the faces of occupation

thought i'd share some beautiful photos from my cousin serving in afghanistan, as part of an "Effects Working Group" that conducted a site visitation at a school in kabul and where a new wing of the school was built with US army funding. let's hope we end this occupation soon, but continue the progress of building schools and infrastructure in this beautiful country. understood that the true effects of war and rebuilding this country are in the people of afghanistan and are reprsented in these photos.

see more photos by my cousin and the "official" story at the department of defense website. sift through the propaganda if you will.

if you haven't heard of greg mortenson and his mission to educate children in afghanistan and pakistan, take a look at three cups of tea. this is the real thing.

congratulations graduate: now pray!

here we go again... blurring the lines... graduation in a church?

from the national school boards association:

N.J. district settles lawsuit over holding graduation in church

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Newark Public Schools has settled a lawsuit filed in 2007 by the American Civil Liberties Union-New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) on behalf of Bilal Shareef, a Muslim student who skipped his graduation from West Side High School two years ago because it was held in the sanctuary of a Baptist Church.

The suit alleged that Bilal's faith prohibited him from entering a building with religious icons, such as pictures of God or images of the cross, according to the suit filed. The suit claimed when West Side High held its graduation at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark two years ago, the district violated the New Jersey Constitution by forcing people to attend a place of worship contrary to their faith and discriminated because of religious principles.

According to the settlement, the district agreed not to sponsor or promote religious events, to no longer reward students for attendance at religious events or ceremonies, and to stop using religious buildings or places of worship for school events. Nonetheless, the settlement still allows NPS to schedule events with other schools that use religious buildings, and students may still visit religious buildings if the purpose is "both academic and secular in nature."

Superintendent Marion Bolden confirmed that there was also a financial settlement between NPS and Shareef. In addition, NPS issued an apology to the Shareefs and other students who "felt forced to forego or uncomfortable attending the 2005 or 2006 graduations." NPS legal counsel Perry Lattiboudere's statement emphasized that the settlement agreement "reaffirmed that the past scheduling of graduation ceremonies at local church locations was not in any way intended to make any student or member of the community feel uncomfortable in attending the ceremony."

Mr. Bolden acknowledged that in response to the lawsuit, and concerns students might be discouraged from attending graduation, none of the district's schools are holding commencement at religious buildings this year. The ceremonies will be held in either government owned facilities or secular private venues. "There has to be sensitivity to that because you don't know what children are thinking," he said. "(Shareef) might have been the one who voiced an objection, but others might have gone and been uncomfortable."

Source: Newark Star-Ledger, 6/10/08, By Kasi Addison

Education for All: Does Anyone Care?

The title of my post, obviously, is not the most uplifiting. But, neither is the problem in Brazil, or in the US. Brazil, a developing nation with financial resources that pale in comparison to America's, has just started a ranking system for quality of education, and in the richest state in the country, São Paulo, the average ranking (from 1 to 10) for the major subjects of math, science, reading and Portuguese was less than 3 in all public schools. This is sad, but not a surprise when you factor in the average class size in Brazilian public schools, which is 45. That is correct. That coupled with a lack of books, an average salary of about $500 a month, and almost no time for teachers to get together with teachers from other schools to help each other, leads to terribly disappointing numbers throughout the country.

Today, when I opened up my emailed version of The New York Times, I read in an op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman, about a charter boarding school in Maryland called SEED where a lottery was held, open to the public, for the first 80 students to go to this innovation in education. Friedman was there on the day of the selection, and witnessed the joy and disappointment of the crowd there.

A school program like SEED is not a cure-all for anything. It is not going to turn around the dismal reality of so many public schools in the US. It will not magically reduce total dropout rates in cities like Balitimore, New York and New Orleans. There is no magic bullet, but it is an attempt to face up to the reality that the problem is not just money, but real ideas. The solution is not privatizing schools, or testing the hell out of schools to decide which ones to shut down. the solution is not cutting music and art classes.

The shortcuts are easy. They are easy in a country like Brazil, where quotas have engendered more outrage than the US has ever seen. The affirmative action plans of both the US and Brazil only band-aid a problem that needs to be attacked at the root, which is elementary school. If ideas like SEED can take off in school systems throughout the US, there is no real reason why they cannot be adapted, not necessarily copied, in Brazil.

Something must be done, and steps must be taken. A first step is looking at the reality of things, and not being blinded by ideals.

