Our children are not your profits, or your data they are our children

Salutations Readers, A little news from Michigan. check this link out:

When education reform is about politics, not children (column)

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/post_66.html

This blog is for the ones standing up to this madness

NCLB/RTTT has never been about our children. When you turn your nation's public schools into for profit ventures our children, parents, teachers, and our local communities lose. Public education should be something noble. An imperfect dream at best, but a dream worth fighting for in a democracy. Notice I said fighting for not selling! Schools for profit are just schools for profit. In schools for profit children become capital to be squeezed for profit. Lets all get something straight from the start- NCLB no matter how-well intentioned people claim it is ends up selling our children, our teachers, and our schools to the highest bidder. The currency use is test scores, and the profits come from a one trillion dollar slush fund allocation of federal dollars. People became rich off the misery of our children. I demand a full accounting of where, and to who every single dime went to. I demand a full disclosure of all political donations, and consultant fees paid to policy makers, lobbyists, and political campaigns as well. Anyone who spends time in our nation's classrooms and talking to students understands that our obsession with testing has brought nothing, but misery to the lives of America's children.

America is waking up. We smell the the phony education reform coffee that places for sale signs on our children, our teachers, and our schools all over our country. Children are more than test scores, and are certainly not capital to be squeezed. 

There are many battles being fought against NCLB/RTTT's Status Quo policy makers/profiteers these days. The amount of news about these battles is dizzying. Even MNBC's Education Nation can't cover it up any longer. Even Emperor Bloomberg in New York's is under siege these days. I find myself smiling proudly as I read about the efforts of parents, teachers, and community activists from sea to shinning sea that are fighting this madness that reduces our children test scores. SOSers are there at every battle as well. Bravo SOS Chicago, Washington, and Colorado you are rocking the nation. I am so very proud of all the parents and teachers showing up at every New York City, Boston, and Chicago mayoral controlled board of education meetings. You can see it all on Robert Lamothe's Teach documentary. Robert was out there documenting it all in from Boston to Wisconsin to DC. http://www.robertlamothe.net/rl/   Robert is a truth teller in our mists.  


I remember a time when I felt alone in this battle. When I spoke out against NCLB a decade ago I was one of the only voices in the room. The only real person fighting NCLB in those days was Susan Ohanian. She lit the only real beacon of resistance in the night for us all to follow on the very first night of darkness. Susan is a blessing. Anytime you think you are alone, or lost in this struggle go to http://susanohanian.org/  Susan Ohanian is truth leading us from the mists. 


I remember a decade ago thinking how can so many good people be buying this idea that testing our children more will save them...What I missed back then was the term "buying."  NCLB is not just snake oil school reform it is about placing a big for sale sign on our public schools and children. The good news, and yes there is good news everyday~ we are winning. I can see it on policy maker's faces, hear it in their voices, but most of all you can see it in the room at every public forum. I am not saying the battle is over. Actually I am saying the battle is only really beginning. Forgive me using a sport metaphor here, but like Muhammad Ali our jabs are wearing them down. Ali took the early blows from the mighty George Forman, and then use his jabs to bring the giant down. Keep Jabbing Michigan,
New York, 
Colorado, 
Arizona, 
Florida, 
California, 
Texas, 
Chicago, 
Indiana,
Washington state,
Washington DC,
Chester Pennsylvania, 
Connecticut,
Georgia,
New Jersey, 
Wisconsin, 
Luisiana, and 
Georgia keep jabbing brothers and sister keep jabbing. 


On Tuesday I gave public testimony at the Connecticut Department State Department of Education at the ESEA Waiver Hearings. It was my usual children are more than test scores. Assessment is a photo album of performance, and is about time we start valuing the voices of teachers and students in the data. Want the turth go ask a child about how they feel about all this testing? On Tuesday I saw the first sign of winning in Connecticut. Policy makers shifted from Race To The Top to ESEA terminology. Policy makers and politicians are learning the old slogan "No Child Left Behind" kills anything they have to say, and so does using "Race To The Top" as well. Now we are far from victory here, but we are winning. 
I said you can see in the room. Well 10 years ago I stood alone in a room like that one at a Connecticut Reading Association conference session that presented NCLB as the word of god. Speaking out against NCLB meant standing alone. Momma always said it's not who your standing with, but what your standing for that counts. Back then I spoke alone. Last Tuesday everyone spoke out against NCLB/RTTT, new teacher evaluations schemes, new standards, and new assessments. We did not win any battles that day, but man we like Ali we "floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee," and we are jabbing so fast they don't know left from right, or up from down. 
We are at the tipping point, and their scams, their lies, and bullying are coming  an end. The NCLB Status Quo Walls are tumbling down on them. 
If you want to see what democracy looks like check parents and teachers at the NYC PEP meeting last night 2/9/12: http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/02/video-of-protests-at-pep-meeting-last.html
Can someone let Secretary Status Quo Arne Duncan know I'm coming to DC?

Still jabbing,
Jesse

One for my old school brothers:

If you are wondering what the Walkingman is listening to today on his walk...it's Des"ree's You Gotta Be Strong: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Vdw0hZk20&feature=related

"Listen as your day unfolds,
Try to keep your head up to the sky...
Challenge what your future holds,
Lovers they may cause you tears,
Go ahead release your fears,
Stand up and be challenged
Dont be ashamed to cry..

You gotta be, you gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser,
You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together,
All I know all I know is love will save the day.
You gotta be hard you gotta be tough you gotta be stronger,

Herald what your mamma said,
Read the books your father read,
Try to solve the puzzles in your own sweet mind,
Others take a different view,
Some may have more cash than you,
My oh my, hey hey hey,
you gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser,

You gotta be hard you gotta be tough you gotta be stronger,
All I know all I know is love will save the day.
You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together,"

 you like I said we gotta keep jabbing,

Jesse

Somebody Call the Secretary of the Status Quo Arne Duncan

I  wonder if Secretary Duncan understands the issue of equity? Has he even read the NAACP January resolution on charter schools? The prize is and has always been equity not some race to nowhere that leaves some schools with more funding, more supports, wrap around services, and more segregated than ever before. I salute the leadership of the NAACP for reminding America the prize is not test scores, but equity.
So friends copy and paste this one to every DOE in the nation? The Status Quo is NCLB, and has run the show for over a dozen years now.
The Status Quo in DC has spent over a trillion dollars on new testing and standards all the while ignoring inequity in our schools.
Secretary Status Quo Duncan had his chance to change the status quo, but instead has done everything in his power to maintain and to preserve a system of inequity.
See you in DC March 30-April 2 Mr. Status Quo at Occupy the DC DOE,
Still marching,

Jesse 

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 4805 MT. HOPE DRIVE • BALTIMORE, MD 21215-3297 • (410) 580-5777

LEON W RUSSELL

Chairman, Resolutions Committee National Board of Directors

BENJAMIN TODD JEALOUS

President & Chief Executive Officer

ROSLYN M. BROCK

Chairman, Board of Directors

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely-recognized grassroots based civil rights organization. Formed in 1909 by a multiracial group of progressive thinkers, the NAACP is a nonprofit organization established with the objective of ensuring the political, educational, social, and economic equality of people of color. For over 102 years, the NAACP has challenged this nation to uphold its promise of equal opportunity toward the goal of eliminating racial prejudice and removing all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.

In a process established by the NAACP Constitution, this resolution was adopted by the delegates to the 101st Annual Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, during the legislative session in July, 2010. It was subsequently ratified by the NAACP National Board of Directors at its meeting on October 15, 2010. This resolution is now the policy of the Association, and is “binding on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, the Officers, and all units.”

WHEREAS, charter schools are public schools which were originally designed to explore new approaches to educate students; and

WHEREAS, in some cases, charter schools have become a school model that is used to segregate students; and

WHEREAS, charter schools have too seldom informed the education community regarding innovative instructional strategies that accelerate academic achievement in the general population of students; and

WHEREAS, the Center for Research in Educational Outcomes (CREDO) which examined charter school data in fifteen (15) states and the District of Columbia confirmed that only 17% of the charter school students in the study outperformed their peers, while 46% performed no better and 37% performed worse; and

Charter SchoolsWHEREAS, charter schools operate more autonomously than traditional public schools in the use of funds, adherence to state laws and school policies, selection and removal of students, and the selection and removal of staff, thus creating separate and unequal conditions for success; and

WHEREAS, charter schools draw funding away from already underfunded traditional public schools; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP recognizes that at best, quality charter schools serve only a small percentage of children of color and disadvantaged students for whom the NAACP advocates relative to said population left behind in failing schools; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP recognizes the urgent need to provide quality education for all children, not only those fortunate enough to win lotteries to attend existing quality charter schools; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP is committed to finding broad based, effective solutions for immediate implementation to improve the quality of public education for all children.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP will strongly advocate for immediate, overarching improvements to the existing public education system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP rejects the emphasis on charter schools as the vanguard approach for the education of children, instead of focusing attention, funding, and policy advocacy on improving existing, low performing public schools and will work through local, state and federal legislative processes to ensure that all public schools are provided the necessary funding, support and autonomy necessary to educate all students; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP will urge all of its Units to work to support public schools throughout the nation to educate all children to their highest potential.

