The lesson from Selma Alabama keep on marching
I want
to comment on Valerie Strauss's article in last week’s Washington Post: Teacher
job satisfaction plummets — Survey By Valerie Strauss. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teacher-job-satisfaction-plummets--survey/2012/03/02/gIQAmB5lvR_blog.html
Kevin G. Welner, Strauss’s guest blogger writes: " It’s not fun to be
repeatedly punched in the gut. And we can now quantify how not-fun it is, at
least when teachers are the punches. Over the past two years of
gut-punching, teacher job satisfaction has fallen from 59 percent to 44
percent."
Yes teachers can
quantify it, teachers can feel it, and teachers are under vicious attack from
both the right and left.
The emerging problem: Who will teach our children if job satisfaction for teachers keeps plummeting? Reflecting on that question I posted the above article on our Children Are More Than test Scores Facebook page with this caption: "Perhaps in the future our children will be taught by robots, machines with out feelings, without emotions, and who view all children as data to be crunch. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's policies inspire no one, but testing company CEOs. The DC DOE has failed from the very beginning of NCLB to understand rather than testing children they needed to find ways to inspire them. To win their minds you need to win their hearts. They just don't get it."
The emerging problem: Who will teach our children if job satisfaction for teachers keeps plummeting? Reflecting on that question I posted the above article on our Children Are More Than test Scores Facebook page with this caption: "Perhaps in the future our children will be taught by robots, machines with out feelings, without emotions, and who view all children as data to be crunch. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's policies inspire no one, but testing company CEOs. The DC DOE has failed from the very beginning of NCLB to understand rather than testing children they needed to find ways to inspire them. To win their minds you need to win their hearts. They just don't get it."
Word
from the street: Members responded quickly to this one. However one response
from a teacher I highly respect, a teacher who has been fighting the good fight
since her first day in the classroom stuck out among the others: "No,
they used "force" Jesse did I ever tell you about the regional
meeting I went to out here in Southern CA a Principal sent me-she sent me
because she wanted me to see, I think, what the machine looked like. A Fed ran
it. It had to do with underperforming schools-back 7 years ago. In this he
talked about forcing teachers to do these things. Using profanity, talking
about shoving down our throats-whatever is necessary. Most unethical thing I
ever saw."
The truth: This teacher is right NCLB/RTTT is top
down driven policy FORCE down our throats. The Feds have bullied children,
parents, teachers, and public schools at every level. We have been isolated,
marginalized, and threatened by the DOE in DC for over a decade at this point.
Secretary Arne Duncan likes to say he respects teachers. If his reform policies
are his way of supporting and respecting teachers than he must believe the Moon
is made of cream cheese.
A fact: the DC DOE has spent nearly a trillion
dollars on experimental education reform models that have shown little or no
effect on closing the achievement gap. In 2001 the DOE said we needed new
rigorous standards and new tests. All 50 states developed new standards and
tests, and they failed to close the achievement gap. Now the DOE is saying once
again we need new standards and testing Part 2. Of course if states want access to the very tax dollars they send to Washington they better shut up, and
follow along.
America's parents, teachers, and schools have a choice. We can go
along to get along, or we can resist. We can learn about resisting from the Civil Rights Movement.
A little history: I view NCLB/RTTT policies as the new
Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws were created to keep African Americans from voting, and
living freely in the south. Jim Crow created two sets of laws one for whites, and another for blacks. Under the law Whites would have all the powers granted them under the constitution, and African Americans would be denied those very same rights. In particular the right to vote would be kept from African Americans. Thus the voice of African Americans would not be heard in state capitals. Opposition to Jim Crow is a long bloody brutal
history of oppression against Black Americans. Our nation has a rich history of
resistance to Jim Crow. My 400 mile-walk from Connecticut to DC to protest excessive
high stakes testing in 2010 was inspired by the Civil Rights movement’s
response to Jim Crow.
Sometimes you go to the source: Last
week I went to Selma Alabama for the Sunday Bloody Sunday Jubilee. I went to
Selma cognizant that the Edmund Pettus Bridge is sacred ground in the Civil
Rights Movement. I went to the place where I could draw strength, the place
where I could draw inspiration. The sacred place where I could learn how to
fight back against unjust policies. I went to place where I could learn from the elders.
Those elders
who marched on that bridge in 1965,
Those
elders met by Governor George Wallace’s State Troopers,
Those
elders who were gassed,
Those
elders who were beaten,
Those
elders who lost love ones,
Those
elders who were brutally beat, but could not be beaten,
Those
elders who carry sacred lessons,
Those
elders taught us
Force won't turn you around,
Shame won't turn you around,
Lies
won't turn you around.
You have
a date with justice, you have a date with righteousness, and until that date comes keep
on moving, keep on talking, and keep on marching.
Something deep in my soul tells me a change is gonna come.
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
Something deep in my soul tells me a change is gonna come.
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
If you want to know what the walking man is listening to today on his walk it's Leela James "A change is gonna come"
