Summer Wrap-Up

From my previous Brown Report blog I think I’ll return to writing less academically and more personally, for this last (internship) blog reflecting on the summer.

I feel right now, as I did when I wrote the blog, that my last “…your experiences so far…”blog should have been saved for this last post. Oh well. Here are some questions and answers about the summer.

What did you like?

Throughout the internship I liked: the speaker series, trips, readings, and some blog posts. My favorites of each were the Barksdales and Dr. Winkle (they tie), the Delta (both times), the Brown Slavery and Justice Report, and the Brown Report blog, respectively.

What would you improve?

Short of having the University rent a car for the interns over the summer, I would:

• Lose the sarcasm (Ben)
• Get all the interns IDs
• Buy another ScanSnap
• Have a USB (or two) only for the Oral History Project
• Make sure to make clear when the internship is over, and that all the interns are clear on this
• Have one intern at the summer school, and one or two at the office from the very beginning.
• Stay overnight in the Delta
• Take the interns around campus to find some of the interesting things (e.g. archives and records) this University has to offer.
• Include a parent and/or student as a speaker in the speaker series
• Mandatory school board meeting
• Take students to IHL while in Jackson or have someone from IHL speak to interns in Oxford
• Meet with superintendant, preferably of the state.

What was the best part?

The best part of the internship was by far the speaker series. I have to say, 99.9% of the speakers were engaging, but 100% were worthwhile. I think it’s important

Who was your favorite speaker?

As stated earlier, and throughout the summer, my favorite speakers were the Barksdales and Dr. John Winkle.

What did you learn from the internship? How did you change?


I really don’t want to answer this question, not because I’m copping out on this blog, but because I don’t know how to express the impact this internship has had on me. In the poem I wrote last week I used the phrase “something happened” repetitively. I used it because something did happen. It’s like when you know someone is going to report bad news, you don’t want to hear hit so you brace yourself. Still, when it hits, it knocks you down. This internship knocked me down a few pegs. I’ve lived most of my life not oblivious, but ignorant of how deep the education problem in this nation is. I’d never been so close to the disparities. When you read, hear, and see the educational tragedy caused by poverty and by race, I don’t reason anyone can leave unchanged. At the least we can proclaim the wrongs in our education system to others who haven’t seen or experienced the bottom.

Has this internship made me stop running from education? I just might have.

Would you recommend it to someone else?

Of course, to anyone who wants to do “like right” and to anyone who just doesn’t know.


Thanks Ben.

Larissa’s Top 10 Need to Know for Next Year’s Interns

10. Complete your blog posts early, you never know what might come up later in the week.

9. Clean up the office. Most likely when you come in it will be in need of some interior designing, do this because it will make working in the office a lot easier.

8. Wise up to Ben Guest’s sarcasm early, I mean for the first week don’t believe anything he says, save “My name is Ben Guest”—not even that’s entirely true.

7. Start your summer project (most likely continuing the oral history project) early and add to it regularly. This includes transcribing the interviews within a few days of conducting them.

6. Get to know the teachers but remain cognizant that you are not a teacher, you’re an intern; therefore, you might not be able to do everything that the teachers do.

5. Join the gym. Join a group fitness class (I recommend indoor cycling a.k.a spinning). Check out the trainers—oow!

4. Treat the internship like a class: put some effort into the reading and writing assignments.

3. Check some of the amazing organizations, facilities, and other things that the University of Mississippi has to offer.

2. Engage the speakers, all the speakers, and you will be enlightened.

1. Open yourself to the experience, you won’t leave the same person, you’ll be better.

Slavery and Justice: Report on the Brown University Committee on Slavery and Justice: My Perspective

