Apr 26, 2019

April 2019 Update and Retrospective for Supporters of the New Salem Educational Initiative and the K-12 Revolution


April 2019 Update and Retrospective

 

New Salem Educational Initiative

and the

K-12 Revolution

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

                                                                                               

 

This note goes forth to the many of you who have taken an avid interest in the varied pursuits of the New Salem Educational Initiative, fundamentally a college preparatory program for young people living at the urban core, especially North Minneapolis;  but by extension a full-scale effort to revolutionize education in the United States by transforming one locally centralized school district into a national model.

 

Retrospective

 

I began this sojourn in spring 1971 when, as a sophomore at Southern Methodist University (SMU;  Dallas, Texas) I decided to become a teacher of inner city youth.  From that time until graduation in 1973, I coordinated tutoring programs for SMU Volunteer Services that served young people at all grade levels of the Dallas Independent School District;  facilities for neglected children;  and schools for youth with special needs.

 

Upon graduation, I taught at L. G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas, a school and community with which I had already made an intimate connection during the SMU years.  Thus continued a 48-year career to date, spent mostly teaching inner city young people but along the way also teaching in a prison for a year, English as a Second Language for a total of two years in Taiwan, as a lecturer for the Fulbright Foundation for another year in Taiwan, and a total of four and a half years as a college instructor in route to a masters (University of Iowa) and Ph. D. (University of Minnesota) in Chinese and Taiwanese history, and by invitation of St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota).

 

My dedication to young people in North Minneapolis began in 1991, when in a metaphorical representation of my career I defended my Ph. D. dissertation (Agricultural Development and the Fate of Farmers in Taiwan, 1945-1990) while teaching at an alternative high school for young people reclaimed from the streets and gang life.

 

In 1993 I launched the Tuesday evening tutoring program at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church (Reverend Jerry McAfee, pastor) that continues at that same 6:00 PM (6:30 PM for evenings on which the Minneapolis Public Schools [MPS] Board of Education meets [I am always first up for 5:30 PM Public Comments]).  In 2003 I added a seven-day-a-week small-group program that elevates students to grade level and then puts them on a college preparatory course of study.  I have 125 a students in my network, never letting them go once they enter my universe and continuing to provide academic instruction and mentorship when they go on to post-secondary study and to lives of success.

 

Activism and Revolutionary Program

 

In August 2014 I considered the fact that while I intend to live long I might not live forever.

 

I decided to engage in all manner of activities designed to expose the deficiencies of the Minneapolis Public Schools and to induce transformation of that school district into a model for the delivery of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education imparted throughout the preK-12 years.

 

I began investigating the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools and creating venues for entering my views on K-12 education into the public sphere.  In addition to conducting exhaustive research and interviews that have informationally poured forth into my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, I initiated a monthly academic journal (Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota), began recording for my television show (The K-12 Revolution with Dr. Gary Marvin Davison, Wednesdays, 6:00 PM, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network [MTN] Channel 17), began to speak first during Public Comments at all monthly meetings of the MPS Board of Education, and held forth at all manner of community events and forums.

 

I have now added a door to door community organizing effort to my program for change, designed to build a vast movement for electing a new type of school board member who will look beyond political ambitions and unsavory associations to embrace my program for educational excellence:  knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum imparted in grade by grade sequence to student of all demographic descriptors throughout the preK-12 years;  training of teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum;  highly intentional skill remediation for students languishing below grade level, and enrichment activities once those students join others functioning at grade level;  a major street-level and into-the-homes effort to connect with struggling families and meet their needs, so as to send students of all demographic descriptors to school ready to engage academically;  and honing of the central office bureaucracy so as to direct resources toward students and families for the academic program and to ensure that all students are positioned as recipients of that program.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………

 

There is no effort elsewhere comparable to this all-encompassing endeavor to transform one locally centralized school district into a national model.  This is the way that the overhaul of K-12 education in the United States, whose citizens lean heavily toward local control, must happen.

 

I work 16 to 18 hours every day my feet hit the ground to provide direct academic instruction and mentoring to my students;  and to carry forth the revolutionary program.  Think Mao, Gandhi, Steinhem, Martin & Malcom, Alinsky.

 

My dedication is total.

 

Your support has been and is crucial.

 

Thank you so very much.      

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