Dear Friends,
The Rouge Forum web page is only partially updated with material from our recent Rouge Forum conference in Louisville because we are in the midst of a three week long fight with our service provider. Those who are looking for papers, videos, powerpoints, and other material from the conference–well, we believe they will be up in one week. Here is what we have so far, with apologies to others:
http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/reformorrevollution.htm
We have 19 people already nominated for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee. We will close nominations one week from today, at midnight. The Steering Committee will guide Rouge Forum actions between conferences and will meet once a year, probably in the fall. Other meetings will be online or on conference calls. Nominate yourself or someone else! Email rgibson@pipeline.com
About 250 people attended the Chavez Conference in Fresno, California, hearing presentations from education resisters from all over the US. Susan Harman, of Calcare, made the case for test boycotts. We’re hoping to see districts, large and small, walking away from test frenzy–and taking up Freedom Schooling where kids learn things that matter. 96 California districts are already sanctioned under NCLB. People in those districts have nothing whatsoever to lose.
What are school superintendents doing about the sanctions? In one district, the superintendent announced he would “shuffle the cards,” that is, he is going to transfer every middle and high school teacher and most elementary teachers. Those who are waiting for another shoe to drop, as with a substantive plan for curriculum and instruction or a remedy for class size, will have a long wait. The shuffle is his entire plan.
The test boycotts could merge with, or build, the Mayday marches planned for this year. School workers, parents, kids, marching together on Mayday to protest the wars, the attacks on education and health care, xenophobia, and booming racist inequality, will learn far more by voting with their feet, in the streets, than in school on that historical day.
Here is the decade-old, and timeless, Rouge Forum May Day Flyer.
Nearly 130 people signed on to our Rouge Forum updates in the last month bringing our list to 4640, a new high. Welcome to all our new friends.
*a piece from CounterPunch of the Schools-to-War Collision
*An informative, free, video on the build-up for the Iraq invasion
*And a classic short piece, a cannot miss, demonstrating the old slogan, “Don’t mourn, Organize!”
And to close, a piece of “The People, Yes” by Carl Sandburg:
“Get off this estate.”
“What for?”
“Because it’s mine.”
“Where did you get it?”
“From my father.”
“Where did he get it?”
“From his father.”
“And where did he get it?”
“He fought for it.”
“Well, I’ll fight you for it.”
— Carl Sandburg
Thanks to Adam, Gina, Amber, Wayne, Joe, Roger, Bill B (for the reminder on the poem) Elaine, George, Susan O and H, Paul and Mary, BigM, Tommie, Bob, Marie, Sharon, Sean, Molly, P, Dan H and Jennifer, Christine, Christina, TC, Erin, and Sneaky Pete.
All the best, r
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