Wednesday, March 23, 2011

GREAT NEWS!

If you look at the ChipIn widget next to the blog, you will see that I have been able to reduce the cost for me to finish my research by 1000 dollars!! Now at 1500, down from 2500! This is all because of the generosity of the donation of frequent flier miles by Jean, of Tina and Joe's generosity to house me in Colorado, of Chris' kind offer to house me in New Hampshire, and my Mom's constant support helping me to get to Colorado and New York, not to mention those that have donated to the ChipIn as well!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you that have offered support financially and emotionally. I am truly grateful. I still hope I can reach the goal so I can finish the book, but right now the ability to lower my cost to finish is keeping me blissfully in the presence of this great moment.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

INTRODUCTION #2

“I don’t know how you’re doing this, or how you are funding this, or what exactly you’re doing, but I gather you’re traveling to schools to write a book about them.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m visiting schools that are doing things differently. Some of them are radically different and others may just be altering the way the students learn or how they run their school. I’m really seeing all sorts.”

“Well what are you going to do about the price tag that comes with these types of schools?”

My dad. The constant devil’s advocate. This is actually a good thing. You know when he starts grilling you if you have the chops to back up what you’re deciding to do. His questioning will cause the weak to falter and the strong to grow stronger by making them confirm their idea or their belief.

An example is the time my brother held a big screen showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life” for our family during the holidays at the Wealthy Theatre where he worked. My dad leaned down the aisle and hollered to me referring to my guest, “So, Jeannie! What do you think you have a calling from the Lord to date everyone named Steve?!”

I glared down at him, really having nothing to say since, yes, this was the 4th Steve I had dated in a 10 year period. As I shot him those mortified daughter eyes, a head poked out from beside me. “Yes, but this time the Lord sent me.” That was Steve.
So, yes, I married this Steve.

Back to my dad’s Avalon where my bum was pleasantly warming on his heated seats on that 35 degree October morning.

“No, you’re right, some do come with a price tag. I’m also visiting progressive public and charter schools. You know though, even the private schools hold information that can be incorporated into any existing public system. Also, on the other hand, private works for some people, so I want to be sure to cover all of my bases.”

I began to bombard him with the stories of the democratic school I visited in Utah, sure to confirm again that no, this was not a school for the Democratic Party. My Rush Limbaugh listening father would have turned me off right then and there. I also began telling him about the opposite end of the spectrum and my visit to the Maharishi School.

“Well, Mike was in an open classroom at one point.”

If I could have fallen out of the car, I would have. What was this? My conservative parents put my eldest brother in an open school?!

“Yes, he was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I can’t quite remember. We had to pull him out because he didn’t do very well. It takes a special kid to be self disciplined. Most kids need structure. At least Mike did.”

Regardless of the fact that my dad was missing the point of the open classroom where the belief is that the kids will indeed direct themselves to learn what is needed after a time of detoxing from the public system, I was encouraged that the person that was the least likely to be open to progressive ideas or understand why I was doing this journey at all had actually been receptive to open classrooms! Slap my hand!

“I know other countries are so much more advanced than we are like Japan, and India and China.” Dad continued. “They churn out the engineers and scientists and I guess I don’t know, I’m just assuming here, but I think they are educated in a very structured environment.”

“Well, unfortunately I won’t get to include that. My original goal was for the book to be global, but when this really started happening, I realized that was impossible given my mommy and financial status. So, I’m sticking to this country for now. Maybe my future publisher will fund a sequel,” I joked.

“Who has your kids?”

“Steve and Mom split it up.”

“How can he take off work with a new job?”

“He only takes off 1 day a month. Most of the time I fly out on a Sunday, see a school Monday and then fly back that same night. They’re very short trips. Mom generously fills in when the trips are longer.”

Now I was on the mommy defense side. I wondered if people would think that I was shirking my responsibility as a mother by going on this journey, despite the fact that I was going on this journey in essence for them. I came to piece with myself when I was frank enough to realize that I end up spending four to six days away from home out of a 30 day month. This is what working parents spend away from their kids in just a weeks time minus the couple of hours they see their children before the chaos of bedtime begins.

I’ve stayed at home with my children for 3 1/2 years at this point and plan on doing so until I feel there is an educational system I can believe in in my area and when my kids are socially ready to leave the dependency of the nest, a very important aspect to their development. I guess I could be signing on for tenure here seeing as I am considering everything, even full time homeschooling. Regardless, I think 4-6 days per month out a nine month period is acceptable. And with Skype we have lots of fun every day talking and playing over cyberland.

“So aren’t there books out there already like this?”

“AHA! No!” I was excited now. “When I searched, I found only two - TWO - books that were a collection of information
about all the alternative educational theories out there. No one has ever done one narratively like I am where they visit actual schools and tell a story. This is my journey so it’s not just a dry informational book, well, I hope it won’t be. I even want the chapters to be short enough so that tired parents can get in 4 pages before bed. I just want to reach more people.”

“Sounds like you’re writing a book for the bathroom!”

I had to laugh. My dad is funny. Ask anyone.

“Yeah! Maybe I should call it The Bathroom Educational Reader.” I joked back.

“Or how about The Throne Book?”

“Good one, Dad.”

ONCE AGAIN

Once again, I am not finishing my social justice chapter in order to show you all the vast gamut of educational philosophies that I have had the immense opportunity to visit. Next stop: Phoenix.

Monday, March 14, 2011

CHAPTER 3 : SECTION 3

“I got a carrot/I got a yam/I got a green bean fresh, not from a can/Got a potato as you can probably see/I also got a pea/I got a pea/I got a pea/Why is everyone laughing at me?/So if you find a little pea on the floor after I leave/I think it probably belongs to me.”


Kight, the 6th and 7th graders Humanities teacher, was trying something new today. “Hey guys! This is going to be our new way to transition between things here in class. Verses having me shout out the time left to find your seats, I will just play this song. It’s 2 minutes long and so when you hear this song, you’ll know that you have to be in your seats by the time it’s over.”

Kight continued, “Alright, today I want to continue and build on the discussion we had during KIVA this morning about First Amendment Rights. What I’d like you to do is watch this You Tube video I found. Now before I play it I want you all to know that you are going to see some words in this video and they are derogatory words that are used to describe a group of people. Remember how we talked last week about the “N” word and how this is not a word that we use to talk about African Americans unless you are an African American and in that case, it is up to you. Well, it is the same for these words that you will hear today. There will be a “F” word and a “D” word that will be used to describe a gay person. These are not words that we use to describe anyone that is L, B, G, T, Q, or Lesbian, BiSexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer, unless of course you are L, B, G, T, Q where again, it’s up to you. There will also be a word to describe a woman that starts with a “W” and the same goes here. Alright.”

The You Tube video began. “God Bless the USA” played in the background while images of military funerals flashed on the screen juxtaposed with images of the protestors and the signs that are held at these funerals, which was where the words that Kight warned the children about came up. “Thank God for 9-11” said one. “God Hates Gays” was another.

A woman appeared, a spokesperson for the protestors and she began to explain that the deaths of all of the military men and women were because God was punishing our country for being too lenient on what they say is such a clear defamation of God by allowing gays in the military. They believe that all of the natural disasters and terrorism attacks were happening for this reason as well. 9-11, Katrina, you name it.

Then Kight stopped the video, “Ok. I know that was hard to watch for some of you, but this is what I want you all to do. I want you all to think about what this woman said and I want you to pretend you are her. I want you to get out your journals and I want you to write one sentence from this woman’s point of view.”

Comments came flying from around the room. These kids were obviously dismayed at this woman. After all, it is a social justice school.

“I know this is going to be hard for some of you who disagree with her, but if you can’t write from her perspective, how can you have a debate? You can’t go on and believe things just because I say it, or just because your parents say it. You need to develop your own ideas and part of that is imaging why she thinks the way that she does. There are students here at this school that may agree with her. To debate her, you have to see her side.”

“I was born knowing gay rights were civil rights,” said a boy.

“Well, that’s great that you know that, but I can tell you when I was in 6th grade there wasn’t one, not one other student that believed gay rights were civil rights.”

The children gathered in groups of 4 and discussed different ways to say what the You Tube funeral protestor was saying. Then they all went around and read aloud what they thought this woman was saying.

“Ok, why are we doing this?” Kight asked. “Here are some numbers for you. 1 in 10 people are gay. Out of this ten, two thirds will try to commit suicide. Half of these attempts will succeed. Let’s do the math.” She wrote a succession of numbers on the board. “You can bet that one student in your school right now will be successful in their suicide because they are gay. You guys have the ability to change this statistic. If you find out that someone is gay, they need your support and acceptance more than they need your ridicule whether you agree with their lifestyle of not. You may save someones life. So again, why do this? Well, it’s way harder to see this woman’s side. It’s easier to just say I hate you. That won’t get us anywhere. We need to attempt to see both sides of an issue to accurately discuss it.”

I’m sure I looked like a deer in headlights. Kight was amazing. She was so fluid at getting these children to think and examine an issue that they will surely come up against at some point, probably many points, in their lives, and it would start right in high school when teens tend to start to examine this aspect of themselves. Kight, who was openly gay, was able to get these kids to see both sides of an issue without causing fear or anguish within the kids, just by simply making them think.

The next section for the day was about the Underground Railroad. There was a chart on the board full of sticky notes under the title, “What I Know About the Underground Railroad” that the students had put on the day previous. Today there was a new chart titled, “Questions about The Underground Railroad.”

“Ok. We’re breaking into groups again.” Kight gave the students a number 1 through 3. “1’s you go with Betsy.” Betsy was the Humanities assistant to Kight. “2’s you go with me. And 3’s you go with Jeannie.”

What? Me?! Somebody spotted my fly on the wall self and shooed me down! I sat on the ground with my 4 commrades, Jordan, Diedra, Dennis and Saul.

“Ok, so what do we still want to know about the Underground Railroad?” I asked.

“Ummm... Were there slaves that weren’t black?” This was from Jordan, a very eloquent and well spoken 7th grader.

“Was there actually a railroad involved?” asked Diedra.

“Did other southerners help the slaves beside the Quakers?”

“What kind of food did the slaves eat?”

“Yeah, and like, what kind of games did they play?”

“Did the slaves ever get to retire?”

I was writing frantically.

The students were asked to return to their seats at the same time I realized I had spent almost all of my allotted time for two class visits in this one class. I couldn’t help myself! I was so enjoying class! Kight is an amazing teacher! Although, when I passed the classroom later in the day, I saw the second half of the class that I had missed. The kids were all decked out on the floor with books, the same book. “Elijah of Buxton,” a book about a young black child during the days of the Underground Railroad. The children were following along as a book on tape played in the background.

I was left with a feeling of empowerment, with a euphoric fuzz in my brain. Social Justice should not just be in a school here and there, it should be mandatory within every school’s curriculum, of that is was suddenly convinced.