Worn shoes and dog-eared pages

I have no time for any Education Deformer today. I will not rage against the machine this day. I'd rather write about shoes, and the pages of the lives we chose to live. I'd rather write about a man who was bigger than life, and never once passed a standardized test, but passed every test of love, honor, and dignity placed before him. 

Marcus Garvey, one of Jamaica's 7 national heroes, said, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots." 
I love walking in the woods, love the sound of birds singing, seeing the seasons change on the leaves of trees. They feed my soul. Books to me are like trees, they remind me how small a man I really am in the tapestry of life. Both feed my soul.
My grandfather said he judged a person by the wear on their shoes and the books they carried. The more worn the shoes, and dog-eared the pages in their books, the more he thought of them. 
On his death bed he asked me to read William Butler Yeats to him.  He was a World War I war veteran, his schooling ended in grade 6, but his education never ended. No longer able to stand in his well worn shoes on his last morning, he handed me his worn and torn, dog-eared book of Yeats poems.
"I can't see the lines any more."
" I can't see the page numbers"
" Little Jess, read me that Yeats poem 'A terrible beauty is born.'
I want to hear you read it to me”
So through my tears I read it like a prayer. I put my heart, my soul, and a 100 memories of him reading it to me into that reading. I watched as he drew his last breath. His last breath both broke and made me.
My roots grew strong in his presence. Although I have a few academic degrees, I am not a man of degrees.
Like him, I am a man with worn shoes, and the dog-eared pages of books that tell my story. I am a boy who knew a man with worn shoes and books full of dog-eared pages. A boy who knew a gentle giant he misses dearly. A boy who sometimes, while walking among the tress hears a voice calling "little Jess read to me".
So friends, find some time to walk among the trees, and fold a few pages in those books you carry.
Peace,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you like to hear what I listened to on my walk over the mountain today….it Simon and Garfunkle’s “The sound of silence” http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=sounds+of+silence+utube&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35

If a mother shouts for justice in the Youtube forest, and no one sees? Is her pain any less?

A mother of two arrested after confronting McDonald's President about poverty wages. Ten years to reach 8.25 an hour, and she can't afford shoes for herself.  He gets to drink Champagne, shrug it off, and she gets handcuffs . 

Perhaps I am alone, but I can't figure out why she is not on every news network, why the clergy is not marching, why our leaders are not standing by her side, and why we are not all shouting for a living wage? My own mother worked 6 days a week as a waitress collecting nickel and dime tips to put food on the table. It was never enough. With a husband and father who walked out on her she did what she could. There are no support payments in the house of poverty. Poor men disappear into some dark void. Working Mothers ride that late night bus alone, and their shoes come last in their world of love and pain. Take a look at the link below America?  Frederick Douglas that sacred voice of our past, that fugitive slave turned freeman, turned author: said: "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." Tell me do you see some lazy woman reeling in the dough, or do you see like me our nation's greatest shame?                                                                                                                                     

I give my heart, my love, my pen, and my words to the mothers who ride our late night buses. 

With the deepest respect,                                                                                                                                                           Jesse my mother's only son

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn4KnC1QmEU 

"I see redemption in an angel's eyes"

I see a working mother crying out,
I see my mother 50 years ago crying,
After 10 years she reaches 8.25 per hour,
After 10 years she can't afford shoes,

In this America, the home of richest, the most famous, and the most powerful, I see my shame,
I see our shame,
A mother shouting out for a raise to the elites, the connected, the powerful, the Golden 1%,
I feel her pain,
My mother's pain,
A pain that all mother's feel who can't make ends meet for their children,
Our children,
Let me tell you something Golden 1%,
This America is not your house;
It's our house,
Mi casa es tu casa,

This mother crying out for a raise,
This mother crying out for justice,
She is God's witness to our brutality,
She is God's witness to our injustice,
This mother,
This woman,
She is every mother,
She is God's Angel come to give us one last chance,
She is our American angel of redemption,

Some see her,
Some cannot,
Some stand with her,
More not,
Some saved,
More damned,

This American choice
Are we some soon to be fallen new Rome,
Or do we grab Langston Hughes last line of hope,
Let America be America,

Do we draw a line in the sand of equity?
Do we say enough is enough?
Do we stand with our mothers?
Or do we stand against our mothers,
Our angels of redemption?

