Michael Klonsky (born 1943) is an American educator, author, and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

. He is known for his work with the

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...

, the

New Communist Movement The New Communist movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement principally within the United States, during the 1970s and 1980s. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and M ...

, and, later, the

small schools movement The small schools movement, also known as the Small Schools Initiative, in the United States of America holds that many high schools are too large and should be reorganized into smaller, autonomous schools of no more than 400 students, and optimally ...

Political activism

Klonsky's father, Robert Klonsky, a World War II veteran who fought as a volunteer against the

Nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, had been arrested and convicted of "conspiring to advocate Marxist views" in violation of the

Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of th ...

during the McCarthy period. The Supreme Court later overturned the case. In the late 1960s Michael Klonsky became the national secretary of the

,. which he joined as a student at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge). He was one of five S.D.S. members arrested on May 12, 1969, when "anonymous false reports of fire and a shooting" sent police and firefighters to the S.D.S. offices in Chicago. In the 1970s he became a leader of the

which broke with the older Communist Party USA and its allegiance to the Soviet Union. He headed the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), in which role he was one of the first U.S. political activists to visit the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Klonsky later became critical of Marxist dogma but stayed active in civil rights, anti-war and educational reform politics.

Education research

Klonsky became one of the leaders of the modern

. His academic work focused on small school size as a solution to the problems of inner city schools; his early research on issues of school size and its impact on student achievement, school violence, and dropout rates, helped pave the way towards the development of thousands of new small and charter schools across the country. By 1996, he was the director of the Small Schools Workshop at the

University of Illinois, Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...

, and in 1999, he was named by president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to the Academic Advisory Council of the National Campaign Against Youth Violence, where he advocated small schools as a mechanism for violence reduction. Klonsky is now a retired professor of education after teaching at several universities, including UIC and the Fischler School of Education at

Nova Southeastern University Nova Southeastern University (NSU or, informally, Nova) is a private nonprofit research university with its main campus in Davie, Florida. The university consists of 14 total colleges, centers, and schools offering over 150 programs of study ...

References

External links

Mike Klonsky's Small Talk Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klonsky, Michael Small schools movement Youth empowerment people American anti–Vietnam War activists Members of Students for a Democratic Society American communists University of Illinois Chicago faculty 1943 births Living people