Last June, I took the subway in NYC, riding the F uptown to Pearson's Corporate Publishing headquarters ... I went with my 9 year old son and two of his neighborhood friends. There, on the corner of Avenue of the Americas and West 52nd or so, we participated in the march with hundreds of other parents, teachers and students in a protest to the insane amount of useless tests our little ones are now subjected to in the New York Public School system... thanks largely to a group in our state mostly comprised of 1.men who themselves have NO kids, or kids who went to private schools with no similar tests, 2. an Educratic bunch (non Education) here in the state who are pushing consistently to make public schools a private venture, and 3. corporate connections (Joel Klein, Mayor Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee, Eva Moskowitz, et al) who are all benefiting tremendously by sending and receiving contracts for testing, test scoring and reporting.

The march and short protest with our children was lovely, all things considered. Our chants included "1, 2, 3, 4 ...Our children are not test scores", "Teaching, NOT testing", and similar phrases. The news media and the NYPD (Police) were there, making for some interesting exchanges along the way.

I have much older kids myself, and because of that, I have actually been a witness to how, in a matter of a few years, education in NYC for public schools has been nearly USURPED by the erroneous concept of "Accountability", and how experienced teachers and good schools are pushed aside, making way for a sort of third world 'charter' system.

I mention this because anyone who has traveled to areas and countries where poverty is rampant and education is a privilege and not a right...anyone who knows that good and free public education should be a right... they will understand from where I speak.

My own children will get to schools they need; we will either be capable of living in areas affluent enough to provide a similarly affluent and good public education, or we will pay for a private school. My children will continue to pass the tests  and do well regardless of little else.. because all through the process of childhood and schools, social life and travels.. they will see and hear from adults and other children and peers about how wide the world, how complex the differences, how intricate the ways people are and learn and see others around them.

NYC/DOE has truly become a place not unlike a deep and dark black hole; preparing kids for essentially little else than testing and filling in bubbles. And, shockingly, it ("Tweed") has become a place where people working are younger and younger, business and finance oriented... and where deeply educated learners and teachers are increasingly shoved aside.

This, now, as a new school term begins for my ten year old son and the million plus other students in the largest public school system in this country, reminds me how very urgently we need as parents and teachers, students and citizens, to continue to voice our displeasure with the City of New York, and with how the Department of Education has become little more than a bastion of privatization contracts and fraternization...