Good Morning Everyone! Today is the ceremonial, nation-wide celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (prominent Civil Rights leader, who, along with others (white and black), petitioned a much needed change in America). But, honestly, if Dr. King lived on to see today's America, do you think he'd be impressed? I think not!
Why would I say so? After teaching for 13 years in the public education system, I still see the blatant slapping in the face of Brown vs. the Board of Education. I still see white faces in power-making positions, while minorities struggle for funding for their education (public and private) and are bred to be athletic beasts or entertainers, or find it very difficult to move into power-making positions as professional adults, (i.e. not promoted thinkers...not equals, unless it's a "you govern your kind" type of mentality to reference my remark about moving into power-making positions).
American public schools are in such disarray, with some districts still being segregated (i.e. urban schools fenced in, heavily policed and under funded, while suburban schools are more like college campuses with resources abounding and extra-curricular activities flourishing). Racial segregation is still a sore spot playing out in modern-day society (i.e. Trayvon Martin, the fall of famed Southern chef Paula Deen and the American Prison Systems, where African American males outnumber white males 5 to 1 because of the perception that Black males are more violent than white, see "White on White Crime More Prevalent than Black on Black"). All of this present-day strife brings to mind Langston Hughes' poem, "Let America Be America Again." I specifically want to call to mind these stanzas:
O, let my land be a land where Liberty / Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, / But opportunity is real, and life is free, / Equality is in the air we breathe. / (There's never been equality for me, / Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
What's stinging my mind this morning is the part "where liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath." Today, I feel that as cities across the nation, if not the world, celebrate the actions and causes of MLK's dream that it's just ceremonial. He and countless invisible others fought for equality, action, empathy, thought and unity. Yet, where the hell is it visible? Sure, I could acute specific instances to suffice that concern, but nation-wide, have we answered the call, consistently? I think we've become lackadaisical. And for that, Dr. King would roll-over in his grave, asking where he might of gone astray in his plight.
But it's not him that's astray, it's us. When the light of his torch was extinguished, we've yet to pick it up with the vigor and conviction that he and others demonstrated. Sure, laws were passed and tensions have relaxed some between races, but honestly, have we, as America, done much since? We're still celebrating firsts: First Black President, First Hispanic Woman on the Supreme Court, First Openly Female Lesbian Mayor of a major metropolis. And those are all FANTASTIC accomplishments and much needed.
Yet, what the truth is, is that majority of Fortune 500 hundred companies have white men at the helm, as well as white men over the colleges and universities, superintendents of school districts, collegiate athletic directors, owners of professional sports teams and littered all over Congress as "representatives of their constituents." Ha, ha! While Blacks, Hispanics, Middle Easterners and Asians are still accomplishing the "First Ever" titles because they lack the "pale-pigmented privilege." Is that opportunity real? Is it free? Is it equality in the air we breathe? Better still, is it the dream of a King?
No, it's a stalemate. And, frankly my dear, I'm tired of that ceremonial limitation.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Education Reformation...for Educators have LOST their voice!
So, I've often thought that corporations and government agencies are, rather directly, debilitating our education system. Bureaucracy and idealized reform have trickled from the top down onto the shoulders of the educators, like the flushing of a commode. But I've never been able to articulate my thoughts in an "kosher" manner...until now!
Dr. Paul Thomas' post on Education Reform had me jumping out of my chair with conviction. See this screen shot of my post:
Here are some excerpts from his post, beginning with Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man:
“I am an invisible man,” announces the unnamed narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, adding:
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me….When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, of figments of their imaginations—indeed, everything and anything except me….That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact….you often doubt if you really exist….It’s when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince yourself that you exist in the real world, that you’re a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it’s seldom successful.
From Dr. Thomas: "In effect, then, for a century, teachers have been invisible in their own field, except as both compliant workers implementing political and bureaucratic mandates and as often-silent scapegoats as that bureaucracy fails."
CC, charter schools, TFA, VAM, and merit pay plans are driven by advocates who refuse to see not only teachers but also the entire history and field of education, or as Arundhati Roy explains, “We know of course there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
and I will conclude with this last excerpt from Dr. Thomas...
Let’s allow for the first time in history educators the recognition they deserve to examine, evaluate, and reform their own field. Current reform that is top-down and driven by the same historical and bureaucratic methods that have brought us to where we now stand is destined to repeat the same patterns we have already experienced for over 100 years.
I cannot express enough, how insightful this article is to me. For those of you that follow, you know I've endured my own battle as a new librarian in an urban school (see this post). In fact it's still going on (the "entrapment" I feel at my current place of employment), but I'm hoping a new perspective, the motivation of only 5 months remaining on my contract, and/or the hope of some transformation miracle that will allow me a promotion from the aforementioned state of purgatory, will come to pass in this year! Though I'm unhappy, I've learned the importance of humility and adaptation.
Nevertheless, please read Dr. Thomas' article: "Education Reform: Our field, Our Voices Just Don't Matter." And for all my down-trodden educators, BE INSPIRED for change, a worthy change, is coming!
Dr. Paul Thomas' post on Education Reform had me jumping out of my chair with conviction. See this screen shot of my post:
Here are some excerpts from his post, beginning with Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man:
“I am an invisible man,” announces the unnamed narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, adding:
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me….When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, of figments of their imaginations—indeed, everything and anything except me….That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact….you often doubt if you really exist….It’s when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince yourself that you exist in the real world, that you’re a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it’s seldom successful.
From Dr. Thomas: "In effect, then, for a century, teachers have been invisible in their own field, except as both compliant workers implementing political and bureaucratic mandates and as often-silent scapegoats as that bureaucracy fails."
CC, charter schools, TFA, VAM, and merit pay plans are driven by advocates who refuse to see not only teachers but also the entire history and field of education, or as Arundhati Roy explains, “We know of course there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
and I will conclude with this last excerpt from Dr. Thomas...
Let’s allow for the first time in history educators the recognition they deserve to examine, evaluate, and reform their own field. Current reform that is top-down and driven by the same historical and bureaucratic methods that have brought us to where we now stand is destined to repeat the same patterns we have already experienced for over 100 years.
I cannot express enough, how insightful this article is to me. For those of you that follow, you know I've endured my own battle as a new librarian in an urban school (see this post). In fact it's still going on (the "entrapment" I feel at my current place of employment), but I'm hoping a new perspective, the motivation of only 5 months remaining on my contract, and/or the hope of some transformation miracle that will allow me a promotion from the aforementioned state of purgatory, will come to pass in this year! Though I'm unhappy, I've learned the importance of humility and adaptation.
Nevertheless, please read Dr. Thomas' article: "Education Reform: Our field, Our Voices Just Don't Matter." And for all my down-trodden educators, BE INSPIRED for change, a worthy change, is coming!
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