There is a quote in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath where the
Joads who have lived in one place for generations understand they have to
move.
"Fella gets use' to a place, it's hard to go," said Casy. "Fella
gets use' to a way of thinkin' it's hard to leave."
Yesterday while in New York City having lunch with GARN Press Publisher Denny
Taylor and my colleague John Foshay. We were discussing the possibility of a new book
"Interviews with a radical educator." A coauthored book. John and I had something simple
planned. A simple Walking Man story kind of thing, but Denny pushed us,
challenged us, and right from the start the concept grew into something far
more powerful, far more transformative, and far more radical. She was taking me
outside my "Happy Warrior" box. She wanted something larger than than
one man walking for change.
First she said I know you Jesse, and if this is a story about you then why a
second author. Just being the Devil's Advocate she said. Why a second author
again? Well this is a book I have been planning for 5 years, and every time I
start writing. It sounds like a journey into vanity. A me-me kind of story that
discusses I did this, I did that and do all these other things. The
purpose of a second author and using an interview format is to put a " What
If, so what, who cares, and isn't this bigger than one man walking Jesse frame
around my activism.
Who is John Foshay? He helped planned the logistics of both walks, we are
TEDxCCSU co-hosts, and we have written together professionally, and have been collaborating on
exciting school based education projects for nearly two decades. No educator knows my
work more than John Foshay, and no educator questions my work more than Dr.
Foshay. He is sort of that devil and angel character sitting on my shoulder. A
sounding board for my conscious awareness. This book needs a "What if, who
cares, and where are you going voice. That voice is going to be Dr. John
Foshay.
Second Denny challenged the purpose of such a book. What do you want people to
take away from it in the end? What exactly is your message really? Tell
everyone to start walking?
Denny I want to write the most radical call to occupy our public schools ever
written. That is when the conversation got deep, this is where the simple
walking man story grew into a transformative conversations bigger than one-man
walking.
Denny asked are you prepared prepared to challenge the whole purpose of public
education in America?
Yes, I am. The first public schools lie was Horace Mann's 1848 "
Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great
equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social
machinery. I do not here mean that it so elevates the moral nature as to make
men disdain and abhor the oppression of their fellow-men. This idea pertains to
another of its attributes. But I mean that it gives each man the independence
and the means by which he can resist the selfishness of other men. It does
better than to disarm the poor of their hostility towards the rich: it prevents
being poor." Horace never insisted on equity, he never insisted on
justice. No his public school vision was a compromise that promised the wealthy, the powerful and
the connected that public schools would prepared workers for the Industrial
Revolution. It was never a democratic revolution. It was never a social revolution.
Right in the quote the piece everyone leaves off " I do not here mean that
it so elevates the moral nature as to make men disdain and abhor the oppression
of their fellow-men." In others this will not be about elevating citizens
to abhor the oppression of their fellow man. For Horace Mann the purpose of
public schools was: " ...better than to disarm the poor of their hostility
towards the rich: it prevents being poor." From the start our public
schools were planned to be places to disarm the poor of any hostility towards
the rich, the powerful and the connected. So yes Denny I plan on challenging
the very purpose of public education in America. The plan is a radical call to
occupy public education in every nook and granny in America.
Denny asked what about the teacher unions? Where are they in all of this? Do
you believe they could end education reform polices that are demoralizing and
dehumanizing their profession.? In England this year the government called for
privatizing all the public schools. Their teachers unions rallied and ended the notion
quickly.
Denny four and half million American teachers could end it on any given day.
Our unions have grown politically timid, and professionally complacent. I might
even say they have become part of the problem. I am not talking about tenure or
union dues here, but about not fighting back hard against teaching license
exams, high stakes testing, Value Added Measures, class sizes, resources,
school funding, and for sustaining our local schools. Our unions regularly endorse and
contribute to candidates whose public school policies are harmful to teachers,
public schools, and children. Yes, we have pockets of powerful resistance
leaders like Karen Lewis in Chicago and Barbara Madeloni in Massachusetts. We
Have BAT Caucuses in NEA, and We Working Caucuses in AFT, but they are pockets
not yet powerful enough to take American Teacher Unions to where England's
teacher unions are. The plan is to call on our teachers to radically occupy our
profession and our unions.
Denny asked are you aware of colleges like Dowling and Briarcliffe colleges on
Long Island and Burlington College in Vermont announcing sudden closures? It's
not only Schools of Education Jesse it's whole universities closing their doors. While for profit
colleges that regularly leave students in debt and without degrees are popping
up all over the place. While our policy makers celebrate the privatizing of our publi schools and universities. Why would America remain silence and apathetic while
it's institutions of higher learning are closing? Closing while parasitic for
profit ventures are treating students as "Buyer Beware" customers.
The plan is to call for a radical occupation of our Schools of Education, and
all our community colleges, our colleges and universities. Higher education
should not be about profits. Higher education should be about opening doors not
closing them. Higher Education should be about big dreams not student loan
debt. Like union leadership our leaders in higher education ask little for their endorsements and
contributions. We need new radical leadership ready to occupy our legislatures,
governor mansions, Congress, the Senate and the White House. If you are not
ready for radical occupation of public education, then you are part of the problem of the decline
of higher education in America.
It was only a 90-minute lunch meeting. We did not get to the Charter Schools,
"School to Prison Pipeline" race, poverty, high stakes testing, the
destruction of locally elected school boards, or the closing of local public
schools in Black and Brown communities. Yes, Denny the book will be bigger than
one "Happy Warrior" walking. This one will not be silent about an American
Public School system that has from day one left Black, Brown, Children with
Disabilities, poor children in schools built to disarm them against
inequity, and injustice. A public school system that robs them of their powerful histories of slavery and emancipation, immigration, labor, and their struggle for civil rights
and their voting rights.
As John and I drove home from Cafe Luxembourg in New
York City to Hartford Connecticut the responsibility of writing something
bigger than one man walking scared us. Something bigger than a call to activism
or radical occupation. It's a call for a new vision of public education. A
vision deeply rotted in a national, state and local commitment to an education
for the greater good of a people yawning to live in a land that as James Weldon
Johnson taught his students to sing, Lift Every Voice and Sign" An
education for sustaining and growing a new democracy. An education aching to
care enough to share and expose the roots of a diverse people. Some who were
already here, some who came for religious freedom, some forced into bondage,
some who came to escape poverty and injustice, and some who arrived documented
and some who are living undocumented lives. A call that builds on Whitman's I sing america, but grabs Langston Hughes "I too sing America". An America vision of education for
economic and social justice. It's not a mere call to activism for the sake of
activism. This is a call to go where Horace Mann dared not go at the birth of
our public schools. This is a radical call to occupy a transformative and human
place where all children, parents, teachers and public schools are valued and
respected.
Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of Freedom wrote; "Intellectuals who memorize
everything, reading for hours on end, slaves to the text, fearful of taking a
risk, speaking as if they were reciting from memory, fail to make any concrete
connections between what they have read and what is happening in the world, the
country, or the local community. They repeat what has been read with precision
but rarely teach anything of personal value." This leaves me thinking are
we big enough to radicalize the whole notion of public education. Big enough to end the cycle of repeating a status quo of injustice and inequity.
Finally Denny asked what is your message to suburban parents whose children
attend better funded schools?
Denny there is no safe place any longer. The public education reforms have
turned all schools into testing houses of pain. The curriculum is no longer
about what gifts your child might have, it's about turning every child in
America into data points. It's not about children. It's about oppressing childhood. A conformity loss of the whole child. Public
education reform is already coming for recess, art, music, and play everywhere.
No community is safe.
Suburban parents are already rebelling. The Opt Out movement began there in a
parent led refusal to capitulate, and is now fast moving to communities of
color. Educating the Whole Child, the artist, the musician, the dancer, and the
dreamers has always been suspect by education reformers from the very beginning. The history of public
education is a battle of progressive educators defending child centered
learning against conformity. These public education reformers have long had progressive education
in their sights. Our political leaders have taken their 30 silver pieces from
the wealthy, the powerful and the connected. No public school anywhere is safe.
The truth is our suburban parents refusing the test is not enough to stop the
dehumanization of our children. Trust me suburban parents won't have to be led
to the fight they are already resisting. I say it is time for a radical
occupation not only of public education, but an occupation of our democracy.
As John and I pulled into Hartford we understood this book is going to be the
start of something bigger than us. We welcome the challenged. Thus a new bigger
journey begins.
It begins with a simple question what is the purpose of public education?
Are public schools places to disarm the poor of their disdain of the wealthy, the
powerful, and the connected?
Are they places to produce good complacent worker bees?
Are they testing factories to conform children in silent and apathetic
citizens?
Are we big enough to open that public education Pandora's box?
Can you imagine your whole notion of public education being simple, sweet, and
hopeful? Something tried and true, something whose shoes fit you well. Suddenly waking up in that place that's hard to leave. The notion that public
education as I know it, is no longer comfortable. A public school system not rooted
in equity and justice for all cannot be just, cannot be the great equalizer,
and cannot save our democracy. I am one man walking in the name of love to that
harder place. The place that puts humanity, equity, and justice first in our
public schools. It is a place we have never been, but it's the better place our
public schools need to go. It is a place well worth fighting for.
Trust me people this is a book you'll going to want to read. This is my promise
for something far bigger than public education as we know it.
Still one man walking in the name of love,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
