Creativity Not Control

 

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(shortlink http://wp.me/p2oXIT-hT)

Creativity Not Control

  -Learning for Life, not Labor –

-Decolonize Schools-

We are a new group of  family, teachers, students, and working class community members coming together to fight for equality and creativity in our schools: http://creativitynotcontrol.wordpress.com/; CreativityNotControl@gmail.com.

We’d like to invite you to the upcoming events.  We hope they can be opportunities for networking and solidarity-building among various communities, organizations, and groups:

Banner / Poster Making Party and Networking Social Event:

Let’s hang out with each other and create some artwork for upcoming struggles around education.

When: Mon, Feb 11th, 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Where:  Black Coffee Co-Op, 501 E. Pine St. Seattle, WA 98122

Invite your friends on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/215763635215676/

Flyering sessions to expand the MAP test boycott:

We will be passing out flyers encouraging more teachers, students, and family members to join the Seattle teachers who are boycotting the MAP test: http://creativitynotcontrol.wordpress.com/flyers/

Fri, Feb 15th.  Flyering at Franklin High School.  Meet at 2:45 at  the bus stop for the #7 Bus at the Mt. Baker Transit Center, near the corner of Rainier Ave S and Martin Luther King Jr. Way S.

Picket vs. High-Stakes Standardized Testing

When: Tues Feb 19th, meet at 6:00 PM

Where: in front of Town Hall Seattle, 1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle.

Invite your friends on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/125676074275863/

Michelle Rhee, one of the ideologues of the corporate “Education Reform” movement, is speaking at Town Hall.  The corporate agenda of education reform means more high -stakes standardized testing, and less culturally relevant, anti-racist curriculum.  It means more boredom and control and less creativity for youth and teachers in the classroom.

The current public schools reproduce racial, class, and gender inequality, and we all need to come together to fight these problems ourselves as working class and oppressed communities. CEOs like Rhee might claim to be radicals fighting these issues in order to put students first.  But they are really pushing further corporate takeover of the public schools, which will make these problems worse.  We need to fight back and create our own solutions.

We will gather outside Rhee’s talk in a demonstration of solidarity with the Seattle teachers who have really put students first by refusing to administer the standardized MAP test: http://scrapthemap.wordpress.com/

Discussion Forum:

When: Thurs, March 21st, 6 PM

Where:  Black Coffee Coop, 501 E. Pine St. Seattle, WA 98122

We will host an open discussion about problems in the current education system, alternatives to standardized testing, and how we can come together to fight back.

We might watch and discuss a short film about education struggles to get our imaginations going.