400-Years of Injustice and Trauma Dehumanizing Public Education numbs all

Coretta Scoot King said: “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity, and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group.” 

A friend said that I sound like a broken record sometimes. She said I get it, but to be honest, I do not believe what happens in our schools will ever change. Just being honest Jesse.
I can't remember what my actual reply was, it must have sounded like another Jesse Broken record event. Some honest moments are signals not meant to open discussion but to close it. I get it, I move on, but the discussion continues even if it is with myself. 

My rhetorical reply to being a broken record.  Is recognized this numbness that makes people think nothing will change. Is the greatest weapon bigots have. They don't need to beat us, arrest us, kill us, all they need do is numb us. Foster a belief we are helpless. They win because we do not see ourselves capable of being the change agents we are meant to be.  Marcus Garvey said: “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is our only ruler; sovereign.”

I live and teach in a world that seeks to number my "Sovereign Mind." Every day I work to keep to free my mind from the mental slavery of injustice, hate, and inhumanity. 

My broken record recording: Is this history of 170 plus years of inequity for Black, Brown, and Special Education Children. A history informing me that this inequity and injustice is not random? An account that informs us it is intentional. I am not a broken record. 

I am one of those Garvey voices of a "Sovereign Mind" calling to liberate all. 

Call me a working educator rising above the numbness of this School To Prison Pipeline destroying Black and Brown children. 

The history of inequity in our public schools? History informs us there never was a time of equity for all children, their teachers, and their schools. 

My thinking is racism in our public school system is a never-ending trauma that numbs teachers, parents, and children. What we teachers must come to understand is numbness is not good, it masks pain. Our children are hurting, and the system fosters paralysis harming and abusing Children, their parents, and teachers. I am no broken record. I am one of the many voices of truth asking teachers and parents to rise up.  

Numbing Questions:

When teachers ask why are our Black and Brown parents not speaking up?

When Black, Brown, and Special Education parents ask why are teachers not speaking up? 

When students ask why are adults not doing something about what happens to us in school?

I have heard these questions for nearly 40 teaching years. My teaching and learning exist within in a trauma that turns our public education system into a numbness that harms and destroys Black, Brown,  LGBTQ, and Special Education children. I am not a broken record. I am another voice asking where is the humanity? 

How do parents and teachers rise up?

We rise up in our classrooms, our homes, our communities, our union halls, our town halls, our statehouses, courts, and we vote numb leadership out. Numbness can be seen in the number of voters who did not show up in 2016 at the polls. We had 231,556,622 eligible voters, 946.9%) who did not vote. Over 110 million voters did not vote. 110 million numb minds needed to end the numbness that empowers White Supremacy and hate. Why, because half of our voters believe their votes would not change anything. Call me the broken record crying be the voters that vote out this numbness hiding how strong we can be. 

Being WOKE is not a broken record, it is our record for liberation:

Being a WOKE teacher to me equals an understanding that numbness hides systemic racism.  If you teach in Black and Brown communities you too are numb. If you teach in White Communities, you are numb. Make no mistake numbness in our schools grew the four police officers that killed Geroge Floyd. Numbness in America's public schools endangers Black Lives.

Fight the power, 

Organize, and 

Vote.

Voting the only thing that has actually ever changed anything.

VOTE above the NUMBNESS. 

It is our duty as teachers to:

Resist, 

March, 

Reject silence and vote out numb leadership. 

Dr. Jesse P. Turner

Moral Monday CT Education Ambassador 

Uniting to Save Our Schools National committee.

Proud member of the BadassTeacher.org

 

If you like to listen to the song that inspired my morning walk? Its 'Wake Up" by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HhV3Slqtvw  

Words of Wisdom From A Pirate at 65 Sailing For New Seas

At 65, after some 40 years of teaching of all levels, this pirate knows what is indispensable about schools, learning, and education.

First off, those high-stakes test scores politicians and policymakers are always worried about are meaningless. They are the gates on young minds holding them back. So parents, when they start talking gates, walk away.

Second, teachers, when they say they need to evaluate you based on the high-stakes test scores of your students. Know that they have not one single clue about what is a balanced and fair assessment system is. When they observe you and ask why is your one size fits all Strategic Learning Objective, not on the board? Explain these children I teach are more significant than those tiny bubbles on your test sheets. These young minds are the future, and I refuse to reduce the future to your tiny bubbles.

