Reading is the door to freedom

Frederick Douglass said: Once you learn to read, you are forever free
 

Random thought of this retired teacher. I use to teach high school students from the Tohono O'odham Reservation. My students were upset with their United States History Teacher who never glanced over Native American history in their course. They came to me, saying what can we do about him? I said I don't know about him, but I know what we can do. Let's read!.

So, we began reading Black Elk Speaks, the Lakota Medicine Man who created the Ghost Dance movement. A movement White leaders feared in the west and in Washington. We would learn together harsh truths, truths that brought awareness and pride to my students. Our reading not only opened their eyes, but my eyes as well. I began to see Native Americans in new brighter light. Reading not only transformed them, but me as well. By the way not one student complained about the reading. Black Elk was a primary source, that would spur endless more reading. 

"According to commanding General Miles, a "scuffle occurred between one deaf warrior who had [a] rifle in his hand and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a battle occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Spotted Elk, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prairie were hunted down and killed."[37]

We read Black Elks's narrative of the day. We saw his bravery and character when reading how with his sacred bow he rode into battle. We read how he saw a child in the open on its own in the snow with bullets passing near. In the mist of that gun fire from 4 massive Hotchkiss guns. He stopped, climbed down off his horse, moved the infant to safety, tied his scarf near the child, to be rescued later. He climb back up on his horse and continue charging soldiers. 

His sacred bow was not a functioing weapon, it was ceremonial. He would say the creator and his Ghost Dance Shirt protected him from any harm. My students began to spread the word at school, we discovered a second Wounded Knee, the Sand Creek Massacre, about AIM (The American Indian Movement and their occupation of Alcatraz. They proposed a mock trial for the Sand Creek Massacre. It was the era before high-stakes testing stole teaching and learning. So, we did it, and invited their families and the public. The more they read, the more hungered for more reading. They crave for innovative and meaningful way to respond publicly. They proposed an art project that would tell the story of the Trial of Tears, the Indian Removal Act, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson, the Navajo Long Walk. The size of their art project would take 1/3 of the space of an extremely large exhibit. It became the most visited exhibit, visitors let passionate reflections about powerful it was, how it was , truthful, harsh, sacred, and hopeful at the same time. 

Back to Black Elk, we learned Whites did not understand the Ghost Dance was not a physical rising, but a spiritual rising. A non-violent rising. Like today's members of ICE all they saw was skin color.  

Facing historical truth takes courage. It takes real courage to read, write, discuss, and respond to. Reading truth made my student BRAVE. Made me shameful, but proud that I was their teacher.

"After attempting to disarm the Lakota, who had been rounded up to be put on a reservation, a single rifle shot rang out - the U.S. troops immediately opened fire, indiscriminately firing on the large group.Four Hotchkiss guns [an early variant of machine gun, but with much larger rounds], joined in on the mass of tipis, randomly killing helpless women and children inside them. In addition, the killing continued as Natives tried to flee. An eyewitness wrote afterwards: “Helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers... Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk..."  

Up to 350 Native Americans were killed, over 200 of them women and children. Along with 20 Army troopers (the troopers died, mostly by their own friendly fire).

After the massacre, the U.S. Army awarded 20 Medals of Honor to soldiers who participated that day - a prestigious award, normally awarded “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty” - for the deliberate and wanton killing of unarmed men, and over 200 women, children, and babies. A massive stain on the honorable award, that continues to this day. "

If you like to learn more about my high school teaching day, see the link below to my dissertation "Inventing A transactional classroom: An Upward Bound, Native American Writing > Community https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/279997 <

30-years later, I have discovered they were my teachers, and truth inspires reading, 

Dr. Jesse P. Turner
Professor Emeritus Literacy, Elementary, and Early Childhood Education. 

If you like to listen to the song that played during those reading days...it is Robbie Roberson's It's a good day to die" >  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C34ryDYlR8g <

At 70 I know better...

