Ninety-five degrees, sweat pouring down our foreheads, bottle after bottle of water being consumed at the Lincoln Memorial. Hundreds upon hundreds of people, standing in large crowds, sitting in groups on the grass, and under tents organizing one of the biggest and most historic marches for education that Washington, D.C. has ever seen.
As I make my way down to the memorial, I hear the voice of a young man. I stopped in my tracks immediately. His name, Ajean. No more than 12 years old, I hear him say “I’m afraid, I’m afraid to be a 12-year-old black young man in this country, because this country hates me. The system is failing me, and I don’t want to go to jail. I have just as much right, as every other white student in this country to get my education."
Earlier this month, I attended the Save Our Schools Coalition People’s March Rally and Activists Conference in Washington, D.C. with my son and several nearby activist organizations for education and change, including the organization that I work for: P.H.E.N.O.M, which stands for Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts. Other organizations that participated were: Massachusetts Teachers Association, B.A.T. (Bad Ass Teachers), Save Our Public Schools, Save Our Schools Coalition, Providence Student Union, Boston Student Union, National Education Association and many, many more. We took a bus up from New Bedford, Massachusetts and made a few stops along the way to pick up other community activists. My son and I were very excited to be offered this opportunity and be able to rally for something that is very important to us.
It’s amazing to me, that education is as overlooked as it is in this country. Whenever there is a problem in the public school realm, everyone is quick to complain about it, but when it comes time to actually stand up and advocate for it… crickets… That’s what you hear. For once, it was a refreshing and eye-opening experience for us to see so many hundreds of other community activists come and band together in scorching weather at the Lincoln Memorial. Organizations from all over the country, making signs in support of public education, many holding their signs as the next activist gets up to speak.
Another inspiring individual I heard speak out at the rally was Jitu Brown. Mr. Brown is one of the hunger strikers from Chicago who protested for 34 days with other education activists, parents and teachers. Some of the protesters were so sick they had to stop the fasting; they lost too much weight and got too weak to continue the fight. In 2013, Chicago closed 52 schools and built two prisons. This forces their area children to walk to school for miles through drugs, gun and gang violence, and prostitution. Children who deserve a good quality education in a safe environment like every other child in the United States.
"Imagine being 11 years old, and having a gun held to your head because you were setting off fireworks, 11 years old... I was scared for my life," Brown said.
We marched to the White House with a stop at the Ellipse. Children, men, women, all races and ethnicities, all different classes, from all over the world. For one common purpose: to fight for education. Whether for our own children, or our students, or for faculty to teach in a stable and healthy environment.
Our asks with this march? Full equitable funding, racially just schools, community leadership, professional educators, child-centered curriculum, and no high stakes testing.
Not too much to ask, right?
Why is it that education is always one of the first items on the good ol' chopping block? I often wonder, that the reason being is, they want to keep a controlled number of the population uneducated. This way, we are oblivious to what is really going on around us. Keep the one percent educated and in control, and let the 99 percent fight their way through attaining an education. Hopefully they make it past their high school degree. After that, let them rack up a few student loans that will take them about 20 years to pay off, while they work three jobs to pay it off and worry every night that their house could be taken away at any moments' time, if God forbid, they were to ever get sick. In the meantime, their kids are going to public schools, where the classrooms are so overcrowded with over 30 students in their class, the students with behavioral issues cannot get any extra help because the staff is so limited and the school department is limited in funding, the children cannot go on any field trips, the curriculum in their classrooms is focused centrally on passing tests that put the state education department up on a pedestal (if only the funding came with it) and in the meantime... These kids get to college and have to learn how to think in a constructive critical thinking process, but how do you do attempt that, if you were never taught that before? And now you have no time to learn it; you are expected to know how.
Where do we go from here?
Working for P.H.E.N.O.M. (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts) has been an amazing experience for me. Advocating for higher education and education in general has opened my eyes to exactly what is going on in this country. This trip to Washington, D.C. was so inspiring and motivating at the same time.
I won't give up. My son's education depends on it, my education depends on it, my friends' and colleagues' education depends on it. I will never give up the fight for what I feel is right. I hope that many of you will start to join us and fight in this with us together. If you want more information on Phenom you contact us here: http://phenomonline.org/
For more information on how you can join in on the fight for education contact the Save Our Schools Coalition here.
