I received this comment from one of the active members of SOS. I am glad she mentioned that Jonathan Kozol will be speaking at the SOS event, which takes place from August 3-5 in D.C.. Jon was riveting last year. And the great thing about hearing Jon is that he will make clear who is really leading “the civil rights movement of our time.”
Thank you, Diane, for taking the time to tell your readers about the Save Our Schools People’s Convention.
I will be attending the Save Our Schools People’s Convention in Washington, DC again this year. One of the highlights last year was listening to you speak. You will be sorely missed this year AND we can hardly wait to read your new book!
I also look forward to hearing Jonathan Kozol speak. I believe the issue of civil rights is at the very core of education reform and Jonathan’s work will lead us to create a 21st century model that puts civil rights in the driver’s seat. While corporate reformers tout their ideas as a means of achieving civil rights, the policies they have mandated have effectively segregated America’s schools to a point worse than the 1950’s. This “savage” impact is what drives many of us who are battling corporate reform.
As a kindergarten teacher, I look forward to being part of the work that needs to be done in early childhood education with Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Deborah Meier. The expectations of the corporate reformers curriculum is completely out of touch with child development. These experts are champions for the whole child and their contributions to our conference will be key in the early childhood education platforms we will be creating.
Since last year’s conference, not a day goes by that I do not have contact with the many wonderful people across the country with whom I made connections with at the Save Our Schools March last year.
In fact, these connections have often put information I needed to inform others right at my fingertips, as I have resources now through people like yourself, Anthony Cody, Mike Klonsky, Dave Greene, Steve Krashen, Nancy Flanagan, Teacher Ken Bernstein, and Deborah Meier within minutes if I need them. And I have needed all of these connections this year, believe me!
By making these connections at last year’s Save Our Schools Conference, these resources have helped me educate other stakeholders and provide evidence in my state that has made a huge difference in my ability to argue against corporate reforms.
More than anything, when I have been weary from this uphill battle, these connections have instantly stepped in to encourage me. I have struggled, as many teachers have in deciding whether to continue working in this profession due to the oppressive nature of education reform on the children I work with daily.
These individuals I met at Save Our Schools have taken the time out of their busy lives to make a phone call or send an encouraging word via email, Twitter, or Facebook that has lifted my spirits and help me lead others in this fight for equality. I have all of you who came to Save Our Schools to thank for this support, for it would be very difficult to maintain this level of service without that encouragement.
For me, the speakers and workshops will be exciting. The work on platforms will hopefully unify our vision to begin the work of taking back public education from the corporate reformers. Many who dismiss us critique us for being “naysayers”.
Personally, I think we need both: As you do on your blog, we need to be critical of education reform, working to show the public what does not work and why.
We also need to show the public, through compare and contrast: what works and what does not.
To do that, we need to come together to create our vision of what DOES work. Once we come together as stakeholders to create that vision, that example, our real work can begin. Using example vs non-example will be the key to the public understanding what is at the heart of our mission. After all, what do we do best? Teach.
As educators, parents, and students —- all stakeholders and the real OWNERS of this public good called PUBLIC schools have been shut out of the policy making, shut out of the curriculum [the standards] and shut out of the pedagogy [the art and science], as corporations have taken over our public schools.
Save Our Schools People’s Education Convention hopes to give the people a voice in creating a vision, to define what the real purpose for education is in America, and what a 21st century education would look like to support all stakeholders.
This is a great goal. Whether we accomplish this entire goal at the convention remains to be seen. What will be accomplished will be a start towards creating that vision. I am excited to see the results.
I know those of us attending are ALL invited to be participants on Twitter’s LIVE #SOSchat on Tuesday, August 7th at 9 pm EDT to report back to the public about our Save Our Schools People’s Education Convention. I hope you can join us that night, Diane to hear about the event and discuss what we accomplished as a group.
Whether we accomplish the great goal of creating a vision and the first steps of how to achieve our vision remains to be seen, but I know one thing:
The national connections we make at the Save Our Schools convention will carry us through another year and years to come to continue the work that needs to be done to “Save Our Schools”; for the people who attend are able to communicate, build relationships that are lasting, inform each other of the effective ways those working to end corporate reform, encourage one another when the uphill battle is challenging, work together on brainstorming new strategies, and create actions that serve the people of America.
For me, this is the most important and most positive impact the convention will have. We need ALL stakeholders at this convention. I hope your readers will join us.
It’s good to see people who are neither blinded by monetary interests nor driven by hatred of union and/ or working people organizing something productive. Nice also to see a convention truly open to all stakeholders. In the field of education, it’s sad but amazing what a rarity that is.
Thanks for letting us know about this, Diane.
It’s great to see America’s education issues being approached from the Civil Rights standpoint. Major federal policy like Race to the Top actually promotes segregation yet is being touted by both the administration and the unions as promoting equity. Let’s hope the SOS convention gets better coverage this year than it did previously. Perhaps the civil rights focus will help that happen.
It is quite an honor for me to be mentioned with the likes of “yourself, Anthony Cody, Mike Klonsky, Dave Greene, Steve Krashen, Nancy Flanagan, Teacher Ken Bernstein, and Deborah Meier”.
More importantly, it is a duty for us all to get involved in fighting the corporate and monied powers in their attempted takeover of public education. Our power is in our worth as professionals, not in the value of our overseas bank accounts. We must use our power democratically, judiciously and repetitively to make the changes we know will work in public education and not to throw out the baby with the bathwater as we do.
There are so many example of good, no great, pedagogy in this country that the masses do not know about, except if you ask parents and former students. We need to help them raise their voices as well.
Although a west coast wedding prevents me from being there this year, I continue to fight every way I can. I have put together a proposed plank on teacher training that I hope is recognized as a solution to several problems in that area. I will continue to work with schools and teachers who wish the help.
Good luck all and enjoy DC in the Summer. Hope it isn’t as much of a scorcher as last years weekend was…except in how hot we can make it for Duncan et al.
Thanks for posting this, Diane. Your support for SOS has been of great benefit to all of us. We were all inspired by last year’s march just as your letter writer was. Now comes the more difficult part — trying to create a new national organization out of that amazing initial energy. While future marches and other national actions need to happen, this year we are focusing on organizational consolidation. We hope people will come to D.C. with lots of ideas and a willingness to share them in the spirit of unity as we try a create a real people’s education platform.
We have some great speakers and workshops lined up. But like last year we are still operating on a shoestring budget. Things are really tight and most money resources have been sucked up by the election campaigns. On Saturday night, Aug. 5, Jonathan Kozol will speak in a public session and we invite everyone in the D.C.-Baltimore area to come and contribute $10.
Besides that, we appreciate any and all help from your readers. They can contribute by going to the SOS website: http://tinyurl.com/SOSdonate2
Mike Klonsky, SOS Nat’l. Steering Committee
My journey into the world of Education “DEFORM” began last July at SOS! I attended the Conference and the March. It was a turning point in my view of education. I was riveted by Jonathon Kozol and you, Ms. Ravitch at the key notes in the mornings. I began to see what was happening, and everything I learned made me realize that I wasn’t losing my mind! I was intuitively aware of the dangers coming down the pipeline, but I didn’t realize that there were other folks out there like me, who believed that it is was WRONG!
When my family joined me on that miserably hot day for the March, my teens were riveted by each speaker. They stood in the sun as hubby and I sought some shade where we could still listen. You know that a message is meaningful, honest, and true when a 14, 16, and 19 year old will stand for hours to hear it!
You know, Matt Damon may have been there and brought some “star power” but my kids thought the biggest “rock star” of the day was John Kuhn! They asked to watch his video over and over again after it was posted. My daughter has “Savage Inequalities” on her pile of books to read. “The Life and Death of the Great American School System” has been borrowed by several colleagues.
I wish that I could be there this year, but our 25th Anniversary trip (sans kids) trumps it this year. I will be there in spirit, and I will be waiting to read, see and hear what happens this year! More than likely, my SOS bag will be my carry-on!!
I wish you all well at SOS!!
The conference last year is one of the things that helped me get through this year of teaching. It’s so refreshing to be around so many like-minded people. I can’t wait to be back again this year.
Diane, thank you for your work on behalf of schools, families, and democracy. I am looking forward to the Save Our Schools Convention in Washington on August 3. This year we will all have a chance to discuss the attacks on public schools, encourage one another, and craft responses.
Rosalie Friend – NYC
Thank you, Diane, for all the work you continue to do for us all in our march to save, restore, and improve public education. I just read a tweet by Nancy Flanagan that likened the attack by corporations and organizations on public education via CCSS as sneaking in the Trojan Horse. I responded that not much care was being taken to sneak inside the gates of public education as the noise of the squeaking wheels is deafening. It is up to an informed association to summon, to enlighten everyone about the issues facing public education.
Susan Dufresne’s tireless efforts organizing a platform for discussion regarding public education and the efforts by corporations and other organizations to privatize public education is an amazing feat. While I am a newcomer to the SOSchat platform, I have been a teacher for a lifetime and continue to work consulting with DOEs in California and Hawaii. The information I receive from Ms. Dufresne and countless others, including those named in your blog, is vital not just to those of us in education, but to everyone.
To whom are the huge impacts of privatization efforts dominating all sectors of the common good felt more than to the students, parents, and communities that are the foundation upon which a democracy derives? A guarantee of a free and quality public education is the bedrock of our rights and privileges provisioned by constitutional authority. And it is from an educated people where all the benefits and qualities of justice, equality, and our personal freedoms commence.
Moving forward, as the voices of teachers, parents, students, and others continue to grow within this current SOS communication rostrum (and sometimes maelstrom), our fight for the liberation, the preservation of a free public education will continue to advance likewise.
School starts early in Hawaii. July 30th. While I can not attend the SOS march and convention, I feel confident that I will get all the information anyone could want from Susan and all those with whom I have come in contact in such a short time. It would be a task of great proportion to name all those who speak out via blogs, publications, twitter,etc. They all have given me such a wealth of information. And more importantly, hope. I thank you all for teaching me.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats
Thank you, Diane, for sharing your thoughts on SOS and, of course, your support. Thank you, Susan, for so eloquently expressing what so many of us feel.
I attended SOS last year and will be attending it again this year. And just so you know, I DON’T do heat… especially when coupled with HUMIDITY! But, I feel that the SOS movement is important enough to suffer both the heat and humidity. It was, and will be, totally worth it!
It was wonderful to get to speak with (Diane Ravitch and Deb Meier) or see from afar (Susan Ohanian) my three sheroes in public education! The workshops were excellent and inspiring. Meeting like minds from across the nation was truly a beautiful thing. I look forward to connecting in person to many again this summer.
I will be forever grateful to My Three Sheroes and my fellow SOSers, Tweeters and Bloggers who educate and inspire me to keep on keeping on. I couldn’t do it without you.
I fully support SOS. Last year’s little rally changed the debate for the better. Since those 5000 or so teachers gathered in the DC heat, we have seen an over-testing resolution sweep the nation, the brave ladies and men of Florida’s PAA took down a corporate trigger law, the Florida governor said “We may be testing too much,” the Texas Ed commish said “testing has become a perversion of it’s original intent,” the United Optout movement has grown stronger, there have been dozens of new voices speaking up for public schools, Ohio voted down an effort to restrict public workers’ rights, a former Texas GOP chairman said “unfortunately the superintendents are right” regarding their stand against overtesting (and in direct opposition to a business group’s threat to oppose school funding unless the supers and parents stood down on their testing critique… And on and on and on.
Now is not the time to slow down or step away from the fight. Give the merry-go-round another push! And let’s all BEG BEG BEG Diane to make the trip. I will pledge $100 toward her airfare!
I am trying to save the money to make the (expensive) trip from Texas again this year. I hope to see you all there! If we won’t Save Our Schools, who will?
Thank you, Diane! I, too, attended last year. Actually, I attended the NBCT conference and also the SOS Conference and March, moving between them to listen and participate in meaningful conversations, to become empowered and informed. I was able to meet many others who care deeply about education and made connections that have sustained me this year. I agree with Arthur Goldstein that this is a rare and wonderful convention – open and inclusive, welcoming all stakeholders. Parents, students, teachers, administrators, community members – please join (and as Mike says, please consider donating to it). I am going back this year, so grateful to those who have welcomed me to the choir, even when my voice has needed the lessons I have received along the way. I am so grateful to you, Diane, for standing strong with us, and to the many others – named and unnamed above. Thanks especially to the kindergarten teacher who sent the letter and to the bloggers and tweeters and facebook group leaders who have knitted many caring people together through the year.
Dear Diane,
I so enjoyed hearing you speak at the SOS convention at American University last summer and then again at the rally. You are my hero and the hero of so many teachers all across this great nation. Even though you probably won’t be able to attend this year due to previous commitments, all of us at SOS know that you will be there in spirit.
Your hard work and never ending, unselfish help and support for us all is so moving.I have the utmost regard for you and I just love all the work you do on behalf of all public school teachers, public school students: their civil rights and for the rights of those students’ parents.
I think you are a major source in helping us (SOS) succeed. We need you, we love you and we respect you! Thank you so much for all your dedication to so many students across our country that have “no voice” and who are being so abused by the “system” because of Arne Duncan, conservative governors, NCLB, RTTT and all of the corpotate reformers who are trying to destroy and dismantle public education. And thank you so much for fighting for all of us who are such hard working public school teachers & public servants. Our jobs as public educators K-12 (I teach 1st Grade) are so extremely vital, yet because of the stress and unfair practices we have to endure, many of us have “just given up”. You are a shinning light who speaks the truth and who helps so many teachers who’ve been so “beaten down” keep the faith. Please keep fighting the good fight, you are a role model for everyone who cares about children and about the future of our American public schools.
Sincerely,
Maria L. Schrenger
P.S. I pray for the day that you get to debate Arne Duncan. If it could ever take place we know that you could beat him hands down. You’d win because you’re knowledgeable, honest, have the highest of morals, integrity, you speak from the heart, because you seek fairness for ALL students and because you are not afraid to stand up and speak up for what is right! You have the truth on your side too!
My gosh! I’m humbled. I’ll save your wonderful words for a day when I’m feeling down. If I see you, you get a big hug.
Diane
Dear Diane,
I often compare the last few years I have had to “The Matrix” where they give Neo a choice of the red pill or the blue pill. He can go back to the matrix and never know the truth or he can be released into the “real” world.
Last year, at the first SOS webinar, you showed me the “real” world of what was going on and I have hit the ground running. I educate people on my staff, my family and anyone who listens (even strangers on the street). You spurred that passion in me to work against corporate reform, to look at what I do in my classroom and consider if it is what is best for kids and to speak out when I see something that is not right. I have spoken at our School Board meetings as well as at district and building level meetings. I designed a class entitled “What Every Educator Should Know, But Is Afraid To Ask” and offered it last October as a choice for teachers for our state in-service day. It featured an interview you had done. Another roomful of people were given the pill.
Because of your inspiration, and that of many fellow educator, our UniServ leadership, parents and students, I went to DC last summer and marched. I sat in different classes and was motivated to work even harder.
This year when I was asked to be a member of the SOS steering committee, I was both honored and overwhelmed. There is so much work to do to spread the information that needs to be shared. As an information coordinator for SOS, I hear what is going on around the country. The stories I hear make me want to work even harder for our profession, for our students and to keep members of our society the beneficiaries of a well rounded public education.
Your help in delivering the pill to educators that will open their eyes to what is “really” happening in Public Education is invaluable. SOS is richer for your participation and for the voices that are being found to help the march for public education continue.
Thank you and am looking forward to the conference.
Becca Ritchie
See folks Saturday on a panel on teacher unions.
Hello! It is wonderful to see that people are coming together to address different issues that affect all of us. I was curious about the issue of Teacher Bullying and Intimidation, specifically the suicide of Mary Eve Thorson. Will this issue be address and if so in what manner?There is a documentary that Ms. Myra Richardson produced entitled Dying to teach: The Killing of Mary Eve Thorson. It is a MUST SEE!!! Ms. Myra did an Exceptional job with this documentary as she is not only an abused teacher, but also a first time film maker. Without teachers, there is no profession at all! When teachers die, there is a crisis. It is a national crisis. It would be wonderful to have her be present at the convention to tell Mary’s story. There are many teachers who go through degradation on a consistent basis and THERE NEEDS TO BE CHANGES MADE!!!
http://theassailedteacher.com/2012/07/23/the-human-stain-the-myra-richardson-story/#comments
On August 8th, 2013 at 6p.m., a Bullied Teachers’ Forum & Protest Art Exhibit will be held at The Keith House in Chicago. The venue is located at 1900 South Prairie Avenue. The work of art called, DYING TO TEACH, will be unveiled at the event, and is a collaborative project made by concerned parents in dedication to bullied teachers – living and dead. Mary Eve Thorson’s family will be in attendance for this special night. Their daughter’s self-sacrifice for bullied teachers and children was the subject of the documentary, DYING TO TEACH: The Killing of Mary Eve Thorson, “Educators Who Bully.” The film was requested by the Save Our Schools organization for their convention in Washington, DC last August. On April 5th, CBS 2 Chicago aired an interview with John and Shari Thorson about the continued impact of their daughter’s tragic death on teachers across the country. Mary’s documentary was also a topic of discussion. If you’ve been bullied by an administrator or know of a colleague being bullied, then please attend and make your voices heard. Teachers are dying figuratively and now literally. This is an opportunity to stand together and show the world that we refuse to be treated inhumanely. If we don’t act now, more teachers will kill themselves and the students who love them will suffer as a consequence.
Thank you.
Myra Richardson