Editors/Publishers Producing Inferior Books!

So this past week in the library, I decided to pull the original book Shrek written by William Steig! I conjured up in my mind that the kiddos know the movie, but as true to most Hollywood flicks nowadays, it was based on a book. Little did I know that it would piss me off beyond comprehension...



In a nutshell, I believe book editors have fallen prey to the almighty dollar and therefore, are producing books with the vernacular tailored towards the inferior, standardized-test child instead of elevated for the voracious, learning child. Let me provide some context. I decided to read this book to my 5th graders. As I read it to them, they kept interjecting--"What does 'cowed' mean?" "Blithe?" "Yokel?" "Smite?" "Brayed" "Frolicked?"--now these were all vocabulary authentic to the Old English vernacular of the time and appropriate for the context of the story. And in total, there were 21 unfamiliar words. Furthermore, this was a "teachable moment" and a great way to have them use their 21st century technology (e.g. their cellphones) for the quick Google Query on defining a word. Heck, I even had a moment of pride when a young lady chided a boy for interrupting me by saying "Stop acting like a yokel and let her finish!" Can we say AHA moment?

However, what pissed me off was the fact that this book was written in 1990 and published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Twenty five years ago, when vocabulary challenged students...before No Child Left Behind left American children leagues behind other countries...when editors published books that made children ask their parents--"What does 'churlish' mean?" e.g. "I've a problem. I don't know what this word means. Let me find a resource. How can I use this new knowledge? I can use to insult and confuse my bully at school. Oh yeah? Well, you're a churlish yokel! Now let me run while he's confused!"

Returning to my initial concern, I believe majority of the books published are such simpletons that the kiddos have no reason to interrupt Mommy as she watches Netflix to ask an interactive question about a word choice...heaven forbid that Mommy has a teachable moment with their child at home. Forgive my digression, but the revelation in reading Steig's "middle-aged" book boggled my mind so that I pulled some award winning picture books of 2015--The Day the Crayons Quit, The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure, Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend and The Pigeon Needs a Bath!--straight from the American Library Association's list of Notable Books to use as comparison to Steig's invigorating vocabulary just to test my hunch: Are editors/publishers producing inferior books? Even though those aforementioned titles are entertaining--I love Beekle and Dan Santat--my informal research showed that not one of them came even close to challenging the audience's vocabulary with higher-order thinking vernacular...or as a like to see it, enticing the reader to seek new meaning with words as they sit captivated by the storytelling and visual.

Simply put, "if the kids don't see, read and interact with words on some stimulating level, how else will their vocabulary expand?" Especially, if publishers/editors are pushing simpleton books that appeal to the reluctant readers, but don't provide the grit needed to grow linguistically?

I suppose the big picture to me as an educator, librarian, parent and advocate of intellectual freedom is this: We can talk "Rigor and Relevance," dig deeper, Teach Like a Champion and all that other educational jargon that corporations/institutions sell at professional development workshops, but if we don't hold PUBLISHERS and EDITORS accountable like we hold teachers and students, then it's all just lipservice...or as my Daddy says "It's the same shit, just a different toilet!"

So here's the challenge, in addition to producing diverse books that have more minorities on the cover and in leading roles because color matters to everyone whether they acknowledge or deny it, embrace the authors that use words that challenge their audiences to remove themselves from their ZOMBIE, simpleton reading and acquire a new meaningful word or two! This way words like "irascible," "appalled" and "slog" are used just as frequently as "like," "awesome" and "really." As an aside, I f-ing loathe the words "like," "awesome" and "really!" If any one of them are used more than 3 times in a conversation, I've written you off mentally. I know it's harsh...but like really?

Standardizing Testing Against My Religion

As an educator, I realize that the Spring is the testing season. Students and teachers will be locked in rooms together for 4 hours on end for multiple days, each one threatened to various degrees. Students are facing being held back for not succeeding on these state-mandated exams, as well as the disappointing failure associated if they don't succeed as expected. Teachers are facing having their license revoked as well as legal ramifications if something goes on "under their watch." I even had one testing coordinator threaten the staff that even if the "Texas Education Agency (TEA) investigates you and the accusations turn out to be false, it will FOREVER be on your license that you were under investigation by the state." Who will hire you then? And, just now, I was forced to sign an OATH declaring how I will uphold all of the rules, regulations and policies. Hmm...that sounds like oppression to me!

Therefore, after much thought and consideration, I have declared any standardized test against my faith...religion...morals...ethics...my being. I'm fed up with the threats, forced oppression and legal ramifications. This is not the education that's beneficial to the whole student. They're drained because before the state exams, there are benchmarks/district exams...or as I like to call it, tests before the tests so we can get our excuses together to explain our performance on the real test. This is, in fact, bullying AND oppression. For those of you who need definitions and undisputable truth, look at these clear definitions according to Merriam-Webster:





I don't need you to agree, disagree or persecute me. I say when it's enough for me. I decided years ago to leave the classroom and become a librarian for this primary reason...yet the demon follows!

Here's an unbiased and professional article written by Paul Thomas of Furman University, regarding the dangers and setbacks of No Child Left Behind

Parent Arrested Over Book w/Sexual Content

Recently, Todd Starnes of Fox News, wrote an article asserting his stance regarding a New Hampshire School's Defense of a Sexually Graphic Novel.

Here's an excerpt...at the least the portion I choose to reference in my response.

Heaven forbid the superintendent of schools be the arbiter of decency. So who, pray tell, is responsible for deciding whether children are exposed to pornographic literature?

“It’s a decision of the local community,” he told me.

I was especially intrigued by the school board’s official statement. Read carefully:

“The School District policies IGE, IJ, IJA, KEC (available on the school district website) refer to the procedures for the use of novels containing controversial material. The district will take immediate action to revise these policies to include notification that requires parents to accept controversial materials rather than to opt out. Furthermore, the notification will detail more specifically the controversial material.”

Did you catch the part about forcing parents to accept racy, bawdy novels rather than opt out?

This school district may very well be the poster child for why you should home school your children.

Author Jodi Picoult told the Union-Leader that she was aware of the controversy in Gilford. Her solution was to make the novel a family affair.

“Read the book with your kids, by all means use it as a springboard for discussion with your kids,” she told the newspaper.

And afterwards, why not take the whole family down to the local strip club for dinner and a show?

Baer told EAGNews.org that he believes the incident is proof that public schools are trying to indoctrinate children with moral relativism.

First, as a parent that actually parents and raise my children, I understand the parent's outrage at NOT being notified. Furthermore, as an educator for the past 14 years, I am shocked that the teacher omitted the policy in notifying the PARENTS via written and electronic form. However, my harmony stops there.

Yes, the excerpt referenced is graphic. But it's also indicative of what's going on in high schools NOW. The kids are either curious about or having sex. And, the ironic thing is that majority of the parents are in denial and/or not taking a more proactive role in educating their children about sex--dangers, pitfalls, risks, and possible outcomes--so it's left up to books, educators and mentors. So bluntly put, either do your job and have it done the way you want it. Or, pipe-down and let the educators, writers and peers educate your children. Yes, the choice is that simple.

I taught in high schools for 10 years as an English teacher. My shock at seeing pregnant girls in my classroom gave me the reality check that the censorship of these types of books (like the one centered in this controversy) is not needed. High school students are testing out their sexuality, figuratively AND literally. Honestly, if the worse case scenario is their reading about it, then count your blessings. Case in point, I about fell out of my chair, when my 17 years old student (who was 8 months pregnant) suggested that WE have a joint baby shower, as I was 30 years old and 8 months pregnant. To use their catch-phrase: WTH???? On what planet of crazy did that idea come from? Furthermore, what the Hades did your mother say when she found out that you were in high school pregnant? Her response to my questions..."she's happy she's going to be a grandmother!" WHATEVER. How's that for moral relativism?

I'm by no means saying that Picoult's book should be used as a sex manual or in self-help aspect, but what I AM saying is that insinuating that parents take their kids to the 'strip-club' because the school district refuses to censor the book is such a damn ridiculous suggestion it makes me wonder whether Starnes' soap-box has a "sexual taboo" hiding under it...heaven forbid anything worse...I wrote that to demonstrate how ridiculous and absurd pointless comments can be. Nevertheless, FoxNews does have a reputation of outlandish TV personalities that call themselves journalists/reporters. But that's another post...

I agree with the author's suggestion for parents to use it as a means to have a discussion about sex, BECAUSE MOST OF THEM ARE NOT!!! Take a look at the schools, whether they're on a TV show for being a teen and getting pregnant or in their first relationship and just "curious" how it works, if you don't parent teenagers, they will parent themselves...pay attention to the pun because the next name-calling will be "Grandma" or "Paw-Paw," Mr. Starnes.

Hip-Hop & Science

Though I'm classically trained as a cellist, my 2nd love is "hip-hop." BUT before you hit the road, know this...I love old school hip-hop, where rhythm, rhyme and slang discussed the morale, tribulations and "going-ons" of the beautiful innards of "cocoa-life." Sure, there were curse words involved, but there was also a frankness that seems lost in the political correctness of the world now.

True, I'm biased and liberal, but I'm also quite realistic...blame it on my Gemini nature! When this WuTang rapper, the one and only GZA, said "music is in everything," I thought of Mozart, who heard harmonies in his head and could memorize a song after hearing it once. And, Beethoven, who composed, having not heard his own notes, the most invigorating music of mankind. For it was the opening measures of Beethoven's 5th Symphony that inspired the Morse Code taps for victory.



So, please listen to this video. GZA and his panel of young rappers are, in a word, poignant. It's a perspective you never thought of, unless you're a cocoa girl from the '90s, who wishes these popular rappers, who continually water-down the original rapper's creed, would just RIP. Don't worry, I won't put any rappers on blast!

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!

Why Libraries Rule the world

This info graphic dictates the UBER importance of THE LIBRARY!

The Choke-hold: Why Urban Schools in Public Education Are Failing!

A Librarian’s Retort: Why I Despise Urban Public Education

I am torn. Part of me believes that hard working poor Americans want an education for their child. Not just an education but all the successes that come along with it. Then there’s the other half…cynic row, as I like to call it. This part believes no matter how much we try to move forward and progress the urban poor, they are stuck in their tortoise shell. Hoodies on, Jays (Jordans tennis shoes) clean and tracks hidden—the woven tracks of hair in her head, the dried tracks of sorrowful tears or the tracks from drug use, your choice—and that’s where the tear in me occurs. Not all the students in urban neighborhoods are downtrodden. A few are thirsting for a quality educator. As positive as I want to be daily, the "bad apples" drain the positiveness, the joy and the grit needed to endure an urban school setting.

At the moment, I’m questioning my career choice, my country and my life-goals. I had the obvious warnings signs that spoke loud and clear to me before I moved to an urban, poverty ridden school—unreturned phone calls, no functioning computers in proximity to my location on campus, kids that curse educators and a principal that hadn’t had a librarian in at least five years-- but because of my militant conviction that I can make anything succeed, I’m now burned out a week before Christmas break, thankful my kid has the flu and praying something miraculous to happen to prove to me that the last 5 months were all worth it in the end.

To bring you up to speed, I’m a former English Language Arts teacher, who has taught everything from high school English, English as a Second Language and Literary & Creative Writing. That right there ought to show you how complex and diverse of a teacher I am. As an additional additive, I’m a young Black woman that grew up in a white middle-class suburb and attended a private university. I’ve had privileges, but by no means exhibited the status of wealthy. As a babe, I ran before I walked and electrocuted myself at 5 because I wanted more super-powers like the vacuum cleaner. Regarding education, I always wanted my answers to be different from my classmates and took like a songbird to the arts: cellist, chef, and creative writer. I despised (and still do) any structured box others tried to place me in. Who wouldn’t fight a choke-hold grip on your natural creativity?

However, those attributes are for not. As a recent article published by Slate.com –Inside the Box: People don’t like creativity—remarked, the powers that be “don’t like creativity.” They prefer agreeable, inside the box thinkers. Get as close to the boundaries of the box as you want to…hell we’ll even make you a star for that because you’re edgy! But once you cross that line, “your ass is toast!”

So naturally, as an original thinker, my creative arse was in violation of that rule and labeled uncooperative and resistant to coaching! Go figure that! You mean I went to college, inherited tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and can only achieve wide-range success to pay off those debts if I align my brain along the rest of the “No waves, Dave!” mentalities?

So my next best option was to get out of the classroom (while my test scores were still admirable) and go back to school for a masters degree. Hmm…how about I become a librarian? I can read my assets off and still enjoy influencing the minds of the future. Plus, NO DAMN STANDARDIZED TESTS! Fate brought me a grant opportunity and I seized it. In the mean time, I needed to exit suburbia hell and go to where I was needed.

Therefore, off to urban school! There, the need was great for creative and ambitious minds! I can inspire and assist the economically challenged but aspiring youth. Furthermore, I could be of great use. Leech from me as much knowledge as you can! But, what I found was oppression in its modern form. I jumped from one misery into the lair of hell. All I can tell you is read the article “Four Reasons Why Teachers Avoid or Leave High Poverty Urban Public Schools.” It is a bright light into the new hell I find myself in.

So after months of listening to students being cursed out by professional colleagues—“because that’s the only shit they respond to”—and covering classes for sick, depressed or newbie teachers—“because you’re a librarian, you don’t have a class right now and you’re such a strong teacher”—I’m hiding out in my home-office, nursing a flu-ridden son, hoping he stays ill for the remaining two days of this week so that I don’t have to return to Satan’s liar! Did I just wish for a SLOW recovery for my own child? Wth? And, by the way, all those quotes are literal remarks from co-workers! Again, wth?

So what’s the point? The point is this: corporations and districts alike want to blame educators for the flaws in public education, when the accountability is with one group, the American family…all of us. Corporations that lobby for standardized tests and refuse to raise minimum wage that keeps the rich rich and the poor struggling. Teachers, who learn several pedagogies, just to toss them all out the window in order to survive with urban hellions. Parents, who didn’t take advantage of an education when they had one, so now they work multiple jobs just to make ends meet and don’t have the proper time to bond and raise their children! Lawmakers, who forget those that elected them because the corporation’s lobbyist sweetened a sway in their favor, and school districts that cater to the laws established by agencies that are made up of non-educators or educators that have been out of the classroom for so long they don’t know the first thing about it. Voters that BLINDLY put these buffoons into office. And, the rich, who have enough money to remove their children from public education and let the “scavengers fight amongst themselves… where up here!”

Hell if I’m honest, I believe every decision maker, in the realm of education, should as part of their contract serve one paid week in an inner-city urban public school twice a year. They must be in the classroom and can have no assistance with lessons, classroom management and/or technology. Then, and only then will those haughty wanna-be intellects know the plight of my kind. Plus, it’d give those white-collar twits a bonafide reality check!

We all have accountabilities in public education. However, the only resolution I can come to grips with right now is to leave public education. Or, some kind of way, find an authentic version of the MIB (“Men in Black” movie) memory eraser and make everyone stare at the light. And, start the public education system all over again.



Nevertheless, I need to find some career that supports my desire to be around kids, as well as home-school my own. No buckets of cash over here! No money-bags husband! No faith in public education…at least not at the campus I work, presently. Perhaps, I will open my own private school one distant day. However, unless I win the lottery, I will still have to deal with opinionated investors, who want it done their way or the highway. Now, my arse is right back to those haughty wanna-be intellects! What a vicious circle!

P.S. It’s safe to say that these ideas are all my own, in case the powers that be connect the dots and fire me for having an honest refelection.

Kevin Olusola: Cello Performance via Colorado Public Radio

Oh my...oh mercy, me...OH MY %$%^#%$^ GOODNESS!! This fella, Kevin Olusola, just make me want to snatch my cello from the corner of my bedroom, rosin up my bow, channel the 1996 me and...BUSTA FLOW!

I can't believe how RIDICULOUSLY awesome this video is! Thank you to Mal Collins (my Pinterest) friend for pinning/posting this treasure!

4 Reasons Why Teachers Leave

This article sums up some of the feelings I've had lately. I made the transition from a suburban school district to a urban school district! I'm learning what it truly means to teach from the heart and learned more about myself than I ever knew! Please read: 4 Reasons Why Teachers Avoid, or Leave, High Poverty Urban School Districts.

Miss Nelson is Missing...

Yes, it's a classic children's book: Miss Nelson is Missing. It was my favorite book because I loved my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Anderson (Fraizer Elementary, Pasadena ISD). She was a sweet as Miss Nelson and when Mrs. Anderson missed school, I felt like finding her because the classroom was madness.

Because the start of the school year is buzzing through the air, I thought tenderly on my first day of Kindergarten. My own almost 5 yr. old will attend Kindergarten on Tuesday. I found this wonderful re-enactment video of a Kindergarten class making a "Miss Nelson is Missing Video!" BRAVO, to the performers and please enjoy!