Education Reform: Whose Job Is It Anyway?

This summer Oasis Youth Mobilizers (high school student citizens) participated in an academic intensive centered on the pop culture book series The Hunger Games. We were funded to compile data on school discipline practices and policies within the school district. However, too many of our Youth Mobilizers (YM) lacked the basic research skills (i.e. critical thinking, comprehension, comparison etc.) needed to delve into data collection and independent research assignments. We needed a “hook” to engage them in the process and we also felt compelled to address something that our students were concerned about- low ACT scores. On the lower end of our expectations, we believed we could help them read a single book during the summer and learn how to research public information about local schools. One the higher end of our expectations, we hoped we could teach information integration processing and expose them to some new vocabulary words. We did both and students exceeded our expectations. YM were given a copy of the first book in the series. Most of them had heard of the book but had not read it (though it was on the previous summer’s suggested reading list) and none of them had seen the movie. They were told that they would read the book each day over four weeks and draw a comparison from the book to students surviving in low performing schools. Each “district” in the book represented a “school” with specific assets and deficits. YM were also assigned two Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools for which they were responsible for researching suspension rates, the number of AP/Honors/Dual Enrollment subjects taught, scores from End of Course exams, ACT scores, GPA, attendance rates, graduation rates, mobility rates (frequency of changing schools), and the percentages of D’s and F’s. The initial plan allowed for two weeks of data collection after the students read the book in four weeks. On the first assigned reading day, Youth Mobilizers decided that they wanted to take turns and read the book aloud as opposed to reading independently. They created a vocabulary wall to post words that were unfamiliar and randomly assigned each other to look up definitions. When it was time to break for lunch, they actually voted for a shorter lunch break. They were readily identifying school and societal references without prompting and when the day was over, students were asking to take the book home to continue reading. Needless to say, the students finished reading the entire book within two weeks. This gave them more time to process what they read and compare it to their assigned research schools. It was not a huge stretch for students to assess how certain schools have an abundance of resources and high expectations for student performance and how some schools focus primarily on managing behavior. Oasis staff are not teachers AND we can encourage and influence students to assume responsibility for their education while assessing the roles of key players within and outside of their school system. Who said education reform is not our business?

Pearl Cohn Unitown: Deconstructing the Myth of Black Kids at a Black School

Allow me to set the scene for you. It’s a charter bus of 35 African American students from a North Nashville neighborhood school headed towards White Bluff, Tennessee for a weekend leadership retreat. Yes, White Bluff. Enough said? Also, on this bus are two female school staff (one African American, one Caucasian), one Oasis Center male staff (African American), and two Tennessee State University college mentors (both African American males). Oh, and the bus driver is an African American female. Upon arriving at the camp site an hour late, the charter bus is greeted by 15 screaming camp counselors (both high school and college students, both African American and Caucasian ) that are pumped about their engaging curriculum and the opportunity to connect with new people. Oh, forgot to mention that the bus driver was lost and when the students asked if she needed directions, she gave much attitude and threatened to put them off the bus.

Cancel all of that hoopla and hype because the “Black kids from the Black school” were not having any of it. They were ready to go home before they even got off the bus. Being greeted with happy cheers of “welcome and we’re so glad that you’re here, and you are the ones we’ve been waiting for” fell on deaf ears and stone cold hearts. Too much undefined happiness, must be a set up. End Scene.

Fast forward to the gym where Adventure Works staff were waiting with additional cheers and quirky challenge ropes courses, and you know it, might as well fade to black, literally. Attitudes began to morph. Students started speaking up that this wasn’t what they had signed up for. Strange folks telling them what do and why they couldn’t stay in the cabin with their girlfriend/boyfriend. One male student said his girlfriend brought him so they could get away and not be bothered. Hold up, wait a minute. Camera one zoom in, you mean this is not a couple’s retreat? Hold it. End Scene.

Fast forward to activities after dinner, and conversations about contraband and who would not be sleeping with whom. Second plot begins to unfold. This camp was different. Students were leading the activities and adults were apologizing for rushing and not doing introductions. You mean you want to know what I think about what you just said and you’re not going to get an attitude when I say that I don’t want to be here? In fact, you offer to take me home but ask that I tell you what you could do differently to make me feel comfortable with all of this leadership stuff? And you’re not going to tell the principal that I had an attitude with you? Well, maybe I don’t really want to go home. Maybe I can wait til the morning to see what all of this is really about. And you really won’t be mad if I want to go home in the morning? Hmm, pause. Wait for it. Camera two pan the crowd to see who’s buying this crap. Oh, my friends are going stay. Well, why we gotta play these games? Oh, you want me to figure out what we can do to get to know one another? Well, I don’t mind playing the games but this is not my idea of leadership. End Scene.

Students to the cabins. Adult staff patrol the camp site. All. Night. Long. Yes, all night long. Cue rest of the weekend. Fun and empowerment was had by all.

Intersectionality or All of This Right Here

Maybe it's the end of the year blues or the climate change but I'm feeling very "now you see me, now you don't" these days. My mind and spirit are taking hits more frequently as I work to be whole and seen for all of my complex selves. I can no longer ignore or make excuses when folks attempt to erase some aspect of my identity in conversation or practice. I am so over whitefolks insisting that I'm angry when actually my feelings are hurt or I'm bored with the conversation, coloredfolks assuming I'm post-racial because I work for a white-led agency and therefore less committed, queerfolks demanding that I show up and show out for any cause, and nonvotingfolks accusing me of selling out because I removed my child from the local public school system. Damn, how many masters can one sistah serve? The last time I checked (and I check often), not one of you so called revolutionaries nursed me through a migraine or called to make me laugh or offered to go on 3 mile walk. I ask myself why do I keep fooling with you? You don't feed or sustain me. You don't inspire me to write.  Some of you don't even believe in the healing properties of dark chocolate. So, we decided it was time. Me, myself, and I are calling a moratorium on you. There, I said it outloud or wrote it down. I am giving myself permission to place ME on the priority list or Angel tree or whatever calls attention to the most at-risk and marginalized at this time of the year. I am most at-risk of losing my sanity while worrying about your acceptance and denying my complex desire to be whole. I'm running back to the center of my collective selves from your super-imposed margins and I will not be sorry for leaving you wherever you are on your journey. This is my crossroad and I choose the ones that lead to me. Blackberry wine at 6pm.

Youth Violence: One Way Street?

Recent local articles about youth violence (specifically homicides of Black youth by other Black youth) lead one to believe that these crimes are only impacting high poverty areas and usually are related to some gang violence. Current reporting in the Tennessean and the City Paper readily mentions the location of the crime, the past criminal history of the youth that has been charged as an adult, and alludes to an increase in youth violence citywide. What’s absent in the reporting are some key factors that contribute to Black youth killing other Black youth. Curious that no reporting has asked WHERE are Black youth obtaining the weapons they are using in these violent acts. We know for certain that Black youth are not purchasing them at the local gun shows. Equally as curious is the hinting of racial division at neighborhood levels which also presents in the disparity of infant mortality, overall health outcomes, and academic achievement gaps. The failure to mention these factors as well as the influences of the culture of poverty skews community perception about the community’s ability to change the outcomes, i.e. contributes more to feelings of hopelessness and apathy. When people in communities feel hopeless and apathetic, there is very little action to solve issues. And isn’t it also curious that journalists are omitting that the influences of the culture of poverty mimic gang culture? Specifically, that “on the street” groups of young Black males are shaped by that group’s dynamics and when the group dynamics incorporate violent acts as acceptable behavior then the norms for developing males (ages 11-16) are largely established. Are we ready to ask who is “on the streets” and why are they there? Maybe not, that might lead to a conversation about the ineffectiveness of offender re-entry programs that are not connected to the workforce. What about asking how and when are Black youth with “at-risk behaviors” engaged in the solutions to change their violent behavior? May not be ready to ask that question either for fear that it leads to a conversation about preventions and interventions that are designed for urban (read Black) youth that are not predicated on self-determination and the strengths of the youth’s community. In 2005, Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (www.jcci.org) published a baseline report card on race relations to measure and hold the community accountable for eliminating race-based disparities (http://www.jcci.org/jcciwebsite/documents/09%20Race%20Relations%20Progress%20Report.pdf). There cannot be a reduction of Black youth violence without a holistic, systemic mindset to develop multiple approaches that include Black youth beyond the role of service recipient. Black youth violence is not occurring within a vacuum, maybe a pipeline.

What is Precious?

