Dear Governor DeSantis, you can't study Women's History without studying Sexism and Race.

 

Imagine if Governors, Think Tanks, and Politicians, just let teachers teach.

We have these Read-A-Thons at our CCSU Literacy Center. We read, we ware our pajamas, eat tons of popcorn, are not allowed to sit on chairs. We take Gold Medal Reading Challenges, where we earn Gold Medals for reading and sharing what we are learning. We have them every month. Don't tell the children, but are pushers of SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) and choice. Don't tell any policymakers either, they have a hard time with the idea of choice and SSR. 

The above image to the untrained eye, may look like children having fun dropping parachutes off the balcony in our Henry Bernard Annex right outside our CCSU Literacy Center. Some find it difficult to see how parachutes fit into administrative SROs (Strategic Learning Objectives). We did not count words read correctly last night, there was no test, we were having too much fun reading. But, trust mw everyone was learning some very important lessons about real life. 

As in Hamlet “there is a method in my madness”. Everything we do in our Literacy has purpose and reason just beyond reading. March is Women's History Month, we are discovering role models of nobility, integrity, and honor in the lives of famous women in history. Our girls are seeing possibilities of their own futures, our young boys are learning to value and respect the lives of women. Of course we are building a love of reading and reading stamina. Again, don't tell the policy makers or legislators, because they sometimes struggle with the idea that free reading improves reading. At least they always leave it off their PowerPoint Presentations at PDs. Sometimes I wonder if they understand that the readers who love to read do better on those high-stakes assessments they love. It is just to hard to put love of reading into their SLOs. Why how we you test it? You could observe it of course, but that would qualitative data, Every Policymaker knows that qualitative data can't be measured on standardized test, or their PowerPoints.

Back to our Read-A-Thon, we started reading about great women in aviation in the fall, (you don’t have to wait for women's history month to learn about famous women. We have continue learning about women all year long. We read about Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Hazel Ying Lee, and Olga Custodio female aviators who broke new glass ceilings. We are not done yet; we discover others every day. American History is everyone’s story, and we celebrate all stories.   

The fact we were studying female aviators, might be might call this being WOKE Education to some people. I just call it good teaching. Now, Governor Ron DeSantis probably disapproves because each of these women had to overcome obstacles of sexism and racism, that sounds like being WOKE. Word is the Governor thinks that kind of learning might upset some children. After decades of teaching, I find learning about how people overcame sexism and racism motivates and lifts them. Children like the idea of people breaking barriers. 

Back to the parachutes, there is a learning theory called; "Hot cognition" a hypothesis on motivated reasoning in which a person's thinking is influenced by their emotional state." What we learn during positive emotional learning, stays with learners. The parachutes are just a door to build healthy respect for each other. I wager 20 years from now our children will remember Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Hazel Ying Lee, and Olga Custodio. BIG HINT Governor DeSantis, you can study Women's History without studying Sexism and Racism.  

I am an old schoolteacher unafraid of being WOKE,                                                                                   Dr. Jesse P. Turner                                                                                                                                     Uniting to Save Our Schools                                                                                                                         Badass Teacher  

Here is a link to some great books celebrating Women's History Month. > https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.readingrockets.org%2Fbooklists%2Fcelebrating-women-s-history-month-picture-book-biographies%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1j53zR6zvr7nzNWeGbZUbRJcfWWv3ZZDdQfemGJljAoPstT3mb3ZfBB4o&h=AT1WqsxQOTqI0xICTEJ2XjrtyAfXbc5SmVTW8Y8TKS7ZRltN43DJym4BJwmsCMXXkkhAerbiiPKm2nTtG_EJvsSVky3wG9f2-Fw_A6HOGhO41ykVnyhnOX76IQM8hILoM7u9un8TPyVrpA2F2g6yr2d4ILbBL_9Vc6k&__tn__=R*F 

If you want to listen to the song that inspire my morning walk this morning its Sam Cook cover of Blowing in the wind" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBDdLgBO0Nw

WOKE TEACHER ALERT: Governors DeSantis, Abbott, and Huckabee Sanders warned America about!

Dear Cohort Students, 

When governors, Sara Huckabee Sanders, Greg Abbot, and Ron DeSantis speak about fearing a WOKE Movement. Teachers, parents and students should reflect on where the term WOKE comes from. It is not a new term. 

It has been around since 1938. The root of the term WOKE: "Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". In 1938, the term “Stay Woke” was used in a protest song by Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter; aka Lead Belly. "These are the Scottsboro Boys." 

Black History is American History, and nothing any governor can do will change that. 

If WOKE means being alert to racial prejudice, then perhaps those who fear WOKE in our schools and government are SLEEP People, people who are comfortable with racism, and can't stand anyone alerted to racism. 

