Laurie Gabriel, a teacher with nearly three decades experience, decided that she had to do something to fight back against the absurd attacks on teachers.
The first thing she did was to create a documentary to explore the critical issues of the day. It is called “Heal Our Schools,” and it offers practical advice that most teachers would vigorously agree with. In her video, she interviews teachers, students, and a few outsiders (like me). The people she spoke to talked about what matters most in teaching and learning, which she would say is to encourage students to find their passions and pursue them. Her first recommendation, by the way, is to reduce class size so children can get individual attention when they need it.
The high point of the film, in my estimation, was when she spoke to some vocal critics of teachers. She invited them to teach a list of vocabulary words to ten students, and they accepted her offer. The scenes were priceless. The students were restless; one put his head on the desk. Announcements on the public speaker interrupted the lessons. When one of the “teachers” reprimanded a student and told him that when he was in the Army, he would have gotten 50 push-ups for his behavior, another student piped up and said, “We’re not in the Army.” After their students took their tests, Laurie gave them feedback about their performance. They were less enthusiastic about grading teachers by their students’ test scores and even seemed to be more respectful of the skill that it takes to teach middle schoolers.
The second thing she did was to take her documentary on the road, showing it to interested audiences. Her current schedule starts tonight in Wyandotte, Michigan. You can see her other stops listed below. If you live in one of these cities or towns, please show up and bring some friends.
July 21 WYANDOTTE MI (Detroit area)- 7:00 at Biddle Hall, 3239 Biddle Ave.
July 22 CLEVELAND – 7:00 at the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
July 23 PHILADELPHIA – 7:00 at the Ethical Humanist Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square
July 24 WASHINGTON DC – 8:00 at the Holiday Inn Washington Capitol, 550 C Street SW
July 26 – JERSEY CITY – 7:00 pm at the Jersey City Union Building, 1600 W. Kennedy
July 28 NEW YORK CITY – 2:30 pm at the Actors Theatre Workshop, 145 W. 28th Street, 3rd floor
July 29 RAYNHAM MASS. 6:00 pm at the Massachusetts Teachers Regional Office, 656 Orchard Street 3rd floor
July 30 PORTSMOUTH NH, 7:00 pm at the Women’s City Club, 375 Middle Street
August 3 – GRAND BLANC, MI – 6:00 at the Grand Blanc Mcfarlen Public Library.
August 9 DENVER – 1:00 pm at the Highlands Ranch Public Library, 9292 Ridgeline Blvd in Highlands Ranch
If you don’t live in one of those locales and want to see “Heal Our Schools,” contact Laurie at aspenquartet@hotmail.com
Perhaps you could arrange a showing in your community.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The title, “Heal Our Schools” is profound. It provides contrast with the objectives of a slew of education reform philanthropies.
There’s a N.Y. based, Gates partnered, charity that provides tax deductions for donors of school supplies (projects submitted by teachers for crowd sourcing).
Quoting the founder of the site, “How donors choose is real education reform”. With grandiosity, he says. “Our decisions could make government education spending, smarter, better targeted and more responsive.”
A member of the philanthropy’s Executive Team (a former TFA teacher/executive director), touted, in an interview, a project that provided “navy blazers and bow ties for children who marched down hallways heads up, shoulders back…”.
Revenues for the site are estimated at $30,000,000. The charity takes 2.3% of revenue, for general and administrative expenses, another 4.9% for fundraising. The organization asks for an additional donation of 15%, for itself. In the example provided at the site, a $570 dollar project had a calculated $100 additional donation.
Website photographs show Board members, who reflect the typical U.S. corporate board demographics. Representing teachers, there’s only one, who covers two minority bases.
Their organizational chart uses the familiar term “human capital”, as we’ve seen children labeled in reform literature, a “human capital pipeline”.
If companies like Microsoft paid taxes on the billions of their offshore profits, how many of the questionable education philanthropic/non-profit entrepreneurial organizations would become obsolete? And, if their destructive viewpoints and words were silenced, would healing be necessary?
Would you send it to Valdosta, GA?
Please send info on how to arrange a showing. Thank you
Contact Laurie Gabriel. Her email is in the post
Deb, contact Laurie at her email address
“Heal Our Schools” will be screened TONIGHT in Rocky River, OH (just 5 minutes outside of Cleveland).
July 22nd, 7 PM
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
20401 Hilliard Blvd., Rocky River
For more information, please visit http://refuseofcuyahogacounty.webstarts.com/ or call 216-213-0795
I will be at the Cleveland showing tonight. I cannot wait to view the documentary and meet Laurie Gabriel!
Reblogged this on Spoiled Teacher and commented:
Found Laurie’s trailer videos on Vimeo. Resonated very well.
I first discovered this film via Vimeo. I watched the trailers and everything said immediately resonated with me and the group of teachers I work with via uftsolidarity.org. I, too, was so fed up with countless stories of teacher’s telling me bullying and abuse by administrator’s that I went on my computer one night, and just wrote and wrote everything that I had learned regarding trying to protect oneself. I recently put it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Im-a-Principals-Target-Now-What-1943717 for free. Gabriel’s husband was so polite to respond to me via Vimeo with his wife’s address and the information for purchasing a dvd or requesting a screening. I’m excited to share this with other teachers. For a long time I’ve wanted teachers to speak up…I’ve been disgusted by the silence of teachers and how they are treated in NYC.
What a wonderful way to help the under-informed understand teaching, testing, etc. Nothing like real-world experience to inform…. on any subject.
When I had students who could not vision the value of education, I encouraged their hardworking parents to get them sewing factory or other labor intensive jobs during our twice-yearly two-month breaks. Those kids almost always returned with a better understanding of their parents’ lives, and a desire to have a different one.