I see a mother,
I see my mother,
I see all mothers,
I see an Angel,
I draw a line,
I stand on her side,
I stand with the angles of redemption,
Where do you stand America?

Jesse The Walking Man Turner 10/11/13

If you are wondering what the Walking is listening to on his walk over the mountain today. It's an old Irish one, we Irish sing sometimes after we had one too many, and our hearts fill with longing for our mothers lost. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWj4oN-mi84 <

John Merrow get off the Education Reform Status Quo fence

Well, Mr. Merrow, you missed the boat, the mark, and shot yourself in the foot with your blog about Diane Ravitch not being worthy of hero status.
You appear perplexed about teachers calling Diane Ravitch a hero. Perhaps you should be asking teachers. Why they are feeling under assault by many of the Ed Reformers you so often, have let off easy over the years?

She has stepped up to the plate for millions of teachers who feel our profession, our unions, and our professionalism is under attack. She is doing this during a time, when you and so many others seem to be playing it safe by sitting on that status quo fence of Education Reform. Staying on the fence never makes anyone a hero. I understand you never called yourself a hero. I just want you to know those people sitting on status quo fences can never be heroes.

One condition for being a hero is you need to get off the fence, and risk failure, and earned the love of the people by standing up for something worth fighting for. America's public school system is worth fighting for John. 

Dr. Ravitch, unlike most education reform pundits calls it like it is, takes on the education reform billionaire's club, and a status quo United States Department of Education that has spent 1.2 trillion dollars over a decade on policies that have failed to demonstrate real effects.

My five simple rules for being a hero for me are:

1. You stand for something that goes against the grain,

2. You fight for a truth that is not popular with the powerful and the mighty,

3. You give voice to the marginalized, 

4. You change people minds, including your own, and

5. Finally you are loved by millions.

Dr. Diane Ravitch's last two books, her endless quest to honor teachers and defend our public education system in every speech since 2010 changed my mind on her. You see John Merrow in 2010 I walked 400 miles from Connecticut to Washington DC to protest this testing reign of terror. The following year I would walk it again, and helped Save Our School March plan a DC conference, a rally, and a march to protest high stakes assessment. We had no major speaker for our conference. Then Diane Ravitch was speaking at Yale, and I ask her afterwards would you be a speaker for us. We could not pay for her to speak, or even pay for her travel and housing as well. All we could offer was a pat on the back, Her answer Mr. Merrow was YES.  You see Mr. Merrow, before she said YES she was just another respected education historian who failed to meet that final bar. You know rule number 5, to be loved by millions. That yes, and her passionate defense of our public education system in her last two books, and a thousand speeches honoring and defending our public schools and teachers met rule number 5. 

Counting myself as one of those that love her,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

For those interested in what song the Walking Man listened today on his walk, it was Mariah Carey's Hero http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IA3ZvCkRkQ

One standard for a nation

What would happen if our public schools focused on one standard instead of a series endless Common Core content facts? What if we focused on one standard deeply rooted in who we are as a nation? A standard that molded the character of generations of Americans. A standard that ended slavery, a standard that men and women have been imprisoned and died for. A standard that inspired presidents, workers, and a civil rights movenment. A standard that is more of a core belief rather than a fact. A standard we have never reached, but one our hands are always reaching for.

Here is my one standard America:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -The United State Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Am I alone in imagining a public school system that inspires our young people, not with some cowardly fear of not being competitive in some future world market, but with a curriculum rooted in the character of equality, life, liberty, and dare we even imagine the pursuit of happiness?

I bet one John Adams would applause my one standard. “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” ~ John Adams
No Common Core Groupie,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to know what the Walking Man listened to on his walk over the moutain today...it's Malvina Reynolds "Little Boxes" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM 

What is the value of one art teacher's life?

http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20130901/family-plans-lawsuit-against-bassett-unified-over-teachers-suicide
http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20130901/family-plans-lawsuit-against-bassett-unified-over-teachers-suicide

The link above is to an article of a young art teacher who recently commit suicide. The article is not one of those feel good teaching stories.  The teacher's family and her colleagues are pointing to bullying as the cause of her suicide.  Bullying not by her students; but her administrators.  As a father and an educator this story hurts.  I remember the day I graduated from college like it was yesterday. It was the day I became a teacher, my Mom and my three sisters were so proud of the fact that their little brother had become a teacher. Mom has since passed away, but my sisters never stopped bragging about their little brother being a teacher ~ even 30 years later.  It is a source of great pride in our family that one of us became a teacher.  My career choice isn't looked down upon, it was never looked at as some career back up plan, it always was and remains to this day my first choice. I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. 

My wife is also a teacher . We both have extremely rewarding careers in teaching. However, we advised our own daughter against  becoming a teacher. Just writing that line hurts.  But something dreadful has been happening in our schools these past few years, somthing has changed, not only for the children who attend our public schools, but for the staff who work in them too.

In a world of winners and losers, and chasing unattainable test scores.  Do we need to begin to prepare our future educators for Value Added Measures pressure? Restricted curriculums? And what about high stakes untested teacher evaluation programs?  Perhaps we should put a warning label on our profession "This career may dehumanize you, may crush you, may cause you great emotional pain, and even death" ~ is this where we are heading? 

Karen Babcock wrote on Facebook in response to this story: "There may be a few people who thrive under a winner takes all, race to the top, atmosphere. I would guess many of them land in "high stakes" jobs. Many people crumble under such pressure. Sometimes it doesn't end well. We are all unique in our temperament and what motivates us. But first we are all human. I hope our legacy is that we live up to that title. We've already lost some really, really good ones. Is the money really worth it?" 

My wife and I decidided not to push teaching, because of the emotional damage we began to see our colleagues suffering from.  It began to enter our profession via No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top.  

My immediate hope for our profession is that we start to help prepare our future teachers, counselors, and administrators to recognize the warning signs of depression and stress.  We need to help them understand that sometimes we need the help of others. 

My deepest prayer for our profession, is that we bring some humanity back into teaching, into our public schools, and into the lives of those children who attend them. Tragically for everyone involved, something breaks down when the purpose of education becomes simply a game of numbers. 

For Jennifer (in the article above) my prayer is that you forgive us for not warning you, for not fighting harder to save the humanity of our teaching profession. 

Jennifer Lenihan was an art teacher, 

A human being, 

A source of endless smiles for her parents. 

She brought color into a dark world, 

She brought light into darkness, and 

She opened young hearts to the joys of art.
In essence she is like a million other young teachers,

Filled with a heart full of dreams to make school a more humane place for our young people.
What did administrators do to welcome her into our profession during this time of insane testing mandates?
They harassed her!
What did they do to welcome her into our profession?

What did they do during this time of focusing on producing proficient little workers for the 21st century?

They did nothing,
They harassed her!

Jennifer is no different than every other young teacher entering our profession.
She deserved more,
They all deserve more
They should be embraced,
They should be welcomed,
They should be supported,
They should be treasured,
And yes they should be loved.

Farewell Jennifer Lenihan, may angels carry you to that place of peace, that place of love, that place of infinite color and beauty. And as Don McLean sang all those years ago, like Vincent Van Gogh "this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you"
Respectfully,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

 If you need to know what I listened to on my walk it was Don Mclean's Starry Starry Night > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi_P8XwrSCU < 

OMG, the faith of the world is in the hands of America's third graders

It has recently come to my attention that the weight of the whole world is hanging on our third grade students. It seems America grew lackadaisical with it's third graders. We let them spend years running, jumping, dreaming of home runs, touch downs, reading books for fun, and worst yet let them play outside at recess. Woe to childhood! Thus enters Wall Street's supermen and superwomen of Ed Reform. They have an army of super heroes know as Common Core Groupies. Now my super heroes are faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and can leap tall buildings in a single bound. These Groupies can't really do much, but cry wolf.  