Roslyn M. Brock Chairman National Board of Directors

Leon Russell Benjamin Todd Jealous Chairman President & CEO Committee on Resolutions

If you are wondering what I was listening to on my walk this morning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130J-FdZDtY&feature=related
Still marching Momma, and still listening, and still believing in that dream,
Jesse 

Spread the word Occupy the DC DOE this March 30 to April 2

My Momma loved listening to Dr. Martin Luther King on our little black and white TV. She would have us all down on our knees in prayer every time someone arrested, or did something mean to him.
It was like we knew Dr. king personally, and in some ways I think we all knew him. I grew up in a house with a missing father. Her thinking was there could be no better role model for her only son than Martin.
She brought us a 33 vinyl record album of Dr. King's "I have a dream speech", and we listened to it on Sunday afternoons after church. We listened as we looked through images of that speech in the only Life magazine we ever had in that old apartment.
She told us every once in awhile a man needed to take stand and testify before his brothers and sisters. We only have to do it once in awhile. Now she was sure to let us know Martin did it every single day. The only picture of a black man in our house was of Martin. His picture was right next to the Pope's picture.
She cried for weeks after Martin was assassinated. We all cried, and I still find myself crying some nights.
Like my Momma said every once in awhile a man has to take a stand, and testify. Well this spring I am going to tell it on a mountain at Occupy the DOE in DC. I have carried the hurt of a thousand children, a thousand parents, and a thousand teachers inside of me for over a decade of NCLB. I have walked, talked, blogged, and now I am going to testify and occupy the DOE with my brothers and sisters.

Come one, come all, and if you can't make it to DC then make a sign, grab a friend, and occupy a DOE near you for an hour or two in your state.
Come tell it on a mountain that the people are taking back their public schools.
Still walking, still marching, and ready to occupy the DOE,
Jesse   
 For a peek at the schedule for Occupy the DOE click
http://unitedoptout.com/occupy-the-doe-in-dc-schedule-march-30th-to-april-2nd-2012/

If you are wondering what the walking man was listening to just before he testified at the Connecticut State Department of Education ESEA Waiver hearing:
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=blind%20boys%20utube%20go%20tell%20it%20on%20a%20mountain&tnr=21&vid=1442126955610&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D1442126955610%26id%3D94f1b0e79849e499b0d795877a685dfd%26bid%3D8pAYjCWjK8TXFg%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253drgESkVmFnsQ&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrgESkVmFnsQ&sigr=11a6ca197&newfp=1&tit=Go+Tell+it+on+the+Mountain+-+The+Blind+Boys+of+Alabama
Sometimes a man has to testify, and tell it like it is. A trillion NCLB dollars later all DC has to offer is more of the same old same old. Come tell it on every mountain top that their old NCLB/RTTT Status Quo has to go!

America's children deserve real art teachers in real art classrooms

http://ilraiseyourhand.org/content/line-art-course-you-drawing-sculpture-and-photography-me

The above is a story titled "An On-Line Art Course for You, Drawing, Sculpture and Photography for Me" The story goes on to explain that students are required to take an online art class, because they have no art teachers. An art class is required for graduation. I wonder how many children of our leaders in Congress, the Senate, and the White house are taking online art classes at their schools?

John Adams said: "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." Something deep inside me thinks John Adams would object to schools in the 21st century without real art teachers.

The United States Department of Education has spent nearly 1 trillion federal dollars, (a number that many mathematicians call too big to work with) on NCLB reforms over the last 12 years. I find myself wondering how any school could lack the resources to hire real art teachers. Something is rotten with a reform policy that spends 1 trillion dollars on our schools, but the leaves many schools without the resources to hire real art teachers!
Now lets also consider that federal funds only accounts for about 10% of our tax dollars spent on public schools. This means we have spent nearly 10 trillion dollars on NCLB/RTTT reform mandates, but the best some schools can offer students is a mandated online art course.
Am I the only person that wants a forensic audit of every dime spent on a decade of this nonsense?
If we pull back the curtain from the DOE in DC we might just find a good old boys network of thieves laughing all the way to the bank.
The real tragedy is not the lost of money, but the suffering of America's children.
Children are more than test scores, and they deserve real art teachers in real classrooms.
Ready to occupy the DOE,
Jesse

