68 INVITED CHAPTERS
worthy of our support as candidates, regardless of political party! If state or national
legislators cannot or will not support the types of action that will bring about improvement in
the overall P-12 learning environment (especially as focused on those most frequently
disenfranchised), they cannot and should not be supported by an educated and proactive
professoriate who knows better!
Finally, we can, of course, not overlook the power of parents in this debate. Parents want
better educational opportunities for their children. This holds true for the most wealthy of
our society and for the least financially secure, as well. What the wealthy often know, those
who have less financial capital do not know. Children from the lowest socioeconomic strata
of our society deserve schools that are equally as pristine as those located on the Gold Coast
of Chicago (see Kozol, 1991). Class sizes, in turn, should not be significantly different for
our poor children than they are for those who live in affluence. Parents must be informed
that schools in massive disrepair are not the norm in this country. They must know that over-
crowded classes and classrooms are, likewise, not the norm. Parents in center-city areas
must be given the power of our research to inform their actions. Although I am particularly
fond of organizing parent groups to make vocal calls for change (a good protest can make for
wonderful media), I am not simply calling for leadership in or around a massive protest
movement. I am referring to the use of our knowledge and the knowledge generated by our
colleagues to inform parents of their right to ask for and receive significant levels of change
in the daily educational experiences of their children. These kids deserve better and we
should be progenitors for the types of change that can and should occur, so as to make that
change a genuine reality. To paraphrase Parker Palmer, we must share what we know, so
that our knowledge is never viewed as privileged information but rather so that tyranny in all
forms can be overcome by invoking the grace of great things (The Courage to Teach, 1997)!
A CONCLUDING THOUGHT
This work was first presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of
Professors of Educational Administration in August of 2006. The written piece, as presented
here, represents the totality of that presentation; however, minor additions have been inserted
in this version so as to reflect the most relevant/salient data that have come to the forefront
since the actual presentation of the 2006 Walter D. Cocking Lecture. As has been noted
repeatedly from the time when this lecture was delivered, my research can be viewed as
“dark.” Colleagues who choose to criticize those of us who read and embrace critical theory
often say that we are merely doomsday thinkers. Nothing could be more distant from the
truth. To identify that which makes a difference in the lives of all children, to me, is
quintessentially uplifting. To ignore the actions of those who do not wish to make these
differences come about, again from my point of view, is the absolute reification of depressing
and dark. We must use that which we know, as articulated here and available in hundreds of
similar outlets, and force meaningful and robust proactive changes. To do otherwise would
be the equivalent to that which has been presented as education incompetence in key court
cases such as Hoffman v. Board of Education or B.M. v State. If we are a profession that
claims to be based, in large part, on an in-depth understanding of leadership and all that is
derived from that understanding how can we overlook the need to take knowledge and, in
turn, place said knowledge into action so that changes can be made for the betterment of all
youngsters? As the Roman philosopher, Epictetus, once said: “Only the educated are free.”
It is precisely that type of freedom that I strive for and dream of here– the type of freedom
that is, in all ways, shapes, and forms, emancipatory and, concomitantly, the primary