This podcast was recorded over a year ago as Paul drove a student from his program up to college after the holiday break, and so much has changed since then.
I remember hearing about Paul from Alain Berrouet (on the far left, above), who is my co-leader in the Black and Latino employee resource group at the DOE, The B.L.E.N.D. “You’ve got to go to this training, this guy Paul is really out here doing the work!”
When I was able to attend, I was not disappointed. The presentation about the historical context of the first “IQ” test, the implications on our students of color, and the life and death consequences that await those students if they get to and through high school without being ready for college and beyond. The dialog afterwards was activating and moving, more real than any ‘work training’ can be expected to be.
I raised my hand, as I am known to do, and asked a question about taking risks in the public sphere, and Paul responded as he often does, with a call to community. “Look around,” he said (at least in my hazy memories), “all of us here are in this work together. You have to remember that when you feel the fear of whatever consequences you think are going to happen. That there is a community of people here to support you, help you, to back you up.”
I went ahead with taking the risk I had specifically asked about (and if memory serves, nothing really came of it!), but what stuck with me was the sense of the crucial importance of building community and solidarity as we take steps to try to make our institutions more consistent with our egalitarian values.
I hope you enjoy our conversation with Paul on The Radical Bureaucrat this week, let us know what you think!