No silence.

Photo of Xian Barrett by Fred Klonsky.

Anne and I are with her sister and brother-in-law on a long-planned road trip through the beautiful Northwest.

We just finished a one-day stop in Portland and are off this morning for the Washington coast.

I had promised I would do none of my own posts while I was gone.

But the news from home is outrageous.

1,000 teachers have been fired in Chicago.

1,000 non-certified staff.

These are on top of another 850 who received pink-slips earlier.

It includes my friend Xian Barrett, a wonderful teacher and national leader of teachers.

I have never seen Xian at a rally or protest for schools without a group of students with him.

Teaching and thinking about teaching for Xian Barrett is like breathing for you.

He is no different than the other 3,000 educators fired by CPS. And he is entirely unique.

I am glad that Diane Ravitch has posted on Xian today.

Every education blogger: Post a story about Xian and Chicago today.

I took the photo of Xian at the top of this page at a protest in front of Rahm Emanuel’s home last year.

He loved it and uses it for his Facebook page.

We both saw the irony of the photo.

There’s no silencing Xian.

Or any of us.

No silence.