PUT DOWN THE TEXTBOOK AND WALK AWAY!

It's 4:00 am on a Saturday and I woke up at 3:00 am and started thinking about my school. I haven't written in a while, so I thought I would share some updates and thoughts. 

I am the Dean of Students this year at a school with about 98% free and reduced lunch---education folks understand this as a really broke school! I LOVE my job and I LOVE my students and I love my co-Dean. The teachers are awesome, but they are learning the hard way how to teach our kiddos. 

If you read my posts, you know that I believe kids shouldn't sit in a desk all day and listen to a teacher drone on and this philosophy is proven by how teaching practices are utilized at my school. Is this a race issue? NOPE!! Is it a socioeconomic/cultural issue? ABSOLUTELY!!

We have a huge percentage of new teachers or at least teachers who are new to our building. There is one teacher who has been at our school for 13 years and the librarian has been there since the doors opened. Another teacher has been there for 7. After that, the most tenured teacher has about 3 years. The rest of the faculty is brand spankin' new, at least to the building. 

Our kids are tough. They have seen more and been through more in 10 years than I have in 32. Many are diagnosed with ADHD/ADD, ED (emotionally disturbed), SLD (specific learning disability, or with some sort of speech/language delay. These kids are sometimes on meds and sometimes not. Many of the meds are narcotics (often opiates) so when a child stops taking the medication abruptly, he/she experiences withdrawals. The  average 5th grader has a second grade reading level and the average 8th grader has a fourth grade reading level. Almost every child that I see in my office has at least one biological parent who is in jail or one parent who he/she has not seen for a while. Many live with grandparents or other relatives. Some are homeless, some live at the Salvation Army. On our side of town, the project housing has been removed and replaced Hope VI housing, but trailer parks are rampant and dismal. The Section 8 apartments have a porn shop at the entrance and it is used as a landmark to describe where to turn into the complex when visiting students' homes. Our kids come to school with torn clothing that is often stained and wrinkled. On Thursday of this past week, I had a young lady who came to school with a shirt that smelled so badly, that I gave her one of our extra shirts and took her shirt home to wash. After two washes on hot/cold, it smelled just as bad and the armpits were just as black, so I threw it away. On Monday, she will have a replacement shirt.

So, am I asking for sympathy? HECK NO! What I am asking for is a willingness to take in the information I just gave you and recognize that we have severe problems in our schools. There is such a huge disconnect between teachers and students as well. White, female, middle-upper middle class teachers who desperately just want to convey content knowledge to their students and see them succeed. Our kids know way too much to sit in a desk all day and willingly listen to someone drone on about antecedents, World War II, plant cells, and equations. They know that this information is pointless for the direction they are heading. So instead, they find better things to do with their time during the day such as:

• Fight
• Argue
• Throw paper
• Wander around the room without purpose
• Tackle each other in the hallway
• Rap/sing/talk loudly during inappropriate times
• Sleep

So what is the answer? How do teachers get to do what they love while also motivating kids to join the party? QUIT PROFESSING! Put down the text books people and walk away! You know the saying "You can't fully love someone else until you love yourself"? I would argue you can't fully love academic subjects until you love yourself. Our kids have to be taught a new way. The job of the inner-city teacher is to hit the ground hard each year showing kids how to behave and working with kids to develop new strategies to communicate with their peers and adults, thrive in a professional environment, be a wage-earning citizen, get out of poverty, and take care of themselves. Don't laugh, it's true. Ask any inner-city school teacher. Even if they have never thought about it before, I guarantee they will now!

So what about the abysmal test scores and poor reading levels? That will come. That can be part of this learning adventure students will go on each year. The definition of insanity is "Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Well then, schools are insane! The awesome part is though, schools don't need medication to cure the insanity, just a little rehab. I never cared what someone said about where I was in my curriculum and after a while, no one had to because these (stupid) test scores showed that my kids had very good comprehension in Social Studies. 

If you are a teacher and you are reading this, give it a shot this coming week. Put down the curriculum pacing guide and start getting to know your kids. Earn their trust and respect. Show care and concern for them (do NOT confuse that with sympathy!) by asking how their weekend went. Push the desks against the walls and do some real teaching by showing them how to work together, how to listen to you, how to answer questions, how to follow the rules at school. You will get to the curriculum and I can promise that when those (stupid) test scores come out later on next year, you will see a massive change for the better! 

Are You Getting What You are Paying For?

