Oklahoma Student Steals the Show during the Teachers Rally at the State Capitol
Kiante Miles, a senior in the Mustang School District, energizes the crowd Monday by reciting one of his poems. Jim Beckel - THE OKLAHOMAN
The current school reformers' meme is that the backlash against test-driven reform is just a white middle class movement, a pawn of the teachers unions. Had true believers in competition-driven reform attended the rally at the Oklahoma State Capitol, they could have listened to students like Kiante Miles. His rap stole the show.
Miles wrote:
i am a student
chained down by tests that say
i'm not allowed to fly if i don't click my mouse a certain way
This Mustang High School student seeks something that simply can't be measured.So, he asks:
chained down by tests that say
i'm not allowed to fly if i don't click my mouse a certain way
This Mustang High School student seeks something that simply can't be measured.So, he asks:
why would i set at a computer screen
and just try and answer a b or c
in life i want
the questions that say how do you stop cancer
how can we stop from killing each other
Why do we clip the wings of the ones we love?
Kiante would:
and just try and answer a b or c
in life i want
the questions that say how do you stop cancer
how can we stop from killing each other
Why do we clip the wings of the ones we love?
Kiante would:
like to think that we are all seeds
planted into the soil of public education
until we get covered with the cement mixture of
EOI's, unfunded classes, over stressed teachers
planted into the soil of public education
until we get covered with the cement mixture of
EOI's, unfunded classes, over stressed teachers
He warns policy makers to not be deceived by the:
few of us
the ones who fight through the adversity
see the light from the cracks of the cement
and manage to have some type of growth
These few trees growing through concrete ... can be deceiving because its not worth the cost of the hundreds no thousands that get left behind
The student then gave a shout out to his teachers who can truthfully say
that they don't do this for punishable pay
The cheering peaked as the poet addressed the crowd:
the ones who fight through the adversity
see the light from the cracks of the cement
and manage to have some type of growth
These few trees growing through concrete ... can be deceiving because its not worth the cost of the hundreds no thousands that get left behind
The student then gave a shout out to his teachers who can truthfully say
that they don't do this for punishable pay
The cheering peaked as the poet addressed the crowd:
for there is strength in numbers
it's easy to remove a tree
but it takes an army to take on a forest
The first rule of teaching should be: Listen to the students and they will teach how you to teach them. Kiante Miles is a reminder that the same principle applies to school improvement.
it's easy to remove a tree
but it takes an army to take on a forest
The first rule of teaching should be: Listen to the students and they will teach how you to teach them. Kiante Miles is a reminder that the same principle applies to school improvement.
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