In 2003 Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons and the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice took a monumental step in the University’s history. That year, President Simmons chartered the Steering Committee that began investigating Brown’s historical relationship to slavery in the Americas. However, the scope of the investigation encompassed more than just identifying Brown’s direct or indirect ties to slavery; the investigation also pondered the meaning of repairing the legacy of hatred, inequality, and “dark liberty”, produced by slavery, as a University and as a nation. The Brown Report lays out a clear and concise argument for some form of reparations due in the United States and begins the dialogue the United States needs in order to tend its wounds from slavery.
The first section of the Brown Reports elucidates Brown’s direct profit from slavery. The connection to slavery courses so deep as to be bound to the University’s namesake, Nicholas Brown. The Steering Committee’s continuous emphasis on Rhode Island’s direct role in the Triangle Slave Trade and indirect profit from textile manufacturing reinforces a motive for the investigation. The emphasis also serves to dampen arguments against investigations, arguments founded on the façade that slavery was not a Northern problem.
While establishing the historical context, the Steering Committee does not fail to omit the contradictions in Rhode Island’s position on slavery. The Report examines the robust profits and, direct or indirect, perpetuation of slavery and the contradicting abolitionist movement. The contradictions explicated during this section of the report are important because they become the microcosm of nation’s schizophrenia and contradictory position on the slavery.
The nation’s schizophrenia towards liberty persisted long after January 1, 1863. Since that date, although terribly slow moving and often incomplete, the nation has taken a number of steps forward to its creed “liberty and justice for all.” Arguably the most controversial step involves the reparations question. The Steering Committee keenly addresses the meaning of reparations and reparative justice in a global perspective as well as within the United States. The global perspective of the Report allows readers to see more clearly the United State’s indecisiveness and failure to come to terms with its past. The Report highlights numerous cases, including the perpetual push for an apology from the Japanese government to Korean “comfort women”, where the United States urged foreign nations to offer some form of reparation. However, no president of the United States nor body of Congress has delivered a formal apology, in the United States, for the sins of slavery. This speaks to the problems the United States faces today with copious injustices faced by millions; the Steering Committee deserves commendation for including this in their official Report.
In balance, the Steering Committee Report was protracted in its lead up to Affirmative Action, one of the most controversial forms of reparation. In truth, the Report lacked a comprehensive discussion of Affirmative Action. Understandably the Report is restricted in what it can cover in only 82 pages, however, the nature of Affirmative Action as a staple political, judicial, and social concern in the United States, it merited more than a single line mention in the Report. Preferably, the Steering Committee can amend the Report to include a brief history of the origin of Affirmative Action and the implications today, notably in the judicial arena.
A second topic the Steering Committee failed to expound upon are the injustices today that have a direct link to slavery. If the Steering Committee examined and discussed these links in the Report from Brown, a prestigious University, the force and credibility of the University would be thrown behind this acknowledgement. People around the nation would see, hear, read and be encouraged to examine and repair those links.
The Steering Committee organized the “Concluding Thoughts” and “Recommendation” sections of the well. Readers access the Committee’s finial ideas without having to wade through cumbersome rhetoric. Likewise, the “Recommendations” section details the steps Brown can take for reparative justice in clear succinct language. Furthermore, the Committee’s recommendations are achievable and lie within the values espoused by the institution. The Steering Committee recommendations are simple, yet complex. For example, the recommendations for” acknowledgement” and to “tell the truth in all its complexity” are easily said and possibly easily done, however, the emotions and expectations of the University that come after those actions are more difficult to deal with. Other recommendations such as “memorialization” and “create a center for continuing research on slavery and justice” are more tangible but no less provocative in what they symbolize or the conversations they generate.
Finally, the “single theme [that] runs through this report…is education”. Education is also the theme of this internship. The motto of the Sunflower County Freedom Project sums up the theme in the report and in the United States, “Education is the seed of freedom”. For hundreds of years in the United States Whites kept education, and thus power, away from Blacks. Even today Blacks continue to be disadvantaged in access to quality education; poverty perpetuates the problem of access but does not rely on race alone as a standard. The best means to repair injustice is to keep it from haunting future generations. Let the skeletons in the closet see light, let the history be written and transferred between generations, and let the posterity have to suffer less than each generation before it.

-Radical.

Click the photo to access the Brown Report

Sputter, Sputter, Spark!--I think.

I think something happened this summer. I think.

I said that I wanted to see
And now I’ve seen.
I said I wanted to know.
And now I know.
I can’t pretend like these problems aren’t a motif.

So I think something happened this summer. I think.

It’s weird when you come in no strings attached.
I’m here only for this not that.
It’s scary when you may let go of one dream.
You don’t want to disappoint, not others but yourself

Even so, I think something happened this summer. I think.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I still want to get that degree
But this time it’s not just to help me
I’ve been given so much
Now I know I have much to give

Therefore, I think something happened this summer. I think.

I want to start something, maybe not here but there
Maybe it be cast to the wind and spread everywhere
I’m pretty sure right now I’m in the gutter
But from here I can look up and see the stars

And then you know, I think something happened this summer. I think.