Readers if you are wondering what I am listening to, and visualizing on my walk today it a little Vicent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM
Don Mcleans Vicent
" (Writers: DON MCLEAN, ENRICO NASCIMBENI, ROBERTO VECCHIONI)

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

Now I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant
For one as beautiful as you

10 Trillion dolars of NCLB/RTTT reforms..anyone feel it was money well spent

"Parents say Loudoun officials reaching too far to stop school tardies" 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/parents-say-loudoun-officials-reaching-too-far-to-stop-school-tardies/2012/02/03/gIQAMUUmpQ_story.html

So it's lets all start blaming the parents again. Next week it will be let's blame the teachers week, and let's not forget the children.
Have you noticed it's never look in the mirror at a decade of NCLB Status Quo  reform policies that have spent a trillion dollars in DC?  They love that "Smoke and Mirror" song of keep blaming everyone, but the DOE.
Since NCLB only accounts for around 10% of school funding nationally that means our nation has spent nearly 10 trillion dollars on NCLB/RTTT when you add in state and local funding.
We could have reduce class sizes,
We could have hired a 100,000 more teachers,
We could have hired a million tutors,
We could have offered every college students free tuition for 20 hours of tutoring a week for 4 years?
We could have funded summer school programs in every community in the USA,
But instead our United States Department of Education decided testing children more is the way to go!
Do any of you feel like America got it's money worth from DC school reforms?
Don't you think it's time to take back our schools from these policy making failures?
I am going to occupy the DOE in DC this 3/30, 3/31, 4/1 & 4/2!
If you are in DC this spring as put the public back in public education?
Jesse
If you are wondering what the Walking man is listening today on his walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPRaI
That's right a Little Twisted Sister "We're not gonna take it anymore"

There go I before the grace of god!

http://www.epi.org/blog/snap-food-stamps-economy-poverty/

My Thoughts about politicians calling us a Food Stamp nation:

Once we had a war on poverty in America. 
Once we were the envy of the world.
We were far from perfect, but we were trying.
Then we stop trying. 
Our leaders ended the war on poverty, and began a war on the poor.
A people became apathetic.
The people remained silent during this war.
Being poor became something to ridicule.
Poverty became an excuse.
People no longer said "there go I, but by the grace of god"..
People began instead to point fingers at the poor.
Our nation lost it's way. 


We were warned:


Matthew 25:41-45 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.’”



When that final day comes when all nations, and all people are called to judgement what reply shall we give to our lord?
Shall we say we favored the 1%, we gave them tax breaks, and privileges, and everyday we dreamed of being one of them? We worshiped them, we spent endless hours watching reality shows about them. 
We envied them. 
We are not a food stamp nation, but we are a nation in denial of our responsibility to the our poor, elderly, and our most needy.


Still walking,


Jesse

If you are wondering what I am listening and singing along to on my walk today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug7IgB8MfWE

I hear the crying of the hungry in the deserts where they're wandering.
Hear them crying out for heaven's own benevolence upon them.
Hear destructive power prevailing, I hear fools falsely hailing.
To the crooked wits of tyrants when they call.

I hear them all
I hear them all
I hear them all
I hear them all, and I'm still marching,
Jesse


PS here is a link to how we help the 1% keep wages low; 
http://front.moveon.org/the-secret-that-job-creators-like-walmart-wont-tell-you/#.Ty2SxzeBq5U.facebook

The DOE's organ grinder and school reformer dancing monkeys

Richard Rothstein research associate of the Economic Policy Institute expresses his concerns about NCLB stating:

 “Assuming systemic failure to justify a frenzy of ill-considered reforms, we've spent almost no time investigating what caused these trends. We can only speculate. Rather than spending such energy imagining how schools have failed, so we can fix them, we might devote attention to investigating what schools have done well, so we can do more of it. Rothstein is not generalizing he is using decades of NEAP data to share that the achievement gap was closing faster pre-NCLB than post. Check it out for yourself:

http://www.epi.org/blog/reformers-playbook-failing-schools-facts/

One wonders when the DOE in DC might begin to look at the data as well rather than repeating the unproven mantras of the so-call school choice movement. Isn’t it time we grade the DOE in Washington? Three Secretaries of Education, a decade of failure, and nearly a trillion dollars spent for closing a achievement gap that was closing faster before they arrived.

Let me start with L for lies, P Ponzi schemes, and F for failure.

