Blog Archive for October, 2012

Gabriel Ozuna is an undergraduate at Yale University (Class of 2015). He was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and is a proud resident of Donna, Texas, where he graduated from IDEA College Preparatory.

With less than a month to go before Election Day, it is easy to get lost in the unavailing political banter that always seems to drown out the real issues, which I think neither candidate wants to face. Any intelligent debate gets reduced to an overly simplistic bullet-point plan, slogan, or criticism of one’s opponent.  But the current education crisis desperately demands that both candidates submit comprehensive proposals on how they plan to overhaul the educational system after the election.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s debate between Obama's and Romney's education advisers, Jon Schnur and Phil Handy, failed to give much further insight into what changes we can expect in the next four years. Schnur began his defense of President Obama’s first term by describing the President’s “commitment to education” even in the midst of economic collapse. Apparently, writing in a $100 billion provision into his stimulus package makes up for Obama’s failure to enact lasting educational changes in the long run. While the initial cash flow may have helped sustain some programs like Pell Grants and Head Start, the money we threw at them is now gone with little more to show for it than an increased deficit.

Handy, on the other hand, idealistically restated the same educational platform the Republican Party has held for the last decade--using state and local policy to raise educational standards frosted with a fantastic promise of “vouchers for all!” Now, there is much to be said for localizing how schools are run and evaluated in a state-by-state basis so that school districts are better held accountable to local entities like parents and communities. But we need specifics about how Romney plans to create incentives for states to raise their academic standards under his proposed “revamp” of NCLB.

Photo by VOA via WikiCommons

Five links that made us think this week:

Can you imagine a world in which college and grad school applications didn’t require SATs, GREs, GMAT, LSATs, and all those other three-letter scary words? A group of civil rights activists in New York recently filed a complaint with the U.S Department of Education to reduce reliance on standardized exams in admissions decisions. The complaint claims that “schools rely on a test that advantages one racial group over another.” This complaint goes along with the trend of several universities across the nation that have already started to eliminate the use of standardized exams.

Remember when back in 2010 Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to public schools in Newark? Two years have passed, yet less than $17 million has been committed.  Part of the money has been used to open innovative public and charter schools, including Bard High School Early College and Newark Bridges High School, where new school curricula have given failing students a second chance at education. More to come on the other $83 million...

Photo by Brian Solis via WikiCommons

Eric is the Executive Vice President of Growth, Development, and Partnerships at Teach For America.  

In New York City, kids in the eighth grade have the opportunity to apply to high schools across the city. For my students, that meant the potential to avoid their local “zoned” school which had less than a 50% graduation rate.  Helping my students get into high schools that would put them on a path to choose college was my focus in my classroom.  

One of my students, Melissa, was most proactive in seeking help.  She was an old soul and my most serious student; a diligent worker, always on time, homework always completed, focused intently on any task at hand.  In fact, it was a conversation earlier that year with Melissa which accelerated my learning curve as a teacher:  After a particularly tenuous day of classroom management, Melissa stayed back and was the last one to leave my room.  Poised and confident, she stopped, looked me directly in my beleaguered eyes, and told me I needed to get control of my classroom and teach better, faster.  In her words, “get it together.”  She was right and I needed to hear it.  Reflecting on that interaction helped me to find my ‘teacher self’ and to lead my classroom with more confidence.

One afternoon in the spring, Melissa was in my classroom after school working on her high school entrance portfolio while I graded papers.  After a few questions about grammar for her essay, Melissa asked me if I was gay.  In the moments of silence while I gathered my thoughts for a response she continued that her uncle was, that she didn’t care, and that she thought people should do what makes them happy as long as it didn’t bother anyone—and being gay didn’t bother her.

Photo courtesy of Eric Scroggins

Blair Mishleau, a first-year Twin Cities corps member, teaches writing in Minneapolis. His post marks National Coming Out Day, which promotes a safe world for LGBT individuals to live truthfully and openly.

“I hate gay people.”

“Mr. M, would you ever be friends with a gay person? I wouldn’t!”

“Yeah…that’s messed up.”

The calm, young voices rang out during my homeroom period. A writing brainstorm about Barack Obama had brought up my ninth graders’ strong feelings towards the president’s stance on marriage equality.

In the time between the first hateful statement and my response, every education-related diversity conversation I’ve had flashed before my eyes. I could recall dozens of deep discussions about cultural competency, working with low-income communities, and finding ways to contact home when family members don’t speak English.

But when it came to responding to this—a direct statement of hate towards my sexual orientation—the till came up empty. Authentic advice on dealing with being gay in the classroom has been, for me, few and far between.

Photo courtesy of jglsongs via Flickr Creative Commons