From a minor fall to a major life
There seems to have been a shift
Talk is cheap
People want people, need people, who do

Hence, I think something happened this summer. I think.

It’s a never ending battle
It starts with the rattle.
I need to play my part.
The question is will I start.

Yes.

That’s how you know, something happened this summer. Something happened.

Education is Political

Last week the other interns and I went to the Oxford school board meeting at Oxford high school. Even before I left the meeting I kept thinking one thing: if politics is personal, then education is political.

All of the meeting that we were privy to (before they went into executive session) covered a bond issue for Oxford. The school board wants to issue a bond to build new accommodate expanding existing builds, improving facilities, and constructing a new school. These things cost money, and in a public school money comes from the tax payers. Simply, money comes from taxes.

Before the school board risked asking constituents if they wanted to fund the endeavors, the school board hired Mr. Davis (no relation) from a survey company to test the waters. In a 10 to 1 ratio the company was able to collect only 301 complete responses, 70% of those coming from senior citizens.

Sitting in on that meeting made me understand more fully how education is political. I’ve heard people complain about the devalued status of education in government or the educational bureaucracy from k-12 to higher ed. But hearing opinions is nothing like sitting in the room and watching it happen in real time. Moms, dads, alumni, cousins, all lost their faces; they lost their individuality and meaning beyond their vote. “I know how the voters move.” Mr. Davis repeated this several times. Although I think the information he provided in his cross postulations was valuable and needed, I still can’t look past people being no more than a vote.

This is what happens in political campaigns. Candidates often play to people to get their vote and not necessarily their story. Individuals become a mass known simple as ‘the voter.’ I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I mean it is what it is, but it’s something to notice.

Towards the end of his presentation Mr. Davis said he would love to get a focus group of just women or just African-Americans (two of the hardest, along with senior citizens, to sell the bond to). He wanted to see what they think about the bond issue. When Mr. Davis said this I started considering the students and parents in Mississippi public education system. What do they think is wrong, or right, with the system? How much responsibility do they think they have? What do they think about the Teacher Corps?

What do the students and parents think about the Mississippi Teacher Corps. I think I told this the MTC Program Manager last week. I wondered what things would come up in a focus group of students and a group of parents. What are their thoughts on the Corps? Do they even know that the Corps exists or which of their Teachers are participants? I wonder if they would feel anything if they knew that statistically speaking their teacher was only like to remain in Mississippi, let alone teaching, for only two years. Would they be indifferent because they’ve been conditioned to expect turnover in the education system.

Now, how did I get from education is political to school board meetings to focus groups on the Teacher Corps? Well, if education is political and the constituents in the Teacher Corps are the students being served, aren’t we obliged to hear their perspectives?

Do the students even know about MTC or TFA?

Back to reflecting on the school board. Even though most of the members (we were unable to tell which ones) were elected to their positions, I must say they asked Mr. Davis some pertinent questions about the results of the survey (what factors influenced the results) as well as the methodology (calling home phones versus cell phones, which many in the 35 and under crowd are turning to exclusively). I think this speaks more the environment and, I hope I’m not making too grand an assumption, the character of the school board members. For the most part, I got the vibe that most of the members were there because they genuinely wanted to work towards the best possible school system in Oxford, rather than as stepping stone to other political offices. I also think the school board had a decent representation of sexes, age ranges, and occupations. There was only one Black female, madam secretary, and she was quiet throughout the meeting, save reading the issues to be discussed in executive session.

I think education blew up on the national level as a political issue under No Child Left Behind, passed during the inauspicious Bush era administration. I think many people on the left automatically discounted the law because it passed during Bush administration. Yes I think teaching to tests is stupid and ineffective, but let’s get real there has to be some way to measure growth and hold students and teachers accountable. A number of stipulations in the program can stand to be changed, funding for one, but for all uproar that the Act cause in 2002 it sure as heck didn’t lead to anything. We still have a shoddy public education in the poorest areas of the United States and we’re (the nation) are still steadily descending the education prowess ladder.

Somehow education is too political in some respects, but not political enough in others. Wait, let me temper that statement, education is not political enough in the sense that public education doesn’t yet seem to be personal enough…if at all.

-Radical.

