I see leadership everywhere

That's the Walking Man on his walk to DC in 2010 crossing the Betsy Ross Bridge from Jersey to PA

In Valerie Strauss's article "The Answer Sheet" in the Washington Post,  she highlights the Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier blog where they exchange letters about their thoughts on education. It is one of the best blogs on education anywhere, and a real treat to read. >http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/<
In a letter Diane wrote to Deborah about the lobbying group ALEC's harmful influence on school reform she  ends with the question "where is the leadership that is opposing the privatization of America's public schools?" Below is my reply:


Dear Diane, as you know the leadership certainly won't be found in the offices of our elected officials, or on the mayoral controlled boards of education in any of our major cities. It won't be found among the politically appointed policy makers singing that mantra of "testing and standards will fix everything". It won’t be seen on CNN, MNBC, or Fox, who are all mezmorized by the spin doctors of ALEC, and their clients who pay their bills.   

No indeed, for the leadership that is opposing the privatization of our schools, you will need to look into the trenches of America’s local public schools.
On the social network blogs of parents, teachers, and activists online.
You find them Occupying and Say No to The Test with Opt Out.
10,000 of them were to be found marching in DC with SOS last July, and this August are planning a People's Education Convention in DC.
They are all over Facebook:
Teachers’ letters to Obama,
Children Are More Than Test Scores,
Testing is not Teaching,
Schools of Professional Conscience,
Save Our Schools ~ The Movement,
Parents Across America: Put The Parent Voice Back in Public Education
Save our Schools March, and Call To Action Causes,
wow ~ there are just too many to list here. 

You can find leadership:
Passing the anti Charter school resolutions at NAACP,
Mary Broderick the National Schools Board President writing a public letter to President Obama saying RTTT policies demonize teachers, and demoralize children,
At the National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA) Publishing An Alternative Vision for Public Education A Pastoral Letter on Federal Policy in Public Education: An Ecumenical Call for Justice.
Or the more than 1,400 New York State principals that signed a petition asking state education officials to rethink their reform agenda.
Like you I see it online at Colorofchange.org's campaign to tell corporations to stop funding ALEC.
I see it in the blog and books of Dr. Yong Zhao, Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Stephen Krashen, Nancy Carlsson Paige, Deborah Meier, and you Dr. Ravitch.
I read leadership in their written words, and I am hearing it everywhere they speak. 
I see it in the faces of the students, parents, and teachers fighting school closings all across our nation.


Leadership in the 21st century doesn't wear Armani suits, or make deals in the back rooms of our nation's DOEs, or city halls. New leadership is emerging in the nooks and crannies of democracy all across America, and it is growing every day, and it can’t be stopped. 
It’s the stuff that John Steinbeck wrote about in The Grapes of Wrath. When Jim Load says: “Whenever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. 
Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there . . . . 
I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'-
I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. 
An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build-why, I'll be there.”
Dearest Diane and Deborah the leadership is here, it's in you, it's in me, and every American who rejects the notion that the most important thing they did in school was take a standardized test. 
Let's tell it on every mountain top.  We can’t be silenced, and we can't be stopped. 
We are everywhere there is a child, parent, or teacher yelling they’re mad at a system that thinks the most important about a child is a test score. 
You want leadership, come to Save Our School People's Education Convention August 3-5 in Washington DC.  SOS is calling for a gathering of leaders from all corners of our democracy opposing this madness. 
To those who want to place a "For Sale" sign on our public schools. 
Tell the world we are planning to sign a declaration of independence from their testing madness, their top down management, their scheme to privatize our public schools, and we plan to take that declaration to every governor, every DOE, both political party conventions, and to every school board in the land. Let America know we are all walking to Save Our School in 2012!
Jesse Turner
The Save Our Schools March National Steering Committee 

Life is the test, not some Pearson Pineapple bubble sheet test

Education reformers want people to think success is all about the numbers, all about the victories, all about winning some imagined race against some imagined dangerous future. They educate through fear, they educate through humiliation, they educate by reducing children to test scores.
I reject their fear, I reject the way they define success. My thinking on success is that it is not so much about your victories, but your determination to keep getting back up after you have fallen. Every poor boy knows as long as you keep getting up you can’t be beat.
Our 16th President Abraham Lincoln was a poor boy who knew how to keep getting up.
Those fill in the bubble testing reformers could learn a great deal from Lincoln a man who never took any bubble test. For President Lincoln life was the test. I love this one from Chicken Soup For The Soul.

Abraham Lincoln never quits.

Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.
He could have quit many times – but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the United States history.

Here is a sketch of Lincoln’s road to the White House:

1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

1818 His mother died.

1831 Failed in business.

1832 Ran for state legislature – lost.

1832 Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

1834 Ran for state legislature again – won.
1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated.

1840 Sought to become elector – defeated.

1843 Ran for Congress – lost.

1846 Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job.

1848 Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.

1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.

1854 Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.

1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – get less than 100 votes.

1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.

