Day 14 is dedicated to the one and only E.A. Reynolds West Side High School and their great principal, Jean Schutt McTavish.

What does activism look like?
It's a fellowship of walkers for justice not just more testing.
It looks like

Rosalie Friend of SOS walking 10 miles with me,
It looks like Gretchen Merenthaler and Fred Smith walking five sharing the tales and stories of Change The Stakes,
It looks like SOS National Steering Committee member Michael Shaw joining for the last five miles, and speaking turth to power at our press conference at New York City Hall,
It look like retired teacher Council member Danny Drumm saying preach it Walking Man.
It's looks Michael Elliot with his back pack of cameras, microphones, and video cameras.
It looks like Darla Shaw and her husband driving down from Connecticut for a press conference.

What does it feel like?
It feels like tired feet,
It feels like hope resting as you break bread with your fellow walkers at the Metro Diner in Manhattan,
It feel like hope and love growing in your heart.

What does love look Walking Man?
It looks like walkers walking for justice not just more testing?
It looks like E.A. Reynolds West Side High School School Principal Jean Schutte Tavish greeting you at the door with smoothies.
It looks like 30 beautiful smiling teachers running out to greet you, thank you, and to welcome you into their school.
It's look like sitting on the school steps holding a welcome Walking Man banner.
It's looks 30 teachers saying give us that "We Are Marching In The Light" sermon Jesse.

What does love sound like Walking Man?
It sounds like we love our students here,
It sounds like we love our school here,
It sounds like we love our principal here,
It sounds like we love our work here.

Walking Man, tell us where hope lives?
Teachers, teachers hope lives in:
Your eyes,
Your welcoming smiles,
Your warm embraces,
Love grows strong here at EA Reynolds West Side High School,
I see love everywhere here.

Walking Man, tell us where inspiration lives?
Teachers, teachers inspiration  lives in you,
Lives in your students,
Your school, and in each other,
Your inspiration overpowers me,
It comforts me,
It inspires me.

What is transformation and when does it begin?
Teachers, teachers, it already began on the front steps of your high school,
It was already in your heart long before the Walking Man knocked at your school door.
You who gave your heart all year long to your students,
The ones no one else wanted,
The ones you transformed.
You are transformation walking in this world.

Perhaps you thought this Walking Man brought it to you?
No, no, no, you brought it to him.

Perhaps you thought this Walking Man was bringing love to you?
No, no, no, you brought it to him.
Perhaps you thought this Walking Man would inspire you?
No, no, no, you inspired him.
On this my 14 day of my 400 mile walk to DC,
I give this 10-miles to Principal Jean Schutte Tavish and her glorious, loving, caring, awe inspiring E.A. Reynolds West Side School teachers.

I am humbled by your love, your light, and your hope.
On day 14 when my feet were tired I found love, rest, nourishment in an Oasis called E.A. Reynolds West Side High School.
On day 14 the Lord led me to the steps of hope outside your school doors.
Love,
Love,
Love,
Walking to DC,
Jesse

If you want to hear what this Walking Man listened to on his walk to today. It's The Omage community youth Choir singing "Love Rescue Me" https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AknxIzxU10Ja7D26VXD0Y0ebvZx4?p=Utube+love+rescue+me&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1
Truth be told I found tears rolling down my eyes as I heard a story of my Grandfather's hometown. Perhaps music and stories are the magic that lifts us up. Perhaps One Man Walking In The Name of Love does matter? 

Day 13 dedicated to Jamaal Bowman the Lion who defends childhood look like in the Bronx

Day 13 of my walk to DC is dedicated to Principal Jamaal Bowman, his compassionate teachers, and the children of The Corner Stone Academy for social Action. This walking man found himself lifted by those beautiful roses growing in the Bronx, the future, the children. Today 10 is for our roses.

Abdul Kalam said: “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

Abdul Kalam said: “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

If America cannot lift Black and Latin fathers, mothers, and teachers, then it cannot lift up their children.

