BootCamp: Tales from a Leader in the Making

Cross posted from Educate Our State. Click here to see the original post on Educate Our State's Blog.

During the first week of August, several team members from Educate Our State attended a "boot camp" put on by the New Organizing Institute (NOI).  When I initially walked in the door wearing what can only be described as a bad attitude, I wondered what in the heck I was doing there?  It had taken a herculean effort to procure three different baby sitters for four days, forty-two hours of seminar time, nine hours commuting, plus hundreds of dollars in expenses.  But, since I was already there, I sucked it up and entered the room, reminding myself I was there to prepare for Camp Educate, a leadership training I was going to help plan for all people interested in changing the face of education in the State of California.

As I walked into that room, in a "marginal" neighborhood in Oakland, I noticed the other attendees who appeared to be from diverse backgrounds, chatting it up at tables around the room.  I was sure they were  espousing all different kinds of morals and values with which I certainly couldn't have anything in common.  Indeed, as our six "coaches" walked in, who appeared to be bunch of kids in board shorts, I reminded myself that  I didn't have the energy to devote to what was appearing to be a community college fraternity party. What in the heck could a bunch of kids teach me?  After all, I had been to college and grad school and I wasn't sure they were old enough to have finished college. I decided at that moment that I would finish out the day and not come back.  I wasn't going to learn a darned thing and had lots of work to get done.  As other members of Educate Our State arrived, though, I was comforted with their like-minded presence and the thought that even if I had to endure this misery, so did they.  We were all in the same boat together.

To my surprise the zealots from the other grassroots groups were not psychos with subversive agenda trying to prevent me from wearing leather shoes.  In fact, they were good, ordinary people from all walks of life with real problems they were working to solve as best as they knew how.  They had many of the same problems, fears and concerns as our group.  And some of them were even working towards common goals. 

The attendees came to learn that, despite the obvious youth of each Trainer, each of them had quite a bit of life experience, especially with respect to altruistic pursuits.  Many, if not most of them, had had some experience in helping to organize the Obama campaign, which by anyone's estimation was an extremely efficacious campaign, whether or not you like Obama himself.  All of them had major campaign experience on major social and political issues.

The Trainers personal stories ranged from being children of prisoners unable to see their fathers, to people following their own religious beliefs and advocating for equality.  They were children who had been persecuted for being different or for coming from unconventional families. They were just like the rest of us and each of their stories resonated and touched us in one way or another.  They are people who are devoted to empowering others to change the world and their lives, without regard to differences in opinion, because they choose to focus on our commonalities.

So what did the attendees actually learn?  We learned that real change starts with  individuals, who have shared values and experiences from which relationships with others will arise.  We learned that leaders aren't people who tell others what to do, rather they are people like you and I who "take responsibility for enabling others to create shared purpose in the face of uncertainty." We must work together, symbiotically, with each of us taking responsibility for our part and for the shared goal.

We learned how to take this responsibility by looking at past successes, at stories from history.  We looked at Rosa Parks and learned about the incredible amount of organization that arose from her actions in the form of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a story of incredible personal sacrifice and working together which eventually created real change in the world.  We looked at the current Citibank case where thousands of people have lost their homes because of incredible corporate fraud and greed, and we reverse engineered methods by which campaigns become successful.

We learned that the individual, when banded together with other like minded people, can become a force with which to be reckoned and no amount of corporate money can stop him or her.  We learned that every action, no matter how tiny, can make a difference.  That last grain of sand can be enough to tip the scales of justice in favor of change.  Apathy and inertia are our enemies--great things can come from small changes.

So what does this mean for Educate Our State?  It means that we as a group are making a difference.  It can be seen in my community where hundreds of car magnets are visible.  It can be seen in the fact that a little group of moms is now 40,000 people strong.  It can be seen in the recent Blueprint report released by the California Department of Education which describes many of the changes espoused by Educate Our State.  It will be felt by the attendees of Camp Educate, a weekend workshop which will enable anyone who cares about education to build the movement to change the business of education in California and bring California back to its prior position as a shining example of the power of a well educated work force.  NOI's boot camp has prepared us to help organize the masses to make our message heard, and to make those people who want no more than to maintain the status quo to come to the table and listen to what we have to say.

Educate Our State is about changing the way children in public schools are taught and about eliminating the uncertainty in the way those same schools are funded, while being sensitive to issues of diversity, and listening to other concerns which cross the spectrum yet effect education in ways which can be devastating.  We are about changing the uncertainty parents feel each year when they wait to see their child's homeroom assignment, hoping that the homeroom comes with a good teacher and not a lemon.  We are about changing the uncertain economic environment in California through the vehicle of public education and want every person who cares about education to join us in our fight.  If Rosa Park's actions could effectuate such sweeping change in a society in which many of the main actors didn't even have the right to vote, then we can't help but succeed.  We have the hope, skills and confidence to fuel our fight.  Join us here--your efforts are crucial to our success and we want your help.

Beth Chagonjian is an attorney who is the product of the California public education system. She is also the child of an educator and the mother of two children in California's public education system.