What is your grade for the DOE?   

Wondering what the Walkingman was listening today on his walk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCj_QEcuhNQ

"When I was a young man  Just gotten out  I didn't know  What this world was all about  I was lied to, I was cheated  I played all kinds of fools  It didn't take me long  To learn the rules"  
Fool me once, shame on you  Fool me twice, shame on me"

New verse people

Fool us once Pageshame on youFool us twice SpellingShame on usFool us three times Duncan

    Get ready for a fight

Ain't nobody gonna turn me around

The more things change, the more they remain the same.   In Raleigh, NC,  this week  a coalition of ministers and community leaders asked the Wake County School Board and the District Attorney's Office to seek mediation instead of trials for 30 protesters arrested at school board meetings in 2010. 

before you read the rest of my blog please read more here: 

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/24/1803530/coalition-calls-for-mediation.html#storylink=cpy‎

I salute my brothers and sisters in Raleigh who understand the value of Civil Disobedience. 

"Ain't nobody gonna turn me around" My Mom taught me about Civil Disobedience when I was 8 years old. Her lesson began on Good Friday, April 12, 1963, as we sat and watched TV and saw that Dr. King had being arrested with Ralph Abernathy by Police Commissioner Bull Connor for demonstrating without a permit, I could see how genuinely upset my Mom was.  I asked her "Why did they keep arresting him?"

and I remember her reply "Little Jess, the way I see it,  Dr. King's arrest is like that bible story when King Darius decreed that no one could pray to any God for thirty days.  But the good Daniel continued to pray to our Lord in defiance.  The king then cast Daniel into the lion's den.  Everyone thought Daniel would be killed, but they did not know God was on Daniel's side.  That big old lion just walked over to Daniel and sat down beside him, letting everyone know that Daniel and those like Daniel are safe."

She told me how Dr. King was probably reading that very bible passage in jail right now, as he sat in his jail cell.   "Come on" she said to me, "Let's be like Dr. King and read that passage,  we need to pray to the Lord to deliver Dr. King from the lion's den."  My Mom, way back then, recognized Civil Disobedience, and made darn sure her son understood it too! 

Bravo to those brave ministers, hats off to those community leaders who like Daniel continue to step into the lion's den in Raleigh and everywhere else around our country. 

My very favorite Teacher "Dorothy Menosky" always  loves to say "Not everything that is taught is learned, and not everything that is learned is taught."  There are many resistance lessons all around us in this struggle to tell our leaders that America's Children are More Than Test Scores. Don't believe the hype ~ learn the lessons.
Ready to occupy the DOE,
Jesse 

If you want to know what I was listening to on my walk today: 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/205787/music-and-the-arts-the-freedom-singers-aint-gonna-let-nobody-turn-me-around

My feet is my only carriage

In our world of world of top down NCLB/RTTT education reform we find children, parents, teachers, community activists, and educators silenced, marginalized, and locked out of any meaningful discussion on education policy.  In a world gone mad I walk for change, I write for change, I will occupy for change this spring. Silence and apathy are not acceptable when it comes to our children. 
While walking in Ireland and visiting Occupy in Dublin I found myself singing Bob Marley's "Woman No Cry"...the line I keep hearing is "My feet is my only carriage... So I've got to push on through". 
When you are silenced, when you are locked out of the debate you learn to become a torn in the lion's foot. You become a constant reminder that all is not what it seems to these Top Down Reformers. If you read my blog, follow "Children Are More Than Test Scores" on Facebook, and know my work with Save Our Schools then you know my thorn story. Like Bob Marley I understand my feet is my only carriage, and like Marley I keep hearing those redemption songs. They remind me I am not alone. 

On my walks I break the silence placed upon me with song, scripture, and by reading the stories of the oppressed.  The lord said to Joshua " Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, niether thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee wither soever thou goest." 

Today I want to share two other thorns in the feet of our education Policy makers in DC with my readers. The first is the untold story of school reform in New Orleans where parents and the Southern Poverty Law Center are moving forward with their law suit against the Louisiana State Board of Education seeking access to equal education for the special needs children of New Orleans.   

http://web1.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/judge-denies-motion-to-dismiss-splc-suit-seeking-equal-education-for-special-needs-students

Parents will not be silence. Look out parents in Florida New Orleans is the model Florida legislators have in mind with their so called "parent trigger law". I salute the SPLC and the parents of Special Needs Children in the city of New Orleans for their courage to fight back. They are not alone. 