In Selma we sing at the Jubilee Education Summit every year:

Fathers you're not too heavy

Mothers you're not to heavy

Teachers you're not too heavy

We will lift you up

I have been moved to tears time and time again in Selma every time we sing:

You're not heavy

We will lift you up!

What does leadership that lifts up Black and Latino children look like?

It looks like Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman.
 

What does true moral leadership look like?

What does leadership that heals, inspires, and lifts those fathers, mothers, and teachers look like?
It looks like Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman.

What does moral leadership look like in our public schools?

What does compassionate leadership look like in our public schools?

What does a defender of childhood look like in our public schools?
Who is the Lion who defends the childhood of Young Black and Latino minds in the Bronx?

Who educates the body, the kids, and the souls of young Black and Latino children in the Bronx?
Who loves New York's beautiful Bronx roses that grow between the cracks in New York City cement streets?

I met that Lion yesterday at Crotona Park in the Bronx?
What does it mean to lift Black and Latin fathers and mothers up?
It means you lift up their children.
It means you let children run, jump, play, and learn.
What does it mean it mean to lift up teachers?
It means you help them lift up the children they teach.
It means you focus on the Whole Child.
It means nourishing a school culture where teachers can teach.
It means nourishing a school culture where teachers can be compassionate.
It means nourishing a school culture where teaching and learning becomes immersed in a love of children, a love of parents, a love of teachers, and a love of what childhood is meant to be.
Imagine school reforms policies that fight that culture of love of what childhood should be?
I am walking to DC fighting for what childhood ought to be, and yesterday I found leadership that gets it, leadership that walks the walk, talks the talk of “children you’re not heavy, we will lift you up.
Lord I thank you for sending me an army of children, teachers, activists, and that Lion Jamaal Bowman to lift my walk for justice not just more tests yesterday.
Thank you children and teachers from the Corner Stone Academy for Social Action for lifting me up,
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love to DC,
Jesse

What is the walking man listening to today? It's the roar of a Lion protecting the pride.
Today I am reading Jamaal Bowman's " The Tryanny of an Empty Park; A Play Manifesto by Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman"
https://www.facebook.com/mark.naison.5/posts/10153125799043800

My Day 12 heroes talk the talk, walk the walk, and they live near you!

Day 12 belongs to the grassroots activists I find everywhere I walk. These are my day 12 heroes. 
America’s corporate education reformers, policy makers, testing company CEOs believe that they hold every key, but this is not the way I see it.  The view from on the ground is an uprising of the people calling for change in our schools.   At every turn I see a beautiful tapestry of my people, a beautiful tapestry of America’s people, a glorious tapestry of Black, White, Brown, Yellow and every thread in between.  I hear our children, I hear our parents, and hear our teachers at every step of this journey to DC.
Corporate reformers love their Comic Book heroes; they are forever waiting Superman but me I have found real heroes.
I find them in America’s schools, at music festivals, on country roads, on busy city streets, in back yard gardens, in church halls, and in our libraries from Connecticut to DC.
 
My hero’s are not driven by data walls,
My heroes are not driven by profit margins,
My heroes are driven by,
Hope and love.
Their only desire is to do right by America’s children.
My heroes believe in school equity, my heroes hand out flyers, knock on doors, and spread the word that schools can be more than a race to the bottom.

They are young,

They are old,

They are tall,

They are shot,

They come all faiths;
They are on the left,

They are on the right, and they are in between.
My heroes are not hedge fund managers,

My heroes are not secretaries and commissioners of education,

My heroes are not legislators,

My heroes are not millionaires,

They do not play golf with millionaires,

They do not fly in corporate jets,

They do not Play pickup basketball games what Hollywood stars,

They do not have the White House on speed dial,

My heroes are parents, who cannot afford to send their children to an elite private school.

My heroes are teachers who have to buy their own art supplies, pencils and the paper for their classrooms.

