Heading back to Occupy this morning

Peggy Robertson

It should be a beautiful day in D.C. -- sunny and in the 70s. I'm heading back for Day 3 of Occupy the DOE this morning. Although the turnout has been smaller than organizers had hoped for, the occupiers and OPT-OUTers are a wonderful and friendly group of highly-committed educator/activists.

For me, so far it's been a great couple of days. For one thing, I've been able to meet and hear from lots of new and old friends, including, for the first time face-to-face some fellow members of the SOS National Steering Committee like United Opt-Out organizer Peggy Robertson, dynamic Florida educator/organizer Ceresta Smith, and former Rochester superintendent, Don "Bart" Bartolo. I also got to hang out at lunch with  teacher and parent organizer Dov Rosenberg from Parents Across America who rode the bus to D.C. from Durham, N.C.. Dov and I are scheduled to co-present on Monday.

Jesse Turner

This morning at 11 a.m. I get to hear fellow SOSer Jesse Turner talk about, "Children more than data," or  how the current NCLB/RTTT assessment framework is both unethical and unbalanced. Along with being a member of the SOS National Steering Committee, Jesse also serves as Director of the Central Connecticut State University Literacy Center.

Yesterday afternoon, I got to hear a powerful and devastating critique of Teach For America (TFA)  delivered by New York City mentor teacher, David Greene. I already knew a little about David's work from reading Anthony Cody's Edweek blog.

Following David's stirring presentation (big mistake) I was handed the bullhorn and got to talk a little about the current assault on public education, public school teachers,  public space in general and public decision-making, especially home in Chicago. I also did an interview with Opt-Outer Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson  who are doing some great alternative radio stuff. at @chalkface.