SOS march draws more than 5,000 to Washington D.C. protest... Building a movement to challenge the Obama administration's corporate 'school reform' and privatization policies
The rally, on one of the hottest days in one of the hottest cities in the USA, took place before the march. Dozens of speakers gave moving speeches to the Save Our Schools (SOS) march in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2011, despite oppressive heat. The speakers who came from all parts of the country to denounce high-stakes testing and the Obama administration's Race to the Top education policies, ranged from celebrity writers like Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch and celebrities like Matt Damon and Jon Stewart to rank-and-file teachers and parents from dozens of states. The rally that preceded the march to the White House lasted more than one hour and heard from dozens of people, ranging from teacher and parent activists to the main speakers, who delivered some of the major themes of the event.
Washington D.C. Teachers Union President Nathan Saunders (above center holding banner) was one of the teacher leaders who helped bring the message of the SOS march to the White House on July 30, 2011. Substance photo by Sharon Schmidt. As he had during the pre-march conference, author Jonathan Kozol made the direct connection between the 2011 March on Washington and the 1963 March on Washington that included the famous "I Have a Dream" section from the speech by Dr. Martin Luther King. Many of the organizers of the SOS march were consciously trying to wrest the civil rights legacy from the hands of corporate propagandists who promote high-stakes standardized testing and the current attacks on public education.
The SOS conference, rally, march, and "congress" was definitely a work in progress, as the thousands who came to D.C. for the rally could see. The most popular slogan of the march was the one opposing high-stakes testing and the policies of the Obama administration's Department of Education under Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Speaker after speaker denounced the government's "Race To The Top" program and the scapegoating of public schools and public school teachers by the Obama administration.
Corporate media attention was another story. It was almost non-existent, considering the fact that the march and rally had some celebrity participants (Jon Stewart of the Daily Show and actor Matt Damon) and some very well know writers (Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch), had been endorsed by most of the major teacher groups in the USA (including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers) and dealt with one of the three or four biggest policy issues facing the USA today. Yet an early survey of the media (the evening of the event) showed coverage from CNN, the Washington Post, and Education Week and not much else.
CNN focused on the fact that actor Matt Damon was supporting the event and helping build the movement people hope grows out of it. Damon was also quoted in the Washington Post article on the march and rally. But none of the quotes gives justice to the content of what he actually said, which was posted on You Tube soon after the rally. The URL for Damon's remarks, for those who cannot get it, is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqOub-heGQc&feature=player_embedded#at=43
A crowd pleaser was that Matt Damon was introduced by his own mother, who, as the actor pointed out, was a professor of early childhoood education and a critic of high-stakes so-called "standardized" tests herself.
"One of my sons became very well known," she said. "He’s Matt Damon. He came to join you in this sweltering heat. We’re standing up for every child’s right to a quality public education. Thank you Matt for joining us. …"
The actor told the group that he had flown in from work in Vancouver, on the other side of the continent, because of his commitment to what the marchers were doing. "I really had to tell you all in person that I think you are awesome," he said. "I was raised by a teacher. My Mom was a prof of early childhood education. I attended public schools.I would not trade that education and that experience for anything."
"All of these things that I value most came from the way I was parented and taught…." he told the cheering crowd. "And none of these qualities …. That make me who I am can be tested…"
His speech, which was obviously carefully prepared, went on to describe the difference between the public education had had received and what was happening today. "My teachers were free to approach me and the other kids like an individual puzzle," he said. "They were empowered to unlock our potential…" and not forced to conform to some test prep model of teaching.
He went on to narrate and early example of test resistance: "I did have a brush with standardized tests," he told the cheering crowd. "My Mom went to the principal’s office and said I wouldn't take the test. 'It’s stupid. it won’t tell you anything, and it will just make my son nervous...'"
"I don’t know where I’d be today if my teachers’ job security was based on some standardized test…" he told the crowd. I honestly don’t know where I would be today if [test prep] was the kind of education I had. I sure as hell know I wouldn’t be here..."
He told the people at the SOS march that he was speaking for millions of people who were backing them and the demands of the march.
He hammered the corporate reformers driving things. "You enclounter some simple minded policy that has been driven in to your life by some corporate reformer who never tauight anyone anything..." he reminded the crowd, to rousing cheers.
And then he ended his remarks by promising that the movement would grow. "You have an army of regular people standing behind you," he said. "We love you. We thank you. And we will always have your back!"
CNN REPORT BELOW HERE:
"Actor Matt Damon rallied teachers Saturday at a march in Washington decrying the widespread use of standardized testing to judge how well teachers, students and schools are performing," CNN reported. "A group of teachers and education advocates organized the Save Our Schools March in an effort to inspire change in standardized testing policies, according to founder Anthony Cody. Critics say standardized testing takes teachers' focus off their core mission of educating students."