My hero’s are found in kindergartens to high schools all across America doing the best they can do every day,

My heroes are more than test scores,

My heroes are not your data, and
My heroes are not your profits.

The intellect of my heroes is far too big for those tiny bubbles your standardized test.
The potentials of my heroes cannot measured by America’s CEOs.
They are our future,
They are hope walking,
They are our children,
They are our teachers, and
They want their public schools back.

My heroes defend local public schools,

My heroes fight high-stakes testing,

My heroes want justice not more tests,
My heroes are beautiful,
My heroes inspire me,

My heroes are tireless, and
My heroes will not rest until they take back our classrooms and public schools.

Today this 10 miles is for every grassroots education activist who speaks up, who knocks on doors, hands out the flyers, and spreads the truth about our public schools,
I am sincerely humbled by the parents, the teachers, the activists who use social media, knock on doors, hand out the flyers of hope and leading our resistance.
Walking to DC,
Jesse 

If you want to know what tune this walking man sang on his walk from Yonkers to the Bronx? It's Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfjU3_XOaA < 

Day 11, I know courage when I see it. Mr. Gus Morales is courage walking in this world!

The story of Mr. Gus Morales, union leader, teacher extraordinaire, defender of Holyoke public schools is well documented.
Read his tale, recognize his truth, feel his strength, and know his heart  
> http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/06/over_100_holyoke_public_school.html <

Cesar Chavez said: “Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.”

Day number 11 is dedicated to my hero Gus Morales a teacher who refused silence and apathy.
A teacher standing up for his students,

His fellow teachers, and
His community.
In this age of high stakes assessment where children are reduced to test scores,
This age where America's children are sorted into tidy little boxes of:
Below Proficiency,
At Proficiency, or
Above proficiency. 
In this age where the "corporate bullies" they make profits from our children, and their data,
Where teachers must be silent,
Mr. Gus Morales stood up,
Mr. Gus Morales spoke up.
In this age of high stakes testing where apathy and silence rules,
Gus Morales fights for our children, our schools, and our communities,
Mr. Gus Morales is unafraid,
Speaks truth to power,
Stands taller than the rest. 
Mr. Gus Morales a teacher of teachers speaks for the powerless,
Speaks for the hopeless,
Speaks for the disenfranchised,

Speaks for our children,
Speaks for our teachers and
Stands strong for our public schools.

Mr. Gus Morales a teacher who reminds teachers what it means to defend public education,
What it means to defend students, and
What it means to defend our public schools.
This ten miles is all for Mr. Morales our hero,
Our beacon of honor,
Our sword of truth,
Our noble knight standing at the gate challenging all who dare to crush the dreams and hopes of our children.
This ten is for you Gus,
This ten is yours my brother,
This ten is for our role model of what teachers should be.
This ten is for our role model of what union leadership should be.
This ten is for a son of Cesar Chevez’s “The future is ours”
Sincerely another son of Chevez,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Yesterday at the Clear Water Festival I saw Gus Morales's letter of non-renewal online, yesterday I read the words of oppression trying to strike fear in every teacher across America. Yesterday I recognized greatness, recognized real power, recognized what a hero really is, yesterday I walked ten miles for Mr. Gus Morales a teacher's hero. If you want to know what this walking man listened to on his walk yesterday it was Enrique Iglesias's "Hero" 
https://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=utube+hero+songs

A tale of two men, one who sees data, and one who sees children.

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Day number 10 is dedicated to the most amazing people, the people who have inspired me for as long as I can remember, our children in our public schools.
Today I give 10 miles to our nation's children.
You have always lifted me higher.
You have always helped me smile. 

You amaze and inspire me to walk to DC in the name of love.

My blog today is dedicated to our nation's students in our public schools. 

A tale of two men

As Secretary of Education Arne Duncan goes about his work in DC he meets with the powerful, the mighty, the wealthy. He wears his Giorgio Armani suits, and plays the occasional pick up basketball game with Congressional leaders, Senators, and even with the President.

