I'm the mom!

This made me laugh...



I really thought I was the only one that said all of these things!

Renaming "No Child Left Behind"

If you go to the Eduwonk blog, you can get a good laugh at some of the names people have thought of to rename No Child Left Behind and change the era of leaving children behind.

Here are some of my favorites:

Double Back Around To Pick Up The Children We Left Behind Act

Not Even We Think This Will Work Act

AARRRG! (Achieving America’s Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic Goals)

Every Child Deserves a Good Education but not Every Child Wants to go to College, Special Ed Children Get Taught Trades Act

Obama’s President Because He Got Off His A** and Worked For It, So Should You! Act

Bankers to Teachers Rehabilitation Program
Provision 1: Double teacher salaries
Provision 2: Remove teacher certification requirements
Provision 3: Hazard pay for teaching underprivileged schools
Provision 4: Keep bonuses under $18 billion


There are many more. You can check them out at Eduwonk blog. Some make me laugh out loud.

But, much more seriously, this one really struck me:

How about simply “We Owe Kids A Better Education Act”?

The Animal Odd Couple

Overcoming our vast differences and accepting each other for who we are. Just something to think about...



"If they can do it, what's our excuse?"

Let's change the way we think of education

A "groundbreaking" survey out of Toronto claims that race and poverty matter as early as grade 3. I'm not sure what's so earth shattering about that, but at least maybe it will shake some people into reality. Though the survey was done in Canada, I expect the groundbreaking results would apply in the United States as well.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was set up because we knew that children of certain ethnicities were being "left behind." NCLB requires every school to break down their test results demographically so that schools can begin to see which group they are not teaching effectively. In theory, this is great. However, once the groups are identified, instead of finding new ways to teach, the school simply drills that ethnic/age group of kids more with the same old strategies.

Our world is not the same as it was 60 years ago. We have got to change the way we educate!

Step in to the Ron Clark Academy:



I am a very critical observer of schools and teachers. When Mr. Clark went on stage at the conference I attended, I immediately thought of Pee Wee Herman. He was way too bouncy and silly looking. But when I heard Mr. Clark speak, he blew me away! Despite his Tigger-ish bounciness, I could tell that he isn't teaching to entertain poor kids. He has extremely high expectations. He expects the kids will achieve academically. He expects them to behave and be polite. He expects them to encourage one another. And he has fun.

I want my staff to go to Atlanta. I want us to learn from his energy and do as much as we can to replicate this kind of learning in our After-School Academy. But we need your help. The only time we would be able to visit is their one-day teacher visitation day on May 29. It is $300 per person...and there are 3 of us. I have already secured a place for us to stay with friends. Now we only need the transportation and registration.

If you can contribute in any way, please contact me and let me know.

We want to do everything we can to ensure that our kids love to learn and know how to excel.

Don't beg

I hate when people ask for money. I never know how to respond. It bothers me that people will walk around asking random people for money. It bothers me on many different levels. Where are their family and friends? If I needed money, I wouldn’t wander around asking strangers for money, I’d ask my family and friends.

But maybe they don’t have family and friends who have anything either…or maybe their family and friends don’t want to help.

Is there a reason their family and friends don’t want to help?? Maybe they know something about the person I don’t.

So, if I have something, shouldn’t I give it?

I don’t want to encourage a habit. Plus, again, it really bothers me that people walk around asking for money. Why aren’t they employed? Why can’t they seek out the services that will help them get the skills for a job?

In Turner Courts, seeing the adults (usually addicts) standing at the store asking for money encouraged the young children to do it as well. They’d stand at the store and ask anyone who walked in the store for 50 cents so they could buy a soda or some chips.

Don’t beg.

That’s what I’ve been taught.

But when you have nothing…or, in a child’s mind, when you feel you don’t have enough, is it ok to beg? Is begging more my issue than theirs?

So did the guy at Taco Bell really need $2 for a bus ticket or something else? Was it a bus ticket, drugs, or something much deeper that I didn’t take the time to find out about? What makes a person begin to ask random strangers for money? Was he from that community and all of a sudden decided he needed to go to Baylor so he went up the street to ask people for $2, hoping to gather enough money? Has he known he needed a visit to Baylor for a while?

Is it any of my business?

I didn’t give the money. I felt bad. He didn’t look like a drug user.

I’m afraid I may have made the wrong decision. Is there a right decision??

Who’s to say that his request isn’t a devastating result of our current economic situation??

How do we handle situations like that in a way that always maintains a level of dignity—for myself *and* for the other person??

