Weekend greetings, CharterFolk.
Well, I had other plans for this weekend’s post, but then I spoke to Howard Fuller.
And as happens every time I have a conversation with Howard, my life was sent on a different trajectory.
In addition to putting extra effort into reform efforts in Milwaukee/Wisconsin, and working on new renderings of the history of public education in Memphis (two projects you’ll be hearing more about in due course), the conversation led me to change what I was planning to publish today.
Last week, I said I would turn to potentially groundbreaking work happening in Houston right now. I’ll push that back a week so I have a chance to cast greater attention on what Howard had to share with us.
The conventional wisdom is that Thanksgiving is a terrible time to release a podcast. Everyone is too busy with family things. But if you can find an hour, CharterFolk, I highly encourage you to view the conversation in its entirety at youtube, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen to it here on our website where you will find a transcript of the discussion.
What prompted us to sit down again was a national conference call where I heard Howard share ideas about the state of our movement – ideas so perceptive, I felt they needed to reach a broader audience. Those reflections come right at the beginning of our discussion, as Howard riffs on what we have to be thankful for, but also what we must not take for granted: the notion that the charter school movement will simply always be here for us to advance within.
From there, the discussion just keeps going deeper, and ever more raw and honest. What took things to a new level was Howard commenting on the experience that Brandon Brown described in his chat with me in September about driving an unapologetic policy agenda in Indianapolis last year.
Howard sees Brandon’s experience as echoing those he and other courageous reformers had beginning in the 1980s, when they pushed for publicly funded vouchers so low-income families could send their kids to private schools. But he also points out how today’s social media environment and the breakdown of civility make the work of driving social change even harder.
Along the way, we revisit themes we have touched upon in our prior CharterFolk Chats, including our first one in 2020 …
… and a follow up we did in 2022 …
…where we dug into the story I mention in today’s conversation:
Howard wearing out his shoes while spending time with the Freedom Fighters in Mozambique in the early 1970s …
… a story he recounts fully in No Struggle, No Progress.
As the conversation deepens, we arrive at the heart of the matter:
The price people must be willing to pay if they are serious about bringing about social change.
And what it is in Howard that has made him the kind of person who has been willing to pay that price again and again across the almost 85 years of his remarkable life.
You don’t want to miss that moment, CharterFolk. Trust me. For those of you who want to cut straight to it, I tee up the moment in this link.
It was yet another conversation with Howard Fuller that changed me.
As I am sure it will you as well.
It left me also, as the week beckons us to do, feeling thankful.
Not just for the fact that we have such a compelling effort at social change like the charter school movement to be part of, and to dedicate our lives to.
But that we have stunning CharterFolk like Howard Fuller showing us the way.