I am an educator who thinks conversations in our public schools about RACE, Gender, Immigration, Violence, Drugs, Sexism, and historical truths is not indoctrination, but the pathways to improving the lives of our young people. I guess I am one of those teachers’ governors Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis and Sara Huckabee Sanders are fear.

Just in case you like to know more about the Scottsboro Boys, and are afraid of being WOKE is is a link to Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys

Dear Anti Woke Governors, when you bury the truth, all you have succeeded in doing is planting the seed of a WOKE Nation. 

Dr. Jesse P. Turner 

Uniting to Save Our Schools 

Badass WOKE Teacher

If you want to listen to the tune I listen to this morning on my walk...its "Scottboro Boys" by Lead Belly. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrXfkPViFIE < 

Uniting to Save Our Schools Still Marching:Epic Broadcast 1/27/23

https://www.unitingtosaveourschools.org/about

We are not beaten, 
We are not tired,
We are not demoralized.
We are Uniting to Save Our Schools,
On a mission to lift every child, parent, teacher, and public school.
Ain't no Ed Reform Privatizing fools going to turn us around.
We are on FIRE.  

Uniting to Save Our Schools: the fight to make our nation’s school equitable and fair is ongoing and worthy. We are in this struggle to make our public schools places where every child regardless of their Race, Zip Code, Immigration status, Income, or identity a quality and equal education. Schools where everyone’s stories are valued and celebrated. We are the WOKE educators Ron DeSantis fears. 

In 2002 the United States Department of Education launch a Trillion Dollar No Child Left Behind Education Reform Bill that promised every child would be reading, writing, and doing match at grade level by January 1, 2014. These reforms would focus on a massive increase in the used of High-Stakes Testing and placed the blame for failing test scores on teachers and curriculums. All you need to know is that promise failed, and that trillion dollars made testing companies and publishers that biggest profits they had seen in decades. The scientific-based curriculums of NCLB were massive failures, but extremely profitable. 

See:  https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094038/index.asp

In 2009 Race to The Top became our nation’s new venture into education reform. Like NCLB it would focus deeply on Hight-Stakes Testing and forced our nation’s poorest public schools to compete for their survival. See: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED557422 

I want parents, teachers, legislators, and policymakers to know there were researchers, teachers, parents, teacher educators, and activists that fought back from day one of both NCLB and RTTT. We spoke up, wrote, presented at national and international conferences, and spoke out in communities across the nation. I know because I am one of them. By 2010, I grew tired of being ignored by policymakers, legislators, and school administrators. I decided to go back to my Civil Rights roots and do what activists have always done; I would use my feet. I would as Congress John L. Lewis said embark on a series of “Good Troubles”. See my letter to President Obama challenging RTTT policies: https://childrenaremorethantestscores.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-letter-to-president-obama-one-that.html 

In 2010, I walked 400 miles to protest the abusive High-Stakes testing Policies of No Child Left Behind and Race to The Top. On that walk a powerful coalition of educators, researchers, parents and even students emerged that brought 12.000 scholars, activists, teachers and parents to Washington DC in 2011 to fight against abusive education policies that force poor local community schools to compete against each. Abusive policies that place the blame on local community schools, their teachers and parents. That coalition was Save Our Schools, and it spur many others to form coalitions to fight abusive testing and inequity in our public schools. The future leaders of United Opt Out, NPE, Badass Teachers, Karen Lewis brought a whole crew of Chicago Teachers Union members, Journey 4, Justice, and many others were in DC in 2011. We had conference, rally and march in 2011. All were successful, and attendees shared ideas and strategies to fight back against education reforms that hurt children, teachers, and community schools. I would meet the most incredible Social Justice Education Warriors in 2011, and those warriors would launch a resistance movement. For a quick three-minute look at this historic moment in 2011 see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EumSu0t6Ec  Even Matt Damon showed up. See: https://vimeo.com/27164498 

From 2011 to today, Uniting to Save Our Schools has not stop fighting, or as Congressman John L. Lewis said getting into “Good Troubles”. 

Tomorrow morning, I am gust hosting the Tom Ficklin 103.5 FM New Haven Radio. My Guests will be two of my favorite “Good Troubles” USOSers. Tune in to hear where the struggle has been, and where we are taking our “Good Troubles” to next. Of course you don’t need to wait for the show to join the struggle visit our Uniting to Save Our Schools webpage, and join this Good Trouble voyage to save our public schools. See: https://www.unitingtosaveourschools.org/

I am a man on fire,                                                                                                                                         Dr. Jesse P. Turner                                                                                                                                    Uniting to Save Our Schools                                                                                                                    Badass Teacher                                                                                                                                        Fellow Good Troublemaker

If you like to hear the tune that inspire my morning walk its Roots cover of " Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOaKFuTcTYI