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Friday, January 1, 2016

My 2016 Walking Man Resolution of Resitance to 124 years of failed education reforms



In 2014 Dean Paton Executive Editor of YES magazine wrote an important piece about the roots of privatization taking over our public schools. Two years later it is well worth the read people. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/the-myth-behind-public-school-failure His is a brief history of education reform since 1980.

However the roots of privatization go back over a hundred years. We can't separate commerce from wealth and power. What if there is a method to the insanity of returning to the same failing policies over and over again?
In the nineteenth century America’s academic elites feared American students were not college-ready. Thus in 1892 The National Education Association created the Committee of Ten to create uniform college admission requirements based on new content standards using common entrance exams.  From the beginning the standards established America’s wealthy, powerful and connected were never rooted in principles of democracy or morality, but on content knowledge measure through uniformed testing. 
Now let us include standards obsession with our history of school inequity. In 1896 four years after America’s love for standards found itself further supported by Plessey v Ferguson. Establishing segregation as the law of the land for nearly 6 decades. In 1954 Brown v the Board of Education ends jurisprudence segregation. For the first time in public education history the wealthy, the powerful and the connected status quo found their policies threatened. Hiding behind their trusted mantra of “standards and exam uniformity” gave cover to “de facto” segregation. Now standards and testing uniformity policies continued to make our public schools segregated and unequal places of learning.
I have come to accept that after 124 years inequity in our public schools “equity” was never the goal for America’s children. Justice for all was never the goal in America Public School System, but the path of least resistance towards maintaining a public school system that maintains the status quo.  Over a hundred years of education reform policies that amount to meaningless slogans that do nothing to lift all Americans. If you are not one of the wealthy, the powerful, the connected your right to a free public education is not rooted in the great good, your good, but the good of the status quo. Every Student Succeeds Act 2015 is just more of the same old 100 years of failed education reforms.
Sir James Matthew Barrie author of Peter Pan said: "Failure is the path of least resistance." Their method is clear it's has always been about keeping us working people down on their farms of servitude.
Our path from servitude remains the path of greater resistance.  
My Walking Man 2016 resolution is to step up my fight against inequity and injustice in our public schools.
If high stakes testing goes away?
I’ll still be marching.
If the standards go away?
I’ll still be marching.
Tell it in every town center in the land,
Tell it on city street corner,
And shout it from every mountaintop...
This Walking Man is marching until equity and justice are realities for every child in America’s public schools.
Equity and justice are my standards,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you happen to be in New York City on January 6, 2016 come join this Walking Man, his fellow panelists, and BK Nation as we continue our fight for equity and justice in our public schools.

If you like to hear the song the Walking Man was listening to on his walk...Barry Finch's singing the song he wrote to honor my 2015 Walk to DC. "Come Join The Walking Man Band"
it's https://soundcloud.com/jo-lieb/the-walking-man

Friday, December 18, 2015

Walking Man what will children remember 30 years from now




Walking Man what will children remember 30 years from now about learning?
If I have my way they will remember:
Silly hat days,
Reading for fun,
Reading under tables,
Reading in the halls,
Reading on the steps,
Reading with their friends and teachers,
Celebrating finishing another chapter book,
Earning another plastic gold medal.

Walking Man why is this important?
Because in their future they will change careers 5 or 6 times. Each time will require learning new skills.
My goal is to leave them not only reading, but with a love of learning.
With a love of learning you can go anywhere, doing anything, and climb any mountain.
Trust me on this, a love of learning takes you further than any test score could, and remember smiles still matter.

Walking Man is there anything else they will remember?
Yes, they will remember those that fought NCLB, RTTT, and yes ESSA.
They will know some fought back against turning learning into testing, children and teachers into data points, and their public schools into profits for Wall Street.
They will also remember every name that attempted to turn them into test scores.
I am not certain if 30 years from now I'll be around, but I plan to be remembered as an educator who saw children not test scores.
Silence and apathy are not acceptable,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to know what I am listening to today. It's Barry Lane all day long. Particularly "Know Your Higher Self" > https://youtu.be/R-i872w3D2w <




Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Who will stand up for our children?

In "to Kill A Mockingbird" Atticus Finch tells Scout: “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” The lesson he is teaching is "Empathy" the idea you can see the world through another person's eyes. Feel the world through another hopes and fears.
Once again another President and an over whelming majority of both political parties in Washington DC places testing in grades 3 to 8 and high school as the main focus of education reform. The Federal hammer has been replaced by 50 hammers. The fact is the testing remains.
Explain to me how our legislators’ see learning and teaching through the eyes of our children by spending billions on failed testing once again?
Trust me the answer must be they lost the ability to feel empathy for anyone who can't fill their campaign coffers.
Going back to DC with my brothers and sisters of NPE, UOO, SOS and BATs again in 2016. This July we need every parent, teacher and student we can get in DC. Mark your calendars, save your nickles and dimes. Apathy and silence are not acceptable when America's children, teachers and their public schools are reduced to test scores.



I was there in 2011,
I was there in 2012,
I was there in 2013,
I was there in 2014,
I was there in 2015,
Bet the house I'll be there again in July,
Be there in 2016,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner


If you want to know who this Walking Man is listening today? It's Bob Marley's " I know a pale"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRldkrQX73s