Public Education—a Good Place to Start
As society continues to collapse, the people hardest hit are People of the Global Majority, working-class folks, women, and children. The public schools are very vulnerable to the current situation—they have less resource for children, teachers, and everyone who works with them.
A few years ago I wrote about sending my twins to a low-income public school near where I live. They are now in fifth grade, and I’m witnessing firsthand what intense racism, classism, and underfunded education mean for all of our children. My children share desks with young people who have gone through horrible targeting, or economic hardships that their families will never recover from.
I have also been able to play an instrumental role in improving the school, as an owning-class Native woman leading from behind.
I have been able to back [support] working-class leadership in the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). I was encouraged to run for PTA president but instead chose to back a working-class woman of color, who has done a fantastic job.
Our PTA meetings do not run like normal PTA meetings. Our president does some business, but we always have a potluck dinner—with more kinds of food than there are neighborhoods in Los Angeles (California, USA).
Then we have a dance party—really, a full-out dance party—in which all the moms and some dads dance together. We have more fun and bonding than do any of the other groups I’ve been a part of.
I have been key in getting money into the school, by asking my family for donations to fix things. And I’ve built a strong relationship with the principal, who is under-supported and trying daily to fix a broken system.
I am scared. My twins don’t write as well as some other fifth graders, and they don’t participate in sports or the arts, because those things are the first to get cut.
Meanwhile, the testing business is booming. That’s another battle I intend to take on [fight].
What I stand on [believe] is that my children understand the struggle and will be ready for the revolution. They get [understand] classism and don’t have the same confusions that I had about racism.
I am frank with them. I tell them they are not getting “the best form of a certain kind of education.” I also allow them plenty of time off from school—for beach trips, museums, political marches—and even some video-game time (I hope I didn’t lose you with that one!).
They are proud to be who they are. And they are in the struggle with everyone else.
How are others of you doing with all this? How are your sessions about “a good education”? What do you want for your children, for the world?
I try to hold in my mind that what I want for my children, I want for all children—and I think public education might be a good place to start.
Glendale, California, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion
list for leaders of owning-class people