Roberto Clemente High School sits on the corner of Western Avenue and Division Street. To the west on Division is the gentrifying neighborhood of West Town and a stretch of upscale eateries. To the east is Humboldt Park, a neighborhood of clearly defined gang territories.
Monday, the Chicago Transit Authority made major service cuts. The cuts meant jobs lost. They meant reduction in service hours. They meant cuts to routes and frequency of buses and trains.
To students at Clemente the cuts means that express buses that took them east down Division Street would make every stop. It means a real threat to their safety.
In the proverbial city that works, these cuts were made without any discussion between those that run the CTA and school administrators, let alone students.
(Assistant Principal Antonio Perez) says cuts and the reduction in service could put a serious strain on the “culture of calm” Chicago Public Schools’ chief Ron Huberman wants to institute in schools. Noelle Gaffney, spokesperson for CTA, said in an email Clemente is serviced by five buses daily after school, and that service will remain in place.
Within several minutes of the 2:30 p.m. dismissal, I noticed an aerial patrol by the CPD. By 2:55 p.m., students waiting to travel north or south bound on Western Avenue were moving out pretty quickly on CTA buses. However, a large pile up of students was growing at the west bound corner of Division Street. A corner, Perez says, where the biggest concerns are because a majority of the students travel westbound through several gang territories. Several young men at the stop were dressed in black and red, making their gang affiliation clear.
I wonder about those who gave out a sigh of relief when Scott Lee Cohen, whore monger, pawn broker and steroid abuser, quit as Democratic nominee for the pointless job of Illinois lt. governor.
“Cohen is the last episode in a series of events that have made Illinois a political joke.”
I’m not so sure.
It is easy to point at all the recent Illinois governors that have ended up in the pokey.
But House Speaker Mike Madigan, who has blocked every school funding bill that has come before the state legislature and who makes millions on the side as a lawyer with state-connected clients, walks free.
And Pat Quinn, who wants to destroy our teacher retirement system, is a heavy favorite to beat the probable Republican candidate, wing-nut, gun nut and right-to-lifer, State Senator Bill Brady.
And, by the way, why isn’t the idea of Brady as Illinois governor considered a national joke?
And how does Cohen compare to the pinky ring bunch who sit in the state legislature and state senate and can’t or won’t pass a progressive tax that will fund our basic social services?
Want a joke? 49th in the nation in school funding behind only Mississippi. Does that amuse anyone?
But don’t worry about any of that. Cohen has quit and Madigan gets to pick his successor? Anyone laughing now?
Saturday, February 20, 2010, Columbia College, 6PM.
Saints’ linebacker Scott Fujita gives me another reason to root for NOLA.
Sarah Palin wants to know. “How’s that hope-y, change-y stuff workin’ out for you?”
Democratic Party nominee for Lt. Governor Scott Lee Cohen’s massage therapist tells all:
There is concern that Cohen would drag down the Democrat ticket. Do you think that’s a problem?
“He wasn’t that way with me. He was very gentle.”
I mean, would he be willing to work under Gov. Patrick Quinn?
“He was never the type to insist on being on top.”
He insists that, no matter what happens, he will not withdraw.
“Well, a couple of years ago, he promised my friend Chandra he would withdraw and then …”
Teabagger and former GOP prez candidate Tom Tancredo calls for a return of Jim Crow era literacy tests for voting. But he’s got a problem. His people can’t spell their racist crap. Could they pass his test?
Sunday morning questions: Are we seeing Reading First redux? Are there conflicts of interest in the USDE? Is the fix in on who gets Duncan Dollars in the R2T scam?
And now with reauthorization talk heating up on NCLB, the Duncan, Broad, Walton, and Gates team of insiders are lining up to take their millions for being experts in designing the grants, writing the grants, funding the grants, and implementing the grants from RTTT. This is setting up to make corporate tutoring and Reading First look like small potatoes when it comes to the education corruption derby. Schools Matter
-by North Shore Teacher
At the polls this past week, New Trier Township voters faced down a $174M request from the high school board of education, a proposal distinguished as the largest school referendum in Illinois history. For some on the North Shore, being number one was reason enough to vote yes. For the majority of this education valuing community, however, the first impulse was loyalty; the referendum was a measure of commitment to New Trier High School and educational excellence.
Folks on the North Shore are smart enough to know that education landed them in this wealthy, beautiful land in the first place. They’re protective enough to know that they want the same for their progeny. They’re mercenary enough to know that their lofty housing prices are linked to the high school’s reputation. So despite the gut-check size of the bill, the cocktail circuit pundits forecast an easy win.
Instead, in heavy voter turnout in what was an historically light year statewide, the citizens rejected the Board’s request.
What happened?
The silencing power of an implicit ideology was exposed. Someone came up with the slogan, “You can love New Trier and still vote No.” At once, a big tent had been erected; guilt-relieved liberals could join with anti-tax cranks. The referendum was no longer a litmus test for one’s loyalties to education. Many could now use the slogan as cover for reluctance to pay higher taxes. But, on a more encouraging note, at least to this educator, citizens who otherwise might have blindly acquiesced, instead investigated the underlying issues. And, while I know that the cost of the project catalyzed the forces for its defeat, I also read and heard discussions of substantial considerations – space allocation, curriculum, educational environment – which too infrequently surface at the community level. The 19th century assumptions about the 3Rs were eclipsed by the 21st century questions about the 3Ts: Testing, Technology, and Tuition. The discussion had been broadened and elevated.
This was a victory and not a defeat. Education did not lose; thoughtfulness won. A new proposal will emerge, shaped by a more critical and involved community. A new referendum will pass. A better New Trier High School will result.
So what?
A couple of things. Most importantly, the jingoistic aspects of educational reform have taken a hit from an extremely influential community. It is not disloyal or backwards to question the seemingly unassailable (No Child Left Behind ring a bell?). Indeed, it is essential to challenge policies. Even on the North Shore, in the educational equivalent of the Land of Oz, the voters needed to learn to pay attention to the man behind the curtain.
Schools and school boards (and departments of Education, for that matter) from formation to funding to fulfillment are political. As democratic institutions they must bear scrutiny as to their purpose. As human institutions they are flawed. For too long in New Trier Township, criticism of the existing educational excellence was tolerated, but almost always dismissed. Education was placed on a pedestal with a form of patriotism. Challenges were flag-burnings.
February 2 changed that. The voters affirmed that, as with any important idea, examination subverted was progress perverted. The exemption granted to Education was rescinded. The hidden idiocy in the ideology – New Trier quality: Believe it or leave it – was exposed.
Maybe we can move forward. Holding up New Trier’s practices and test scores has distorted the conversation about the needs of our communities and the shape of our schools. The absurdity of projecting this model as an effective approach statewide would be laughable if the ensuing results weren’t so painful and tragic for the oppressed imitators. Now that this North Shore community has freed itself from the constraints of Education as Patriotism, maybe it can further examine itself, and in doing so provide a more benign and effective model of schooling.
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.
This guy wouldn’t last a winter day in Chitown. My buddy Jim thinks it is strange that we Chicagoans take pride in our inclement weather. But we take pride in lots of things other cities wouldn’t. Listen. We gave Al Capone and Rod Blagojevich to the world.
You’re welcome.
Tomorrow: Chili with Fritos, onions, cheese and bottles of good cold beer. Pulling for the Saints. Why not.
Teachers could write a book on professional development days.
I did a little post yesterday on a PD session. My blogging companero, NYC Educator also posted one.
On February 1st we had a PD day. I looked at the menu of offerings. Do I want to go to Smartboard training for the fourth time? I mean, it’s not like they’re ever going to put expensive hardware in the trailer, so I’m never getting one. Should I sit through it again?
Feel free to send me your favorite stories and I’ll post them.
Twelve-year old Alexa was caught doodling in class. She was busted and taken out in handcuffs. Really.
Y’know. If you let one kid get away with doodling, where will it stop?
A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense – doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.
Alexa Gonzalez was scribbling a few words on her desk Monday while waiting for her Spanish teacher to pass out homework at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, she said.
“I love my friends Abby and Faith,” the girl wrote, adding the phrases “Lex was here. 2/1/10″ and a smiley face.
R2T not a huge hit in Ohio.
While in some states, local school districts were pressed hard to join in on seeking Duncan Dollars, more than half the districts in Ohio said no.
At Middletown schools, which did not seek the money, teachers were worried about what would happen when the one-time money disappeared and about requirements linking teacher compensation to student test scores.
“If something happens either before or during the test, and the student doesn’t perform well, that is something we don’t have control over and doesn’t necessarily demonstrate a student’s ability,“ said Suzanne Larsen, president of the Middletown Teachers Association.
At Madison schools in southwest Ohio, the district and teachers had concerns about the funding formula and its effect on union contracts.
“We felt ‘Race to the Top’ was simply not a good fit because of the uncertainty and contract concerns,“ said A.J. Huff, the district’s grant writer and spokesman.
The words of Seymour Sarason in my previous post came back to me Wednesday.
“Teachers are not attendants.”
I was sitting in one of those staff development meetings. Consultant was going to lead us through an activity.
Yes. This is going to be another one of those PD stories.
A couple of years ago I had to decide what direction I was. This time I had to choose what color I was.
In the background Consultant was playing Cindy Lauper. Clever.
You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged.
Oh I realize
It’s hard to take courage.
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all.
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small.
Consultant explained that this was an activity aimed at helping us to recognize and honor our differences.
It had not occurred to me that this was a problem in our building.
I decided I was green.
“Not in the mainstream.” “Dislikes redundancies.” “Perpetual student.”
There were five of us who had decided we were green. In a few minutes one deserted to orange. She explained that she couldn’t see the Power Point from the green table. So now we were four.
Consultant gave us some green Post-it notes to write stuff on and to put on chart paper. You know the drill: Plus. Delta. Question mark.
Being green, we refused. Consultant came over and asked us what was up?
We’re green. We don’t do stuff like this. Besides, we don’t have a problem with understanding and appreciating differences. The ones who want to make us all alike, the ones who want us all to be on the same page in the same book on the same day aren’t us.
Consultant nodded and headed over to the blue table.
But I see your true colors
Shining through.
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you.
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors.
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow.
Hearing about the death of Seymour Sarasan, Professor Emeritus at Yale who died last Thursday at the age of 91, I reached behind me and pulled out my worn copy of Teaching as a Performing Art.
Teachers are not attendants. They are educated and possess formal credentials. They regard themselves as professionals, which is to say they have something to “profess” in regard to children and schooling. Their reward is not money but a sense of competence and accomplishment. Unlike attendants, they enter their profession with expectations of personal, intellectual, professional growth, as well as of respect and respect for what they do. And, crucially, they expect to be part of a community of teachers whose relationships will be a source of stimulating growth.