The Oral History Project

What are we even doing with this? No really, what are we doing? I felt that way last week when we interviewed MTC alumni. Here’s what I know so far, the oral history project is for the history of the MTC. This involves interviewing alumni, founders, directors, program managers, and anyone else affiliated with MTC.

I usually like starting a project with the end in mind, that means having an idea of how the final product will look. This project was not like that. Now I know that the transcribed interviews will probably go online (hence the meeting for iweb), but what else? What about it? So what’s the point. I’m missing this. I’ve read a few of the transcribed interviews on the Southern Foodways Alliance, but I’ve also read of a purpose or mission. Any way let me answer some questions about what I do know about (or from) the project:



What have I learned so far?

So far I have a a good deal about the founding of Corps. I was surprised to hear the idea for the program came from a journalist. Weird. Stranger, or perhaps not so strange, the idea came from someone outside of ‘the closed society’. I thought the program always offered a Master’s Degree and was state funded since it was located at a state university. Not! MTC was originally funded by the Phil Hardin foundation (the only private foundation for education in the state) and the Master’s Degree was offered about four years after the program started to help attract applicants and increase retention in the education field.

From the summer training that I witness and hear about this summer (2010) I would think the summer aspect has always been adequate. Not! From participants such as Michael Cox and Andrew HaLevi (both in the first MTC cohort in the class of 1990) the summer training was “weak” (HaLevi, 29 june 2010) The summer training consisted mostly of acclimating the teachers to Southern culture, not the classroom environments that culture produced. In my opinion, the only reason why the Class of 1990 was so strong was because a number of the teachers came from teacher training programs before they came to the Teacher Corps; therefore, their success in the class can be credited more from their training prior to MTC than to training provided by MTC.

Mr. HaLevi touched on a point I thought about a couple time during the summer, what do you do about retention? For the most part the teachers come here for two years and then move onto teaching outside of Mississippi (if they even stay in education) or onto a career field that’s not directly related to education. I know a large goal, or what should be considered a goal of the program, is not needing MTC anymore. However, how can that ever be achieved if no one wants to stay in the state. Do we need to fix the economy and amenities of the state to attract the people that could positively influence education? Which comes first: education or economics? This touches on a deeper issue that could use a blog, or book, of its own.

What questions do I still have?

Some of the I still have about the project I wrote in the introduction to this post. Some questions I have for in the interviews are:

Why did you leave education?/Why did you stay in education?
What were some of the steps you needed to go through when first starting the organization?
What were some of the start up challenges?
Do you stay in contact with the program or current participants?
Where do you see MTC now as compared to when you were a participant? Where do you see it 10 years from now?
If you could change one thing about education in Mississippi what would it be? Is that the same answer you would have given when you were a participant or when the program was founded?
Can things change?

Some of these questions may not apply to the cut and dry history of MTC, but I think they relate to the progress of the organization and of education in the state.

What has the process been like?

The process? Well, the people we have been able to interview were great. Other people, well...I think they’re trying to avoid us or something. I’m not quite sure and won’t waste my time speculating on the issue. The alumni and have a lot of insightful comments on their experiences as a participant, on MTC in general, and education in Mississippi (or elsewhere if they know about other places). The process isn’t as bad as I first imagined it would be. Namely, the transcription process, which I was dreading, hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. We haven’t started to put build our website, but I’m confident that we’ll be able to build a decent website and will learn a thing or two in the process.



All in all, I think we’re building a foundation others can use if they’re looking into the origins and perceptions of MTC. That being said, we’ll make the foundation strong, but don’t expect a mansion. :)

-Radical.

The Evolution-Incomplete

Usually on these “reflect on your experience so far” blogs I find someway to avoid writing about my experiences as a whole so far. This time I’m going to make a good faith effort to reflect on my experience, in the internship, so far:

Overall, I’ve enjoyed this internship so far. Even so, I can’t help but keep wondering what other people are doing. I doubt, highly doubt, that other ASIP internships expose people to the social issues Betsy, Hallie, and I see and reflect on each week. In many ways this internship is more like a summer course than an internship--that comes with perks and downsides, though. :)

I wish our internship was just touring around Mississippi, meeting people (not jut speakers, but “everyday” citizens) and learning about all these problems, and trying to do something about them. It’s so easy to get engrossed in conversation and metaphysical thought. Hence, I added that last desire---trying to do something about the problems. If you delight in repetitious office work, there’s something wrong. I know it needs to get done, that’s why I do it. But honestly, regardless if my official title is ‘Summer School Assistant’ I didn’t apply and accept this internship for the administrative facet.

Talking to speakers, reading publications, and actually seeing the terrible conditions in the Delta and across Mississippi (a motif in the South)...that’s what’s it. After I accepted the internship, especially since I wasn’t looking at the internship as a way to prepare me for a career in teaching, I went through a rejection period because I didn’t want to get pigeon-holed into education. For many people education means one thing--teacher, classroom, students. When I said, “I’m working for the Mississippi Teacher Corps this summer”, I could see it in their faces and hear it in their comments. They automatically labeled me, “Oh you want to be a teacher? You want to teach?” First of all, just because I’m working with the Teacher Corps doesn’t mean I’m actually teaching (it’s understandable that they would think this though). Secondly, so what if I did want to teach? I always said I would not get into education, I was more into other social justice issues. However, if I examine my life since the summer before my senior year, I haven’t been running from education I’ve been running to it. Corridors of Shame, Teacher Cadet, family history final on integration in New Roads, LA, Black Power/White Money, The Springfield Project, Race and Education course, and now this internship--either I’ve been running to it, or I’ve just stopped running from it.

I have yet to soul search or whatever and see if education is my calling, but I’m more comfortable now getting more involved because I see it as a social issue. I still like law (or I think I do, I’ll suspend ultimate judgement until I actually have to do it). It seems here people don’t like law school, especially with comments like, “Usually people go to law school when they don’t know what else to do” or “We don’t need any more lawyers.” Who says you have to be a lawyer in a traditional field or even a lawyer at all. Teachers are the infantry men and women and when it comes down to it they are the crux, but the law can help education and education can help law. Believe it or not I think this internship is helping me see that.

Last academic year, my Freshman year, I didn’t want to tutor in the local high school. It’s not that I mind or didn’t want to help these students, it’s just that I think 1) I think most people get into to have something on their resume 2) it’s already so popular.

The short time I spent at the summer school and from what I hear from teachers about guidance counselors in the schools, many poor and minority students who have no one at home to help them when it comes to post-secondary education also have limited resources in their high schools--the place where resources should abound. This problem has been floating in my mind for awhile this summer, but a light bulb (CFL, of course) came on when we spoke to Teacher Cadet alumnae/TEAM teacher Danielle Hall--MyOp!

MyOp! is the club idea I have to start at Amherst (maybe even a non-profit, now I’m thinking too big, let me take this one step a time). MyOp!--My opinion, my options, my opportunities--would be made up a current college students who can provide college advice and guidance to students in critical needs high schools that want help. We’ll be with them each step of the way and what we cover will reflect the timeline they have to follow in the college applications/admissions process (e.g. we’ll cover the application essay and private/institutional scholarships before we delve into the intricacies of the FAFSA). Students on campus would be willing to do this. I could sign-out vans from the CCE and make the college put its money where its policy is. The front load of the work would come from working in partnership with the schools and teachers, finding out exactly what these students want to know or what would be helpful to them, and ways to present information to them so they can see see a better life within their grasps.

I’m such a college student. I’m a pragmatic idealist. I want to do so much and I know that we can. With all of this, I’m glad I met people this summer who haven’t grown out this ‘phase’. It gives me hope. :)

-Radical.

Acknowledging Difference

So in my fourth posting I said I would talk about Mr. Barksdale in my next freewrite opportunity. Some time has pasted and I can think of some other things to write about, but I’m going to do what I said I would do. So! Here’s my Mr. Barksdale posting:

Mr. Claiborne Barksdale has done something awe inspiring through the Barksdale Reading Institute. It’s one thing to recognize the importance of early childhood education, it’s another to tell it to others, but it’s something entirely different to devote your life to it (especially in Mississippi).

When Mr. Barksdale talked about differentiated instruction a flame brightened in my mind. My parents knew the importance of educating their children at a young age. Two things stick out in my memory: 1) My mom always said I went to a Christian school because the other schools only offered half day Kindergarten, while the Christian school was full day 2) my mom loved Mrs. Dee (my kindergarten and favorite teacher) and complimented her because—among other great attributes—she divided the students up and instructed based on reading/learning levels. Now, as a kindergartener I had no idea we were ever placed in groups based on reading levels. I didn’t find out until years later when my mom talked about it and I read some old quarter reports/remarks from Mrs. Dee. It’s not that Mrs. Dee was prejudice against students in a medium or lower level reading group, it’s just that she recognized her students learned on a different pace and in a different manner. She tailored what we needed to learn to us; therefore, we learned it.