After assembling at the Eclipse and hearing the speeches, poems and other things, the group, mostly teachers, marched to the White House.
After being introduced by his mother (above, second from left in the rear), actor Matt Damon (above at podium) devoted ten minutes to telling the crowd how much a real public school public education did for him. He noted that when he was in public school during the 1970s, his mother opted him out of a standardized test. Substance photo by Sharon Schmidt."And none of these qualities that I just mentioned, none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, none of these qualities that have brought me so much joy, that have made me so successful professionally, none of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested," he said.
WASHINGTON POST REPORT BELOW HERE
The Washington Post report follows:
Teachers march on Washington, By Michael Alison Chandler and Sarah Khan, Published: July 30, 2011
There are many reasons thousands of teachers traveled across the country to protest in front of the White House on Saturday — including to oppose charter schools, to fight for equal funding for poor schools, and to have more say in public education policies.
But at a noisy rally starting at noon under soaring temperatures, their message boiled down to one point, which was summed up by the sound check before the first speaker took the stage:
Tap. Tap. “No testing, no testing, 1-2-3.”
Chicago Teachers Union members came by bus and by car to the sweltering SOS march. Many of them brought the same signs that the union has been using in Chicago to challenge the bankers and others who have been bleeding the schools. Substance photo by Sharon Schmidt.The assembled teachers, education advocates and parents vented a frustration they said has been building since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, which made standardized testing the centerpiece of a school reform agenda championed by George W. Bush.
With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, many thought their long-standing complaints, about how the policy has imposed unfair penalties on the poorest schools and how it has narrowed curriculum to make time for test preparation, would finally be heard.
But three years later, the law is still intact, more schools are being labeled as failing, and standardized tests are starting to be used to make teacher tenure and termination decisions.
“We had reason to believe from his campaign promises that Obama was going to reverse the damage that this law has caused,” said Jonathan Kozol, a public education activist and author. “He has betrayed us. . . . That’s why we are here today.”
And so about 5,000 people, according to the organizers’ estimates, stood on the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument and waved posters that read “Boycott NCLB” and “Teach Me, Don’t Just Test Me.”
[img=3762]A row of white tents on the edge of the crowd offered shade next to an art display of a graveyard meant to represent “the very real destruction that NCLB has brought to the important experiences and processes of learning.” Most teachers baked on the lawn, waving fans emblazoned with the Washington Teachers’ Union logo.
The “Save Our Schools March” was part of a four-day event including a two-day conference at American University with dozens of workshops, such as “Winning the Testing War” and “Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline.” There was also a half-day strategy session and a film festival, headlined by the documentary “The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman,” a response to the 2010 film “Waiting for Superman,” which featured then-D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and which promoted charter schools.
The event, which was endorsed by the two major teachers unions, took about a year and $150,000 to organize. At least a dozen other cities hosted sister rallies or events. The demonstration’s leaders are a core group of teachers, parent activists and education bloggers who maintain that federal policies are too influenced by business leaders and too little by educators who know how policies play out in classrooms.
The White House invited some of the organizers to speak with education policy advisers Friday, but the organizers turned down the offer, saying they would be willing to meet after Saturday’s march. “July 30 is your opportunity to listen to us,” they said in a news statement.
Bonnie Van Roekel, a 61-year-old music teacher from Commerce City, Colo., said she came to the march because “testing has become a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit” in her district. Teachers are expected to follow scripts for each lesson, a new strategy intended to boost scores, she said. Like many in the crowd, she wore red (“for public ed”) .
Sonya Romero, 36, said she flew from Albuquerque because “No Child Left Behind is demoralizing New Mexico.” The state has a population that is poorer and more diverse than much of the country, she explained. By now, the vast majority of the schools statewide have been classified as “failing” under the federal law, which sets increasingly high pass rates for state tests each year.
Under that “failing” label, Romero’s school has cut back time for physical education and recess, and she has been required to use a new reading curriculum, she said. The regimen “stifles imagination,” she said.
The speakers included a long list of longtime education advocates and a few Hollywood celebrities whose mothers are teachers or public education advocates.
“The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart sent his support by jumbo-size screen rather than driving to the march because, he said, “the dog ate his car.”
Actor Matt Damon elicited cheers when he commiserated with the crowd. “This has been a horrible decade for teachers,” he said. “The next time you feel down or exhausted . . . please know there are millions of people behind you.”
With that send-off, they marched off the lawn, up 17th Street and around the White House, many chanting, “Education under attack! What do we do? Stand up, fight back.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING AND PHOTOGRAPHS WILL BE PUBLISHED AT SUBSTANCE WHEN WE FLIP TO THE NEW HOME PAGE ON AUGUST 1, 2011.