I love our little abode over hear on the Eastside and while I wish we could stay in it forever, the fact of the matter is, we are just getting too crunched in this small space. We can probably stay in it for another 2-3 years before I go nuts.  I am up this morning as the kids are with their grandparents at their beautiful farm in Kentucky (Read: I have some quiet time!), perusing houses for sale in the areas of Nashville where I would love to live. To get a fully renovated or new house in one of these desired areas, with the appropriate (not too big) square footage, enough bedrooms for all, including extra guest/play space, and a nice FLAT yard, it will run us at the very very low end, about $300,000. While that may be chump change to some of you, it's no laughing matter for my family. So, what if we bite the bullet and purchase a house that puts us in a safe, happy, urban neighborhood for a price that may be a little steep, but ensures us a home where we will surely create happy family memories.....what are the next steps (or really first) to consider? Always on my mind: "where will my children go to school?"

I go back and forth about how and where I want my children to be educated. If you have read my past posts, you know I believe in a new way of teaching and learning which includes non-traditional models such as Waldorf and even homeschooling. So, let's propose I move into my new, beautiful dream home in East Nashville. What comes with my sticker price on the house? Another $6,000 to $32,0000 a year for K-12 learning, times 2 children, depending on where we decide to send them to school. Why? Because the public schools simply aren't cutting it! "Why not move to the 'burbs?" you ask. Well, I have many reasons for this, among them is the fact that it is just as expensive, if not more, to move to the 'burbs and it comes with a whole host of other issues in relationship to schooling and community that I don't want to deal with.

The whole point is, we aren't getting what we are paying for. Yes, I am lucky that I have choices. If we have to, we will stay in our smaller house and send our kiddos to a private school or hope we get accepted through the lottery to a "good enough" public school. Or, if we just have to have the space, we will move way down down into the "affordable" suburban area and I will grin and bear it, so they can at least go to public schools that traditionally churn out more college-goers.

But there are other folks who don't have choices. I understand that this lack of choices is often created by poor past choices. However, if we are going to end this cycle of poor choices which lead to lack of education and poverty, we have to start with the schools. Every child, regardless of their parents' lack of quality decision-making, deserves an amazing public school. Why do we even have schools if they are just there for the sake of being there? Does Wal-Mart just keep stores open because they feel badly that if they close down, people in the area won't have a place to shop? Of course not! So why do schools operate this way? I am not suggesting we operate on Wal-Mart's model,  but what I am suggesting is that we stop taking our money and throwing it away to live where we don't want to, or to pay for private school if it is in fact what we do not want. Private schools are awesome, if that is what you want for your child. However, private schools should not be the only quality choice. 

Your tax dollars are going toward funding public schools, and for some of you, the very public schools you are opting out of only to pay ridiculous tuition rates that you simply are struggling to afford all at the sake of your child gaining a proper education so he/she can go on to college as prepared as possible. Let's put our imagination caps for a second. What if you take that money over to the school in your neighborhood where your children are zoned ask them, "what can you do with this?" Let's imagine that your child's $16,000 tuition for kindergarten was donated to your neighborhood school for a program that helps bring in resources to the school to ensure that each kindergarten child who needs one has a mentor that will stay with that child through elementary school and perhaps even beyond. Or what if that money was put to good use for a classroom assistant or two that could help the teacher manage the classroom more efficiently. What if that $16,000 went toward helping form a parent mentoring group, bringing in local experts who could guide parents who live in poverty toward getting out of poverty and off of welfare in whatever way best suits each individual?

How does sharing this $16,000 help you and your child? It helps by ensuring that your children gain access to a free, quality, public education, giving teachers help to do what they know how to do and are trained to do: TEACH. It helps to ensure that people that live in your neighborhood are learning what they need to do to come out of poverty and develop into tax paying, productive citizens. It helps ensure that your neighborhood is safer and more beautiful than it was before. 

Would this take time? Of course, but if done in the right way, it could lead to an urban revolution where public schools are thriving, children are learning, teachers are teaching, and neighborhoods are filled with people of different races and classes, working together to build each other up. Why keep throwing your tax dollars away on poor public schools and a broken welfare system, when you could donate a little time, effort, and that high dollar tuition toward bringing up the very neighborhood you live in? 

So now back to reality. Of course I do not suggest that it is right for people who can afford private school to give their child's tuition away for the sake of another child who cannot afford it. The point is to ask you to reflect on how much money you are doling out just to avoid a very real problem that, if not addressed with the sense of urgency it deserves, will continue to haunt many generations to come. I am guilty of considering doing the same. Culling our resources both human and monetary, could in fact lead to greater problem solving than what is currently happening. Look at your neighborhood schools. Are they sufficient enough for your child to attend or are you going to take on a mortgage you can't afford or a second job to pay for tuition just so your child can go to a quality school? If you are going to increase your blood, sweat, and tears output for private school tuition or a house near a better school district, why not utilize that same blood, sweat, and tears, to organize your neighborhood to demand change for its public schools? Let's demand that we get better return for what we are paying for!

Tools

"What is your personal philosophy of education?" is often the first  question posed to me in interviews. Here is my current answer:


I believe that all children can learn if given the right tools. That means: all children can learn if the way we administer those tools changes. The current tools aren’t working!


I just spoke with a young guy who is opening a KIPP Academy charter school in Memphis. What an amazing person! You could just hear is passion for education and his anger with what the current state of public education (especially in Memphis) is doing for our kids. I constantly go back and forth with my feelings about charter schools, but this guy made me a believer (at least for today!)! He essentially said that without competition, no one will work hard to find solutions to problems that arise. How true. He compared the schools to the U.S.P.S. before FedEx came along and completely blew the way shipping was done out of the water. Before FedEx came around, the U.S.P.S. had no reason to ship any faster, who would know the difference right? WRONG! FedEx shows up, everyone is a naysayer and laughs in their faces, and we all know what happened next.


This analogy helped me to further think about how I view the current traditional public school system. There are a ton of people who are too scared to change the system and figure no one will really know the difference anyway (because there isn't much of a "different" way of doing things to really compare to anyway) so why not just keep doing the same thing. I want to be the person that everyone laughs at, the FedEx of education if you will. Quite honestly, I have already been laughed at a few times and perhaps even some of you readers out there have even laughed at me. I am ok with that because I believe change is the answer and I believe I have a pretty good idea of how to make that change!


I invite you to look at Sweden and Finland and what they have done to change the face of education in their respective countries. In addition, if you haven't checked out Sir Ken Robbinson his TED conference or the RSA Animate, please don't wait another second. Here, I will make it easy for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U


Sir Ken and these other countries are calling for and responding to the need for creativity in teaching and learning and they aren't talking about more Smart Boards and LCD projectors either! They are talking about personalized learning, innovative architecture that promotes individualized and collaborative learning opportunities. The big point of changing how we do education is that we cannot just sit kids in desks and force uninteresting information down their throats and hope that they will figure out how to solve the country's problems when they turn 22. We have to prepare our youngsters to think strategically, problem solve, work in community and be independent thinkers as well. We have to motivate this type of learning by revolutionizing our tools and throwing out the old rusty ones!

How Education Reform Will Save the U.S. (or bring it to its demise)

Longer school days! Longer school year! Better teacher training! More testing! More social programs! More charter schools! Vouchers! School choice!

Sound familiar? If not, you have not been paying attention to the ed reform debate going on in our country. If it does, don't all of these demands sound awesome? Keep kids in the school building longer and they will have less time to get into trouble; have a longer school year and kids will retain more information; fix teacher education programs so teachers will have more knowledge; more testing.....I won't even touch that one; give kids services they need so they can focus on learning; create schools that aren't unionized so teachers have more freedoms and administrators can hire, fire, and pay what they want/can; give kids options for private schools even when their parents cannot afford it; open the opportunity for people to pick whatever "best" school they can get their kiddos into.

I could have listed a multitude of other demands that are coming from ed reform organizations and some politicians and government officials, especially the one on teacher evaluation systems (but that's another blog for another day). Most of these ideals for reform sound great on paper, but when these ideals are made into reality, what does that mean for schools? When the school day goes until 5:00pm instead of 3:00pm, what are schools doing with that extra time? If school last an extra few weeks into the summer, how is learning being enhanced? When students receive health care and other services via the school with the intention of that child having all his/her needs met, is that child really succeeding at a higher rate than before? Are institutions and alternative teacher training organizations really changing and enhancing previous models, and if so, how are they doing that?

I agree that many of the typical reform demands are wonderful. But what do they look like when actually implemented? I argue that public education institutions in the U.S. can either be game changers for the better or for the worse depending on how we go about instituting reform demands. We need to be more specific when making demands for change. How we reform our schools will ultimately determine the direction our economy will go, how the welfare system and cycle of poverty will be affected, and overall, how powerful the United States will remain (or not). Without education, we are nothing, right? RIGHT!!

