In 2009 I lost my job as Coordinating Field Librarian for
the southeast area of Los Angeles Unified School District – responsibility for
50 K-12 school libraries. Rather than
fight to get a position in a local school library (because many of my friends
and colleagues were in danger of losing THEIR jobs), I decided to retire. I had worked for over 40 years. But I truly wasn’t ready to retire.
In order to support our school libraries (California is 51st
in funding them, behind Guam) and bilingual education, I had been following the
writing of Dr. Stephen Krashen and through him, the writings of Susan Ohanian. The two became my guiding
lights in understanding the mess that public education had become. I began seeing posts on the Internet, on
Facebook – and Robert Valiant’s DUMP DUNCAN Facebook page really caught my
eye. I knew that my district was
infected with the Broad virus. So I kept
looking for more information that tied the Common Core and Charters, Vouchers
and VAM together as the plan to take over our public schools and completely
privatize them. After all, it was Duncan
who said the Katrina was the best thing that happened to the schools in New
Orleans.
I bought the original Badass Teacher Association t-shirt
from Mark Naison and wore it to a Los Angeles Unified School District Board
Meeting where I criticized our Broad virus superintendent for lying to us and
trying to fire teachers, hire TFA, and turn schools into technology factories.
In fact, we do have schools that have employed what is called the “Blended
learning” model where one teacher is responsible for 90 children. Leonie Haimson and Class Size Matters is what
we need in Los Angeles too.
My outrage grew and I kept reading Dr. Mark Naison in New
York, Jo Lieb and Jesse Turner in Connecticut, Kipp Dawson and Yinzercation in
Pennsylvania, Sandy Stenoff and Rosemarie Jensen in Florida. Phyllis Bush in
Indiana, and so many more people, especially the bloggers: Paul Thomas, Seattle Education’s Dora Taylor,
Patrick Walsh, Kris Nielsen, Ken Priviti, Johnathan Chase, Fred Klonsky, and
his brother too, Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, Renee DInnerstein, Leonie Haimson,
and Mercedes Schneider with her solo driving trips to New York, her writing a
book in a summer, and more. A blog that grabbed my heart was Peggy Robertson’s –
I knew that we needed to take direct action. And Opt Out seemed the logical
step to be taken. I was thinking about
my five year-old granddaughter who was suffering in a kindergarten that did
nothing but pencil and paper work – no blocks, no paint, no clay, no dress-up,
etc. etc.
I know I am leaving out a lot of people who have kept me
going these past five years. I find it
exhausting at times. I will be in
Washington DC in July, and would love to be in Seattle in June. If I
could, I would go everywhere that we are needed, although, in fact, Los Angeles,
is probably in the deepest doo-doo, because we have more charters than anywhere
else in the country combined, and we have a Broad virus as our Superintendent –
a man who purchased his PhD with the funds of another school district (Santa
Monica). We have just elected a
wonderful UTLA President. But there is so much to be done.
