“Promise yourself you will never forget this day.”
Diane Ravitch, 7/30/11
In future years, students training to be teachers will study about The Tipping Point in American Education: The Summer of 2011.
From that historical perspective, this period will mark when our nation’s Humanistic intentions for learning and teaching were re-asserted after a 20 year period of neglect.
It will be recounted enthusiastically how teachers, parents and community activists rose up in great numbers— to realign the American public school system to a tradition 2,500 years old of idealism, democratic values, individual self-expression, intellectual rigor, physical and artistic discipline, and, most of all, balance.
Mens sana in corpore sano A sound mind in a healthy body.
Did this particular weekend and this timely assembly of fire-driven forces CAUSE enough pull-back actually to reverse the direction of the historical pendulum?
These events at the end of July and the commitment of participants to go forth as a movement now plants a beacon, drawing together the positive— perhaps even spiritual— forces already gathering.
How I Got Involved
My Great Barrington WHOLE CHILD INITIATIVE partner, Chris Nye, was invited to propose a workshop at the two-day Conference, which was hosted at American University. He asked me to join him, and we sent in a description for a 2-hour presentation, “Educate the WHOLE CHILD.” I prepared a PowerPoint. We discussed activities to engage participants. I printed a few “EDUCATE THE WHOLE CHILD” T-shirts. 
Then Chris had to bow out for some surgery, followed by a vigorous recovery.
So there I was, on my own, amongst the activists, the protesters, the militant teachers’ unions, the social justice advocates, the academics, some ordinary school teachers and parents, and even a bunch of socialists and rabble rousers.
We agree on so much, but differ in….
Lots of anger and talk to rile up anger and talk to rile up…….
Harsh chanting…..
Nirvi Shah, guest blogger on Education Week, 8/5, describes: “This movement against high stakes testing and test-based accountability…”
Yes, loud and clear—- AGAINST!!!
But what is the compelling FOR???
The Civil Rights Movement not only had a compelling moral cause, but Dr. King’s emphasis on non-violent resistance made protesting into a spiritually uplifting practice.
“EDUCATE THE WHOLE CHILD” makes Teaching into a spiritually uplifting practice.
Solid, traditional, historical PEDAGOGY is the powerful, moral, spiritual answer to the blatant materialism of NUMBERS-DRIVEN EDUCATION “REFORM.”
Those of us who came into teaching with the political fervor of the 1960′s were fans of Postman and Weingartner’s, “Teaching as a Subversive Activity.” (1969)
After 40 years employed in the teaching craft, in the end, I came to understand and practice teaching as a SPIRITUAL Activity, rather than as a political one.
I’ve been advocating this point of view independently, on my own, for years, as you can see from the rest of this site.
What I brought back from Washington was a willingness and enthusiasm to work with others, as aggravating as others can be. The scene for change is a movie set, moreso than a novelist’s library.
Chris wasn’t there to introduce me to people. Fortunately, my friends, Amy and Tom Valens, being activists, protesters, advocates themselves, were familiar with the network of people participating, and they made me feel part of it.
Amy and Tom produced the film, “August to June” about Amy’s last year teaching before she retired.
The instructional culture of her school in Marin County, California, circa 2006, reminds me very much of the Shoreham Wading River Middle School when it was at its prime, circa 1980— only her school’s community held steadfastly to teaching the WHOLE CHILD, and the North Shore Long Island community did not.
I also met Janet Mayer and her husband, Larry. They are a devoted, long-married couple, both career educators. Janet is the author of As Bad As They Say— Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx.
My Sister Bronx Teacher had a book signing in the Bronx at the bookstore of a mutual friend, La Verne Harris, the proprietress of Books in the Hood. Janet’s book is a celebration of her teaching career, the honoring of her students, a graphic description of the physical and morale decrepitude in many New York City schools, especially in the Bronx.
In her last chapter, “Deception, Dismantling and Demise of Public Education,” she documents from the authority of her experience and from academic sources and research. No one points her finger so unhesitatingly, and declares so authoritatively that the Emperor is naked and that “Education Reform” is a weave being perpetuated by shyster tailors who pose as educational leaders.
Summary
Across the board, from the Vision of the steering committee, to the participation of our most respected activists like Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, and Jonathan Kozol, to those who have been writing, blogging, protesting, pushing and participating all along, to the resurgent teacher unions, parent activists and community organizers, to retired teachers and principals, and to new recruits like Matt Damon and me— the time is now, the momentum is building, and as we join forces in good will, we will save our schools.
NEXT:
You go boy. After 39 years of teaching it is my pleasure to learn that the advocates for education are alive and well. Hope to pick up the torch and find a voice for this too.
Bless you.
Sa ta na ma
Franco