My First Professor Had a 6th grade education

Not all teachers teach in classrooms
Nearly 800 pages of Miguel Cervantes and one old man taught me there is more to a book than words and pictures. 

Foolish CEOs, Ed Reformers, and Policymakers dismiss sustained reading in our schools in favor of pacing guides to speed learning up.
If our children are not taught that digging into a book requires stamina and great patience?
How will they fall in love with books? 
Who will teach them that books hold more than words and pictures?
Who will transform them from their ABCs to lifelong readers?

Cervantes calls us.
" Life as it is. I've lived for over 40 years, and I've seen life as it is. Pain. Misery. Cruelty beyond belief. I've heard all the voices of God's noblest creature. Moans from bundles of filth in the street. In Don Quixote, we find the Man of La Mancha, that believer in impossible dreams.
I've been a soldier and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I've held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no brave last words, only their eyes, filled with confusion, questioning "Why?" I do not think they were asking why they were dying, but why they had ever lived."

Hear Alonso Quijano asking us to join him on a mad quest
 "When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness To surrender dreams - -this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! And maddest of all - to see life as it is and not as it should be!"

I read Miguel Cervantes's Don QuixoteMan of La Mancha with my Grandfather. It took ages, many visits, and it is still one of my most glorious adventures.
He did not think me too young, he did not treat me as a child, he read, I read, we laugh, and in the end, we even shed some beautiful tears.
We stood proud when they could not burn his books of chivalry. Hours and hours, days and days with that Man of La Mancha shaped me into a believer of impossible dreams. Him with his coffee and me with my hot cocoa sitting in his big old sitting room chair, now those times are my lottery. He was my first real professor, that old World War I veteran with only an elementary school education. 

Listen, teachers, parents,  and policymakers?
"I shall impersonate a man. His name is Alonso Quijana, a country squire no longer young.
Being retired, he has much time for books. He studies them from morn till night and often through the night and morn again, and all he reads oppresses him; fills him with indignation at man's murderous ways toward man.
He ponders the problem of how to make better a world where evil brings profit and virtue none at all; where fraud and deceit are mingled with truth and sincerity.
He broods and broods and broods and broods and finally his brains dry up.
He lays down the melancholy burden of sanity and conceives the strangest project ever imagined To become a knight-errant, and sally forth into the world in search of adventures; to mount a crusade; to raise up the weak and those in need. No longer will he be plain Alonso Quijana, but a dauntless knight known as Don Quixote de La Mancha." 

Grandad, I remain your namesake grandson, and forever a Dauntless Knight of de La Mancha,

Little Jesse
AKA Dr. Jesse P. Turner 
CCSU Literacy Center Director 

If you want to listen to the tune that inspired my morning walk today? Its "The Impossible Dream"

"This is my Quest to follow that star, 

No matter how hopeless, no matter how far, 

To fight for the right 

Without question or pause, 

To be willing to march into hell 

For a heavenly cause! 

And I know, if I'll only be true 

To this glorious Quest, 

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm 

When I'm laid to my rest."

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbO2MY7GB3s&list=RDxbO2MY7GB3s&start_radio=1&rv=xbO2MY7GB3s&t=0  

I'm not studying insurrectionist CRT Hysterics: "For His Truth is Marching On"

 

America was not discovered,

There is no romantic Gone With The Wind Slavery,

The Cherokee People's Trail of Tears, was not some nature walk,

The Navajo, "Long Walk" was not America at it's best,

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1888, was not securing our borders, but Racism,
Japanese Interment Camp, were not vacation camps, 2/3 of the interned were American Citizens,

360,222 Union Soldiers died in a Civil War that ended Slavery, they were not killed by good men, 

The Holocaust was real,

Jim Crow, did more than mandate separated water fountains, it led to thousands of Lynchings of innocent Black Americans,

The Labor movement has no socialist agenda, just America's struggle for safety and living wages,

Women's Suffragette were not Hysterics, it was American Women at this best,

Selma's Bloody Assault on Black Peoples Right to vote, was not the only stop on the road to voting rights,

The 1963 White supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that took the lives of four young Black Girls happen on a Sunday,

The Assignations of President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Senator Robert Kennedy were attempts to destroy our democracy,

Finally, January 6, 2021 was an attempt to overturn the people's vote, and and assault on our Constitution, and Democracy.

The root of the word History is Greek:"Historia", meaning "inquiry; knowledge acquired by investigation". It does refer to some sweet cover up of lies that might hurt. History is not some sweet honey, it is something bitter sweet, that goes down hard, and fortifies us from lies.

I refuse to bow down to Insurrectionist Racists,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
Uniting to Save Our Schools

If you like to listen to the tune that inspire my walk over the mountain this morning its 
the United States Army Field Band performing the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6AOGRsR80

Pandemic Teaching and Learning: Should I stay or Should I go?

 

Teaching and Learning in a Pandemic Crisis,
Teaching and Learning in a Moral Crisis,
Teaching and Learning in a world of haters,
Teaching and learning in budget cuts, upon budget cuts,
Teaching and learning in a world of science deniers,
Teaching and Learning in a world of history deniers,
Teaching and Learning in a world of declining wages, benefits, and respect for teachers.

Teaching and Learning in a time where CEOs and Policy Makers work day and night to reduce our children test scores,
Teaching and Learning in the nation that spends more money to educate our wealthy children than our poor children,
Teaching and Learning in a country refusing to ask Millionaires and Billionaires to pay their fair share.

Teaching and Learning in our nation that is perfectly fine with a School To Prison Pipeline for Black, Brown and Special Education Children,
Teaching and Learning where the once numerous future teacher pools are drying up,
Teaching and Learning during a teacher shortage problem exacerbated tenfold by a mass exodus of Fed Up Retiring Teachers.

Rome is burning, America's commitment to public education is falling far short.
Looking around, some of my best teachers, young and old, are leaving. The number of future teachers is dropping in my courses at the University.
Who Wants to be a teacher in this world?

Just about everyone who can retire at our university, like many other universities, is leaving. Lots of fear going round leave now or watch them reduce your health care benefits. I am losing some of my dearest colleagues.
Should I stay or should I go?

I pull from my well of aspirations that held me strong through decades of teaching.
I remember being young, running around those mean streets, and being fearless. I drink from my well of memories. Father Fitzgerald read a poem once. He read the Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Babington Macaulay. He told us to sit down on these church steps. Fellers, this one is long. There once was this Captain on a bridge facing unbeatable foes, a captain whose beloved city those foes wanted to burn.
What was his name, Father?

He was Brave Horatius, Captain of the Gate, and while the lords and nobles of his city could not decide what to do as a massive army stood across the bridge to their beloved city. Hateful vengeful foes demanding their unconditional surrender. Everyone trembled, shook, and call out to their gods to save them.
What did the Captain do, Father?

He called to his brothers of the gate.
“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than, facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods."
He stood on that bridge, held those foes back, and when all looked like it was lost, he call out to burn the bridge behind him. 
Did he live Father?
Yes, he did, and he still lives well.
Fellers, I want you to grow strong, be our brave captains. While others tremble, I expect you all to stand strong. All I have are these poems and stories that fill this well. With them I am invincible. 

Teaching and learning are in crisis.
The Robber Barons, Public Education Haters, and their Mercenaries are standing at our schoolhouse door across the nation. They see profits not children. They demand our Greater Good Sense's unconditional surrender.

I could walk away,
I could run away,
I could sit on that rocker,
I could fish my last days,
I could walk those mountain trails,
Row those rivers I love,
I could live well,
I could leave,
Maybe I should leave?
What would Brave Horatius do?

But, a priest, read a poem once about a brave captain,
Don't you hear Brave Horatius calling?

"Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than, facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods."

Who Wants to be a teacher today?
Who wants to stay?
Who is willing to stand on this bridge?

I turn out our literacy Center lights,
Lock the door, and
Walking out,
I read those words on the arch outside our School of Education:
Start With A Dream, Leave With A Future."
I think there are dreams to come, and futures that need protecting. 
Father Fitzgerald, read a poem, etched in our souls, and I am at your gate captain.
I am staying.

Just call me one of Father Fitzgerald’s brave Captains,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
CCSU Literacy Center Director,
Uniting to Save Our Schools
Proud Badass Teacher
A Captain of the gate

If you wonder what tune did this Walking Man listen to on his walk this morning, its The Clash's "Should I stay or should I go" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUQP-XXmXgY