Save Our Schools Still Marching to DC

NEA yesterday voted against supporting SOS's People's Education Convention. It appears some Florida delegates took to the floor claiming that SOS is a Michelle Rhee backed group.  This is complete fabrication.

Fred Klonsky a Chicago teacher, well known blogger, and bother to Mike Klonsky a member of the SOS National Steering Committee reported back via his blog:

"Q: What happened with the NBI supporting the SOS conference in Washington that is planned for August?

A: It got voted down.

Jane Watson, an SOS supporter and delegate from Washington state said simple NBI that didn't ask for much than an endorsement of the conference and putting a link to SOS on the NEA website. It seemed very non-controversial. I have to say that most delegates in the hall know very little about SOS.

Then somebody, I don't know who, offered an amendment to send the issue of working with SOS to the Executive Committee. I thought this was probably a good idea since the NEA had supported the SOS march in Washington and had a relationship with the organizers. But that was rejected by the delegates for reasons that had nothing to do with the issue of SOS itself and had more to do with RA rules.

But then suddenly a group of delegates from Florida - I don't know who they are - went to the mic and started blasting SOS. They claimed it was a Michelle Rhee front group. One claimed that the organization had "withered" since the Washington march and that Diane Ravitch has quit."

Diane Ravitch's message this morning suddenly makes perfect sense to me:

“I have had several emails from people at the NEA representative assembly asking me if I was no longer supportive of the Save Our Schools organization.  Apparently some delegate got up and said I had disassociated myself from the group. I replied that this was untrue.  I was invited to speak this summer, and I declined but that was no indication of a lack of support, just a wish to minimize travel during the summer.  I participated as the lead respondent in an SOS webinar on June 19. I think that is a show of support.  I support SOS.”

These outspoken Florida delegates have a great deal to answer for.  They got up to speak, and spewed lies; they cannot claim ignorance.  Who knows, maybe this being an election year has changed the waters at NEA.  The same NEA who last year fully endorsed SOS’s march on DC.

Let me emphatically repeat, SOS has not changed since our Washington march. Our principles remain the very same:

For the future of our children, we stand strong in support of:

1. EQUITABLE FUNDING FOR ALL PUBLIC SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

• ·       Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems
• ·       Full public funding of family and community support services
• ·       Full funding for 21st century school and neighborhood libraries
• ·       An end to economically and racially re-segregated schools 

2. AN END TO HIGH STAKES TESTING USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF STUDENT, TEACHER, AND SCHOOL EVALUATION

• ·       The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
• ·       An end to pay per test performance for teachers and administrators
• ·       An end to public school closures based upon test performance

3. TEACHER, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN FORMING PUBLIC EDUCATION POLICIES

• ·       Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation
• ·       Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding
• ·       An end to political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for teachers and administrators

4. CURRICULUM DEVELOPED FOR AND BY LOCAL SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

• ·       Support for teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies
• ·       Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential
• ·       Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students
• ·       Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities

What is new in 2012 at SOS?
A) We established a Civil Rights committee.  Why? Specifically because almost everything that is happening to children in our nation’s public schools is related to civil rights violations.

B) We created a Labor committee, to work on a platform that supports labor.  Why? Because we believe in unions.

C) We followed up on a promise made at last year’s SOS Congress.   Nancy Carlsson-Paige along with Deborah Meyer are currently working on our early childhood platform with our Early Childhood Committee.  

These were the three areas that SOSers felt we needed to strengthen after last years march.

Of course SOS still rejects No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top policies. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Save Our Schools Peoples Education Convention in DC. where children, parents, teachers and public schools are so much more important than lies, or politics!

