WEEKEND QUOTABLES

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on the military killings in Myanmar

I am deeply shocked by the killing of dozens of civilians, including children & young people, by security forces in Myanmar today.

The continuing military crackdown is unacceptable and demands a firm, unified & resolute international response. https://t.co/qtnQaH5jvN

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 27, 2021

           

R.I.P. Beverly Cleary

“I had chicken pox, smallpox and tonsillitis in the first grade and nobody seemed to think that had anything to do with my reading trouble,” Cleary told the AP. “I just got mad and rebellious.” By sixth or seventh grade, “I decided that I was going to write children’s stories.” -- Guardian

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell 

“She wanted to check on his pulse, check on Mr. Floyd’s well-being,” Blackwell said. “She did her best to intervene. When she approached Mr. Chauvin …. Mr. Chauvin reached for his Mace and pointed it in her direction. She couldn’t help.” -- AP

Bessemer, AL Amazon warehouse worker Linda Burns

 “They are treating us like robots rather than humans.” -- AP

 Attorney Walter Shaub, former director of the US Office of Government Ethics

"Georgia's bill would make it a crime to give free food or water to voters standing in line for hours and hours. But we know who these politicians force to stand in line all day long," Shaub said earlier this month on Twitter. "I've never once stood in line for even five minutes where I get to vote. This racism is thorough." -- CNN

Emma Berquist @eeberquist

everyone's anti-godzilla until there's a 200,000 ton boat that can't be moved

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

First and foremost, neither Dr Seuss nor Mr Potato Head are being cancelled. 

Akin Olla on Dr. Seuss

Real cancel culture has existed in the United States and it is worth remembering what it means to be truly cancelled. The multiple red scares in the United States involved socialist – and allegedly socialist – actors, directors and musicians being spied on and blacklisted by production companies and studios for their political views. -- Guardian

Brazil's fascist President, Jair Bolsonaro

As Covid deaths soar in Brazil, Bolsonary said he regretted any loss of life, but demanded to know: “How long are you all going to keep crying?” -- New York Times

Washington Correspondent Carl Hulse

 Bipartisanship is dead.

Other marquee Democratic measures to protect and expand voting rights tackle police bias and misconduct and more are also drawing scant to zero Republican backing. -- New York Times

 Teamster Local 710 Secretary-Treasurer Mike Cales

“The solidarity within this group is inspiring. The situation was not looking good yesterday, and we were literally 15 minutes away from going on strike when the employer finally realized just how serious the situation was." -- Sun-Times

 Civil rights activist and daughter of MLK, Bernice King

 “Royalty is not a shield from the devastation and despair of racism.” -- Tweet

My next challenge

Tomorrow is the first big test for my new knee following a small rehab setback. I'm scheduled to speak on a panel on The Life and Legacies of Fred Hampton at the American History Assoc. convention over at the Palmer House in Chicago.

I'm going to have to navigate the stairs with crutches, climb in and out of a taxi and make it up to the 6th floor and back.

I'm psyched.

The panel, is organized by Univ. of Iowa Prof. Simon Balto. He's the author of Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power.

Here's more info on the meeting in Chicago, in case you want to attend:

AHA Session 12

Thursday, January 3, 2019: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

Water Tower Parlor (Palmer House Hilton, Sixth Floor)

Panel Chair:Barbara Ransby, University of Illinois at Chicago

Panel:Page May, Assata's Daughters

Toussaint Losier, University of Massachusetts AmherstSimon Balto, University of Iowa 

Michael Klonsky, Hitting Left

Aislinn Pulley, Black Lives Matter Chicago

Jakobi Williams, Indiana University

Then on Friday, Brother Fred and I are back on the air at Hitting Left. Our in-studio guest will be Don Rose, former press secretary to both Dr. Martin Luther King and Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.

Tune in at 11 a.m. on www.lumpenradio.com
Let's do this...

This is not a test...

