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Could you clarify this a little. If the CTA or AFT or Calif Dept of Public Instruction can show that five percent of a district's students or state wide students did not take the test, then what? The state doesn't qualify for federal money or a particular district is excluded?
I am asking because the technical answer can determine what kind of action and where. If you pick a well populated district, you can kill two birds with one stone. One big district can kill the whole state wide plan. Or several smaller but more politically cohesive districts can do the same thing.
I can think of other ways also. If the test is deliberately coded so that every multiple choice question is answered (1) or (a), it is clearly an invalid test, even if taken. If every numberical answer is 9999, 0000, or 1234 it is clearly invalid. If every one word answer is Word... If every one sentence answer is The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
In my frenzied boyhood revolt, I thought these up, and I was only taking a few of these asshole tests, like maybe three or four in K-12. Of course I never had the guts to stand alone and take the fucking fall.
I finally did in last semester geometry taught by a really bad teacher. He knew he was terrible and didn't belong in teaching, so for the final, he told us we were on the honor system and left the room. The kids jumped to the smart kid seats and wrote down the answers. I thought, well fuck you. I'll take the fucking D and repeat the class, so what? And I did.
I was really pissed. The next semester it was clear in Senior Composition that the acceptible term paper would cover a completely trivial subject like why Senior Prom Queen was a meaningful position for a young woman to aspire to. Or how high school sports builds character. I picked the darkest subject I could think of, the 1956 war in the Middle East fought just four years before. I discovered that every side was filthy and thousands died meaningless deaths toward nothing. The losers were the mass of Arabs I knew nothing about. They lay in trash heeps and appeared in the void of UN statistics and charts and empty resolutions. Up until then, the material UNESCO and several other UN agencies supplied on my simple high school kid letter was the most appalling stuff I ever read until then. I couldn't figure out who the good guys were---because there were none. And there were other problems. How do you footnote a UN information pamphlet or report? These were much different references than those covered in a simple book or periodical.
So I tried to write up a summary of what I found, which was confusing, not coherent, and had numerous spelling-typos...well I believed in the natural goodness of a teacher who saw the worthwhile exercise of the `inner' Chuck. Fuck that! The bastard flunked me cold, with spite added. He accused me of anti-semiticism and made it stick. I can't explain what an amazing liberation followed.
I tell this to encourage students who may not believe they are capable of political thought: you are, you can, and you can win. Just look at the Egyptians, those skinny kids with wild eyes and big teeth. They are you.
``Just heard from a comrade in Chicago Soli that protesters have overwhelmed the police at the WI State Capitol and the occupation is back on. This can be a temporary tactical focus while other strategies are developed. Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism released a WI state memo demonstrating fiscal impact of the bill that was just passed, so no doubt there will be court challenges to the bill. No doubt recall campaigns will proceed as well. Sustaining a public, militant presence is going to be trickier. At Tahrir Square there was a simple, direct demand that kept the demonstrations focused. In WI up until now there has been a similar focus. But with the bill now passed, what focuses the street presence and keeps up the pressure?'' (Dissenting Wren)
It doesn't matter, just keep it going, keep up the force of a mass on a non-functional government. Dur Uber Gruppen Furher can not last... will not last. He still thinks he commands power, but he has already lost. Just make that manifest.
In solidarity, go command the spirit of it...
CG