It is time for non-negotiable demands.
It is time to reclaim our public schools and demand all for all children.
leaders who will help the Opt Out movement, the people’s movement, to craft
a revolution that will tear down the test and punish system and help reshape
our country, our communities, and our public schools so that equity and true
democratic thinking becomes our reality.
Help fund the conference here.
UOO Conference, February 26 - 28, 2016: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform:
Friday Evening Keynote
Stephen KrashenStephen Krashen is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. He is best known for developing the first comprehensive theory of second language acquisition, introducing the concept of sheltered subject matter teaching, and as the co-inventor of the Natural Approach to foreign language teaching. He has also contributed to theory and application in the area of bilingual education, and has done important work in the area of reading. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from UCLA, was the 1977 Incline Bench Press champion of Venice Beach and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He is the author of The Power of Reading (Heinemann, 2004, second edition). His recent papers can be found at
his website.
Saturday Morning Keynote
Chris Hedges(The following portions of Chris’s biography were originally posted at
Truthdig.)
Chris Hedges, whose column is published weekly on Truthdig, has written twelve books, including his latest book, Wages of Rebellion, published in May, 2015. Hedges previously spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.
Hedges is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and The University of Toronto. He currently teaches prisoners at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. Hedges began his career reporting on the Falkland War from Argentina for National Public Radio. He went on to cover the war in El Salvador and Nicaragua for five years, first for The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio and later The Dallas Morning News.
Following six years in Latin America, he took time off to study Arabic and then went to Jerusalem and later Cairo. He spent seven years in the Middle East, most of them as the bureau chief there for The New York Times. He left the Middle East in 1995 for Sarajevo to cover the war in Bosnia and later reported the war in Kosovo. Afterward, he joined the Times’ investigative team and was based in Paris to cover al-Qaida. He left the Times after being issued a formal reprimand for denouncing the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq.
In 2012, Hedges notably sued President Barack Obama after the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration appealed, and the decision was overturned. In 2014 the the Supreme Court denied to review Hedges v. Obama. The act still allows for presidential authority for indefinite detention without habeas corpus.
Hedges holds a B.A. in English literature from Colgate University and a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, Calif. Hedges speaks Arabic, French and Spanish and studied classics, including ancient Greek and Latin, at Harvard. In 2014, Chris Hedges was ordained as a minister at the Second Presbyterian Church. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey and is married to the Canadian actress Eunice Wong with whom he has two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage. Please read Chris’s complete biography at
Truthdig.Saturday Afternoon Keynote
Antonia DarderDr. Antonia Darder is a distinguished international Freirian scholar. She holds the Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair of Ethics and Moral Leadership at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles and is Professor Emerita of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Her scholarship
focuses on issues of racism, political economy, social justice, and education. Her work critically engages the contributions of Paulo Freire to our understanding of inequalities in schools and society. Darder’s critical theory of biculturalism links questions of culture, power, and pedagogy to social justice concerns in education. In her scholarship on ethics and moral issues, she articulates a critical theory of leadership for social justice and community empowerment. Her work also engages issues of culture and its relationship to recent developments in neuroscience.
She is the author of numerous books and articles in the field, including Culture and Power in the Classroom (20th Anniversary edition), Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love, A Dissident Voice: Essays on Culture, Pedagogy, and Power and Freire and Education. She is also co-author of After Race: Racism After Multiculturalism; and coeditor of The Critical Pedagogy Reader, Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader, and the forthcoming International Critical Pedagogy Reader.
Sunday Morning Keynote
Mercedes MartinezMercedes Martínez is an ESL teacher from Puerto Rico. She has been in the Teachers Federation as an active member since 2007. In 2008 she participated with thousands of teachers in a 10 day strike, requesting a fair contract for teachers. As a direct result, wages were raised through Law 109.
She became the Toa Baja Teachers Federation Union President from 2009-2012, where she led many protests against unfair treatment to teachers, requesting better working conditions, claiming for a diverse curriculum, a smaller class size, and providing legal support to teachers in need.
