Tom Kertes
 
 

At the intersection of early education
and human rights is love.

Tom Kertes  at Victory Vigil
Victory celebration after the United Workers Living Wages Hunger Strike was called off when living wages were finally secured for the cleaners at Camden Yards, following an over three-year human rights campaign at the stadium (Baltimore)
MY PROJECTS

Toronto, Canada
I live in Toronto with my partner Ron. I will start at OISE (University of Toronto) in Developmental Psychology in Education this fall and am a consultant for the College of Early Childhood Educators, Transitional Council. I also work with the United Workers in Baltimore and the Centre for Learning and Democracy in Toronto.

About Me
I have been a preschool teacher, storyteller and toy store owner. I've told stories to thousands of children at school assemblies, science shows and birthday parties. I've taught children ages two to twelve, young adults thirteen to twenty and adults of all ages.

I love teaching because education opens up life's possibilities - for both me and the students I work with. Teaching is being part of liberation lived daily. Teaching is opening up choice and truth, generating power through knowledge, organizing ideas into new meanings and expanding the lived experience. Teaching is nurturing creative growth.

I have also been an organizer in the fight to end poverty and to secure human rights for all. Working with the United Workers, a Maryland-based human rights organization of over 800 low-wage workers, I have participated in popular education workshops, countless home visits and in protests against poverty. I helped coordinate a planned living wages hunger strike, which was called off when the demand for a living wage at Camden Yards was finally met after a three-year struggle.

I believe that the core human rights values of respect and dignity extend to all persons of all ages. I also believe that the core values of education - love, truth, intentionality - are the same no matter how young or old the learner.

At the intersection of human rights and early education is love. Universal love requires respect and dignity for all. Love enables human growth and learning. Every child has a right to human rights education, to be treated with respect and to learn through joyful discovery. All children have the right to be loved, without condition, by those responsible for their care.

Recent Media Highlights

Early Education Experience

My first "showcase" with students and families at The Garden School. I am reading a story in English while Satomi reads it in Japanese. The theme of this showcase was "changes" and brought together our activities and projects over the first two months of the school year together.

Science Education Experience

Here I am at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle with students and families of The Garden School. Later I worked at the centre performing science shows and assemblies, teaching hands-on summer classes and as Welcome Coordinator of the overnight camp-in program.

Educational Children's Television Experience

This is the set for Biz Kid$, a show on financial literacy for young people. As production coordinator I coordinated production operations. I have also worked as an educational researcher for NewStory Ventures and other production projects.

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© 2007 by Tom Kertes | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.