A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to teacher/author/activist Jose Vilson, whose book, This Is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education, was released yesterday. A definite must-read for educators in need of a little inspiration in these difficult times, Jose's memoir traces his experiences growing up in New York City, his education in the city (and later, in New York State – at Syracuse University), and his return to the classroom as a NYC math teacher. It also stands as a powerful critique of Common Core testing madness.

You can also keep up with Jose's JLV Blog here which includes his take on the recent N.Y. contract agreement.

OBAMA'S TEST PREP MESSAGE is mixed, writes Ross Brenneman in Edweek Teacher. Every once in a while the President will take a poke at teachers who teach to the test.

But while the president may have a view of teaching that involves more than test results, his administration's policies have arguably failed to focus attention beyond that aspect.

Case in point, the punishing of Washington State, where the role of standardized testing in teacher evaluation has been de-emphasized. Arne Duncan reacted last month by revoking the state's NCLB waiver which leaves it schools open to the DOE's failed system of test-based rewards and punishments.

Isn't it time for Duncan's departure?

CHICAGO TEACHERS SAY NO TO COMMON CORE... There's no mixed messages coming from the CTU when it comes to CCSS and the profiteering and testing madness that comes with it. Yesterday, the union's  House of Delegates unanimously passed a resolution that unites the city’s teachers with growing national opposition to the Common Core State Standards, saying the assessments disrupt student learning and consume tremendous amounts of time and resources for test preparation and administration.

“I agree with educators and parents from across the country, the Common Core mandate represents an overreach of federal power into personal privacy as well as into state educational autonomy,” said CTU President Karen Lewis, a nationally board certified teacher. “Common Core eliminates creativity in the classroom and impedes collaboration. We also know that high-stakes standardized testing is designed to rank and sort our children and it contributes significantly to racial discrimination and the achievement gap among students in America’s schools.” --CTUnet

Now that the resolution has passed, the CTU will lobby the Illinois Board of Education to eliminate the use of the Common Core for teaching and assessment. You can read the entire resolution here. It's worth reprinting and circulating. Hopefully many more locals will follow suit.

The kids are alright

Sam Spitz met Teddy Williams at a barber shop, and they documented their story in a film, "The Greens."

I couldn't be prouder of my friend Sam Spitz, a budding young film maker with a good camera eye and a strong social conscience. With film-making activist parents like Jeff and Jennifer Amdur Spitz, neither is any surprise. Sam's first independent, no-budget film, The Greens, is starting to get some play. If you put a camera in Sam's hand and turn him loose in Chicago, he's going to use it to tell some great stories. Here's one of them, picked up by CNN.

I know something about this kid also. Jennifer Klonsky is a wonderful Chicago elementary school teacher, mom, and local rock-and-roller who also created and directs Little Kids Rock at her school. She made a guest appearance Sunday on Live From The Heartland where she tells Katie Hogan how she integrates art and music in and out of her classroom.  Her interview starts at 4:55.

GOOD READS...Just got my advanced copy of teacher/activist Jose Vilson's book, This is Not a Test. Lots of great personal stories about Jose's baptism-under-fire as a New York public school teacher intertwined with his notions of race, class & social justice. I can't put it down.

Jose's book pulled me away (for a moment) from Gregg Kot's I'll Take You There: Mavis Staples, The Staple Singers and the March Up Freedom's Highway. Kot is the Tribune's great music critic who is obviously taken (as I was) with the power of music in the Civil Rights Movement. Mavis and the Staple Singers are practically a metaphor for the freedom movement which followed the great migration of African Americans from the south to Chicago.

Separate is Never Equal. A great kids book.

I get lots of great books in the mail. I wish I had time to read and review them all. Today I got one of the best. It's called Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation (Abrams Books for Young Readers). It's actually a kid's book, beautifully written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh.

It tells the story of the Mendez family's move to the farm community of Westminster, California in the 1940s, well before the rise of the southern Civil Rights Movement. When the school system refused to allow their children to attend their community school and were forced to go the inferior "Mexican School" the family refused to passively accept their fate, and the hurt and racist abuse their children were forced to  suffer.

