Parents are speaking up, standing up, fighting back, opting out and coming out to meet the Walking Man

My walk today on day # 7 is dedicated to Cheryl Hill, New Milford, CT, and Susan Zeitler Sherman, CT.  These two Connecticut Mom’s are committed to the fight to stop high stakes testing, data mining and privatization of public schools.  They are regulars at both local and State Board Of Education meetings.  I met the ladies when I was invited to speak at the Sherman Common Core event last year.  At the Bank Street shop today in New Milford, we had coffee after my walk, they asked me  to carry their concerns to the Save Our Schools Mock Trial "The People VS Corporate Reform”. Thanks Ladies, for taking the time out of your busy day to meet up with me on my walk.

This is their message they asked me to bring to DC:

"So much has happened since you participated in the Sherman common core presentation last summer. We are dedicated to bringing awareness of the facts to the BOE, administration and parents.  Sherman CT has achieved one of CT's highest elementary opt out rates. Sherman parents understand that refusing the tests safeguards their children's data, shields inappropriate teacher evaluations and sends a strong message that parents will utilize their inalienable parental rights to protect their children.

In the town of New Milford the budget forced a school closed.  As a founding member of the CT Parental Rights Coalition, they focus on legislation that upholds parental rights and safeguards the data privacy of our children, their families and teachers. It's when we are in Hartford, attending these hearings, we see the influence of lobbyists.  What's driving the destructive testing and dangerous data mining? Investors and corporations see our children and schools with dollar signs in their eyes. They see a (dehumanized) market, an opportunity to make money...at any expense. Are CT legislators that coddle lobbyists willing to sell us, our data, our public schools?

Jesse, the issues we face in Sherman and New Milford are not unique. Parents, teachers and students across CT and across our nation know these tests are destructive.  The data issues put our children in danger.  Charter Schools and privatization have been proven to fail.   These "reforms" are death. It's time to stop high stakes testing, data mining and privatization.

Our country needs a paradigm shift back to the truth - We The People, We The Parents, were born with inalienable rights. Among these, are the rights to direct the upbringing and education of our children. We demand our children receive appropriate education, and are not harmed in the process. We stand by our teachers and public schools.

Please Jesse, bring our message to Washington, DC-

Stop high stakes testing, data mining and privatization of public schools.

Cheryl  and Susan it was great meeting up with you today, and I will take your message and all those I gather on my walk, to Washington DC.

Respectfully,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner 06/17/15

In case you want to know what song the Walking Man was listening to on Day 7 of my walk to DC...it's Sam and Dave "Hold On I'm coming" So hold on New York I'm 53 miles away now. 
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=sam+and+dave+I%27m+coming&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

Barry Lane the one who never sold children and teachers out

So many authors in education have drank that standards will save us Kool Aid that i lost count. It's easy to look the other way when you are making a buck.
Day 6 of my walk is dedicated to our voice of reason, our voice of joy, and our voice of hope, The incredible Barry Lane from "Discovery writing" the guy that gave teachers 51 Wacky We-Search Reports: Face the Facts With Fun and Force Field for Good.
Many of today's education authors just go with the flow, ask no questions, fit any test, any standards, sign any bottom line, but Barry he writes the songs that question every attempt to crush children, their teachers, and our public schools. 
Barry Lane who preformed at the Save Our School March in 2011, the Save Our Schools convention in 2012, join United Opt Out's Occupy twice, serenades teachers" every single day. Barry Lane who somehow manages to capture how our nation's children feel in this insane age of test them until they hurt. Every single day on my walk I listen to Barry Lane & Amy Ludwig VanDerwater song "More Than A number"
"I am more than a number.
I am more than a grade.
I know the constellations.
Here’s a painting that I made.
I read books in my closet.
I will not be a ‘2’.
I am more than a number.
Walking to DC
Barry the guy who could have made a million dollars if he kept his mouth shut, but loved children and teachers to much to remain silent as high-stakes testing stole the joy out of teaching and learning. Barry Lane my hero of day 6, the voice that inspires me to fight to bring back the joy into our classrooms and schools. Barry Lane my dear friend who never sold his sold to the profiteers.
Walking to DC and smiling all the way listening to Barry Lane and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater "More Than A number" It's Barry Lane and Amy Lud
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIIQiIBV5mEAPXz7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=barry+Lane+More+Than+a+Number&vid=f0d32b04464756d327528c9e7c4b0353&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DWN.YVmBgmfVNxEjitH6M%252fjxqg%26pid%3D15.1%26h%3D168%26w%3D300%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4_Vf8cwTWRY&tit=More+Than+a+Number&c=0&h=168&w=300&l=149&sigr=11bs8cib6&sigt=10i2elncv&sigi=12mdkjl4f&age=1364413953&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=aaplw&tt=b

She walks the line for equity and jusitce

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Day 5, schools are still in session in Connecticut, so there were no walkers with me today. Two and half hours of walking in the rain on my own, check off 51 miles on my walk to DC.    My umbrella and raincoat did not prevent me from becoming cold and drenched to the bone.  I keep humming Michael Row the boat a shore, singing “the river Jordan is chilly and cold, chills the body not the soul.” When you stand on the side of justice your soul never gets cold.  Today’s walk is dedicated my dear friend and tireless soldier of equity in Connecticut Dr. Dianne Kaplan deVries. Dr. Dianne is the Project director for CCJEF, (Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding), and has been helping to lead the battle for equity in our public schools.  http://ccjef.org/.
CCJEF v. Rell has been in the courts for over a decade now, the final case is pending in the Connecticut Supreme Court. We are facing that historic question” do children have the right to an adequate education? YES, said the lower courts. Two Connecticut governors representing both political parties have opposed the right of children to an equitable and adequate education. How anyone could vote for any candidate fighting to maintain an inequitable public school system is beyond me.  The state has fought in the courts at every step to kick the case out of our courts. While Dianne and her colleagues for over a decade have travel up, down, and side to side to every corner of Connecticut to gather testimony and evidence for the people against their own state. Connecticut like 48 other states are dens of inequity in their public schools. While corporate education reformers peddle their fuzzy choice without equity scams my dear friend and fellow soldier for equity fights for our day in the courts everyday.  James Baldwin wrote in “The Price of the Ticket”:
“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected--those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! --and listens to their testimony.”
Listening deeply and gathering the testimony of the unprotected has been Dr. Dianne Kaplan deVries life’s work, and that work is going to have it’s day in our supreme court this fall.
This tireless soldier is battling cancer; she no longer is driving our highways. She is using her phone and email to see this fight through. She will see her day in court.
As Dr. King wrote from his cell in a Birmingham jailhouse “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Some walk, some stand in our nation's classrooms, some testify before boards of power, and their legislative bodies, some write letters to editors, some fight on social media, some take to the streets, some battle in the courts, but we all stand together for equity in our public schools.
Someday these tests will go away, someday the standards will be more pliable, but we soldiers of equity will still be battling for equality in our public schools.
I humbly bow my head,
I salute you,
I whisper your name on the winds of hope,
I call you my sister,
This rain filled day’s walk is dedicated to my hero Dr. Dianne Kaplan deVries.
Sincerely,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

 

 If you are wondering what this rain soaked walking man was listening to on his walk to day...it was Johnny Cash's "I walk the line" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq0fUa0vW_E <