Peabloggy

As I was walking through the parking lot behind the Commons rushing to class in Payne, I noticed something new: the Commons “Composting Center.” Right behind the dumpsters, three large open bins contain organic waste at various stages of decomposition, along with a short description of the purpose of the center. I’ve written in the past about the efforts within the Peabody community to “go green,” but this endeavor is especially heartening to me. Stop by and check it out!

Read more about this and other work toward environmental sustainability at Vanderbilt at “Sustain VU.”

- Rachel Bowers

Previous: Peabody’s Green Commons

The current debate over school district rezoning here in Nashville has provided an excellent practical example of the need for a renewed discussion of school choice and the potential it has to revolutionize public schooling. I’ve been reading Chubb & Moe’s Politics, Markets and America’s Schools, which makes a number of interesting assertions, some based on research some theoretical, about the potential for introducing true, market-style choice into the public school system. They are critical of almost any form of bureaucracy as it exists, which they feel is the largest impediment to effective schools. They also all but dismiss continuing education practices for teachers, as they feel that the key to making teachers better is simply to empower them by giving them more control over their classroom; and that requiring higher education standards and certification for teachers is just an impediment to inviting more teachers into the profession. Oh, and that paying teachers more wouldn’t work either.

Having said all that, and believing that those arguments are riddled with holes, I would still recommend reading it because of the revolutionary ideas that it champions. The systems they would initiate are based heavily on the economic theories of supply and demand and free market dynamics, and are already at work to some degree in Cambridge, MA and East Harlem, NY, which are two fascinating examples of the possibilities of choice. In Cambridge, students and parents make a list of the top four schools in the city they would like to attend, and the district managers sort the students into the schools by taking into account those lists but also with an eye to keeping the student bodies of their schools racially diverse. Empowering parents and students with choice is a major factor in involving families with their schools, and that involvement makes for more motivated, and subsequently better, students.

Agree or disagree, it is always good to hear a new perspective on a topic with very immediate implications for one’s profession and family.

“In Darfur, Sudan, 300,000 people have died over the past three years as a result of civil conflict, lack of food, and disease. Two million children,women and men are refugees, with little food, drinkable water, protection or hope. The U.N. has identified Darfur as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.”

In December 2004 my home church in Tipp City, OH led by head pastor Michael Slaughter decided to do something about what is going on in the Sudan.  Slaughter challenged the 4,500 + congregation to see Christmas not as their own birthday, but as Jesus’ birthday.  He said whatever amount you spend on Christmas, to bring in the same amount to the give to the Sudan.

“The first year resulted in $317,000, which Ginghamsburg Church immediately used in partnership with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to establish a self-sustaining agricultural project. This project put 5,208 Sudanese families back into the farming business in 2005 and resulted in a successful harvest that has now expanded as of 2007 to feed 65,000 people in five internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Darfur. The program also strengthened the region’s economy as local blacksmiths created the tools, area threshers assisted with the harvest, and resultant seed was packaged for selling at local markets. The second year’s offering resulted in $530,000, which Ginghamsburg deployed in partnership with UMCOR to initiate the five-year child protection & development program. The first year’s results included 190 teachers trained, 90 classrooms constructed or rehabilitated and 15,000 children receiving educational materials.”

This year the church is focusing on raising money to not only continue what has already been started (crops, child protection & education), but also to establish an initiative to build 10 water yards to provide safe water and sanitation. 

What is so unique about what we are doing is that this is not a hand out, it is a hand up.  The church is not raising money just to send supplies to the Sudan, which would cause more problems because they would have to figure out a way to divide them and disperse them without conflict.  Rather, the church is partnering with the Sudanese to allow them to farm again, have education opportunities, have protection, have clean water, and best of all have hope. 

 I don’t know about you, but when I read about the current conditions of Sudan in the History books of my future children, I want to know that I did something about it. 

If you are interested in learning about the crisis in Sudan or the Sudan Project of Ginghamsburg Church please go to: thesudanproject.orgYou can get information about the status of the project as well as watch video updates of actual footage of Darfur, Sudan from when the Ginghamsburg teams have gone there to build relationships and see the fruit of the seeds planted. 

There are many ways that you can become part of solution.  Please check it out.

-Anna Oparah

Last week at Peabody, I went to a screening of The Clinton 12, a documentary about the first public high school to be integrated in the South. Film maker Keith McDaniel and members of the original Clinton 12 attended, participating in a question and answer session afterwards. Set in Clinton, TN (near Knoxville), this story of one small town’s struggle to uphold the law amidst racism and bigotry is fascinating, not to mention its portrayal of the immeasurable courage of the twelve African American students attending Clinton High School in 1956. To learn more about the Clinton 12, click here.

—Katie Harris

November is National Novel Writing Month (lovingly dubbed NaNoRiMo). Participants sign up, begin writing November 1st, and eventually complete a 50,000 word novel (175 pages) by midnight, November 30th. In an effort that elevates quantity over quality, NaNoRiMo allows those would-be writers to finally take up their pens and create. As described on the official NaNoRiMo website: “They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.”

To some, this event may seem baffling, but it can be an effective way to brush that inner critic off your shoulder while writing. How many people have you met who say they’d like to write someday, but not now? It is this same internal voice that sometimes impedes student writing in the classroom. Students need a space in the curriculum where it is okay to make mistakes and okay to write without second-guessing, then learn about the wonders of revision.