 

We hear a great deal about teachers not being explicit enough, systematic enough, not keep fidelity to their scripted programs...  Policymakers, legislators, and CEOs of commercial learning programs promise that explicit systematic teaching guarantees learning.  Well they never knew my Momma.

When I was a boy, on a cool summer evening in Hoboken, Mom and the neighbors would sit on folding chairs outside our apartment building. I was safe there, we were all safe there. These women came from different places, had different faiths, but they were united by motherhood, and folding chairs... We lived two blocks from the train station, and the ferries. The world passed their chairs each evening ~ as their children played.

Mom would say hello to people passing, these women didn't judge each other or anyone else for that matter. "Hello" did not require you to have the same faith, the same skin color, the same language, or birthplace.

Here I am at 70, and I have well learned from them. No, not from their explicit instruction, but from their actions. She loved to ask me what I'd learnt at school each day, I would say 3 + 3 is 6, the moon is not a planet. She would say that is interesting son, but what did you learn? You can find out lots of things in books Mom. She liked that, remember that one! She was a believer of "We don't always learn what is taught; and often learn from what is not taught."

Listen, honestly, I am not against teaching explicitly. But we all know, there are lessons not listed on the lesson plan, and whoa do they matter! I doubt that I remember any of my teacher's lesson objectives, BUT their unwritten objectives, those are the ones that matter most...
Be kind,
Be respectful,
Try your best,
Remember to take turns,
Listen,
Wash your hands,
Share,
Be your best self,
Open the door for others.

Today, at 70, those lessons are etched into the very fabric of me.

My teachers taught me these, no teacher ever wrote them into their lesson plans.

These wonderful women sitting on their folding chairs, taught me these same lessons ~ without ever stating them.

Were they explicit? Let me just say, they lived their lessons in the authentic context of real world instruction. They never had to explain them, they lived them.

I learned from the best,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
Professor Emeritus of Literacy, Elementary, and Early Childhood Education
Mom's "Golden Boy"


If you like to listen to the tune, that inspired my morning walk, it was Crosby, Stills, and Nash 'Teach your children" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQOaUnSmJr8

Sending Out A Walking Man SOS

 

I met author Diane Ravitch in 2010 (in person) while she was speaking at Yale University.  After the event I asked her if there was a possibility that she might speak at the 2011 Save Our Schools Rally... I was being bold and shooting for the moon!  She did speak at the rally, and I have been following her ever since. 

In her 2020  book Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools, Ratvitch identifies me "as one of the David's, Fighting to Save Public Education" (pg: 61)

A vast amount of my ground resistance struggle is scattered across many different mediums of  social medial.  Finally, some 15 years later I now find myself  pulling those examples of my resistance altogether in once place!

This fight is far from over. I am still in the thick of being "A David"  slinging stones at the status quo who seek to dismantle our public school system. 

I still dream of a movement that occupies our court houses, legislative offices, governor mansions, and the United States Department of Education. 

I'm looking for some help/feedback ~  with this new website I am in the midst of building to bring all my stones together; one home to evoke a call to all Davids/Divadas ~ hurlings their stones. A place to remind the world that the Fight to Save our Public Schools is Our Good Fight. This is not my struggle this is Our Struggle. 

Here is the link to my "hub of sling shots" https://childrenaremorethantestscores.com Be easy on me... it is, as they say in social media "a work in progress". Please take a look, and feel free to comment and make content suggestions.  Most importantly, let me know about your resistance efforts. Maybe one day, we can all build a hub for all us Davids and Dividas. So if you have some time check my website and email me some suggestions as well. turnerj@ccsu.edu

We can't win this fight alone.  We will win it together! When we fight we win. 

Still Slinging Stones...

Dr. Jesse P. Turner (AKA The Walking Man)     

If you like to listen to the song that inspired my morning walk today, it is Barry Lane's Jesse Turner is a Walking Man > https://barrylane.bandcamp.com/track/jesse-turner-the-walkin-man <