I met @TheJLV today!

I just arrived home from two events. The second event was a book talk/conversation held at an independent book seller on South Street here in Philly. It was there that I met social justice/public education activist Jose Luis Vilson out of New York.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been in the company of a great, sincere, and unashamedly vocal opponent of much of the school "deform" craze, taking this country by the throat, choking the life out of kids, teachers, schools, and communities and calling it good for us (but many of their kids aren't subject to the same "goodies", hmm).

I'm looking forward to reading his book, This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education.

What I appreciated most about what I heard tonight was his focus on "the classroom" and on pedagogy. We're activists, yes. But the adult and the "30, 60, 90, 150 students" (as he put it, and is true) we see daily in the confounds of room...ahem...105, or 207...is where is starts! The policies, the politics, the philanthropy or lack thereof, the diminishing funds, and all of the other "stuff" has some (a lot, depending on the teacher) impact on the daily goings-on inside of each and every public school classroom.

I heard him mention shielding our students from the madness; a thought and belief to which I do my level best to adhere!

When the question was asked from a teacher-activist, what should we focus on? Coupled with, "how do we decide what to focus on?" given that there are so many fires in Philly to put out (school closings, mass layoffs, underfunding, lack of nurses/counselors, etc. etc. etc.). His reply? "Bring it back to the classroom." Not making our students these mini-activists, but rather focus on teaching and learning, from there build the conversations and organize.

So many great things said tonight. While I follow him on twitter, read his tweets and have read some blog posts, I look forward to the book and catching up on all of his online work that I haven't read yet.