Education is not a bargaining chip
 |
| Time, July 7, 2025 |
“As a former undocumented immigrant, I know this fear.
I have felt it. I have lived with the uncertainty of wondering whether a knock
at the door meant separation from everything I loved.”
Alberto M Carvalho writes these lines
in the latest volume of the Time
magazine. Carvalho is the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School
District, the second largest public school system in the USA. He wrote the Time
article after seeing Donald Trump’s atrocious act of perpetrating a
military-like operation on the country’s schools in the name of checking on
undocumented immigrants. The result of such an operation, writes Carvalho, “is
trauma, fear, and distrust – particularly in our schools, where children should
feel safest.”
“Every child, regardless of
citizenship, has a constitutional right to free public education,” Carvalho
asserts. The school is the safest place for many children, he says; it is the
only place where they feel truly safe, truly seen. When Trump’s agents create
chaos on the campus, America is not becoming great again. America is destroying
itself.
Carvalho himself was an undocumented
immigrant. He landed in the USA, along with his parents and five siblings, in
the 1980s. He worked in construction and restaurants (as a dishwasher) and was
homeless for a time. But America brought him up. America educated him, gave him
dreams, made him a hero. America of those days was more or less true to its
commitment to help the huddled masses breathe free.
Does Trump know the inscription on the
Statue of Liberty? “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
And Trump himself is a grandson of immigrants
in America. His father was born to German immigrants and his mother was an
immigrant from Scotland. Who is not an immigrant in America?
Trump is a mere trader, not a
statesman, and incapable of being a visionary. Traders look for economic
profits. Visionaries create heroes. Create heroes, that’s what Carvalho is
demanding in his Time article. And that process begins at school.
Education is not a bargaining chip,
writes Carvalho. It is a birthright of every child. He demands of Trump to
formulate policies “that are humane, lawful, and consistent with our values.”
Instead Trump is creating fear on the campus. “The future of this country,”
Carvalho goes on, “sits in our classrooms every day. And how we treat them will
define who we are and what happens next in our nation.”
Give hope to children. Give them
dreams. Help them become heroes, not beggars.
I was so touched by Carvalho’s
article that I put up a short video on Facebook rather impulsively. Here it is if you care;
it’s not much anyway. But it shows that I share Carvalho’s sentiments. I have
been a teacher too all through my life. I can feel Carvalho’s emotions in my
veins.
I’m concerned about what is happening
to education in my own country which is currently led by a person who is not
unlike Donald Trump. .jpg)
Alberto M Carvalho
Just transcribing from the Facebook response. Plato described the Sophists of his time, as peddlers of knowledge-ware. As you described, Trump is just real-estate agent, a trader... He cannot have anything to with education, in the true sense of the term. He is only nailing on the coffin of Education, the last nail. We have killed education... Reducing it to a toolkit of skills and technique, denuding it of its human content. Trump is only presiding over the Seshakriyalu... Laying to rest and cremation rites...
ReplyDeleteHow much difference a leader can make! I have wondered time and again how America made the mistake of electing this man. Maybe, too many Americans are now regretting.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteA profound appeal... YAM xx
I was moved by the Time article.
DeleteAnd not just the schools. ICE is raiding all sorts of places in LA, and they're using terrible tactics. The fear and anxiety is the point. They want to subdue us. These are cruel people given power to unleash terror, and they're doing it. I never wanted to live under an authoritarian government, and here we are.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, where I'm at, it's likely that some of my students are undocumented. I don't care. And I don't want to see them taken away, either.
You know it much better than I since you're there watching it, feeling it... I feel sad that our leaders are all becoming worse and worse as time passes.
DeleteIf there is one thing that should take top priority in any society, it's education. Reasons are too obvious to state. No one should mess with it.
ReplyDeleteMessing with it is what today's leaders are all interested in, it seems.
DeleteFrom: Dawnanddew
ReplyDelete# 1 -- To quote from the blog: Does Trump know the inscription on the Statue of Liberty? “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” [I Unquote]
How humane are these words... The statue is the very soul of mankind itself. Sadly, it has just remained a statue. Just like in any other bequeathed democracy (to the posterity) that easily forgets its history of bloodshed, the US too has failed to remember the words etched on the gifted statue.
# 2 -- To Quote from the blog: “The future of this country,” Carvalho goes on, “sits in our classrooms every day. And how we treat them will define who we are and what happens next in our nation.” [I Unquote]
This exhortation is not just for Trump, I personally feel. The words should echo in every heart that goes to teach in a classroom - the heart that of a teacher. I could see larger meaning in these words of depth and veracity.
Sometimes, the student population does contain a few miscreants, and they stretch your patience beyond that fails any learning from soul searching efforts sometimes. Treating them "nicely" becomes a herculean task. Hence, the words are far too disturbing for a teacher like me who is certainly a limited edition constantly striving to become an ideal teacher.
# 3. To quote again: Give hope to children. Give them dreams. Help them become heroes, not beggars. [I Unquote]
This is what I as a teacher want to become, striving to become. Any help?
Thanks for the free space to express and flourish!
Thank you for such a detailed comment which actually serves to highlight some salient points in the post.
DeleteLet me remind you that Carvalho was writing in the context of Trump's hunting-out of immigrant students and so the 'treatment' is not about what a teacher does in the class. It's what a country does to the students. Trump is trashing youngsters. India is doing the same in a different way, by sending trash down their brains.
I love your last point. The answer is quite simple. If we want to help students, we have to be an inspiration to them. No matter how successful we are in the classroom teaching the subject, no matter how good we are with all the clerical work given to us by the school, unless the student feels us in their heart as a living pulsation, nothing will change. All the best to you. I know how sincere, how genuine a teacher you are.
Thank you, sir. In the recent CBSE Class X and XII Exam results, my results were excellent and particularly exceeding in class 12 as my Annual Performance Index (API) score stood out to be 950/1000 and 925/1000 in two different sections. This was an all-time high not only in my records but also in all APSs (139 schools). When they asked me the secret, I might have said nothing. But I echoed your words in the last para - "unless the student feels us in their heart as a living pulsation, nothing will change." True to the core.
DeleteI made my constant presence in their school life and WhatsApp life with concern. And sometimes, I was so paranoid about their preparation like a fussy mother. I will strive to make a more positive impact this year. Already, I have fallen a few times, but my efforts will be in the direction of making only positive impact. No looking back. Thank you!