WEEKEND QUOTABLES

"I am not a racist."  (Painting by Haitian-American artist, Watson Mere)

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” -- Martin Luther King Jr., The Radical King

Steven W. Thrasher

As often as American politicians are always saying they wish Ferguson or NFL protesters did things “more like King”, white Americans have never really liked any kind of racial protest, and didn’t especially like King when he was alive. They didn’t like him marching at Selma or helping run a bus boycott in Montgomery. The didn’t like him organizing a Poor People’s Campaign to try to bring together economically exploited people of all races. And they certainly didn’t like him showing up in Memphis to help sanitation workers strike for better working conditions after two of their own, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were killed on the job. -- Guardian

U.S. & Norwegian educators statement

“The vile and unacceptable comments made by President Trump must be condemned with the strongest possible force. Norwegian and American educators stand in solidarity with their sisters and brothers in Haiti, El Salvador and across Africa—and people of African descent in both of our countries—who who will bear the brunt of bigotry." -- Union of Education Norway and AFT on President Trump’s Racism

Rev. William H. Lamar IV

“Donald Trump is America’s id,” said Pastor Lamar, whose 180-year-old church is five blocks from the White House. “He is as American as baseball and apple pie.” He added, “America has to think long and hard about whether it wants something different.” -- New York Times

In a world where unstable leaders wield weapons of mass destruction, Hawaii is a wake up call. Nuclear buttons and ballistic missiles only serve to terrorize innocent civilians. They endanger us. They do not protect us.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) January 13, 2018

New legislators' report on reform is a step up from current policies

“High-performing countries have consciously decided to prioritize education over testing.” — State Senator Joyce Elliott, D-Ark.

Will a Clinton administration bring a shift in federal education policy? Will we see a break from corporate-style reform practices--racing to the top, no child left behind, testing madness, school closings and the unfettered move to privately-run charter schools that marked the Obama/Duncan era? We can only guess right now.

Recent Clinton speeches to the teacher union conventions sounded good. But we've all been there before. The new party platform plank on education reflects some positive changes pushed mainly by Sanders members of the platform committee. But platforms are soon forgotten once November is in the rear view.

The latest indicator that change may be in the wind comes from a new report from a bipartisan group of state legislators who studied and were impressed by the most successful approaches in Finland and other developed countries. "No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State’. 

The 28 legislators and staff members focused on the highest performing countries on PISA to discover commonalities across their policies and practices. They met with education leaders from these countries, along with national and international experts who study their systems. They also visited several countries to see the differences firsthand.

I read the report with a skeptical eye, especially after I saw AFT President and Clinton cheerleader-in-chief Randi Weingarten giving it a giddy endorsement, calling the report "a model" and claiming that "the committee sets aside political ideologies to work together for what’s best for students and educators."

Doubtful.

AFT is listed as a partner on the project though it appears, after scanning the list of partners and consultants, that no k-12 educators were involved in creating he report. So no, Randi -- not a "model".

Actually, the report does represent a step up from where we've been for the past three decades since A Nation at Risk" set us on our current destructive course. In some ways, both documents are similar with each taking globalism and the race for American supremacy as its starting point. The new report is filled with much of the same empty reformy rhetoric about our failing schools and the need for "world standards" and "alignment."

“In several of the countries studied, teaching is regarded as an honorable and respected profession, comparable to medicine and law, and not a burden on the local property tax.” — State Representative Mary Stuart Gile, -- D-N.H.

On the positive side, the report contains no mention of standardized testing, school choice, charter schools or privatization in its list of recommendations. Instead it calls for "a strong early education system, a re-imagined and professionalized teacher workforce [I sensed Linda Darling-Hammond's presence here], robust career and technical education programs, and a comprehensive, aligned system of education."

Most importantly, there was a strong statement on the effects of poverty as a key determinant in student academic success.

In the United States, children in poverty now account for about a quarter of all children in public schools. Large numbers of American children enter first grade with disadvantages that may overwhelm the school’s capacity to provide an adequate education. Because high-performing countries provide supports to ensure that children are ready for school, their schools typically do not face similar challenges.

