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Go to the Movies. Save a Life

Apr 10th, 2012
by Lily.
5 comments

This Friday you need to go to see the movie Bully.

You need to fill up the minivan, the truck, the car, the bus, walk, run, and just go to see the movie Bully.

You need to take your kids and your grand-kids and your nieces and nephews.  You need to take the church groups and the Little League team and the chess club and the Gay-Straight Alliance club and the scout troop.  You need to go if you’re a teacher or a parent or a coach or bus driver.

You need to go.  It’s that important.  Really.  That important.

The movie will be one of the most wrenching, unsettling, powerful, important films you may ever see.  The language in the movie is strong language.  It is the language of hate.  The situations are disturbing and not a manufactured creature of Hollywood.

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These Educators Deserve a Movie Deal

Feb 1st, 2012
by Lily.
1 comment

There are two stories to tell in Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania. One is a heroic story worthy of a book or movie deal. There are plenty of movies about the lone teacher crusader who against all odds and against the establishment brings students out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of the power of their own futures.

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I’m a sucker for those movies. But I have a love-hate relationship with them because inevitably, in order to lionize the hero, they have to make all the other teachers in the school less than heroes. They have to make the principal a bully. Movies need a good guy to cheer for and bad guys to boo over. Así es la vida. That’s the way it goes.

Chester Upland, a poor and predominantly minority district, is a long way from Hollywood, but it does have a star in Sara Ferguson.

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The NEA, Your Kids’ School and the Middle Seat

Oct 27th, 2011
by Lily.
1 comment

I travel a lot these days meeting with teachers and support staff and principals and parents and the press and anyone anywhere who wants to join hands and make good things happen for kids. I was on my way to Wichita to speak at a conference and the nice man in the middle seat started a nice conversation.

It always starts out nice.

“So, is Wichita home?” he nicely asks.

“No, I’m speaking at a teacher’s conference.”

“So, you a teacher?” he nicely asks.

“Yes, I’m a 6th grade teacher from Utah who works with the National Education Association. Kansas-NEA invited me to come talk about what we’re doing for our kids in the poorest neighborhoods and how we’re trying to recruit the best, most talented, most diversely-experienced teachers and support staff to work in their schools, and…”

(Click on image to see a video from Kansas NEA)

“NEA? I’ve heard about you guys,” he says not so nice.

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Lily Eskelsen Live: Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics at White House

Oct 6th, 2011
by LilysBlackboard.
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UPDATE: This event is no longer live. You can watch the recorded session here:

 

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