These Common Core Groupies dream of a nation of proficient little third graders. It appears the very faith of the 21 first century depends on our public school third graders. These CC Groupies have some serious trouble with 8 year olds who just want to be 8.
Now remember these groupies have spent very little, or no time in third grade classrooms. It's not their fault they live very, very, very busy lives. They spend their days at ALEC happy hours, Ed Reform Think Tanks get together(s), and Pearson golf outings.
They love to discuss how third graders need to be ready for college. You have to feel for them. They are such timid little creatures. Their world is one of gloom and doom, where world markets collapse, and whole nations explode in chaos, because third graders in our public schools are not on task.
The good news it appears is 8 year-olds in private schools are born ready for college, so they don't have to worry about the Common Core. This is why no one is selling the Common Core to our nation's top private schools. You won't find it in their promo(s) to prospective students. They are above anything common. As for the other 99%, the Common Core is here to save our very common children.
God can you save our children from these groupies?
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Vf8cwTWRY If you like to listen to what the Walking Man listened to on his walk this morning, it was Barry Lane's More Than A Number. Sometimes when those Common Core Groupies start to get you down you just need a little Barry Lane,

Still marching with my SOS brothers and sisters

The news media cameras are all gone.
The crowds all gone home.
The press is gone searching for the next popular thing.
Sounds like they are already playing the minstrel role for war just days after our nation honored our prince of peace Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Be not mistaken America the dreamer's legacy has not been put to bed for another year.
Look around,
Listen to the people sing,
Open your ears and eyes,
The people are still marching.
Our nation's Fast Food workers are marching for a living wage.
Trayon Martin is at peace, but not the injustice that put him to rest.
In Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York parents and teachers are still marching to stop the closing of their schools.
My United Opt Out brothers and sisters are still marching,
My BATs brothers and sisters are still marching,
My Defending Public Education K to 16 are still marching,
My SOS brothers and Sisters who marched boldly in DC, are considering heeding Rev Sharpton's call to take this fight for justice and jobs on the road.
SOS is planning to go the Selma Bloody Sunday Jubilee.
While these Ed Deformers wave their flags of power, money, and political clout, SOSers have not stopped marching for our public schools.
They have chosen the slogan of Public Education Is A Civil Right.
Dr. King sad:
Cowardice asks the question is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right."
Ring every bell, shout it on every mountain top, call it out on every corner, SOSers ask only one question, is it right, and they have never stopped marching for what is Right.
Heed my words, Secretary Status Quo Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Paul Vallas, and every other Ed Deformer all roads lead to Selma.
Going to Selma,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Public Education Is A civil Right, not a choice, not a lottery, and it is not for sale. For those interested in why Selma see the following link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cNnG8xfy20

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to on his walk over the mountain today...it's the Roots version "Nobody gonna turn me around" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ6mhRZ8LjM 

See you in Selma people 

Have you heard about Crazy Common Core Groupies?

I saw this image at https://www.facebook.com/WomenHoldUpHalfTheSky with the caption A Girl with a book, and the following Oscar Wild quote "If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” 

It got me to thinking about these Common Core Groupies running around shouting Rigor, Rigor, Rigor. They certainly have no sense of vocabulary, or what a dictionary is. Any quick check of the meaning of rigor comes up with something like this:" 

Rigor 
Noun
hardship, harshness, severity, adversity; ordeal, misery, trial; discomfort, inconvenience, 

1 a mine operated under conditions of rigor: strictness, severity, stringency, toughness, harshness, rigidity, inflexibility, intransigence.

2 intellectual rigor: meticulousness, thoroughness, carefulness, diligence, scrupulousness, exactness, exactitude, precision, accuracy, correctness, strictness.

3 (rigors) the rigors of the journey: hardship, harshness, severity, adversity; ordeal, misery, trial; discomfort, inconvenience, privation.

If they did they might understand why early childhood experts think they are plain nuts. Actually early childhood experts viewed them as being absolutely, completely, totally crazy, wacko nuts! 

Early childhood experts can't see any parent saying bring on the 

Hardship,

Harshness, 

Severity,

Adversity; 

Misery, and 

Discomfort for my child. 

I hope this problem with the rigor thing is starting to make a little sense now. It certainly is not a word we should be using with young children. 

