The goal of this Day of Demands is to announce the arrival of a militant, radical, and dedicated student movement and make public our vision for a democratic, liberatory, and accessible education system. It is to take the power we have been building at our schools and in our communities, and by mobilizing collectively allow ourselves to make demands more sweeping and more far reaching than anything we can accomplish at our individual schools.
Lessons from America. The future for BC.
Gibson Auditorium, Rm 216, Young Building, Landsdowne Campus, Camosun College, 3100 Foul Bay Rd, Victoria
SPEAKERS: Steve Miller, Teacher and Public Education Advocate from Oakland, California; Paul Shaker, Former Dean of the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University; Mike Zlotnik, President, Charter for Public Education Network
In BC, there is growing concern over the effects of FSA (Foundation Skills Assessment) testing. More parents are refusing to let their children write the test. In Victoria, teachers have raised similar concerns over increasing numbers of District standardized tests. Starting with a first hand account of the effects of the No Child Left Behind policy in America, panelists discuss the new emphasis -- and excesses – of standardized testing, data collection, and "accountability" in our public school systems. What’s behind the tests? Why the interest in ranking schools? Are the tests improving public education or harming it? Is BC going the way of the US? What are constructive alternatives to the testing/ranking accountability agenda?
SPONSORED BY British Columbia Society for Public Education, Camosun College Students’ Society, Charter for Public Education Network, Council of Canadians Victoria, Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association, Students for a Democratic Society, Victoria Public Education Coalition
Together, we affirm that another world is possible: A world beyond oppression, beyond domination, beyond war and empire. A world where people have power over their own lives. We believe we stand on the cusp of something new in our generation. We have the potential to take action, organize, and relate to other movements in ways that many of us have never seen before. Something new is also happening in our society: the organized Left, after decades of decline and crisis, is reinventing itself. People in many places and communities are building movements committed to long-haul, revolutionary change.
SDS can play a vital role by redefining the student and youth movement and how it relates to others. Yet we have a choice ahead of us: We can do what has been done before – reinvent the wheel with the same old cycles – or we can build something new together, something informed by our past and grounded in a vision of what the future might look like. We envision the new SDS in the light of the second alternative.
SDS will forge itself through its actions and speak for itself with its own collective voice. In this statement of organizational vision, we want to highlight the most hopeful ideas and practices in SDS, offering a sense of what our organization might be and what it can offer others. The concepts below are building blocks for our organization.
