Student Thought: Massive
That’s probably the only word I can use to describe last week’s protest: Massive.
Students, teachers, parents and administrators lined Broadway right next door to City Hall and the DOE, temporarily creating a new branch of our education system, one that was based on the needs and concerns of the real constituents of our community instead of the impractical ideas of the Klein-Bloomberg complex.
We called for a restoration of the city’s education budget, with signs reading, “Don’t Cut the Future Out of Your Budget!”, “Budget Cuts are Nuts,” and “It’s our Budget, Don’t Fudge it!”
We called for a refocusing of our educational priorities: a shift from tests and worksheets, consultants and computer systems to project-based learning and a rebuilding of the relationships between teachers and students around our city.
Most of all, we called for respect.
We brought out the numbers, guys! Take heed!
In my time as a student activist, I have never seen so many students up in arms, taking to the streets. The NYC Student Union alone brought out over 500 students, thanks to the online organizing of freshman Rebecca Morofsky of Brooklyn (special shout out to her for a great job).
Students realize the direct impact these cuts are making on our schools and on our lives. We feel the powerful disrespect when the government fails to recognize that the future is at stake here. We have spoken.
Cross-posted at NYC Students Blog
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Grrrr. This is infuriating. Under the current policy of Mayoral Control these positions were created to give parents who have been historically ignored by the DOE a way of solving a problem from enrollment to special needs. From my own experience with family advocates this year when I was faced with enrollment problems for two of my children they were helpful in recording my problem, but were mostly bright people who could guess what I should do & what might happen from past experience, but were unempowered & out of the loop. The DOE either purposely or through phenomenal oversight doesn’t communicate information to them making them fairly impotent. If they are cutting $ by cutting back people, I do hope they will use their resources to give the remaining family advocates an informed voice! Same goes for parent coordinators & principals for that matter. Give them some accurate information to disseminate!
Comment by Anonymous — July 25, 2008 @ 12:00 am
I was there too.
Comment by Ellen — July 25, 2008 @ 1:41 am