What
is the problem with school reform policy Walking Man?
Politicians,
policy makers, private sector entities have come to view the resistance of
parents, teachers, educators, advocates and activists for public schools to
their proposals as defenders of the status
quo. What they deny is that it is they themselves who, through their plans
and legislative actions over the past quarter century, have become the chief
perpetrators of the status quo.
Legislation such as No Child Left Behind and policies such as Race to the Top,
and aspects of state legislation across the nation being enacted presently may
be similarly indicted: they do not work. In reality, they constitute a major
obstacle to school improvement.
Walking Man what makes this the major obstacle to school improvement?
The
economist Noreena Hertz, in her 2011 Ted Talk indicates
that relying too much on experts can be limiting and even dangerous. She calls
for us to start democratizing expertise to listen not only to "surgeons
and CEOs, but also to shop staff" (2011). My thinking is, she is on to something here with the democratic process. Her Ted Talk goes on to suggest that when experts
enter the conversation, people become quiet. The democratic process actually
becomes stymied. Potential problems and pitfalls are never discussed. The experts give us the answers; and all our problems are solved. If only life were that
simple. Those necessary insightful questions that help inform expert thinking
need to come from the very people who are most effected by those expert
opinions that shape their policies. In current
education reform leadership circles, children, parents, teachers, educators,
and diverse communities find their voices are not being valued. Good doctors
talk with their patients ~ not at them. Let’s all make something perfectly clear here, our politicians, policy makers, government bureaucrats, and so called private sectors
partners, need to listen carefully, and value the voices of children, parents,
teachers, advocates, activists, local schools, and diverse voices. I'd like
to make clear a fact about the current crop of educational
leadership in DC, and state capitals, regarding their claim to expertise. A great number of the dominant voices currently shaping our education reform policy have little,
and sometimes no experience whatsoever, of having actually worked in classrooms. Am I wrong to expect that these so called experts have spent many years in the field, that they now claim to be leading? It is unimaginable to think that
politicians would ever impose a leadership on the United State Marine Corps that has
never served in the Marines, or any other branch of the Armed Services. Our military would not accept that type of pretense leadership. Now we must ask ourselves, why is it that educators should ever accept this kind of pretense leadership? We now have
a Secretary of Education who has never worked in a public school classroom. Our Governor here in Connecticut, just this year, appointed a lawyer who had previously served on a charter school board, with no
classroom experience, as our Commissioner of Education. He is the highest ranking education official in the state of Connecticut. These appointments mark our nation’s educational
leadership, and expertise, as suspicious ~ to say the very least.
Our public schools are not their labs, where they can experiment with a Celebrity Apprentice approach to leadership. Such inexperience leads to these mandated policies on our nation’s public schools. Such leadership does not have the confidence to handle constructive criticisms from the field that they
themselves have little experience with. Many of these leaders make the choice not to ever send their own children to the very public schools that they are now leading. My mother would always say "you don't dine where the chef doesn't eat his own cooking." We should be very cautious of such leadership.
So Walking Man, why aren’t the experts
listening?
The simple truth is, that children, parents, teachers, educators, and diverse voices do not have a
seat at the Policy Making Table. Education Reform is now the preserve of
lobbyists, sometimes dressed up as corporate leaders and representatives of
interested foundations. Teachers,
children and parents are voiceless in current education reforms
circles. They are little more than photo opps, or groups to be ignored at
best. They lack the resources to respond to educational abuses being
perpetrated; their role is merely to be held responsible for them. They do not
have access to the airwaves, as do the politicians, or the access to those
powerful entities whose electoral interests are placed over the public interest.
What can we do Walking Man?
We find ourselves frustrated by
politicians, policy makers and these private sector entities, that have marginalized and
silenced any opposition to their plans. We are groups of resisters, students,
parents, teachers, activists, and educators in higher education that are banning
together, taking action in the democratic ways, and fighting to be heard and
respected in shaping policy in education. Our aim is to end what Kevin Welner has
referred to as, the dead-end educational policies by which our government has become consumed. SOS aims to gather parents, classroom teachers, school
administrators, school board leaders, civil right advocates, and yes students
to turn the spotlight on a select range of possibilities that exist for the
improvement of schooling. We have grown tired of the private entities and their Celebrity Apprentice Approach to education reform. Our perspectives are based
in large part upon research that has been developed over the past quarter
century, and a sincere inclusive listening process that values all voices. As Marcus Garvey that great Pam Africanist said: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery". We can resist, we can gather, we can take back our schools, and we can emancipate our children from the mental slavery of meaningless testing.
Why
is SOS holding a People’s Education Convention Walking Man?
First let me remind you that SOS leader,
like every other resistance group opposing NCLB/RTTT has never stopped marching. Like
so many others, we are immersed in serious local resistance struggles. Struggles against
state policies that are bent on destroying our system of public education. Many
have come to believe this is a struggle to preserve our very democracy. This is a
fight for students to be unique, to be different, to hold on to their individualities, and most of all to allow our children to hold on to their childhood. No speaker at last year’s conference/rally has even rested for one minute. Jonathan Kozol, Diane
Ravitch, Nancy Carlssom-Paige, Angela Valenzuela, John Kuhn, Deborah Meier, Pedro Noguera, Jose Vilson, Linda
Darling-Hammond, and Rita Solnet, everyone of them continue the fight each and every day against this
insane policies that reduce our children and their teachers to test scores. Neither has any SOS march organizer rested since last year’s event. They continue to be relentless fighters in this
struggle to take back our schools. We are in a thousand places fighting a
thousand battles ~ every single day. Mainstream media lacks the ability to piece the vastness and the diversity of our resistance
into their world of 30-second sound bites.
We need the People's Education Convention
to bring the mighty voices of resistance together in one place. A gathering
in one place to present a united front of one vision with many voices.
A vision that rejects the naive and flawed notion
- that the best measure of our children, or their teachers is a test
score.
- that forces schools to compete for resources as the path to
equity.
- that more testing, and new standards will save us,
or solve the issues of hunger, lack of health care, inequality, or poverty.
Many voices not
becoming one, but sharing their individual truths, and fighting together
against those who are currently placing For Sale signs on our public schools. Many voices on a
mission that seeks to rewrite the current narrative of education reform, as it silences, marginalizes, and disrespects the voices of the American People. If I had my way, I would call it a Gathering of Angels August 3-5, Washington, DC. I am calling "all angels" to come join us in DC this
August, outside the White House, as we present our call for New Education Reform, a narrative that respects children, parents, teachers, educators, local
schools, and diverse communities.
SOSers have known no rest. I have
personally marched, protested, testified, occupied the US Department Of Education,
and collaborated with many others in my state, to resist this madness driving the
most disrespectful education reform in our nation's history. I’ll be speaking at Occupy New Haven in CT this Sunday. Every SOSer is fighting locally, and working to bring
this fight right to our nation’s capital. Make no mistake, everything
that is happening to us locally is rooted in a decade of the failed federal polices
of the current and two former Secretaries of Education. There is no rest in this struggle against
NCLB/RTTT, and these so called reformers that place "For Sale" signs on our
public schools.
Will
you be there Walking Man?
You will find the Walking Man at the
People’s Education Convention in our nation’s capital this August 3-5. And then on
August 6, I’ll wake up and continue fighting. I’ll keep fighting this madness that
reduces our children to test scores until the "People" have a real say in the
policies that shape Public Education in America.
Still marching,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