Teachers do so much more than just teaching children, facts, reading, facts, and figures. Teachers build communities of learners, creating places of safety and security away from home where they lift young minds, make children feel safe, included, and loved. They teach the whole child, lift the whole child, and move the whole child along a continuum of learning that opens new horizons, new vistas worthy of our children.

Children, in our public schools, carry with them generations of inquiring minds, endless hypotheses, the ability to construct new wonders, the power to reflect, infinite hope, love, and the gifts of their ancestors.

They do not need to be ready for school; schools need to create schools that are temples of learning worthy of our children. John Dewy, in 1899 said children come to school with four native impulses 1, to Communicate, 2 to construct, to 3question, and 4 to refine. Over 120 years ago, Dewey already told educators children are born ready to learn. I claim what Dewey knew as my own. Dewey understood Horace Mann adopted the wrong education model. Many pay homage to Horace Mann as the father of our public schools. What most miss is Horace brought the wrong model back to America from Prussia. That model of public education deeply rooted in the Prussian military model of sorting, weighing, and conforming young minds into new servants of the state. I claim not alliance to Horace's model of public education.

Instead, I sail the seas of the public education possibilities that Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote about long ago in 1833.

"Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world
It may be that gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts.

Make weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not yield."

At 65, I know better than to be squeeze into their tiny bubble brain images. I don't live for policymakers, politicians, testing conglomerates, or for-profit entities.

At 65, I play for an audience of children, an audience of the future, an audience of the hopeful, and I do it with a teaching heart full of love.

At 65, I sail Tennyson's newer world seas.

At 65, I play for the only audience that matters, our children.

Let others write to impress the one size fits all conformers, the academics, the policymakers, the legislators, and the data junkies. At 65, I write for those who seek new seas.

Tonight, for the Ana Grace Project, the Good Pirate Captain Reads A Lot is Reading "Superdog The Heart of a Hero" by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner.
Why, because this pirate knows the world everyone is waiting will be sitting in our classrooms come the Fall.

See The Child Not The Score,

Dr. Jesse P. Turner

CCSU Literacy Center

AKA Pirate Captain Reads A Lot

If you are wondering what tune this Walking Man Pirate is listening to on his walk over the Avon Mountain its the cover of Jimmy Buffet " A Pirate at 40"  by Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, and Tim Reynolds  > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4sUsm4dK6s <

I Will Not Be Complicit In America's Apartheid Schooling

I am a proud member of the sister and brotherhood of resistance to systemic racism in our public schools. 

I am going name inequity in our public schools for what it really is. It is this constant violence of systemic racism against Black and Brown children in our public schools that feeds White Supremacy in America.

rhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/schools-nationwide-brace-cuts-financial-crisis-70967682?cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed Link to one of the many articles predicting the coming school budget cuts.

Imagine 170 years of inequity and injustice in our public schools? Now imagine Black and Brown children attending our public schools that never ever were fully funded? Parental Love requires giving children all they need to grow and prosper. America has refused to provide Black and Brown children what they need to grow and flourish. This refusal to give all America's children what they need to grow and prosper represents our national shame, but the sinful violence against Black and Brown children. The struggle before us is evident, complicity is a crime. A sin and crime against human decency and humanity.

Recognize the violence against our nation Black and Brown children in our education policies. Coretta Scott King informed America of what violence against Black, Brown and poor looks like "I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence." ~ Coretta Scott King

So, now comes this pandemic that clearly focuses the light of injustice and inequity on these schools. Remote learning further pointed out a digital divide that exacerbated inequity in Black and Brown communities.

Now, a caring nation that values all children would remedy these inequities, not cuts budgets. Jonathon Kozol calls our public education system, "Apartheid Schools." Jonathan Kozol said:
"There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before." ~ Kozol, (The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America).

Trust me, our work is to liberate our nation's children from 170 years of apartheid schooling. Until then, these budget cutters should be named for who they are. The leaders and evildoers of America's Apartheid School System.

Trust me, there is a connection between this police brutality that murders in Black and Brown communities and the brutality of inequity in our public schools.If you are silent? Then you are complicit in 170 years of white supremacy?
I will not be complicit in this evil. I am a member of the resistance uniting to save our schools.

I am a proud member of a community that rejects complicity,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
Member of USOS

If you like to listen to the tune I listen to on my walk this morning? Its the Play For Change cover of "Teach Your Children". > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AuFDHdrrg <