Some will tell you it is a harrowing story of physical and sexual abuse, of un-sufferable cruelty and malicious parenting. However, my spin is that Precious is a movie about the resiliency of being human and the opportunity for hope to creep into those tortured places of our spirit and dare to take root. I feel the need to remind folks that abuse (especially sexual abuse) is rooted in power and control aka oppression. The sex act is the form of oppression. Yes, it’s uncomfortable to witness imagery of incest and rape and yes that imagery may resonate with our own feelings of vulnerability and helplessness. No one wants to feel like their life is out of their control. Few want to be reminded that others live in worlds where very little of their daily life is happy or hopeful. It ain’t a feel good movie dammit. Some folks I know got caught up in the incest and the imagery that is conjured up in flashback scenes in the movie. Some white folks I know say they were traumatized by the film due to their own issues and discouraged others from seeing it. For me this response speaks volumes of racial and social nuances that alienate them from the overarching theme of the movie. The family history of abuse is what happened to the character Precious in her journey to be whole. Correction, the abuse is one of the things that happened to this character- she did have some other experiences too. She learned to read and write. She learned to speak her truth even when others did not want to hear it. Even when the consequences for speaking her truth alienated her from everything she knew, this character dared to cling to hope despite the gritty reality of her circumstances. It ain’t a feel good movie. Yet, this character learned that “straight up lesbians” are real people with intelligent conversation in spite of what her mother said about “the homos”. To my white sisters and brothers that were paralyzed by the sexual oppression in the story, your failure to witness depravity and recognize Black folks ability to rise above despair means that you can never truly appreciate Langston Hughes’ truth when he wrote “life for me ain’t been no crystal stair…and sometimes going in the dark where there ain’t been no light”. This movie says to me that the human spirit can endure such atrocities, a personal holocaust if you will, but you take a person’s ability to breathe when you deny them the space to dream about a different reality. If you want to a feel good movie, see the Blindside with Sandra Bullock. And if you can bare to witness beauty even when it’s not pretty, watch Precious and then talk to someone about it. You know my porch.

Sexting and the Perils of Virtual Communication

In the Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing, there was a character (DJ “Mr. Senor Love Daddy”) holding a ringing alarm clock towards the radio microphone and screaming “WAAAAKE UP”. Well, good people, it’s time to ring that alarm and move into action because our youth are rapidly falling into the ubiquitous vat of virtual communication and risking their present and future lives due to poor decision-making and raging hormones. If you are not familiar with sexting, you’re already behind the eight ball. Basically, “sexting” is any type of sexual communication sent via technology- via cell phone, computers (i.e. MySpace or other social networking sites), digital cameras and certain video game systems (yes, if it has capability to play online and share data). This can be photos of young males showing their elusive “six pack” (just like Lil Wayne and 50 Cent) and young females clothed in a bra or a bra and panties or other undergarments (just like Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, and Rihanna). Except when youth pose that are not performing artists and send the photos they are at risk of criminal charges such as child pornography and other sexual offenses. Even when they took the picture of their own body. And youth do not get the seriousness of it. For them, it is nothing to go into the bathroom and take a photo and send it to their “friends” or place it on their MySpace page. Sexting can even be a virtual conversation (such as IMing on Yahoo or MySpace- instant messaging) where youth “talk” about “hooking up, smashing it, getting together” and all the other terms I haven’t deciphered from my son’s MySpace page. Oh, and you should know that in Metro Nashville if a student sends a text/email/picture to another student of a sexual nature (i.e. “kiss me right here” or “you know you want it”) even if it happens during out of school time, that student can receive a consequence such as suspension or expulsion depending on the administration. Only in the past two years, have educators, parents and the criminal courts begun to explore the perils of virtual communication and that’s because more youth are receiving severe charges because presently “sexting” does not exist in the state or federal code so it goes under sexual offense charges which could include registry on a sex offender list. Just in case you still think that this is just “kids play”, if your child ends up on a sex offender registry it will negatively impact their ability to attend college and to obtain employment and where they can live. This includes your home if you have younger children and/or live in a neighborhood with children. Yes, technology is great but unsupervised TEENS and TWEENS risk jeopardizing their present options and future opportunities because parents want them to be independent. It’s not like the good ole days when you passed a note and asked someone if they wanted to kiss you, check yes/no/maybe. We live in a hyper-sexual society that exposes young people to so many stimuli that their under-developed brains cannot process smartly without adult guidance. Heck, we’ve got some grown up politicians and professional athletes that haven’t exercised good decision-making related to the use of technology. So, what do we do about it? TALK. Talk to your youth, talk to their friends. Ask youth if they have ever received pictures/images/videos of males or females with little to no clothes. Then ask them if they have ever sent one of themselves or forwarded a picture to someone else. Learn what constitutes criminal charges and be explicit when talking to youth and other parents. Tell grandparents not to hand over their cell phones to their precious “grands” without some ground rules because anything sent from their cell phones could implicate them. Visit sexlaws.org and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ((http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=4131) to learn more. Google the topic, talk to your neighbors, talk to co-workers. Even if you are not a parent, if you are a big brother or big sister (biological and/or volunteer) ask the young people you know. Start the conversation with making choices about safety- we want all of our young people to make safe choices and that covers driving and texting, drinking and driving, personal and intimate relationships, and sexting. Then check their cell phones and their MySpace pages. When they were 2 years old, you didn’t wait for them to insert the fork into the outlet or to touch the hot stove, you did some preventative work. And again when they were 7 or 8 and you allowed them to play outside, you stuck your head outside and checked on them periodically right? Well, our job ain’t over yet. Yep, our TEENS and TWEENS still need supervision- you can be their BFF (best friend forever) after they become adults.

