
When our federal and state policy makers refuse to listen,
You take your case to the people.

So in 2010 seven years ago I walked to 400 miles in 40 days to Washington DC from Connecticut.
In 2015 I walked again to protest ESSA, which in my professional opinion still places the center of education reform on high-stakes testing. Very little has changed, our children, teachers, and our local public schools are under attacked from the very policies that should protect them.

Seven-years later NCLB and RTTT are considered failures by most people, and more people are fighting back.  But, not enough to end these education reforms that harm our children, demoralize our teachers, and are destroying our public local public schools. 
I am still wondering why every parent, every student, and every teacher in the nation isn't standing up, speaking up, walking against 15-years of failed education reforms policies harming our children, teachers, and public schools?
Parents and teacher here is a simple Truth To Power statement:
When we all start standing up, speaking up, and walking 15 years of failed education reform polices end. 15 years of harmful high-stakes testing for children in our public schools ends.
Still standing,
Still speaking up,
Still walking,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are interested in the letter I wrote to Anthony Cody that launch my walk? Here is the link: http://childrenaremorethantestscores.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-letter-to-president-obama-one-that.html


Back in DC outside the United States Department of Education at the January 20, 2017 Women's March with Save Our School Mach.

If you are wondering what song I listened to on my walk over the Avon mountain this morning it's Barry Lane "Jesse Turner Is A Walking Man" https://barrylane.bandcamp.com/track/jesse-turner-the-walkin-man

Teachers are the first responders for humanity in the classroom.

Friends, you know me. I am a happy warrior in the campaign to bring joy, equity and justice into our public schools.

Nelson Mandela said: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

As teachers and parents, we are the defenders of the children in our classrooms and families. We are the first-responders of hope for children.
Our political leaders and policy makers are not driven by hope, equity, and justice. Since 2002, they have become driven by big data, test scores, and workers of the future efficiency models. It may well be this is where they have always stood?
I have come to view them as the first responders of Big Data Profit models that rob children, parents, teachers, and our public schools of their humanity.
I will fight them in DC, in our state capitals, local school boards, and in my classroom.
I may not win the bigger political battle, but I am the champion of equity, justice, and joy in my own classroom.
I am the champion of humanity in my classroom, and in the end what matters to the children, parents, and teachers I work with this is what really matters.
We can fight for equity, justice, and humanity every day in our own classrooms and communities.
Here is all you champions of humanity, and to the new school year.
Here is to being a champion of equity, justice, joy, and hope in your own classrooms.

Remember, in our classrooms, we are the defenders of humanity.
The big battle for equity and justice in our public schools will go on, and teachers shall be in the thick of that fight.

We are the Champions of Humanity in our own classrooms.
A simple "Truth To Power realization. Teachers can be undefeated in their classrooms.
Teachers be the champions of humanity you were born to be,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what this walking man is listened to on his walk over the mountain this morning....it is Jimmy Fallon, The Roots, and Music Superstars Sing "We Are The Champions" (A Cappella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHqPTQDIlo