A walking Man resistance story

 A Walking Man Resistance Story

People often ask me "why are you walking again"?  I give them the 30-second sound bite first, because children are more than test scores...
Some persist, and I go into the 3 minutes talk.... NCLB has spent nearly one trillion-dollars on education reforms that ignored class size, that failed to hire an army of tutors, that reduced the curriculum to reading, writing, and math pushing out history, art, music, and even physical education for many poor schools...
Finally, for those who persist further, even saying "we understand, we agree, but what can one man do walking? "  That's when I sit down, and we talk, we talk until I have explained and the listener understands "that  this is a Democracy At Risk, this is a Generation At Risk, this is Our Country, Our Children, and we can simply watch it slip away, or we can take it back". 

I quote Howard Zinn: “Don't depend on our leaders to do what needs to be done. Because whenever the government has done anything to bring about change, it's done so only because it's been pushed and prodded by social movements, by ordinary people organizing."
Somewhere in the conversation it always comes up, “so you just started walking"?  And I continue to  explain, "Back in 2004 I put together my very first Children Are More Than A Test Score Conference at CCSU. That was all I thought was needed back then, but I've since grown tired of just talking and debating. By 2006 I started resisting,  in 2010 I walked from Connecticut to Washington DC.  Along the way I lost 50 pounds :-),  and met other resisters.  At Busboys and Poets, (cafe in D.C.) Bess Alwerger, Vivian Vasquez, Sabrina Stevens and I started to dream about a movement, and maybe even a return to DC another year.  Bess CELT brought CELT, and CELT brought the National Council of English Teachers, Sabrina, brought Anthony Cody and the members of Teacher Letters to Obama, Facebook brought Rita Solnet, and her army of friends. Rita brought Diane Ravitch, and before we knew it we became a movement "Save Our Schools March & Week of Action". The SOS movement brought the American Federation of teachers, the Nation Education Association, and too many others to list here.  A movement Howard Zinn would be proud of, a movement joined the Freedom Riders.

 In 2011 I am again walking those miles to prepare for the Save Our School March this July 30.  

Sometimes a person starts to walk away saying good luck saying but, I don't think anyone can change things. I say wait it's been a long road, and yes even before NCLB became the law of the land, I spoke against its focus on standardized assessment.  At each and every opportunity I explained to Connecticut policymakers that the research indicates a heavy emphasis on such testing can only increase behavioral problems, and of course the drop out rate! 

Finally, I give the them my last line of hope "The origins of every tidal wave can be found in a single drop of rain" join us become a raindrop of change. Most leave saying I hope you are right walking man. I hope you are right. On rare occasions, when I go into that rain drop rant, the last person listening might say "let's fight this thing together". 

I say "Walk with me, come to DC with us".

It's close to July 4th, 2011 ~ I'm still persisting, and I am again walking, but this I am walking with a few other raindrops.

My name is Jesse Turner I am one of those ordinary people Howard Zinn talked about.
200 miles down, 300 to go...
Jesse

For my readers who like to know what music inspired me today:

The song of day on my walk this morning was one of my Momma's favorites" A Change Is Gonna Come". I love the Leela James version. I could almost hear Momma singing along with Leela. I could hear her saying keep waking little Jess. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKf5F3EN0uk

I heard them all 150 miles down-350 to go

Well 150 miles down, and some 350 to go. Today's walk was tough my feet are tired, and I have 350 miles to go.
Today two simple things inspire me. The first is a week long event I created on Children Are More Than Test Scores asking people to say something good about teachers and children. The posting are food for the teaching soul, and it has only been open for about 12 hours at this time. Take a look at these great post going up from teachers and parents http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=352118040858&v=app_2344061033&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=196222780424754

The second thing was listening to Old Crow Medicine's "I hear them all" on my walk...There is something about walking, listening, and singing along to :
"I hear the crying of the hungry
In the deserts where they're wandering
Hear them crying out for Heaven's own
Benevolence upon them
Hear destructive power prevailing
I hear fools falsely hailing
To the crooked wits of tyrants when they call"
A person needs music, just like a person needs love, shelter, and hope. The endorsements keep coming into Save Our Schools March, and we have far too many wonderful speakers coming, and all on their own dime. We are marching in the light of god really, and we are marching to DC.

Well, I have my walking shoes on, a pocket full of hope in my pocket, and I can't be stop. So see you in DC,
Jesse

An Save Our Schools Declaration of Independence

Frustrated Educators Aim to Build Grassroots Movement a must read for from Education Week:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/15/35activists_ep.h30.html?r=360729170&tkn=QQQFN2lDPQrjoShjlZxECnLo2a5pksQropGv&cmp=clp-edweek#comments 

 Children, parents, and teachers are declaring their independence from NCLB/RTTT this July 30 in Washington.  

Spoken Word Poet Gil Scott-Heron informed America over 40-years ago:

"The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live."

Let me say it will be live from DC this July 28-31. Revolution is an American right rooted in our nation's independence from the shackles of a Mad King George whose refused to listen to his people.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.” (1776, Declaration of Independence)

This resistance to NCLB/RTTT is not new it has been going on for a decade at this point. You can find it's foot prints on Susan Ohanian's webage, http://www.susanohanian.org/
For over a decade now the DOE leadership in Washington used it's signature AYP accountability-testing system to push their top down NCLB/RTTT reform model on children, parents, teachers, and schools. After a decade of failed policy the man in the mirror is their policy and leadership not our schools. 
This week even Arne Duncan joins in the NCLB is a failure conversation. "The stakes are high. As it currently exists, NCLB is creating a slow-motion educational train wreck for children, parents and teachers. Under the law, an overwhelming number of schools in the country may soon be labeled as “failing,” eventually triggering impractical and ineffective sanctions." Please someone let Secretary Arne Duncan know he is the engineer driving this train wreck. The missing components in Arne Duncan’s reform policies are the voices of parents and teachers. We have tried, we have begged, and I even walked 400 miles in 40 days from Connecticut to DC last August protesting NCLC/RTTT policies.

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” (1776, Declaration of Independence)

For a decade now former Secretaries Ron Page and Margaret Spelling, and current Secretary Arne Duncan have been informing parents, teachers, and legislators that race, poverty, and special needs are excuses for failure. Their golden promise is that school choice and testing-based accountability systems would bring equity to our schools. Nearly a trillion-dollars and a decade later our schools are more segregated than ever, and equity we are told comes in school choice delivered via lotteries and testing. We are told to wait for Superman.  Shame on a United States Department of Education that took federal government eye off the prize access and equity to quality schools for all.

We are marching to DC to take back our schools. Unlike the DOE we don’t have silver bullets, we don’t have simple solutions, or 30 second sound bites.  We are certainly not waiting for Superman, or Bill Gates. However while "NCLB/RTTT" policy is test driven we are driven by a set of guiding principles:

Save our Schools Guiding Principles
For the future of our children, we demand:

Equitable funding for all public school communities

• ·       Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems
• ·       Full public funding of family and community support services
• ·       Full funding for 21^st century school and neighborhood libraries
• ·       An end to economically and racially re-segregated schools

An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation

• The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
• An end pay per test performance for teachers and administrators
•  An end to public school closures based upon test performance

Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies

• Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation
• Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding
•  An end to political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for        teachers and administrators

Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

•  Support for teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies
• Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students
• Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities 

My first 100 miles down, 400 miles to go. See you in DC,
Jesse
Guess what I was listening to day as I reached my first hundred-miles marker? 
It was all Spoken Word Poet and Musician Gil Scott-Heron  "The Revolution will Not Be Televised". I could almost see him smiling down saying march on brother.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGaRtqrlGy8

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