He goes about his day wheeling and dealing billions of our tax dollars. He is a busy man far too important to spend any real time with teachers, parents, and children. When his day is done he smiles thinking about the important deals he made.

While Arne wines and dines the Corporate Elite I am walking to Washingto DC to protest the testing deals deals he makes. While he listens to billionaires, I am walking and listening to students, parents, and teachers. While he collects free lunches, I am collecting the narratives of resistance to his testing house of pain polices.  400 miles on the road, no limousines, no high powered lunches with the powerful and the connected, no calls from the White House, just two feet Walking to DC in the Name of Love. These Education Reformers have had the floor for 13 years, spent over a trillion dollars, and the data is in on their reforms. Their Education reforms have left our schools more segregated and our high school students knowing their reforms have not score this low in over 4 decades. Every curricula reform they have tried show either no effects, or a lost. While Secretary Arne Duncan dances with the elite, our children, our teachers our most needy public schools are being demoralized, humiliated, and abandon with every dance. I am not a walking man by choice. I am not an activist by choice. I have no desire to be away from my family, but I am compelled by my moral calling as a teacher to stand up for children, parents, teachers, and our public schools. Compelled by a moral calling to save our public schools I am walking to DC, because someone has to tell them after 13 years of education reform failures, they are not reformers, but the status quo. Someone has to shout out on the Capital steps:
Our Children,
Our Teachers,
Our Public Schools, Hand off,It simple Wahington DC,
Children are more than test scores.When my walk is over, I'll catch a ride home,
Teach a group of wonderful teachers from Jamaica about Literacy in our CCSU Literacy Center.
I'll teach them about what a balanced assessment framework looks like, kid watching, and I share the heart of a teacher. I share my love of teaching, learning, and teaching with them, and listen deeply to their stories. After they leave I spend a week with my family in the mountains of New Hampshire. Then I'll start cleaning, decorating, and preparing our Literacy Center for 40 new children. This is what I love, what I really do, and what matters most to this Walking man.
He gives out plastic medals to struggling readers, wear silly hats, participates in Readers Theater, sit on the floor and reads with children and teachers.

I have no Giorgio Armani suits, but I do wear the best that Sears has to offer.

As Secretary Arne Duncan fiddles with the powerful, the rest of us fight the good fight against illiteracy every single day. When his day is done, he dreams about data, power, and new ways to reduce the wonder of childhood to his game of testing the joy out of learning.When my day is done, I think about the many hours of hard work put in by my teachers and our children, and celebrate every new letter, new word, new story, and every smile that came my way today.

I am marching to DC just to tell Secretary Duncan that children are more than test scores.

See you in DC,

Jesse

 https://vimeo.com/131091408 My song of the day Barry Lane's More Than A number. Thank you Barry for singing the songs that matter most to us.

Day # 9 is dedicated to Stacie Starr, Dawn Neely, and every beautiful Ohio teacher standing up for our schools

This is a must read for every teacher and parent. It gives us a clear human picture of what these fake education reformers, and our policy makers and politicians are do to our schools. High Stakes Testing, the Common Core, and new test connected teacher evaluations are not keeping good teachers in the classroom, but chasing them out.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/02/10/gasps-of-disbelief-as-live-with-kelly-and-michael-top-teacher-winner-resigns-over-common-core-testing/


Every day I find another reason to walk to DC, another reason to stand up, speak out, and act. Day # 9 of my walk to DC is dedicated to Ohio Veteran teachers Stacie Starr and Dawn Neely. Stacie announced her retirement rather then spend another day reducing Ohio's children to test scores. She was chosen as the winner of the “Live with Kelly and Michael” 2014 Top Teacher Search. She announced her retirement in the spring at the very Board Meeting called to honor her. Her reasons, she cited the increasing pressures on students and teachers under the mandated Common Core standards and testing mandates.
At the same Board Meeting Dawn Neely another teacher told the board:

“I don’t know what to do. I am morally against what we are doing, and I think history will judge us for what we do to fight for our kids,” she told the Elyria school board. “Look through the test books and you tell me if you think they are developmentally appropriate. No one is advocating for our district, and I am asking my district to be honest with the parents about what we are doing to students.”