In 2012 she became a Teachers Federation Area Representative, and provided services to teachers from Bayamón, Toa Baja, Cataño and Guaynabo. She participated in the Pension System protests that won over the cuts that were proposed by the government. She participated in a civil disobedience activity, defending teachers’ rights to a fair pension, and participated nationwide in strikes and protests with other union members.
In 2014 a great Opt Out movement came to life in Puerto Rico, led by the Teachers Federation, where the 1st testing day, 20% of the expected students were absent. The movement was preceded by hundreds of talks and meetings with parents islandwide, defending public education against corporate testing and privatization.
As of July 1st, 2015, she is now the President of the Teachers Federation Union, leading a struggle against the announced school closures in Puerto Rico. One hundred schools are proposed to be shut down. Thirty schools have struggled and maintained open. Many people are currently in permanent vigils in front of their schools, fighting against this crime on education, along with community members and union members of the Teachers Federation. Mercedes is one of the founders of
Opt Out En Español National.
Sunday Afternoon Keynote
Bill AyersWilliam Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), member of the executive committee of the Faculty Senate and founder of both the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society, taught courses in interpretive and qualitative research, oral history, creative non-fiction, urban school change, and teaching and the modern predicament. A graduate of the University of Michigan, the Bank Street College of Education, Bennington College, and Teachers College, Columbia University, Ayers has written extensively about social justice, democracy and education, the cultural contexts of schooling, and teaching as an essentially intellectual, ethical, and political enterprise. He is a past vice-president of the curriculum studies division of the American Educational Research Association.
Ayers’ articles have appeared in many journals including the Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, Rethinking Schools, The Nation, Educational Leadership, the New York Times and the Cambridge Journal of Education. His books include Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident, with Ryan Alexander-Tanner To Teach: The Journey in Comics , with Bernardine Dohrn Race Course: Against White Supremacy, with Rick Ayers Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom, Teaching toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, with Kevin Kumashiro, Erica Meiners, Therese Quinn, and David Stovall Teaching toward Democracy: Educators as Agents of Change, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court,Fugitive Days: A Memoir, On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, andTo Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, (Teachers College Press, 1993) which was named Book of the Year in 1993 by Kappa Delta Pi, and won the Witten Award for Distinguished Work in Biography and Autobiography in 1995.
He lives in Hyde Park, Chicago with Bernardine Dohrn, partner, comrade, friend, co-parent and
grand-parent, inspiration, co-author, lover, and soul-mate for close to half a century. Read more on Bill Ayers at his
website.
Tentative Schedule
Friday
5:00-8:00 p.m. Welcome Reception Stephen Krashen
Saturday
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Registration
9:00 – 10 a.m. Meet and Greet with UOO Leaders
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Keynote with Chris Hedges
11:00 – 12:00 p.m. Breakout Sessions
12:00 – 12:45 p.m. Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Panel #1 Global Privatization and “the Advancing Endgame Result!”
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Breakout Sessions
3:00 – 3:45 p.m. Panel #2 Civil rights: Reclaiming the Narrative
3:45 – 4:00 p.m. Break
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Keynote with Antonia Darder
Sunday
9:00 -10:00 a.m. Keynote with Mercedes Martinez
10:00 to 10:15 break
10:15 – 11:15 p.m. Breakout Sessions
11:15 – 11:30 break
11:30-12:30 Keynote with Bill Ayers
12:45 – 1:15 p.m. Closing Remarks from UOO leaders
BREAKOUT SESSION TOPICS
Book Talk with Ricardo Rosa and Joao J. Rosa: Capitalism’s Educational Catastrophe: And the Advancing Endgame Revolt!
Community Empowerment
Student Activism
Opt Out 101
Black Lives Matter
Teachers of Professional Conscience
Media and Messaging
Our Demands: What’s Next?
Union Caucus Building
More TBD soon!
Hotels: We will have a block of rooms available at Homewood Suites University City, 4109 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 very soon – check back here on July 6th! Hotel has shuttle and is only five blocks away from conference location! Meet the UOO TEAM (click pic to enlarge):
Top row left to right: Morna McDermott McNulty, Michael Pena, Denisha Jones, and Peggy Robertson.
Bottom row left to right: Ceresta Smith, Tim Slekar, Ruth Rodriguez and Rosemarie Jensen
