Grandfather, knew the value of field tips

 

“When a caterpillar bursts from its cocoon and discovers it has wings, it does not sit idly, hoping to one day turn back. It flies.” ~ Kelseyleigh Reber

For over a hundred years, the men in my family dug New York’s tunnels, walked the steel beams of the skyscrapers, painted the bridges, and cleaned chemical tanks in Jersey. This was my father. These men did these jobs with little or no protection. They drank hard, and many died early. My father would not see 63. He died of Tuberculosis, like so many others he knew.

My grandfather wanted something more, and he offered his grandson a universe of books. He walked me over to Steven’s College in Hoboken when I was 10 years old, doing poorly in school.

He took me inside, we went into an empty classroom, and he said, smell that. No paint, oils, or chemicals. It smells like a sweet clean, like a summer breeze. Are you taking this in Little Jess? Then we took a cold drink from a hallway fountain. Taste that, Little Jess, think about it; this water is always cold.

Little Jess, if I had my life to live over, I would walk and learn it all in these Ivy Walls. Then we went outside, found a spot on the perfectly manicured lawn, and laid back looking up at the sky. It was one of his most powerful, memorable lessons meant only for me.

We walked around the whole place, the sports fields, and every tree-lined path. He stopped at every status, read the names on every building. He said I have never been to Rome but made it to France during the war. I saw the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. There are many kinds of cathedrals. Universities are Catherfrals in some ways. They are my favorites.

We could see the New York Skyline from that college. He would point out the buildings and bridges he worked on, and say your father and Uncle Bill worked on that one with me.

As we left his cathedral that day, he turned us around to look back one last time. I had never walked on a college campus before. I had never seen anything like it, did not really understand most of it, but that old man planted a seed that day in his grandson. I learned about the value of field trips and cathedrals from him.

I love and deeply respect those laborers who built the bridges I ride on today. I learned about these Learning cathedrals from one of them. Not one of them ever stepped in my way. Instead, they encouraged the kid who loved books, the library and would learn to love school one day.

They were as proud of me as I am of them.

Here’s to the ones who built America,

Little Jess  

If you like to listen to the tune that inspired my morning walk today? Its Bruce Springsteen's " The River". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc6F47Z6PI4

Pandemic Teaching less than inspiring, but inequality always left Poor Children uninspired!

 

Jane Goodall said: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” A fellow academic at the end of the semester said he is extremely disappointed in his teachers' online lessons' quality. He said a majority of the lessons are uninspiring. I reminded him this is a pandemic crisis and then asked him about his lessons. Would he rate them as inspiring? I said my lessons are far from inspiring. At best, I am getting it done. He explained that he is getting it done. So, your lessons, my lessons, and most lessons being taught during this pandemic crisis are less inspiring and more about getting it done. I suggested that wasn't it really the same before COVID? I added how inspiring were lessons driven by testing and Common Core State Standards before the pandemic? Knowing he never ever challenged the negative influence of high-stakes testing and standards without equity. He has always been a status quo academic. He always ran to every policy workshop and never ever in the past 20-years questioned anything suggested. Our conversation ended with preach somewhere else, Jesse. I live in the real world. If there is one thing the real world does, my friend is leaving us uninspired. My inspiration comes from deciding not to merely teach the truth but to fight for it outside the schoolhouse world. How inspiring is it for poor children, their parents, and their teachers in knowing America spends less on their public education than the education of wealthy schools? Want inspired lessons, then give all public children all our children quality and equitable public education. Quality and equity are my cornerstones for inspiration in my book. Until then, the poor children and their teachers are on their own for inspiration. Inspiration in our public schools should not be something that children and teachers are on their own for. I do my best with my lessons, sometimes they get the job done, and sometimes they go beyond and may even inspire a few. Want inspiration in my lessons is often found when I share my battles outside the classroom for all children, all schools, and yes, all teachers. Inspiration requires teachers to fight the systemic and structural racism that supports this School to Prison Public School System. Inspiration requires more than teaching to get it done. Inspiration requires teachers to question injustice in the classroom, in the schoolhouse, and in the nation. Anything less is uninspiring, Dr. Jesse P. Turner Uniting to Save Our Schools

If you want to listen to the tune that inspired this walking man's morning walk today? Its Marvin Gaye's "What going on" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

Dear President-Elect Biden pick the Secretary who looks past the masses to the one child

 

Imagine if policymakers and legislators, saw the child, and not the test score?

I never ever tire of reading Loren Eiseley's The Starfish thrower. "A young girl was walking along the long stretch of a seashore one morning, where after a terrible storm, thousands of starfish had been washed ashore.

The striking aspect of the young girl’s walk is that,

As she walked along the beach,

She would pick up one starfish at a time and gently throw it back into the ocean.

An older gentleman observing her,

Approaches her, and out of curiosity,

He asked her why she was throwing the starfish into the ocean. The girl replies with urgency in her voice that, with the sun up and the tide declining, she needed to get these starfish in the water, or they would die.

“But young lady, do you not realize that there are many miles of beach and thousands of starfish? You cannot possibly make a difference.”

The girl listened.

But then, she bends down and picks up another starfish and throws it into the sea, and

She said, “It made a difference for that one”

At 65, the teacher in me, like the teacher I was at 65, understands that teaching and learning are not about the masses. It is always about making a difference one starfish at a time.

This is what our policymakers, legislators, and CEOs chasing test scores can understand. To them, it is an all or none kind of view.

These very people have failed to fully fund all public schools. They cry budget deficits every year, demanding teachers save all on the cheap. This we can't afford more leadership endlessly blaming teachers, children, parents, and those public schools for all society's ills. They are like that old broken vinyle record stuck on the same beat, And so am I. I have written see the child not the test scores 10,000 times. I shall not tire, I shall write it 10,000 more, The story of teaching and learning is not written in numbers, The story is always about one child at a time. At 65, like the teacher, I was at 25, I have always known,

We can't do the masses on the cheap.

But, making the difference to one-child looking up at any given moment of our teaching day,

We'll save one child at a time,

For 10,000 years,

Dr. Jesse P. Turner

CCSU Literacy Center Director If you like to listen to the tune that inspired my walk this morning through the snow? Its "We Shall Be know" cover by Thrive Choir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4xhQcgyoLk