Board President Kathryn Karpus replies: The district’s hands are tied. They are bound by Ohio laws that mandate the testing. Dr. Martin Luther King said this about laws: "There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’" Board President Karpus, a person can not do good supporting unjust laws. Morality matters more than any unjust law. I stand with my fellow BAT Dawn Neely, and every other Ohio beautiful Ohio teacher fighting back.

It is a teacher moral responsibility to obey just laws, but it is also his/her responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Ms Starr and Ms. Neely are answering the call to their moral responsibility as teachers. I am humbled by them, and salute them. God bless you Stacie, God bless you Dawn, and God bless every parent and teacher who answers this moral call to stand up for our children.

Why are you walking to DC Jesse?

I am walking, because someone has to tell them in DC that our children, our teachers, and our schools are more than test scores. More than their data, their profits, and their scapegoats that allow 49 states to spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools. This walk is my moral responsibility, my higher call to serve the children in our public schools.
Who are you walking for Jesse?
I am walking for Stacie Starr, Dawn Neely, every Ohio teacher and student living under unjust laws that reduces them to data.
A change is gonna come, and I am walking for that change.
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

Brothers on a mission to save our public schools

Day # 8 is dedicated to my dear friend Dr. Sherick Hughes from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
We are old friends long vested in the struggle for equity in our public schools. His academic credentials have all the bells and whistles, articles, chapters and books to his credit. However it is his love for justice, children, teachers, and our public schools that drives his passion for teaching and learning.  This is Dr. Hughes and I occupying the United States Department Department of Education at the Occupy the DOE in DC
On Tuesday night I was a Skype guest at Chapel Hill for his doctoral students. It is an honor and a privilege to call Sherick my brother and friend on the road to save our public schools. Our discussion focused on advocacy, activism, civil rights, and race. I say you can judge the health of our pubic schools by the things our education policy makers focus on.  Today I am reflecting on the tragic news unfolding in Charleston South Carolina where 9 Black innocent souls engaged in prayer in the House of the Lord were taken in a rage of race hatred. Make no mistake about the fact that our Public School System and Civil Rights are linked. While our nation's Education Policy makers have chase test scores and standards they have failed to make Civil Rights the corner stone of our public school system. Testing, Common Core standards will not heal our nation. We need a deep conversation about Race in our nation, and the place for that conversation to begin is in our public schools.
Today's walk from New Haven to Bridgeport is for my brothers and sisters in higher education who reject silence and apathy.
Walking to DC,
Jesse
Today on my walk I was singing that old Civil Rights standard "We Shall Over Come" I sang it with my Grandfather in 63 at the March On Washington, I sang it in Selma many time with my fellow bridge crossers. I particularly love the version sang by the More Head College Glee performers in 2009 > https://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=we+shall+over+come+utube <

Parents are speaking up, standing up, fighting back, opting out and coming out to meet the Walking Man

My walk today on day # 7 is dedicated to Cheryl Hill, New Milford, CT, and Susan Zeitler Sherman, CT.  These two Connecticut Mom’s are committed to the fight to stop high stakes testing, data mining and privatization of public schools.  They are regulars at both local and State Board Of Education meetings.  I met the ladies when I was invited to speak at the Sherman Common Core event last year.  At the Bank Street shop today in New Milford, we had coffee after my walk, they asked me  to carry their concerns to the Save Our Schools Mock Trial "The People VS Corporate Reform”. Thanks Ladies, for taking the time out of your busy day to meet up with me on my walk.

This is their message they asked me to bring to DC:

"So much has happened since you participated in the Sherman common core presentation last summer. We are dedicated to bringing awareness of the facts to the BOE, administration and parents.  Sherman CT has achieved one of CT's highest elementary opt out rates. Sherman parents understand that refusing the tests safeguards their children's data, shields inappropriate teacher evaluations and sends a strong message that parents will utilize their inalienable parental rights to protect their children.

