On this
blog, in my academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis,
Minnesota, on my television show (The K-12 Revolution with Dr. Gary Marvin
Davison, MTN Channel 17, Wednesdays at 6:00 PM), and in my two nearly
complete books my readers and viewers are positioned to gain an ever-increasing
understanding of the components of the educational transformation that we need
at the level of the locally centralized school district.
……………………………………………………
Two editions
of the academic journal published during these past few months were particularly salient in conveying two important
aspects of my efforts:
In the May
2016 edition of the academic journal I delivered the essence of my program for
transformation of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) for becoming a model of
the locally centralized school district.
That program focuses on 1) the overhaul of curriculum for the delivery
of a knowledge-intensive K-12 education;
2) the training of teachers for delivery of such a curriculum; 3) the design and implementation of a highly
intentional, district-wide, coherent tutoring program; 4) the development of a program for resource
delivery and resource referral to struggling families right where they
live; and 5) paring of the central
school district bureaucracy at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway), so as to
shift resources to the four programs mentioned above.
In the
October 2016 edition of the journal I presented an introduction and four other
articles conveying stories of eight students whose lives and those of their
families have been transformed via participation in the New Salem Educational
Initiative. In the articles following the introduction, readers encountered powerful stories of the lives now lived by Evelyn Patterson and her two sons,
Damon Preston and Javon Jakes; sisters
Manuela, Lucinda, and Anita Saldovar;
half-siblings Kamal Richardson and Alicia Bennett, offspring of Shameah Hutchinson; and Aniya Emerson, daughter of Joanna Blake.
Those
stories of eight students are of the kind that could be told of the 45 student
participants in the small-group program of the New Salem Educational Initiative,
the 25 who participate in the New Salem Tuesday Program, and the approximately 50
additional people supported in some way by my efforts in the New Salem
Educational Initiative--- via
independent study, continued support of various kinds while matriculating at colleges
and universities, or immediate response to acute academic needs or threatening
life circumstance. Thus, in all, my
network in the New Salem Educational Initiative includes at least 125 people
who know that they will receive my support as an ongoing commitment and whenever
the need arises. The people whom I serve
consistently tell me that they have never in their lives had this kind of love
and mentorship.
But I cannot
teach or reach everybody, so I have generated a variety of venues and platforms
for delivery of my message to decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public
Schools. In addition to the academic
journal, blog, television show, and speaking engagements, I am assembling two
nearly complete books.
For two
years now I have been at work writing Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts
Education. This book is inspired
by my realization that my students learn very little in their weekly classes in
the Minneapolis Public Schools. I
encourage my students to maintain their enrollment in the Minneapolis Public Schools,
so as to get breakfast and lunch, to gain access to extracurricular activities,
to interact with a diversity of people, and to get what modicum of education
they can; but most of what they learn is
in their two hours in academic sessions with me each week. To make this process more efficient, I have written
this nearly complete work, which delivers compact courses in economics, psychology,
political science, world religion, world history, American history, African American
history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry,
and physics.
I am also
assembling the bundle of research that I have done on the inner workings of the
Minneapolis Public Schools into another major tome, Understanding the Minneapolis
Public Schools: Current Condition, Future
Prospect. This book proceeds in
three parts: Part One presents strictly
objective data and information
of many kinds, with great attention to staffing in the central school district
bureaucracy, curriculum, teacher qualifications, and student performance; Part Two features my analysis and critique of
the objective information from Part One;
and Part Three conveys my philosophy of education, detailed program for
overhaul of curriculum and teacher training, and five point program for establishing
the Minneapolis Public Schools as a model for the locally centralized school
district.
I have already
posted snippets of these books on my blog.
These books
will shake those with vested interests in the status quo to their core,
provoking as they will a vigorous public response once the incompetence of the
sustainers of the system as it is are exposed for their ineptitude.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Kathy Saltzman,
the erstwhile director in Minnesota for Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst organization
(Rhee’s waning efforts are no longer being exerted in Minnesota), came to two
successive annual banquets of the New Salem Educational Initiative, witnessing
multiple displays of skill and knowledge, and viewing student performances of King
Lear and Hamlet. After the
second, an astonished Kathy said,
“Gary,
wow. You are so kind and gentle with
your students, and their families so clearly adore you. And yet you speak truth to power like no one I’ve
ever seen.”
“Kathy,” I
said, “You’ve got to understand that I love kids, treasure every moment that I’m
with them. It’s adults whom I don’t like
very much.”
And then I
explained that I do like her, that I like and love the tutors who assist in
the Tuesday evening program, and that I am so fortunate to have the support of my
students’ families and the community of stalwart supporters that has formed around
my seminal efforts.
But in a
world in which child abuse is rife, in which young people are made to feel
horridly because of their race, ethnicity, immigration status, sexual
orientation, and many other natural qualities that should provoke respect and
the opening of loving arms--- there are
many adults whom I am out to expose and ultimately transform.
We do this by
speaking directly and in the given moment to the abuse at hand.
But we
ultimately do this via the power of education.
............................................................
Just think
what we could become if we ever worked assiduously to promote healthy personal habits
and then offered inexpensive health care to those who are inflicted with
unavoidable physical and mental maladies.
And then
think what we could become if we provided a knowledge-intensive education to
young people of all demographic descriptors, who would then go forth as
culturally prepared, civically engaged, professionally satisfied adults.
If we ever
got that foundation in health and education established, we would replace our
current strife-torn existence in this one earthly sojourn with lives of love
and peace and deep satisfaction.
This is the power and the purpose if the K-12 Revolution.
We will build a new world with respect for young people and the power of knowledge.
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