Lowering the bar doesn't make our kids smarter

I didn't ever think about this, but since every state has their own standardized test (Texas has the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills--TAKS, Missouri has Missouri Assessment Program--MAP, etc.). So, although the states have "standardized" tests, it doesn't mean that we are accurately measuring students' skills equally. And, evidently, from what the Austin American Statesman says,

Research by the National Council on Education Statistics found that in 2003, Mississippi was the only state with an easier fourth-grade reading standard than Texas, assuming all states test the same skills.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires states to set their own targets and interim goals and submit them to the Department of Education. So, in Texas, we set the bar low so that we can look like we have made major achievements by meeting the goal of all children passing TAKS by 2014.

NCLB also requires standardized testing to track the progress of racial, ethnic, linguistic and economic groups in order to ensure no group is being left behind. However, Texas has set a standard that the group has to number at least 50 and make up at least 10 percent of a campus's enrollment in order for that group to affect progress. In other words, if a school is 95% African-American, with less than 50 and less than 10% English as a Second Language speakers, , they don't have to be tracked. Or if a school only has a handful of Asian students, their academic failure doesn't count against the school.

I'm not a big fan of tracking. Every inner city school I've been in starts blaming groups of kids for their failure to achieve a "recognized" or "exemplary" standard from the state. At the 85% Hispanic, 15% African American school I was at, they constantly referred to the "one 5th grade African American male student" who had "messed up" their results. I find that pretty unfair to "blame" a kid for that, but that's what has resulted from NCLB.

I spent some time with a 3rd grader yesterday and she informed me how she was so nervous about the TAKS test (3rd graders are no longer allowed to advance to the next grade unless they pass their reading TAKS test). She said she gets scared. She kept reassuring me (and herself) that it shouldn't be hard because, "I know my strategies." But then she would tell me about students in her class who made a 17% because they missed X number of problems and how they all had to be careful not to write in certain spots on the test because it would be thought that they filled in an extra "bubble," which would then count them wrong.

The fact that the standards are lower in Texas is extremely disappointing and concerns me for our children. What's worse is that our standards are lower yet so much anxiety is produced in the children as if they were taking the LSAT...and they don't even know that their lowered expectations are setting them up to be less prepared than the rest of the United States. What's even worse than that is our childrens' intellect is being determined by if they fill in a bubble correctly.

I think testing is good...IF it's there simply there as an assessment of how well WE, as teachers, have gotten the skills across. I'm not a fan of producing anxiety-ridden children. Besides that, our world is changing. We've got to change our educational system to match the pace of our ever-changing, highly technological world. It would be nice if the stimulus bill hadn't voted out school infrastructure. Sometimes we have to go beyond testing and figure out what's wrong with the system that's producing the under-prepared children.

Have we lost our minds?!

Florida is thinking about changing their public schools to a 4-day week. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the school district is financially strapped and is looking for cost-cutting alternatives.

What in the world are we thinking???

Rearrange city services...cut legislator's pay...let the banks fail...arrange for bartering systems or something...but NEVER cut education!!

I am a big fan of being "green." Part of Florida's plan is to eliminate the 5th day of school...probably a Friday...so that they can power down the electricity for three days in a row. Saving electricity makes sense to me. Cutting kids' education doesn't.

Not only does cutting out that 5th day lesson a child's exposure to education (I didn't read anywhere that said they would extend the other days to make up for it), but it also creates a system of more unsupervised children on the streets for an entire day of the week. Cutting out an entire day would either require businesses to restructure for their employees or will cause children to be at home alone and unsupervised.

If we are going to change the way schools operate (which I am not opposed to that...we are working on an agrarian system that was developed long ago), we must also change the way we offer day care, create work weeks, and design education to maximize learning.

Why can we not make the connection that the way we choose to educate students now is going to affect our economy, our society, our communities? If we don't look at the entire picture, the devastating results are going to happen sooner than later.

We've got to change this mentality of cutting or even simply sustaining our schools. As I mentioned, I'm a fan of restructuring the schools. We need major investment into our schools. Every school wired for the internet. Every child using a computer. Every child required to take an annual technology class that would teach them innovative uses of technology. Technology incorporated into every other class as well. Practical application of basic subjects (e.g. DNA studies for science, dance classes for math, use of checkbooks and debit cards to pay for lunch and a financial literacy class to help them balance their checkbook, business simulations, etc.).

Right now, several states have let elementary and secondary schools switch to the shorter weeks, including Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota and Montana. Others, including Missouri and New York, are weighing it.

What do we need to do to get our voice heard on this?? Who's making the changes...and who are they asking for advice? If it's not parents who have children in public schools...and if it's not teachers who truly have an interest in educating children...they are asking the wrong people.

*Not* Post-racial America

Unfortunately, my "Post-Racial America" series seems to be taking over my blog.

This image was spotted in a Barnes and Noble in Coral Gables, Florida.

After researching the incident...

The good thing is the Barnes and Noble store nor it's employees were responsible for the switching of the window display.

The bad thing is someone was. Someone wanted to make their statement.

Here is more information on the incident, found in The Defenders Online.

Need I say again...we are NOT in post-racial America????

*Not* Post-racial America

One after another, I keep seeing or hearing about things that make my jaw drop in complete disbelief. As we talk about this new era of post-racial America, I think we should be aware of the things that are happening that suggest we are not yet in an era of post-racial America. Whether we accept it or deny it, we need to examine it.

It is with that thought that I plan to offer periodic "segments" talking about just what our "post-racial America" is all about. Please pass along anything you might see or hear about that you think people need to be more aware of.

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Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose plans to resign after forwarding "an e-mail showing a watermelon patch on the White House lawn under the title: 'No Easter egg hunt this year.' Grose has apologized and said he wasn't aware of the racial stereotype that blacks like watermelon."

Here is a blog with what I thought was a pretty good assessment of the details: Group News Blog. Below is the letter I wrote to Mr. Grose and sent to his city email at dgrose@ci.los-alamitos.ca.us.

Dear Mr. Grose,

I beg of you to help me understand why in the world, if you were unaware of the racial stereotype associated with Blacks and watermelon, did you think the postcard was so funny that you forwarded it?? Please help me to understand what you thought the watermelons represented.

From your photo, I would guess you are *at least* in your late 40s or early 50s. That tells me that you were probably a young child during the Civil Rights movement when the violence toward Black people, including name calling and derogatory stereotyping, was probably at it's peak. I don't expect that you would have escaped hearing it.

As a 36-year old woman who also grew up in a small town, I didn't realize I had been enculturated with racist stereotypes until much later in life. I didn't grow up during the Civil Rights movement...and it took me until adulthood to really examine myself and realize I had heard the "n-word" several times as a child and began to recall racist jokes that stuck in my mind. But I *did* examine myself and those around me. And I recognized how hurtful words and symbols that were filled with derogation, hate, and violence still impact people.

I am disappointed. I am disappointed in us as White people who grew up in the same country as African-Americans and still refuse to acknowledge what was less than a generation ago for some of us. I am disappointed that we refuse to learn about the history that so affects our present day. And I am disappointed that when these insensitive acts are pointed out to us we refuse to acknowledge our mistakes.

I'm glad we have come to a day where your action has caused such an upheaval that you felt the need to resign--though I don't think staying in the city council is appropriate. Perhaps I should thank you, though. Maybe I should thank you for being so bold as to send out something so overtly stereotypical so that other people can see that we are not in post-racial America.

I respect the letter you wrote to Keyanus Price and truly hope you meant everything you said. I have many friends and family still in my home town who I think, like you, would be embarrassed if something like this got out. However, I also know in those small towns that humor like the postcard you sent is accepted and they see nothing wrong with it. I would implore you to understand that that kind of humor is NOT accepted...whether around White people, Black people, your home town, visible to the world....or anywhere. It's offensive, hurtful, and has no place in our society.

I have hope that the publicity of your actions will cause you as well as other people to learn more about our history and think about how what we say and do affects others.

Sincerely,

Janet Morrison

*Not* Post-racial America

November 5, 2008 was such an amazing day. It was on that day we became "Post-racial America."

I'm so proud of our country and so proud to know that we are no longer a country burdened by race issues. We have truly had a rocky past 200 years. Slavery in the 1800s...race riots in the '20s...black homes burned in the '40s...civil rights movement in the '60s...the last lynching in the '80s...Jasper, Texas in the '90s. The American public has been accused (primarily by Black people) of racism for so long.

But now we live in the '00s...2000s...or whatever you want to call it. And we have gotten past all of that tainted history.

...or have we??



Though the incident referred to in the video happened in October 2008, I felt it was important to let the company know that this action is *still* creating waves and should not be tolerated in any way, form, or fashion. So I followed Tonya TKO's instructions and went to their website at http://www.journeys.com/ to "contact us."

As a result of my inquiry, the company emailed me back and explained that "one of the store's employees created an unauthorized and fictitious customer record, using the racial slur as the customer name and associating it with a generic phone number. While processing a customer return, another employee input the generic number in an effort to shortcut the company's normal return procedure of entering the customer's actual contact information."

Both employees have been fired.

I appreciate the company's action. However, before we get too smug (as one blog I read did) talking about how we've come so far, I think we should remind ourselves that the incident took place. It actually happened. Not 10 years ago. It happened 4 months ago!

Until these types of incidents are NO LONGER taking place, we cannot pat ourselves on the back and say we are in Post-Racial America. Until they are no longer taking place, we don't have the right to tell people they should "just get over it." ...and even if the incidents were to stop tomorrow (which, unfortunately, I don't anticipate will happen), we need to think about the impact that these incidents have had over time...and honestly examine our "just get over it" comments.

I think it's important that we know our history and that we are aware of what's going on today. Too often, incidents like these are blips on the radar screen for White America. We need to be more aware so that when we start to make a "just get over it" comment, we are more aware of why people aren't "just getting over it."