Norman Siegel tells a parent conference sponsored by Class Size Matters in NYC on January 16 about the recent court victory that gives protesters over Mayor Bloomberg's education policies the right to hold a protest on the side of the street (17 East 79th St) where he lives. Amongst a sea of objections, this protest focuses on the unfair and arbitrary closing of schools, the imposition of charter schools into public school buildings and the unfair treatment of public schools by the BloomKlein administration vis a vis charter schools. He lays out the conditions the protesters will be under. If you intend to attend, heed what Siegel says.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fF_QyyTYxA
Watching the video and listening to Seigel was thrilling. I am so honored to have met you guys, and want to let you know that I'm counting down the hours until the event, too.
ReplyDeleteAll my best,
Sharon
Norm,
ReplyDeleteWill Normal Siegel be speaking at the Brooklyn Tech HS PEP meeting?
I hope so! He hit the nail on the head, charter schools is an alternative system that undermines the public schools.
He needs to be there.
I am looking forward to the Protest at 79th Street.
Although I deeply admire everything that is going on and Norman Siegel, part of me really rankles that we as protesters have to "behave," "perform" by THEIR scripts, "control" ourselves, and in fact: Do it their way.
ReplyDeleteCivil protesting is a right in this country. This ultra-refined staging of a protest doesn't is fundamentally regressive.
Turning yourself into something you are not because demagogues have for a decade or more created an atmosphere of disrespecting the citizenry doesn't sit well with me at all.
I feel the same way when they've put me and other protesters in pens. I feel the same way when six to ten thousand marchers are out there in the streets or down at the Capitol and the press doesn't cover it because they are bought.
We are protesting, but we're caged like rats in a lab experiment.