A dream of education equality
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the effects of rampant poverty and the scapegoating of teachers are on display in the classrooms of public schools across the U.S.
January 16, 2012
I TEACH fourth grade in a public school in Brooklyn. On Friday, I wrote the initials "MLK", a plus sign, and the word "education" on the board. A boy raised his hand and said, "Do you realize that MLK plus education equals Melducation?" I decided to concede that particular point and move on.
Brian Jones is a teacher, actor and activist in New York City. He is featured in the new film The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, and his commentary and writing has appeared on MSNBC.com, the Huffington Post, GritTV and theInternational Socialist Review. Jones has also lent his voice to several audiobooks, including Howard Zinn's one-man playMarx in Soho, Wallace Shawn's Essaysand Noam Chomsky's Hopes and Prospects.
"Think about your life here in school," I said, "What do you think needs to change?"
It didn't take my students long to come up with a good list of ideas. I wrote them down.
They wanted more "helpers" in school (meaning: more adults), no homework and more time for recess. They wanted sports teams, more arts- and science-related activities and an elevator (our