Still marching, 

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

SOS March National Steering Committee

Poverty matters Secretary Let Them Eat Tests

Secretary Arne Duncan, and his crew have been focusing on the Common Core and more testing they somehow over looked the staggering statistic that for the first in American over 1 MILLION Children attending our public schools are homeless. Our nation's mainstream media and billionaires love to cite Secretary Status Quo Duncan's rhetoric as an indicator of successful Education Reform Policy.
Let's all make this perfectly clear saying poverty does not matter is failing 1 million children attending our public schools. You could fight for them, but you rather test them.
Testing and standards doesn't house them,
Testing and standards doesn't feed them,
Testing and standards doesn't put their parent back to work,
NCLB and RTTT 1 trillion dollars spent on testing and standards failed them,
You Secretary Duncan have failed them.
Don't believe the hype America,
Poverty matters!
Momma always always said there go I, but for the grace of god. The truth is the wealthy and the powerful don't say that. They can never see themselves as poor, as hungry, and this is why in their minds poverty is something they cannot comprehend.
Even when hungry, and not certain where we would sleep at night Momma always read us Matthew 25:35-40 " For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶  I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,^[a] you did it to me." 
So all of you 1% percenters remember this. There shall come a day when all we do shall be judged, and all we did not do shall be marks upon our souls.
Children are more than test scores, and the homeless children coming to our nation's public schools deserve more than the hype of new standards.
Still marching,
Jesse


If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to today on his walk...it's Woody Guthrie's I Ain't Got No Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTnVMulDTYA

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/28/homeless-students-us_n_1635709.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

I know a scam when I see it America

Our leaders worship the too big to fail bankers and Wall Street billionaires. You know the ones who closed our factories, made American workers pack up their machinery to be sent over seas. Those people, who forced our hard working brothers and sisters to train their replacements in China. Yeah, people you know- those wealthy Americans who can't get enough tax break patriots. The ones who say let the poor fend for themselves. 
Our politicians tell us to place our faith in the private sector heroes, the ones that brought us:
The Tech Bubble, 
The stock bubble, 
The real-estate bubble, and
The too big to fail banks,
Yeah the ones we bailed out,
The ones who borrow from our taxpayer backed Fed at near zero interest rates,
Those big corporations that our Supreme Court Justices label people, and said they can spend as much as they want to influence our elections. 
Now these bright ones, these judases, are saying firemen, policemen, nurses, and teachers should not be guaranteed pensions.
Now, I am no Ivy League graduate. I went to David E. Public School, graduated from James J. Ferris high school, and hold a few degrees from those state universities that they love to berate, but I know a scam when I see it. 
Wake my fellow Americans it's time to start respecting those that protect us from fire, from crime, clean our bedpans, and teach our children. 
I say the time for paying homage to Wall Street, bankers, and billionaires is over, and the time to vote the bums out is now.
No more tax breaks for billionaires,
Still walking,
Still talking,
Still writing,
Still marching,
And still ain't nobody gonna turn me around,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

On my walk today it was all Bruce Springteen's Rocky Ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0

Calling all angels

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

 If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening while walking today it is U2's If God will send his angels. >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hjvOzn7m6g<

I see leadership everywhere

That's the Walking Man on his walk to DC in 2010 crossing the Betsy Ross Bridge from Jersey to PA

In Valerie Strauss's article "The Answer Sheet" in the Washington Post,  she highlights the Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier blog where they exchange letters about their thoughts on education. It is one of the best blogs on education anywhere, and a real treat to read. >http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/<
In a letter Diane wrote to Deborah about the lobbying group ALEC's harmful influence on school reform she  ends with the question "where is the leadership that is opposing the privatization of America's public schools?" Below is my reply:


Dear Diane, as you know the leadership certainly won't be found in the offices of our elected officials, or on the mayoral controlled boards of education in any of our major cities. It won't be found among the politically appointed policy makers singing that mantra of "testing and standards will fix everything". It won’t be seen on CNN, MNBC, or Fox, who are all mezmorized by the spin doctors of ALEC, and their clients who pay their bills.   

No indeed, for the leadership that is opposing the privatization of our schools, you will need to look into the trenches of America’s local public schools.
On the social network blogs of parents, teachers, and activists online.
You find them Occupying and Say No to The Test with Opt Out.
10,000 of them were to be found marching in DC with SOS last July, and this August are planning a People's Education Convention in DC.
They are all over Facebook:
Teachers’ letters to Obama,
Children Are More Than Test Scores,
Testing is not Teaching,
Schools of Professional Conscience,
Save Our Schools ~ The Movement,
Parents Across America: Put The Parent Voice Back in Public Education
Save our Schools March, and Call To Action Causes,
wow ~ there are just too many to list here. 

