Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Critical Literacy PD for the Rouge Forum

Friends, feel free to use this space to begin pulling together your PD session on Critical Literacy for the Rouge Forum conference.

Summer Proposal for Professional Development in New Mexico

Friends, we can use this space to begin crafting a proposal for our PD Session in New Mexico, July 7-July 18, 2008

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Rules for Radicals, Chapters 2 & 3: Of means and ends

In reading these next couple of chapters of Alinsky, the following passages/citations stood out to me. As always, I would love to know your response on my take and what else stood out to you.

“Action is for mass salvation and not for the individual’s personal salvation” (p. 25). This strikes me as the heart of solidaristic work and reminds me of the aboriginal proverb, “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time, but, if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Our work is neither evangelistic nor missionary, which Matt Masucci and I describe in other work as serving one’s own needs and serving perceived needs, respectively. Rather, our work should be about dialogical and reciprocal action—with, not for. Alinsky is calling us, it seems, to make sure our work is done collectively, which requires us to move outside that rhetorical noise that Rachel and Milton have referred to. A question for us is, how can we better connect for this more liberatory movement? And, how can we better link our liberatory struggles? What will draw us into closer solidarity with those with whom we claim to be doing our work?

“The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means” (p. 26). Here Alinsky takes another shot at the “do-Nothings.” How can we avoid getting lumped into this category? We know the stakes for kids in our schools, parents in our community, friends in our churches and other organizations. We see the systems (racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, nationalism) that structure their/our lives. What are we ready/willing to do about these? What movement away from our safe harbor can we make? What moment of creation are we ready to crack open? How can we find the right side of history?

Under the fourth rule of means and ends, “In the politics of human life, consistency is not a virtue” (p. 31). This speaks to me about the imperfectness of our actions, the impreciseness of our work. It also speaks to me in a similar way that Cornel West describes the “jazz freedom fighter”—we must be improvisational in our work, open to change. There is not one way to do our work—and because the systems we struggle against are so fluid, we must avail ourselves to improvisation and accept the imperfectness and imprecision of our actions. Thus, praxis is crucial to our attitude and philosophy. We must be ready to reflect on our work, theorize anew, and then jump back in with retooled and rejuvenated action.

“It is the power of active citizen participation pulsing upward, providing a unified strength for a common purpose. Power is an essential life force always in operation, either changing the world or opposing change” (p. 51). Along these lines, Paul Kivel suggests that change happens when people get together. So, our work is not work of leadership, but of organization, organizing ‘active citizen participation’: “The ego of the organizer is stronger and more monumental than the ego of the leader. The leader is driven by the desire for power, while the organizer is driven by the desire to create” (p. 61). What are we, as organizers, ready to create? Outside of our support for one another in the needed work we do, individually, what will characterize our collective action with the marginalized/disenfranchised/oppressed? What are the choke points of the systems we resist that we can exploit and expose in order for others to see the blatant injustices foisted upon us—that constrain all our lives, limit our human-ness, and keep liberation at bay. The Rouge Forum attempts to accomplish this through resistance to standardized tests and delinking schools and the military. Rethinking Schools attempts to do this through curriculum. Ed Action wants to take on NCLB (finally). Kentucky Youth Advocates has gone the way of research, exposing the problems to local and state school boards, and a focus on legislation in order to help families who are poor. Where does the PrESS Network fit into this calculus? How might our local work coalesce with these state and national movements?