Parenting: Money and Race Ain't Every Factor

Last week, I facilitated training for juvenile court probation officers. I heard too many stories about parents that were abdicating their parenting responsibilities in general. The group was from across the state of Tennessee. Represented in the room were staff from urban cities with tremendous resources (i.e. Memphis,Chattanooga, and Nashville) as well as rural towns with sparse resources (i.e. Johnson City and Bristol, near the North Carolina border) and even smaller communities between these areas. The diverse group of probation officers (P.O.’s) had clientele that included dual parent households, families with enough resources and several families with tremendous resources as well as connections, single working parent households, families that lived on social security benefits and some parents that lived on Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Guess what? All of the youth and their parents were not African American and living on so-called “welfare”. It was a really good mixture of race and economics when the P.O.’s told their stories.
I was reminded that it has become increasingly easy to dismiss a lack of parenting on race and money issues; when really the issue is about a lack of parenting commitment- motivation, desire, and emotional resources, whatever. Parenting is a full time job with few immediate benefits and a long term investment that you must wait to see how it pays off. Sure you can cheat, just like anything else in life, you may get ahead but somewhere along the way you end up cheating yourself and your child. Example, one parent said that her ex-husband gave their 15 year old son alcohol during his weekend visitation. Mother stated that her parents gave her alcohol as a minor and it didn’t hurt anything. Oh, let me add that the ex-husband has a suspended license for two D.U.I.’s. When I asked the P.O. if mother mentioned this to the court, she stated that this mother didn’t want to interfere with the “father-son” bond. Of course, the P.O. informed the court. Another parent justified her daughter punching another student in the face in response to “name-calling” because “ she has to defend herself”. I promise I am not making this stuff up. Could this be why some of our youth are struggling with poor decision-making? What happened to parents reinforcing basic societal norms of right and wrong even when you have some questions about what fair looks like? I know the concept of “norms” is relative to who you are and where you are from. I believe that we have more in common than what we define as differences when it comes to race and economics. I’ve met a lot of parents through my work and not a single one of them would disagree with wanting their child to be a productive citizen that can sustain their own household and family.
An example of natural consequences or proactive parenting shared at this training was how a single mother consequenced her 17 year old son for truancy. He would drive to school every day but he spent the majority of his time in the school parking lot playing his music very loudly. It wasn’t practical to take his car because mother worked in another county 45 miles away which required that she leave before he left for school and their closest neighbor did not have a car. So, mother had a friend remove his stereo and his speakers while her son was in school. Of course, when the son came out of school, he immediately reported a theft. Mother had already informed local police of what she was doing. She told her son that he could earn back his stereo equipment with attendance and passing grades. Oh, he bought the stereo equipment with money he earned. I love creative parenting! Long story short, we have to recommit to parenting and using every bit of our resources so that all of our youth have an opportunity to transition into adulthood so that they can complain about the crappy ways their parents consequenced them.