A tale of two men, one who sees data, and one who sees children.

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Day number 10 is dedicated to the most amazing people, the people who have inspired me for as long as I can remember, our children in our public schools.
Today I give 10 miles to our nation's children.
You have always lifted me higher.
You have always helped me smile. 

You amaze and inspire me to walk to DC in the name of love.

My blog today is dedicated to our nation's students in our public schools. 

A tale of two men

As Secretary of Education Arne Duncan goes about his work in DC he meets with the powerful, the mighty, the wealthy. He wears his Giorgio Armani suits, and plays the occasional pick up basketball game with Congressional leaders, Senators, and even with the President.

He goes about his day wheeling and dealing billions of our tax dollars. He is a busy man far too important to spend any real time with teachers, parents, and children. When his day is done he smiles thinking about the important deals he made.

While Arne wines and dines the Corporate Elite I am walking to Washingto DC to protest the testing deals deals he makes. While he listens to billionaires, I am walking and listening to students, parents, and teachers. While he collects free lunches, I am collecting the narratives of resistance to his testing house of pain polices.  400 miles on the road, no limousines, no high powered lunches with the powerful and the connected, no calls from the White House, just two feet Walking to DC in the Name of Love. These Education Reformers have had the floor for 13 years, spent over a trillion dollars, and the data is in on their reforms. Their Education reforms have left our schools more segregated and our high school students knowing their reforms have not score this low in over 4 decades. Every curricula reform they have tried show either no effects, or a lost. While Secretary Arne Duncan dances with the elite, our children, our teachers our most needy public schools are being demoralized, humiliated, and abandon with every dance. I am not a walking man by choice. I am not an activist by choice. I have no desire to be away from my family, but I am compelled by my moral calling as a teacher to stand up for children, parents, teachers, and our public schools. Compelled by a moral calling to save our public schools I am walking to DC, because someone has to tell them after 13 years of education reform failures, they are not reformers, but the status quo. Someone has to shout out on the Capital steps:
Our Children,
Our Teachers,
Our Public Schools, Hand off,It simple Wahington DC,
Children are more than test scores.When my walk is over, I'll catch a ride home,
Teach a group of wonderful teachers from Jamaica about Literacy in our CCSU Literacy Center.
I'll teach them about what a balanced assessment framework looks like, kid watching, and I share the heart of a teacher. I share my love of teaching, learning, and teaching with them, and listen deeply to their stories. After they leave I spend a week with my family in the mountains of New Hampshire. Then I'll start cleaning, decorating, and preparing our Literacy Center for 40 new children. This is what I love, what I really do, and what matters most to this Walking man.
He gives out plastic medals to struggling readers, wear silly hats, participates in Readers Theater, sit on the floor and reads with children and teachers.

I have no Giorgio Armani suits, but I do wear the best that Sears has to offer.

As Secretary Arne Duncan fiddles with the powerful, the rest of us fight the good fight against illiteracy every single day. When his day is done, he dreams about data, power, and new ways to reduce the wonder of childhood to his game of testing the joy out of learning.When my day is done, I think about the many hours of hard work put in by my teachers and our children, and celebrate every new letter, new word, new story, and every smile that came my way today.

I am marching to DC just to tell Secretary Duncan that children are more than test scores.

See you in DC,

Jesse

 https://vimeo.com/131091408 My song of the day Barry Lane's More Than A number. Thank you Barry for singing the songs that matter most to us.

Day # 9 is dedicated to Stacie Starr, Dawn Neely, and every beautiful Ohio teacher standing up for our schools

This is a must read for every teacher and parent. It gives us a clear human picture of what these fake education reformers, and our policy makers and politicians are do to our schools. High Stakes Testing, the Common Core, and new test connected teacher evaluations are not keeping good teachers in the classroom, but chasing them out.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/02/10/gasps-of-disbelief-as-live-with-kelly-and-michael-top-teacher-winner-resigns-over-common-core-testing/


Every day I find another reason to walk to DC, another reason to stand up, speak out, and act. Day # 9 of my walk to DC is dedicated to Ohio Veteran teachers Stacie Starr and Dawn Neely. Stacie announced her retirement rather then spend another day reducing Ohio's children to test scores. She was chosen as the winner of the “Live with Kelly and Michael” 2014 Top Teacher Search. She announced her retirement in the spring at the very Board Meeting called to honor her. Her reasons, she cited the increasing pressures on students and teachers under the mandated Common Core standards and testing mandates.
At the same Board Meeting Dawn Neely another teacher told the board:

“I don’t know what to do. I am morally against what we are doing, and I think history will judge us for what we do to fight for our kids,” she told the Elyria school board. “Look through the test books and you tell me if you think they are developmentally appropriate. No one is advocating for our district, and I am asking my district to be honest with the parents about what we are doing to students.”

Board President Kathryn Karpus replies: The district’s hands are tied. They are bound by Ohio laws that mandate the testing. Dr. Martin Luther King said this about laws: "There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’" Board President Karpus, a person can not do good supporting unjust laws. Morality matters more than any unjust law. I stand with my fellow BAT Dawn Neely, and every other Ohio beautiful Ohio teacher fighting back.

It is a teacher moral responsibility to obey just laws, but it is also his/her responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Ms Starr and Ms. Neely are answering the call to their moral responsibility as teachers. I am humbled by them, and salute them. God bless you Stacie, God bless you Dawn, and God bless every parent and teacher who answers this moral call to stand up for our children.

Why are you walking to DC Jesse?

I am walking, because someone has to tell them in DC that our children, our teachers, and our schools are more than test scores. More than their data, their profits, and their scapegoats that allow 49 states to spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools. This walk is my moral responsibility, my higher call to serve the children in our public schools.
Who are you walking for Jesse?
I am walking for Stacie Starr, Dawn Neely, every Ohio teacher and student living under unjust laws that reduces them to data.
A change is gonna come, and I am walking for that change.
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

Brothers on a mission to save our public schools

Day # 8 is dedicated to my dear friend Dr. Sherick Hughes from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
We are old friends long vested in the struggle for equity in our public schools. His academic credentials have all the bells and whistles, articles, chapters and books to his credit. However it is his love for justice, children, teachers, and our public schools that drives his passion for teaching and learning.  This is Dr. Hughes and I occupying the United States Department Department of Education at the Occupy the DOE in DC
On Tuesday night I was a Skype guest at Chapel Hill for his doctoral students. It is an honor and a privilege to call Sherick my brother and friend on the road to save our public schools. Our discussion focused on advocacy, activism, civil rights, and race. I say you can judge the health of our pubic schools by the things our education policy makers focus on.  Today I am reflecting on the tragic news unfolding in Charleston South Carolina where 9 Black innocent souls engaged in prayer in the House of the Lord were taken in a rage of race hatred. Make no mistake about the fact that our Public School System and Civil Rights are linked. While our nation's Education Policy makers have chase test scores and standards they have failed to make Civil Rights the corner stone of our public school system. Testing, Common Core standards will not heal our nation. We need a deep conversation about Race in our nation, and the place for that conversation to begin is in our public schools.
Today's walk from New Haven to Bridgeport is for my brothers and sisters in higher education who reject silence and apathy.
Walking to DC,
Jesse
Today on my walk I was singing that old Civil Rights standard "We Shall Over Come" I sang it with my Grandfather in 63 at the March On Washington, I sang it in Selma many time with my fellow bridge crossers. I particularly love the version sang by the More Head College Glee performers in 2009 > https://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=we+shall+over+come+utube <