SEARCHING FOR JO JO
Did you see Steve Kerr’s pre-game speech before Tuesday’s playoff game? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPvf5RgCU08 Of course you did, I showed it three times in class Wednesday because it is three minutes of the most impactful and succinct evaluation of where we are since Bill Nye torched the globe in 2019 and told us to “Grow the f up” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnLZ6slvxBA
Remember Jo Jo? The little Who down in Who-ville who finally yelled “Yopp” which led to all the Whos being saved in “Horton Hears a Who”? Yeah, I know, obscure reference but I’ve been waiting for Jo Jo my whole life and it’s time we listen to Dr. Suess and change.
You know the solution, I know the solution, we all know the solution, we just don’t know how to make a difference. Or we’re just too busy, polarized, overwhelmed or disempowered to get anything done. Well, I’m here to tell you the good news, we already have the solutions, we just need to get past the hurdles that are standing in the way.
See, 1954 was almost 70 years ago and the thing that Dr. Seuss got wrong (not only in “Horton Hears a Who” but also” The Lorax” and “The Sneeches”) was that the people doing wrong realize they are wrong and change. The NRA convention happened as planned and the Trumps and Cruzes of the world continued to tell me that the way to keep my classroom safe is to install the turret that I joked about years ago. http://valleytalking.blogs.sonomanews.com/2018/02/23/arming-teachers/
Please listen to Steve Kerr and Bill Nye and politicians who get it like Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson and even Gavin Newsom. Participate. Do what you know is right. And if you want to continue to live in the virtual world where hate reigns supreme then think about the consequences.
Also, know what every child and every Who and every student in my classroom knows, that love will win, that connection and caring and unity will win. That we have the power to end this dark period and we will win.
For too long we have been the 20 cops waiting for their orders outside the hallway in Uvalde while tragedy rages inside. No more.
Walt Williams is in it for the money, that and the prestige that goes with 22 years of teaching in California high schools (he’s not the smartest tool in the shed). He firmly believes in more standardized testing and that fitting all students into the same box is really the answer. He strongly supports fracking and that climate change is a fantasy made up by hippie liberals, also that the military needs more funding and that schools should just stop whining.