Now back to reading a book you enjoy over and over again. It appears these CC Groupies don't have time for anything, but this close reading thing. They are fanatical over it in fact. This close reading doesn't take into account any emotional connections to books. It's all objective for them. For example: when I finished reading Isabel Allende's "House of spirits" I was in between flights at O'Hara International Airport. I found myself crying uncontrollably so like any "too proud to cry" male I hid my tears under my jacket. It appears that was all wrong with them. They can't get past any type of enjoyment in reading. Now I did say enjoyment, but reading "Hosue of Spirits" made me sad enough to cry. How does that become enjoyment, well really sad books have a way of releasing happy tearful tears. Sort of like the blues, and I'm a big blues man. Now these CC Groupies can't take crying of any kind. Can't you hear them shouting: It's all about the information, the standards, and the test stupid.  Pleasing them would mean I should have focused on the factual information, and not get lost in the narrative of love, lost, and pain. They'll all objective about books; it's all about the information. Understand these are CEO types, they dream of a McEducation for every child. Every burger is the same size, every one cooked at the same temperature, and they all get flipped at the same time. McEducation is for everyone, but their children. Well that's me getting off the subject again. I do that when I write. I also do it when I read sometimes as well. Getting lost in books is equivalent to finding your soul. They'll never get that one. My apologies the subject is reading a book you enjoy over and over again. 

I have been working with struggling readers, their parents, and their teachers for over 30 years now. I can't remember one skill, one strategy, one phoneme, vowel, or vocabulary lesson that sparked a love of reading. That is not to say these things didn't help, but compared to discovering the right book these are grains of sand.

Now yes, the right book is important, but it's like a pebble really. That is when compared to the climate created by the right teacher/parent/friend/ that invites the reader into the right book. The right climate is a mountain compare to the right book. It's the Holy Grail of joining the literacy club. On the journey to becoming a reader who enjoys reading the sand becomes the pebbles, the pebble become the mountain. It all goes together. Remember reading is a complex process. Anyone telling you differently is nuts.   

Remember those CC Groupies they do get all up tight with enjoying reading anything. Heck if you expect to enjoy reading then you might expect to enjoy your job one day. Every teacher, knows that Common Core Heaven explicitly forbids it's groupies from enjoying anything about any one's future career. Everything about the future scares them. They live in constant fear of the 21st century despite living in it. Future careers are all about being college ready and globally competitive. I can't imagine inspiring young people by saying, "stay focused, or you won't be globally competitive" in the future. The future for me as a young kid was about being the heavy weight champion of the world, the next Elvis, and or the next Steve McQueen. This globally competitiveness thing would not have inspired me. Now I am doubly sure it wouldn't inspire today's young people.  

A quick review we have grains of sand, pebbles, and the mountain. Right?

Well together they become the magic that sparks reading for enjoyment. The magic is the invitation to join the literacy club. Oh, oh, I mentioned the Literacy Club again, this means I have to mention Frank Smith who happens to be a real literacy expert. These CC Groupies hate literacy experts. Actually CC Groupies hate just about any education expert. They hate researchers as well. They adore their CEO friends, Billionaires friends, and Ed Deformer friends. Now these Ed Deformers friends utterly hate "The Literacy Club." it's a Frank Smith metaphor describing the social nature of literacy learning. You see the problem don't you? You realize the word socialism has the word social in it. To these CC Groupies reading is a fierce competition, child against child, friend against friend, even family member against family member. Reading in the 21st century for CC Groupies is a survival of the fittest 

Everyone agrees reading is a complex process, and no one has a simple answer, but I have never met a reader who loves reading who never fell in love with at least one book. Now these Common Core groupies they don't have time for these things, they only have rigorous demands on students and teachers. Their mantra said over and over again a hundred times every hour is "We need rigorous standards and rigorous tests will save us". Sounds kind of corny to me actually. 
As for me well  I would go for the right book, right climate, even if the book is about Zombies. I wouldn't even mention the word zombies around these people. That's another story about their obsessive love of non-fiction books. I'll cover that, some other day people.  
Let me end by saying imagine a world where learning isn't a race, 
You know like in Finland. 
Oh, they are ranked number one in literacy.
  Emmmm, they might have something there. 

Still walking,

Jesse The Walking Man

If you are wondering what I am listening to today on my walk over the mountain it's all Barry Lane. 

http://barrylane.bandcamp.com/track/jesse-turner-the-walkin-man