To read Friedman's op-ed piece, entitled Hope in the Unseen, go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/opinion/25friedman.html?scp=2&sq=SEED+Maryland&st=nyt

TECHNOLOGY DOES GOOD IN NEW JERSEY SCHOOLS

"To me, the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching."-George Bernard Shaw (playwright, author, critic)

i just saw this on an email bulletin where i find grant leads. i don't have an ipod (should i admit that?) but thought this concept was intriguing. hope it spreads to other school districts, i know paterson needs more creative learning techniques...

from the new york times:

IN SOME SCHOOLS, iPODS ARE REQUIRED LISTENING Schools in New Jersey are buying into a new program that gives bilingual students with limited English ability iPods, reports Winnie Hu in the New York Times. The hope is that by singing along to popular English songs, students will sharpen their vocabulary and grammar skills. The program has already had an effect on Stephanie Rojas, who moved to New Jersey from Puerto Rico last year, as she now prefers to sing in English. Incorporating the devices into instruction began when Grace Poli, a media specialist, approached the district three years ago about buying 23 iPods for an after-school bilingual program. She then compiled an eclectic mix of music, typed out the lyrics and deleted the nouns -- and in turn the verbs and adjectives -- to force the students to fill in the missing words and thereby learn their meanings. Poli said her Spanish-speaking students were able to move out of bilingual classes after just a year of using the digital devices, compared to an average of four to six years for most bilingual students. After viewing the successes, the district plans to try iPods with students who have learning disabilities and behavioral problems. In addition, one of New Jersey’s poorest urban districts, Union City District, will give out 300 iPods as part of a $130,000 experiment.

THREE CUPS OF TEA

a friend of mine (coffee barista melissa from mola) recommended a book three cups of tea to me a few months ago. i got it from three lives bookstore right away then put it on my shelf of to do reading. and finally last week, i dived in and read it through. three cups of tea tells the story of greg mortenson (see photo at left) and his mission to educate children in remote areas of pakistan and afghanistan as a way to promote peace. mortenson, a former mountaineer and K2 climber, stumbled upon a rural village when he lost his track down the mountain. and so began a new journey and life's work for him as a builder of schools in areas where the taliban holds strong. he asserts a simple goal: provide schools and non-religious based education for children in remote, impoverished areas to combat terrorism and extremism.

for over a decade, mortenson has faced incredible obstacles (kidnapping, treacherous working conditions, death threats after 9/11, lack of funds, meetings with the taliban, fatwas against him by mullahs and a meeting with rumsfeld) and ultimately flourished. he runs the central asia institute "to promote and provide community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia."

at times i wondered how he pushed forward despite the adversity and impossiblity. mortenson always thought about the families he first encountered in korphe, pakistan and how the village cared for him when he was lost and near death. yet the book, written by mortenson and david oliver relin, doesn't get too maudlin or pull at your heart shamelessly. mortenson is that rare person who commits to changing the world and never stops. i'm planning to donate this week to CAI. read for yourself and be inspired. don't we all need that now?

bayonne free speech buttons

i teach street law every summer at the paterson ymca to a group of teens enrolled in a leadership and job training program. and every summer i teach, i hear the same stories of racial profiling, endless terry stops, illegal searches (T.L.O. standard) and a lack of due process for disciplinary hearings and suspensions at school.

we discuss a variety of issues, mainly how to know their rights. we spend time debating search and seizure concepts, the limits of free speech and the meaning of due process. i love teaching street law -- it's always a challenge for me to prepare interesting lessons, create a dynamic class setting and engage students who don't have the luxury i possess as a white, middle-class person.

last week, i read about a recent case decision involving students in bayonne, nj that will certainly add a new twist to our studies on protesting, the first amendment and the tinker standard.

the student press law center offered the following summary:

Two students — a fifth-grader and a seventh-grader — can wear buttons with the phrase “No School Uniforms” over a background picture of the Hitler Youth, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The court held that because the buttons were not disruptive, the Bayonne School District's censorship was “unwarranted.” Karin R. White Morgen, the students’ attorney, said it was a “wonderful” decision for student free speech. “The school will think twice before it suspends students for wearing honest buttons,” she said. “You are allowed to have an opinion, even in grammar school.” read the opinion here.

The case dates back to November 2006, when two students at two different schools in the district — fifth-grader Michael DePinto and seventh-grader Anthony LaRocco — wore buttons with a red circle and slash through the words “No School Uniforms.” The words were superimposed over an image of rows of young boys in uniforms. While the image contained no visible swastikas or specific Nazi references, both sides agreed that the picture featured members of the Hitler Youth. In response, administrators sent letters to the students’ parents warning that their sons would be punished if they continued to wear the button. Both sets of parents joined in the lawsuit, claiming their children’s First Amendment rights were violated.

Re-segregating in Jersey City?

In Justice Breyer's dissent he mentioned the 200 or so districts that will be under attack because of this ruling. A case in point, Jersey City one of the most diverse communities in the country.

McNair high school is ranked the 27th best high school in the nation. The school turns away five out of six applicants. Some Jersey City school officials said on the day of the ruling that it is questionable whether it will have an effect on McNair, which aims to have a student population that is 25 percent white, 25 percent African-American and 25 percent Hispanic, with the remaining quarter coming from various backgrounds, officials said. But saying the new ruling won't affect this setup is wishful thinking at best.

McNair seeks the best candidates in each racial group, but students of Asian and middle eastern dissent have recently complained their applications were better than some students accepted. Clearly, this high school is in danger of keeping to its mission of a diverse group of students, especially with the gentrification of Jersey City taking hold of this city across the Hudson from lower Manhattan.

The editorial ends with this declaration:

The fact is that there is little if any desegregation in Jersey City. Student populations are decided by housing and neighborhood patterns. What little racial balance exists is in McNair. School officials had better not fall asleep on this ruling and come up with some new challenge-proof plan in determining what should still be a diverse student body.

Education for All

Deval Patrick of Massachusetts is talking about issues that seems no one else is discussing. In the Prisoner Reentry community he was one of the first to enforce the campaign of "block the box" in his state. It stops employers from randomly discriminating against those once serving time behind bars. Now, he is proposing free two-year colleges, among the priciest in the nation, for all Massachusetts residents who graduate high school.

This is a bold step and quite the opposite direction from most other states and how our nation is moving. A recent Nation article says that college tuition has outpaced the rate of inflation for the past 16 years and some private schools are charging $40,000 to attend. Students are being forced to take on "unprecedented debt to an industry mired in scandals." The Nation authors refer to the unethical practices in the student loan industry first reported on by Campus Progress that "employees of some colleges and universities have promoted certain private loans to students while earning kickbacks from the respective loaning companies."

In response to all this Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, only the second black Governor in our nation's history, outlined a plan to make community college free to everyone. I am a product of community college. That education was instrumental in getting my head straight so I could move on to a four year college and beyond (see photo at left, me and my fellow community college students in the 80s). I met countless dedicated teachers who saw in me someone who could achieve. That is now over 16 years ago when the education was nearly free. Community colleges are full of immigrants, older students, those struggling with poverty, the working class and the confused. We should give those not given much in their previous eighteen years something in the next two.

I don't think Patrick should stop there. We should make state colleges much more affordable. As the government made student loans available to students, college tuition shot up and obviously the student carries that burden. But, this also did not stay stagnant as the Nation reports: In 2006, with the passage of the Deficit Reduction Act, the federal government cut $12.7 billion from the education budget– the largest cut in the nation’s history. And Pell Grants, a key source of aid for low-income students, have remained stagnant and only pay for about a third of a college education, down from 60 percent 20 years ago.

Here are some quick facts by Campus Progress that illustrate how dire the situation has become:

• Over six and ten college students are burdened with an unmanageable debt and this hits African-Americans and Hispanics the hardest.
  
• Total student debt in the United States is more than $438 billion – and that’s not including private loans.
  
• Between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they can't afford it.
  
• The average student today graduates with (almost unmanageable debt) debt almost three and a half times that of graduates a decade ago -- and enters a job market where the average job pays them less than it would have in 2000. Unmanageable debt is defined as the salary-to-debt threshold at which an individual is only able to repay his/her loans with significant economic hardship. For more facts go to Campus Progress and for action on reducing student debt go to the Project on Student Debt.

Our government invests in war, tax breaks for the wealthy, tax loopholes for the rich and for corporations, but claims there is no money for the average citizens of this country. It is time to stop the avalanche and the stealing of our money. Every state in the nation should follow Deval Patrick's lead.


The photo at right is a group of students who participate in the Paterson YMCA's summer LEAP program that provides leadership training, job skills and academic enrichment for Paterson teens. They live in a city where the state-run public school system has failed them, and the high school drop out rate is one of the worst in the state.