Social Justice Teaching Debate on Eduwonkette

Interesting back and forth about "social justice teaching" on Education Week's eduwonkette.

Definitely worth reading the entire three posts on eduwonkette, starting with:What Is Social Justice Teaching, Anyway?

She mentions Sol Stern's article in City Journal criticizing Bill Ayer and social justice teaching. Stern says that Ayers "has a political agenda that, if successful, would make it impossible to lift academic achievement for disadvantaged children." (His social justice teaching agenda, that is.) Bill Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and was formerly a Weatherman, a group that emerged out of opposition to the Vietnam War and support for the Civil Rights movement. Stern criticizes:

As Ayers puts it in one of his course descriptions, prospective K–12 teachers need to “be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and . . . be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, a teacher teaching for social justice and liberation.” Ayers’s texts on the imperative of social-justice teaching are among the most popular works in the syllabi of the nation’s ed schools and teacher-training institutes. One of Ayers’s major themes is that the American public school system is nothing but a reflection of capitalist hegemony. Thus, the mission of all progressive teachers is to take back the classrooms and turn them into laboratories of revolutionary change.

Bill Ayers responds as a guest blogger on eduwonkette:

The one true assertion he makes about my actual work—and he repeats it several times—is that I am in favor of teaching for social justice. He never explains why that’s a bad thing—Stern favors teaching for social injustice?—but simply calls it the “social-justice teaching agenda.”

So a brief word on schools and social justice: all schools serve the societies in which they’re embedded—authoritarian schools serve authoritarian systems, apartheid schools serve an apartheid society, and so on. Practically all schools want their students to study hard, stay away from drugs, do their homework, and so on. In fact none of these features distinguishes schools in the old Soviet Union or fascist Germany from schools in a democracy. But in a democracy one would expect something more—a commitment to free inquiry, questioning, and participation; a push for access and equity; a curriculum that encouraged free thought and independent judgment; a standard of full recognition of the humanity of each individual. In other words, social justice.

From Sol Stern's guest post on eduwonkette:

Perhaps Stanley Fish put it best: “Teachers should teach their subjects. They should not teach peace or war or freedom or obedience or diversity or uniformity or nationalism or antinationalism or any other agenda that might properly be taught by a political leader or a talk show host.”

Sol Stern suggests that the works of Maxine Greene ,Paulo Freire, Jonathon Kozol, Henry Giroux, and Bill Ayers are the mainstays of teacher education schools, while "among those education writers who are almost never included on course lists are advocates of a knowledge-based and politically neutral curriculum, such as E. D. Hirsch Jr. or Diane Ravitch."

Here appears to criticize the following topics included in one of Ayer's syllabi's:

Ayers offers these comments about the role of K-12 teachers for his course on Urban Education: “Homelessness, crime, racism, oppression—we have the resources and knowledge to fight and overcome these things. We need to look beyond our isolated situations, to define our problems globally. We cannot
be child advocates . . . in Chicago or New York and ignore the web that links us with the children of India or Palestine.” So, not only should public school teachers be working to overcome racism and oppression in Chicago but they should be advocating for the “children of Palestine.” Considering that Ayers’ website includes rants against Israel and Zionism, we can just imagine what he means by that exhortation.

I'm not really sure what is suggested by a politically neutral curriculum - as I believe it is pretty much nearly impossible to be politically neutral in the classroom. Schools are political places.

I agree with Stern in that schools should not be places of indoctrination. Learning should be student centered, and the teacher should support the student journey as they pose problems and come to conclusions. However, this does not mean that the classroom is a neutral place where social justice issues can't be discussed.

To support a status quo, to advocate against "social justice teaching" is equally as political as to advocate for it.

Thoughts?

NYCLU Freedom in Expression Contest for NYC Youth

Pass it on:

The New York Civil Liberties Union is sponsoring its annual Freedom in Expression contest that asks youth to tell their stories, voice their opinions and speak out. Winners will receive cash prizes of up to $1,000.Contestants can enter an essay, a song, a spoken word piece, a poem, visual art, a video, a public service announcement or something even more creative. Entries just need to express views on an aspect of justice in America. The contest is open to all New York City youth younger than 20-years-old and the deadline is coming up! Entries must be submitted by Monday, May 19. For more information and to enter the contest please visit ww.nyclu.org/contest.

Opportunity to See Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Augusto Boal in Action

Worth checking out:

The Brecht Forum, The Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed at The Riverside Church, The Education Ministry of The Riverside Church, The Social Justice Ministry of The Riverside Church, and The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) present:

A Public Performance/Demonstration of Rainbow of Desire, a Theater of the Oppressed technique facilitated by Augusto Boal Tuesday, May 13, 2008 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Assembly Hall of the Riverside Church 91 Claremont Avenue *New York City*

See a performance/demonstration of the Rainbow of Desire, one of the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. The Theater of the Oppressed, established in the early 1970s by Brazilian director and Workers' Party (PT) activist Augusto Boal, is a form of popular theater, of, by, and for people engaged in the struggle for liberation. More specifically, it is a rehearsal theater designed for people who want to learn ways of fighting back against oppression intheir daily lives.

In the Theater of the Oppressed, oppression isdefined, in part, as a power dynamic based on monologue rather thandialogue; a relation of domination and command that prohibits theoppressed from being who they are and from exercising their basic human rights. Accordingly, the Theater of the Oppressed is a participatory theater and form of popular education that fosters democratic and cooperative forms of interaction among participants. Theater is emphasized not as a spectacle but rather as a language designed to: 1)analyze and discuss problems of oppression and power; and 2) exploregroup solutions to these problems. This language is accessible to all.

Rainbow of Desire is one of the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed and is similar to a related technique called Cop-in-the-Head. Where Cop uses games and exercises to recognize and confront internalized forms of oppression, Rainbow of Desire deals with conflicting needs, desires and wants within individuals and explores power relations and collective solutions to concrete problems. This is a method and set of techniques that is especially useful for teachers and educators who work with disadvantaged populations, social workers, psychologists and mental health professionals, and community activists and organizers who are involved with marginalized constituencies and constituencies which have traditionally been the victims of bias and discrimination.

Augusto Boal will demonstrate these techniques, assisted by both members of the audience (participation is optional but encouraged!) and by members of a three-day workshop in Rainbow of Desire and Forum Theater techniques being held at the Brecht Forum.

Augusto Boal is a political activist and major innovator of post-Brechtian theater. He served as Artistic Director of the ArenaTheater in Sao Paulo from 1956 to 1971. In the 1970s, he came underattack by the Brazilian government, resulting in his imprisonment,torture and subsequent exile. Boal has lectured, conducted workshops,and mounted productions throughout North and South America, Europe, India and Africa, and has written a number of books, including Theater of the Oppressed; Games for Actors and Non Actors; and The Rainbow of Desire. An
activist in the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT), he presentlyresides in Rio de Janeiro. In 1992, he was elected to the City Councilof Rio, a post he held for four years. Once installed in office, headapted his theater techniques for use in city politics, with somehilarious--and sometimes rancorous--results. Members of the Center forthe Theater of the Oppressed became Boal's City Council staff, andcreated seventeen companies of players practicing "Legislative Theater"throughout the city. Currently, Boal continues to work with the Centerfor the Theater of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro and is researchingand formulating a theory of the aesthetics of the oppressed.

If you've been wondering what this work is all about now is the time to find out!

Admission: $10
Free for Brecht Forum subscribers and members of The Riverside Church

"We must emphasize: What Brecht does not want is that the spectatorscontinue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering thetheater, as do bourgeois spectators."--Augusto Boal

Travel directions:
Subway: IRT Broadway/Seventh Avenue #1 local to 116 Street
(ColumbiaUniversity). Walk north along Broadway (passing Barnard College on the left) to 120 Street (also called Reinhold Niebuhr Place). Turn left andwalk one block to Claremont Avenue. The church entrance at 91 Claremont isone half block north of
120 Street on the west side of the avenue.Bus: #4, #5 or #104 to Broadway and 120 Street.

RSVP Here: toplab@toplab.org

Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy

Call for justice from the Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy:

EDUCATORS, ACTIVISTS AND INTERFAITH LEADERS CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR DEBBIE ALMONTASER

Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy released the following statement in response to the April 28, 2008 New York Times story about Debbie Almontaser:

In today's story, the New York Times exposed what the article refers to as a "growing and organized movement to stop Muslim Americans who are seeking an expanded role in American public life." As the story makes clear, Debbie Almontaser was forced to resign as a result of an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim campaign against her and the school. Her forced resignation was not a result of her qualifications as an educator or her perceived ability to be an effective leader of the school.

Rather, the Department of Education succumbed to the bigoted campaign against her despite having selected her as the school's founding principal because of her impeccable reputation as an educator, a bridge-builder and, respected member of the Arab-American community. In the wake of her forced resignation, the City has taken an even more troubling position in regards to Ms. Almontaser which was summarized in a comment from a federal judge during an argument in Almontaser v. Department of Education: "So if a city employee speaks to the press, they're at risk that the press garbles their remarks, and then they get fired? That's quite a position for the City of New York." We urge the Department of Education to right this wrong and to ensure that such bigotry does not dictate educational policy by immediately reinstating Debbie Almontaser as principal of KGIA.

Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (CISKGIA) is a community group of parents, educators and interfaith activists who strongly support the Khalil Gibran International Academy and demand justice for former founding principal, Debbie Almontaser. We were referred to but not named in today's New York Times article by Andrea Elliot. For more information, please visit:
http://kgia.wordpress.com/

Teachers Unite Event May 8

WHY DO WE TEACH?

Revisiting Our Vision of Public Education

Did you want to give back to your community?Did you want to support your students as leaders?Did you want to be a part of public education reform?

Join Deborah Meier and Teachers Unite in a discussion about what brought us to teaching, and what we're fighting for now that we're here.

Deborah Meier has spent more than four decades in public education as a teacher, writer and advocate. http://www.deborahmeier.com/.

This is the final forum in the 2007-2008 series of events where educators relate their experiences in schools to larger political trends. The 2007 - 2008 forums focus on the impact of privatization and the corporate model on classroom life in NYC public schools. Co-sponsored by National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham University.

Thursday, May 8th

5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

McMahon Hall Lounge, Fordham University

155 West 60th Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam)

RSVP: info@teachersunite.net
Closest subways: 1, A, B, C, D

Nebraska Classroom & Rwandan Genocide "Prediction"

What can happen when we discuss real issues with our students?

NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, April 26, 2008 · In 1993, Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota, then a high school geography teacher in Nebraska, had his class do an exercise in which they ended up predicting the Rwandan genocide the following year. Tim Walz and one of his former students, Travis Hoffman, talk with John Ydstie about the prediction.

The original story appears in the NY Times: High School Project on Genocide Was a Portent of Real-Life Events.

“It was different and unusual, certainly not a project you’d be expecting,” Mr. Hofmann, now 31, of Phoenix, remembered recently of the class. “The biggest part was just the freedom to explore things. No matter how abnormal or far-fetched an idea might sound, you can form an opinion. Instead of just going in and having a teacher say, ‘Here’s information, learn it, know it, you’ll be tested on it,’ it was, Here’s an idea, run with it.’ ”

For nine weeks through the winter and early spring that school year, through the howling blizzards and the planting of the first alfalfa on the plains, the class pored over data about economics, natural resources and ethnic composition. They read about civil war, colonialism and totalitarian ideology. They worked with reference books and scholarly reports, long before conducting research took place instantly online.

Most, like Mr. Hofmann, had spent their entire lives in and near Alliance. A few had traveled to Washington, D.C., with the school marching band. A few had driven four hours to Denver to buy the new Nirvana CD. Mostly, though, the outside world was a place they built, under Mr. Walz’s tutelage, in their own brains.

When the students finished with the past, Mr. Walz gave a final exam of sorts. He listed about a dozen current nations — Yugoslavia, Congo, some former Soviet republics among them — and asked the class as a whole to decide which was at the greatest risk of sliding into genocide. Their answer was: Rwanda. The evidence was the ethnic divide between Hutus and Tutsis, the favoritism toward Tutsis shown by the Belgian colonial regime, and the previous outbreaks of tribal violence.

Read the full peice.

More on Debbie Almontaser & the Khalil Gibran School

NY Times: Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School

The fight against a school in Brooklyn was led by an organized movement to stop Muslim citizens who are seeking an expanded role in American public life.

What do you think about the resignation of Debbie Almontaser as the principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy?

Take a look at readers' comments on the article. Post your own at the NY Times site, or here.

And we wonder why they hate us. It has nothing to do with our (shrinking) freedoms, and everything to do with religious bigotry ... in the land of the free.

— Mike Hihn, Boise, ID

Recap on Brooklyn Peace Fair

Youth Race, and the Criminal Justice System
NY State Senator Eric Adams of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.

It was a timely discussion given the recent verdict in the Sean Bell hearing.

Senator Adams spoke of his experience as a 15 year old in the 103rd precinct of South Jamaica Queens (the same precinct as Sean Bell's shooting). He was arrested at the age of 15, complied, but was assualted by the police without reason.

He reminded some Long Island University students at the seminar: "The winds of change were never blown by adults, they don't have the lung capacity. They were blown by young people." He spoke of the luxury to talk about nonviolence in a classroom and the responsibility that luxury brings with it.

The discussion mostly centered around the relationships between the "family" of judges, prosecutors, and police--the lack of an independent prosector in the Bell case, how a judge was used rather than a jury, and then onto the Bloomberg administrations gentle quest for social control, and a quota system that continues to push police officers to the brink.

It certainly was a timely and interesting discussion.

Featured Speaker: Debbie Almontaser

Almontaser spoke of the "threats to academic freedom that are making their way to K-12 education." When she began her journey to found the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a dream school that would educate about a language and culture that some viewed as a threat, she found just that - people who were threatened.

Primarily, her speech outlined the sequence of events that led to her resignation: attacks from the right wing blogosphere and press after Almontaser embraced a teachable moment. The NY Post asked her to comment on a t-shirt produced by a group called Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media that said "Intifada NYC." Rather than condmning the word, Almontaser chose to explain the root of the word, which means "shaking off."

I was impressed by Almontaser's ability to criticize the NYC DOE, still her employer.

Just to give a run down of the articles that the Post used to attack Almontaser:

• "City Principal is Revolting: Tied to 'Intifada NYC' T-Shirts" August 6, 2007
• "Shirting the Issue" August 7, 2007
• "Terror Tots in Training" August 9, 2007
• "What's Arabic for 'Shut It Down'?" August 10, 2007

More info about Brooklyn for Peace.

More on Student Military Recruiting Tactics (A Little History)

This is a long one, but here we go:

In this 2004 article, "Military recruiters target schools strategically," The Boston Globe talks to Kurt Gilroy, who directed recruiting policy for the Office of the Sec. of Defense at the time:

Nearly all efforts are aimed at impending or recent high school graduates. But the marketing message is not targeted equally, acknowledged Kurt Gilroy, who directs
recruiting policy for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Although the military strives to maintain a presence everywhere "to give everyone an opportunity to enlist if they so choose," he said, it concentrates on places most likely to "maximize return on the recruiting dollar [because] the advertising and
marketing research people tell us to go where the low-hanging fruit is. In other words, we fish where the fish are."

This 2005 Washington Post report explores military recruiting in rural populations.

Many of today's recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median. All of the Army's top 20 counties for recruiting had lower-than-national median incomes, 12 had higher poverty rates, and 16 were non-metropolitan, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group that analyzed 2004 recruiting data by Zip code.

For information on NYC military recruiting, here's this 2005 article, originally published by the New York Daily News:

Last year, as U.S. casualties mounted in Iraq, only three residents in two neighborhoods of Manhattan's upper East Side - the city's richest area - joined the Army, Air Force or Navy.

Just a few blocks farther north, in a swath of East Harlem, 45 people enlisted.

At the same time, an astounding 113 joined in the Morrisania and Highbridge sections of the South Bronx. Meanwhile, in two zip codes of Brooklyn's poverty-stricken East New York, 116 men and women joined the military.

And in the immigrant neighborhoods of Elmhurst and Corona in Queens, 73 signed up.

That's all according to the Pentagon's own personnel records, which were obtained under a Freedom of Information request and released for the first time last week by the nonprofit National Priorities Project.

This 2007 Gotham Gazette article looks at NYC military recruitment in relation to poverty levels:

...there is an overwhelming military recruiter presence in schools like Christopher Columbus, Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Martin Luther King, which mostly serve poor, lower-income students. Recruiters are on these campuses at least every other day and become a constant presence in the students’ lives, he said.

“In the recruiters’ manual there is a lot about school ownership,” Rosmarin said. “They are encouraged to befriend the administration, become coaches for sport teams and organize after-school activities. We hear a lot of instances where recruiters will go as far as taking a student out and buying them lunch. We just want to ensure students are given the right to pursue an education without being harassed and hassled everyday.”

In September 07, The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) published a report in conjunction with the Manhattan Borough President’s Office: “Military Recruitment at Select New York City Public Schools Violates Students Rights, Report Finds.” The summary of findings and full report are available on the website.

To sum it up:

To be frank, it makes me ill that while some continue to profit off of this war, we continue to recruit the marginalized in our society to fight it, using tactics that are unfair and manipulative. When the major reason that those who do enlist is the absence of other opportunity and an array of closed doors-- there is a problem.

Brooklyn Peace Fair: Tomorrow

The featured speaker is Debbie Almontaser (@ 2:20PM in the Schwarz Gym), founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy. Almontaser is currently the Director of Policy and Planning of Special Projects for NYC DOE, and has worked in NYC Public Schools for 17 years from teaching to professional development. She also facilitates Boal's Theater of the Oppressed work (yay!).

Here is the website. Here's the program of events. The fair is at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University.

Test Prep Pep....Is this for real?

Education Policy Blog reports on an article in the NEA's Works4Me newsletter. Wow.

We have a pep assembly for the third and fourth graders a couple of days before standardized testing starts. Two teachers pretend they are cheerleaders and shake pompoms as they give a ‘pep’ talk about doing a good job on the tests, getting a good night's rest, etc. We have three teachers sit in desks and pretend to be examples of how not to take the test. One keeps turning around and bothering his neighbor, one cries, and one is not paying attention to directions.”

Another teacher is showing the ‘right’ way to take the test. Breakfast is provided for the students and the teachers/helpers on testing mornings. We also borrow an archway from the local hardware store and put Christmas lights on it with a sign that says, ‘Entering Testing Zone’. We set it up in the hallway that leads to the third and fourth grade rooms. The lights are on whenever we are testing.

Students or Soldiers? Event in Harlem

We need to be talking about this more. Here is info on the upcoming event:

Students or Soldiers?

New York City Students are entitled to explore a wide range of college and career options. Yet in many schools, the ones most actively reaching out to them are the military recruiters. The NYC City Department of Education continually refuses to take responsibility for protecting its students. There are regular reports of recruiters in classrooms, of wholesale violations of student and parent privacy rights, and a lack of a full range of career opportunities for NYC students.

Join elected officials, advocates, and youth experts examine the problem of unrestricted military recruitment, the availability of meaningful alternatives to military service and the effect of unbridled recruitment on the lives of New York City youth.

Tuesday, May 13
6:00pm
El Faro, Harlem United – 179 116th St. (Lexington & 3rd)
6 Train to 116 st.

Speakers include:
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito
NYCLU Director Donna Lieberman
Ya-Ya Network Youth Activist Juan Antigua

Refreshments will be served. Free & Open to the Public
RSVP: 212.669.4462 | events@manhattanbp.org

Be a part of this powerful evening focusing on ensuring student opportunities, protecting students’ educational rights, and holding the NYC Department of Education accountable.

Sponsored by: State Senator José M. Serrano, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito and the Students or Soldiers? Coalition

Education for Liberation: Introduction to the Friere Method

Education for Liberation at the Brecht Forum
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
2-DAY WORKSHOP
Sliding Scale of $65-$85/day

Carmelina Cartei, Kate Cavanagh,Sally Hyppolite,Esperanza Martell & Julie Novas

This is an introductory hands-on workshop in the use of popular education techniques based on the complementary approaches to Education for Liberation developed by two Brasilian cultural activists: philosopher Paulo Freire, author of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," and theater director Augusto Boal, Workers Party (PT) activist and founder of the Theater of the Oppressed.

