Dear Friends,
On our recent tour of California, CalCare’s Susan Harman, Bob Apter and I learned that one of the main things going on in schools today is fear. There are numerous sources of the fear we saw, but curricula regimentation, high-stakes exams, and militarization seem to be key. Our full report will be in the upcoming issue of Substance News.
Fear cannot serve as a basis for education, unless one wishes to train slaves. It follows that it falls upon each of us who seeks to connect reason to power to find answers to the fear that pervades schools.
One good answer is resistance, direct action. We have three recent examples of direct action in schools which can serve as models. They deserve our support.
Chicago Indymedia is carrying an article on 70 students at Morton West High who led a sit-in against the Iraq war and now face suspension and expulsion. We need to demonstrate solidarity with this courageous action. Here is a link to a petition on their behalf and the Indymedia article which includes phone numbers and email for authorities involved. Better still, we need hundreds of Morton High disruptions, perhaps under the slogan: If They Bomb Iran—You’re Drafted.
In Vancouver, a teacher refused to give a high stakes exam, was disciplined, but has been gathering support ever since. A Simon Fraser University dean is among her supporters, saying she was protecting her students from ‘psychological and educational vandalism. ‘
David Wasserman, a Madison teacher, refused to proctor his students’ high stakes exams, was threatened with severe discipline, and chose to return to his classroom.
David deserves our support as well. His email address is: dwasserman@madison.k12.wi.us
Here are email addresses for his bosses and others:
School board:
ccarstensen@madison.k12.wi.us
mpcole@madison.k12.wi.us
lkobza@madison.k12.wi.us
lmathiak@madison.k12.wi.us
bmoss@madison.k12.wi.us,
asilveira@madison.k12.wi.us
jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us
Art Rainwater (District Superintendent): arainwater@madison.k12.wi.us
Libby Burmaster (State Superintendent): elizabeth.burmaster@dpi.state.wi.us
We need dozens of David Wassermans, acting in concert.
These are not the first test resisters. George Schmidt, fired for publishing the Chicago Case test, was among the first of those, and many others just walked away from teaching. But these direct actions are indicators that we can stand up to fear and reverse it, if we stick together.
On a broader scale, teachers in Bulgaria recently led massive job actions, demonstrating the Rouge Forum thesis that in many societies, social change can indeed emanate out from schools. Here is a link on Bulgaria .
Perry Marker sent along a link to a wonderful web site that should be useful to all social studies, cultural studies, and math educators: http://www.chrisjordan.com/
Remember the Rouge Forum booth and presentations at NCSS, coming up in San Diego at the end of November. Those who want a short history of the Rouge Forum, look here http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=97
Thanks to Sherry W., Perry, Wayne, Susan, Carol, Val, Suber, Bill T., Sean, Mike A, MrJtheteacher, Beau, Greg and Katie, Bill, Della, Dave, Denise, Sharon A., Stewart, Dan C., Jim3, and Amber.
All the best, r
ps. we can always use donations. The Rouge Forum web page is updated at www.rougeforum.org. Those good-for-the-rest-of-your-life anti-war posters are up for sale!
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Please read “An Open Letter In Support of David Wasserman” at rationalmathed.blogspot.com
Feel free to link to it.