tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1705863677582636092024-02-08T04:03:41.324-08:00Random Thoughts of an OutLaw EducatorUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-54271706912271213812021-05-11T11:35:00.011-07:002021-05-12T05:03:14.296-07:00The Year To Make You Wonder: What's It All For<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ho_LGmbjpVs/YJrNrMxFOhI/AAAAAAAAZw4/5dF6bjiIiV8DnNFW9CQuzlDeAyRQlFDuACLcBGAsYHQ/s590/inline_image_preview.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="590" height="317" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ho_LGmbjpVs/YJrNrMxFOhI/AAAAAAAAZw4/5dF6bjiIiV8DnNFW9CQuzlDeAyRQlFDuACLcBGAsYHQ/w563-h317/inline_image_preview.jpg" width="563" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>As we three Perry teachers drove to the funeral home on our lunch hour, my stomach was in knots and I was nervous. Not about going to a funeral during COVID, but about managing myself. I had not known this child well. It didn't matter. He was 20, and he was dead. </p><p>When I entered the funeral home, I noticed a tall, attractive young woman in a jumpsuit with stripes running toward her little waist. She was not facing me, but I was admiring the broad leather belt she had on, until she turned around. That's when I saw her hands were cuffed to the belt, and there was a woman standing behind her from a correctional institution. The young man who had been murdered had a big sister, also a Perry graduate, who was imprisoned. She was allowed out long enough to attend his viewing.</p><p> There were children who appeared to be from a middle or elementary school there, supporting my student’s younger siblings. They were somber, sitting and standing around with their teachers. </p><p>My student's mother kindly ushered us to his casket. Each Perry teacher I was with approached him. I took my turn. The funeral director must have stuffed my student's chest, since he had been shot in it several times before the murderer left him in his doorway, dying or dead.</p><p>My student lay there in his casket, in a perfect plaid shirt. I stared down at him. What could I say to him? Would he have been here if we had done a better job? I knew my answer. I started to apologize. I told him how sorry I was that we hadn't helped him more. That we should have done better by him. That I hadn’t gotten to know him better. That he deserved so much more. </p><p>Two former students were also murdered, a week or so before this one. And a week after the viewing of this student, we found out that a 2019 graduate had died of a preventable health issue. Perry lost four students this year: one child who should have been graduating, and three previous graduates. "Lost," as in they are dead. </p><p>My friend who works in the District says Pittsburgh is a bloody city. Today, a current student went through a 2018 yearbook, and pointed out dead students from that graduating class. </p><p> I am starting to wonder: what am I doing? </p><p>In the six years I have been at Perry, I have had five Principals. Each of them swore they would spend forever at Perry, be true, and fix as many of our problems as they could. Each one lasted about a year and a half. Last year, the District cut five positions at our school. This year, they cut five more, including our beloved female Vice-Principal, a Spanish/Portuguese teacher, Ceramics, Choir, and a Project Manager. </p><p>Next year, there will be no Marching Band or Instrumental Music at Perry. If the Art teacher retires and is not replaced, there will be no Art. (Hopefully the District would not allow this.) </p><p>For the first time, I will be teaching three classes. which means I will not be able to spend the necessary time hustling for donated books. If I am not able to obtain a Library budget, I won't be able to get any new books for our students. That's bad. I have grown our Library program, and lots of eager readers through the generosity of a lot of amazing donors, led by Katha Pollitt, novelist, poet and writer at The Nation. </p><p>Pittsburgh, what are we doing? Why are our children of so little value? Why are our schools so bereft of resources? Why do we hate our Black families so violently? Why are football and hockey teams so rich, and school libraries so poor? </p><p>This is not a rhetorical question. I am really asking. Why? </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-19357255075573040302020-12-10T13:57:00.005-08:002020-12-10T14:07:19.269-08:00The Holy Light of Manny Kolski-- Long May it Shine!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VsGN2LF4GBE/X9KUmYg6biI/AAAAAAAAZnQ/RKlNbZAKkaoFm3sCzo_3uP1DyKMjuxj2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s842/IMG_3518.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="777" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VsGN2LF4GBE/X9KUmYg6biI/AAAAAAAAZnQ/RKlNbZAKkaoFm3sCzo_3uP1DyKMjuxj2QCLcBGAsYHQ/w287-h320/IMG_3518.jpeg" width="287" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/27477353">Poland,Personally - a documentary film by Shaul Lilove</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user7019925">menuchati</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, 2020. A festival of light during one of the darkest years many of us can remember? The irony of it kind of fits. Today it is almost fifty degrees in Pittsburgh, with a beautiful, cloudless blue sky. I saw an old woman walking along William Penn Highway in Monroeville with plastic bags around her feet for shoes. She is haunting me, because I know there are so many elderly homeless people everywhere. There are cars parked for miles and miles outside our food pantries nationwide. NPR has a running list of US hospitals that are at or near capacity with COVID patients. 17 state US Attorneys agree that SCOTUS should overturn Biden’s win. I do not need to go on—you have been on bad news overload for over four years. You’ve been brutalized and flattened by bad news. We all have. We are zombies, lurching through the hellscape of “the new normal.”</span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And tonight, Jewish people are called to kindle light in darkness—and in so doing, BE light in darkness. How? We are as sad, defeated and frightened as everyone else. Here is one small story to share that might help—but it starts out sad. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">On November 11, 2020, Manny Kolski passed away. He was 106 years old, from Lodz, Poland, a brave and proud veteran of the Polish Army. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I had the great privilege of meeting him when I went on a </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Classrooms Without Borders Trip with Tzipy Gur. These trips are organized around following a Holocaust survivor back to their country, to trace their life story. We who go with them—teachers, professors, high school students, regular folks--- are their mobile support system. It was Manny’s job to show us everything about his life in Poland before and during WWII. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">While serving in the Polish army, Manny became a POW. When he was released and returned home to his family in Poland, he was imprisoned again. The Lodz ghetto was notorious—worse than the Warsaw ghetto in lots of ways. Getting to the “Aryan” side to trade for food was almost impossible, because armed security shot people on sight, and surrounding the ghetto was a German ethnic minority that sided with the Nazis. Chaim Rumkowski, the chairman of the Judenrat, ruled the Lodz ghetto with an iron fist. People called him “King Chaim.” Rumkowski falsely believed that as long as he provided workers for the Nazis, at whatever cost, Jews would survive. Men, women and children worked in slave camps inside the Lodz ghetto, first for 1200 calories a day, then 900, then 700, then less. Manny spoke of him with no affection. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Manny worked as a fireman in the ghetto—a way to get more food to his family. When Manny spoke of this, he cried. He was still, 70+ years later, not proud of having used his position as a firefighter in the ghetto to help feed his mother and sisters. At what cost, he said. It had taken bread from others. I imagine survivor guilt is deep and complicated. Seeing Manny cry was startling. He was upbeat, athletic, hard to keep up with. He could walk all of us into the ground. He was 96 years old at the time of this trip. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We walked around the site of the Lodz ghetto, and then we went to the Lodz cemetary, where we looked in vain for the spot Manny had dug his father’s grave so many years before. We could not find it—but we did find the still open pits Jews had been forced to dig for Nazis to execute them in to. Luckily, those giant pits gaped back up at us—empty. Those were ones they hadn’t had time to shoot anybody in to.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We accompanied Manny to Birkenau, where he saw his mother and sister for the last time. Several of us went up in one of the Nazi guard posts with Manny, to look out over the sprawling complex, full of skeletal fireplaces; the remains of barracks that had burned, each in as rigidly straight order as a mammoth board game. Manny stood there looking out over the grounds. There was mist rising from the grass—miles of it. He turned to us, and said, “This is my victory. I am here and they are not!” </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Earlier, at the <i>umschlagplatz</i>, the German word for the place the Nazis took Jews to board trains to death camps, many of us were stunned by the train car, still there on the tracks. Some of us got inside with the educator on the trip, Jonty Blackman, who read a poem from a different survivor out loud, and had us consider the situation of those trapped inside. We prayed. We cried, shell shocked, deeply sad. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When we circled up, there was Manny, holding his daughters’ hands. He raised his frail fist, and said, “<i>Chazak V’A’Matz</i>! Strength and Courage!” Some of us laughed. Some of us cried more. We all felt braced and comforted. Here was our charge—the one WE were supposed to be supporting—the one who a few moments ago, had been staring up the train tracks by himself, lost in thought. Thinking of what? The last time he had seen his beloved sisters? What it had been like in that crowded, desperate train ride? He told us he knew what was about to happen to his family, and that he was not going to tell them, because…why? </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I won’t ever know the answer to those questions. But I do know this: as we turned our tear-stained faces toward Manny, he, having lost his first family, and his beloved wife just a few years earlier than the trip back to Poland, told us to be of strength and good courage, as God said to Joshua in the Torah. And we were made stronger by it. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A year or so later, he and his oldest daughter came to my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah and danced in my child's honor. It was a beautiful thing. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Manny walked every day in Squirrel Hill for his health. After the war, he was a candy maker here in the states. He had beloved grandchildren. He worked with the Pittsburgh Holocaust Center to educate people about the effects of hatred and genocide. He sang Polish lullabies to the adopted baby of a candy maker on Forbes Avenue. His face radiated sweetness. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Tonight, I am so honored to light the first candle of my chanukkiah in honor of Manny Kolski, Holocaust survivor, educator, candy maker, father, grandfather, and a shining light unto the world forever, for being a kind man, a giving man, a sweet man. If he could find—and be light in the darkness, so can we. One breath, one step, one moment at a time. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You are each a light in my life, and I am grateful for all of you. Thank you so much for being you, and adding to my life as you do. Much Love, Ms. May/Sheila </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/obituaries/2020/11/23/MANUEL-MOSHE-KOLSKI-obituary-holocaust-survivor-Jewish-Poland/stories/202011210048" target="_blank">Obituary: Manuel Kolski</a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2014/09/03/Century-Club-Centnarian-calls-long-life-a-victory-over-Nazis/stories/201409030031" target="_blank">P-G: Manny Kolski</a></p></div>
<a href="https://youtu.be/h1cRXgDFiSs" target="_blank">Light One Candle by Peter, Paul and Mary</a><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-40743156433846279752020-10-15T08:16:00.012-07:002020-10-16T10:09:17.098-07:00Pittsburgh Public Schools Teachers Are Writing Their Wills<p> Last night, my 29-year old daughter picked at the wooden veneer on my kitchen table and said, "Mom...I should probably write a will." She's a social studies teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. In a month and a day, she, and all of us employed by PPS, will be forced to go back to school in person..whether we, like Sarah, have serious underlying health problems that could make a case of COVID-19 fatal, or not. </p><p>Pittsburgh Public Schools is not offering teachers with COVID-risk factors an option to continue to teach virtually after November 9th. Sit with that a minute. You read it right. </p><p>All teachers MUST report in person on that date, no matter what their health problems might be. This has created a panic among PPS employees with risk factors. The added stress about what could happen to our medically fragile students and colleagues contributes to the pain. Thinking about the possibility of students who are orphaned by COVID-19 sickens me and keeps me up at night. I take more medication, go to the doctor more, feel sicker, and I'm in more chronic pain because of it. And I am not alone. I have friends with much more serious health problems than mine, who are much more talented educators than me, who face truly life-or-death decisions now. </p><p>To make things worse, PPS teachers are finding the District is not approving COVID-health related leaves. Trump's appointee Scalia's Labor Department has laid out three reasons you can take a COVID-related leave: either you are caring for a child whose school is closed due to COVID, you have COVID, or you're caring for somebody with COVID. Other options available to you to avoid a possible death sentence are an ADA leave, or an unpaid FMLA leave. </p><p>If you are a childless, not-disabled person with severe asthma, or caring for our 83-year old mother-in-law who has severe COPD---too damn bad, says Pamela Harbin, Sylvia Wilson, Kevin Carter, Terry Kennedy, Devon Taliaferro, Sala Udin, Bill Gallagher, Cynthia Falls and Veronica Edwards. </p><p>Too bad for you, your daughter, and to hell with your mother-in-law. Go back to school...and welcome to the 77th HUNGER GAMES, in which we wait to see which teacher, which aide, which janitor, which child gets sick first, who dies first. </p><p>I can't imagine the stress of being there as kids behave as normal children do, especially after being cooped up since March at home. I can't imagine the stress of being there, trying to do my already difficult job of interesting children who are growing up in a world oriented toward video games and phones in reading and books when my other, competing job will be to keep them safe from an invisible but deadly virus. </p><p>Doing my job while keeping them safe from racism, ableism, misogyny, misogynoir, homophobia, transphobia, violence and school shootings was a lot. I had a plan for a school shooter-- go out the library door first so the shooter could kill me and the kids could hopefully run around my dead body and get out of the building. </p><p>This is different. All a kid has to do is take off their mask and wipe it on somebody's face while they are horse playing-- in an an instant-- and another child and their family could be dead. It's that simple. And I'm being asked to prevent that?? HOW? DOES ANYONE ON THE BOARD HAVE ANY SCHOOL-BASED EXPERIENCE? </p><p>Children are children. We can teach them, we can instruct them, but they ride the bus by themselves, they walk the halls by themselves, they enter the restrooms and cafeterias by themselves, and they are normal, adolescent human beings whose brains are not fully developed yet. They goof around. It's part of the beauty of being a teenager. How can I possibly keep them safe from this virus if they are in school in person? THE VIRUS IS AIR BORNE.</p><p>And what about my colleagues? As of this moment, librarians are considered itinerants, along with PE and art teachers. At the elementary level, all of these specialists are going to be on carts-- visiting classrooms, instead of classrooms visiting them. Elementary librarians have two schools each. What if a librarian goes to one of her schools, sees all 500 of her kids in one day, plus 50 teachers, the school secretary, the Vice-Principal, a janitor and two cafeteria workers-- then the next day, feeling great, goes to her next school-- and sees the 380 kids there, plus the 40 teachers, Principal, school secretary, SDSS, her bestie the school social worker in that building, and maybe the art teacher for some craft supplies, and the janitor. Two days later that librarian feels sick, takes a COVID-19 test and comes up positive. How does the District do contact tracing? Who can possibly imagine all of the people each of the people that librarian interacted with interacted with? </p><p>During the Spanish flu, some children didn't go to school at all. The point is, they survived, the country survived, and they lived to tell about it. To me, survival must remain tantamount. The main goal. Nobody is expendable. In September, 300 children in Allegheny County got COVID-19. That was WITHOUT PPS being in session in person. What of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, which could have long-term health effects upon children? Why is nobody talking about the fact that COVID-19 is more prevalent among Black and Brown children and families, who make up the majority of PPS' constituency? I feel as if I'm screaming in the dark. </p><p>I can not imagine the reasons why Pamela Harbin, Sylvia Wilson, Kevin Carter, Terry Kennedy, Devon Taliaferro, Sala Udin, Bill Gallagher, Cynthia Falls and Veronica Edwards are forcing teachers back to school in person, with no way to stay virtual if they have at-risk factors should they contract COVID-19. But I know where I will be sending the bill for my daughter's funeral expenses, should she, God forbid, pass away due to their malfeasance. </p><p><a href="https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/an-ongoing-tally-of-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-and-deaths-in-allegheny-county/Content?oid=16941415&fbclid=IwAR3Z744JAJ4Huslr1S31UV-1K_MURuiRPT8q_Tg3eJucfdozo3nL727Kd98" target="_blank">PGHCity Paper's Daily Allegheny County COVID case counter</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-deaths-young-teachers-new-school-year-begins/" target="_blank">COVID-19-related deaths of young teachers raises alarm</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/05/us/school-teacher-covid-death-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">Elementary teacher dies 3 days after COVID Test</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.wtae.com/article/teacher-acts-as-whistleblower-in-new-kensington-arnold-school-district-over-laxed-covid-safety-protocols/34362819" target="_blank">Pittsburgh-area teacher a whistle-blower for lax COVID sanitation in schools</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.wesa.fm/post/300-allegheny-county-kids-have-contracted-coronavirus-beginning-september#stream/0" target="_blank">300 Allegheny County Kids Have Contracted COVID Since Beginning of September</a></p><p><a href="https://www.pghschools.org/board" target="_blank">Call or email the PPS Board to ask them to Stay Virtual/Stay Safe</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mis-c-in-kids-covid-19/symptoms-causes/syc-20502550" target="_blank">Information on Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome</a><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-13400996425982731252020-06-03T10:49:00.000-07:002020-06-03T10:49:54.105-07:00Listen to Toni Morrison about the Visceral Importance of Language.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-83026353498874605472019-12-27T09:51:00.002-08:002019-12-27T11:20:01.245-08:00Will We Go Back to the Bad Old Days? We'll Know Today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Back in 2012, when I was a substitute for Pittsburgh Public, I worked in nine different schools, preparing under- and unused school libraries for use. A new decision by Linda Lane, the Superintendent at the time and the Board had been made. At that time, if a school could afford a librarian in their budget, they had one. Lane's decision changed librarians' jobs so that each elementary and K-8 Librarian had to go to FIVE schools. That way, the reasoning went, K-12 schools would have a librarian and the District could boast about equity for all.<br />
