Superintendent John Kuhn of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas is one of our heroes, for his passion, compassion, intelligence, and courage on behalf of his students and community.
Here he writes his resolutions for the New Year. Some of his year-end observations are similar to mine, and I swear we did not communicate. We share common concerns about the future of our public schools, teachers, principals, and students.
Any time John Kuhn speaks, he bowls over the crowd with his inspiring words. Here he is at a Save Texas Schools rally in Austin. Here he is at the national SOS rally in 2011 in D.C.
This is a man who tells the truth and doesn’t worry about the consequences.
I will offer one more resolution to the five he gives: Please resolve to read one or both of John Kuhn’s new books.
Test and Punish: How the Texas Education Model Gave America Accountability Without Equity (available only on Kindle, unfortunately)
And you can pre-order this one, called Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education, which will be available next month in paperback.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Texas “political aristocracy” that developed two centuries ago from a dominant culture of oil and cattle barons perpetuated a “bullying” system that still exists today.
There is no other state in America where racism is more apparent than in Texas, where a type of slave culture of immigrant and minority workers has been conditioned into submission by white superiority controlling the state. If you travel throughout Texas you will observe the mansion communities well segregated from the peasant communities in a state that resembles a feudal system. No where is this Medieval culture more apparent than in the schools, where “performance” and punishment” are the primary focus, and children are either “trophy” children or “dungeon” children. Either way, children in Texas elementary schools cannot escape the psychological damage from “smothering” domineering teachers and “bullying’ administrators. These schools are psychological dungeons for the mental illness perpetuated by leaders with the same.
The defective leaders of Texas who initiated this abuse to children originated with Ross Perot,who was well recognized for his “little man” syndrome, or “Napolean complex”. Next came George Bush, of “Puer aeternus” fame, or the “Peter Pan syndrome”, usually caused by a “smother” mother and a “bullying” father. So, as it continues, these “little” white men of wealth still controlling the state see themselves as superior and entitled, and think they know what is best for everyone. They are either too immature and childlike to recognize the harm being perpetuated on children, or they get pleasure from punishing children. I think it is the latter. I think the children of Texas are helpless victims of perverted politicians who are obsessed with greed, pride, and power. As classic bullies, they get pleasure from punishing weaker, “inferior” citizens, and especially vulnerable children. It will take a lot more “healthy” leaders like John Kuhn to change this, or maybe a woman as governor.
Diane’s comment, “This is a man who tells the truth and doesn’t worry about the consequences”, causes me to ask this question: Are the teachers in John Kuhn’s school district still administering the tests? Are kindergartens still taking reading standardized tests? Are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders still taking four hour STAAR tests? If so, I do believe they are continuing to perpetuate the abuse. Therefore, speaking up is one thing, but taking action and stopping it is another. I think the Texas term for this is “all hat and no cattle”.
So my question is: Is John Kuhn “all hat and no cattle?”
Like every public school, we administer the tests required by state government. There is no mechanism for refusal-to-administer (that I can see, anyway) unless one is willing to see the state penalize (and potentially close down) one’s community school.
Am I part of the problem? Absolutely.
Am I part of the solution? Well, trying to be.
John,
A quick question, have you scoured ALL the laws and Texas Dept of Ed’s (don’t know it’s actual title) regulations for an out? What I mean by scour is to have a number of different people reading and digging and discussing where there might be an opening for refusal.
Also, then when does civil disobedience come into play? Were not segregated schools legal at one point? Did not that legal sanction harm many students? If you know and concur that these educational malpractices cause harm, wouldn’t it be a huge, I mean nationwide-ha ha-win/win situation if everyone in your district were to refuse to play the nefarious testing games? Look what happened when the teachers refused in WA.
I consciously beg you to do what’s right, even if it is supposedly legally “wrong”. There are many creative ways to fight this beast. Make it easy for parents to opt out. Make it easy for students to “sabotage” the tests. Subtle subterfuge can beget large loud resistance to unethical and unjust educational malpractices.
Duane
P.S. We briefly met when you addressed the MO SOS group in Columbia, MO, again thanks for taking the time and coming to talk with us, and I gave you some reading information that I had put together at the time. I know your heart is in the right place, we need to figure out how to get it to the next level.
Texas Parents Opt Out advises parents that Texas law allows them to have their children Opt Out if they believe that participation in the testing is harmful to their children. This is being done all over Texas, and the movement is gathering momentum. Mental health experts all over Texas are calling STAAR for elementary children a “mental health crisis”, are declaring the four hour STAAR for grades 3,4 and 5, as well as the ongoing anxiety generating test prep, as psychologically harmful for children at elementary school age. Many teachers are encouraging parents to use this option, since most teachers do not like to be used to perpetuate this abuse to children.
Since Opt Out is already in place and working in Texas at the request of parents, and supported by a growing number of teachers and administrators in many districts, there is every reason for Perrin-Whitt School District parents to join and support this effort:
Google: Texas Parents Opt Out on Face Book for Opt Out document to give principal.
Edy Chamness is the Texas advisor: edy63ford@hotmail.com
There are times when Civil Disobedience is necessary in order to follow your conscience and do what is right, especially if it means not participating in child abuse.
Actions speak louder than words.
Superintendent Kuhn,
No Worries that TEA might close your school if parents “Opt Out” their children.
TEA does not have a provision for closing a school based on absent children.
You can use your position to allow the first school district in Texas 100% Opt Out ?
That would show TEA Commissioner Michael Williams this ain’t your first rodeo!
Actually, any campus with less than a 95% participation rate on STAAR testing is deemed a failure in the TEA’s accountability system. A school with even a 6% opt-out rate would go immediately into School Improvement. After 5 years in School Improvement, the school would be closed or charterized. There is no way a school survives if it doesn’t give the test.
It’s high time for TEA to have a “test case” to fight this monster. What better community to support this than the good citizens of Perrin Texas who have a supportive superintendent. This could pave the way for similar actions all over Texas. Is it realistic that TEA would close Texas schools over Opt Out? If that’s what it takes, so be it! It will be a fight worth having.
When laws or policies are unjust and harm children. It takes “civil disobedience” to get it changed. We need more Freedom Fighters in Education. John Kuhn cannot in good faith keep speaking up against this “punishment” to children, and then fail to take action against it.
That is the same as participating in the abuse and perpetuating it.
Duane Swacker & Others:
Great comments. Did anyone have a reply from John Kuhn?
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that a good men do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.