Voices of Dissent 2: Interview With Don Perl

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

Don Perl, a former middle school teacher, founded the Coalition for  
Better Education in 2004 after organizing a ballot initiative seeking  
to put the elimination of the Colorado Student Assessment Program  
(CSAP) on the November 2004 ballot. Don's defining moment as an  
activist committed to social justice came in 2001 when he refused to  
administer the state standardized test to his students, an act of  
civil disobedience that resulted in a two-week suspension. Three  
years later, Don and other volunteers gathered signatures for a  
citizens’ initiative designed to eliminate the CSAP.

In this interview (at http://transformeducation.blogspot.com), Don  
discusses practical ways that you can organize against educational  
injustice.

I asked him after the interview, "Were you aware of the consequences  
of your act of civil disobedience? In other words, did you know what  
you were getting into? Did being fired ever loom as a possibility?"

Don replied, "Yes, I thought about this quite a bit before refusing  
to administer the test. I would have these conversations with myself.  
'They might fire me. Hmmm. Well, let's be a bit of a poker player  
here and call their bluff. First of all, who are they going to get to  
teach both English and Spanish? Second, I don't think that they  
really want to make a hero out of me by firing me.' And finally --  
the clincher -- was that I had seen just too much injustice day after  
day to not raise my voice and say, 'Nope, I will not be a party to  
this.' I come from a family of Holocaust survivors, and the message  
about speaking out against injustice is very much ingrained in me. If  
we don't speak out when we see injustice, how can we expect others to  
speak out for us?"

Don is now a professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of  
Northern Colorado.

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Peter Campbell
http://transformeducation.blogspot.com/