A couple of weeks ago, Gwen Ifill and the PBS News Hour crew flew to Seattle. They spent one day following me and one day following the richest person who ever lived, Bill Gates, to ask us about our ideas on education reform. I was simply shocked to hear that they would be running an …
At a Martin Luther King Day protests this year I was assaulted by a Seattle police officer who pepper sprayed me in the face as I was on the phone with my mom, arranging plans for her to pick me up and take me to my son's two-year-old birthday party. That day was deeply painful, and …
Continue reading Seattle Police Chief Defends Officer Who Assaulted Me With pepper spray
By Jesse Hagopian -- Originally Published by The Progressive Photos by Sarah Lang --- It was May of 2014. I had just picked up my son from his wonderful play-based preschool, and, as we headed home, I turned on the radio. Usually, my son would demand that I “turn off the boring news” and put …
Continue reading Recess in Seattle: How We Won the Right to Play
Arne Duncan has been one of the most destructive forces to public education in the history of our country. Duncan was appointed by President Obama as the Secretary of Education, but his real role has been "testocracy tsar"--as his signature policies of Race to the Top and Common Core have been singularly focused on promoting …
Erin Middlewood, writing for The Progressive magazine, flew out to Seattle just before the end of the last school year. She spent an afternoon with me in my classroom and then accompanied me that evening to our Black Student Union senior awards banquet that my students had organized to honor our graduating black leaders. Below …
Continue reading The Education of Jesse Hagopian
I AM AN EDUCATOR 
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