You can find leadership:
Passing the anti Charter school resolutions at NAACP,
Mary Broderick the National Schools Board President writing a public letter to President Obama saying RTTT policies demonize teachers, and demoralize children,
At the National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA) Publishing An Alternative Vision for Public Education A Pastoral Letter on Federal Policy in Public Education: An Ecumenical Call for Justice.
Or the more than 1,400 New York State principals that signed a petition asking state education officials to rethink their reform agenda.
Like you I see it online at Colorofchange.org's campaign to tell corporations to stop funding ALEC.
I see it in the blog and books of Dr. Yong Zhao, Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Stephen Krashen, Nancy Carlsson Paige, Deborah Meier, and you Dr. Ravitch.
I read leadership in their written words, and I am hearing it everywhere they speak. 
I see it in the faces of the students, parents, and teachers fighting school closings all across our nation.


Leadership in the 21st century doesn't wear Armani suits, or make deals in the back rooms of our nation's DOEs, or city halls. New leadership is emerging in the nooks and crannies of democracy all across America, and it is growing every day, and it can’t be stopped. 
It’s the stuff that John Steinbeck wrote about in The Grapes of Wrath. When Jim Load says: “Whenever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. 
Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there . . . . 
I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'-
I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. 
An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build-why, I'll be there.”
Dearest Diane and Deborah the leadership is here, it's in you, it's in me, and every American who rejects the notion that the most important thing they did in school was take a standardized test. 
Let's tell it on every mountain top.  We can’t be silenced, and we can't be stopped. 
We are everywhere there is a child, parent, or teacher yelling they’re mad at a system that thinks the most important about a child is a test score. 
You want leadership, come to Save Our School People's Education Convention August 3-5 in Washington DC.  SOS is calling for a gathering of leaders from all corners of our democracy opposing this madness. 
To those who want to place a "For Sale" sign on our public schools. 
Tell the world we are planning to sign a declaration of independence from their testing madness, their top down management, their scheme to privatize our public schools, and we plan to take that declaration to every governor, every DOE, both political party conventions, and to every school board in the land. Let America know we are all walking to Save Our School in 2012!
Jesse Turner
The Save Our Schools March National Steering Committee 

Life is the test, not some Pearson Pineapple bubble sheet test

Education reformers want people to think success is all about the numbers, all about the victories, all about winning some imagined race against some imagined dangerous future. They educate through fear, they educate through humiliation, they educate by reducing children to test scores.
I reject their fear, I reject the way they define success. My thinking on success is that it is not so much about your victories, but your determination to keep getting back up after you have fallen. Every poor boy knows as long as you keep getting up you can’t be beat.
Our 16th President Abraham Lincoln was a poor boy who knew how to keep getting up.
Those fill in the bubble testing reformers could learn a great deal from Lincoln a man who never took any bubble test. For President Lincoln life was the test. I love this one from Chicken Soup For The Soul.

Abraham Lincoln never quits.

Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.
He could have quit many times – but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the United States history.

Here is a sketch of Lincoln’s road to the White House:

1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

1818 His mother died.

1831 Failed in business.

1832 Ran for state legislature – lost.

1832 Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

1834 Ran for state legislature again – won.
1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated.

1840 Sought to become elector – defeated.

1843 Ran for Congress – lost.

1846 Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job.

1848 Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.

1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.

1854 Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.

1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – get less than 100 votes.

1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.

1860 Elected president of the United St

Someone tell Secretary Status quo Duncan, that America's children and teachers are more than test scores.  

The Walking is 

Talking,

Walking,

blogging,

Marching,

And Save Our Schools March is going to hold a People's Education Convention in DC. Feel like joining the revolution email me at readdoctor@yahoo.com.