Once students in top-performing countries are in school, those who struggle receive extra help to reach the same high standards other students will reach more easily. Providing additional resources to schools serving disadvantaged, struggling students is a priority.

More teachers are typically allocated to such schools, with the best teachers serving in the most challenged ones. Resources are also reallocated within schools to reach those most in need of extra support. These countries demonstrate that, with added support, struggling students can meet high expectations. Inversely, American students from the wealthiest communities are most likely to get the best teachers and the finest facilities because of the way we structure our finance systems.

A far cry from the reformers' current "no excuses" rhetoric.

The report takes notice of Finland's focus on equity:

Finland prides itself on providing equity of opportunity to learn and inclusion. Resources are directed to the most high-need students and schools. Students with special needs are often mainstreamed in regular classrooms but receive significant additional support. Ninety-eight percent of the cost of education is covered by government.

However, no mention of the effects of race, racism or segregation. The word, unions, appears only once in the report. This, despite the fact that most of the countries investigated have a strong unionized teacher force. But the one reference is positive, a recommendation that unions have a seat at the reform table. No wonder Randi is so enthusiastic.

How much influence "No Time To Lose" will have is anyone's guess. With the passage of ESSA and the weakened federal role in influencing state ed policy -- in part, a backlash against Duncan's overreach, Common Core and Race To The Top -- it's doubtful that this report will have much weight in red states.

Unless of course, the Republican crisis that is Trumpism, turns many of them blue or at least purple.

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

Seattle teachers strike enters its second week.

Gary Younge

I delivered the Bernie Grant Memorial Lecture in London on Thursday on Black Lives Matter in the Age of Obama. The first question was about why parents were on hunger strike in Chicago to save their school. -- FB

Jackie Edens, director of The Inner Voice, a Chicago homeless agency

"I don't think it can be stated strongly enough how this turnaround budget is going to undo decades of progress moving forward... Things are bad now, but if these cuts go through at the level we're talking about - that they're talking about - things are going to be catastrophic. And guess what happens between now and the end of the year. It gets really, it gets really cold in Chicago." -- ABC News

Chuy Garcia speaking at Elgin Community College

 But in a city controlled by a Democratic Party "machine, were not accustomed to the brass-knuckle politics of the time." -- Tribune

Alma Harris, Yong Zhao and Michelle Jones

The things that cannot be copied are the things that often matter most. -- "Why borrowing from the ‘best’ school systems sounds good — but isn’t" WaPo

'The reform movement in US is led by a bunch of Ivy Leaguers, obsessed with data.'

Jiang Xueqin

Quotable Jiang Xueqin

In December, China stunned the world when the most widely used international education assessment revealed that Shanghai’s schools now outperform those of any other country—not only in math and science but also in reading. Some education experts have attributed these results to recent reforms undertaken by the Chinese government. Jiang Xueqin has been active in Chinese education since 1998, when as a Yale undergraduate he taught for six months at one of the top high schools in China, Beida Fuzhong, or the Affiliated High School of Peking University.

The reform movement in the US is led by a bunch of Ivy League people who are obsessed with data. They have allies in the media like Thomas Friedman and are bankrolled by billionaires like Bill Gates. They want to bring “accountability” to the American school system. That means testing. They use China as the Yellow Peril. “If our kids can’t do math, China is going to kick our ass. Our kids are going to end up as Chinese slaves.” The media loves it because fear sells.

 It is amazing to see it. You have this system in the US that’s great for elites but is not so great for everyone else. In China you have a country trying to create an elite system. -- NY Review, "Solving China's Schools".

Florida's Testing Freaks

Florida's test-crazy Gov. Rick Scott and his ed adviser, Michelle Rhee.

If you want to see the depths to which Florida's Dept. of Ed. testing freaks can sink, see Valerie Strauss' story in today's WaPo about a Florida mom Andrea Rediske’s fight to help families of children with severe disabilities. Warning -- it's not a story for the faint of heart.