The second Thorn story is a mother blogger who has kept on fighting against a Charter School no one really seems to want in her community except for a millionaire real estate magnet. She has fought tirelessly to expose lie after lie told on the application for a new charter repeatedly denied by the state of New Jersey, but who somehow managed to get 600,000 dollars from The United States Department of Education. "Mother Crusader" writes: 

" I Never intended to become a parent advocate until I watched the great schools in my little town come under attack. The more I learned about what was happening the more I read. The more I read the more I saw how what is happening here is tied to towns across not only New Jersey, but the country. And now I'm in the thick of it, and I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing." Read about this her thorn story. 

http://mothercrusader.blogspot.com/2012/01/arne-can-you-hear-me.html?spref=tw

This is not about Charter Vs regular public schools this is about silencing children, parents, and teachers. Not all charters are bad, and not all public schools are good. The question for me is when will our policy makers start helping to improve all our schools by supporting them. This might be the last struggle to keep the public in our public schools. 

Silence and apathy are not acceptable when it comes to our children.

 Today on my walk I listen to bob Marley's No Woman No Cry... and just in case you want to see Bob sing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGqrvn3q1oo&feature=player_embedded#!

I sing no woman no cry...My feet are my only carriage...so I got to push on...and the Walking Man says to his brothers and sisters we are not alone. We are the thorns that stop those mighty lions in their tracks. We are the truth, and we are still marching,

Jesse

Salutations to occupiers everywhere

Salutations and Happy New Year to all you beautiful Occupiers everywhere.

A teacher named Ruby from Indiana asked people on a listserve "if libraries in their areas charged fees"?  Her library charged fees, and required three year renewals.  Libraries here in Connecticut do not charge fees, and update old cards without any real hassle.  What does all this really mean? For me it demonstrates a growing meanness that is destroying everything public, an attack on the general good, an affront to our humanity as a people. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in the Great Gatsby... "Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revelry of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken..."

There is no question in my mind "Occupy" has become a new emerging narrative, one that questions the worship of success being defined as money and power. My thinking is,  America is always at a cross road between meanness and kindness.  "Occupy" is an emerging narrative at that cross road that those in power feel the need to mock, because "Occupy" makes it hard for them to look at themselves in the mirror. Occupiers revealed the ugliness of the gluttony of the powerful and wealthy, and it also reveals some of our own shame. 

If Fitzgerald were writing "The Great Gatsby" today, the word occupy might very well be the only word under those eyes of the divine on that billboard outside George Wilson's home. 

I agree with Gandhi when he said: "Poverty is the worst form of violence." I see this attack on all things public as a violent attack on the poor. Things like fees and renewals serve only to discourage the poor from entering our libraries. 

I remember one freezing winter, a long time ago,  when my family had no heat in our little apartment.  It was the library that kept my sisters and I warm after school while my mother was at work. If my Mom had to pay a fee at the library she would not have been able to pay it. Instead my sisters and I would have sat in a freezing apartment surrounded by cold walls devoid of any books. Public spaces such as libraries,  do so much  more than keep its patrons warm; they help to make us who we are. 

The ladies at our library knew that we were there for much more than just books... These librarians made extra sure my sisters and I were welcomed every day. "Salutations- to the Turner family are you coming to discover your next great adventure? We have your usual table by the window reserved just for you" they would say to us each and every day.  One day I asked her “Mrs. Johnson what does Salutations mean?” ….”Well my little man let me introduce you to "Charlotte" your next great adventure.”…  Those wonderful librarians made sure a little boy who was without a hat or gloves in the midst of a cold winter was given a brand new pair of gloves.  Gloves that just happened to be his size... and had somehow mysteriously showed up in the lost and found... The faith of those librarians was never shaken, and those gloves made sure my faith in humanity remains unshaken today. 

We too can make a difference, by living unshaken lives. By teaching, by sharing, by questioning, and the random acts of kindness we do every single day. My heroes have always been those acts of kindness known as teachers and librarians. Today I am adding those brave occupiers of public spaces everywhere to my hero list. 

Still marching, still walking, and soon to be occupier at the DOE this spring with Opt Out,
Jesse 

The above photo (somewhat blurred) is of me, saluting an occupier from Occupy Dame Street, in Dublin, Ireland, on 12/30/11. 

Walking song of the day "I hear them all by the Crow Medicine Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug7IgB8MfWE 
For those wishing to join us for Occupy The DOE in DC this March 30, 31, and April 1 & 2: 
http://unitedoptout.com/uncategorized/occupy-doe-rules-of-engagement/