Thank you, Mr. Ayers

The dominant neoliberal metaphor of the rich and powerful posits schools as businesses, teachers as workers, students as products and commodities. It also leads to thinking that school closings and privatizing the public space are natural events; relentless, standardized test-and-punish regimes are sensible; and zero tolerance is a reasonable proxy for justice. This is what the true-believers call “reform.”  -Bill Ayers

Bill Ayers may have led a controversial life, but his article in the Huffington Post is an abrupt dose of reality.  His Straight-to-the-point article blends metaphors on education to identify where our "reform" is taking us.  Such as when he refers school to a straight-jacket.  It is true, the public ought to be concerned about where education of the future is headed.  At this point, "reform" has pushed educators to create robots rather than independent thinkers and citizens.  Policymakers have turned Wisdom into test-taking abilities.  Education is not and cannot be a cookie-cutter business.  There are too many varying factors disallowing the ability to assess on a flat scale.  Such factors are native language, background knowledge and experience, culture, values, children read to/not read to, preschool and kindergarten experience, student mobility rates, neglect, abuse, and the list goes on.

The continued privatization of schools widens the gap between economic statuses.  Rather than creating a country of unity, which the United States is founded upon, privatization forges a wedge between citizens.  The privatization of schools is teaching children to look down on those in an unfair disadvantage.  This is the beginning of a split, crumbling society rather than a unity celebrating the ability for humans to create a community.  As Ayers suggests, "In schools we need...reconstruction of society around basic principles of equality and justice and recognition."

Ayers suggests educators shift their daily being.  "Educators who are today truly oriented...capable of controlling and transforming their own lives; citizens and residents who can participate actively in public life; people who can open their eyes and awaken themselves and others as they think and act ethically in a complex and ever-changing world. This kind of teaching encourages students to develop initiative and imagination, the capacity to name and constantly interrogate the world, the wisdom to identify the obstacles to their full humanity and to the humanity of others, and the courage to act on whatever the known demands."  This is an inspiring concept.  To teach, we must be what we teach.