There are narratives, and there are narratives

My Momma said sometimes you have to testify. Sometimes you have to stand up in public, and through your tears and your pain you tell your story, your narrative son. Well this week in New York people have been testifying. There are narratives, and there are narratives. There is a war of silence in New York City’s appointed board of education. A war of you do not matter waged against some of our nation’s most battled narratives. The narratives of those from the bottom 99% are not welcomed in Mayor Bloomberg’s world of power and influence. He prefers his narratives sweet and squeaky clean. His narratives trade millions of dollars everyday. His narratives wear Armani, and Crockett & Jones Leeds shoes, and they never testify in public. The mayor is oblivious to the voice of Emma Lazarus that young Jewish poet whose poem sits at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Her sonnet in 1883 testified that America was a nation of new narratives, a nation where the most battled narratives of the 99% are welcomed. The mayor does not get it. He does not hear it. He cannot see it.  Those narratives are not welcomed in his City Hall, or at the Mayoral Controlled Board of Education. There are narratives, and there are narratives. The narratives of an appointed board of education were not the ones Emma Lazarus had in mind when she wrote her sonnet. The narratives of the appointed are not elected, and they are the narratives of privilege and power that are most welcomed at City Hall. They will not be found at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Well there are narratives, and there are narratives. Emma’s narratives don’t eat at Masa’s restaurant.  Where there are just 26 seats in an elegantly designed Japanese restaurant in the Time Warner Center. There is no menu; all diners will spend about 3 hours having an unparalleled omakase experience. Her narratives are not welcomed at the Masa.

I said there are narratives, and there are narratives. Some narratives are Brooklyn born. Some narratives beat the odds, some narratives like a phoenix rise from the ashes of poverty.  The narrative of Iran Rosario is one of those New York narratives the mayor just does not get. Mr. Rosario walked into Bushwick Community High School 14 year ago, and beat the odds. He testified this week before Mayor Bloomberg’s appointed board of privilege. His story is not unique really, his story is not unheard of, but his story is as American as apple pie. They don’t serve apple pie at Masa’s. He stood up, and told that board of appointed privilege: “Where would I be without this school family? I would be in jail. I would be dead,” said Iran Rosario, a tall bear of a man who wandered in here as a lost 18-year-old and now returned 14 years later as a teacher. “Friends tell you what you want to hear; family tells you what you need to hear. They did that for me, and saved my life.”

His narrative is about a man who became a teacher, his narrative is about a man who came to give back, and a man who testified to a board of privileged number crunchers. His narrative, and the narratives many others are on the the mayor's chopping block. There faiths will be decided by an appointed board that was selected by America's most privileged mayor on Thursday night?
The hope of Bushwick Community High School, a school where all narratives are welcomed and given the opportunity to be educated is on the chopping block. The Panel for Education Policy is controlled by Mayor Bloomberg, and is set to lay off the principal and half the staff. “Give department officials credit: they don’t really try to argue their indictment on the merits, but on the metrics — that is, test scores and graduation rates.” 

The Iran Rosario(s) are numbers, they are capital, and they are the unwanted narratives of a mayor and his appointed board of privilege. Somewhere there is a God who sees all. Somewhere there is a Jewish poet who loves the narratives of the tired, the poor, the wretched refuse, the homeless, and the tempest-tossed.  On Thursday night her lamp will be lit. The question is will the mayor’s appointed board snuff out the narratives Emma so clearly loved.
With the deepest Love, and respect for the narrative of one Iran Rosario,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what the Walking Man was listening to on his walk this morning it was Nappy Roots "Po Folks" that southern poor boy's national anthem. An anthem no one on the mayor's appointed board hears.

All my life been po’

But it really don’t matter no mo’

And they wonder why we act this way

Nappy Boys gon’ be okay

All my life been po’

But it really don’t matter no mo’

 

If you want to read the New York Times article about Bushwick Community High School click here: > http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/nyregion/pleading-for-the-life-of-a-brooklyn-high-school.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y &lt;

If you were a poor boy like me who beat the odds, a poor boy like me who owes his life to the teachers who gave voice to his narrative, and you want to hear Nappy Roots singing Po' Folks click here > http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=po%20folks%20youtube&tnr=21&vid=4635898054443071&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D4635898054443071%26id%3D9471b9eec45a27d9cc810be0f0393c57%26bid%3D%252bTa%252b6UbtToIvRQ%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253dQbN6VkleO48&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQbN6VkleO48&sigr=11ao94gln&newfp=1&tit=Nappy+Roots+-+Po%26%2339%3B+Folks+%28Video%29+w%2FAnthony+Hamilton  &lt;

