Why I Am Going to DC April 4-7

JIM HORN: WHY I AM COMING TO OCCUPY THE DEPT. OF ED. IN DC

Posted on March 3, 2013

I am coming to ODOE2 to remember and honor so many who cannot come and for so many of the forgotten victims of high stakes standardized testing.

I am coming to DC for that Louisiana 4^th grader in 2002 whose heart could be heard pounding across the desk by the teacher who had to tell him he would be in the 4^th grade for the third time because he didn’t pass the state test.

I am coming to DC for that other 4^th grade child who scooted from his wheelchair and hid under the bed, for god’s sakes, because he was ashamed to tell his mother he had failed the test again.

I am coming to DC for unknown numbers of the kids who have hurt themselves because a test labeled them as failures.

I am coming to DC for those in prison who learned failure at an early age by high stakes testing.

I am coming to DC for the parents who attended all the “Lean on Jesus” test prep prayer meetings hoping for a miracle.

I am coming to DC for the tens of thousands of teachers and principals whose health has been ruined from pressure cooker classrooms and offices.

I am coming to DC for the Georgia Title I principal, Betty Robinson, who blew out her brains when her school missed the state test expectations by a few points.

I am coming to DC for the millions of disadvantaged children who have been confined in apartheid total compliance corporate reform testing camps in the name of educational justice.

I am coming to DC for Daemonte Driver, the DC child whose test scores were more important than the tooth infection and lack of dental care that killed him.

I am coming to DC for the hundreds of thousands of insulted, fired, and abused teachers who have been blamed for a failed and unaccountable testing and accountability policy that now demands another generation of our children to be sacrificed for the benefit of profiteers and ideologues.

And they will be sacrificed unless we stand in the breach to stop it, and then to build what is possible only when high-stakes testing ends.