Video from SOS March

Here is a short video from the Save Our Schools March that took place July 28-31, 2011.

My favorite parts include:

• Matt Damon gives a lesson on the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. "Do you think job insecurity makes me work hard? A teacher wants to teach! Why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job unless you really love to do it?"
• When the "reporter" sarcastically "asked" the question: "Are first grade teachers intellectuals that need to be protected?" I damn near swallowed my tongue. The gentleman's response was well put: "I hope that they have studied child development.
• When Deborah Meier was asked about funding for education she replied: "We should give as much money as rich people think they need to for their children."
• My local grocery store is not analogous of my local public school. Period.
• Jonathan Kozol was asked about vouchers being a solution to poverty: "Vouchers and charter schools are the worst possible answer because first off all they will never serve more than two or three percent -- maybe five percent at most of the population."
• Reporter: "So we need more charter schools." Kozol: "No, that's insane. First of all charter schools on average are no more successful than public schools. The only ones you hear about are the super schools - the ones that get on Opera.
• Competitions have winners and losers. Public Education is for everyone.

Near the end the "reporter" implies we are all losers with public education. This of course plays on the fact that there are problems in public education. Yes there are problems in public education, and I blog about how we can improve almost everyday. But I see these issues as problems to be solved, not destroyed or ignored.

If something is broken, you don't destroy it -- you fix it.

Save our Schools

On my Twitter avatar I have chosen to show support for American educators who rightfully see corporate reform efforts to link their pay to student test scores and eliminate tenure as a direct assault on their profession. 

The Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action will be held July 28-31, 2011 in Washington, D.C & Nationwide.

You can follow Save Our Schools on Twitter here.

For a taste of what this group stands for, here is an excerpt from the Save Our Schools site on High-Stakes Testing:

The primary and most important purpose of assessment is to find out what learners know and can do so that teachers can develop their strengths, support the areas where they struggle, and promote the learning process. High-stakes testing, however, distorts and undermines that process. By directing our focus to the scores instead of the learning process, high-stakes testing makes it difficult to fully understand what exactly is happening in our schools, and it makes it even more difficult for teachers and students to engage in real learning. 

Students who know that a test may keep them from moving on to the next grade or graduating, or that their school may be closed or converted, face tremendous stress.