Let's take teacher training for instance. I hold a M.A. in Teaching. You know what I learned that I actually utilized in the classroom from my $60,000 degree? Pretty much zilch. Because I love learning I enjoyed my classes and discovering new information or writing about what I had learned, but very little actually prepared me for the classroom. So when reformers and government officials demand better teacher training programs, what is it that they want? I personally believe teachers in training should only be in a seminar an hour a week and the rest of the time needs to be spent in several different classrooms in urban, suburban and rural environments (so as to truly know where he/she would serve best) and also with administrators. Shadowing needs to be a major part of the process, data interpretation skill development, and also practice teaching. When a new teacher walks into a classroom on the first day of school, he/she needs to be armed with an understanding of how to actually do the job, not just philosophical B.S.

When it comes to the longer school day, let's have students become a part of the school process by learning how to be responsible and caring for the school. In those last two hours of the day, instead of furthering test prep, why can't kids help the cafeteria staff prep food (ideally from the garden or freshly delivered from the farm-to-school program) for the next day's meals? Why can't a kid clean desks or sweep the floor, not as punishment, but as an opportunity to understand that he/she is a part of the school and as a result needs to help maintain it? Crew and other programs for kids to be able to sit and talk about their problems, successes, failures, and concerns could be implemented during this time as well. What about exercise. After serving a long day in the classroom, implement a time for yoga and meditation (trust me, it works and kids love it! I used to do it in my classroom. Ask a classroom of 7th graders to "Om" and they will laugh at first. Give it about 2 minutes and the whole class is silent and thoughtful!).

The point is, with reform demands, we must be specific! The way we go about implementing reform will not only make or break public education as we know it, it will determine the future of our country as a whole. I personally do not have the funds to move to another country and I am actually quite happy here in the U.S. I don't want to be forced out because we are an impoverished nation with no jobs and poor education. I just hope that our decision-makers will listen and reformists will be more specific with demands lest we further the crisis!

Blame Canada? Yes!!

I was so excited last week to watch Geoffrey Canada speak at Capella University. I viewed the speech via live stream and let me tell you, it was very worth the watch even with my 2 kiddos crawling all over me. Mr. Canada did not disappoint and even well exceeded my expectations. My excitement has continued on into this week and has energized me to no end!

When I started this venture of putting my thoughts on education out into the blogosphere, I erroneously lumped Mr. Canada in with a group of folks that I believe are doing much for education, but just not much to change it. I had heard of Canada, but hadn't done my research. I will admit that I was very wrong about him, but I do actually love being wrong as it means I have learned something......and I love learning!

So, why should we blame Canada as the title suggests? Let's blame him for making the education debate uncomfortable. Let's blame him for disrupting the status quo. Let's blame him for making our elected officials squirm in their seats. Let's blame him for making the teaching profession, including administrators and other school leaders, worry that they might have to work harder, or at least think differently about the work they do. And mostly, let's blame Canada for forcing us to think about the children we are educating rather than our silly adult agendas.

The differences between how I think about the changes our country needs to make in our public education system and Canada's philosophy on the matter are very few. One big difference however, is Canada's goal is to meet whatever the demands are head-on and not stop until the children of Harlem are succeeding. He is for a longer school day and drilling language and math so kids will be insanely successful (not just mediocre) on state tests. He is for hiring teachers who are willing to work day and night for their students and on Saturdays and in the summer. I am not against any of this, I just believe that not only do we need to work harder to meet the demands the government places on our children, we need to change how we are making those demands.

In other words, as you well know if you have read my previous posts, I say, stop the drilling, and start investing our time in discovering how to make learning so exciting for as many kids as possible that kids will love to go to school, teachers will love teaching regardless of demands, principals can lead instead of worrying about test scores, parents can be involved, and the community will view public schools as tremendous places of learning and viable options for all children to attend. I believe this difference in Mr. Canada's beliefs about education and mine is most likely cultural and has everything to do with how we were raised and in what era. However, I do believe in Geoffrey Canada and what he is doing and since he has a big voice and I do not, then I hope with everything in me that more people will start standing behind him and listening to his plan for how to make great change. Our children and our country deserve it!

