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"Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn; Critical Literacy for Caring Democratic Classrooms" July 26 - 29, 2001 — Chicago This is a quick summary of the Education Summit in Chicago, sponsored
by the Whole Language Umbrella, the Whole Schooling Consortium, and the
Rouge Forum. While a final count is not in, it appears that
between five hundred and six hundred people attended the summit, the overwhelming
majority of them school workers, though some students, parents, and community
people did join the meeting. This was the second meeting of people
from worlds which have been too far apart for too long: Whole Language,
Inclusion Activists, and Critical Educators. A pre-conference
meeting of education activists, initiated by a call from Carole Edelsky,
brought together about 45 activists from around the US and Canada. While
a report on the discussion is probably as significant as the upshot of
the meeting, brevity requires a move to the latter. The body called for
a season of resistance to high-stakes standardized exams in May 2002 to
be prefaced by intense educational action, ranging from teach-ins to petitions,
coffee clatches and one-to-one discussions through the fall, winter, and
early spring. The Rouge Forum has called for Teach-ins on campuses
across the country and has offered an instructional packet to those who
make the request. The RF also has an on-line petition at: http://www.rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/petition
Large Teach-Ins are planned for the Fall 2001 at Wayne State, and in February
2002 at San Diego State, led by the Rouge Forum. Smaller teach-ins are
being scheduled across the US and in Canada. The conference
workshops did begin to reflect a cross-discipline unity that clearly needs
to be deepened. There were problems with the conference which leaders
from each of the sponsoring groups are moving to address. It was too costly.
The Palmer House in Chicago is a beautiful, but expensive, venue. It was
not truly inclusive. Genuine inclusion, solidarity across race, sex/gender,
ability/disability, remains more a lighthouse beacon than a reality, and
an understanding of the dividing line of social class is hardly embraced
by all. Leaders of the sponsoring groups are discussing moving
future meetings to campuses, like Wayne State and San Diego State, where
facilities and housing are available at much lower costs. That alone, however,
will not set aside the problems of authentic solidarity, which needs to
be consciously organized day by day, in the lives of each person who seeks
either social justice or the freedom to struggle for what is true in schools
and communities. Even so, the Education Summit II has to be
seen as a remarkable step forward, not only in building a movement to resist,
but in forging a community of activists where caring, creativity and joy
can be coupled with the real need to fight back.
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