With community support and the the help of a civil rights lawyer named David Marcus, they began a long and difficult journey, through the state's legal system that ultimately ended in a favorable higher court decision. Groups like LULACS, the NAACP, the Japanese American Citizens League, the American Jewish Congress and others lent their support and resources. In June, 1947, a Republican Gov. Earl Warren, who would later become Pres. Eisenhower's Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, signed the law that would overturn separate but "equal" schooling in the state.

While the separate-but-equal doctrine has long been overturned, de-facto school re-segregation is on the rise again along with urban gentrification, the spread of privately-run charter and selective-enrollment schools. Two-tier schooling called "choice" has become the favored policy by the U.S. Dept. of Education under Arne Duncan and schools in President Obama's home town of Chicago are as at least as segregated and even more so than they were in 1954.

Published in time for the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Tonatiuh's book is the only picture book that tells this inspiring tale. I would say it's appropriate for children 7 and older. I'm going to make sure a copy lands in the library of my grandson's elementary school.

Mayor 1% and other good reads

I'm catching up on my reading. Here's what I'm plowing through:

Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago's 99% by Kari Lydersen (Haymarket Books)

Here's a handbook for the anti-Rahm candidate in 2015. It's well-researched and remarkably up-to-date considering how fast things are moving.

Filling The Seat; The Pathway to the Superintendency for One African-Americn Woman Superintendent by Shelly Davis-Jones (Brand N Stone).

Dr. Davis-Jones is the Supt of Dist. 149 in Chicago's south suburb of Calumet City. It's one of the growing number of mainly-black, working class suburbs affected by the push-out of African-Americans from Chicago's inner-city. Her first book is her doctoral dissertation. It's a qualitative study, an oral history of one African-American woman's childhood influences, educational background, and the barriers she encountered in her career path to the superintendency. She's a friend and I am proud to see her work in print. I'm sure there's more's to come from her. 

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid by Alan Wieder; foreword by Nadine Gordimer (Monthly Review). 

Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were among the many heroes of the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Ruth agitated tirelessly for the overthrow of apartheid, first in South Africa and then from abroad, and Joe directed much of the armed struggle carried out by the famous Umkhonto we Sizwe. Only one of them, however, would survive to see the fall of the old regime and the founding of a new, democratic South Africa.

That should keep me busy over the holidays.

Summer reading

I'm trying to catch up this summer on reading that's piling up in the Kindle. Aside from beach novels -- I've reloaded The Ninth Wave by Eugene Burdick, a favorite from my ill-spent youth in L.A.. Burdick also authored popular '60s reads, The Ugly American and Fail Safe --  I'm trying to get to the serious stuff.

On top of the new pile is Charter Schools and the Corporate Makeover of Public Education: What's at Stake? by Michelle Fine and Michael Fabricant. It came out a year ago but I'm just getting to it. I try and keep up with everything Michelle writes but it's an impossible task -- she's prolific.

Sports writer supreme, Dave Zirin wrote this great piece, Rahm Emanuel's Zombie Pigs vs. Chicago's Angry Birds, in The Nation, back in May. Just got to it. It's a take-down of Rahm's insane plan to build a new basketball stadium for DePaul, which fellow sports writer Rick Telander calls, "a new arena of stupidity," with millions in tax payer dollars -- money that could be used to save our schools.

Chicago teacher  Greg Michie, author of We Don't Need Another Hero and Holler if you hear me,  has a strong response today to Rahm and Byrd-Bennett's "students-first" mantra.

What's happening in Chicago schools -- and in many other places across the country -- is not about putting students first. It's agendas first. Ideology first. Test scores first. Efficiency first...It all can be so discouraging. What provides a measure of hope, though, in places like Chicago and Philadelphia and Seattle and many others, is that so many teachers, parents, students, and community activists are refusing to simply accept this misguided direction for our schools. In increasing numbers, people are speaking up, doing grassroots research, organizing, fighting back. -- Huffington Post 

I'm planning to be in D.C. on August 28th for the 50th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington. Hope to see you there.

