The Education Revolution Will Not Be Televised
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Please Read — Not Paved For Us
Dear Dr. Camika Royal,
First off, I want to thank you for the platform your book has given to the voices of black educators in the vanguard for education liberation. Your book, Not Paved for Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia, is an empowering piece of literature and it resonated deeply with me.
In your book, you acknowledge the hard work of ordinary black educators to help tell the story of the progress and pitfalls of school reform. You also provide critical analysis of how neoliberal and education market reforms conspire against transforming the outcomes for black students and educators. Your work is both powerful and extremely insightful.
Similar to you, I am a black educator and have seen the Philadelphia public school system from the inside and out. After reading your book I can confidently say that your insight and research on education liberation and the tensions and consequences of education reform, spoke to me as a student, parent, and educator.
Your book follows a fifty-year chronicle of the Philadelphia public school district. You share the voices of those who have seen the entirety of the consequences of education reform shaped by race and politics throughout these fifty years. These first-hand experiences give so much power to the message behind your book. As I read your book, I was moved by the experiences that were shared. I was also reminded of my own education experience and found myself drawing close connections with the book.
The fifty-year period in Philadelphia public schools chronicles the trajectory of my life as a student, graduate, entrepreneur, parent, and educator. In Chapter 1 — Fear of the A Black Planet: Racial School Reform (1967- 1971), I attended John Barry Elementary. In Chapter 2 — Thug Life: FrankRizzo’s law and (Dis)Order (1971- 1982), I was coming of age while attending Sayre Junior High and Overbrook High School. In Chapter 3 — Black Reign: The Constance Clayton Era (1982–1993), I attended undergraduate and graduate school(HBCUs)and served as Peace Corps Volunteer. In Chapter 4 — Ready to Die: The Last Rights for Philly’s School(1994–2001), I started a business in Botswana, went bankrupt, and returned to…
