Rob Panning-Miller at Drinking Liberally's Education Forum and Teacher Appreciation Night

On October 17th PEJAM co-hosted an education forum with Drinking Liberally - Minneapolis. Here are 10 minutes of Rob Panning-Miller highlighting some of the damage done to public education by the corporate education reformers in Minnesota. He shared the stage with two other PEJAM colleagues, Pia Payne-Shannon and Sarah Lahm. Their speeches can also be found on the LeftMN website.

Click on the picture to watch the video.

"We Don't Need Missionaries"

Last Thursday, October 17, 2013, PEJAM co-hosted a forum with Drinking Liberally - Minneapolis featuring two teachers and a parent, discussing public education and the struggle against the corporate reformers.  Steve Timmer, the host of Drinking Liberally, posted the following video of Pia Payne-Shannon, a member of PEJAM and a teacher at Nellie Stone Johnson Elementary in North Minneapolis.

Click on the picture to watch the video

Pia Payne-Shannon, PEJAM Member, Minneapolis Teacher

At 10:56, she speaks directly to Teach for America members:

“We don’t need missionaries.  We don’t need missionaries.  Our kids don’t need saving.  They need to be educated in a well-rounded setting, because the same thing that you want for your kid, is the same thing I want for mine…The same thing they want for their kids, are the same thing we want for ours.  So we need to get away from the missionary complex.”

Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller

Media, Public Education, and U.S. Democracy

I had another opportunity this morning to be part of KFAI's Catalyst program with host Lydia Howell.  On the show, Jeff Nygaard, a local media analyst, and I discussed public education in relation to the media.  While the conversation covered a number of related topics, I think a key point was raised for education activists.  In our day-to-day struggles against charter schools, standardized tests, Teach for America, the Common Core and the rest of the corporate reforms, we need to also challenge the underlying assumptions that drive them.


You can listen to the program here: Catalyst: October 18, 2013

Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller