The Teacher’s Work and a Little Good Trouble in Arizona

Abstract

This paper is an autoethnographic account of one action to use civil disobedience as a reliable method for protest, and also a discussion of the way such actions, while they are in some sense ordinary protest seeking reform, have revolutionary implications for long term structural change. At the same time, it takes the form of an educator’s memoir essay, recalling the importance of solidarity and the cooperative work of human rights and education.  The art and craft of teaching is intimately connected to the public’s right to schooling in the service of constitutional ideals, in the hope that through free, fair public education, citizens can maintain their right to speak, act, and organize for democratic life.