In the town of New Milford the budget forced a school closed.  As a founding member of the CT Parental Rights Coalition, they focus on legislation that upholds parental rights and safeguards the data privacy of our children, their families and teachers. It's when we are in Hartford, attending these hearings, we see the influence of lobbyists.  What's driving the destructive testing and dangerous data mining? Investors and corporations see our children and schools with dollar signs in their eyes. They see a (dehumanized) market, an opportunity to make money...at any expense. Are CT legislators that coddle lobbyists willing to sell us, our data, our public schools?

Jesse, the issues we face in Sherman and New Milford are not unique. Parents, teachers and students across CT and across our nation know these tests are destructive.  The data issues put our children in danger.  Charter Schools and privatization have been proven to fail.   These "reforms" are death. It's time to stop high stakes testing, data mining and privatization.

Our country needs a paradigm shift back to the truth - We The People, We The Parents, were born with inalienable rights. Among these, are the rights to direct the upbringing and education of our children. We demand our children receive appropriate education, and are not harmed in the process. We stand by our teachers and public schools.

Please Jesse, bring our message to Washington, DC-

Stop high stakes testing, data mining and privatization of public schools.

Cheryl  and Susan it was great meeting up with you today, and I will take your message and all those I gather on my walk, to Washington DC.

Respectfully,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner 06/17/15

In case you want to know what song the Walking Man was listening to on Day 7 of my walk to DC...it's Sam and Dave "Hold On I'm coming" So hold on New York I'm 53 miles away now. 
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=sam+and+dave+I%27m+coming&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

Barry Lane the one who never sold children and teachers out

So many authors in education have drank that standards will save us Kool Aid that i lost count. It's easy to look the other way when you are making a buck.
Day 6 of my walk is dedicated to our voice of reason, our voice of joy, and our voice of hope, The incredible Barry Lane from "Discovery writing" the guy that gave teachers 51 Wacky We-Search Reports: Face the Facts With Fun and Force Field for Good.
Many of today's education authors just go with the flow, ask no questions, fit any test, any standards, sign any bottom line, but Barry he writes the songs that question every attempt to crush children, their teachers, and our public schools. 
Barry Lane who preformed at the Save Our School March in 2011, the Save Our Schools convention in 2012, join United Opt Out's Occupy twice, serenades teachers" every single day. Barry Lane who somehow manages to capture how our nation's children feel in this insane age of test them until they hurt. Every single day on my walk I listen to Barry Lane & Amy Ludwig VanDerwater song "More Than A number"
"I am more than a number.
I am more than a grade.
I know the constellations.
Here’s a painting that I made.
I read books in my closet.
I will not be a ‘2’.
I am more than a number.
Walking to DC
Barry the guy who could have made a million dollars if he kept his mouth shut, but loved children and teachers to much to remain silent as high-stakes testing stole the joy out of teaching and learning. Barry Lane my hero of day 6, the voice that inspires me to fight to bring back the joy into our classrooms and schools. Barry Lane my dear friend who never sold his sold to the profiteers.
Walking to DC and smiling all the way listening to Barry Lane and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater "More Than A number" It's Barry Lane and Amy Lud
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIIQiIBV5mEAPXz7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=barry+Lane+More+Than+a+Number&vid=f0d32b04464756d327528c9e7c4b0353&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DWN.YVmBgmfVNxEjitH6M%252fjxqg%26pid%3D15.1%26h%3D168%26w%3D300%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4_Vf8cwTWRY&tit=More+Than+a+Number&c=0&h=168&w=300&l=149&sigr=11bs8cib6&sigt=10i2elncv&sigi=12mdkjl4f&age=1364413953&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=aaplw&tt=b