Hansel and Gretel banned in Chicago

CEO Byrd-Bennett has denounced the children's book Hansel and Gretel, as "too grim to be read by first graders." She has reportedly sent her library purification teams in to elementary schools across the city with orders to remove every copy from the shelves and destroy them.

Hansel and Gretel, as you may know, is the nightmarish story of two small children whose parents abandon them in order to save on food costs. After several failed attempts to find their way out of the forest, H & G are lured into the gingerbread house of a cannibal witch who puts Hansel in a cage and makes a slave out of Gretel. The witch plans to fatten Hansel up and then eat them both. But the children escape by burning the witch alive in an oven, stealing her money and then finding their way back home to live happily ever after with their dad (mean old mom died while they were away).

Talk about graphic images. No youngster should be exposed to such a horror story, said BBB.

Just in -- Protesting teachers, librarians, publishers, parents and students have now been told by CPS Liar-in-Chief Becky Carroll that the book was "never banned." Rather, it has been pulled from the first-grade curriculum until every teacher goes through an intensive 6-week training program at the Pearson Institute on Early Childhood Literacy in order to become H & G Certified.

Despite the book's removal, questions about Hansel and Gretel will still be on state tests.

Persepolis not banned at Lab School or New Trier

7 editions of Persepolis in Lab School library

Funny. It seems the Klonsky brothers are the best news source in town on this one. Clair Kirch quotes from both our blogs as she tries to make some sense out of the continuing book-banning fiasco at CPS. But as folks in the community say, "the Common Sense Bus doesn't stop on Clark St."

If the banning and restrictions on Persepolis was just a "clumsy, at best, and brainless at worst", "ham-handed" bobble by some CPS bureaucrats, as Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg contends, then why won't Rahm or BBB just say that, chastise the 'crat, pull back all the top-down restrictions on 7th-grade teachers and simply get out of the way?

Answer -- because even if that would improve teaching and learning (which it would) they can't. It's not in their nature. And besides, with the mayor's dwindling poll ratings, they can't afford much in the way of self-criticism or transparency. It's not the stuff on which political campaigns are built. Yet another reason to get rid of mayoral control of the schools.

Instead, the struggle at Lane continues and a student movement against censorship and democratic education is born. Hopefully it won't be crushed.

Persepolis only "inappropriate" for CPS students?

Interesting to take note of this library guide plan at high-scoring, wealthy, suburban New Trier High School --Rahm's alma mater.

Better yet, it only took a quick call over to Arne Duncan's alma mater, the U of C Lab School, where the mayor currently sends his own children, to find out that Persepolis is part of the middle school curriculum and is readily available to all middle school students in the Rowley Library. In fact, the middle school library has 7 different editions of Marjane Satrapi's book, both in English and in French.

Arundhati Roy speaks in Chicago. Book banning, no small thing

Arundhati Roy reads from The God of Small Things (M. Klonsky pic)

Listening to author/activist (The God of Small Things) Arundhati Roy last night at Northwestern's Thorne Auditorium was a powerfully provocative experience. As her narrative, on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, wound around and through the global struggle for peace, democracy,  human dignity, Arundhati couldn't avoid mention of the banning by CPS of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. She noted how strange it was that in countries that routinely practice torture, it is considered inappropriate to learn or talk about it.

The packed auditorium applauded loudly when Anthony Arnove of event sponsor Haymarket Books, announced that there were copies of Persepolis for sale at the book table, alongside Roy's own Field Notes on Democracy and Walking With the Comrades. Arnove drew a laugh when he offered a discount to Chicago 7th-grade students.

The mayor was tactfully nowhere in sight last night. In fact, Rahm has been conspicuously AWOL from the book-banning battle, leaving his schools boss Byrd-Bennett to defend the indefensible and take the hits, just as he did with her predecessor, J.C. Brizard.

