The minister at the church service I attended today share this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, and it really resonated with me. Here’s a stanza, the poem in its entirety can be found at the link below:

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

– From “Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23314#sthash.i0Eaf0sF.dpuf

Let’s count the many ways that the so-called education “reform” movement does not treat poor kids subjected to their “reform” agenda as the world’s most sensitive cargo:

1. School “choice” means choosing to site your school on toxic waste;
2. And while “reformers” love schools like KIPP, the students call it “Kids in Prison”;
3. The school “reformers” send their own kids to is more humane for the students, and they have union contracts (that they honor) with their teachers;
4. But, maybe this was never about the “kids” and more about power and privilege…;
5. Because surely they wouldn’t let something like this happen to “their” children;
6. Or, this;
7. Which eventually leads to decisions like this.

The way they treat teachers is like someone speeding down a residential street in an Audi A2 and running into the dad who is cradling his son in this poem. Then blaming the dad for the accident because he was crossing the street, and getting mad cause there’s a dent in the bumper. Stay classy ed deformers, stay classy!

72 by hansen courtney, on Flickr