Revolution
is not a dinner party.
Mao Zedong
They’ll
call you a crazy n-- , or a red, or a radical--- but if you stay radical long enough and get enough
people to be like you, you’ll get your freedom.
Malcolm X
I
came to bring not peace but a sword.
Jesus
Anyone
who acquiesces strictly to the terms set for the conversations superintended by
the firm hired to do the bidding of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts
at such events as those held on Thursday,23 February, and Tuesday, 2 May, under the banner of Imagine Minnesota, understands neither the nature of
the crisis in K-12 education nor the revolutionary stance necessary to confront
those responsible for the crisis.
As I
have described in articles as you scroll on down this blog, there was an effort
by moderator Paula to contain the discussion in ways that minimized confrontation
and diluted incisive condemnation of school administrators and policies.
But two African American female teachers and I all spoke for ourselves in
clear and forceful language, rather than accede to the synthetic and consensual
accounts into which Paula and group attempted to channel the conversation.
This is what separates the revolutionary from the reformer:
Mao Zedong did not want to make slight changes in the way that the
imperial dynasties or the Kuomindang of Chiang Kai-shek had presided: He wanted to revolutionize Chinese government
and society.
Malcolm X did not want to slightly alter the way in which government and
society of the United States treated African Americans: He wanted a thorough transformation in the way
that governmental power holders treated black people and the way that white
society ruled a system as pernicious as South African apartheid.
Jesus did not want to make small changes in the way that Hebrew Law served
as guide to the spiritual life of the people:
He brandished a metaphorical sword via which he sought to replace rote
ritual observance with a doctrine of love as the ultimate fulfillment of The
Law.
In the spirit of Mao, Malcolm X, and Jesus, change in K-12 education must
be revolutionary, not reformist:
We need to completely overhaul curriculum to become skill-replete and
knowledge-intensive, imparted in logical sequence, grade by grade.
We need to thoroughly revamp the way that we train teachers, so that they
become professionals alive in the world of knowledge, excited about and adroit
at delivering that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
We need programs of academic remediation for students languishing far
below grade level.
We need a numerically substantial staff comfortable in the streets and in
the homes of families facing the challenges of poverty and functionality,
offering direct services and resource referral.
And we need to reduce the central school district bureaucracy to a small
and effective contingent who oversees the needed overhaul and then monitors the processes
of the revolutionized system.
And as my sisters in my Family of the Independent Voice conveyed, we must
be aware that the old order is the problem, not the students: Our children await the day when adults will
be adults, representative of a broad array of cultures, ready to give them the
knowledge and wisdom that village elders have always been called upon to impart
to the next generation.
Our current system of K-12 education is overseen and maintained not by a
contingent of wise elders, but rather by school board members, central office
bureaucrats, and teacher union officers who would maintain the current system
as protection for their own prerogatives, contrary to the best interests of
students.
Such a leadership must be swept away in favor of those pursuing a
revolutionary program for the delivery of universally excellent K-12 education.
Revolution is not a dinner party.
Revolution is the province of the radical who recruits others for the transformation
of prevailing systems.
Revolution is for those with the courage to brandish the metaphorical
sword.
And so it must be in K-12 education.
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