Between March 30 and April 2 of 2012, public school advocates will arrive in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Department of Education on Maryland Avenue to make a clarion call in opposition to test-driven and data-mad education reforms. The event will include four days worth of teach-ins, marches, a documentary screening, and a Sunday evening reception.
This is not a political occupation in the sense of what we've come to know in the last several months. In fact, United Opt Out National, the organization leading the event without any sponsorship of any kind, is behaving in a manner becoming of many educators. Permits and permissions have been secured, a detailed schedule is available, and everything within the organizers' control is, well, organized.
From my perspective, the myriad occupy movements operate based on a "nuisance of presence." That is, congregate in largely public and visible locations for extended periods of time to make a temporary home. The constant presence is by itself a form of protest, notwithstanding the additional marches, conversations, and visual representations that fit a more conventional view of protest movements.
Occupying the Department of Education on March 30 is an entirely legal occupation. It is a 96-hour congregation and discussion of like-minded educators, students, and parents who are resisting the prominence of high-stakes standardized testing, railing against attempts made by ALEC and other privately funded organizations to draft model legislation to ultimately privatize public schools, and to drown out the voices of charlatans and pundits who lack the credibility to comment on education.
So what is this about an occupation then? Well, we can argue all things occupy, but I'll let that debate play out in the comments. There are strong positions for and against the movement. There's also this huge abyss in the middle populated by folks who just don't care either way. We don't hear too much from them, probably because they don't make good media. I know a lot of people who never utter any derivation of the word "occupy" unless it refers to a bathroom, and that's all right with me.
The Occupy the DOE in Washington, DC on March 30 may be an "occupy" event in name only. That is, the proper authorities approved the permits. No one's sleeping in a tent. No one is unwelcome. But it is turning various sites at and around the DOE into temporary outdoor classrooms.
Alternative to an ongoing physical presence, United Opt Out National will temporarily "occupy" the conversation on education reform, demanding that educators, parents, and students, those who actually know about curriculum and teaching, receive an equal voice. As it currently stands, it is only those with money and political influence who make the key decisions regarding education reform and policy.
It has been the contention of United Opt Out all along that a powerful weapon against corporatized reforms is non-compliance with the current testing regime. It's that simple: Nothing needs to be done other than refusing to do something. Without the highly coveted quantitative information from which to discipline and punish students and their teachers, perhaps then those not part of the large foundations will get someone's attention.
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And we can't say anything because political correctness is priority 1.
I am a certified teacher, as well as a mom; therefore, I see both sides. Teachers cannot save the public schools from privatization by protesting. Public schools can only be saved if all public schools provide a quality education.
When people begin to understand what that nice sounding phrase, "Education Reform" REALLY means, they oppose it strongly. Parents are catching on, which is why this debate is getting nastier, more high stakes and more acrimonious.
We parents are going to win this. As people realize that the "Education Reformers" are ultimately planning to do to education what they did to the economy as a whole in 2008, the pushback will come. Hard. Hell, it's already happening...
My 6th grader attended public schools for the first two months of this school year. During those two months, his geography teacher had him write a paragraph about which climate zone he would like to live in. None of his other teachers assigned any writing at all, not even his English teacher. He didn't have any assignments at all that required going to the library to do research, write a paper, and cite sources. Most assignments were just a few multiple choice questions that were graded in class; the teachers rarely graded anything. He had to take a library book for all of his free time after he finished his assignments in class. Once he missed two days due to illness. He was able to make up the two days of missed work plus the current day's work all in class during first day back; there was not enough work for him to even bring any of it home.
As long as public schools are as poor as my local schools, parents will continue to demand more choices.