Mark Naison, a co-founder of the Badass Teachers Association, explains how he became an education activist. He was trained as a historian, and he became increasingly interested in recovering the history of African-Americans in the Bronx. He worked in many schools and saw the power of community history, how it awakened students’ interest in study and research and digging deeper. But along came No Child Left Behind, and the community studies were left behind. Then came the Race to the Top, and he saw the pressure building in every school to focus only on testing, nothing else. He saw what was happening to students and to teachers. He saw the transformation of the schools, and it was awful.

And he knew he had to do whatever he could to reverse these terrible trends. And he has. Read his moving story. And do what you can to join with Mark, join with your friends, try to set our education system right again for children and for learning.