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My job was to go to those spider-webby, pathetic, no-book, stanky, broken furniture shells where no librarian had worked for a long time, where there was no joy, no love and definitely no place for children and make them serviceable. This position had been created by the brilliance and forethought of Barbara Rudiak, who was overseeing the Librarians at that time. She alone at the District realized that libraries had sat un- or underused for quite awhile and would need work before they would be ready for kids-- and that Librarians trying to change from serving a population of say, 500 children and 12,000 books to 2500 children and 60,000 books would not have time to do it. </div>
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It was a great job. I loved it. I found some libraries, like my first job at Lincoln Elementary in Larmier, that just needed books put in Dewey order, and a deep clean. That historic room had a stage, where it could be that Mary Lou Williams, the mother of American jazz, may have played recitals as the little school girl she was when she went to that school. Offices were built on the stage, and it was not used as one, but part of it was still visible, its light wooden floor gleaming. The library collection was notable-- full of appropriately African-American focused biographies, picture books, etc., at many reading levels. The library there even had a cozy reading nook with carpeted stadium seating, and gigantic windows that flooded the room with light and fresh air. When I had finished my last lemon oil cleaning of the wooden shelves and created gorgeous displays of lovely books, I was happy, my Principal was happy, and I was optimistic about my next placement. </div>
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Then I got to Manchester K-8 in Manchester, on the North Side. I swear to God, that locked door on the second floor creaked open when we got the key, with some difficulty. It screakked open like a horror movie, telling us DON'T GO IN THIS ROOM--- EVER. The janitor left, and I entered. What I saw was not like Lincoln. It was what I imagine a prison library might look like in Alabama if the people running it really, really hated the inmates. You can find the story of what happened <a href="https://outlaweducator.blogspot.com/2012/09/dreams-fulfilled-and-manchester-miracle.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I went to seven different schools after that, all of them in varying states of disarray, despair and dissolution. I wrote blog posts about it. With Jessie Ramey, the Yinzercation community, and people of good faith everywhere, we did more book drives for those libraries. I did not get hired by Pittsburgh Public Schools, although I hoped with the hard work I had done, the advocacy for the school libraries, the total rehab of one of their school libraries through my 24/7 obsessive work-- I might. Nope. I found a job with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and started a different journey.<br />
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What happened to those libraries and librarians, when they went from one library to five? Let's start with the librarians. Some used other teaching certifications to get other jobs in the PPS-- fleeing the set-up for failure as soon as they could. Some left the district-- some of the best librarians in our field. Some hung in there and tried as hard as they could to manage seeing children every 6 days-- as elementary and some K-8's are on a 6-day schedule. That meant that in the name of "equity," the kids who had had a great librarian and library now lost that program entirely, unless their school had the funds to pay for a full-time librarian differently. Only Colfax, to my knowledge, did that, retaining the magical Jane McKee.<br />
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The other kids saw a librarian three times a month, at most. If the school was large, and there were, say five rounds of Kindergarten, the librarian might only see Kindergarten one of those days. The Principal might decide the other days (2 that month) would be devoted to the five rounds of first grade she had, and 5 rounds of second grade, meaning that third through eighth grade had no library at all. The equity plan was not equitable at all.<br />
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During the 15 days the librarian was not in the library, teachers, staff, etc., "borrowed" items from libraries, meaning well, I am sure. Libraries began to lose irreplaceable books at a record rate. Since books run around $25/each, and the staff member who is meant to care for the collection was no longer there, libraries bled expensive materials. When children looked for sequels, beloved favorites, nonfiction they needed, they could not find them. With fewer important and relevant books and no librarian present, libraries began to feel irrelevant-- especially because, with nobody in the library, Principals started to forget about how important libraries were.<br />
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My sub work had only taken me to nine libraries. We have 54 schools in our District. That means that 45 schools were not prepared for kids-- although, of course, some of those had full-time librarians. Whatever the number of libraries is that needed rehab--- they did not receive it before their children arrived. At least two libraries to this day are not cataloged. One shares a classroom with a Social Studies teacher, who has commandeered the circulation desk. The Librarian has a tiny desk in which he has to check out books and scrunch to see kids.<br />
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Faison was one of Pittsburgh Public Schools' jewels. Newly built in Homewood, it was a glorious building boasting an operatically fine school library, shaped like a ship, with the tallest windows shining down on a huge, carpeted stadium seated story circle. It had a giant office for the Librarian, who at that time was Ginger Lambeth, an expert in collection development. Her collection would make any librarian cry real tears of joy. She must have had 12 different Martin Luther King Jr. biographies-- all in different reading levels, so that when his birthday came around, children at Faison could be successful in reading about him. Snake books, shark books, scary books, funny books, joke books-- the hits!! She had them, and she had them in great numbers, so that every child who visited could find something they loved that they could read. She collected the very finest, rare African-American folk tales by true masters like Virginia Hamilton, Gerald McDermott, the Pinkneys, San Souci.<br />
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Now Faison's bookshelves are all but empty. Reading Is Fundamental gives paperback books away during the Librarian's periods with children, and by the Principal's orders, she is relegated to helping them, not running her classes. Because the library had been broken in to classrooms, one of them a science classroom, the librarian is occasionally sprayed with bugs, like living confetti, in the books that remain.<br />
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Lincoln's library, the one I so proudly put back together, lemon oiling that lovely light wood before I set up the prettiest and most interesting books on display, has been destroyed in favor of a "STEAM" room. All the books the author of this destruction chose to keep from the collection are in the tiny little book nook, which used to have the stadium seating for kids to listen to stories in.<br />
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Our Superintendent now, Dr. Hamlet, undid some of the damage Dr. Lane and that Board did. He and that iteration of the Board made each Librarian have two libraries instead of five. This has been a much better arrangement. However, enormous problems remain. When Principals retain a line-item for library budgets, they almost invariably keep it, and do not give it to the librarian to purchase books. This is especially troubling as we come out of the five-librarian regime. The need to undo damage is desperate, and many Principals do not currently understand what a good librarian does, or what a good library program looks like. It's been a long time since they saw one.<br />
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That being said, Principals everywhere are forcing Librarians during Library periods to put students on Edmentum, Naviance, Credit Recovery, etc. in order for kids to prepare for standardized tests, etc. In Jane McKee's library at Colfax, the new librarian is being made to teach typing. Although this should not need to be said, library is a time for children that should exist out of the norm of the school day. It should not be about work sheets, standardized tests, reading levels, math, or boring things of any kind. It should be about imagination, joy, fun, characters, love, acceptance, other cultures, meeting children where they are, and celebrating the excitement of books-- and/or building that excitement.<br />
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That building is the project of library. Anything outside of the building of joy around books is a mistake. Principals and admin MUST allow Librarians, the only teacher in the building who is required to have a Master's Degree, to do our jobs the way we have been trained to do them. This is not happening in most places.<br />
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This, along with not allowing the librarians library budgets, accounts in part for our "achievement gap." Hiring "librarians" who are teachers with other teaching certifications who did not obtain an MLIS from an ALA-certified school is another one-- the only form of training available to become a librarian. Living in Pittsburgh, the city from which you have only to move if you are African-American to obtain a better life is another. (<a href="https://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/redtail/images/7109_Pittsburgh's_Inequality_Across_Gender_and_Race_09_18_19.pdf" target="_blank">Pittsburgh Race Report</a>) Some of the worst air, water and soil quality in the country. Mismanagement of librarians and library resources for at least a decade in our District..the list goes on.<br />
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All of this has lead me to this final point: Look. The geographic areas of our city with the highest concentrations of poverty and African-American children have unfunded school libraries. Why is this of particular importance, besides the vulnerability of the children? Because you can't always walk to a public library. When I did my student teaching at Faison, little ones came in crying on more than one occasion because a drive-by had them dodging and hiding behind cars on their walk to school. Children need to get books to put in their backpacks at school, and return them to school, even if the greatest public library in the world is five doors down. And not just because of drive-bys. Some kids have to take care of siblings, elder family members, or work after school. They need their school library to function.<br />
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Faison, Westinghouse-- no school library budget. That's Homewood.<br />
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Arlington is a new building, and it was built without a library. So there's that for the kids on the South Side.<br />
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Miller and Weil haven't had a Librarian all year, although Weil just got one. U-Prep just got a Library budget, but it is limited. So that's the Hill.<br />
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King and Morrow have no Library budget. I have a decent one at Perry, and my Principal supports me. I am so very grateful. Thank God!! But the babies on the North Side deserve better.<br />
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The current iteration of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors has laid out the following incredible scenario: after approving most of Dr. Hamlet's decisions for the years of his tenure, they find his spending out of control and controversial. They disapprove of this, and want change. However, they have not raised taxes to meet the needs of school children in five years. So-- they approved a higher budget, but will not raise taxes to fund their budget because of their concerns about Dr. Hamlet's spending. That means that as of January first, the school District will shut down for lack of funds unless today, they come to some compromise and change their thinking.<br />
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Some Board members are loudly calling for cuts, which mean cutting staff and programs. The last things they added were school nurses and librarians. I dearly hope we do not go back to the bad old days of one librarian for five schools. Our children deserve so much more.<br />
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I am exhausted. My heart hurts. Every Board member should spend one full day in a different school once a week, talking and mostly listening to teachers and children, not administration. We are the ones in the trenches, and we know what is going on.<br />
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I hope very much, that unlike the Principal of one of those schools I subbed in in 2012, the Board members have not decided that the District would be better off "charterized." But I fear that is the goal and the direction of too many of them. We'll see. And until we see what they will do, we teachers and librarians will do what we always do: love on kids. It's our daily work, and it is worth while. Parents: you hold all the cards. Please, please make your opinions known about what you want. A tax increase to fund our city's future. A line item for library budgets controlled by Ann Fillmore, the person in charge of school libraries, not school Principals. A high standard for hiring school librarians. No standardized-testing prep and no computers in Library class!! And let TEACHERS TEACH!!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-75777762957881759312018-03-05T07:07:00.002-08:002018-03-05T07:07:16.509-08:00Fresh Fruits and Vegetables instead of Sodium and MSG: Perry Food Pantry Refrigerator Fund Raiser<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DjoYpjqxXxc/Wp1b1Rm3JvI/AAAAAAAAUyQ/HoE3xVITs4cQoIyw72wKYvFF5F7KsPOYACLcBGAs/s1600/28056053_10215650666998834_1920108872590386481_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="960" height="337" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DjoYpjqxXxc/Wp1b1Rm3JvI/AAAAAAAAUyQ/HoE3xVITs4cQoIyw72wKYvFF5F7KsPOYACLcBGAs/s400/28056053_10215650666998834_1920108872590386481_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Hello! Last year, the Gender-Sexuality Alliance at Perry High School discussed why kids sometimes come to school angry, tired and ready to fight. We decided that sometimes, it has to be because of factors like food insecurity. As a school group committed to fighting all kinds of intersecting oppressions, we decided to open a student-run food pantry in our school.<br />
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With our partner, Mary Shull, and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, we now distribute around 1000 pounds of food a week to kids. However, our goal has changed a bit. We see our peers consuming products that are high in sodium and MSG, and we know our communities are the ones hit hardest by high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, etc. So, we decided we needed to get more fresh fruit, greens, and vegetables into our peers' hands.<br />
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That's why we really need a refrigerator. Will you please help us with our goal? This fund-raising project will fund a refrigerator, and keep our food bank running. We are so grateful!<br />
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<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/PerryFoodBankRefrigerator" target="_blank">Go Fund Me: Perry Food Bank Refrigerator</a><br />
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<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="258" height="338" title="Click Here to donate!" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="/Widgetflex.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="flashvars" value="page=PerryFoodBankRefrigerator&template=0" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="/Widgetflex.swf" quality="high" flashVars="page=PerryFoodBankRefrigerator&template=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="258" height="338"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-54241568630829071282018-03-02T09:37:00.001-08:002018-03-02T09:37:24.112-08:00#Education Spring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cP4wb1ln85I/WpmLk3PxDwI/AAAAAAAAUyA/5JgdtXBtH0IASWtHJR9kFYVrESh7iadigCLcBGAs/s1600/img_8333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="1140" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cP4wb1ln85I/WpmLk3PxDwI/AAAAAAAAUyA/5JgdtXBtH0IASWtHJR9kFYVrESh7iadigCLcBGAs/s400/img_8333.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Three students and I just made a plan for how we'll survive a school shooting. It's our first lock-down drill, and at an unspecified time, we are to lock our doors, cover our windows, turn off our lights and computers, get kids away from windows and doors, get everyone to turn off their phones (because a ding from a phone will let the shooter know where a child is hiding.) We are to sit, in silence, and wait for an administrator, security or law enforcement to unlock my door. Because any noise, any light, any movement, any sight of us, could mean one or all of us could die-- if this was real.<br />
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I am scared. I know it's a drill. I know there's no shooter. But I'm still scared, because having a drill makes it more real. And even though my kids are very aware that school shootings mostly happen in white, suburban schools, we all know Trump has had an electrifying effect on white supremacists in America.<br />
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When the drill happens, I'll need to go out into the hall to lock my door. I'll look for kids in the hall to grab and get in my room. We'll get to a "safe" place. We'll sit and try to be quiet. Here's a few of my fears:<br />
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* How do I help kids with PTSD, who are traumatized by this drill? If I can't handle somebody's emotional reaction, and if that reaction imperils my other kids while we are hunkered down hiding, what do I do? <br />
* Once the drill is over, and we are back to this new "normal," how do I help those students in my school who have experienced trauma deal with a continuing cycle of being re-traumatized by this experience?<br />
* We don't have the resources to handle the traumatized kids we have already. We have two social workers, who are extremely busy. We have three counselors. On March 7th, I will be proctoring the new way our District has found to evaluate school counselors: by having seniors do a long, computer-based survey, about how many times they have interacted with the counselors, if they've been helpful with college stuff, paperwork, etc. As far as I know, counselors will be held at least partially accountable to whether seniors in springtime, being forced to evaluate their school counselor, take that survey seriously.<br />
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During the drill, there were no kids in the Library (this time.) But we talked before they left for class about what to do. Don't get bottled up-- don't hide in a place you can't get escape from, if you can help it. Fight and distract the shooter if you have to, but getting out is the best way, probably. l told them I would check first to see if anybody was outside the exit with a gun. If someone was, we could be trapped. I *forgot to tell them: if I get shot, run around me, don't stand there. Don't be an easy target. Don't huddle together. You'll be easier targets that way. Spread out. Next time, I'll remember to tell them all of that.<br />
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* I'm afraid my big words about "run around me," (meaning my dead or dying body) are too brave. What if in the face of this kind of danger, I freeze, cry, get hysterical, am entirely useless? It happens to trained, armed people all the time. What makes me think I'm a hero?<br />
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* What if we are instructing our next shooter what to do?<br />
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* How do children who experience gun violence in communities receive this, beyond my speculations and incidental conversations with kids? Where is the research on the affect these drills will have on my particular children? <br />
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I lay down between the Library stacks. I was afraid to sneeze. I was afraid to look at my phone, because even though I had the ringer off, what if a video or something started to play? It was too dark to read a book, and I couldn't concentrate. Security came and rattled the door. Once. Twice. Three times.<br />
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I had to pee. I thought of David Hogg at Parkland, who had the presence of mind during AN ACTUAL SCHOOL SHOOTING to interview the kids HE WAS HIDING WITH so he could document the experience. So we can learn from it. This child is someone special. I KNEW it was my own security guards out there, I had nobody to save but myself, and I was too scared to sneeze.<br />
