Rallies, blogs, Twitter, picketing, etc... are nice. It works. But a little too slow.
A new radical approach to destroying the deform movement must be the next step. And just what is this step?
Simple, we need a Martyr. Only a Martyr will succeed at where the movements, the groups, the organizations are not succeeding, or barely making a dent.
Now mind you, I do not mean there should be any violence or that no one sacrifice their lives in the fight to save education. But, symbolically, figuratively, a Martyr shall lead us, a Martyr will save education, a Martyr will lead us to the promised land.
Where is our Rosa Parks? A Rosa Parks of education who refuses to be sent to the Rubber Room for carrying a Coke. A Rosa Parks who refuses to administer yet another senseless, pointless exam on their students. A parent, a community that refuses to to what the educrats demand.
Gandhi went on a hunger strikes to get the British out of India. He also was an inspiration to Martin Luther King in his enacting of civil disobedience. Both these men stood up for what they believed. Both this men martyred themselves, before they were killed, to do what is right. Where are our Gandhi's or King's? Look at the movements of the 60's and see what they accomplished through civil disobedience.
Look at what Bobby Sands did to bring attention to the IRA. He and several others not only went on a hunger strike, but died for what they believed. A hunger strike can succeed in stopping Bloomberg, Christie, Duncan, Obama, et. al. Do you think for a minute these cowards would allow someone, especially if it were a parent, to die? No! It would all ruin them politically.
We can even go the last radical route of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Their bed-in of 1969 in which they were advocating peace brought out everyone to support them. They got their message out there!
I am sure many would be reading this and saying, "Hey, put your money where your mouth is," and they would be correct. I should put my money where my mouth is.
I'm getting there. I can't believe the bullshit I see and hear everyday. The idiocy that is the NYC DOE is like Bizaro Superman. The bullshit lies from those in power claiming "students first." Everything I see, we all see around us is a crock of shit.
But I have a bigger horse in the race. My son. I want him to have a real education, a real learning experience through school. I want him to learning, not because of some teacher worship bullshit thing, but because he wants to. I want him to be a better student than I ever was. I want him to be a free thinker that always questions and asks "why?" I don't want him to become some animatron learning by rote and just memorizing facts.
We, parents, teachers,students, communities need to retake ownership of education. Only we, only you, can keep them from ruining our children's education and lives.
2 comments:
Sadly we already had one in Los Angeles. Rigoberto Ruelas' life was cut short because of the criminally irresponsible decision by the vile Los Angeles Times to promulgate what can only be called a smear.
NEPC and other reliable sources have discredit the Times' career destroying campaign of lies against educators several times. Most recently yesterday: An Analysis of the Use and Validity of Test-Based Teacher Evaluations Reported by the Los Angeles Times: 2011
The smug amateur statistician, Jason Felch, and his fellow yellow journalist, Jason Song, have the blood of that martyr on their hands.
I'll go on hunger strike with you, but I draw the line at a bed-in: I don't know you like that.
On a more serious note, I think you're definitely onto something. Only more drastic (non-violent) action is needed to raise awareness that these reforms are seriously hurting kids.
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