Sometimes the fun has a greater purpose

Just for my pal Mark Naison who wonders when was the last time any policy maker said learning should be fun. We love you Dr. Naison. So please don't hold your breath on the fun thing with policy makers? They just don’t get it. My thinking is every one of them hated learning, or are being paid well to sing the joys of filling in bubble tests. However children know better. There is no talking, and certainly no laughing is allowed when filling in their bubbles.

Fun is however something children, teachers, and parents get. This week in our CCSU Literacy Center we are having fun every day. We're singing, acting, and reading chapter books to honor our hero Malala Yousulfrizai the young Pakistani girl who was shot by the Tiliban for going to school last week. We are honoring her by celebrating 

what she stands for the right of all girls to sing, read, write, and go to school.
This fall every time a student completes 2-chapter books, and the tasks that goes along with them. Dr. Turner has to bow down on his knees proclaiming "their third grade brain is so much more brilliant than his very tiny little puny brain...I publicly bow down to your reading stamina, and pure greatness" They also pick the hat I should wear as I award them their gold medal, (pure plastic of course). We do have an array of crazy hats here Mark. You would love them. For some reason the teachers hear have convinced our students that crazy hats make you read better. While I have no real scientific evidence it appears to be working well.

Yes we have fun! We read without tears. We gladly complete all our assignments as well. Our chapter books are flying off the shelves. Our kids are reading not to score well on some policy maker’s test, but because reading is cool.
This afternoon it's our reading marathon to honor Malala our hero. We will read on chairs, on the floor, in the hallway, on the stairs, and even under the tables. We’ll read alone, in small groups, and all together. We will snap pictures of girls reading, and everyone writes get-well notes to Malala Yousulfrizai. We check our spelling, make sure our pictures are sharp, because we’ll post them to the London Hospital where Malala is being treated for the gunshot wound to her head. The children may not understand why this really happened to her, but they know it was wrong, and they know how to make her feel better.
You and I Dr. Naison know something that our policy makers appear to have lost sight of. It's the fun that motivates learning not their bubble testing.
Still having fun marching,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

people do you really have to guess what I am listening to on my walk today?

Rocking with Cyndi Lauper singing "Girls just want to have fun"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tUfCz99Dpk

If you want to find out about who my pal Mark Naison the notorious Rapping Ph.D from the Brooklyn is check him out on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/mark.naison.5

I stand with my brothers and sisters of the Chicago Teachers Union

I support my brothers and sisters of the Chicago Teachers Union who went on strike today.

Dr. Martin Luther King said: "History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but

 enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them."

Dr. King was assassinated going to aid Memphis Sanitation workers right to unionize. He understood unions don't weaken America, but strengthen America! Martin knew this, and stood with America's unions. This is a link to this piece of American Labor that never makes it on to the tests our children take. This is something they could respond to with grace, dignity, and full hearts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBDgH435oaU

Here we are today in Chicago come full circle.
What are these striking teachers asking for from Mayor Emanuel and his gang of fake education reformers?
Smaller class sizes,
One physical education teacher in every school,
One art teacher,
One music teacher,
And one librarian.
These are the thing our nation's school use to have before these so-called NCLB/RTTT education reformers sacrificed to pay for all their testing.

My thinking is Martin spirit lives on that CTU picket line.
Standing with his brothers and sisters in the Chicago Teachers Union,
Jesse The Walkingman Turner

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to on his walk today it's

Bruce Springsteen's "We take of our own" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Bz0d2xm7U

I've been knockin' on the door that holds the throne
I've been lookin' for the map that leads me home
I've been stumblin' on good hearts turned to stone
The road of good intentions has gone dry as bone
We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag's flown
We take care of our own

From Chicago to New Orleans
From the muscle to the bone
From the shotgun shack to the Superdome
We yelled "help" but the cavalry stayed home
There ain't no-one hearing the bugle blown
We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag's flown
We take care of our own

Where the eyes, the eyes with the will to see
Where the hearts, that run over with mercy
Where's the love that has not forsaken me
Where's the work that set my hands, my soul free
Where's the spirit that'll reign, reign over me
Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea
Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea
Wherever this flag is flown
Wherever this flag is flown
Wherever this flag is flown

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bruce_springsteen/#share

For George and all those union carrying first responders who ran into those towers on 9/11.

For brother George whose courage remains unquestioned,
For brother George who lives his life above the cheating,
My promise to you and the survivors and the fallen is I have not forgotten 9/11.
Reading this New York Times article below on cheating by

high achieving students. It mades me wonder about our nation's failure to give students something more than a test scores to look up to. 

Their is a real legacy left to us by our nation’s First Responders not rooted in cheating, but in the courage to do the right thing. This is what schools should be teaching not how to do better on some meaningless test. Article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/education/studies-show-more-students-cheat-even-high-achievers.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

The real legacy of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Race To The Top is not equity, or a closing of the achievement gap, but simply a culture of cheating. Neither NCLB, or this race of Duncan's has any moral foundation to it. His foundation is simply better test scores make better people. 

Let me say I disagree Mr. Secretary.

This coming Monday we shall remember those who lost their lives on 9/11/01.
Let's not forget that many of the ones running from those burning towers were most likely individuals with high test scores. The ones running out were the stock brokers, corporate lawyers, CEO's, and most likely not members of any of our nation's unions.
So brothers and sisters who ran in to save them?
Which ones dared to rushed in even after the first tower fell?
Which ones were walking people down the stairs as the world came tumbling down around them?
Let me tell who they were,
They were police officers, 

The emergency medical technicians, 

And fire fighters. 

The ones with union cards!
You know the ones whose test scores never won acceptance in to our Harvard(s) and Yale(s).
The ones like my old team mate Fire Captain George Bueno whose lost one of his crew.
Captain Bueno who had to fight for his pension for years after 9/11. 

I say test scores have nothing to do with making us better people, but hearts of courage do.
Imagine if our nation's public schools immersed our young people in a culture of courage rather than a race to the top.
America’s 21-st century is at a cross road in public education. One road calls us to follow ed reformers who consider children data and human capital. They offer a legacy of numbers.

The other road calls parents and teachers to leave something greater.  

We are being asked which legacy to we want our public schools to pass on to our nation's young. I want an American legacy rooted in courage not testing and cheating. I want a legacy of something greater than testing. I want future generations to know the courage of the ones who run in while others run out. 
Two from the heart brother George,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner