Karen Lewis taught a powerful lesson from the Torah at a synagogue in Evanston.
This is the rabbi’s account of her moving reading of Numbers, in which she connects the Biblical story to recent events in Chicago.
“Her portion, Shelach Lecha (Numbers 13:1-15:41) relates, among other things, the story of the twelve scouts send by by Moses to report on the Promised Land. Ten of them return with words of discouragement – they reported that they saw giants in the land. “We felt like grasshoppers to ourselves,” they said, “”and so we must have looked to them!”
“In her presentation, she pointed out that forces of domination in society can often have this effect on us. In the case of Chicago schools, it is easy to feel cowed by the powerful political-corporate interests that are decimating public education in our city – and in fact, in cities around the nation. The key, Lewis said, is not to be daunted or to give in to a slave mentality that “idealizes Egypt.” The answer, as ever, is to organize and fight back.”
Once again, the powerful oppress the weak. It falls to us to defend the powerless. We must not be intimidated by the oppressor.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
She is an inspiration for sure. Maybe the head honchos at NEA and AFT should pay attention to Karen.
Amen
Today our superintendent, who disagrees with the high stakes tests, came in to report that he thinks these odious tests are here to stay. Next year, he reports, NY state all state tests will be done on computers—requiring districts to purchase enough computers to allow this to happen. Think about our eight and nine year olds sitting at computers trying to organize their thoughts AND type accurately. What about the households of folks suffering from the poverty gap (NOT achievement gap), who have no access to computers—and the underfunded schools that have not had the purchasing power to buy computers for their students to practice expressing their thoughts onto computers? We must keep fighting for our children—for is not an essential condition of childhood powerlessness?
I don’t understand how the children can write essays effectively if they don’t have the ability to type effectively within a time limit. Will they have to write any essays, etc? just wondering
Computer testing SUCKS!
I love the lesson. It is hard to stay positive these days.
You write, “We must not be intimidated by the oppressor.”
AMEN!
And the LORD hardened Rahm Emanuel’s heart, so that he would not agree to a moratorium on school closings . . . .
Haman had grandiose plans, too — until he met Esther!
traditional: “There’s no hidin’ place down here! No hidin’ place down here. I went to the rock to hide my face, the rock cried out ‘no hidin’ place’–there’s no hidin place down here.”