This Is Not a Test
The interview with the José Vilson
EduShyster: Your new book, This is Not a Test, has as its subtitle *a new narrative on race, class and education.* I inhaled the book over the course of a weekend, but I couldn’t figure out what the new narrative was. And then it finally dawned on me that you, José Luis Vilson, are the new narrative.José Vilson: That would be it. There’s a lack of nuance in all facets of what we talk about when we talk about education. So I took a different approach. I tried to address education through narrative and stories, which I think is way more powerful than just coming out and saying *I don’t like this crap.*
ES: At the heart of the book is your critique of an approach to education that overemphasizes standardized testing and what that means, particularly for children of color who had a different, unjust kind of education long before the current brand of reform came down. But let’s just say that people who are expecting a standard take on standardized testing are in for something of a surprise.
JV: It needed to be said, and I think it needed to be said in a particular way. I tried to find a way to tell this story that wouldn’t end up turning everybody off, but also didn’t sound like anybody else. Sonya Sanchez is one of the people who is always in my ear when I’m writing, saying: *New words. We need new words and new ways of saying things. There’s already been a Martin, there’s already been a Malcolm. We need new voices. Their time was their time and our time is our time.* ES: Speaking of new words, you used one I’d never heard before: tenebruous.
JV: I love dictionaries and I’d been saving that word. I thought, you know, if I ever write a book, I’m going to use the word *tenebruous.* And when it came up I was like *yes*!
ES: You’re not going to tell us what it means, are you?
JV: Nope. Folks will just have to buy the book.
ES: This Is Not a Test is full of surprises—not just about your personal story—but the way the