The youth movement

This, from yesterday's New York Times:

PARIS — A revolt over proposed labor-law reforms in France has set off an uprising among French youth, fed up, they say, over their government’s failure to tackle a host of problems and thus robbing them of their future. Calling itself Nuit Debout — roughly translatable as “Standing Up at Night” — the movement recalls Spain’s 2011 anti-austerity Indignados movement and the Occupy movement in the United States. But there are also echoes of France’s own history of popular revolt, including the student-led protests of May 1968.

The '68 French youth uprising left an indelible impression on me and many other young activists here in the U.S. The war in Vietnam and austerity in the colonial mother countries was at odds with the vision millions of young people had for the future of the world in which they hoped to live.

Whether in the Arab Spring or Occupy, or Paris' Nuit Debout, the youth movement lights the spark. But it becomes a real threat to the power of the 1%ers when it connects with labor movement (often a little slower on the uptake) and the freedom movements of the most oppressed sectors of society as it did in Paris 48 years ago.

This would make for a great discussion topic today at RIOTcon in Chicago where I'm doing a lunch chat, along with my brother Fred. Come join us.

But you can call off the spies, Mr. Mayor. RIOT in this case, is simply an acronym for Raging Issues of Today. The conference is sponsored by the Chicago Theological Seminary. Your citadel is still secure, for now.

According to CTS:

These two days feature a dynamic program and training schedule, including three keynote addresses, panel discussions and workshops led by the brightest minds of today.

Thank you. Thank you.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Charles Blow

There seems to be a new age of activism rising. From Occupy Wall Street, to the “Stop Watching Us” march against government surveillance, to the Moral Monday protests, to the People’s Climate March, to the recent nationwide protests over the killings of men and boys of color by police, there is obviously a discontent in this country that is pouring into the streets. -- New York Times

Jesus "Chuy" Garcia

“I’m hoping we’ll be successful. And if we weren’t, I would go to federal court to change that because I think the right to elect a school board is a constitutional right that comes from the right to elect those who govern an institution so vital to our city. Schools systems are, perhaps, the main government body that affects the lives of a majority of our citizens, especially minorities in Chicago.” -- E & O

S.W.A.T. teams in schools

Ron Avi Astor, a professor of social work and education at USC

 “There’s an illusion that having all these video cameras, metal detectors, sensors, SWAT kinds of people on campus makes the place safer. The problem is from an educational perspective: It doesn’t feel safer. It feels like a prison.” -- New York Times

General Michael V. Hayden

 “We’re not here to defend torture. We’re here to defend history.” -- New York Times

From Twitter

Drones are a popular Christmas present among American kids this year. It's a sign that they want to grow up to be president.
— Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) December 7, 2014

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Rich Miller

A quick note to Bruce Rauner: The next time you try to claim that Gov. Pat Quinn is "personally" under federal investigation (an allegation that, as far as anyone can tell, is not true), it's probably best not to say it while standing next to a different governor who actually is "personally" under federal investigation. -- Crain's

Marian Wright Edelman

Racially discriminatory school discipline policies contribute to the Cradle to Prison Pipeline crisis with a Black boy born in 2001 having a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance of the same fate. -- Huffington

Chicago Trubune Columnist Eric Zorn 

I see that Emanuel's supporters are nervous enough about the prospect of a challenge from Lewis that they're already dialing up the histrionics, clutching their pearls and fanning themselves with premature and utterly phony concern over a "conflict of interest." -- Tribune

Doing "their jobs"

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson

 "I'm truly sorry for the loss of your son. I'm also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street. Investigators were doing "important work" trying to uncover the truth and collect evidence during those four hours...They were simply trying to do their jobs." -- CNN

NYT Columnist Frank Bruni

Around that same time, there were movements on scattered college campuses to attach so-called trigger warnings to texts whose evocations of, say, anti-Semitism or rape might prompt emotional turmoil in students. This echoed moves years earlier by officials at some elementary, middle and secondary schools to prune standardized tests of words that might distress students, either by summoning life’s harshness, reminding them of their deprivation or making them feel excluded. “Poverty,” “slavery,” “divorce,” “hurricanes” and “birthdays” were on a list drawn up by New York City educators, who later abandoned the plan. -- The Wilds of Education

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

French Economist Thomas Piketty

Economist Thomas Piketty

There is a fundamentalist belief by capitalists that capital will save the world, and it just isn't so. Not because of what Marx said about the contradictions of capitalism, because, as I discovered, capital is an end in itself and no more." -- The Guardian, Occupy was right

Arne Duncan responds to mass teacher protest...