Calling two presidents

A President to President happening this week clearly marks NCLB/RTTT as a failure that is taking public education in America in the wrong direction. The letter is well written, and summarizes a great deal of what parents, teachers, education activists, and educators from all walks of life have been saying for over a decade. Mary Broderick the National School Boards Association President echoes the policies of the previous two Secretaries of Education, (Secretary Page and Secretary Spelling), and our current Secretary of Education Duncan of the United States Department of Education as demonizing and demoralizing our nation’s children and teachers. The National School Boards Association is not some radical fringe group, they are a center of the road organzation that has for decades advocated for sane education policies. Mary Broderick wrote a public letter to President Obama that is calling for a national dialogue > http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/04/nsbas-president-letter-to-obama/ < She writes:

"I urge you to convene a national dialogue, not made up of politicians, but including the breadth of educational opinion, to reconsider our educational direction. I would love to help you do this. Let’s ensure that each child has the tools to be successful. Let’s marshal the nation’s brain power and tap into the research, proven practice, and demonstrated evidence of excellence."

I echo Mary Broderick NSBA President’s call for dialogue. I invite The National School Boards Association to join Save Our Schools March who are already holding that dialogue, and are marshaling parents, teachers, school leaders, and leaders from diverse communities to come to our nation's capital this August 3-5 for the People's Education Convention.

I also extend a sincere offer to President Obama to join us at the People's Education Convention as well. I have one condition only Mr. President leave the private sector CEOs home. This is a People's Education Convention, and we want the people's voice to be heard. The people are calling you Mr. President to join us in shaping the future of public education in America. We are calling our president, the one who began his career in that rich grassroots river of democracy to return to that river once again. We are calling you to the people’s river President Obama to wade in the waters of hope and the waters of change. We the people who also have the audacity to hope.

Please forgive us if we have become mistrustful of private sector partners, and the United States Department of Education. Over the past decade it is our belief that their leadership was and is rooted not in sincere dialogue, but in bullying, marginalizing diverse voices that led to an endless series of harmful insensitive top down mandates that have demoralized our nation's public schools. 
Please come President Obama, come hear the people’s view of what the current state of school reform has done to our children, teachers, public schools, and diverse communities. Come help us imagine change, come help build a new vision, a bottom up vision for a new direction for our public schools. Let’s us all build a vision of education reform that empowers children, teachers, all schools, and all communities.
Finally Mr. President we could use another voice with the audacity to hope at our convention. For Save Our Schools the mission has always been about putting the public, our parents, our teachers, our locally elected school boards, and diverse voices back into public education. We invite both you, and Mary Broderick NSBA President to join us at the People’s Education Convention this summer.
Sincerely
Jesse Turner

SOS National Steering Committee 

If people are wondering what the walking man was singing and listening to on his walk today as the sun broke through the clouds: It Mississipppi John Hurt " I shall not be move"

I love singing those words that inspire me, lift me, and point me on the road to hope and change:
Just like the tree,
I shall not be moved
Just like the tree,
I shall, shall not be moved
Just like this tree planted down the waters
Just like the tree,
I shall, shall not be moved

If you want to hear Mississippi John Hurt sing it:

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/colorado_mass_choir/#share 

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIF.ZpVPaFsASJX7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBrNHJqN2l0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZANWMTIz?p=Mississippi+John+hurt%27s++i+shall+not+be+move+utube&ei=utf-8&n=21&tnr=20

We are marching!

I am inspired by this image of Sisters Ceresta Smith and Morna McDemott walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This bridge is sacred ground in the Civil Rights movement. That bridge where Civil Rights marchers dared to march across a bridge for the right to vote. That sacred place where marchers were met with force, violence, and death on a Sunday. In Civil Rights history it is recorded as Sunday Bloody Sunday. That bridge where marchers have celebrated that march for 49 years. Ceresta and Morna are walking across that bridge to join the marchers. My heroes have always been marchers. We are on the march again readers. Listen well for the drum as we come your way.

Good morning readers, I walked up the Avon Mountain in Connecticut this morning. It's about a two hour walk, and it is a bit chilly in the morning, but once you reach the top the sun is up, and you can't help feeling warm and inspired. I greeted the sun in prayer, and I found myself more determined, more committed, with a heart full of grace ready to fight for America's children, parents, teachers, and public schools. Dr. Martin Luther King said:

"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. “

Save Our Schools is going back to our nation's capital to tell it on the mountain one more time. We will ring it out loud and clear; our children are more than test scores.  I am on their National Steering Committee, and SOS has decided to put it all on the table. To go to the mountain one more time. We are going to hold a Save Our Schools “Education Convention: A People’s Policy and Activism Summit.  Democracy is a series of actions. Democracy is something more than political parties, more than elections; democracy is rooted in a people willing to act. Is that not the dream our founding fathers hoped for when they stood against a mad king, and the world's most powerful nation the British Empire? Their dream was of a people acting together standing up to tyrants, and fighting for what is right, and just, and we follow in their footsteps.

Watch out Secretary Status Quo Duncan the Walking Man and his friends are coming back to DC. We are on a mission to take back our schools from those NCLB/RTTT moneychangers. We are on a mission, and we can and are taking back our public schools. You don't stand a chance Secretary Duncan. 

You don’t stand a chance Hedge Fund Billionaires.

You don’t stand a chance ALEC.
You don’t stand a chance you Pearson’s Common Core believers.
You don’t stand a chance you data managers.

The people are coming!

Now no one said the right to do is easy, on the contrary the right to do is never easy. It means rejecting silence, it means rejecting apathy, it means marching when everyone else falls.

We rise today ready to serve. We have great work to do, and America's children, parents, and teachers have placed their faith in people willing to do the right thing in the face of incredible odds. Trust the Walking Man when he tells you many have placed their faith in us. There is not a day that goes by without some parent, or some teacher saying thank you, and their thank you(s) are always about the work and hope that will make our schools more than testing factories.  So the mission remains we are going to make history in DC this summer, and we are going to save our schools, because it is the right thing to do, and we will do so with hearts full of grace and love. People I will need your help in this struggle in the coming months. I have placed my faith in a group of people that have always said walk Walking Man walk for our schools, walk for children, parents, and teachers. So listen for the sound of the drum, Children Are More Than Test Scores and Opt Out are on the march to DC with Save Our Schools.

Dedicated to Sisters Ceresta and Morna my fellow marchers on the road to DC.

Sincerely,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

For information on The People Education Convention check out http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=hcmjeneab&v=001JFE3cRrg5TI6rlCMoLYhxBEeerOw0iQNf5-2ye2AfsoVr_O3F50AdxGHaX-F3rkes6gs4VJONfdG04RVjQ1QjYRBcQpZQ6pkOh6EW_4br8NtL5DmrWMgCv3XpwVUMhVNU0gWUhKi8PaJZf1ZZ-FGg0mgTc_FPcU25Yu39sgJoeULybm4Ilfs-AAevEnQguyVuzALHMz5DpDeOlreS6yvzn0RYra_Q91eR8zrvs9dsYqwqO6rEFCTe5MOGcBC9as6

And if you really want to help just email me at readdoctor@yahoo.com 

If you are wondering what the Walking Man was listening to on his walk up the mountain this more it's The Impressions singing "People Get Ready" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q09rEi1dChE&feature=related 

We are blessed!

I began this day asking people to boycott ALEC member's products on Facebook, but by mid day ended up sharing my rise from poverty, because some ask me to share.

The start of the day

A decade ago parents ask for universal pre-school, and smaller class sizes. The Washington DC deceivers said that is too expensive. So a decade later of DC reforms America has spent nearly 10 trillion dollars on NCLB/RTTT school reforms that increase class size, and did not do anything to make universal pre-school a reality. However the profits of every testing company have gone through the roof, and campaign contributions to our politicians from those companies are at an all time high. The deceivers are laughing all the way to the bank. They think they have silenced children, parents, teachers, and school administrators. They have been to busy to notice the tidal wave coming. Judas took 30 silver pieces! How much have our leaders taken to sell out our children.
We can act.
We can make a difference.
We are not powerless.
We are the people.
No matter what the deceivers tell us we know,
We are a government for the people by the people.
There is not anything more powerful, more beautiful then the people.
I am calling you the beautiful, you the powerful, you the people to act.
Boycott the king of lobbying deceivers ALEC member's products people. Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, and McDonalds have pulled out, because the people told them we are boycotting your products. Today’s target is ATT! Stand up, speak up, email/call ATT, and tell ATT to withdraw from ALEC today, or you will switch. Go for it! It feels so good to let these people know we see through their lies.
Still learning, still teaching, still walking, still marching, still fighting, and now boycotting,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

My mid day sharing

Stefanie, you ask how did I beat the odds of getting out of poverty.