Canada suggests that we can't say that where a child is raised or what is going on around that child can be an excuse for children not being successful. Gangs, poor parenting and lack of parental involvement, socioeconomic status, no food on the table, whatever the excuse teachers need to teach-and teach well-and whatever services that children need need to be given to them so they can learn. I am with this 100%, however, what if we just made a slight adjustment to this philosophy and added in reasons on top of inspiring teachers and providing proper healthcare, and threw in a curriculum focused on useful, lifelong learning mechanisms based in reality? If we are going to compete globally, we have to change how we are teaching our children and that is the bottom line. If we do not step up to this tremendous challenge, I am afraid our country will be in dire straits (even more so than it is!). It's never comfortable to change, especially when something has been the same for so long. But, if we are going to dig ourselves out of this education deficit we have created in the United States, we really should look to Canada!

***I hope that each of you reading today who are not familiar with Geoffrey Canada, will Google him and read about what amazing things he is doing to shake up public education. Also please take a look at the Harlem Children's Zone and pick up the book Whatever it Takes  by Paul Tough.

Community and Bullying

Since we are in the season of Christmas and so many other holidays, I thought I would take a minute to reflect on community. I love how during the holidays people tend to perk up a bit, laugh more. There are parties and celebrations of all kinds and it seems that we come together for the most part. One of my favorite Christmas stories, especially now that my children love it, is How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. The moral of the story is so pertinent to me what with the Grinch discovering the true meaning of Christmas (being together) and that it does not involve gifts. Even more poignant is the idea the book portrays about community. The Who's stand strong as one united front against this overwhelming bully, the Grinch. As a result of this act of unity, no one seems to be bothered in Whoville when they awake Christmas morning and each of them have been robbed clean of food, decorations, and (gasp!) presents! They join hands and sing and celebrate anyway, knowing that the most important thing they have was not taken away--each other.

We don't do community like they used to or like they do in so many other countries. We ship our kids off here and there and boot them off to college or out of the house when they turn 18 and hope they don't return to inhabit our basements. We separate ourselves from one another by living with spaces sometimes several acres wide in between our houses (with no real purpose for that open land) or put up fences to keep people and animals away.  Don't get me wrong, I understand there are wonderful people out there who will lend a hand when needed or volunteer as a career or when they have time. Community gardens have sprung up all over the place, which I believe is a step in the right direction for cooperative living. However, overall, I believe we are modeling to our children, and oftentimes outright saying, that we don't need anyone but ourselves.

Competition between adults over whose kid is the best athlete, best artist, has the best grades, the prettiest/cutest, etc, is mind blowing to me. We all are guilty of this type of bashing in one way, shape or form. We do it  subtly and obviously and not too many people seem ashamed of the behavior. Is it a wonder that bullying is such a big problem in schools currently? John Dewey had the right idea when shaping the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago when he determined that children need to learn in communities in order to discover how to behave socially, depend on one another to survive, and how to connect with one another. When we are so separate, then it is truly every man for himself. When you don't depend on each other for survival then we are in direct competition with one another. Humans like to be in community with one another. It's natural for us. But since we are driven by selfishness and competition, and let's not forget fear of those who might be different than we are, then we become so focused on appearances, skills or lack thereof, and other things that don't really matter. Instead of figuring out where everyone can fit in, we immediately start ousting those who clearly aren't the same.

It is no wonder that when our extremely impressionable youth walk into a school building, they immediately start judging and competing in unhealthy ways. They pick on one another to no end. They hide behind social media outlets, texting, and other forms of technology to ruin each other's lives. Sound dramatic? You walk into any school, any level, and listen for a day, and tell me I am being dramatic then. We are starting to blame teachers and schools for not doing enough to stop bullying, but I contend it's the fault of the village--and PARENTS!

If you agree that hearing how children are killing themselves, running away, or becoming helplessly depressed over being bullied so heinously for any number of reasons ranging from how he/she looks, to dealing with the fact that he/she is gay, to dating someone of another race, to not being in the right socioeconomic class, each and every day of their lives is a travesty, then please think about your actions and the opinions you express around children. We all are guilty of bullying to some extent regardless of how big or small. Most of us have been bullied for one reason or another. Think about this over the holidays and how you, as a member of a much larger community, can help. Can you give time to mentor a young person? Can you work to establish a community garden or other cooperative neighborhood program? Can you volunteer to watch the neighbor's dog over the break? Can you develop a neighborhood cleanup initiative? Imagine if we all did our part to service our communities in an effort to grow closer together. What an impact that would have on our younger generations. If we all depended on one another and were less selfish, wouldn't it be easier to see the value in our neighbors versus the things we don't think we like about them? I challenge you to think about this and think about how our children's lives could be so different if they had more examples of kindness, love and community around them. I am willing to bet, we would see this bullying epidemic fade away. Allow your heart grow three sizes and be a positive influence against bullying this coming year!

