“The achievement gap is visible because of these awful tests,” says a young thoughtful black teacher. One email reads, “Opting-out of high-stakes testing is an act of civil disobedience.” Another email points to the raging incoherence of a struggle for human dignity played across the currents of issues that are and are not divisive and urgent One union says this One policy center that A group with trust in its name shouts Others respond And I have my own doubts Listening to multiple claims on movements and civil rights from voices left, right, black, white, and brown This is NOT a Test The Test Both good books and surely this is a test But not the kind that’s easy to scan Or to assign a letter grade to Or even to write an important book about It is a test of courage and creativity […]
Research and Poetry
I first read, “Naming the Problem” by Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol last summer, but I keep coming back to it. While it is focused on health care, there are so many lessons and nuances within. For me, it stitches well with the poem “Pushing Through” by Rainer Maria Rilke: Pushing Through It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock in flintlike layers, as the ore lies, alone; I am such a long way in I see no way through, and no space: everything is close to my face, and everything close to my face is stone. I don’t have much knowledge yet in grief– so this massive darkness makes me small. You be the master: make yourself fierce, break in: then your great transforming will happen to me, and my great grief cry will happen to you. The connection I find between them is in the struggle to see clearly […]