In Preparing for the Overhaul of K-12 Education, Remember Mao Zedong's Dictum That Revolution is Not a Dinner Party

As you read my frank assessment of staff members and programs at the Minneapolis Public Schools as you scroll on down this blog, remember the following dictum of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung):


Revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting
a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely
and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and
magnanimous.


Kathy Saltzman, the erstwhile Minnesota Director of Michelle Rhee's less than revolutionary approach to educational transformation (the now largely moribund StudentsFirst), once observed after watching me interact with my students and their families at the New Salem Educational Initiative Annual Banquet,


"Gary, that was a lovefest.  Your students and their families so clearly adore you, and you are so kind and gentle with the young people in your program.  Yet you speak truth to power like no one I've ever seen."


I replied, "You see, Kathy, I love children and adolescents.  It's adults whom I don't like very much:  They're always screwing up kids' lives.  And the courage to speak truth to power?  I would never put the education establishment in even some remotely associated list that would suggest comparison to Bull O'Connor, the Guomindang (Kuomintang), or the might of the British Empire  >>>>>


"The education establishment is just a corporate emperor with no clothes."


..........................................................


To you, my readers, I say that there are no more heroes upon whom you can depend in the effort to transform our system of K-12 public education:


You must roll up your sleeves and go to work.


Don't complain.


Don't wait around hoping that someone else will do what needs to be done:


They won't.


It must be me


and you.


And the task, although the opponent is not as formidable as Bull O'Connor, the Guomindang, or the British Empire, will not be easy:  The education establishment is dug in, entrenched, wealthy, self-protective, and crafty. 


Thus, remember again  >>>>>


Revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting
a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely
and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and
magnanimous.