Occupy This!

There are clearly a lot of angry and outspoken people in the U.S. right now. With the Occupy movement surging ahead, troops being released out of Iraq this month, unemployment on the rise, the upcoming elections, and a host of other issues, our country has a lot on its plate. One issue however that seems to get plenty of attention, but rarely any sound solutions for its never-ending problems, is our public education system. 


When the Occupy movement first started up, and even now that it seems to actually have some sort of message (at least in some cities) my first question was: "If this many folks sat outside of public schools and demanded better education for our youth, how much of an impact could that have?" The answer I came up with: "A LOT!" You see, many children in our country, the same economically unstable people that our dear Occupiers are fighting for, are not getting the education they need. No, it's not because they need new Common Core standards and it's not because they need more engaged, hard working teachers, and it's not because they need more programs, and it's not even because they need more money in the schools. While some of those things are great, the point is constantly being missed. What they need is people to fight for them by demanding that this cycle of poverty they live in come to an end. 


These kids don't give two cents about school when they wake up in the morning because there are too many other factors weighing against them. This is not news; this is what has been put out there to the public for years and years. The problem is, our government officials, school administrators and other stakeholders are scared. No one wants to talk about the root of the problem because they don't want to appear racist or elitist. Until someone is willing to discuss how our welfare system needs a revolutionary change; how pooling poor people into project housing, locked behind gates is only hurting people by forcing children to mostly view negative things on a regular basis; how not giving kids an opportunity to see the world at work and instead sitting them in a closed-in classroom all day forcing math and language arts down their throats and ignoring everything else is defeating the purpose of education, until then, we will continue to get what we have gotten!


So where is the action? Where are the 99% when it comes to helping children succeed? Aren't children, especially socioeconomically challenged children part of the 99% of people in this country who are being "taken advantage of?" The type of revolution this country needs is within the education system, not on Wall Street. Sure, we need less corporate greed and it's not fair that Bill Gates has more access to the President than I do, and sure it sucks that when I was a teaching, my salary was meager and some guy who barely works and plays golf all day makes a million bucks a year, and blah, blah, blah. However, how can any of this be remedied if we keep processing kids through the system, ignoring the root causes of the problem, and never giving them any skills to move beyond Cayce Homes or any number of other government assisted housing in the U.S.? Couldn't it be argued that creating more quality educated people who are compassionate, giving, and hard working help solve the problems we are currently up against?


At the risk of being redundant in relation to my previous posts, I offer you this thought: If our children walked into school each day to be greeted by community leaders, hopped on buses to go and witness a day in the life of a person at work, had college recruiters in and out of their schools, and learned by doing, wouldn't this make a difference? Wouldn't more children be more excited to come to school each day? Wouldn't teachers be more excited to teach? 


Occupiers, if you want to Occupy something, go walk through a local school and look around. Look at the behavior of the students in the hallways and how they treat their teachers. Witness the look on an urban teacher or administrator's face at this time of year before TCAP preparation starts. Look at the facilities. See how confused everyone in the whole building is because no one really knows what to do. Then, start demanding action for a better way of teaching and learning that doesn't include rote memorization or teaching to a test that will ultimately have zero bearing on that child's life as a whole. Demand children be treated as humans. Demand that our inner-city kids be given skills that will give them zero excuse to "get a check" each month and instead go into the work force, to create jobs, to be somebody, and ultimately survive and thrive in our economy instead of being viewed as a pariah feeding off the system.


Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If that is true, then why do we keep doing it in education? There is an opportunity right now to demand change. I am doing whatever I can with whatever power I have (which is currently limited) to work toward change. I invite you to think about your time spent in school and what you think worked and what did not. Also, if you have children, will one day have children, or if you have a job, own a business, or are even a part of this country to any degree, ask yourself how education affects your life? If you cannot answer that question, give me a ring, I will be more than happy to enlighten you. When you reach the conclusion that education affects all of us every day, Occupiers, community members, PEOPLE, stand up for change in public education and start fighting a battle that can easily be won if the village that is our country can demand it effectively!