Anne Duff for Education
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This isn't a child's job

4/29/2015

2 Comments

 
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This week-end I attended the Network for Public Education’s 2nd Annual Conference in Chicago.  While I met and talked with some of the “rock stars” of public education, what touched my heart the most were the presenters at a session simply titled, “Student Panel.”

As I walked to this session, I made the assumption that these were college students.  I have connected with college groups in the past who have become activists for public schools, and since this was a conference filled with well-known heroes of public education, this surely had to be a session with some of those college students.  But as the panel began to speak, I became less sure as to who these students were, so I raised my hand and asked, “Are you high school students?”

After this group, students from the Newark Student Union and a student union in Tennessee, affirmed my question, my thoughts raced from feeling proud of these amazing young people to feeling incredulous and angry about what they had to do.  These child-activists taught us the difference between a direct action and civil disobedience. They shared the actions they have taken because they want to save their public schools.  They spoke from the heart about their sit-ins, walk-outs, and marches all in an effort to receive the education they desire.  But what broke my heart was this:  Shouldn’t public education be a “given?” Aren’t these children entitled to their right under the New Jersey constitution (“The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.”)?  Why should these students have to fight the take over from charter schools, to demand an end to the reign of their corporate-driven appointed superintendent of public instruction, and to sit in the streets, arms locked together, to make a plea that their state return to community schools with wrap-around services for all children?  This isn’t their job.  This isn’t what they should be doing.  This is their right.  My heart broke. 

While I am proud to be part of a school system that continues to be a pillar in our community and offers wrap-around services including arts, athletics, community outreach, a clothing bank, and partnerships with local businesses and community leaders, I know that the privateers, the corporate reformers, the charter invaders, and profiteers are alive and lurking in our state.  Do we, as a community, have what it takes to fight off these groups?  Are you willing, as these noble New Jersey students are, to stand together, arm in arm, to protest those who want to destroy our public schools? I hope you are willing.  I hope that, together, we can continue to offer to our young people – the future of our community – a free, equitable education -  an education where everyone is accepted, an education filled with math, music, physical education, art, libraries, extra-curricular activities, highly-qualified and caring teachers.  After all, they are children. They are our future.  This shouldn’t be their fight.  It is their gift.  Let’s fight for them and the gift they well deserve.



Sidebar:  

If you are familiar with and follow those who fight this good fight, then you may be familiar with some of the attendees.  This conference gives opportunity to meet and converse with the “rock stars” of public education – many bloggers and activists so as Diane Ravitch, Peter Greene with Curmudgucation, Jennifer Berkshire with Edushyster, Mercedes Schneider, author of A Chronicle of Echoes, Anthony Cody with Living in Dialogue, Fort Wayne’s own Phyllis Bush with NEIFPE, Chicago Teacher Union’s Karen Lewis, Randi Weingarten with AFT, and Lily Eskelsen García with NEA. 


2 Comments
Anthony Cody link
4/29/2015 09:49:29 am

Ann,
I appreciate the spirit of your sentiments. I think you are calling on us all to take responsibility for creating safe and just schools for our children.

That said, I think high school students, and even elementary students, have a powerful role to play. I say that as someone who first became active when I was fifteen years old. If you had told me then that I did not belong in the fight to make my schools serve me and my peers, I would not have been happy.

Our children cannot be sheltered from injustice. Our system is so screwed up that they experience it firsthand every day. They are uniquely capable of articulating what they need from their schools, and from the society they are growing up within.

The students from Newark -- and from our communities across the country have a lot to teach us. I agree that they should not have to fight for a great education, or for economic justice, or for an earth that is not polluted. But we are not in a position to deliver these things to them, and for that reason, I am glad to have the students by our side.

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Anne link
4/29/2015 08:46:16 pm

Anthony,

Thank you for your comments;. I appreciate your view on this and you raise valuable points. I agree that children should have a voice in their education, and I agree that what these young people are doing is commendable. They will be leaders as adults and will continue fight injustices where ever and whatever they end up doing...it is obviously part of who they are. But what pains me is that they shouldn't be having this fight...WE shouldn't be having this fight. As you know, public education is the cornerstone of our democracy. We shouldn't have to fight for that. As these young people pointed out in their session, what happens inside our schools translates into how our community grows and thrives...or dies. Our public schools are part of our communities. I don't mean that those students in those schools shouldn't fight...I'm proud that they are. It's just that it has become so ridiculous...so unjust...no one should be having to fight to save our public schools. They are ours and they are our future.

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    Being an advocate means speaking out for what you believe in.  Sometimes that means stepping outside of one's comfort zone to show support for what you feel is right.  These are some of the letters I have sent to various legislators and newspapers to show my position on public education.

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