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* Florida's Governor wants to put armed guards in every school in his state. Follow the money: what a bump in contributions he'll get from his red-state followers, the NRA, gun manufactures, etc. Ridiculous, and criminal.<br />
* Obviously gun control is the way to solve this problem. We look to the data and experience of our well-educated global counterparts, and this truth is right there. To state something obvious, politicians who will not stand up to the gun lobby devalue the lives of American children. Police violence against people of color is tolerated and even celebrated by the current President. See this: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-is-serious-when-he-jokes-about-police-brutality" target="_blank">Donald Trump Is Serious When He Jokes About Police Brutality</a><br />
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These politicians, unwilling to protect children, do another thing, which feels suspiciously convenient for this group: they contribute to a sense of chaos and churn for kids in schools. All this time, effort, money and thought, professional development, contracts, training, etc. around active shooter drills, when legislation is a way to fix it. I don't think it is necessarily an unhappy consequence for irresponsible politicians that these policies are all the better to push privatized educational options on families as a "safer" or better way.<br />
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Call me crazy if you want to for making that connection. I've watched my own kids' education since pre-No Child Left Behind days, until this moment. I've seen the neo-liberal attacks on public education chip away at what they had in public school, to what my students experience now. I just lived through eighteen months in which my Superintendent called out Pittsburgh teachers' demands for better pay, health care and educational conditions in ways that felt hurtful and disrespectful. I'm watching Butler teachers get ready to strike. I'm in awe of the monumental work the West Virginia teachers are doing to save their entire state from austerity. Teachers, students and families in Chicago battle for their children's schools' very right to exist in Black and Brown communities, (See this: <a href="https://transformativespaces.org/2018/03/01/on-the-last-day-of-black-history-month-chicagos-school-board-votes-to-shutter-five-black-schools/" target="_blank">On The Last Day of Black History Month, Chicago School Board Votes to Close 5 Black Schools</a>) and so much more.<br />
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What began as a movement by young people in Florida after Trayvon Martin was murdered, was followed by the young adults in Ferguson who rose up against the murder of Michael Brown, to brave activists insisting #BlackLivesMatter, to the Parkland students, who are changing corporate policies, and now teachers battling for their kids across the country-- it feels like an #EducationSpring. <br />
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Unfettered school shootings because our politicians put money over gun control, police officers murdering Black children with impunity, and the violence that comes when schools are kept churning and chaotic by austerity measures while we spend $610 billion on our military budget, are all interconnected oppressions our teachers and students have been fighting for a long time-- in the streets. It's time we ALL joined them.<br />
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<i>While I was writing this, there was a shooting at Central Michigan University. </i><br />
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<a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com" target="_blank">NYT: WV teachers' strike </a><br />
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<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/02/west-virginia-teachers-strike-energy-industry" target="_blank">Saving West Virginia</a><br />
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<a href="https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/arming-already-stressed-out-teachers-will-only-increase-the-chance-of-school-shootings/" target="_blank">Arming Teachers Will Only Increase the Chance of a School Shooting</a><br />
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<a href="https://marchforourlivespetition.com/" target="_blank">https://marchforourlivespetition.com/</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8k3CX_ZuQ" target="_blank">Staceyann Chin: All Oppression Is Connected</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-63412374843059371282018-01-31T11:43:00.001-08:002018-01-31T12:03:04.508-08:00Pro-Child, Pro-Teacher<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"As adults, it is our responsibility to work together toward this common
goal. And while the district and the union may differ on some points, I
believe we can move forward in a spirit of mutual respect, setting an
example - even now - for the children we serve," said Dr. Anthony
Hamlet, Superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools. </i><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link"> As adults, Dr. Hamlet, let's level with each other. There is a lot of work to be done in our District. I know you know this. However, there is work I attack daily that I am sure you don't know about, because you simply have not been in my shoes (or in my school) long enough, or authentically enough, to understand what's grittily real here. </span><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link">We have a student-run food bank, but no working computer lab. We have a teacher who has been turned down repeatedly for a class set of textbooks for his classroom, so he spends his time copying the tattered remains of the teacher's edition to teach with. We have teachers who do Donor's Choose fund raisers for pencils. </span><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link">Today, I spent a lot of my day comforting children facing trauma and need in their lives. That's my job, and I love it, and I love them. One of my colleagues left the building in tears, because she had had one too many classes scream curses and taunts at her, and she just needed a break from the heartbreak. She'll be back tomorrow. She loves her students with all of her heart. She's an adult, and she is committed to her work. </span><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link">Firstly: if we, meaning not just you and I, but yourself and all the teachers in this District, are to work together toward a common goal, you are going to have to drop the inflammatory language you are using to shield yourself and the Board who hired you from blame about the break down in negotiations of our contract. </span><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link"> In a career such as ours, in which self-reflection is a daily practice, your intention behind the usage of the phrase "as adults" should be clear. Infantilizing teachers in an attempt to make our efforts to negotiate a better deal for the District's teachers and children won't work. Pittsburgh Public Schools' parents know who we are. They know we love their children. They know we don't take the idea of striking lightly. For many of us, an unknown number of weeks off without a paycheck represents a serious financial risk in our lives. But, for a year and half, our union's efforts to negotiate common-sense measures to protect the quality of the classroom experience for children have been met with stonewalling and flat-out denials. </span></div>
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<span class="oneClick-link">Here's what we know. Parents want smaller student-to-teacher ratios. They want expert teachers working with the appropriate grade levels and subject areas, and they want teachers who strive to further their own educational levels and masteries. They want the best teachers available in the field, who can choose to work in challenging schools without being financially penalized. They want coaches who know and love their children, and who are compensated well. They want Pre-K teachers who are the top of their field, and who can afford to stay in the classroom as a long-term career. </span></div>
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<span class="oneClick-link"><b>These things are ALL pro-child.</b> What they also are, unfortunately for folks who have to be elected, is tax-payer funded. I am sure no Board member or Superintendent wants to discuss raising taxes to fund Pre-K teachers, for example. Why don't we work on elevating public attention to things that undercut funding for public schools together, such as the corrupt EITC system, which allows wealthy folks to fund private and parochial schools with money that could fund public education? Or why our elected city officials seem to have so little interest in garnering equitable funding for our public schools? We know Pittsburgh Public Schools has money in reserve. Let's spend it on the children in front of us, and then work together to secure extra funding we need. </span><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link">So, please-- don't stoop to dog whistling with comments such as "as adults," and "set an example for the children we serve," when teachers are the ones getting ready to sacrifice on the grocery bill, and when they are calling their credit card and mortgage companies to discuss the possibility of upcoming late payments, as they prepare for the possibility of a strike.</span><br />
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<span class="oneClick-link">If we strike, I will be setting an example I will be proud of for the children of Pittsburgh Public Schools, because I will be sacrificing for what I love and believe in: my students. So will ALL of my colleagues. Walking a picket line for no pay, in order to provide smaller classes and better prepared colleagues for my students is pro-child, pro-parent, and pro-Pittsburgh Public Schools. Let's be adults and agree that nobody has to. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-35123652681775739462018-01-21T10:23:00.002-08:002018-01-22T04:07:16.015-08:00Will the Truth Out? A Strike May Be the Catalyst. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I collect masks. I think they are beautiful, but I only collect masks with open mouths. I like the metaphor, of course: we hide behind them, we use them to become someone else, but for me, an open mouth means these masks demand to be "heard." They need to look as if they are ready to speak, or are speaking, or singing aloud for me to want to hang them on the wall. I like a mask that nobody shuts down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Mask are symbolically important, and "we," meaning everybody, wears them at times. Teachers wear them, in lots of contexts. We wear them when we are with parents. There's a thing a veteran teacher taught me when I was starting out-- the "teacher head cock." It goes like this. When the parent of a particulary challenging kid asks how their student is doing, you cock your head a minute, and smile. This gives you a second to catch your breath and think before you blurt out something too blunt. In those occasions before I learned it, the non-professional, human side of me wanted to say something like, "Yo, come get your kid! He needs to spend waaaaaaayyyyy less time on an ipad or in front of a screen at home and waaaaayyyy more time outside running around, and then in your lap with a book!" But then I mastered the teacher head cock. So, I would cock my head, smile, and say something like, "Well...Johnny has a lot of wonderful energy that we are working on harnessing toward his goals."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A mask, of sorts. Then there's the mask you wear when you write publicly about your life as an educator. You want to write as bluntly as you think, but to do so, you run the risk of exposing confidentialities of childrens' lives you are professionally and ethcially bound to protect. To state the obvious, those confidentialities must never be broken.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You also run the risk, as our District and union begin the last round of negotiations on January 23rd and 26th before a possible strike vote, of exposing things that could hamper negotiations. Here are a few things that are in the public domain, which I can discuss openly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A strike means that almost 25,000 children will not be in school during the length of a standoff, which to my mind could and should have been prevented by the District. Some kids will have babysitters, or stay in warm, organized, food-stocked homes during that time, with activities and supervision. In many, many homes, this strike could cost so much more: the safety of kids, ultimately.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">True, I'm a passionate union member, but the issues are common sense and should have been agreed to by the District a year and a half ago: pay new teachers the same as veterans, and not based on a silly scale that even the impartial arbiter found to be unfair. Pay Pre-K teachers, bound to have the same education and certifications as every other teacher, the same as every other teacher. Lower class sizes by 5 children so they can get better one-on-one instruction. Give coaches, who sacrifice time with their families, a raise. (They haven't had one in TEN YEARS.) Allow teachers to retain their voice in helping their principals make their teaching schedules, instead of erasing any voice or choice in who, what or when they teach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why does that last matter? Because a fifth grade science teacher has a K-5 certification, but might be an expert at dealing with pre-adolescents, and have spent years building their expertise and craft teaching scientific principles and discovery to this age group. A Kindergarten teacher quits, moves or gets rated out, so a capricious, inept or malicious Principal (news flash: THEY EXIST) moves this 5th grade science teacher to fill the Kindergarten hole in the schedule. What happens to the students who lose their expert science teacher? What happens to the Kindergarten children, who have one crack at Kindergarten, now faced with a well meaning, but inexpert teacher of this age group?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The problem might be with how our state certifies teachers. But that is outside of this union-District discussion. And everything these negotiations do must be focused on how it affects CHILDREN, first and foremost. When the District begins to authentically respect teachers enough to place them in decision making roles alongside those principals, you'll know that kids are being placed first and foremost. So much more to say there: but. Teachers are chronically afraid to speak out about what they think could improve in their schools for fear of backlash to their ratings, their schedules, etc. That's me stepping out from behind my mask. There. I did it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You need to eat. You need to pay your bills. Most importantly, you need to keep going to a job that allows you to work with kids whose lives your life is entwined with. They have one shot at filling out FAFSAs, filling out college applications, writing college essays, choosing colleges they talk about the pros and cons with you about, checking out books that could change them forever, having somebody to talk to alone about what the hell is going on at home and at work and with boys and/or girls with, writing great papers (maybe with your help), learning NOT to Google sources for papers, having a safe place every day at lunch to be with their friends when everywhere else is unsafe and scary, charge their phone, use the in-school food bank, create an in-school food bank, create committees and clubs and projects. You wear the God-damned mask you hate and that burns you up because you are in love with your students, and you need them as much as they need you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"But," as Shakespeare said, "in the end, the truth will out." Eventually. If there is a strike vote, I predict that the union members will vote overwhelmingly for a strike. And then some teachers' masks will slip a little. You could hear stories teachers want to tell you about what holds our schools back from being as great as they can be, that we are afraid to share, for fear of backlash, retribution and unfair consequences. And that could be the best thing for public education in Pittsburgh that has happened in a long time. Because while masks can be protective, and necessary, they can also cloud truth. And only truth unmasked can begin to heal what is wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Solidarity.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-71869035353895173222017-12-04T06:18:00.001-08:002017-12-05T06:39:43.593-08:00Be a Light and Shelter for LGBTQIA Children in a Season of Darkness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When I was an elementary school Librarian, I chose winter to teach Hans Christian Andersen as a long author study. We started with his winter stories: The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Snow Queen, The Little Match Girl. Andersen's tales, as he originally wrote them, and not pre-digested into a Disney remix, are not well known among kids today. That's one of the reasons I taught them. Other reasons are the ambrosial language, the celebration and elevation of the underdog, how Andersen's stories build empathy, sensitivity, and an awareness of others, as well as context and culture, and how they speak to children as if they are real people-- that is, they often express the world as it really is.<br />
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The Little Match Girl is a story that does that. A little girl, abused and unloved by her father, is set out in the streets to sell matches. It is freezing, but she knows if she doesn't sell her quota, she'll be beaten and turned out again. She stays in the snow, forlorn, one over-sized slipper lost, as happy Christmas shoppers rush past her. She looks in the windows of the bakeries she passes and remembers dinners with a Grandmother her loved her. She passes homes, in which happy families decorate trees. Finally, she sits and tries to warm herself, and watches the stars. In the morning, the townspeople find her, frozen, and they realize that as they celebrated Christ's birth, among them, a child they despised died because of their neglect.</div>
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For gay and trans kids, acceptance at home and school is a matter of life and death. That's what I learned when <b>Project Silk</b>, an advocacy group for young people of color who are gay or transgender, came as guest speakers to Perry Library's Student-Staff Book Club last week. We were wrapping up our second book choice of the year, <i>The 57 Bus</i>, by Dashka Slater. <i>The 57 Bus</i> is a book about an agender teen who is critically burned by another teen on a bus ride home.<br />
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Richard and Michael, our Project Silk presenters, told us about a cycle that can too often drag young gay and trans kids of color into a life of crime, sex work and death. It can start in school, and it can work like this: </div>
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Thrown out at home for being gay or trans, harassed and bullied at school for being who they are, kids often have no alternative but to live in the streets. Doubly discriminated against, they can't get hired for a job. This can lead to young people turning to sex work to survive-- some as young as thirteen or fourteen. Picked up by police for doing sex work, they go to jail, where they are often harassed, assaulted, and sometimes even raped.</div>
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Richard said that when fighting to protect themselves, young gay or trans people have a tendency sometimes to "do the most." Who could blame a person who had been subject to so much for so long? Unfortunately, this can place the young person on an additional terrible cycle: discriminated against within the criminal justice system, gay and trans youngsters sometimes are blamed for defending themselves. Without a place to live, transportation or money, it is hard to make it to court dates reliably, on time, dressed presentably, with adequate legal representation, and pay legal fines and fees on time, or at all. This can place a young, now offender, even deeper within the cycle. </div>
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I asked Richard and Michael how we interrupt this cycle. Their response? Do everything you can to make school a safe place. Make it a haven, where kids who are unloved and unrespected at home find a shelter. Teachers, students, and administrators alike: this is our calling within this season of darkness and light. We are called upon to be sheltering place for the unwanted child. We are called upon to light up the dark. No matter what one's religious or ethical training, we are responsible for all of us, most especially children. Love and light to all of us-- especially our LGBTQIA children.<br />
