10 for Eddie, and every other boy that testing killed their love of reading

http://childrenaremorethantestscores.blogspot.com/2010/10/another-parent-phone-call.html

21 miles down, and 30 more by Monday. Three Connecting The Dot Walking Man events in the next  three days. This campaign for Justice not just tests is rolling along. It sure feels good to meeting and listening to children, parents and teachers coming out to meet me. I am a man on a mission! A man on fire. I am one man walking in the name of love to DC for our children, their teachers and public schools. 

Today’s walk is dedicated to Eddie and all our boys who use to like reading. I first met Eddie when he was in second grade in 2011. Eddie’s mother reached out to me when Eddie had a fight with his best. His best friend noticed Eddie’s name on his school’s data wall in the parent/teacher resource room. Eddie was at the bottom of the list. His best friend tells Eddie you are the dumbest kid in the whole school. Next thing you know they are fighting.  His mother wanted to talk about the root cause of the fight, the data wall and the testing, but the school insisted they only discuss the fight. She wanted to discuss how Eddie a boy who loved reading, began to hate reading, because of all the testing. Eddie started coming to our Literacy Center 4 years ago, we turned around his reading attitude, but he still hates all the testing. I am worry about all the Eddie’s who are being tested 8 weeks of every school year. The price for many is reading has become something they hate. They may even do well on the test, but the testing has tainted their view of reading. If you like to know more about Eddie and his mother follow the above link to the blog I wrote about them on my 2010 walk to DC.
Today, I dedicate my 10-mile walk to Eddie, and every other boy like him who used to like reading,
Jesse

If you want to listen to what I am listening to this morning on my way from Willamantic to Bolton Connecticut...It's Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEq-r2agqc

Day # 2, Dear Lord, please don't let teaching lose this one

Day 2 of my walk to DC is dedicated to a young teacher from Texas. Jenn sent me a "Dear Walking Man" letter last night. She shared how she had always wanted to be a teacher, and chased her dream down. We are losing young teachers at an incredible rate. More than half leave before five years. In high stressed testing districts trust me that number is much higher. Jenna's letter, which I will share on YouTube tonight, starts off chasing her teaching dream. Then shares the pain of a young teacher feeling oppressed by endless testing. She has all the right tools to be a great teacher, but these Education Deformers have turned our public schools into testing factories. In her letter she starts doubting her teaching dream.
Readers make predictions as they read. Reading her letter my gut told me it would end with another teaching dream crushed. At one point I just stopped reading, and bowed my head and folded my hands in prayer. Dear Lord please Lord, don't let teaching lose this one. I started to read young Jenn's letter again still thinking I knew where this was going.
Then I read the last paragraph it came " All across the nation, teachers are quitting in droves. I must admit, I thought about it this year. However, at the end of the day I realized I am right where I am supposed to be and there is nothing I would rather be doing. And so I stand up and fight for my students and I fight for my school. I will not let someone who has never entered my classroom take my career that I have worked so hard for and destroy it. I will be the teacher I want to be despite standardized testing."
Today I am walking for a young Texas teacher who decided to stay. Today I am walking for every young teacher's dream of becoming a great teacher. A dream that is being crushed a little more each day with the insanity of high-stakes testing that crushes the desire to learn in our children, and demoralizes our teachers.
This 10 miles is for our young resilient teacher Jenn from Texas,
You inspire me to walk,
Jesse
PS if you want to know what I listened to on Day 2 of my walk it's Jackson Brown's "Stay"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljOzYLG57A < 

Day # 2 down, another 10 miles checked off. I wouldn't let anyone walk with me today, because I had to walk on some busy roads with just about enough room for one person. As you can see in this picture it can get a little tense on some roads.

I know what love looks like.

Today's walk is dedicated to beautiful Ethan Pratt Rediske whose life enriched his family, and all who knew him. Ethan was not a burden; Ethan was God's gift of love that lifted his mother, his father, and his siblings higher. Ethan was a blessing. He deserved more than the Florida Department of Education chasing him into hospice care to be tested as he was dying.

I know what love looks like; I see it in the arms of Ethan's father holding his son. I know love when I see it, and I see it in his mother's eyes. I see it in a mother lovingly holding her precious son's hand.
I know what evils looks like, it looks like a heartless Florida Department of Education chasing God's love and blessing during his last days to be tested.  Thomas Jefferson "“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” When NCLB law reduced our children to test scores, resistance became my duty. I know what injustice looks like; it looks like education reform unjust laws that reduce our children to data, to profits, to test scores. I know what goodness feels like, it feels like resisting evil. It feels like walking for change.

It begins today Thursday June 11th. My first 10 miles to justice, my first 10 miles to bring visibility to the biggest education reform policy failure in the history of public education. My mission is simple, listen to the people I meet along the way. Walking with me today as my guest walker is the Dean of Education and Professional Studies at Central Connecticut State University. CCSU has been preparing teachers for 166 years, it is the oldest teacher preparation college in Connecticut, and the sixth oldest in the nation. 

Dean Alfano is a former Marine, a father, and an educator.  Mike is walking the ten miles with me this morning, because children matter, teachers matter, and because he cares. 10 miles, 15 minutes per mile, means I listen to the Dean for two and half hours. Today Dean Alfano is every dean, and we are walking together for justice not just tests. Later on today I will share the reflections of a Dean of Education who cares enough To Walk For Change.

Walking to DC,

Jesse