Tells  the crowd the state had an opportunity to “help lead the country where we need to go,” despite the “drama and noise” now on display. -- DuncanDonut

 Ed Commissioner John B. King Jr.:

 “We’re poised to lead the country. It’s within our grasp.” -- CCSSRules

Quinn, NEA Pres. Cinda Klickna, & Rauner at IEA RA

Pat Quinn at IEA Conference

"Don't compare me to the Almighty," said Quinn. "Compare me to the alternative over there." --  #NotToWorry

Times Editorial 

The myth of the superpredator helped spawn a generation of misguided laws that treated young people as adults, despite evidence that doing so actually increases recidivism. -- Echoes of the Superpredator 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

CPS teacher Ed Hershey, arrested trying to save La Casita 

"We couldn't just let them sweep it away without at least doing what we could. The school doesn't have a library and they bulldozed it. There's 160 schools that don't have a library." -- ABC News

Lisa Angonese, community activist

“He’s [Ald. Solis] been giving us so many different stories. We want him to come out of hiding to face us and to listen to the demands of the community.” -- WGN

Glenn Greenwald

At the time the "security official" called me, David had been detained for 3 hours. The security official told me that they had the right to detain him for up to 9 hours in order to question him, at which point they could either arrest and charge him or ask a court to extend the question time. The official - who refused to give his name but would only identify himself by his number: 203654 - said David was not allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow me to talk to him. -- Guardian

Peter Cunningham

During the Obama administration's first term, I served as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach in the U.S. Department of Education, where one of my jobs was to monitor criticism of our policies and develop our responses. One of the people I monitored pretty closely was Diane Ravitch. -- Huffington

Valerie Strauss

It takes some degree of chutzpah to evaluate teacher preparation programs with data said to be “in-depth” and “comprehensively collected” and then bury in small type the fact that some of the data isn’t actually all that trustworthy. -- Washington Post

American Demolition at La Casita

American Demolition -- What's in a name?

Rahm always seems to high-tail it out of town whenever he's about to drop another bombshell on the community. That way he doesn't have to face the media the next day or be held accountable for his dirty deeds until things cool down. I guess that what he pays his overpriced spinners/liars like Becky Carroll to do.

At around midnight, we heard that Rahm's wrecking team was over at Whittier Elementary in the Pilsen neighborhood, sent there to destroy La Casita, the building that has become the symbol of the community's fight for a decent school library. By the time we got there, hundreds of parents, teachers and community activists had gathered to try and once again, save the building. 

At Juarez H.S.

After police cordons  and barricades were set up protesters organized all-night and morning vigils. The wreckers then left, like thieves in the night, leaving a small group of cops behind to stand guard.

By the time we returned this morning, the wreckers had already returned and done their dirty deeds. Police cars and barricades had closed off access to  23rd St. from both directions and dozens of cops stood guard on the perimeter.

Cops block access to 23rd St.

Earlier, a heroic group of parents and activists had crashed the barricades and tried to block the door to La Casita. Cops immediately rushed in to arrest them and hauled them off to the District 10 for booking (Phone 312-747-7511)

The last I heard was that those arrested were being released on I-bonds.

Dozens of others marched over to Juarez High School where machine Alderman Danny Solis was holding his back-to-school fair.


More to come.

The long drive home

Am I getting too old for these long road trips? I hope not. I just need more time to recover, that's all. I left Occupy the DOE yesterday to get back to work and family business. We drove straight back to Chicago in 12 hours. Lots of time to witness spring's colorful rebirth, listen to some great music and contemplate life in America's heartland.

But what you don't see out the car window is the bubbling up of anger and frustration people in small towns and big cities over their steadily worsening economic conditions and their accompanying feelings of political powerlessness. The latter is driven by the steady erosion and selling off of public space and with it, public decision-making. Which political force will capture this anger and how will it express itself in the upcoming elections is anybody's guess.

