Teacher Refuses to Abandon
Struggling Kids for Congressional Campaign, Weisser Will Teach Summer School
Social Studies
Contact: Mikel
Weisser, 928-234-5633, mikelweisser@gmail.com
After a solid month of trying to wait out the request, Mikel
Weisser, newly certified candidate for US House of Representatives for Arizona’s
brand new CD-04 seat, has accepted the position of teaching 8th
grade summer school social studies for the Kingman school district when no
other teacher came forward. “I didn’t see how I could say that I am a champion
of education and ignore the kids wanting to learn, who are right in front of
me.”
Weisser has been a social studies teacher for 11 years, but
just completed his first year in the Kingman schools, after ten plus years of
teaching at Bullhead Junior High, Bullhead City’s original junior high. “My degrees are in English, but social studies
is too important to not teach.” Weisser credits his students as his initial
encouragement for running for major public office. “They all kept saying that I
should run for something, so to honor them I wanted to make sure it was for
something important.”
Though he has been an outspoken advocate for a variety of progressive
issues from recycling to immigration, to impeaching Bush, to the peace movement,
LGBT, cannabis reform, or Civil Rights issues, this is Mikel Weisser’s first
campaign for public office, aside from his work within the AEA. “I am on the
AEA’s fund council for state legislative races. It is a chance to apply a
little of what I learn in my own campaign to help the state’s teachers’
association and thus public education.” Weisser worked on his wife, Beth’s, 2010
campaign for AZ State Senate and learned the ropes of creating a bare-bones
campaign. This year both Weissers, Beth and Mikel, are juggling campaigns, personal
businesses that are life-long passions, and, full-time careers as educators.
But teaching is Mikel Weisser’s passion. “It is all the same
thing, really, when you talk about poetizing, politicking and educating. Like
banned author, Paulo Freire once pointed out, once you’ve educated yourself to the
injustices in society, you are obligated to educate the public to it. Running
for office and teaching 8th grade social studies are amazing
similar.” Arizona’s 8th grade standards include a dizzying mix of
time periods including the pre-US Revolution, comprehension as analysis of the
US Constitution, as well as the history of its creation, AND 20th
Century US History starting around 1930. “It is a smorgasbord no kid could
comprehend in a year. I’ve got four weeks,” Weisser laughs.
The Weisser campaign, which qualified on May 29th,
with the AZ Secretary of State’s office, as a verified candidate, based on
petition signatures, originally launched at the Democrats’ January quarterly
convention in Tucson, when no traditional candidates came forward to run for
the newly created AZ CD-04 Congressional seat, a region Weisser fondly refers to
as, “The Left Coast of Arizona.”
Weisser maintains that the classroom assignment of having
one month to teach 36 failed social studies students the material they did not
learn over an entire school year, is a challenge that will make him a better
leader, even if he never discusses his own campaign for House of
Representatives as he attempts to explain the intricacies of Congress. “Kids
have a BS meter. I don’t have to talk about my stuff. America history tells its
own story. They’ll decide on their own. I just want them to grow up knowing
that to love one’s country means to act for it, not just wave a flag on the
Fourth.”
Of note: this year, Weisser’s former 8th grade
students of 2007-2008 at Bullhead Junior High graduated from Bullhead City’s Mohave
High School and once again, Weisser’s former students excelled. “This year’s Mohave
High School Valedictorian, June Truscow, is the fourth time a former student of
mine wound up valedictorian and this year I also was involved with shaping the salutatorian.
It may just be coincidence, but I know I make a difference every day and this
feels like that difference manifested.”
Weisser declares he will still be maintaining his
aggressively active campaign schedule, which has seen appearances in all 7 counties
within his massive Congressional district that is larger than the state of
Illinois. “It’s time for a big change in politics. I won’t get the change I want
by waiting for it. I hope all Dems realize that this is our chance to make the
change America so desperately needs.”
###
For more info on the Weisser campaign, contact:
Mikel
Weisser for US Congress
Mikel Weisser
4490 Sundown Drive
So-Hi, AZ 86413
928-234-5633
Personal: yzurthemepark@gmail.com
Campaign: mikelweisser@gmail.com
Website: http://www.mikelweisser.org/
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