Student at Social Justice H.S. hold Persepolis read-in.

Until yesterday, that is, when Rahm, reportedly told DNAIno.com that he was "looking into" the situation, whatever the hell that means.

Democracy Now!

If you missed Arundhati last night, you can hear her being interviewed on Democracy Now!

Chicago Tonight

If you were at last night's event, you probably missed this interview on Chicago Tonight with Barbara Jones, Exec. Director of the American Library Association, Kristine Mayle from the CTU, and two brilliant, articulate Lane H.S. student  protest organizers.

Stupidest headline award

It goes to the Sun-Times for this one:

Lane students try to stage library sit-in — but can’t pull it off 

It should have read -- CPS tries to ban books at Lane, but can't pull it off. 
Thanks Lane and SOJO students for standing tall.

CPS blocks Lane student sit-in over book ban

Hundreds of Lane Tech College Prep students attempted to hold a sit-in this morning inside the school library, in response to CPS' book banning.

Progress Illinois went to the school as classes began this morning but was told by one of the school’s assistant principals that members of the media were not allowed to attend the sit-in within the school or speak with faculty or students on school property about the protest, or other events, citing CPS’ communications policy.

PI reports that, Lane Tech students organized today’s 8 a.m. sit-in in the school’s library on Facebook and other social media platforms, however faculty broke it up about 20 minutes later, according to student reports on Twitter. Multiple students reported on Twitter that the library was locked and up to 400 students flooded the surrounding hallways.
And were those drones, I saw flying above Addison and Western this morning?

You laugh. But check out S-T liberal columnist Laura Washington, calling for drones "navigating the streets of Woodlawn, Englewood, Roseland. Steel-and-wired contraptions equipped to detect illicit activity on our corners, alleys and parks."

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Satrapi

Persepolis author, Marjane Satrapi

 “For me, the worst in all of that is it’s absolutely the biggest insult to the intelligence of the teachers.” -- Sun-Times

 More from Marjane Satrapi

 I’m absolutely shocked. Even in Texas I didn’t have trouble with Persepolis.” -- Sun-Times

CPS liar-in-chief, Becky Carroll

"The book was never banned.” -- Sun-Times

Lane Tech students 

 - This is a SIT IN…We will SIT. And READ. You do not need to bring the book with you. You can hold up signs expressing your opinions toward CPS, Persepolis, Censorship, etc. - If you have other banned books, feel free to bring them and read them there. -- Flyer announcing today's sit-in in the library

Lane Tech Teacher, Steve Parsons

"I tell my students all the time, this is what education is all about. You don't learn just so you can take a test. You learn so you can change the world. They are actually doing that now." -- Chicago Tribune

Barbara Jones, American Library Assoc.

The CPS directive to remove this book from the hands of students represents a heavy-handed denial of students’ rights to access information, and smacks of censorship... As an institution of democracy and learning, CPS has a responsibility to actively model and practice the ideals of free speech, free thought, and access to information at the heart of our democracy. -- Washington Post

Byrd-Bennett says yes to book banning

Today at Lane Tech

In this morning's post, I greatly underestimated the arrogance and stupidity of the CPS autocrats. That's a sin that someone with my experience should never commit.

I assumed that the outrageous banning of the graphic novel Persepolis was the move of some misguided middle-level bureaucrat. But by this afternoon, CEO Byrd-Bennett had not only taken credit for the banning, she had doubled-down by declaring the book to be inappropriate for seventh-graders "because it contains "graphic language and images."

And here I always thought that graphic language and images were the mark of great literature -- especially of a graphic novel. I also thought that it was the job of teachers to guide their students towards developmentally-appropriate reading. Do we really need the schools CEO to decide for teachers which books to ban?

An award-winning work, Persepolis has been translated into more than 40 languages. It was published in the United States as two volumes in 2003 and 2004 and later as a single volume. It was chosen by the Young Adult Library Association as one of its recommended titles and named as one of “100 Best Books of the Decade” by the Times of London.