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/magazine/the-fire-on-the-57-bus-in-oakland.html?_r=0" target="_blank">NYT Magazine: The 57 Bus</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.chscorp.org/project-silk" target="_blank">Project Silk</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-70032808654114745372017-10-27T11:16:00.004-07:002017-10-29T14:53:03.615-07:00Break Me On Life's Wheel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have thought "Break me on life's wheel," would be a good adage for my life, and I have tried to live that way-- so much so that I thought for a long time I'd paint a giant canvas full of cogs and wheels, to remind myself. I try to live as fearlessly as I can-- for my students and for myself. Live so hard, so outside the usual, so big-- that the calendar, the wheel of events itself runs right off its post.<br />
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It's good to break. It's good to lean in to pain and tragedy. I'm trying, when things from outside and inside just pulverize me. But it's so much easier to redirect pain into something nicer. </div>
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Today I was in a really low place. I left the Library, to go see teachers and kids, who were excitedly setting up for an after-school Halloween party. I thought I would stay, but I couldn't even manage to help them. I was down, actually heartbroken. Too much tragedy in my kids' lives, a story that I have become aware of that feels too close to home. I took my sour face out of there, and was walking back to the Library when a colleague needed a break in the ISS room. It was on my way. I stopped, went into the ISS room, while he ran out for a second. </div>
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A kid said something dumb. I redirected him. Another kid said-- "Don't disrespect Ms. May. She's like-- the mother of the school." And then the kids started to argue over which powerful, beautiful colleague of mine was the "real" mother of the school, along with me. One kid, the one I had initially redirected, started to passionately argue that the "real" mother of the school is Mrs. Sharon Brentley-- an African-American woman who remembers being spit on, when she and her husband helped to integrate Perry as school children. The one arguing for her? He's been known to use the "n" word toward kids who don't look like him.</div>
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I'm not going to say it made everything right. But it reminded me-- there is light in the dark. Much love.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-84765774705804774562017-10-18T15:18:00.000-07:002017-10-18T15:38:21.333-07:00An Open Letter to the Students of Brooke High School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hello. You don't know me, but many of you, and your parents, hate my guts. I don't hate you. At all. I understand completely, and fully, that I do not know you. But I do know one thing: you and I have a chance to learn from each other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am a high school Librarian. I LOVE my job. I LOVE my school and my students. I think of them as my own children. If I worked in your school, I would think of you as my own children, too. It's a magical thing that happens to teachers: our hearts stretch, the longer we are in a classroom, and we find our capacity for love increases with the number of children we get to know. I hope that in this letter, I can be of some service to you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up poor, white, and rural. I dreamed of having clean, white leather tennis shoes and pants long enough to cover my skinny ankles. Instead, I had funky Kmart burgundy tennis shoes and hand-me-down jeans, floods--showing off 3 inches of mismatched socks. My immediate family was unabashedly racist. It bothered me. I grew up, somehow made it to college, and learned better, because I liked to read, and the university I attended was a great one. I became a school librarian because I love books, and I love kids.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several weeks back, a friend of mine messaged me a picture her husband sent her from the Perry football game he was attending. You were the opposing team. Some of you had painted a big banner that read, "Trump Perry." It was in all red, white and blue, and the President's hair was drawn over his name. In the picture, you were behind the banner. You looked like an all-white crowd dressed in red, white, and blue, holding your arms out with a #1, or, in a few cases, flipping the bird.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I gaped at it, stunned. Then I went to Brooke's Twitter account and got a better, more frontal view of the banner, and of you behind it, and had the same reaction: from the gut: like someone had punched me. Irrationally, as I am 50, white, and was far away from where the banner was being held, I felt frightened. Then, I felt incredulous, and sick to my stomach. I thought: "Why are these kids doing something so cruel and heartless?" I tweeted, retweeting the picture your school had put on their account, and wrote: "My mostly Black, inner-city school played this team last night and were confronted w/this. Sickening racism."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The banner became a story that went places. The Pittsburgh paper covered it, the USAToday covered it, some other local and national papers covered it. I started getting hundreds of hate tweets from folks who thought what I had said about the banner was itself racist. Never mind that the definition of racism says this:</span></span><br />
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<span data-dobid="hdw" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>rac·ism</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="lr_dct_ph" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>ˈrāˌsizəm/</b></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>noun</b></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so--me talking to white people as an example of "racism" is nonsense.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It didn't occur to me until weeks later that I hadn't stopped to analyze what my own reaction to "Trump Perry" meant. Why had I reacted with fear, anger, and the desire to protect my students-- just to the President's name? Why had that image created such an intense response in me-- when people who were tweeting at me, furious, claimed not to have had any ill intent at all? Some of you started tweeting at me-- some openly, some of you privately. Some of you were red-hot angry. Some of you called me names, mocking me, my school, my students. Some of you were polite, and just asking: Why are you saying this is racist? We didn't mean it to be!! We had no ill-intention! More than one of you was ashamed, apologetic.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If we were together right now, this is what I would say to you, face to face: I was scared when I saw your banner. This is why: for my students, there are implicit dangers to living in America. Those dangers are especially pronounced when entering a mostly white community. And my students were a long bus ride away from home.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of you may honestly not know that, because you are not Black. You haven't walked through the world as a Black person in America, lived the history of a Black person in America, or grown up as a Black person in America.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's not meant as a put-down or in any way as an angry statement toward you. I'm white. But the banner your school put up at the football game was a mistake. Whether you were part of it or not, whether you were for or against it, here are some facts:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. The parents of the only Black player on your team asked the Custodian in your school to take the banner down. The Custodian asked the Principal to take it down. Your Principal refused. It is clear that for at least one person in your community before the game, this banner was a problem. To his credit, your Principal has admitted not listening to the parent was a big mistake. However: this incident should begin to start making you ask: whose voices are elevated in your school? Why? Why not?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. Every high school team trades film before football games, usually a week in advance. Your football team would have seen film of our team a week before we played. Your team knew our team was primarily African-American. Who knew that, other than the team, is something only you know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. It is time for you to understand that Black people have experienced, and experience America differently than white people do, and that to be a good person, and a good American, you individually, and collectively must be sensitive to that fact, work to deepen your understandings about what that means and why that is, and take on your work as an American.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The "Trump Perry" incident happened within an educational setting. The work to set it right can and should be educational. If we all are humble enough to acknowledge the need to keep learning, we will all come out the better. Here are some things I have learned, both while doing my undergraduate and graduate work, and while having the privilege of working in a racially diverse school district.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We white people live in a world where our race is invisible to us. That is a function of a thing, a term, called whiteness. It's related to white privilege, something we all have, if we are white, no matter how poor, how hard we had or have it, where we are from, or where we are going. It's just a fact in America that if you are white-- you have a kind of privilege you didn't earn.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check this out: <a href="https://admin.artsci.washington.edu/sites/adming/files/unpacking-invisible-knapsack.pdf" target="_blank">Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had white privilege when I was that ten-year old in my weird shoes and floods, because I wasn't going to be profiled by a racist power structure-- police in the street, teachers, store owners, doctors, Principals-- few of them saw me as a physical threat, followed me around stores, thinking I was going to steal because of how I looked; they didn't assume I was engaging in risky behavior if I wore a hoodie-- they thought I was most likely like their daughter at home. Because I was white.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what is this thing I am calling whiteness?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Consider Calgary Anti-Racist Education's collection of definitions for it: <a href="http://www.ucalgary.ca/cared/whiteness" target="_blank">Understanding Whiteness</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is an article I like. Check it out, written by Nell Irvin Painter, who is the professor emerita of history at Princeton University. Professor Painter wrote the book, "The History of White People." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/what-is-whiteness.html" target="_blank">What Is Whiteness?</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Criminally, oppression against our Black brothers and sisters did not end with slavery, or with the Civil Rights movement. It is really important to feel the weight of history when you try to appreciate someone else's experience. For a great introduction to historical injustices suffered by Black people, read Ta-Nehesi Coates' ground breaking essay from The Atlantic, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/" target="_blank">"The Case for Reparations."</a> This is a long and kind of difficult piece, but it is worth every word.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ta-Nehesi Coates is an incredibly important writer for you to read right now. To better understand why some people, not just myself, react to Trump's name alone as a symbol of whiteness, read this: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/" target="_blank">The First White President</a>. It is worth it to find and read a lot of what Coates writes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The following articles will give you background on how Trump's name is being used as a threat in schools nationwide: <a href="http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-trump-high-school-racial-taunt-20170303-story.html" target="_blank">In Some High School Gyms, Trump's Name is a Taunt</a> and this: <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/11/21/bullies-have-new-intimidation-tactic-campus-name-trump" target="_blank">Bullies Have a New Intimidation Tactic on Campus: The Name "Trump"</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think it is important to read a LOT of fiction from the perspectives of people who do not look like you, or have the same background as you. At Perry, we have a Student-Staff Book Club. Start your own. Challenge your parents, your teachers, your favorite aunt and uncle, to read with you. Here are some great books:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Hate U Give</i> by Angie Thomas</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>How It Went Down</i> by Kekla Magoon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>All American Boys</i> by Jason Reynolds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Black Lives Matter</i> by Sue Bradford Edwards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Between the World and Me</i> by Ta-Nehisi Coates</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The New Jim Crow</i> by Michelle Alexander</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Citizen: An American Lyric</i> by Claudia Rankine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks </i>by Rebecca Skloot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">T<i>he Fire Next Time </i>by James Baldwin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Sister Outsider </i>by Audre Lorde</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This might seems obnoxious to you; some lady from far away, who you don't know, finding something you did or didn't directly do really wrong, then lecturing you about it in a blog, and worse, presuming to give you homework and reading. Like I'm some race expert, right? Like I'm some enlightened being who knows so much about how to be "woke."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't. All I know is that I love my students. I am pretty sure that if I knew you well, and if you were my kids, I'd love you, too. That's what teachers do. And the best way I can love you-- from afar-- is to challenge you to be whom I- and who your teachers, administrators, school district, parents, community, and country need you to be-- people who read widely, think broadly, unlearn and relearn ideas, and try on new ways of being in this world. So-- pick up a book, read two or three of these books and/or articles, and write me a long comment about what you think about them. I'll write you back if you promise to truly think about what you read. Let's learn from each other. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Love, Ms. May</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More Book lists:</span></span><br />
<a href="http://oaklandlibrary.org/blogs/from-main-library/listen-learn-participate-blacklivesmatter-resource-series" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oakland Public Library Blog</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.left-bank.com/black-lives-matter" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Black Lives Matter: A Reading List</span></a><br />
<a href="https://bookriot.com/watch/black-lives-matter-reading-list/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Book Riot Black Lives Matter Book Video List</span></a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-71000174006551180902017-08-31T12:06:00.005-07:002017-08-31T12:08:02.430-07:00Queering the Ceramics Curriculum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Every year, the Ceramics teacher does a relief-tile project with students. Kids look at the work of a famous artist, choose an image they like, and build a tile with the image in relief.<br />
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The Ceramics teacher came in to the Library today, looking for books with color reproductions of art works to take to her Ceramics studio for the project. When I was researching LGBTQIA people of color to help teach about the Day of Silence last year, I came across the artist Kehinde Wiley. I love when Wiley reimagines classical works of art, centering people of color.<br />
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When I look at a Wiley, I feel as gorgeously love-drunk as a bee afloat in a jar of honey. Afloat, and free of the material world, and in a zone where color and shapes and design reign. It is delicious. Check him out:<br />
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The Ceramics teacher listened to me <i>kvell</i> about Wiley, and flipped through the giant coffee-table book I was able to buy for Perry's Library. She snatched it up, as well as a big book on Banksy's work, also new to the Library, and took them up to her class to introduce to her students.<br />
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So now, kids will have the opportunity to learn about two living artists, one of them a gay Black man who plays with ancient artistic themes and modern African-American culture, the other a mysterious entity who challenges political and cultural norms.<br />
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#SchoolLibrariesMatter<br />
#QueerTheCurriculum<br />
#WeNeedDiverseBooks</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-30261549436515632502017-04-23T06:29:00.001-07:002017-04-24T03:02:49.958-07:00Speak the G-D Truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Do you remember what it was like to be in high school? I kind of do. Fucking Vietnam. Take that hill with no bullets, Private. Don't tell me you don't have what you need. Go.<br />
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Yeah, that's pretty much what it's like. Fuck you if you think I'm exaggerating. I'm there every day. We send our kids into situations we couldn't control and hopefully don't face now, as adults. Being in the same school as a neighborhood you're warring with. Knowing you're going to get jumped. Being isolated, feeling so lonely and alone. Having nobody to sit with at lunch. Having no friends. Having the wrong friends. Being terrible at sports. Being gay and being tortured constantly. Not being gay and everyone thinking you're gay. Not knowing if you're gay. Being weak. Being poor and having terrible clothes. Being homeless. Not having soap, or deodorant. Coming to school after your Dad beat the shit out of your Mom and then out of you. Being raped by your uncle-- then having to come to school. No running water or electricty at your house. Not understanding what is going on in class and feeling unhelpable. Not understanding why the kid next to you acts so loud and wild. None of these problems apply to you? They apply to your classmates, and nobody is helping you understand how to be in relation to your classmates. Not your teachers, not your parents, and not the curriculum.<br />
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If we can't avoid this as adults, we do the best we can to deal with it. We send our kids into that situation at school, hoping for the best. We try to manage if we are teachers, and many of us are trying our damn well best. Some of us love our kids.<br />
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It's not like I'm only speaking of inner city high schools. Don't kid yourselves, private school parents, suburban parents. Ha! Where do the school shootings happen? Not in inner city schools. Where are the best drugs found? Sure as hell not in Black inner city schools. Some private and suburban parents just blind yourselves to that stuff. You think you've bought your way to safety. You just pretend your way out of the menace, while your kids shoot heroin and steal your Xanax.<br />
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Why am I writing this? I'm not trying to terrify or enrage anyone, or worse, jeer at anybody. I'm leading up to this--high school is not always safe, physically or emotionally for kids. It's a jungle, whether your kids have 400 kids in their marching band and win awards for their big-budget musical, or whether Principals threaten children's lives and retain their jobs, like the Woodland Hills case.<br />
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I asked my nephew if his friends at his suburban school were watching the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. It is about a girl who kills herself, leaving 13 tapes behind to the 13 people who contributed to her death. My brother said he would never watch something like that-- I told him he should--rape culture, rape, suicide-- all real issues covered in the show were things to talk about with his kids.<br />
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If we can't talk about rape, rape culture and suicide in the suburbs, we damn well start. And we damn well better start talking about violence in schools, too. In his ninth grade year, my son went to arguably the most academically well regarded high school in Pittsburgh. That year he told me about the most disturbing and horrible fight he ever saw, in which a kid pounded another kid's head against the pavement over and over and over.<br />
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I walked up to check on a colleague after a fight last week, past blood on two flights of stairs. There stood a maintanence man with a mop, erasing the pools of blood that drove those rivers down the stairs. I pushed through groups of kids, excitedly watching and rewatching the fight which has been shot from every angle by their peers on phones.<br />
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If you are a parent reading this, or a person who would use my words to prove how public schools are "failing," violent and to be avoided, hear this: suburban and private schools may or may not have violent fights such as this. But as a person who has worked in both suburban and private schools, there are problems that are terrible there, too.<br />
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In private schools, rich parents can set policy to protect themselves, not children. This results in wholesale violations in special education law, grade inflation, the richest kids being able to bully/miss school/etc. without consequences. You may think this wouldn't happen to your child, or be your child. What if it does? And if you think it can't be true: why wouldn't this be true when the school answers to parents, not the state?<br />
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Suburban parents may think they have purchased themselves the distance and the resources to have opted out of the problems that beset the inner city. But white privilege is it's own problem. And uber competiveness to get into the Ivies and other prestigious schools, combined with a relative curricular disinterest in social justice and diversity keep suburban kids from a full and rich understanding of the true and real world.<br />
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There is an answer. We belong together. All of our resources, human, material, financial-- we belong together. Building moats around ourselves, our resources, our humanity, disucssions about the truths we live-- this is stupid. The truth is the truth. Let's open it up, bring it out and just freaking talk about it. Nobody is better than anybody else. Black inner city kids and adults have resources nobody else has. So do others. We should stop being afraid to speak the truth.<br />
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What does that look like explicitly? Public school does a good job of bringing people together. It has FAILED to teach people directly how to DO diversity. We need to teach directly how to live in a diverse classroom and school community. We need to acknowledge explicity how to live in a "beloved community" where we are trained to see some of us have gifts of lived wealth, some of us have gifts of artistic wealth, etc. If we see each other in term of our strengths, not our deficits, we may learn to live together better.<br />
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We need to teach diverse curricula. We must teach about LGBT people, Latinix, and all the missing parts of humanity in our curriucula: not just because we got sued by somebody, but because elevating the stories and contributions of the world create and recreate our humanity.<br />
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We need to teach about all the issues kids are facing-- rape, rape culture, racism-- let's drive the elevator up Bloom's Taxonomy to Critical Consciousness. If we want our kids to be SAFE-- we must arm them with the ability to THINK.<br />
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And EVERY Pittsburgh Public School, IMO, needs to be trained in Trauma Informed Practises. IMMEDIATELY. Because all of us, teachers and students, are traumatized, over and over again, by the violence we see and terrors we hear and know of.<br />
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And by the way, DAMN, largely white, rich capitalist pigs need to stop offshoring what should be tax dollars and pay into a democratic society so our country stops circling the drain. But that's for another blog post.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-50208780578587859592017-02-27T06:54:00.001-08:002017-02-27T06:54:54.841-08:00Perry High School's in-school Food Pantry: By Kids, For Kids. By K. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #695d46; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #695d46; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ten of Pittsburgh Perry’s student body are in the beginning stages of something truly great and inspirational. We are creating a food pantry within our school. We began a committee to create a food pantry when we realized there are a lot of students who are going hungry at home. For example, we know of a family with twelve members and eight children who gets less than $200 in food stamps a month. Families every day are struggling to get by, even on public assistance. When students don't eat they tend to be very angry and irritable and this causes a lot of fights at school. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-5f83d666-8002-771a-8f96-b753b2943aad" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 6pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #695d46; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of us get the backpack program. Your parents have to sign up for the backpack program, which allows you to take home blue plastic Giant Eagle bags with non-perishable food in them on the weekends. The problem with the backpack program is that those bags are not enough to satisfy the hunger of a growing teen, let alone them and their family. So, two of our ten food pantry members met with the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, the head of Oliver High School's Backpack Program and Mary Shull, a community activist, to see how we could work together to get our program off the ground. We discussed why we wanted to have a food pantry within our school. We showed them our plans up to that point, which included giving students choices about what kinds food they wanted to have in Perry’s food bank. We think if you have more of a choice between foods, it won’t be a waste. We showed the Food Pantry people the space Mr. Cooper has designated for us.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #695d46; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The Greater Pittsburgh Food Pantry told us they are willing to work with us, and would give us a list of foods and hygiene products they could possibly provide for us. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 6pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #695d46; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since then, with they help of Mary Shull, we created a survey for the student body to take. The survey lists what the Perry Food Pantry might be able to supply, and allows students to choose what they want in the pantry. When students take the survey, it will help us determine both how many kids might use the Perry Food bank and what items they want. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 6pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #695d46; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the students come to our student-run food pantry, they will be more comfortable because it is not random people there judging them nor is it the staff there, it is their peers that are there. Our 10- members are very respectable and trustworthy. This is something small that could turn into something nation wide all we need is faith and a little help. -K. </span></div>
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Please support our GoFundMe campaign, which will allow us to purchase items we need for our Food Pantry. Thank you! <a href="http://gofundme.com/perrys-inschool-food-pantry" target="_blank">Go Fund Me: Perry's Food Pantry Campaign</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-60426483204609996712017-01-24T13:14:00.000-08:002017-01-24T13:22:19.909-08:00Starving Students: and how we might respond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My friend told me her 7th-grade daughter just passed the Algebra Keystone our 10th graders at Perry keep failing. She was morose about it, because she teaches at Perry, and she gets beat over the head with A+ Schools' "Report to the Community" every year, and the PowerPoint presentations at every faculty and Parent-Community meeting. The data, the data, the data, the data that says our kids are underperforming on math and reading, math and reading, not to mention their dismal Biology Keystones, and God only knows, when the folks at the PDE come out with a standardized test for Social Studies and Home Ec and PE and everything else but what our kids are doing great at: surviving, and being every kind of beautiful in a world bent on destroying them. </div>
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It's not just hyperbole. Our city may be the "most livable" for some, but it has one of the highest levels of Black poverty, our schools are some of the most segregated, our state offers zero aid to homeless children, and our public schools are made to do more with less, and less, and less and less. While white, suburban, socio-economically segregated schools roll and drip with cutting-edge technology and professional-grade scoreboards with video screens and marching bands 400-kids deep, replete with a glistening fleet of trucks to haul the brand-new instruments they play. </div>
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In our school, children arrive so hungry that they ask teachers for food. They sleep in class. After long weekends in homes without food, or with food insecurity, they return to class angry, they can't pay attention, they have stomach and headaches, their chronic illnesses are flaring or are in crisis. We have not had a full time school nurse in many months, and so finding a nurse in her office to help is catch-as-catch-can. If we had a doctor on site, her prescription would be food, healthy food, a steady stream of it, and lots of it, as needed. </div>
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Since we don't have a doctor on site, Perry students have decided to come to their own rescue, and this is how: they are working on a plan to develop an in-school Food Pantry. Working with community activist Mary Shull, and Oliver City-Wide teacher Holly Sousa, an 11-student Perry committee will soon meet with the Pittsburgh Food Bank. The idea is to have students create, manage and run a Food Pantry inside Perry in co-operation with local funders and resources that will serve their peers. Agency, choice, voice, some kind of food security, a reason to come to school beyond learning: to serve others. To make a difference in the lives of your peers. To help yourself, to learn how to run an "agency" in your school that might just calm your school. That might just heal your school. That might provide a measure of peace, for you and for your friends, and your not-friends. Food heals. It literally and figuratively nourishes a body, in this case a student body. There is nothing Perry students can't do. Watch this space to learn how you might support their effort. Love.</div>
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<a href="http://wesa.fm/post/pittsburgh-home-four-school-districts-highest-poverty-rates#stream/0" target="_blank">Pittsburgh Home to Four School Districts With Highest Poverty Rates</a></div>
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<a href="http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/9807345-74/schools-students-pittsburgh" target="_blank">Segregation in Pittsburgh Schools an Enduring Problem</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2015/01/13/University-of-Pittsburgh-report-shows-continued-racial-disparities-in-Pittsburgh/stories/201501130169" target="_blank">Racial Disparities in Pittsburgh</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/business/Biz-opinion/2010/07/04/Regional-Insights-High-black-poverty-a-shame/stories/201007040132" target="_blank">High Black Poverty a Shame</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/02/by_the_numbers_how_many_homele.html" target="_blank">No State Aid for Homeless Children in Schools</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-75237445016237872042016-10-15T07:32:00.001-07:002016-10-15T07:49:29.391-07:00Love Song to My Students<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"When my Dad sees this," C said, holding his first report card, "I'm going to be the new IronMan." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"How?" I said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Imma have a hole punched right through my chest."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I howled. He laughed, too, but it clearly wasn't that funny to him. He was the one, after all, who had to go home to face his Dad with bad grades.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">C. is one of my favorites. Last year, when he was a tall, skinny freshman, he performed at City of Asylum with my film students and the music kids. He sang <i>Am I Wrong</i> by Nico & Vinz in a wide-brimmed black felt hat, with a three-foot red pheasant feather hanging out of the back. The kid can sing, beautifully, one thin wrist raised high, imploring-- "AM I WRONG???"-- and he moonwalked all over the stage, bumping the pretty girls, upperclassmen, who were his backup singers. Poor C. Even during his glory moment-- during his actual <i>moment</i> in the spotlight-- he was annoying girls. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">M. joined the Gay-Straight Alliance this year, but not easily. I turned him away. I actually threw him out, several times, thinking he was joking, or being a jerk, or just wanted to chow on the pizza I order every week for the club I sponsor for our school. He kept coming back, asking to join, refusing to touch the pizza. I let him in. He's made some crazy suggestions-- l<i>et's raise money for the GSA by having a Powder Puff football game!</i>-- but when somebody talks about being harassed for being LGBT, or different, or weak, or whatever-- M.'s eyes go cold. He is as hurt and angry as the rest of us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We designed Little Free Libraries last year for the neighborhoods on the North Side, and M.'s was stunning. This big kid, for whom football is vitally important, spent hour after hour painstakingly drawing-- freehand-- the Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol bridges, and then painting them in exquisite detail, each plate girder and eye-bar in place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm a morning person. Every day, I stand in the hall at Perry with Library passes, greeting kids as they walk in. I am there, inevitably in a dress, wearing a crazy, bright shiny necklace (it's kind of my thing) doing a stand-up routine like a caffeinated Effie Trinket. I don't know where it comes from, but as kids walk in, I have to bleat like a sheep at them. There's a kid whose name sounds like part of a Hebrew prayer. So I sing the prayer to her. Every day. I tell kids they look good. I tell them it's good to see them. I say <i>Yo</i> a lot. I say Hello, Perrrryyyyyyyy! If they are wearing blue I congratulate them on wearing the school color. I don't know. Having an excess of personality in the morning is definitely a character flaw, and I'm not working on it. It's loud. It's obnoxious. I can't help it at all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A. walks in everyday in a Star-Wars hoodie, bleary eyed. She gets her breakfast from the cafeteria, then stands in the doorway where I stand and observes the May-Stein show, perhaps as a way to wake up. It's unclear. But every day, she's there, and she won't share her breakfast with me, which is definitely uncool. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A. is as stalwart, hardworking, and trustworthy a person I think I've ever met, and she's not even a senior in high school yet. She worked for two weeks straight to make a power point to explain the differences between genderfluid and intersex, asexual and ally, transgender and bisexual: these terms and others the GSA needs to master in order to teach teachers and students at our school. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Every day she breaks minor rules all other students are made to follow at Perry because she simply can. Why? Because she's the kind of kid who does everything right, who teachers trust implicitly, and who can get away with it because she deserves it. A. captains the sports teams she plays, gets good grades, is a great student leader, and basically is the President of the GSA. Here's what makes me worry: when, oh when, is A. going to cut loose? I worry: am I doing enough to help her know that she doesn't have to be perfect? Does she know that she doesn't have to be perfect for me? That even though I do count on her-- she doesn't have to be the one everybody counts on all the time? That she can figure things out, too? That she's allowed to be wild and crazy? To make mistakes? Be a goofball? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When school started, I told myself I was going to make a note of every time something beautiful or funny or good or lovely happened-- a time a child revealed their vulnerability, or their goodness, or their gifts, so that I could hold on to how much beauty is part of my daily life and chosen field. But I have given that up. There's too much. I'm inundated with beauty, where I work. My kids shoot me through with it, all the time, just breathing the same air. They fill me up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So when I read the article about the folks in Bethel Park who showed their hatred of kids like mine, I felt sad for them, especially since their acts are getting national coverage. Their ignorance and shame stand before the world now as another example of what happens when Americans willingly segregate ourselves from each other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When I go to work, I see the enormous privilege I have because I work in an urban inner city school. Suburban school districts may have purchased themselves an illusion of socioeconomic uniformity and privilege, but in doing so, they won't know C.'s ability to draw. His humor. How he sings, and dances, his world-class wit. If they ever see an athletic young Black man like M., they'll never assume he is capable of intense sensitivity, or know his mammoth talent, acting ability, or how multi-faceted he is. They won't know he pushed his way into a club to protect his vulnerable classmates. Bethel residents may not be able to imagine that a student like A. is teaching an inner-city staff and student body about LGBTQIA diversity and needs, but she is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A love song to my students. You give me life. I'm so grateful to you, and to each one I didn't name. You know who you are. I love you. You know I mean it. Ms. May.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/13/crowd-shouts-racial-slurs-at-all-black-youth-football-team-when-some-players-kneel-during-anthem-coach-says/</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Racial-slurs-heard-when-youth-football-team-takes-a-knee.html</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-3505047110338214022016-06-29T09:57:00.002-07:002016-06-29T10:45:20.377-07:00PA Budget Cuts have UNMADE Education: and our Voices must REMAKE it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/171197670">The Reel Teens: Pittsburgh Episode 3</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/steeltownentertainment">Steeltown Entertainment Project</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As an eighth grader at Reizenstein Middle School, I had an art teacher who gave me the coolest assignment ever. She handed out drafting paper, a nice, sharp charcoal pencil, an artist's eraser, enormous pieces of thin cardboard, the kind of rubber cement with the brush on the lid, and actual Exacto blades-- with extra blades when yours got lost, or dull. Can you imagine that kind of trust now?? Anyway! Our assignment was to imagine, then plan out and draw our dream home. The next step was to BUILD it, based on our plans. Mine had a conservatory, a library, a Scarlett O'Hara staircase, and three floors. It looked like a bad wedding cake, listing heavily to one side, and it won no beauty contests. Who CARED? The fun, the process- the swoosh of the glue from that awesome, fat brush, struggling through the cardboard with the blades, trying for a clean edge-- the process, it was the process that was so. much. fun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'll never forget that project, although what the clear details of the class, the teacher, the grade I got on the project are? Long forgotten. It only occurs to me now, as an educator, that the art teacher had collapsed boundaries between art, math, technology, and engineering in that assignment, and all I knew as a kid was that I wasn't going to miss that class-- ever. And my best friend from the time, Jami Rosen, can tell you that she and I missed classes on occasion to do crazy things-- like.... well, never mind. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyway--- again! Hands on learning-- that's the kind of stuff that brings kids to school. I had a kid in my Film class this past year who only showed up on Tuesdays and Thursdays because those were the days the teaching artists from Steeltown came to class. On those days, she was going on field trips to interview people on the North Side, eating food she hadn't tried before, learning about RandyLand, the Mattress Factory, the Warhol, City of Asylum, Manchester Craftsmans Guild-- and filming it all herself with professional equipment. Her other teachers were so angry at the situation that they talked to me about it, and asked for help, which I tried to give. But I understood. Because when kids are excited about doing things with their minds/hands/hearts all at once, it is hard not to identify with them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My film class was featured in <i>The Reel Teens Pittsburgh</i>, which stars one of the former students of the Film class, Hazell Azzer. The third episode of the show focuses on ReMake Learning, which is the brainchild of Gregg Behr, the Chairman of the Grable Foundation.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ReMake seeks to put an emphasis on hands on, student-driven learning like I did at Reizenstein, like the kids of Reel Teens do, like the Film class does. Some of the other hands-on learning that happens at Perry High School is also featured in this wonderful television show, created by kids from across the city and produced by my partner for Perry's Film class, Steeltown Entertainment Project. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As you saw if you watched the episode (and you should) ReMake is a big deal in Pittsburgh. A representative from the White House came to congratulate the effort, Gregg Behr was honored by the President for his leadership, and millions of dollars have been pledged to help bring STEAM and project-based learning to schools and out-of-school providers across the region. </span>And all of that is a huge boon to our area, and I am so glad, and grateful. But there is one elephant in the room, and I need to talk about it, with the hope that all of us ReMakers can work together now in this time of real educational crisis. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Reizenstein had a great woodshop, possibly a metal shop (I did't go in there, so I don't know for sure), an enormous swimming pool, a gigantic library, a drama department (I was in Babes in Arms with THEE BILLY PORTER!!) What's my point? Bear with me for a minute more.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Connelly trained high school kids in machinery, welding, HVAC, carpentry. South Vo-Tech fought closure to add a vocational-technical training program to their school in the 80's. Home Economics. Computer Class. Keyboarding. Art. Musical Instruments. Music. Ceramics. How many of these classes are STEAM skills, and cut to the bone, or non-existent in Pittsburgh Public Schools, because we don't have any money to fund them? Perry used to offer jewelry class in a fully equipped metal shop, with the ability to weld. We have a greenhouse in disrepair that is not functional (but could be.) We used to have a woodshop, but it is not used any more. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How many other Pittsburgh Public schools have un- and under-utilized spaces for the kinds of learning that are now offered by Tech Shop, the Children's Museum, the Carnegie Libraries, the Science Center, et al? This is not to say that the immaculate Maker Spaces in those facilities shouldn't exist-- they should, and they are doing beautiful work. But here's the elephant in the room: not everybody has transportation, admission fees, and/or an adult to accompany them to out-of-school facilities. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I understand that one of the purposes of ReMake Learning is to provide some of the enrichment that suburban and private school kids get outside of school inside of school. That won't happen until the brick-and-mortar investments in our public schools are made (and remade.) It is lovely that the Manchester Academic Charter School has been given residence in the Children's Museum, but to my knowledge, no traditional public school was offered this opportunity. Until public schools are actually given the chance to co-locate inside world-class (and partially publicly funded) museums with Maker Spaces inside of them, we'll have to go begging to make or remake our own facilities, inside our own walls. Or, preferably, our constitutionally guaranteed right to a "thorough and efficient" education will be safeguarded by Pennsylvanians who care about kids.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a group of educators, innovators, philanthropists, community leaders, and stakeholders, we have to work together not only to restore funding for pubic schools, but to ensure there is a fair funding formula. According to the Education Law Center, "Pennsylvania is one of only three states that creates a budget without using a statewide education funding formula. As a result, the quality of a child's education often depends on their zip code. High-poverty public schools in Pennsylvania spend an annual average of $3000 less per student compared to wealthy schools, adding up to a funding gap of $75,000 in a classroom of 25 students." </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Governor Wolf and the House have proposed a state budget that would almost restore education funding to the pre-2011 level, before Governor Corbett made $1Billion in cuts that decimated our schools. We have to call our state legislators, have lunch with them if we have that kind of access, lean on them, and say that school funding in our state is not a political football, but a first priority. </span><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While state Republicans have unmade Pennsylvania education budgets, it is incumbent upon us all to REMAKE it, and remake it in the way it should look for all children. Please ask the Senate to pass the budget our Governor and House have proposed. Because we stand united in the belief that they all deserve it, equally. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.psea.org/apps/budget/budgetimpact.aspx" target="_blank">How Gov. Wolf's Proposed Budget Affects Your School</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.elc-pa.org/fighting-for-fair-school-funding/" target="_blank">http://www.elc-pa.org/fighting-for-fair-school-funding/</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/how-fair-funding-formula-works/" target="_blank">How Governor Wolf's Fair Funding Formula Will Work</a></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2004/03/22/For-70-years-Connelley-school-did-A-work/stories/200403220101" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For-70-years-Connelley-school-did-A-work</span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2004/05/18/Airing-out-the-plan-City-school-closings-draw-crowd/stories/200405180127" target="_blank">Pittsburghers protest school closings</a></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://remakelearning.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://remakelearning.org</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although Corbett has been voted out, his disastrous educational policies have not. Read this excellent blog post by my friend Jessie Ramey to learn more about why we're in the place we are in in our state, and how to talk to your state legislator about change: <a href="https://yinzercation.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/top-10-education-reasons-to-vote-corbett-out/" target="_blank">/top-10-education-reasons-to-vote-corbett-out/</a></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-27614192002451113542016-03-09T18:15:00.000-08:002016-03-12T15:11:18.468-08:00Jewish and Confused<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is a confusing time to be a Jew in Pittsburgh. It is an election year, and a year in which more and more parts of Pittsburgh are "transforming," I have lived here all of my adult life. I am blessed to know Jewish people from all walks of life, rich, poor, urban, suburban, unpolitical, left, right, center, Marxist, and Tea Party Republican. I have been a member of two Reform congregations, worked in a Conservative Day School, have a cousin who is an ordained Hebrew Priestess, more than one who grew up Orthodox, and I myself converted. It is a lovely swirl of viewpoints, but a swirl.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Add social media, where voices intrude at all times of day and night if you let them-- boiling with election madness, with people talking about gentrification, with my own thoughts-- OY! So much to think about and so much to hear.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And as we know, there is a season for everything. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. I would like to frame this as an open letter to my community, in a way, because I am so confused right now about what it means to be a Jew, both in America and in Pittsburgh. Things are happening close to home and in our country that seem so upside down that I feel as if I am living inside Chagall's shtetl paintings. When Louis Farrakkan "likes what he sees" when he hears Trump, because "Trump isn't taking Jewish money" in his election, (<a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/louis-farrakhan-donald-trump-220021" target="_blank">Farrakhan</a>) and my Jewish friends say they'll vote for Trump if they have to-- you can see why I feel so <i>fershimmiled</i> that writing to you and to the world and to the cold, dark, remote bright stars seems like a good option. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So many voices are speaking in an election year, in a year in which we must transition from the now-known era of the first Black President and the rise of a new kind of opposing Republican party.<span id="goog_357462309"></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What may have started with turning Southerners against the Democratic party during the Civil Rights movement has become something else in 2016-- in fact, as Ta-Nehisi Coates and others have argued, perhaps what we are witnessing now is the unfought and unwon parts of the Civil War. When we are still arguing whether or not to fly the rebel flag of the Confederacy over state buildings, the point sort of makes itself.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In fact, the 2016 Republican party is perhaps not what is new, but what is newly allowed to be out in the light. And for that, maybe we have Trump and Cruz to thank, as well as our first Black President, who together have blown open a festering dark place in America's soul. This election cycle gives voice to it.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course the voices given the most time and volume are those Republican voices like Cruz's and Trump's, the current Republican front runners for President. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cruz proudly is endorsed by Mike Bickle, an evangelical pastor who preaches that Hitler was sent by God to be a hunter of Jews because they wouldn't convert to Christianity. See him preaching here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpRV0spflIE" target="_blank">Mike Bickle Preaching Hunters to Kill Jews</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cruz believes America is a singular Christian nation, and he will strive to keep and make it that way. He is anti-gay, anti-women's rights, and plans to eliminate the IRS, and the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Trump is openly supported by the KKK and other hate groups, an endorsement he has refused to repudiate. Trump cannily plays on the anti-immigrant, anti-Brown people (for lack of a more specific term) undercurrent and enthusiastically encourages supporters to mistreat opposition voices at his rallies, which do not bring visions of Brown Shirts to my mind alone. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Both Trump and Cruz are proudly supported by many Jewish people, which to me makes about as much sense as a chicken who wants a fox in charge of the hen house. Which of course-- exposes a big conundrum. When I look at my Tea Party or right-wing Jewish friends' Facebook or Twitter feeds, I see mostly pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian, anti-terror posts. </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Increasingly, some of their posts say things like, "anybody but the Socialist." Huh? Because National Socialism and Democratic Socialism have anything in common? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">These are people whom I respect, who are smart, kind, good people making statements on social media about how they will vote for Trump or Cruz over the first viable Jewish candidate for President the United States has ever run. Bernie Sanders has spoken for 35 years about things like health care for all. A living wage. Choice. Respect for immigrants and "other." His platform could have been written by Emma Lazarus herself, the young Jewish immigrant who gave voice to the identity of the American ideal.</span></span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">With conquering limbs astride from land to land;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22.4px;">I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"</span></span></span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.4px;">Forgotten are those words now, apparently, by American Jewish supporters of Cruz and Trump, some of them children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims who may have survived had they been welcomed to our "golden door." Those folks are slathering over themselves to write checks, or holding their noses while they write checks, whichever it is-- for surely, checks are being written by Jewish hands-- to build giant walls to keep out new generations of wretched masses in the name of the same "security" that kept out forefathers and mothers.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I hear those Jewish voices who support Trump and Cruz. I read their words in the news and I wonder about those I know. And I think about those Jewish people I know or know of in my own city who own successful businesses or whose children I have known or taught, and the choices they are making in different ways here. Not choices about for whom they will vote necessarily, but political choices nonetheless. Their voices and their choices puzzle me too, and confuse me and concern me. To be a Jew is never to feel alone, at least not in my experience. The community is always a part of me, and I feel part of it. But that was not always true.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first time I met a Jewish person I was aware of as a Jewish person was at Reizenstein Middle School. I was put into advanced classes by kind teachers, and with me in those classes were a few quiet and very reserved African-American kids, most of Squirrel Hill's kids, and me, white trash from Highland Park. We were let out for recess on a giant green space, most sadistically before lunch, across from a Nabisco factory that scented the air with chocolate chip cookies. Today that Nabisco factory has been turned into Bakery Square, the home of Google Pittsburgh and many high-end retail stores and restaurants. Reizenstein and the glorious green space that surrounded it was purchased for a song from the Pittsburgh Public Schools for an unknown reason, and was promptly torn to the ground.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As everyone in Pittsburgh knows, the advent of the Google age in Pittsburgh has been loud. "Transforming" is one verb that has been used, but the word "gentrification" is louder among the voices I hear most often. Googlers have come, and they have needed places to live. So Walnut Capital and other companies have built new housing. One of my students at Perry actually asked me if the special skywalk that bridges Google Pittsburgh to the new building going up on ashes of Reizenstein is so "Google people" won't have to see Black people." Micro-apartments, that is, one-bedrooms of 510 square feet costing $1340-$1600 per month are available in this new development.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course all of this is nestled into and surrounded by Homewood, where I did my student teaching. Where <a href="http://outlaweducator.blogspot.com/2012/12/outside-lines-of-standardized-test.html" target="_blank">this</a> happened. Where <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/01/24/463859455/young-artists-find-home-and-healing-at-a-pittsburgh-art-house" target="_blank">this</a> is. Where in 2006, the infant mortality rate was 40.7%, while Pittsburgh's as a whole was 9.6%. (<a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6NlodJoMxYMJ:www.alleghenycounty.us/Human-Services/Resources/Research/Homewood--A-Community-Profile.aspx+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="_blank">Allegheny Dpt. Human Srvcs</a>) So what, right? Businesses coming to poor neighborhoods can bring everybody up, right? Pointing a finger at one specific business or at several is nonsensical, right?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Is it? Last week a glamorous party was held at Bakery Square, a fund raiser for a non-profit with the laudable goal of raising funds for communities hard-hit by natural disasters. At the party, one party-planner "<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">took partygoers on a decadent journey with a nod to Versailles. Green balloons floated on the ceiling, glittering bonbons were nibbled as the “Queen” and “King” of Versailles picked lucky guests out of the crowd for delicious chocolate treats that the Queen, herself, poured chocolate sauce over as a finishing touch." (<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/life/seen/2016/03/07/Forces-of-Nature-event-held-at-Bakery-2-0-in-Shadyside/stories/201603070022" target="_blank">P-G</a>) </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">If it raises funds for poor communities, who cares who pours chocolate on what, you might ask, but you'd be lame to ask, and you'd know it, because that juxtaposition stinks. The geopolitical reality of dying infants and reenactments of Marie Antoinette within the same neighborhood, if you are aware and alive to it, is too gruesome and too much. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">Bakery Square is 2 miles from Wilkinsburg High School, which is closing and sending its entire student body, along with all of its middle school kids, to Westinghouse next year, a Pittsburgh Public school 1.3 miles away. Wilkinsburg (nicknamed "We'll Kill Yinz Burg" because of neighborhood violence) can't afford to educate its own children, you know....2 miles away from Google. But-- uplift. Great things. Progress. The recipient of the fund raiser at Bakery Square? New Orleans.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">Bakery Square, Google, East Liberty, the fundraiser-- not all the work of Jewish people and/or Jewish business, of course. However, some major players there were-- and because this is my place to think out loud, and to wonder what it means to be a person and a Jew-- I have to say-- what the hell is going on? </span></span></span></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">Moving a little further into East Liberty, or as some developer tried unsuccessfully to rebrand it, "East Side,"--How can the owners of Pennley Park South give their impoverished, sometimes handicapped and elderly residents $1600, 90 days and "get thee out so," so their home can be "redeveloped to residential and retail space?" Even worse--how can our city give these owners </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">2.2 acres of publicly owned land as a bribe to even do this much for the owners, thereby privatizing park land that previously belonged to all Pittsburghers? See: <a href="http://neighborhoodallies.com/tag/pennley-park-south/" target="_blank">Pennley Park South</a> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">I hereby claim the right as a Jewish resident of this city to call out fellow Jews I've never met on this bullshittery. Throwing the old and the weak out into the street for profit? For profitable bribes? When do "Torah" and "business" intersect? </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;">If you tell me they don't, you have your answer as to why the world sucks. And how in the world can we Jewish people act astonished when African-Americans have some historical anger at us? How can we continue to self-righteously point at pictures of Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with Dr. King? It's been a long road since those days-- and perhaps no road longer than here in the 'burgh.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "timesnewroman" , "verdana";">C</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">an we stop looking to vote for somebody who would be the one to protect us from our worst fears, and start looking to vote for somebody who would be our partner in making the world less to be afraid of? Can we start talking to our friends, even knowing what could be lost, when they make choices we think are weird or wrong? How is possible to get closer to living our values?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Maybe trying to be an upstander--taking those risks-- is the price of being a Jewish person in a small town in an election year during what feels like the Civil War. Maybe in writing all of this---that person could be me. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-size: 15.6px; letter-spacing: -0.156px; line-height: 23.4px;"><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/why-in-the-world-would-american-jews-support-trump/" target="_blank">why-in-the-world-would-american-jews-support-trump/</a></span>
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<a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/jews-trump-kind-maybe" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">jews-for-trump-maybe</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For an alternative viewpoint of Jewish person writing in support of Bernie Sanders for President, see David Harris Gershon's excellent Daily Kos article: <a href="http://m.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/07/1481134/-The-First-Jewish-President" target="_blank">The-First-Jewish-President</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For a tremendously impactful look at gentrifiation, see: <a href="http://verysmartbrothas.com/wilkinsburg-the-side-of-americas-most-livable-city-pittsburgh-doesnt-want-you-to-see/" target="_blank">wilkinsburg-the-side-of-americas-most-livable-city-pittsburgh-doesnt-want-you-to-see/</a></span></span><br />
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<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="1" data-href="/DemosIdeasAction/videos/vb.46587884802/10154005156424803/?type=3"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/DemosIdeasAction/videos/10154005156424803/"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DemosIdeasAction/videos/10154005156424803/"></a><p>We can't fix economic inequality without addressing racism.</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DemosIdeasAction/">Demos</a> on Saturday, March 12, 2016</blockquote></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-88232881452173148072015-12-21T18:40:00.002-08:002016-03-26T15:58:28.269-07:00The Jane Heather McKee Library<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When I was in fifth grade, I went to a tiny school in Delmont, Pennsylvania called Mamont Elementary. There was a room in the basement with books, and that was our library. No librarian, of course. One day I checked out a book called <u>Girls Can Do It, Too!</u> It had a picture of a girl in a cape making muscles. When I showed my teacher, my beloved Mrs. Silvis, whose pet I kind of definitely was, she said, "Uh-huh. I've been trying to get that out of the library for some time." She arched her eyebrow over her tortoise shell glasses. I felt bad for taking the book out. I don't think I read it.<br />
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Having the courage of my convictions is a daily struggle for me. That is why my friend Jane McKee is such an inspiration. She drives a huge, taxi-cab yellow monster truck with a license plate that says, EXPLORE. No money for exotic vacations? No problem. She worked as a maid so she and her daughter could summer in Maui. Fascinated by the Iditarod, Jane taught her 800+ students at Colfax K-8 about it, then drove to Alaska to work with a professional musher. Who DRIVES TO ALASKA alone with her 11-year old daughter? A brave woman, that's who.<br />
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Jane loves Assateague, the little island in Maryland where wild ponies roam. She spent so many days and night camping there, waking to gulls crying and waves crashing. I hate beach camping. Sand in cracks it shouldn't be in. Blah. But not Jane. Wild ponies. Crashing waves. Blue sky.<br />
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Jane dresses up each year in a different costume to make kids want to read more. She's the school Librarian. And what a Librarian. Believing mightily in the power of the sound of stories, Jane read stories aloud to thousands of kids. She started an international collection for the children from Mongolia, Japan, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Korea. With the help of her loving, supportive and mighty PTSO, she started a lending collection of American Girl dolls. She refuses to let kids be bullied. We call Jane the Pirate Librarian Queen.<br />
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But now Jane is in the hospital in serious condition. And a dream has started to form in my mind. And I thought, if I shared it with you, we might be able to think about it together and you could add your thoughts, and the kids could add theirs, and teachers could add theirs, and parents could add theirs. And since we are COLFAX, we could make miracles happen. Because that is what Colfax does. So here it is.<br />
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The Library at Colfax is too small. It does not function well as it is. And the space on the second floor is greatly needed as classroom space. So: let's build the Library the school deserves. For all the students. For Jane. For when she gets better.<br />
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You know where the garden is right now? Off of the art room? Great, sunny, beautiful space. Let's build a Library there, a 2-story space, with a courtyard in which the garden still is, and which an apiary and a bird watching space is. Let's put a star gazing space on the roof. Let's build a Young Adult Library inside it, with computers and a place to build films and robots. Let's make a story circle worthy of Jane's stories. Let's put a Maker Space in there. Let's endow it with a book budget worthy of the children who go to Colfax--- the East Hills children, who don't have a Library in their community, the Squirrel Hill children who may not have a Mom or Dad who can get them to the Library. Colfax is the experiment in public education, in desegregation-- in multiculturalism-- THAT WORKED. THAT WORKS. It is proof to all the Donald Trumps out there that the American Dream can be real. That it isn't just a lie.<br />
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Colfax is a crucible of the haves, the have nots, the Blacks, the whites, the browns, yellows, blues and greens. Colfax is the youngs and olds, the bused in and the walked over. Colfax is the place where the multicultural fair is attended by the whole neighborhood, where Orthodox kids come to play-- and sometimes come to school. It's the place where difference works. Can we build a LIBRARY, a treasure house of stories that opens children's hearts to this difference, to this value system? That will live forever in brick and stone, growing high with sunflowers inside and Jane's name over the door?<br />
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Can Colfax kids design it? Can Colfax parents build it? Can the District approve it? Can her friends be the mortar and the brick that help to make the miracle real? Prayers for Jane. Prayers for Colfax.<br />
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Post Script:<br />
A teacher-leader at Colfax told me privately that she thought a building project at Colfax was a bad idea. She said that she thought there would be little support for such a project within District leadership, because Colfax is considered by some to be a privileged school full of privileged kids, and building in Squirrel Hill when schools in other parts of the city are struggling so mightily with much less that Colfax already has would be a poor political decision.<br />
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Maybe there are ways to make a library at Colfax, worthy of its many children, from all over the city and all over the world, possible. That will be something that the adults both inside and outside the school will have to do-- the staff and students and parents who loved Jane. I will join whatever effort is decided upon by this learning community, in any way I can.<br />
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In the meantime: I miss my friend. I keep her picture on the desk I use to get ready for work in the morning, and I talk to her every day. When somebody brings her up, I am startled, because I remember again that she is gone. I can't assimilate that very well. She is such a strong living force. I am still crying. But, Jane is a strength in my heart, too. She is and will always be the Pirate Librarian Queen for me-- a strong, independent woman who was kind, and loving, and righteous, without being self-righteous, or bitchy, or mean. She was the kind of woman I'd like to be more like. I am holding on to her example as a literal light out of the dark. Maybe the night we had the impromptu vigil for her at Colfax-- the night, it turned out, she passed away-- maybe that night her soul didn't fly to heaven, but nestled close to us, in each of those fragile, but glowing lights we held close. I love you, Jane.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-50828828629599130442015-12-14T04:55:00.003-08:002015-12-14T04:55:43.045-08:00Facing Evil with Maya Angelou<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My Dear Students. Today I am asking you to watch the 22 minute video, above. It is of a great journalist, Bill Moyers, interviewing Maya Angelou after a conference called Facing Evil. After you watch the video, I would like you to think about these questions:<br />
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What is evil?<br />
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What are some of the ways people choose to face evil?<br />
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Can people make choices about how to respond to evil?<br />
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How are responses to evil related to every day survival?<br />
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Please write a thoughtful response to one of these questions or to one of your own-- or to any of your thoughts about something related to the video.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-15284566888364350182015-10-11T13:25:00.000-07:002015-10-12T04:13:22.933-07:00Remaking Learning at Perry High School's Library<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My ex-brother in law works at Google Pittsburgh. Let's call him BIL. BIL gets to work each morning and is greeted by a hearty breakfast cooked for him by a gourment chef. The meals are healthy, locally sourced and delicious, with Google's own egg-laying chickens and honey-bearing bees on the roof. If BIL doesn't want what the chef cooked that day, he can go to one of a few stocked mini-food bars, where there are cold drinks, coffee and tea, piles of fresh fruit and islands which hold tall glass containers of candy and snacks.<br />
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If BIL needs a break, he can go to the music room, sit down at the keyboard or pick up an instrument and jam with his friends. He can go to the video game room and relax, shoot some bad guys in a bean bag chair, and let his mind go in a differnent way for awhile. He can untangle the problem he was working on while playing, or chat with a coworker. If that doesn't work-- he can go to the massage room for a nice massage. At Google Pittsburgh, there is a net that hangs over part of the work space. It has large pillows in it. You can take a book and lie in the net, spider-like, dangling 30 feet above everybody else, and rest. There is a beautiful gourmet dinner for you waiting-- and you don't have go home until you want to. What a great way to work! What a great way for a company to treat valued employees! What a terrific way to encourage mind-body connection-and help good thinkers continue to think, collaborate, engage, create!<br />
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Wouldn't it be nice for school children to be treated like the computer software engineers at Google Pittsburgh? Our world certainly needs kids' brain power at least as much as it needs BIL's. It's not just the beautiful food and massages I'm talking about. What I find most important about Google's approach is their willingness to create an environment in which people can back up, rest, relax, and engage with others at work. I believe relationships and engaging with others is the way to truly be productive in the 21st century.<br />
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So let's do that! Let's remake what learning looks like at our schools! And guess what? It seems we may have some catching up to do.<br />
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A group of folks in Pittsburgh have been thinking about project-based, hands-on, creative, engaging, collaborative type education for a long time. Almost a decade ago, a group of smart folks got together to think about how the internet age had changed the way kids thought and learned. They wanted a new way to engage kids. They began to meet at Pamela's for pancakes (proving as always that where there is food, there is good thinking) and brain storming about how to better meet the needs of a different type of learner-- one who didn't want to be lectured to-- who wanted to make, create, do, be something-- who demanded to be heard, listened to, who wanted to move around, build stuff, learn from other kids, find their own ways. A kid who needed new pathways to excel. This group became Kids+Creativity--thought leaders who wanted to improve how kids learned in and around Pittsburgh.<br />
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Almost 10 years later, the group has become <a href="http://remakelearning.org/" target="_blank">Remake Learning</a>. Their mission statement reads:<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif;"><i>Representing more than 200 organizations, Remake Learning is a professional network of schools, museums, libraries, afterschool programs, community centers, higher education institutions, education technology companies, philanthropies, and civic leaders working together to inspire a generation of lifelong learners in Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and beyond.</i></span><br />
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<i>Pretty damn cool, and pretty impressive. Like I said--Pamela's pancakes will take you a long way. But-- all kidding aside-- when the right, creative people are in the room-- awesome things happen. </i></div>
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And that's what the video you watched at the beginning of this blog post showed, too-- awesome things happening in Perry's Library, because great people came together. Daniel Brown, one of the Teen Librarians from the <a href="http://www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/allegheny/" target="_blank">Allegheny branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh</a>, brought music technology from <a href="http://www.clpgh.org/teens/events/programs/thelabs/" target="_blank">The Labs</a>, a technology and arts Maker Space they have at their branch. Five volunteer/therapy dog owners from <a href="http://www.thinkingoutsidethecage.org/site/c.elKWIeOUIhJ6H/b.8776477/k.5C85/Animal_Friends_Therapets.htm" target="_blank">Animal Friends</a> brought their dogs. And our kids-- our kids. Some of our music students prepared instrumental and vocal pieces to perform. And they were brilliant.</div>
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That gorgeous stew of folks remade learning for Friday, October 8th. We had a veritable salon in the Library of kids, mixing and experimenting with sound and music technology. We had others listening to peers perform, gaining new knowlege and respect for North Side kids across social groups, academic abilities, races. There were the dogs, which brought sparkle, calm, joy and interest to the whole room. The best thing? The creative, artistic, safe, engaging and positive place this group of people (and beasts) made the Library into. And guess what?! WPXI's Courtney Brennan came to film our event!! We were so pleased that they cared about sharing good news out of a pubic school!<br />
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<a href="http://www.wpxi.com/videos/news/dogs-and-music-combine-for-touching-moments-for/vDcNZc/">Dogs and music combine for touching moments for students at...</a>
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Here are ways my learning community and I are working to remake learning in Perry's Library: my Journalism class is working with <a href="http://www.steeltown.org/" target="_blank">Steeltown Entertainment</a> to teach our kids film making skills. The kids wrote essays about their lives on the North Side, some excerpts of which I published <a href="http://outlaweducator.blogspot.com/2015/10/north-side-voices.html" target="_blank">here.</a> Based on the power of their published work, the kids have been invited to perform at the <a href="http://cityofasylum.org/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwkeiwBRCzmo-wiKL49pEBEiQAhvGKYSpiLXZ8UNj22VWknslxqYonXSPy6wFZyeVR3ZaVa7saAt4-8P8HAQ" target="_blank">City of Asylum</a> on October 23rd, at 813 Sampsonia Way on the North Side from 7-9PM.<br />
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We begin work on framing our essays into spoken word performances with the music and instrumental teachers and their students this week. We are taking our kids and following their interest and then chaperoning them and their work out into the wider world. What a great way to learn! What a great way to teach!! Our kids might be getting ready for you, <a href="https://www.google.com/about/locations/pittsburgh/" target="_blank">Google Pittsburgh</a>! Watch out! Make room in that hanging net! We have collaborative meetings to schedule with you!<br />
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READ REMAKE LEARNING'S PLAYBOOK: <a href="http://remakelearning.org/playbook/" target="_blank">http://remakelearning.org/playbook/</a><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-52927408738340070902015-10-04T06:15:00.002-07:002015-10-05T05:39:59.431-07:00North Side Voices<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></b>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>there was a lot of shootings everyday especially when i was a little kid </i></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>one day me, my two brothers and my older sister was coming from the park</i></span></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>my brothers and sister started running</i></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>they dropped the stroller while i was still in there</i></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>and left me</i></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>five minutes after that my mom came and got me</i></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>i could of got shot but thank god i did not </i></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>we moved off of the northside after a while</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and moved to the southside</span><span id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1"></span></span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>there were shootings over there too </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>but we moved from over there back to the northside</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>on woodland ave as they like to call it woodland block</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>when we first moved on that street there was a shooting </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>cause of the northview and manchester beef</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>the shootings stopped for a couple of days and we all went back to having fun</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>you know doin what teenagers do</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>then i hear on the news</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>that a fourteen year old boy died </i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am teaching a Creative Nonfiction class. My kids are writing personal narratives about growing up on the North Side of Pittsburgh. I have to grade them this weekend, which means today, because I put it off yesterday. The stack of papers to be graded were glowing with a kind of negative energy in my mind, like Kryptonite. I was avoiding them mightily. I have to face them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm stronger now. I saw friends last night. I slept long. I'm fresher, better today. </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-0ee1b514-0502-d7cf-0c28-6e0537a77eb1"></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I'm still afraid, because the pain of reading my kids' experience, of facing the realities they are forced to live, is makes my blood stop and the bile rise in my throat. Tears prick thinking about it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Growing up on the North Side is not the easiest thing in the world. But growing up as an African American homosexual male on the North Side isn't any easier. You can often find it one of the harder things you ever do. You are already a minority being African American, but then being homosexual puts you at the bottom of the totem pole. Most people find homosexual men loud, flamboyant, blunt, and too gay for their own good. Most of us are actually chill. But because they don't see that side of the community, we are not set aside from the stereotypical homsexual men in the world. I found many times in my life where I was treated different for being gay on the North Side. It's not fun, amusing or emotionally healthy. Acutally it's stressful, worrisome and judgemental. </i></span></span><br />
