My title comes from the book, Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. In case you haven’t read the book or seen the movie I’ll briefly summarize. Horton is an elephant who upon hearing a voice calling for help discovers a town of people called Whos living on a small speck of dust. He carefully protects the Whos from the other jungle animals by carrying it around on top of a clover. The Whos desperately call out from their tiny town “We are here! We are here! We are here!” and yet no can hear them until one little boy finally adds his voice. One great “Yop!” Finally the jungle animals realize that yes, truly there are people living on that speck. Horton becomes a hero.
So what does this have to do with public education? The parallels are probably pretty easy to spot. The Whos are our children, just trying to live their lives and make their way in the world. I suppose even the teachers are Whos because so often we go unheard in our quest for justice. As we face this huge budget crisis I am watching everything our community has built crumble, just as the town crumbled around the Whos. Our foreign language programs, decades old, eliminated. Full day kindergarten, fought for and envied in many districts, slashed. Our ESL program, serving upwards of 15 different languages, cut. And classroom teachers forced to take on 5-10 more students in classrooms where extremely diverse needs are already almost impossible to meet.
Who are the jungle animals? They are not difficult to pick out. Politicians, district CEO, nay Sayers in our own communities who know nothing of the workings of classrooms and schools. They make their decisions and call for measures that are seemingly unaware of the little people, the invisible ones, just trying to hold it all together.
Yesterday afternoon I marched with 4000 teachers, students, parents and community members demanding to be heard. We stopped traffic and refused to be ignored as we encircled City Hall and then marched back to CPS headquarters. It was invigorating and hopeful and yet the news coverage was minimal. Were we heard? Does anyone hear us?
Who is our Horton? But more importantly as we shout “We are here! We are here! We are here!” who is our missing voice?
I’m proud of you and Katy, Margo. I wish I could have been there. I think we live in a wild age of equal rage and helplessness. Many people don’t believe in democracy or good government anymore, especially the right wing anti-government conspirators. I think what you and Katy did yesterday reminds everyone what made the 20th century what it was. Love you…matt
Hi Margo, Kudos to you and what a great analogy to the Horton story. YOU apparently are Horton. I hope your post makes it into the local Chicago news and beyond so everyone can benefit from its’ insights. I marched for a few school issues in the 70′s (yes, I am that old). It’s empowering to rage against the injustices, but more empowering when concerned others join to make a difference. – Diane S.
“A Person’s a Person no matter how small” – Thanks for speaking up for everyone Margo – even those children in poor school districts who don’t have too many people sticking up for them. What is being done to schools, children and teachers in the state of Illinois and around the country is just sad.
Hi Margo, good to hear your voice. Patti’s brother Al is doing the same thing for the school kids here in GR. Blessings to you and your efforts. Love Hap
Margo,
We are blessed that you care. So loved Katy’s reading and Kensley’s piano solo last Sunday. Keep on goin’ on.