Adam Renner, of Rouge Forum and Substance, dies at the age of 40
Adam Renner, the Rouge Forum Community Coordinator and writer for Substance, has died at 40. Adam was a wonderful friend, teacher, writer, musician, martial artist, and honest, caring man. His courage had taken remarkable forms--from being willing to sacrifice to help others, to always learning, and altering his views, on the path to discover what is true in order to make the world a little better. What could be a more powerful legacy?
Adam Renner, who worked with Rouge Forum and wrote for Substance. Substance photo by Rich Gibson.As an educator, author, and friend, Adam embodied the interaction of ethical theory and determined practice. Losing Adam is a terrible setback for the movement for equality and justice, in schools and out.
In the fall of 2010, Adam left a tenured position at Bellarmine University in Kentucky to move to California where he accepted a position as a math teacher at the June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco. It was a good fit.
While in San Francisco, Adam quickly became active in the student movement to defend education from the relentless attacks of the ruling classes.
Indicative of his critical and inquisitive mind, Adam wrote about student-led meetings in Substance, in November of this year:
"For me and my K-12 classroom, for instance, I have been searching for the intersection of liberation, curriculum, and student experience (comprised of individual traumas, structural oppression, nine years of mis-schooling, varying levels of confidence and skill, etc.).How can I shape the revolutionary subjects necessary to help tip the inflexion point toward the necessary qualitative changes?
"When we teach math, social studies, language arts, and science, can we credibly do so in a way that is separate from the growing militarization of our schools and society, gang and drug infestations in our communities, rampant unemployment, a school to prisons pipeline, the assurance of our students’ ignorance through standardization and a teach-to-the-test mafia-like pressure on teachers?
"So, if we shouldn’t teach our classes that way, can we organize in such a way that militates against such explorations?"
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1768§ion=Article
His skills as the Rouge Forum Community Coordinator were exemplary--from gently moving along a meeting when it needed to move, to organizing the Louisville Forum, to editing the Rouge Forum News, and, above all, being key to forming a caring community where people could bring differing views, share them, and feel not only sane, but valued: family.
We offer our deep sympathy to Adam’s wife, Gina Stiens.
A Service & Celebration of Life will be held on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010.
Both will be held at Shiloh United Methodist Church, 5261 Foley Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45238
The Service begins at 11:00AM.
The Celebration will be immediately following, 12:00-2:00PM.
The attached link is in Adam’s memory. You can add to it yourself by clicking below. https://sites.google.com/site/rougeforumremembersadam/
Good luck to us, every one.
Rich Gibson and Amber for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee