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<i>I remember many times where I found myself being taunted for being gay. But the most memorable moment of all was at a dance competition on the North Side. ...I knew that it was going hard for the team I was on because typically dance teams are all female squads. But we had three males on the team; including me. I just wanted to perform and take the the title as Best in Pittsburgh. So I hope they would look past the fact.</i></span><br />
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<i>...The first song we danced to at the competition was Michael Jackson's Remember the Time. We reinacted the breakdown of the song where all the Egyptians were coming from all sorts of places of the set and danced. Now this is where things started to get out of hand. All of the choreography that was on the team was made for men but we did it anyways. And Nicki Minaj's song Anaconda started to play. There was booty popping that we all had no choice but to do. But it wouldn't take a genius to figure out, and you could have guessed not too long after; I found that several men and WOMEN were leaving. They left the stand and went out the door like roaches when you turn on the light. Some even got water and brought it to the dance floor yelling, "WE HAVE TO GET RID OF THE PARASITE, GET OUT THEM DEMON, and THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU." I never felt so hurt, so embarrassed, so unwanted ever. Not only did the guys on the dance but I felt for the dance team and all homosexual men everywhere. It had me thinking: this is how the world perceives homosexual men. As some sort of PARASITE or DISEASE.</i></span><br />
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I knew when I took this job that a large percentage of my students would come from hard circumstances, and that there would be suffering and difficulty in some of their lives. I have spent most of my career working with kids in those circumstances, so these things are not surprises. And being personally triggered by the stories of the children I serve is not new either. Placing grades on kids' stories IS new. I could take the easy way out and give everybody an "A" for effort. But not all of my kids gave the same effort. And some of them, like the young writer above, are gifted writers with inborn talent. How do you differentiate grading for that? I owe my students the help I can give with mechanics and writing conventions and improving and improving, which they can do. Don't grades have something to do with that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>I went to visit my Dad on a Friday, I had just got there. I asked my Dad to order me food from the bar downstairs. My dad had just moved into this apartment on top of a bar. So he ordered me my usual food, chicken fries. About a half hour after he called, he told me to go downstairs and get my food and a Pepsi. </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I walked into the bar and there weren't many people there. There were a few people in the back playing pool and a few people sitting at the tables and the counter. I paid for my food and a drink and walked out the front door. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Once I got outside I heard two people talking from the side of the bar. So I walked around the corner, which was only a few feet. I peeked around the corner and saw two middle aged white men holding a needle into their arm. I was only 11 at the time, but I knew what they were doing.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I stood there thinking about what was going on and what I could do about it. I slowly walked away and went up the stairs to the apartment.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I told my Dad I saw two guys outside with a needle and his face dropped. I could tell he was mad. I sat down and ate my food while Dad called up my older cousin and went outside. My cousin was someone I spent a lot of time around, and he was like a father figure to me.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> About 5 mins later I walked outside and the two guys were gone. My dad and my cousin were standing where they had been and had on gloves picking up the needle. My cousin yelled at my dad for letting them get away and then he yelled at him for letting me witness this. I could tell my Dad felt bad beause he got a sad look on his face. He told me to go inside and finish my food. So I did. I never talked to my Dad about that again.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many of my students speak in defense of their neighborhood. They want to be clear that tragedy, darkness, shootings, and crime don't completely define where they live. Although this student began an essay about gun violence several times, and her own experience with it, she ended up beginning her final narrative this way:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love living on the North Side. It's fun. I have friends I can go outside with and have fun with. Everyone thinks the North Side is full of mean, dangerous people, but its not the whole North Side. Yes, the North Side has its days where somebody is dying but killings isn't all on the North Side. The North Side is also full of fun, bright and caring people. The schools on the North Side tend to help the bad students stay in school and stay off the streets.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The students' humor, agility in returning and showing love and ability to recognize goodness in others proves they live with love in their lives. It isn't the darkness and pain that draws me to this kind of student. It is their intrinsic light. Their superhuman ability to create art in the face of a world that under resources, under utilizes, underrates and underestimtes them at every turn. A world that seeks to break Black bodies as a national birth right, as Ta-Nehisi Coates says. These children, my children, no different than Michael Brown or Rekia Boyd, capable as anybody, given the opportunity. But.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">My house is right up the street from train tracks and around the corner from a prison. I had two little sisters at the time and one brother that was living with me. So every time we asked to go outside or anything, my Mom would be kind of afraid that one of my little sisters would get snatched up because of the guys leaving the prison. My neighborhood is very quiet, I only have five houses on my street, a church and two bars at the very end. I would be afraid to walk past bars to either go to the store or go to my bus stop because I was but so big and people drunk a lot. I also have a halfway house down the street from mine around the corner. My next door neighbor said he had a little girl or niece of his got raped in that house so my Mom doesn't trust around there. One day my whole power went out on my whole entire street and it was literally pitch black to the point where you could see lightning bugs floating in the trees. Up to this day I still don't like that area.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Growing up on the Northside wasn't easy. I moved to the Northside when I was 7 or 8. I am now 14 years old. My mom especially struggled having to pay bills as a single mother of 4 with 1 job. Times were tough. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember sitting at the top of the steps in the dark. My brothers sound asleep in their beds, and I am sitting there listening to my parents arguing. Nothing but cruel words coming out of their mouths, "I fucking hate you," "You lazy fat alcoholic!" I hated hearing my parents argue like this.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then I remember waking up the next morning just looking at the two of them, remembering last night, but they had no idea I knew. The funny thing is that they tried to play it off like nothing happened, but they knew what was going on.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We know that poverty is not a natural position of people, but the result of choices made my others. There is enough money in America, and in Pittsburgh, for all of us in the city to live comfortably, in health, with the time, comfort and opportunities to learn and be productive. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We know if UPMC paid its fair share of taxes, if the EITC program didn't exist, if the Delaware tax loop hole was closed, if the Pennsylvania Republicans would hold the Marcellus Shale accountable for a modest severance tax, and if a million other tax swindles were mended-- if people lived the values they claim to believe in-- my students would have the same chances as kids in the North Allegheny School District, whose high school just digitized their $90,000 PLANETARIUM. People over GREED. These are just choices, made by individual people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We know that there are ways to mend gun violence and mental health problems, to decriminalize drugs and treat their use as a public health problem--- ways to put out of work people in underresourced neighborhoods to work so that hopelessness and despair are quashed and replaced with hope and productively and life. Can we work together to make those things happen? Can we work together to help all of our children have a basic sense of safety where they live? Can Pittsburgh be the most livable for it's thirteen and fourteen-year old residents on the North Side as well as it's 20-something "Creative Class" imports in the "East Side?"</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I may be only fourteen but I was not raised this way. I've been raised with respect and its sad that I or other kids can't just go outside and play kickball, jump rope, hide and seek, things children should do. Instead I'm in the house with the door locked because of all of the shooting and drug activities. It's not getting any better, just worse. I've experienced a lot of good times on the North Side as a younger child. I used to love to visit the Aviary, the Children's Museum, and the Zoo. I used to love the Regatta but its hard to do that now due to the negativity in the community.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">And to be quite honest with this essay I can write a book not only on the North Side but about the City of Pittsburgh. I would stand and speak and pray that someone cared and hear my voice or my opinion. The sad truth is I see everyday on the news and in my neighborhood all the killings, the parents crying, or cyring because they are going to jail for killing their own children. I was taught in Pittsburgh elementary school about African-American history in the first grade how Martin Luther King Jr. fought for his life for his freedom. How and where is the freedom when you don't know when you are going to be a victim?</span></i></div>
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<a href="http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/alleghenyneighborhoods/alleghenyneighborhoodsmore/8954996-74/theater-shows-digital#axzz3nbSKLYO5" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">North Allegheny High School Planetarium Goes Digital</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uP-5FjoKvs" target="_blank">Welcome to America's Most Livable City</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-85950395876600657672015-09-10T15:35:00.001-07:002015-09-10T15:35:57.046-07:00#PerryPride<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The school buildings in the Pittsburgh city limits are often very old. They are built out of hearty brick, feet and feet thick. Windows often don't open, or only open a bit. This results in extreme heat in the summer in buildings that were built before central air was invented, and in school districts in which budgets don't allow for it. On the third floor, some rooms can catch a breeze. Others swelter and stew, sticky with brutal, unrelenting heat, as palpable and real as a heated blanket on a fevered head. </div>
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My library at Perry used to be the swimming pool. It is a long rectangular room with a low-ish ceiling. There are four windows that open inward and offer some relief from the heat when a breeze blows up Hemphill. However, two-thirds of the room has no windows and no fresh air. It is a brick oven.</div>
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The Library houses 20 computers near the circulation desk. It has my office, which doubles as a work room for the staff. In the work room are the servers for the computers and the laminator. This past week, the Library and work room, additionally heated by the technology inside, were at 96 degrees, with at least 40% humidity. Sweat running down my body did not dry, but continued to stream from my head to my toes unchecked. At times I was dizzy, light headed and disoriented. Some of our medically fragile students spent more time with the nurse.</div>
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My journalism students are embarking on their first essays. They are writing a story about something that happened to them, good, bad or indifferent, on the North Side where they live. Incredibly, these children, who range in age from 14 to 17 years old, engaged with college level literature, learned how to use Google docs, and are deeply into their personal essays, all within the first 9 days of school. And what a 9 days-- in these 9 days, I've sweated off five pounds. </div>
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The kids have read the title short story in Tim O'Brien's <i>The Things They Carried</i>. They persevered as I clonged a gong each time Sandra Cisneros used sensory information in her vignette "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn" from <i>Woman Hollering Creek</i>. They discussed story structure while reading the first chapter of <i>The Glass Castle</i> by Jeannette Walls. And then they had to face the evil blinking cursor on the mighty empty white page, and use their own brains to concoct their own stories about their own lives.</div>
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It was hard. Kids are writing about things that hurt. Ghosts of physical pain, accidents, brutality, violence. They are also writing about great things: new beginnings, beautiful historic homes, exploring museums and poetry readings. My kids are writing about moves across the country, being the new kid, not fitting in. </div>
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One girl refused to work. She was sitting at a table, refusing to try Google docs, refusing to write. I approached her and asked what was going on. I reminded her she hadn't turned in ANY work at all. We have a policy that when a kid is doing poorly, we call their parents to alert them. I told her about the policy. She told me I was annoying her and that she was not going to write. </div>
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That's when I knew I had to drop the teacher voice and just be a person. I told her I knew she had a story that nobody else knew. I told her that people who look like me in other parts of the city don't know her, probably underestimate her, and often dismiss young people like her. This class was conceived as a way to put her voice on an world stage. Her story will become a script, which will become a short film. That film has the capacity to reach the world. I told her I believe in her. That her story MATTERS. I told her that she only had to write 6 sentences today. And then I walked away. </div>
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She wrote 8 sentences. </div>
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So many kids don't believe in their abilities. We who teach are so blessed to have any positive impact on them. Blessed are the days when we can, even in those brick ovens we teach in, even in those states like mine that undervalue and under resource education for their own kids. Heroic children, streaming with sweat, dizzy, light headed, reaching for difficult and ever more difficult concepts, straining past emotional pain and barriers of shame and fear to get to some shimmering and tremulous achievement. I'm feeling pride today. Pride in our achievement in getting past all those barriers together. Blessed are those children and our strength together. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170586367758263609.post-31735064638608645322015-06-25T09:09:00.001-07:002015-06-25T09:16:59.258-07:00Millvale Community Library as a Model for Pittsburgh Public Schools<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/99704315" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/99704315">Kidsburgh: Destination Millvale</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/sproutfund">Sprout</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Do you know about the Millville Library? I think of it as the Little Library That Could. The first library in Millville, it was created by members of its own community. It offers a donated collection, computers, a really beautiful space complete with coffee and tea for purchase, a professional librarian, a community garden with a water garden in the back, and a Maker Space, staffed by professionals by the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.<br />
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The MakerSpace, when I saw it, was housed in the coolest wooden cabinet on wheels. It had drawers that pulled out to reveal wiring, soldering irons, switches, cogs, wheels, bobbins, scissors and thread for the sewing machine, LED lights, fabric, clay, and enough who-zits and what-zits to warm a mad scientist's heart. There were complimentary parts to the MakerSpace: a floor to ceiling whirling set of bins that held other stuff for building, creating, imagining and reimagining, for iterations of STUFF that kids could make.<br />
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The best part of all of this, of course, was the wry and funny professional guy from the Children's Museum who came out once or twice a week to teach kids how to use iPads and arduinos and LED lights and wiring and switches to make robots that drove, turned, lit up. On other days, kids learned other skills so that their imaginations were linked to real skills, so they could build things that really did drive, light up, turn, speak, obey commands, do work, be useful, or just become the thing the kid wanted it to be.<br />
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Here's my dream: Let's have a MakerSpace in each Library in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Let's have our Pittsburgh Public Schools decide that we are ALL going to embrace STEAM, and:<br />
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1. Become a District of First Choice by:<br />
A. Partnering with Pittsburgh assets to empower teachers with best practices. That begins with Pittsburgh teachers as assets. Therefore:<br />
B. Libraries are the places in schools best suited and most easily prepared to be transformed into Learning Commons. Learning Commons contain the most up to date information and technology. They also lend themselves to collaboration, which is the best model for STEAM education. Since the Library is the natural place to center STEAM education as a school-wide model, start by placing a high-quality, licensed and qualified professional Librarian in each Pittsburgh Public School.<br />
C. Work with funders of all kinds to create school libraries as Learning Commons, complete with all resources needed, including updated book collections.<br />
D. Here's the MEAT:<br />
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HAVE THE BEST TEACHERS IN BUILDINGS DO THE PD they need to do for each other. Have the best teachers in buildings go to other buildings and do PD for other buildings. Have the Children's Museum embed teaching artists in each Learning Commons to teach kids and Librarians STEAM skills. Keep PD dollars local, for God's sake. Why aren't there teaching artists from the Warhol, the Museums of Art, Natural History, all of the Universities and Libraries in every Pittsburgh Public School? Let's skip the blah blah blah about red tape, its complicated, etc. These things, like all things, are personality driven. Take two people-oriented ego-less, kid-first professionals and put them together and amazing things happen.<br />
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I know amazing things happen because I've been blessed to be part of amazing things. The Manchester Miracle was created by <a href="https://yinzercation.wordpress.com/news/" target="_blank">Yinzercation Nation</a> and Manchester residents and Neil Gaiman and Laurie Halse Anderson and Pittsburghers. Pittsburgh City Paper writer Allan Smith featured our book drive in a really wonderful piece in this week's <a href="http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/perry-high-school-librarian-heads-to-the-internet-to-get-her-students-the-books-they-want-to-read/Content?oid=1835798" target="_blank">Edition of the City Paper</a>. People make beauty happen because they believe in equity. We can create the conditions we want to see for Pittsburgh's school children if we want to. Reality is just our own creation. Local PD. All that's beautiful, strong and good channeled into Pittsburgh Public Schools. Less canned curricula, purchased at great expense from money grubbing multinational businesses with little interest in our kids. Like Millville's Little Library That Could, PPS can rise from where it is, to be for the whole community, on a 'mission of positive change."<br />
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