MORE...And now they're raising the testing bar to cut the number of recipients of the state's Bright Futures scholarships from 1 in 3 to 1 in 8 qualifying students.

"There's only so much money to go around for education. If you're giving a merit-based award, it should be to the top students in the state," said state Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale.

But according to blogger, Deep Purple Musings,

 Moraitis never misses a chance to propose legislation which lines the pockets of rich charter school operators, now wants to strengthen the hand of big testing companies. The more times a family has to pay for another test, the more money they make. A much better predictor of future success has always been a student’s performance in the classroom. 

AND THEN THERE'S PISA... Yong Zhao tells us how the international testing competition race to the bottom has pushed China off the deep end. His advice to the U.S., whose PISA scores (misleadingly averaging wealthy and poor student scores) is:

Until OECD-PISA became the only employer in the world with PISA scores as the only qualification, I would not suggest lawyers and doctors in the U.S., U.K., or any nation to replace your children’s activities in music, arts, sports, dancing, debates, and field trips with math tutoring. For the same reason, it is not time yet for schools in developed countries to close your swimming pools, burn your musical instruments, end museums visits, or fire your art teachers.

Nassau Junkanoo and the King H.S. sit-in

Junkanoo in Nassau

NASSAU, BAHAMAS-- On winter break. We couldn't pass up a chance, between family visits in Florida, to grab a cheap fare from Miami over to Nassau for a couple of days of R&R. It's nice to be able to escape the Chicago winter for a few days but I've still got my mind on Chicago schools, especially after reading the Sun-Times story about yesterday's student sit-in at King College Prep, where 500 students demanded the firing of principal Shontae Higginbottom.

King sit-in

King students are angered over Higginbottom's imposition of key changes this fall, including closing the new media center where students used computers after school, and locking students outdoors after they’ve left the building during the day.

“I want the rules to change,” sophomore Joshua Phillips said. “And if things can’t change, I guess it’s time for a new principal.”

Back to Nassau where we were lucky enough to take part in yesterday's Junior Junkanoo festivities, a prelude to the Christmas holiday Junkanoo which looks like a mix between Mardi Gras and festival time in Rio. No one here is quite sure about the origins of Junkanoo but it may have West African origins as the costumes and conduct of the masqueraders bear similarities with the Yoruba festivals. I read that this festival began during the 16th and 17th centuries when slaves in The Bahamas were given a special holiday around Christmas time, when they would be able to leave the plantations to be with their family and celebrate the holidays with African dance, music and costumes.

Today, despite it's heavy corporate sponsorship,  Junkanoo marchers satirize politicians and social issues through costume and Junkanoo music and art.

The streets are filled with locals and tourists from the huge tour boats. Food stands compete for prizes for best conch salad, ribs or jerk chicken while thousands of Bahamian school students take to the streets in dazzling costumes and masks and march down Bay Street to steady rhythms and applause from the huge crowd of onlookers that lasted past midnight.

Among the hundreds of predominantly-black public schools marching last night, was an apparently all-white group from the nearby Spanish Wells All-Age School on tiny St. George's Cay. Spanish Wells, it seems, was settled by a mix of Bermudan pirates and British loyalists (who brought their slaves with them) fleeing the American Revolution.

Where's the connection here? Well, check out the rules for Spanish Wells students:

1. Be neat and tidy in your dress. Your appearance says a lot about you.
2. Litter makes your surroundings unsightly. Put it where it belongs.
3. Obey orders right away. You might be giving them someday.
4. Be courteous, kind and respectful to all.
5. Never leave the school premises without permission.
6. Show enthusiasm, pride and perseverance in all that you do.
7. Be on your best behaviour at all times.
8. Wear only the prescribed school uniform and accessories.
9. Stealing, fighting, and cursing are bad habits. Do not engage in these.

I guess no matter what country you're in, you can tell the class character of the schools by the hidden curriculum. For working class kids its almost always about rule #3.

The King student protest kindles hope that critical thinking and democratic ideas are still alive, even in the most oppressive schools.