1860 Elected president of the United St

Someone tell Secretary Status quo Duncan, that America's children and teachers are more than test scores.  

The Walking is 

Talking,

Walking,

blogging,

Marching,

And Save Our Schools March is going to hold a People's Education Convention in DC. Feel like joining the revolution email me at readdoctor@yahoo.com.

There are narratives, and there are narratives

My Momma said sometimes you have to testify. Sometimes you have to stand up in public, and through your tears and your pain you tell your story, your narrative son. Well this week in New York people have been testifying. There are narratives, and there are narratives. There is a war of silence in New York City’s appointed board of education. A war of you do not matter waged against some of our nation’s most battled narratives. The narratives of those from the bottom 99% are not welcomed in Mayor Bloomberg’s world of power and influence. He prefers his narratives sweet and squeaky clean. His narratives trade millions of dollars everyday. His narratives wear Armani, and Crockett & Jones Leeds shoes, and they never testify in public. The mayor is oblivious to the voice of Emma Lazarus that young Jewish poet whose poem sits at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Her sonnet in 1883 testified that America was a nation of new narratives, a nation where the most battled narratives of the 99% are welcomed. The mayor does not get it. He does not hear it. He cannot see it.  Those narratives are not welcomed in his City Hall, or at the Mayoral Controlled Board of Education. There are narratives, and there are narratives. The narratives of an appointed board of education were not the ones Emma Lazarus had in mind when she wrote her sonnet. The narratives of the appointed are not elected, and they are the narratives of privilege and power that are most welcomed at City Hall. They will not be found at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Well there are narratives, and there are narratives. Emma’s narratives don’t eat at Masa’s restaurant.  Where there are just 26 seats in an elegantly designed Japanese restaurant in the Time Warner Center. There is no menu; all diners will spend about 3 hours having an unparalleled omakase experience. Her narratives are not welcomed at the Masa.

I said there are narratives, and there are narratives. Some narratives are Brooklyn born. Some narratives beat the odds, some narratives like a phoenix rise from the ashes of poverty.  The narrative of Iran Rosario is one of those New York narratives the mayor just does not get. Mr. Rosario walked into Bushwick Community High School 14 year ago, and beat the odds. He testified this week before Mayor Bloomberg’s appointed board of privilege. His story is not unique really, his story is not unheard of, but his story is as American as apple pie. They don’t serve apple pie at Masa’s. He stood up, and told that board of appointed privilege: “Where would I be without this school family? I would be in jail. I would be dead,” said Iran Rosario, a tall bear of a man who wandered in here as a lost 18-year-old and now returned 14 years later as a teacher. “Friends tell you what you want to hear; family tells you what you need to hear. They did that for me, and saved my life.”

His narrative is about a man who became a teacher, his narrative is about a man who came to give back, and a man who testified to a board of privileged number crunchers. His narrative, and the narratives many others are on the the mayor's chopping block. There faiths will be decided by an appointed board that was selected by America's most privileged mayor on Thursday night?
The hope of Bushwick Community High School, a school where all narratives are welcomed and given the opportunity to be educated is on the chopping block. The Panel for Education Policy is controlled by Mayor Bloomberg, and is set to lay off the principal and half the staff. “Give department officials credit: they don’t really try to argue their indictment on the merits, but on the metrics — that is, test scores and graduation rates.” 

The Iran Rosario(s) are numbers, they are capital, and they are the unwanted narratives of a mayor and his appointed board of privilege. Somewhere there is a God who sees all. Somewhere there is a Jewish poet who loves the narratives of the tired, the poor, the wretched refuse, the homeless, and the tempest-tossed.  On Thursday night her lamp will be lit. The question is will the mayor’s appointed board snuff out the narratives Emma so clearly loved.
With the deepest Love, and respect for the narrative of one Iran Rosario,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what the Walking Man was listening to on his walk this morning it was Nappy Roots "Po Folks" that southern poor boy's national anthem. An anthem no one on the mayor's appointed board hears.

All my life been po’

But it really don’t matter no mo’

And they wonder why we act this way

Nappy Boys gon’ be okay

All my life been po’

But it really don’t matter no mo’

 

If you want to read the New York Times article about Bushwick Community High School click here: > http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/nyregion/pleading-for-the-life-of-a-brooklyn-high-school.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y &lt;

If you were a poor boy like me who beat the odds, a poor boy like me who owes his life to the teachers who gave voice to his narrative, and you want to hear Nappy Roots singing Po' Folks click here > http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=po%20folks%20youtube&tnr=21&vid=4635898054443071&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D4635898054443071%26id%3D9471b9eec45a27d9cc810be0f0393c57%26bid%3D%252bTa%252b6UbtToIvRQ%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253dQbN6VkleO48&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQbN6VkleO48&sigr=11ao94gln&newfp=1&tit=Nappy+Roots+-+Po%26%2339%3B+Folks+%28Video%29+w%2FAnthony+Hamilton  &lt;