She walks the line for equity and jusitce

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Day 5, schools are still in session in Connecticut, so there were no walkers with me today. Two and half hours of walking in the rain on my own, check off 51 miles on my walk to DC.    My umbrella and raincoat did not prevent me from becoming cold and drenched to the bone.  I keep humming Michael Row the boat a shore, singing “the river Jordan is chilly and cold, chills the body not the soul.” When you stand on the side of justice your soul never gets cold.  Today’s walk is dedicated my dear friend and tireless soldier of equity in Connecticut Dr. Dianne Kaplan deVries. Dr. Dianne is the Project director for CCJEF, (Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding), and has been helping to lead the battle for equity in our public schools.  http://ccjef.org/.
CCJEF v. Rell has been in the courts for over a decade now, the final case is pending in the Connecticut Supreme Court. We are facing that historic question” do children have the right to an adequate education? YES, said the lower courts. Two Connecticut governors representing both political parties have opposed the right of children to an equitable and adequate education. How anyone could vote for any candidate fighting to maintain an inequitable public school system is beyond me.  The state has fought in the courts at every step to kick the case out of our courts. While Dianne and her colleagues for over a decade have travel up, down, and side to side to every corner of Connecticut to gather testimony and evidence for the people against their own state. Connecticut like 48 other states are dens of inequity in their public schools. While corporate education reformers peddle their fuzzy choice without equity scams my dear friend and fellow soldier for equity fights for our day in the courts everyday.  James Baldwin wrote in “The Price of the Ticket”:
“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected--those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! --and listens to their testimony.”
Listening deeply and gathering the testimony of the unprotected has been Dr. Dianne Kaplan deVries life’s work, and that work is going to have it’s day in our supreme court this fall.
This tireless soldier is battling cancer; she no longer is driving our highways. She is using her phone and email to see this fight through. She will see her day in court.
As Dr. King wrote from his cell in a Birmingham jailhouse “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Some walk, some stand in our nation's classrooms, some testify before boards of power, and their legislative bodies, some write letters to editors, some fight on social media, some take to the streets, some battle in the courts, but we all stand together for equity in our public schools.
Someday these tests will go away, someday the standards will be more pliable, but we soldiers of equity will still be battling for equality in our public schools.
I humbly bow my head,
I salute you,
I whisper your name on the winds of hope,
I call you my sister,
This rain filled day’s walk is dedicated to my hero Dr. Dianne Kaplan deVries.
Sincerely,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

 

 If you are wondering what this rain soaked walking man was listening to on his walk to day...it was Johnny Cash's "I walk the line" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq0fUa0vW_E <

10 for Eddie, and every other boy that testing killed their love of reading

http://childrenaremorethantestscores.blogspot.com/2010/10/another-parent-phone-call.html

21 miles down, and 30 more by Monday. Three Connecting The Dot Walking Man events in the next  three days. This campaign for Justice not just tests is rolling along. It sure feels good to meeting and listening to children, parents and teachers coming out to meet me. I am a man on a mission! A man on fire. I am one man walking in the name of love to DC for our children, their teachers and public schools. 

Today’s walk is dedicated to Eddie and all our boys who use to like reading. I first met Eddie when he was in second grade in 2011. Eddie’s mother reached out to me when Eddie had a fight with his best. His best friend noticed Eddie’s name on his school’s data wall in the parent/teacher resource room. Eddie was at the bottom of the list. His best friend tells Eddie you are the dumbest kid in the whole school. Next thing you know they are fighting.  His mother wanted to talk about the root cause of the fight, the data wall and the testing, but the school insisted they only discuss the fight. She wanted to discuss how Eddie a boy who loved reading, began to hate reading, because of all the testing. Eddie started coming to our Literacy Center 4 years ago, we turned around his reading attitude, but he still hates all the testing. I am worry about all the Eddie’s who are being tested 8 weeks of every school year. The price for many is reading has become something they hate. They may even do well on the test, but the testing has tainted their view of reading. If you like to know more about Eddie and his mother follow the above link to the blog I wrote about them on my 2010 walk to DC.
Today, I dedicate my 10-mile walk to Eddie, and every other boy like him who used to like reading,
Jesse

