Why I am Fasting: An Explanation to My Friendshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kozol/why-i-am-fasting-an-expl_b_63622.htmlThis morning, I am entering the 67th day of a partial fast that I began early in the summer as my personal act of protest at the vicious damage being done to inner-city children by the federal education law No Child Left Behind, a racially punitive piece of legislation that Congress will either renew, abolish, or, as thousands of teachers pray, radically revise in the weeks immediately ahead. The poisonous essence of this law lies in the mania of obsessive testing it has forced upon our nation's schools and, in the case of underfunded, overcrowded inner-city schools, the miserable drill-and-kill curriculum of robotic "teaching to the test" it has imposed on teachers, the best of whom are fleeing from these schools because they know that this debased curriculum would never have been tolerated in the good suburban schools that they, themselves, attended.
<snip>
In the wake of the calamitous Supreme Court ruling in the end of June that prohibited not only state-enforced but even voluntary programs of school integration, No Child Left Behind -- unless it is dramatically transformed -- will drive an even deeper wedge between two utterly divided sectors of American society. This, then, is the reason I've been fasting, taking only small amounts of mostly liquid foods each day, and, when I have stomach pains, other forms of nourishment at times, a stipulation that my doctor has insisted on in order to avert the risk of doing longterm damage to my heart. Twenty-nine pounds lighter than I was when I began, I've been dreaming about big delicious dinners.
<snip>
The only member of the Democratic leadership I have been unable to get through to is the influential chairman of the education panel, Senator Ted Kennedy, who, one of his colleagues told me flatly, will ultimately "call the shots" on this decision. I've asked the senator three times if he'll talk with me. Each time, I have run into a cold stone wall. This has disappointed me, and startled me, because the senator has been a friend to me in years gone by and has asked for my ideas on education on a number of occasions in the decades since I was a youthful teacher and he was a youthful politician....
Still, Senator Kennedy has displayed a genuine nobility of vision in defense of elemental fair play for low-income children many times before. Is it possible that he may rise to the occasion once again? If he does, I may finally listen to the worries of my friends and decide it's time to bring this episode of fasting to an end. If not, I'll keep slogging on. It's a tiny price to pay compared to what so many of our children and their teachers have to go through every single day.
==================================================================================
Contact Senator Kennedy here ->
http://kennedy.senate.gov/senator/contact.cfmMy email to him ->
Dear Senator Kennedy,
I am deeply disturbed to learn a personal hero of mine, Jonathon Kozol is currently fasting (liquid foods only) to protest the vicious damage being done to inner-city school children by the No Child Left Behind Law.
Mr. Kozol has three time requested to meet with you before NCLB is revised in the weeks ahead. PLEASE meet with Mr. Kozol - he speaks for me.
I know that you want far better for all American children than NCLB has delivered - in large part as a result of the Bush Administration's refusal to fully fund the program.
Please meet with Mr. Kozol, he is a national treasure. Listen to his concerns about NCLB and encourage him to end his fast.
Best wishes, IndyOp
:-(
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
