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Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » The most sensitive cargo…:

The most sensitive cargo…

by alicemercer

The minister at the church service I attended today share this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, and it really resonated with me. Here’s a stanza, the poem in it’s entirety can be found at the link below:

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

- From “Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23314#sthash.i0Eaf0sF.dpuf
Let’s count the many ways that the so-called education “reform” movement does not treat poor kids subjected to their “reform” agenda as the world’s most sensitive cargo:

1. School “choice” means choosing to site your school on toxic waste;
2. And while “reformers” love schools like KIPP, the students call it “Kids in Prison”;
3. The school “reformers” send their own kids to are more humane for the students, and they have union contracts (that they honor) with their teachers;
4. But, maybe this was never about the “kids” and more about power and privilege…;
5. Because surely they wouldn’t let something like this happen to “their” children;
6. Or, this;
7. Which eventually leads to decisions like this.

The way they treat teachers is like someone speeding down a residential street in an Audi A2 and running into