Lane Tech students and teachers are having none of it. Today, lots of them poured out onto the rain-soaked streets after school to demand an end to book banning. One student told me that she was quite able to decide for herself which books to read and what to think of them. A Lane teacher called the banning ridiculous and told me that he had assigned the book to his students two years ago. The principal of another school told me that she was ordering 10 copies of Persepolis for her school library.

As is usually the case, book banning soon turns into its opposite. The publishers of Persepolis must be grinning from ear to ear today after hearing the news from Chicago. Please ban more of our books, I can almost hear them appealing to CPS 'crats. As for Rahm, BBB & Co., I can't imagine this going well for them. Can you?

GOOD READS

Thanks for these, the best of recent review copies:

Click on covers for more.

New books, good reads

GOOD READS

Against the Odds

Small schools educators, activists and researchers will want to read Against the Odds: Insights from One District's Small School Reform. The district is Mapleton, Colorado and Larry Cuban and his team have put together a good, readable, qualitative study. I even have a back-cover blurb which reads, "It's all there--struggle, resistance, leadership issues, the muscle foundations, parents, and community engagement. Against the Odds is a great resource for the small schools movement.”

The Strive of It

One of my favorite writers (people), Kathleen Cushman, has a great piece in the current Educational Leadership, "The Strive of It." It's all about practice, practice, practice--maybe not Alan Iverson's favorite topic, but the road to expertise for young learners. The Practice Project opens up real possibilities for teachers who are struggling to engage young students, capture their interests, and building expertise based on the habits of experts.

We discovered a great deal about why young people engage deeply in work that challenges them. And as we analyzed their experiences, the kids and I also began to think differently about what goes on in schools. Could what these young people already understood about practice also apply to their academic learning? Could teachers build on kids' strengths and affinities, coaching them in the habits of experts?

Book banners strike again in Virginia

The real version of Anne Frank's diary

Culpeper County public school officials have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes. (NBC News)

My campaign is over before it has even begun

Betti Cadmus and her book-banning board members in Menifee Union School Dist. undercut my campaign by putting Webster's Dictionary back on the shelves. I didn't even have a chance to send her our list of dirty words culled from Webster's soiled pages. But don't fret wing-nuts. Betti and the gang are allowing parents to have their kids read another version of the dictionary (presumably cleaner). Maybe we should start looking through the Oxford Dictionary. Yes! there it is: ORAL SEX.

I hope my blogs on this topic weren't responsible for Menifee's retreat. I was hoping a banning of the dictionary would increase readership and boost student test scores. Fortunately for them, board members aren't tested.

Book burning dilemmas

It's not easy being a book burner. For one thing, as a Menifee, Calif. school board member, Betti Cadmus, discovered when she tried to ban Webster's Dictionary from district schools. "It's hard to sit and read the dictionary" to see if there's any graphic sex words contained therein.

For another, you've got to try and avoid embarrassment by making sure you are banning the right author. In Texas, for example, the State Board of Education banned children's author Bill Martin, who died in 2004, after board member Pat Hardy cited a book he had supposedly written for adults which contained "very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system."

"She said that that was what he wrote, and I said: ' ... It's a good enough reason for me to get rid of someone,' " said Hardy

Problem is--she mixed up DePaul University prof, Bill Martin, Jr. author of Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation with Bill Martin, author of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. What do you see?

I highly recommend reading both with a critical eye. For example, while Martin Jr.'s book has an explicitly Marxist bent, the kid's author Martin is potentially even more subversive.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me.

RED bird, get it?

So now I'm starting a new campaign to send board member, Hardy examples of other books by authors with Martin in their name, to add to her to-burn list.

Let's start with another juvenile fiction writer Ann Martin, paper back writer, George R.R. Martin. Then there's Martin Amis, philosopher Martin Heidegger. Oh, and let's not forget that well-know subversive, Martin Luther King.