It’s a long story, but I’ll try to make it short.

Let me begin with Momma's five givens, and then my rise.

First and foremost no one climbs out of poverty alone.

Second poverty is not a crime; it is a cancer that left untreated will consume you.

Third poverty like cancer does not strip a human of their dignity.

Fourth people living in poverty like all people are loved by God. Many would even say they are more loved. I was blessed by God’s love from my first breath.

Fifth no human who holds fast to his or her faith and dignity can be beaten.

I may have growth up in poverty, but I was rich in love, faith, and people who cared. My father loved the bottle more than his family, and abandoned his wife, his daughters, and his only son. Let me also say no one can rise from poverty without forgiving others. I forgave him from day 1.

Yes, we knew homelessness, hunger, the thanksgiving without a turkey, the Christmas without a tree, winters without heat, and felt blessed by candles in the night.

There were neighbors who rescued me numerous times when I leaned too close to the gang bangers, drug dealers, and the damned. Like Mr Cruz: “Mijo, what are you doing here? Come with me stupid. These boys are nothing, but trouble. You don’t want me to talk to your Momma do you? I said come with me”

So I went with Mr. Cruz…

There go I, but for the grace of god.

There were times when my decision-making was off.

There were so many times I could have fallen.

Some how at those times Father Fitzgerald always popped around.
“Hey Jesse come walk with me, and let’s have a talk. We walk, and as we walked he fed my soul the parables.”

I think of Father Fritz when ever I sing Amazing Grace.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me....

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now, I see.”

Years later, I would follow his model, and walk those same streets keeping others from falling with Sister Antonelle and Brother Thomas at The Promise.

No one truly rises from poverty without giving back.

Now you need at least one person who would give up the very air she needed to breath if you needed it.

A person strong enough to have never hurt another, a person strong enough not to be consumed by racism in a world of hatred, a person who worked for minimum wage 12 hours a day six days a week.

A person who made her children see a loaf of Wonder Bread, and a jar of mayonnaise as a thanksgiving feast.

I would be nothing without a mother who loved me like a rock..

My Momma was a rock of love.

“My mama loves, she loves me

She gets down on her knees and hugs me

She loves me like a rock

She rocks me like the rock of ages”

No one can rise out of poverty without being loved.

I was blessed by the love of three sisters.

Three beautiful older sisters, three blessings, all who were smarter than me, and who in a just world would have gone further.

I cannot not begin to count the days they carried me on their shoulders. They walked me to school. They made sure my homework was done. On more than one occasion one of those sisters threaten to take down every gangster in the hood if they laid a hand on her little brother. She not only said it, and she could back it up as well.

There are not enough numbers to count the times I have been lifted by the women in my life. I stood on their shoulders. As I said I am blessed.

Finally, you need teachers and Liberians. You need people who make the boring meaningful.

When I thought being a man meant having the passion to fight everyday; Mr. Bass taught me passion is nothing without compassion. Mr. Bass opened the world of books to us all.

Mr. Bass taught us real men never raise their hands against another. Mr. Bass taught us the meaning of dignity through the reading of " To Kill A Mocking Bird". His lessons still guide my every walking hour.

I had many teachers some walked on water, others helped us be better walkers, and some we helped to walk, but everyone of them did the best they could with what they had. No one could ask anymore than that. Teachers are my heroes. They were all blessings sent by God’s angels.

Along side of teachers are librarians. 

The keepers of those hidden treasures those beautiful, beautiful books.

Liberians those saints, who turned the lights on and off, stacked the shelves, welcomed everyone, and always kept the heat on. Nothing fed a hungry heart like a great book, a good chair, and a warm room. Libraries are pieces of heaven fallen to earth.

Some might think I lived in poverty.

In my soul I know I was never poor.

I was blessed with a wealth of loving and caring people.

It is written in scripture that: “A man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

I was not born into poverty, but into God’s grace.

Sincerely blessed,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to know what the I am listening to on my walk today it On Rocky Ground by Bruce Springsteen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0&feature=player_embedded