Tipton visits NYCoRE

Christine Tipton
Name of event: NYCoRE October Meeting
Organizer: NYCore- New York Collective of Radical Educators
Date: October 21 5:30pm
Location: NYU Pless Hall

Reflection:
 I was interested in checking out NYCoRE because of Bree's enthusiasm about the work they are doing. It seemed inconvenient because of the location (NYU) and the time (Friday nights I usually veg with my honey), but I decided late Tuesday night I wanted to go. Luckily Cris was interested in going with me (honestly, I am shy about going to events like this by myself) and we even got Lisa to join us.

I had no idea what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised to find a group of radical and eclectic educators gathered together. First, we sat in on the first NYCoRE 101 meeting which was specifically created  to introduce new and interested people to the organization. This meeting boasted about 10 first-time attendees with three members leading the discussion. One woman, who was also a first-time attender asked quite logically, "Why are there so many people here? This is incredible." The leaders of the meeting sort of laughed and explained that maybe there is change in the air (linking it to the Occupy movement). I was excited to see so many faces at the 101 meeting and interested to hear a bit of the history and find out about the workings of the organization.

NYCoRE started 10 years ago around the time the war in Afganistan started. Educators kept running into each other at antiwar rallies and they started to organize around the idea of fighting for justice inside and outside schools. NYCoRE uses an anti-racist lens when  looking at major issues affecting public education. Every month NYCoRE meets there is an educational component and then time for working groups. This set up allows the members to learn about and explore issues and then continue doing the actual work. At this meeting three members from the Coalition for Public Education came to speak about the work they are doing. Following their talk were five working groups: one dealing with Special Education issues, another planning for the annual conference (on MARCH 24TH @ VANGUARD HIGH SCHOOL), one group was discussing their Occupy the Panel for Educational Policy event on Tuesday, another was an opportunity to talk more with the presenters from the CPE, and the last was the group for the New Teacher Underground. This is the working group Cris, Lisa, and I attended.

The Coalition for Public Education is currently focusing on the governance and mayoral control of the public schools in NY. The presenters included co-chairs and a parent outreach coordinator. The issues they discussed closely  aligned with the issues around local control in Newark. One woman, I believe her name is Bonita, spoke about the fact that although school board was not perfect NY should have the democratic right of being representative locally. Right now the Panel for Educational Policy makes decision for NY public schools. This panel is made up of 13 unelected people who make decisions for the Department of Education. Many of these positions are appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, who happens to be the 13th richest person in the US. The presenters likened Bloomberg to a dictator who has had unprecedented power since he gained control of the schools from the state.

One of the presenters made  powerful comment, Brenda proclaimed, "the people who are in charge don't look like me, don't live like me, and don't send their children to this school..." As an educator is makes me think that it is totally unfair that we work in a system and our students are being educated in a system where their best interests are not being the guiding principles in policy. Furthermore, their needs cannot be met and rights protected by people that are immensely rich, powerful, and white!

Like I said before, Cris, Lisa, and I met with the New Teacher Underground working group during the break out session. I was interested to see what kind of organizing this group is doing to support new teachers. They debriefed a discussion and reading they did the week prior with new teachers and then collected ideas on what to do next. They were welcoming to us but seemed pressured to do so much in the little time they had to work. I was so inspired by these new teachers taking the time to not only be active members of NYCoRE but also be working to connect with and provide support for other new teachers.

At one point during the working group one of the members said something along the lines of "[teacher] prep programs are irresponsible in the way they bring people in and the kind of education they value [for the preservice teachers]."  I realized that I couldn't agree more. I was just recently having a conversation with a friend about how prior to getting into this program I was in the process of applying for Teach for America, and how now I can't imagine having the past 9 months of preparation and the next 9 months before I step into the classroom on my own. Beyond that I feel so thankful for having done work in Disability Studies and social justice, in deconstructing and analyzing problematic issues of racism, ableism, sexism, etc in our teacher preparation.

All in all, I am happy I went to the NYCoRE meeting for it was inspiring to see passionate teachers organizing around big issues and hear them talking about also bringing these issues into their classrooms. The activism was contagious and I felt like I was back at my undergrad, UC Santa Cruz where people really seemed to care about large issues and were willing to fight "the man." I also felt as though I saw a glimpse of what is all over the nation: teachers who are willing to work long and hard to be the best educators and teacher activists they can be. With people like this connecting all over the country I think there is a chance we can still make (the much needed) beneficial changes in our national school system.