In this introduction to the theory of the pedagogy of the oppressed and its practical application, participants will learn through practice the three basic steps of the Freire methodology:1) to express and see reality as it is experienced by the participants; 2) to understand this reality by analyzing it and exploring the root causes of problems; and 3) to act in order to change this reality.

Framed as a power analysis for decolonizing the mind and empowering oppressed communities in struggle, the workshop is designed for community organizers as well as educators and labor, political and solidarity activists in view of helping them actively plan and implement effective strategies for social action in their groups and communities.

The Corporate Classroom

NY Times Op Ed on Education.

Roughly a third of all American high school students drop out.

“In math and science, for example, our fourth graders are among the top students globally. By roughly eighth grade, they’re in the middle of the pack. And by the 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring generally near the bottom of all industrialized countries.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, offered a brutal critique of the nation’s high schools a few years ago, describing them as “obsolete” and saying, “When I compare our high schools with what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow.

Whenever I read this type of article - I often wonder why we must continue to mention the "work force of tomorrow" as though this is the biggest problem we have to solve - our ability to compete in global industry.

Why are a third of our students dropping out? We are pushing them out. Joe Kincheloe says, "When technologies of power such as standardized testing and curricular standardization are in place, possibility decreases that marginalized students will gain the confidence to reshape their relation to power or even reshape power's relationship to them...Most students who find themselves in such disempowered situations don't have the confidence to continue" (Critical Pedagogy).

Isn't education about a vision of justice and equality? When we place corporate and capitalist interests at the center of our schooling, we create power structures and systems that are not in the best interest of our children. When we focus on creating a stable work force- aren't we creating a pedagogy of low expectations? Looking to keep our society as ordered and efficient as possible? Making sure that those who are at the "bottom" now continue to stay there?

Education is about alleviating suffering. It is about justice. It's not about training a work force so that the rich can get richer and power structures can stay the same.

Children in our schools need to learn how to ask questions and pose problems. To ask the questions of our society that forces those who are marginalized to enter lotteries to compete for decent educations or some sort of health care.

When we "standardize" our classrooms and schools, we continue to "standardize" our students and the status-quo of our society.

Privileging Literacy

A 63 year old man talks about his journey to learn how to read (NPR).

Privileging literacy in our society, we see "illiteracy" as a focalized problem rather than a larger scale issue. It's important to keep in mind that literacy is a social practice, not necessarily a skill. Some societies (ours, for example) chooses to privilege literacy. The fact that we do privilege literacy leads those that are considered "illiterate" or unable to read "print" can be judged as stupid or lazy--leading to marginalization (and also pushing individuals to "hide" this). In a society that privileges literacy, it is unfair that we do not acknowledge the many ways of learning to read the word and the world...

The system, not the school, is the problem

Paulo Freire comments on the oppressor tactic of "dividing and ruling."

One of the characteristics of oppressive cultural action which is almost never perceived by the dedicated but naive professionals who are involved is the emphasis on a focalized view of problems rather than on seeing them as dimensions of a totality. In "community development" projects the more a region or area is broken down into "local communities," without the study of these communities both as totalities in themselves and as part of another totality...the more alienation is intensified. And the more alienated people are, the easier it is to divide them and keep them divided. (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

In their new book, Keeping the Promise, the Center for Community Change focuses on the need to view the problems in the education system as a totality rather than individual failing schools:

The prevailing emphasis on individualistic solutions to collective challenges is nowhere more evident than in our public schools. All of us are dismayed and angry about the state of public education in our poorest communities. But the response of policy-makers and conservative advocates has too often been to offer individual families a way out, rather than to acknowledge that we must solve this problem collectively. The experiences of all children in the nation’s public schools (and on our streets) are intertwined. When we are satisfied because some schools are doing well, or when we offer individual students the “choice” to attend high-performing schools, we pull up the ladder of opportunity and deny success to millions of others. We must demand a collective re-commitment to public education. We must do it together. And we must do it soon.

Community Values in Public Education

The American public still strongly supports our historic tradition of public education. There is wide and deep support for public schools as a place – perhaps the place – where children and adults engage as one community, learn from each other and rise
collectively. There are many components to an education system that is truly structured for the common good:

• school funding must not rely on local property wealth but instead on what children need to succeed. All schools must be funded to meet those needs;


• public schools must provide universal access to students. Communities support well-funded neighborhood schools, to which all children in a geographic community are entitled enrollment. Students should be allowed to
  “choose” among specialized curricula or programs within a public school district, but there must always be a good school in their neighborhood that will guarantee access.


• public schools should be melting pots, where children with different backgrounds can learn from and with each other. Children must be seen as resources, not “consumers” or “problems.”


• parents and teachers must sit at decision-making tables, and must be part of school governance. Parents are not “consumers” but full partners. Teachers are not factory workers, to be penalized based on their “production rates.” They are and should be supported as, professionals.


• schools should never be out-sourced to for-profit management corporations. Public dollars for educating our children should not line the pockets of entrepreneurs.
  
  In our campaign for Community Values, we must demand that public schools be fully supported by our collective resources. It is time to stop asking some communities to get by with less than the full riches our nation can offer. We must demand policies that connect us together, and an end to structures that isolate and separate.

Teacher Talk

NPR's Tell Me More interviews teachers on their obstacle and challenges, why they stay, and why they leave.

New: International Journal of Critical Pedagogy

Joe Kincheloe's introduction to the new International Journal of Critical Pedagogy. Exciting! Here is the first issue. (Also worth reading, Kincheloe's book, Critical Pedagogy.) The Freire project has also launched a number of blogs, although I'm not sure of the frequency of posts.

The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy wants to be an open-access on-line journal, totally uninterested in turning a monetary profit for anybody or any organization, that helps redefine the nature of critical scholarship (and scholarship in general), transformative community building, individual and social change, and education. We want to be brave in the struggles against the oppressive imperial machine conquering the world, yet humble in our countenance and sense of selfhood.

Kidventions

I've been having some of my fifth graders come up with inventions, an assignment that I described as "things that would make their lives easier."

It's always eye opening to see how assignments are interpreted. One student who told me that she had "done the wrong thing" pointed to her answer: "If I had a father." One of those eye opening moments...

Anyways, here are some of my favorite "inventions":

• The mega super ultra auto mobile of wind energy – a flying vehicle that uses air for its energy source and can fit up to 25 people and goes over 1,000 mph
• Teeth brushing vision goggle – shows you where you have to brush
• Talking mirror
• Flying pencil- comes to you when you clap your hands and say “pencil come here.”
• Pencil that connects to your brain to just our ideas instead of wasting time writing
• Never-charge laptop
• Non-hurting need that sucks up blood
• A car that runs on water
• Hair maker
• A purse that looks small but is huge inside
• Shoe tie-er: shoe that ties by itself
• Machine that reduces pollution
• Solar power school bus
• Shirt that changes design and size
  
  
  
  

Very Special Arts (VSA) Fellowships

Fellowships for Teaching Artists with Disabilities in the Visual and Performing Arts

VSA arts is seeking applications from artist-educators for the Teaching Artist Fellowship program. The Teaching Artist Fellowship seeks to identify, engage, and support outstanding teaching artists with disabilities in the visual and performing arts.

The deadline is May 8, 2008.

Charting the Course Conference

New Jersey Theater Alliance and New Jersey Arts Education Collective
Charting The Course Conference
Monday, April 21, 2008

This conference, with a keynote address by Sir Kenneth Robinson, is for the advancement of arts education, artists, and arts organizations.

The conference has sessions on:

• Shaping the Field of Arts Education
• The Future of the Teaching Artist Profession
• The Relationship between the Teaching Artists and the Arts Organization
• Financial Planning, The Health Maze and Legal Needs for Teaching Artists

Pushing Out 50% of Our Students?

A number of big cities have graduation rates of less than 50%.

The lowest graduation rates are in Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland.

Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs. Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the city schools.

It's Not on the Test

Great music video: "So music and art and the things you love best are not in your school cause they're not on the test..."

How we teach teachers

Education Policy Blog has a couple interesting posts on the way we educate teachers.

Barbara Stengel writes:
We can't tell someone how to teach. But we can give them opportunities to teach, invite them to reflect on what they intended to do and what they did do and what actually happened in the light of accepted theory, time-honored practice, and richly conceptualized research, and we can coach them through this process. In this way, they can be led (in another Dewey locution) "in the direction of what the expert already knows."

One commentor posts:
I think what we do an extremely poor job of is letting pre-service teachers discover that they are not "missionaries" out to fix children, but that they should be "guides in the woods" helping students get from where they are to where they need to go and want to go.Of course the problem is systemic - no system appears more resistant to change than education. College students sit in classrooms as they always have, following non-individualized syllabi as they always have, learning industrial teaching methods as they always have. Then they go out and have that "opportunity to teach" in buildings that do everything as they always have - stamping on student after student, assuming that each is simply raw material which can have 'value-added' as long as enough pressure is applied.And almost nowhere along the way do we really get them to question - what white northern European Protestant - modernist view of the world creates this system and gains from it? Why do we keep enabling a system so destructive to so many children?

Teaching Artist Rights

A few frustrations from my teaching artist work:

I attended a teaching artist training on Friday for the organization that I work for. The training includes both teaching artists and the teachers from the schools that we work with. One problem is that I usually teach on Fridays, so to attend the training I miss a teaching day with students and also I receive less compensation for training than for teaching (why?).

The teachers have a hard time attending because they miss days with their students. Often times, when teachers miss a day, instead of getting substitutes, their class gets split up and sent to other teachers (often times teachers of other grades). This is obviously not ideal. Consequently, many classroom teachers have a difficult time getting permission to attend these trainings. That's one issue.

Another one. It came to the time on the schedule labeled "Lunch: Room 408: 12-1pm." As I'm sitting in Room 408 with the other teaching artists and we are discussing our upcoming field trips with the students, my stomach starts growling--I'm eager to get to the "lunch" portion of this session. Finally, I whisper to the person beside me: "Uh, do they give us lunch?" She shakes her head: no. The training was over at 3pm. I know it is a little thing, but to be treated as a professional (or maybe just as a human being), I would have liked to a.) received lunch (as I'm being paid less for the training anyways); b.) had time to go out and buy my lunch; or at the very least c.) been told in advance to bring my lunch.

I like the Association of Teaching Artist's Teaching Artist Wish List. If we really believe that TA work is valuable and worthwhile, we need to push for the profession to be a sustainable one. This means that organizations that employ TAs need to think about the way that they treat them. Obviously, compensation is a major consideration. I am not paid for my planning (which is hours and hours of work), transportation (which is typically an hour each way), or cancellations (which happen frequently). I am also expected to find health insurance...which is a whole another issue.

I'll leave it at that for now, but take a look at the wish list below.

The Teaching Artist Wish List

To be compensated in a way that recognizes professionalism, education and experience.

To be compensated for prep time, as other contract professions do (designers and
therapists, for example).

To have work throughout the school year, not only the last 8 weeks.

To have teachers, administrators, and principals invest in long-term Arts In Education programs and not look for quick projects.

To have cultural organizations with Arts In Education programs recognize the professionalism of Teaching Artists and not continually pay the same rate year after year even though the Teaching Artists demonstrate excellence and mastery.

To have cultural organizations value Teaching Artists as integral to their mission and not rationalize that Teaching Artist can pay taxes, health insurance and transportation on less than $50 an hour.

To not have to hustle for funding and residencies every year.

To not be held hostage to flavor of the month pedagogies and emperors with no clothes on.

To be paid in a timely fashion.

To be able to work with teachers enrolled in certification programs in schools of education to foster the team-teaching collaborative environment with artists. There are great strides that need to be taken in teacher education to take advantage of the opportunity of Arts In Education and nourish it in a way that will allow for the optimal educational experience for the students.

To offer professional development to arts administrators who have forgotten the value of art, Teaching Artists, and what really goes into implementing Arts In Education: living wage fees, prep time, research, travel, and opportunities for reasonably priced health, disability, and liability insurance.

To educate cultural organizations and arts administrators with the message that they are there to support the Teaching Artist as well as the school.

To educate cultural organizations that push their programming instead of understanding the potential of Arts In Education for school reform and for the professional career of a Teaching Artist.

To provide professional development for community organizations who work with Teaching Artists on fees, Teaching Artists, program assessment.

To have funders meaningfully address the training, the lack of work, and how hard it is to earn a living as a Teaching Artist.

To have more connection with fellow Teaching Artists across the country.

A few more thoughts on community organizing, ed reform, and student voice

Given The Annenberg Institute's report on community organizing and school reform (see last post), here's a portion of a paper I wrote on drama and the student voice in education reform:

Noting the current state of school reform and the continuing existence of large achievement gaps in the educational system, “nontraditional” attempts at promoting the student voice within educational policy seem ever the more valuable. As attempts at school reform continue to struggle, Alison Cook-Sather comments on the historical lack of student voice in education: “Since the advent of formal education in the United States, both the educational system and that system’s every reform have been premised on adults’ notions of how education should be conceptualized and practiced.” She continues, “There is something fundamentally amiss about building and rebuilding an entire system without consulting at any point those it is ostensibly designed to serve” (3). Without meaningfully incorporating the voices of students into how we form our schools, we are left with an incomplete picture of education reform.

Maxine Greene promotes the arts as spaces that open up students to explore possibilities, frustrations and change. She warns that “one danger [of our education system] that threatens both teachers and students…is that they will come to feel anger at being locked into an objective set of circumstances defined by others” (124). She comments that the arts “may be able to create schoolroom atmospheres where young people are moved to find hope again and, even in small spaces, begin to repair” (130).

When commenting on the student voice in educational reform, Yvonna Lincoln asks, “how do we set the stage for such sharing?” Perhaps it is the stage itself where we find one such meaningful forum. Playwright José Rivera (qtd. in Saldaña) reasons that:

Theatre is the explanation of life to the living. We try to tease apart the conflicting noises of living and make some kind of pattern and order. It’s not so much an explanation of life as it is a recipe for understanding, a blueprint for navigation, a confidante with some answers—enough to guide you and encourage you, but not to dictate to you. (27)

There remains is a need to create forums where students can express their opinions about school communities first hand to wider stakeholders who are interested in collaborating to form strategies and change based on the student voice itself.

A Brief Literature Review

There is a great deal of literature available on the inclusion of the student voice in education reform. Patrick Lee’s “In Their Own Voices: An Ethnographic Study of Low-Achieving Students Within the Context of School Reform” is one that seeks to capture the student voice on the topic of school reform. A high school student-researcher in Lee’s study summarized: “…students sometimes feel motivated after they have talked to somebody about their problems, and they also feel that there is at least somebody that was willing to ask about their problems, and they feel like they could study because the teacher does care about their learning and being someone in life” (Lee 1999).

Readers hear a harsher reality in this 11-year-old’s depiction: “Everything that come out of your mouth probably ain’t [going to be seen as] true because you know grown up, they got more respect and more power over you” (Lee 1999). Yet, even in this ethnographic research study we read about the student encounter through the lens of the researcher’s report. We are still one step removed from the literal voice of the student.

There appears to be some dramatic work being done in this direction of including the student voice in the educational climate—for instance, Jane Plastow’s work, “Finding Children's Voices: A Pilot Project Using Performance to Discuss Attitudes to Education Among Primary School Children in Two Eritrean Villages” examines the educational experiences of fifth graders in Eritrea and their reflections on the positive and negative aspects on their education. In this program, Plastow and her colleagues utilized Image Theatre techniques to explore what they liked and disliked about their school. Looking at these images, the students were then asked to create strategies for what they might change about the images, using Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed techniques. Finally, students presented teachers with short performance pieces that provoked teacher response (Plastow 347).

I was unable to locate documented dramatic experiences that specifically approached educational reflection and reform in the United States. Yet, there are various non-dramatic programs and reports that seek to solicit the opinions of students such as SoundOut, an organization that highlights efforts where educators and students work together toward school reform, typically through local initiatives that promote surveys and school report cards created by students. Still, the forums for creating this dialogue between students, teachers, researchers, and policy makers are largely new, with much of the territory uncharted.

Stronger Communities = Stronger Schools

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform has released Organized Communities, Stronger Schools:

Data suggest that organizing is contributing to school-level improvements, particularly in the areas of school–community relationships, parent involvement and engagement, sense of school community and trust, teacher collegiality, and teacher morale. Successful organizing strategies contributed to increased student attendance, improved standardized-test-score performance, and higher graduation rates and college-going aspirations in several sites. Our findings suggest that organizing efforts are influencing policy and resource distribution at the system level. Officials, school administrators, and teachers in every site reported that community organizing influenced policy and resource decisions to increase equity and build capacity, particularly in historically low-performing schools.

Data indicate that participation in organizing efforts is increasing civic engagement, as well as knowledge and investment in education issues, among adult and youth community members. Young people reported that their involvement in organizing increased their motivation to succeed in school.

Our research suggests that organizing groups achieve these schooling and community impacts through a combination of system-level advocacy, school- or community-based activity, and strategic use of research and data. Continuous and consistent parent, youth, and community engagement produced through community organizing both generates and sustains these improvements.

Pretty interesting. Makes me wonder about the connections between the potential to explore community issue and advocacy through the arts and community-based theatre and other art forms. I think it is so important to build communities around our schools, and sometimes we see arts organizations functioning so far removed from the communities that they wish to reach.

I looked at the report's answer to "What is community organizing for school reform?" I've recently been exploring the possibility of using applied theatre to explore education reform and elevate the voices of students while connecting communities of students, teachers, and administrators.

What is community organizing for school reform?

• involves youth, public school parents, and community residents and/or
  institutions
• builds power by mobilizing large numbers of people
• focuses on accountability, equity, and quality
• recruits and develops leadership as a core activity
• uses direct action tactics to apply pressure on decision-makers
• aims to transform power relations that produce failing schools in low- and
  moderate- income neighborhoods and communities of color

So, I'd now ask:

Can the arts mobilize large numbers of people, recruiting and developing leadership?
Can the arts explore the transformation of dominant power structures and explore new possibilities?
Can the arts involve students, parents, school administrators, and teachers, building community?

Read: Student Essays

J.B. Schramm, founder and CEO of College Summit, has been blogging this week on Eduwonk. College Summit works to help build school infrastructures in order to increase their college-going populations.

Each day this week, Schramm has posted excerpts from student essays that are definitely worth reading. You can find the pieces on Eduwonk, or the full essays here: In Their Own Words: Ten Outstanding Student Essays.

Busing Crisis - In pictures

Eye opening: Slate's slide show essay detailing the Boston school busing controversy of the 70s. The Soiling of Old Glory, a photograph by Stanley Forman, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977.

It's definitely worth reading the entire piece, but here is an excerpt:

In his recent speech on race, Barack Obama spoke about the legacy of racial hatred and resentment in America. One of the events he probably had in mind was the controversy over busing that erupted in Boston in the mid-1970s. A single photograph epitomized for Americans the meaning and horror of the crisis. On April 5, 1976, at an anti-busing rally at City Hall Plaza, Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald-American, captured a teenager as he transformed the American flag into a weapon directed at the body of a black man. It is the ultimate act of desecration, performed in the year of the bicentennial and in the shadows of Boston's Old State House. Titled The Soiling of Old Glory, the photograph appeared in newspapers around the country and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977. The image shattered the illusion that racial segregation and
hatred were strictly a Southern phenomenon. For many, Boston now seemed little
different than Birmingham.

In 2006, when Deval Patrick became the first black governor of Massachusetts, the Boston Globe expressed hope that his inauguration would "finally wash away the shameful stain of that day in 1976." Last June, however, a Supreme Court ruling forbade school districts from assigning students based on their race, and Patrick's administration has been forced to find ways to avoid dismantling desegregation programs throughout Massachusetts. The issue, and the photograph, continue to haunt Boston, and the nation.

Comparative Conflict Resolution and the Arts

More info on the Promises Project. Another trailer worth watching: Encounter Point.

What is the role of arts educators in healing and in social healing? Throughout both films, we pick up on shared words like grief, horror, anger, heroes, pain, cycles, enemies, trust, peace, fear, strangeness, and questions: Why not talk? Is there and can there be a better future?

The common words remind us that through two very different worlds and perspectives there is a shared human story. Applied Theatre can explore the places where these shared human stories and narratives intersect and where they differ. As one child says: "Peace between you and me is impossible unless we get to know one another." Yet, our actions continue to be driven by fear and the complications of risk. When one parent is hesitant of letting his son cross the checkpoint, another responds, "Our needs are our fears."

Applied Theatre exercises may help us unpick our fears, share narratives, and open up new possibilities that challenge the status quo.

Simnia Singer-Sayada, an Education Associate at the Culture Project, describes one Theatre of the Oppressed technique that is often used to explore connections:

One such technique, the “Columbian Hypnosis”, creates an opportunity to explore he effect our actions have on one other. In a group, a leader is selected who moves to the middle of the room. Gradually, the rest of the class joins in, one by one holding onto someone within the group by the head, arm, knee, nose, etc.... When everyone is joined to someone else, the leader begins to walk through the room, and the subtle repercussions of her/his actions ripples through the group, each member being moved and therefore moving those around them. The power of literally seeing and feeling the repercussions of subtle actions can lead to huge personal discoveries.

Though they are seemingly simple activities--interactive experiences and games like the one above can uncover safe spaces for conversations.

Here's another piece that focuses on music therapy and Palestinian children of the West Bank.

NYC Public School Theatre Education

I attended a panel yesterday that included Paul King, Director of Theatre Programs for the NYC Department of Education's Office of Arts and Special Projects, and four NYC public school theatre teachers. Two from elementary schools and two from screened high schools (meaning an audition is required).

There was a little bit of discussion surrounding the direction in which theatre and arts programs are headed in the District, the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts, the new comprehensive high school arts exam, the impact of high parental involvement in the elementary schools (which were located in Park Slope and Cobble Hill, Brooklyn), and the Annual Arts in Schools Report. These are worth unpacking at another time.

Most of the discussion centered around classroom management techniques, curriculum, etc.

What are the rewards of teaching theatre in the public schools?

One teacher said, "It's getting your students to stand in a circle at the beginning of class." (I can completely understand this.) Another recalled a time when one her fourth graders sang "I Sing the Body Electric" for an audition and she found herself in tears.

Jim Moody, of LaGuardia Arts High School, an accomplished film and TV actor (he appeared in the move Fame and on "Law and Order" several times), put it best: "The rewards are beyond 'thank you.' It's when they live it."

NYC Arts (Are Not) in Schools Report (a little late)

Here's the NYC DOE's First Annual Arts in Schools Report. This came out in early March, but I forgot to post.

Read the press release and then compare it to the shockingly low numbers that you see.

The "Next Steps" section doesn't seem to have much that is substantive yet, and vaguely touch on budget issues that are a major obstacle. However, the report is a first step in solving problems and does give some baseline info. Pretty interesting.

Just a quick summary of some points that I found interesting:

Elementary
By NY state standards, elementary school students are supposed to be exposed to all four arts disciplines each year. Only 4% of schools currently do this. 77% of schools directly interact with local arts and cultural institutions, and through this, raise their percentages. However, the quality of these experiences and the longevity of them is questionable. Along with the ability of students to build meaningful relationships with these arts educators. Will the exposure and ability of schools to partner with this plethora of cultural institutions continue to substitute the presence of arts specialists in schools? Particularly in dance and theatre?

Middle School
"Middle schoolers prefer active over passive learning experiences." (Really? Wow!) Only 17% of middle schools offer all 4 arts disciplines.

Secondary Ed
More secondary schools meet the standards. But that's because the standards are lower. High school students are only required to take 1 year of an arts discipline.

82% of schools have certified arts teachers. Breakdown of certified teachers (as a percentage of total arts teachers):

• 65% Visual Arts
• 42% Music Teachers
• 29% Theatre
• 20% Dance

The percentage of students who receive high school instruction in the arts in theatre and dance is about 2%. It's in the 20-30% range for visual arts and music.

14% of schools have certified Dance and Theatre teachers vs. Music (45%) and Visual Arts (61%).

Changing the Focus of NCLB to Inputs

In this Rethinking Schools article, Monty Neill talks about changing NCLB to focus on inputs (funding and improvement) rather than outputs (test scores) - or at least the outputs as we currently define them.

In terms of making changes, he suggests:

• Federal funding should be focused on school improvement. (Duh!) But very true. (As opposed to test-based accountability.)
• Funding to create communities of learners within schools- to focus on closing the educator achievement gap.
• Strengthening the capacity in which districts and states can help schools.

Worth noting:

"Further, study after study has made it clear that nonschool factors, poverty in particular, overwhelm what most schools can do. Michael Winerip summed up a recent Educational Testing Service study in his New York Times column: Just four family factors explain most of the difference in outcomes. They are the percentage of children living with one parent, the percentage of 8th graders absent from school at least three times a month, the percentage of children 5 or younger whose parents read to them daily, and the percentage of 8th graders who watch five or more hours of TV a day. A decade or so ago another study similarly found a handful of factors explained most of the state differences in NAEP results.

"Gloria Ladson-Billings uses the term "education debt" — the lack of adequate educational opportunity accumulating since slavery and segregation — rather than "achievement gap." The education debt includes the school-based debt. It also includes the housing debt (such as the racial covenants that ensured African Americans could not move to many suburbs after World War II), the medical care debt (pervasive historical and current unequal access to medical care by race and class), the employment debt (African American families earn three-fifths of what white families earn, while U.S. income inequality grows rapidly), and on and on."

Disturbing School Bulletin Boards

I was at an elementary school in Queens today. A very nice and new building and brightly decorated school. There are bulletin boards EVERYWHERE in the hallway. It makes the building look like a nice place to go to school.

Today, I took some time to actually look at the bulletin boards, and ended up being very disturbed.

Student work is displayed on each bulletin board. However, not all student work is displayed, only some. For each project, only about 6 examples of student work were displayed. It was pretty apparent that these were only the "best" examples.

Even worse, on each paper/poster/art project was a post-it with the students' grade - from 1 to 4, along with comments from the teacher. The only work that I saw displayed was at "Level 3." Oh, and if you don't know what Level 3 means - don't worry! There's a detailed rubric beside each bulletin board with the assessment criteria.

So what are we saying?
We only put up examples of completed work that fits the "standards" of our hegemonic system. You worked hard, but you didn't get at least a 3? Sorry, your work isn't important, because only the product matters -- not the process.

This made me very sad.

Who are these bulletin boards for?
Shouldn't bulletin boards be for students? I'm not sure what third grade student is going to sit and read the 1-4 rubric beside each board. And I'm pretty sure the students whose work is discarded and not worthy of the bulletin board won't have much interest.

It's great to show student work. But does the fact that we are afraid to show most student work tell us something about the school? And about how they perceive education?

Obama on Arts Education

Obama comments on arts education and NCLB on April 2 in Wallingford, PA.



I am tired of the rationale that "arts help kids do well in other subjects." That may be true, but why do the arts have to be secondary (even when we say they're not)? Arts make students do better in math, arts help students do better on tests... Why can't we value the arts on their own? You don't hear people saying that we teach math because students who take math do better at reading.

Obama redeems himself here when he says the "Arts Education teaches people to see each other through each other's eyes. It teaches us to respect and understand people who are not like us." Yes - with their storytelling capabilities, the arts -- visual, music, drama, dance -- have the potential to construct narratives to better understand ourselves and others.

Helen Nicholson, in Applied Drama, speaks about drama's power to tell alternative stories that push us to question the stories that are dominant in our society. Whose stories are we familiar with? Whose have been left out? Storytelling and narrative allow us to construct our identity in relationship to others and break down or "unfix" reality. Unfixing reality so that we are able to question and transform it. That being said, I think the arts have the potential to be a perfectly meaningful subject area in and of themselves...

Education Blogs - Best of 08

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post's Class Struggle lists the best education blogs of 2008.

Among them are:

• Bridging Differences (both bloggers are from the Steinhardt School of Education at NYU)
• Eduwonk (one of my favorites)
• Edwize (maintained by the United Federation of Teachers - contains policy and classroom content)
• Forum for Education and Democracy (on the democratic purpose of education)
• Joanne Jacobs (another one of my favorites)

Creative Industries - The Arts Provide Economic Value

A study from the Americans for the Arts, tracks arts-related business and employment through the country's 50 largest cities.

New York has the highest total of arts businesses and arts employees, but Seattle, San Francisco, and Atlanta come out on top for arts businesses and employees per capita.

The study reveals that arts-centric businesses represent 4.3 percent of all businesses and 2.2 percent of all jobs in the United States and that the arts are a robust and formidable economic growth sector:

• More than 612,000 arts-related businesses employ 2.98 million people nationwide.
• Arts-centric businesses grew 12 percent from 2007 compared to the growth of 10.7 percent for all U.S. businesses.
• Employment growth by arts-centric businesses since 2007 was 11.6 percent,more than four times the rise in the total number of U.S. employees of 2.4 percent.

NYU Hosts Career Fair for Partnership Schools

What: 2008 NYU Career Fair for Partnership Schools
Date: Monday, May 12
Time: 3:30pm-6:30pm
Location: Eisner & Lubin Auditorium (4th Floor) at the Kimmel Center for University Life, Washington Square South, on the corner of LaGuardia Place)

Public Hearing: State of Arts Ed in NYC Public Schools

On April 8, The New York City Council Committee on Education jointly with the Cultural Affairs Committee will be hosting an oversight committee on “The State of Arts Education in New York City Public Schools.” 10 a.m.Council Chambers, City Hall.

Members of the public can sign up to testify at the hearing by filling out a request at the desk of the Sergeant of Arms which is located to the council’s left hand side of the dais at the time of the hearing. Testimony is limited to three (3) minutes. If you are able, the council requests that those testifying bring twenty (20) double-sided copies of their written testimony to the hearing HOWEVER, copies are not required in order to testify.

Participants can expect to be giving their testimony individually or as part of a panel directly to council members in attendance. The Department of Education is given the opportunity to testify first, followed by the principals and teachers union and then the general public. Council members may choose to ask questions of participants and often do.

NYC New Schools Initiatives Open House

The NYC Department of Education is holding a 2009 New School Development Open House Thursday, May 1st from 5:00-7:00PM at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers (411 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10038). Register for the event here.

The event will focus on the city's "priorities" for new school creation and give information about the process for starting a new school, as well as partnership organizations that are supporting the new schools initiatives.

Reading of the Testimonies of Rwandan Genocide Survivors

Press Release:

NEW YORK STUDENTS UNITE ON 7th APRIL FOR READING OF THE TESTIMONIES NYC

www.survivors-fund.org

Students from across New York will unite on Monday 7th April from 10am to 2pm in Washington Square Park to read the testimonies of Rwandan survivors to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.

Students from New York University, Columbia University, Yeshiva University, along with local high schools, will each read one of 100 testimonies of young survivors, to remember the 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The testimonies will be supplemented by survivors including Jacqueline Murekatete, Marie-Claudine Mukamabano and Gasana Mutesi, who will speak on the importance of commemorating the genocide, and supporting young survivors in Rwanda.

Reading of the Testimonies NYC will specifically call on the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) to recognize HIV+ survivors of the genocide as an at-risk population for antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Despite the fact that many survivors are HIV+ today due to a systematic program of rape and deliberate infection during the genocide and are particularly vulnerable, PEPFAR currently does not recognize survivors as an at-risk population for HIV and AIDS counselling, testing and treatment.

Mary Kayitesi Blewitt OBE, Founder of SURF, who will lead the reading commented:

“There is a thread that runs through all the work of Survivors Fund, a motivation to ensure that the voice of survivors is heard, that the memory of the genocide is kept alive and that the victims are never forgotten. This Reading of the Testimonies is hugely important as it will demonstrate that the students of New York not only remember the one million Rwandans who died in 1994, but that they care about those still living with the legacy of the genocide.”

She added:

“There are thousands of HIV+ survivors in Rwanda dying from AIDS, with no help and no hope. The Reading of the Testimonies NYC is a call to action to ensure that these survivors are not ignored and abandoned by the international community for a second time. As well, in light of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, we hope that the event will raise awareness of the importance of acting to prevent atrocities – and the repercussions that result from inaction, as witnessed in Rwanda.”

The event is the first outdoor event to be held in New York commemorating the genocide. The event is staged in association with:

Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner
Kuki Ndiho
Foundation Rwanda
Voices of Rwanda
Agahozo Shalom Youth Village
Amani Africa
Orphans of Rwanda
Wagner Student Alliance for Africa
Wagner International Public Service Association

The Reading of the Testimonies NYC is part of a two-day programme organized by Miracle Corners of the World which includes a commemoration in film and dialogue at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Sunday 6th April from 4pm to 6pm; and a panel discussion on genocide at the Tishman Auditorium at NYU Law School on Monday 7th April from 2pm to 4pm. For more information visit www.miraclecorners.org.


For further information, please contact:
David Russell / Hope Tumukunde
New York University
david.russell@nyu.edu / ht504@nyu.edu