Occupy DOE organizer Morna McDermott

Occupy the DOE was part of a young but growing movement to change all that. Taking part left me feeling at once elated, encouraged, and frustrated--elated as I always am when I get to spend time in the company of good people. The United Opt-Out organizers, like Morna McDermott McNulty, Laurie Murphy, Peggy Robertson, Tim Slekar and Ceresta Smith, pulled this 4-day event together on a shoestring, right outside Arne Duncan's window. They are among those good people who see clearly the damaging effects on schools and children of standardized testing and current corporate-reform policies and are willing to do something about it.

I was encouraged by the strength of the presentations and speeches by some of the best scholars and education activists in the country --Stephen Krashen, Ira Shor, Linda Nathan, Ann O’Halloran, Ruth Rodriguez-Fay, Mark Naison, David Greene,  Jesse "Walking Man" Turner, Jim Horn, Brian Jones ... the list goes on and on. This was a nothing less than an engaging and powerful  four-day course, in a small school, taught by great teachers, all about the struggle for democratic education in America. I hope these presentations will be made widely available in the months ahead.

I heard that yesterday, after I left, Duncan invited a small group of organizers inside the DOE for a meeting and am eagerly awaiting to hear what they discussed and what kind of response the meeting generated.

Like most of the participants I spoke with, I was frustrated at the miniscule turnout which could be measured in dozens, not hundreds or thousands. I felt the same way after our SOS March and Rally last summer which drew a few thousand teachers instead of the tens of thousands I had hoped for. Similar feelings of frustration are expressed in David Greene's post, "Where have all the teachers gone?" But rather than blame teachers for being no-shows, I would rather that we organizers and activists focus on our strategies. Teachers, parents and students mobilize through their unions and existing community-based organizations. Without their active participation, no national action is going to be very large or attract much media coverage.

The core of this Opt-Out movement is strong. But its base is still narrow. Could it have something to do with the group's limited focus? Could outreach and publicity have been better? I don't know. But it raises all kinds of strategic and tactical questions for me, especially with our own SOS Convention coming up in August.

One thing I know:  there is massive opposition building to corporate school reform policies and to the standardized testing madness. I saw the depth and breadth of this base in the Wisconsin protests and the anti-Walker recall movement (elections are today) and the beating back the attacks on unions and teacher's collective-bargaining rights with SB 5 in Ohio and the Parent Trigger law in Florida. Here in Chicago, there is a broad-based community movement building against school closings and turnarounds led by a militant teachers union.

But the fact is, we are still on the strategic defensive while our opponents not only control federal and local policy but have tons of private corporation and foundation money behind them. Joanne Barkan's excellent piece in Dissent gives us a good picture of what we are up against.

My hope is that Occupy the DOE will be the start of something great and powerful and that it will generate some thoughtful dialogue in coming weeks, within the movement, about tactics and strategy.

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. 

In D.C. with an eye on Chicago

I'm in D.C. for the Occupy the DOE events. I don't speak until Monday so I'm taking in the other presentations and will be reporting on some of them as time allows.

Occupiers should find strength and solidarity vibes floating in from Spain where there's a general strike and where nearly a million protesters are demanding an end to austerity and budget cuts from Madrid to the Basque country.

Meanwhile back in Chicago, I see that the mayor persists in his denial of First Amendment rights to those who want to demonstrate their opposition to NATO's war machine next month. He continues to defend his refusal to allow a march in the Loop on the first day of the NATO Summit, claiming police will be too busy with all the motorcades for visiting delegates.  Of course there's noting in the Constitution allowing for suspension of free speech because the police are "too busy."

 However the real thing keeping them busy in the city's free-fire zones is an epidemic of gun violence. Last night alone there were 13 shot and 2 killed within 6 hours on city streets, all of them between the ages of 16 and 24.

Conditions of life for inner-city youth continue to worsen. The costs are high. Joblessness, easy access to guns, instability caused in so small measure by continued school closings and teacher firings, and growing poverty all contribute to the crisis. 

So far, Emanuel has had no problem in raising $36.5 million from his rich, powerful friends to pay for all the bells and whistles around the NATO Summit. But still no money in sight to pay for lost teaching positions or schools in general. The mayor will say that by bringing this up, we are just making excuses for falling test scores. Is anybody buying that?

Welcome to Chicago, NATO protesters.