The Larger Conversation of Education Reform Policy: Let's Take Action!!!

As I seek to continuously engage in larger conversation about the shape of education policies and reform, including  those pressing national issues such as healthcare, I couldn’t say it better than Kumashiro as he describes his own plan to take action in regards to educational policy and reform. 

“ I [must be] meeting with partner organizations, facilitating workshops and public forums for various constituent groups, writing articles and speaking in interviews for the news media, blogging on the Internet, issuing press releases and other public statements, lobbying my elected officials, speaking with my own family and former classmates and neighbors, marching with signs in the streets, rallying with bullhorns at the capital, dancing in a flash mob downtown, painting in a public mural in the park, performing with an open mic, and of course, continuing to do my own homework and learning from others in order to resist complicity and self-righteousness.” (2012, p.87)

                Okay. Go ahead and take a second to think on all of that, because that was a lot. Not only as a classroom teacher, but as an American citizen, I have so much power to take action to impact decisions that affect my students. While I may not be facilitating workshops, or speaking in interviews for the news media, I can blog on the internet (which I am currently doing), I can speak with my own friends and family (one of whom is my cousin, who is working in Washington D.C. as an intern and is preparing to go into a career in education reform…….so I can start by sending her my marked up educational policy reform books from this class at the conclusion of the semester). I can march in rallies and protests downtown, and most importantly, continue to do homework on current events and policy issues that are happening, and learn from others by engaging in critical dialogue.

                Guiding my thinking throughout these larger conversations with those involved in the decision making process for education and reform, is my students. The 24 little faces who look at me with eyes, hungry for knowledge. What guides my thinking greets me in the morning with smiles, high fives me in the hallways, listens intently as I read, asks questions, engages in conversations, and gives me hugs at the end of the day with the promise to see me tomorrow. What guides my thinking when it comes to education and reform is people. So many policy makers have forgotten that people’s lives are being affected…that thousands of humans are at the center of each decision. In fact, I invite any policy maker into Room 401 before ever making another decision again.