Where is the humanity?

I am tire of Main Stream Media's love affair with education reformers and their mad quest for finding proof points for their high-stakes testing and more rigorous standards policies. I am not waiting for them to come around any longer. I am drawing my line in the sand regarding our public schools. My line is not complicated or complex, from now on any policies regarding our public schools must clearly point to the humanity in those reforms.
Does focusing on high stakes testing demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
Does forcing schools to compete against each other demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How does a labeling a child Proficient, Above Proficiency, or Below Proficiency demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How does policy that focuses on standards not children demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How does giving some schools extra funding, extra resources, extra supports while closing down our poorest and most needy schools demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How does requiring some teacher education candidates to meet higher standards from day one, while you fast track others, who are allowed to meet those standards two years later if they decide to stay in teaching demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How does placing special needs children in front of computers to take non validated assessments demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How does closing community schools in poor communities demonstrate humanity? 
It does not!
How does reducing the success of a child, a teacher, or a school to standardized test scores demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
How do smaller class sizes and greater access in our wealthiest schools to:
Specialized support services,
Art teachers,
Music teachers,
PE teachers,
School nurses,
Social workers,
School psychologist,
School libraries,
Extended day after school programs,
Daily recess breaks,
Time for play,
BUT not for our poorest schools demonstrate humanity?
It does not!
This is my line in the sand: If you can't show me the humanity in your policies then expect me to use every act of Civil Disobedience available to me oppose your policies.
Respectfully,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If people are wondering what I was listening to on my walk over the Avon mountain this morning? It's Dudley AKA Origin new track to document some of the struggles in public education in September 2015.  >  http://originalrap.bandcamp.com/track/september-2015 <
Bravo Mr. Dudley Albany Public School teacher AKA Origin

Dear Secretary Duncan a message from the Walking Man

Hello Secretary Duncan , my name is Dr. Jesse Patrick Turner, and I am a teacher who occupies the humanity of the spaces I teach. I am inspired by the young voices of those occupying my teaching space. I find magic in the faces I teach. I find hope living in the eyes I teach. I find humanity is a two way street, the more I give the more I recieve. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Does changing the world begin with reaching one child at a time?
Of course it does!
Does the humanity occupying the space I teach change the world for the children I teach?
Of course it does!
My destiny is not in the hands of the powerful, the wealthy, and the connected. My destiny is in the humanity I bring to teaching?
Secretary Duncan, it is not more rigor, it's more humanity that lifts children up.
It's not testing opening the door to hope.
It's the humanity that occupies the teaching and learning space inside our public schools that opens the door to hope.
Mr. Secretary we don't need new standards!
Mr. Secretary we don't need more rigorous testing!
Mr. Secretary we need more humanity.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jesse Patrick Turner
Director of the Central Connecticut State University Literacy

If you like to know what this Walking Man listened to this morning as he walked over the Avon Mountain, if was the Playing for Change version of John Lennon's "Imagine".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-t2ouOLYYw

Surely we are blessed by the teachers we work with, and the children we teach. Imagine change one child at a time. 

A call to action Labor Day 2016

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The recent action of our Dyett brother and sister hunger strikers calls us unified action. Justice is coming, and I plan to help it along in any way I can. I am calling for a Labor Day 2016 action in Washington DC on the Mall.

  " That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." ~ (1776) The Declaration of Independence

These are the sacred words of a free people that I am claim upon the blood sacrifices of countless generations of Americans who came before us. These words holding the aspirations of a free people that Dr. Yohuru Williams often reminds us,

These words

Of minute men long gone,

Slaves yearning to be free,

Women struggling for the vote,

Immigrants following a Lamp in that harbor of hope,

By crossing that sacred bridge in Selma,

By the voices of today youth carrying Black Lives Matter signs,

By SOSers in 2011,

By Opt outers occupying the United States Department of Education in 2012 and 2013

By BATs marching on DC in 2014, and again in 2015,

By my Dyett brothers and sisters on hunger strike in Chicago in August of 2015.

With those scared words passed down from generations past I call a free people to action everyday. By those words I call all to DC Labor Day 2016. No mater plan, no permits, no podiums with speakers, no marching bands to announce our coming, just a free people walking together carrying their signs for justice, letting our silence thunder, joining and embracing our free brothers and sisters on the Great Mall.
Dr. Naison Black History and Labor historian reminds us that silence can speak louder than thunder. He point us to the historic 1917 when silence spoke louder than thunder.
“They marched down Fifth Avenue on that summer Saturday without saying a word. They chanted no chants, sang no protest songs. The only sounds were the disconcertingly mournful thuds of muffled drums — and, of course, the marchers’ footsteps on the hot pavement.”
 http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/a-history-of-making-messages-heard-silently/?_r=0

No one owns this action, just as no one owns a free people. Understanding a free people must seek justice, or their freedom shall turn become their bondage.

Ask me where I'll be Labor Day 2016?

You shall find this walking man hold his No Justice No Votes sign.
If I sand alone than I stand one man alone.
But if by chance I stand with one other than surely justice has a chance.

I am calling every student, every parent, every teacher, every principal, every grass roots anti high stakes testing group beaten down by the injustice to stand and march in silence against these destructive education policies that reduce our children to proficiency levels, that demoralize our teachers, and take the right to vote for elected boards of education, abandon and neglect special needs and second language learners over and over again, and close our poorest and most needy schools.

I am compelled to insubordination by justice

My eyes are wide open,

My hearts is true,

Justice is coming, and I plan on making sure it comes.

Come join me next Labor Day for a No Justice No Votes silence protest in DC,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner 

If you want to know what song this walking man is singing it's Josh Stone's version of "Eye On The Prize" from Soundtrack for a revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeP-gS9sHkU