Multiple Energies Exerted in Behalf of the K-12 Revolution During Academic Year 2015-2016

During academic year 2015-2016, my waking hours were dedicated to multiple activities impelling the K-12 revolution forward.


>>>>>     On my television show, I made ongoing commentary sounding my four key themes (curriculum, teaching, tutoring, and family & community outreach) in abundant detail, with reference to on-the-ground observations and collection of facts. I had two notable guests on the show, Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker; and Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education member Rebecca Gagnon. I had super discussions with each of these latter two; they shared their perspectives from the vantage points of their professional perches and commented on the four themes that dominate my public statements, alongside any subsidiary points to these themes advanced for discussion.


At a League of Women Voters meeting in March 2016, Gagnon had made some very disturbing comments pertinent to the definition of excellence in K-12 education (see blog article from that phase of the academic year) but on the show amended that view in a way that resonated with with my emphasis on knowledge-intensity.


Very notable in my discussions with people is the fact that very rarely does anyone sit or stand face-to-face with me and contradict any of the points that I make, consistent with the four paramount themes. Since I always take great care to gather facts meticulously, very few people with whom I exchange comments attempt to counter my factual references.


And yet on the public stage, for the consumption of audiences, they often present views that gloss over deficiencies in the education imparted by the Minneapolis Public Schools. Thus do I call them on these deceptions and denials on the television show and in all other available and self-created venues.


On the show, I also frequently featured my students during the 2015-2016 academic year as we worked on mathematics and reading; studied chapters of Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education; read Shakespearean plays; trained for the ACT; or proceeded in similar ways to demonstrate the knowledge-hunger and enormous capability of students from very challenging life circumstances.


>>>>>     I cranked out weighty editions of my academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota each month.


Three editions featured chapters from Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, set in the context of commentary crafted especially for my subscribers in introductory and concluding articles. My subscribers now have had advanced access to ten of the fourteen chapters in the book; they will read the other four in editions of the journal to come and will receive, gratis, a copy of the book when the final, assiduously polished version of the tome is complete in autumn 2016.


Subscribers also read articles focused on the personal stories, challenges, and triumphs of my students. They read a very personal multi-article Meditations on the Art of Living that I wrote for a precious college-bound student whom I had taught and mentored since she was in Grade 3. They were able to absorb factual material that I collected in the course of the year on the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools. And they were able to follow the drama of the superintendent search as salient, fact-filled example of the frequent folly of such wasteful eneavors.


>>>>>      I worked all day, every day to impel the K-12 revolution forward. Many days extended to 18 hours of work. No work day, of which in most weeks there are seven out of seven, consisted of less than 16 hours.


The television show and academic journal are powerful tools for pressuring the education establishment into observing, internalizing, and acting upon my four key principles. The blog, on which I now have 276 articles posted, is equally powerful. The blog consists of theoretical tracts, copious collections of data and factual material, accounts of current drama at the Minneapolis Public Schools, discussions of the inner workings of the school district, and the verbal equivalent of spotlight on activities of key actors, both in their typical foibles and in their less frequent favorable endeavors.


During academic year 2015-2016 I attended all major meetings associated with the Minneapolis Public Schools--- the second-Tuesday meetings, those gatherings relevant to the two phases of the superintendent search, finance committee meetings, Committees of the Whole, and any other meeting that gave me an opportunity to collect more information, assess the performance and capabilities of Minneapolis Public Schools officials and board members, and exert a prominent presence with ample verbal commentary of a kind delivered by no other person.


I met or conversed with all six semifinalists for superintendent during the first phase and both finalists during the second phase. Given her extraordinary accessibility and genuine love of education and the students who are the recipients, I had manifold conversations and communications (in person, by cell phone, and via text and email messages) with Minnesota Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius, including one meeting at the Minnesota Department of Education in the aftermath of the stunning ineptitude manifested by members of the school board in the 6-3 vote favoring Graff.


These activities are consistent with my huge capacity for on-the-ground work of the Maoist-Gandhian-Alinsky type and dedication to all activities necessary for the attainment of educational excellence, consistent with the four principles and the achievement in these less than United States of the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.