—Katie Harris

I’ve been thinking this week about all the conversations I’ve had so far this semester with aspiring teachers about movies that tell The Amazing True Story of a teacher who walked into a troubled classroom and Against All Odds turned their motley crew of troubled teens into doctors and lawyers. These conversations tend to trouble me when this person, who will soon have a very real classroom of their own, tells me that Stand and Deliver or Freedom Writers is the reason they want to become a teacher. I’m all for being excited about the challenges that await me in the future, but the grain of salt to be taken with any film about teaching is not going to fit in the salt-shaker sitting on your dining room table.

What excites me about teaching is a book like Possible Lives by Mike Rose.  In it, Rose recounts his travels around the country to schools that, despite challenges like impoverished and violent communities, insufficient funds, or disastrous federal programs, are still finding ways to help their students succeed.  It’s true that a great teacher needs to have the passion for teaching and compassion for their students that you see in the movies.  But it’s more important to know the real story of what’s happening in all of our public schools.  For example, Rose visits Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the school made famous by Jaime Escalante and Stand and Deliver, and finds out that the school began actively reforming its practices and instituting a college prep curriculum before Escalante got there, and continues to excel since his departure.  What’s more interesting to me is the story of the teachers that remain there, and the new, constantly evolving ways they have found of adapting their school to the needs of the community.

  Possible Lives is filled with enough stories of innovation and success to excite any teacher, no matter their personality or the community they hope to teach in.

And if you are currently on the fence about whether or not to go into teaching, because of all the negative things you hear about schools on the news, pick up this book and flip to any page. Odds are you’ll find scores of possibilities for teaching in any situation you’ve never considered.

For the record, I do like Stand and Deliver and would still recommend it to anyone looking for a good film to watch.

–Luke Webb

High school students in New York City who earn a score of 3 or higher on AP exams could get a cash bonus for their efforts, courtesy of a program in 25 public schools funded by private philanthropists.

When I first read the New York Times article that reported on this initiative, I balked. Shouldn’t we encourage hard work and learning for its own sake? Shouldn’t we expect students to try their best regardless of any financial payoff?

But then, as I started to think about it, I realized that this might come closer to accomplishing what our high-stakes testing does not both in terms of (potentially) increasing student learning and making school relevant to teenagers’ lives. The program is designed to encourage low-income students in the city - a group that takes disproportionately few AP tests - to take on the AP challenge.

Just like adults, money is a language teenagers understand - and these teenagers in particular. Many of them work jobs in addition to attending school. They sit in a classroom for six hours a day and may not see how that endeavor alleviates the struggles of life whereas their extracurricular paycheck pays off, literally.

If a financial incentive encourages kids to spend time working to further their education, I have a hard time criticizing it, even if my gut reaction was a negative one.

Read the NY Times article here.

- Rachel Bowers

As promised, I would like to respond to Jane Shaw’s comment on my last piece, “Going green for education.” Shaw points out that sometimes environmental education in schools is inaccurate, taking time away from learning basic skills. I am not familiar with the situation in Scarsdale, but the examples cited in the New York Times article (replacing incandescent bulbs with compact flourescent, etc.) are in fact proven to be more energy efficient and better for the environment. Likewise, the examples Shaw provides in her comment (not all recycling is good for the environment, etc.) are also true, but I fail to see how this justifies cutting environmental responsibility from schools. To me, Shaw’s point only underscores a need for valid green practices and accurate environmental information in schools. I agree with her that activities “not based in reality” are a waste of time; educators shouldn’t provide false information to students, but this shouldn’t be added as fuel to the anti-environmentalism fire.

I’m also not sold on this idea of children needing “basic skills” alone, and neither are students. This current trend in education disappoints me. Everyone knows that basic skills are acquired in order to achieve larger purposes. A curriculum that focuses only on minute basic skills does not provide students with those motivating goals. Green curricula potentially can. Not only that, but I truly believe communities need to engage in greener lifestyles and reduce rates of consumption, and the school can be an effective avenue to develop these habits in students.

—Katie Harris

Recently, for my sociology and philosophy of education class, I read the book “Amazing Grace” by Jonathan Kozol. I would highly recommend it for anyone considering teaching at any grade level in a high poverty environment. In the book Kozol recounts his interaction with people living the South Bronx, New York and their day to day struggle to survive.

Luke Webb

Last week, the New York Times published an article entitled “Schools Embrace Environment and Sow Debate.” This story describes schools going green while teaching students lessons about community and environmental responsibility. From replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent, to designating a “No Idling Zone” in the school pick-up line, students are working to reduce their carbon footprint. While these efforts have been praised by both parents and school administrators, others have criticized these programs for taking time away from learning in the classroom.

This is a fair enough assertion, but one education researcher’s comments caused me to take up my dueling pen and write. Jane S. Shaw, executive vice president of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, stated, “Students need very basic skills, and those are so much more important than getting an emotional high because they’ve done something supposedly for the environment.”

Not so, Ms. Shaw. For many of us, it took a pivotal educational experience (a.k.a., “emotional high”) to turn us on to learning and to becoming productive members of the community. Moreover, these key moments vary from person to person; different things motivate different people. This belief of mine, however, seems to be missing from the current movement of standardized testing and the push for basic skills. Shaw’s comments reminded me of a student I had the pleasure of working with a couple of years ago in a wilderness adventure program. Daniel, a 15 yr. old who had spent the last few years bouncing between boarding schools due to failing grades, seldom responded positively to anything, and certainly not the idea of making a difference in the world. However, after a canoe trip down a river that included some pretty dramatic evidence of pollution, he was inspired to act, to protest, to work for something. I wouldn’t claim this moment changed his life forever, but I saw a big change in his involvement in our program from that moment on.

—Katie Harris