If you want to listen to what I am listening to this morning on my way from Willamantic to Bolton Connecticut...It's Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEq-r2agqc

Day # 2, Dear Lord, please don't let teaching lose this one

Day 2 of my walk to DC is dedicated to a young teacher from Texas. Jenn sent me a "Dear Walking Man" letter last night. She shared how she had always wanted to be a teacher, and chased her dream down. We are losing young teachers at an incredible rate. More than half leave before five years. In high stressed testing districts trust me that number is much higher. Jenna's letter, which I will share on YouTube tonight, starts off chasing her teaching dream. Then shares the pain of a young teacher feeling oppressed by endless testing. She has all the right tools to be a great teacher, but these Education Deformers have turned our public schools into testing factories. In her letter she starts doubting her teaching dream.
Readers make predictions as they read. Reading her letter my gut told me it would end with another teaching dream crushed. At one point I just stopped reading, and bowed my head and folded my hands in prayer. Dear Lord please Lord, don't let teaching lose this one. I started to read young Jenn's letter again still thinking I knew where this was going.
Then I read the last paragraph it came " All across the nation, teachers are quitting in droves. I must admit, I thought about it this year. However, at the end of the day I realized I am right where I am supposed to be and there is nothing I would rather be doing. And so I stand up and fight for my students and I fight for my school. I will not let someone who has never entered my classroom take my career that I have worked so hard for and destroy it. I will be the teacher I want to be despite standardized testing."
Today I am walking for a young Texas teacher who decided to stay. Today I am walking for every young teacher's dream of becoming a great teacher. A dream that is being crushed a little more each day with the insanity of high-stakes testing that crushes the desire to learn in our children, and demoralizes our teachers.
This 10 miles is for our young resilient teacher Jenn from Texas,
You inspire me to walk,
Jesse
PS if you want to know what I listened to on Day 2 of my walk it's Jackson Brown's "Stay"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljOzYLG57A < 

Day # 2 down, another 10 miles checked off. I wouldn't let anyone walk with me today, because I had to walk on some busy roads with just about enough room for one person. As you can see in this picture it can get a little tense on some roads.

I know what love looks like.

Today's walk is dedicated to beautiful Ethan Pratt Rediske whose life enriched his family, and all who knew him. Ethan was not a burden; Ethan was God's gift of love that lifted his mother, his father, and his siblings higher. Ethan was a blessing. He deserved more than the Florida Department of Education chasing him into hospice care to be tested as he was dying.

I know what love looks like; I see it in the arms of Ethan's father holding his son. I know love when I see it, and I see it in his mother's eyes. I see it in a mother lovingly holding her precious son's hand.
I know what evils looks like, it looks like a heartless Florida Department of Education chasing God's love and blessing during his last days to be tested.  Thomas Jefferson "“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” When NCLB law reduced our children to test scores, resistance became my duty. I know what injustice looks like; it looks like education reform unjust laws that reduce our children to data, to profits, to test scores. I know what goodness feels like, it feels like resisting evil. It feels like walking for change.

It begins today Thursday June 11th. My first 10 miles to justice, my first 10 miles to bring visibility to the biggest education reform policy failure in the history of public education. My mission is simple, listen to the people I meet along the way. Walking with me today as my guest walker is the Dean of Education and Professional Studies at Central Connecticut State University. CCSU has been preparing teachers for 166 years, it is the oldest teacher preparation college in Connecticut, and the sixth oldest in the nation. 

Dean Alfano is a former Marine, a father, and an educator.  Mike is walking the ten miles with me this morning, because children matter, teachers matter, and because he cares. 10 miles, 15 minutes per mile, means I listen to the Dean for two and half hours. Today Dean Alfano is every dean, and we are walking together for justice not just tests. Later on today I will share the reflections of a Dean of Education who cares enough To Walk For Change.

Walking to DC,

Jesse