There is no room for idle
chatter, unfocused activity, or lack of clarity as to the goals for change and
the means utilized to transform the established order. Working to attain revolutionary
transformation requires research for the acquisition of details pertinent to
the abiding institutions to be overhauled;
long-term strategy consistent with the revolutionary goals; and multiple, carefully targeted tactical actions consonant with the
strategy. Opposing forces must be
weakened over a long period of time with the application of persistent pressure
and cogent articulation of the revolutionary plan; those in opposition should be made to feel
constantly on the defensive, increasingly insecure, and ready to fall once the
final blow is rendered.
Those within the establishment
who are amenable to the goals for change should identified, alliances should be
formed, and those with the capacity to understand the need for the
revolutionary outcome must be made to feel that they can play a positive role
in the revolution and in the new order that takes form in the aftermath of the
revolution. To a point, this is the
tactic of the United Front; at a certain
point alliances formed at the stage of the United Front must be transformed, so
that the allies themselves are converted fully to the cause of revolution.
This is the way that overhaul of
curriculum and teacher quality will be achieved at the Minneapolis Public
Schools (MPS). Via my multiple platforms
(television show, academic journal, this blog, Public Comments at each meeting
of the MPS Board of Education, other public appearances, and my substantially
complete book on the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools) for
delivery of the revolutionary message, I have exerted constant pressure on
those occupying roles in the current system and have prepared for that day when
she or he will either embrace the revolutionary program or relinquish any claim
for a place in the new order.
The revolutionary must be
constantly attentive to the details of relentless action while keeping the
ultimate goal firmly in view. She or he
cannot be distracted by those who fancy themselves to have similar concerns but
whose positions may not even be as close to one’s own goals as are those of one’s
opponents. This is certainly true in the
case of the revolution that I am waging for knowledge-intensive, skill-replete
education delivered by knowledgeable teachers to young people of all demographic
descriptors served by the locally centralized school district. I have no time for gadflies advocating
solutions for the dilemmas of public education that in their ignorance fail to
realize were espoused a century ago by the likes of William Heard Kilpatrick
and Harold Rugg--- and that continue to be spouted by those campus low-lifers
known as education professors.
The revolution that I am waging,
then, has followed an intensively practical and relentlessly intentional
course. I began observing and collecting
data four years ago; I have now amassed
that data and interpretive comment into a major tome. Over those four years, I have attended more
major functions of the Minneapolis Public Schools than have some members of the
MPS Board of Education. I have
interviewed most major figures at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250
West Broadway) and have gotten to know numerous staff members. I was consistently in attendance,
persistently applying pressure, ever delivering the message of the failures of
the Minneapolis Public Schools on the basis of unassailable logic and a massive
body of facts. I swatted away gadflies
from charter schools, sent advocates for vouchers packing, and let the
misguided descendants of Kilpatrick and Rugg know that I had no time for their
banter.
The locally centralized school
district must be compelled to deliver a common body of broad and deep knowledge
to all of our precious children.
This nation must become the
democracy that it has only fancied itself to be.
For that to happen, the current
membership of the MPS Board of Education and MPS staff must be transformed or
jettisoned.
The flaws of these actors in the
current system are as apparent as if they were the proverbial emperor absent
his proverbial clothes. Beginning in
August, continuing in November, and with the squeeze of an ever tighter vise
thereafter, these actors must respond affirmatively to change or bear witness
to the system that they have upheld being swept away.
That is the outcome of practical
effort for lasting revolutionary transformation.
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