Differentiated instruction. The mere mention or acknowledgement of difference seems to put people on edge now-a-days. Race, sex, class, cognitive skills all throw people into a fit. I keep mentioning Lani Guinier in my posts because what she has to say applies so well to what I’m learning during this internship. I went to her lecture at Amherst on this idea of post-racism or post-racialism in the United States now that Barack Obama is President. Let me state my opinion for the record, post-racism, post-racialism, post-race or however you word it is bologna. As much as I talked about the world being colorblind and people moving beyond difference when I was growing up, I think I’ve matured to a point where I know that that doesn’t help the powerless. Mr. Barksdale made me realize this even more when he talked about the influence of class on attaining a decent education.

If I turn a blind eye to a 5 year old who has never been read to, who does that help? If you know a young student has rarely if ever been given praise before they enter grade school and you turn the other cheek, who does that help? You can’t expect students who start off school at such a disadvantage to be okay once they enter kindergarten or first grade. You can’t expect kids to pull themselves up from bootstraps they don’t have. You have to consider difference; you must know that there is a marked difference.

Ok, I think I might be drifting off to a topic related to differentiated classroom instruction, but bigger than what I meant to post in this meager blog. I know what I want to say, though.

Open our eyes.

Where is the justice when we let the least of us fall and we keep on walking? If we can’t do it for moral or simply humane reasons let me put it in economic terms because money talks: when the bottom rises, the whole rises. The US has been rapidly falling behind other less developed nations when it comes our educated youth population. In order to stop and reverse this trend that will surely lead to decline and downfall, the United States must provide an opportunity for an adequate 21st century education to all of its citizens. Quickly the majority of these citizens are becoming the poor and minorities. Possibly the most important step would be providing high level pre-school/pre-kindergarten education, mandated and funded.

I did it again; I made grand statements. I can’t seem to stay in the classroom. Maybe that’s because what happens in the classroom spills over into the rest of society. Maybe it’s because I’m in college and still have a bit of idealism my half-full cup. Either way, I said what I wanted to say. The question is will I do, will we do, what we need to do to change it?

-Radical.

A Change: Run No More

I knew this one was coming, but I’m glad. Greenwood, how do I describe it? Well, one city (if you can call it a city) seems like two. For all intents and purposes, it is two cities--Greenwood Black and Greenwood White. For one of the better Delta cities and according to Ben, “One that’s doing pretty well for itself”, Greenwood doesn’t have much to offer--Greenwood Black that it.

When we rode through Greenwood Black you would think we were riding through a village in Southeast Asia, India, or Latin America--anywhere but the United States. Yet, we weren’t; we were ridding through our backyard. Oh my goodness! The shotgun homes were worst than I imagined. It wasn’t just one or two homes; it was ALL of them! What many people would consider backyard storage units people used as homes. Over crowding, no privacy, no wonder this environment breeds sexual abuse.

Something that surprised me was the absence of police in these environments. You would think if these areas were high crime/drug locations the cops would swarm like bees to honey. Then again, what did PE say about 911 in the hood?

Black Greenwood depressed me. It’s easier to stay optimistic when reality is not staring you in the face. The problems are copious and they’re mounting everyday. Call it a character trait, call it naïveté, but I’m still optimistic. Why? Because if we improve one problem we’ll start to improve many. Education. In Mississippi education isn’t a sinking or capsized ship, it’s already at the bottom of the sea. We need to raise it from the dead. I’m also optimistic because in an environment where problems come from all angles, you can focus education in the cross hairs. Let me take that back, it’s more like a shotgun. If we fire at education, the multiple projectiles will hit other problems. I’m not a gun enthusiast, but this analogy works.

The Bridge over the river separating Greenwood is like a bridge into another world. Can you imagine living on the Black side of Greenwood and knowing that a better world exists right over the bridge? It’s not just the size of the homes; it’s the infrastructure, the neighborhoods, the schools, and the security (present and future). If you don’t know any different, you grow up you entire life see Black people live one way and White people another, why would you have any motivation to change that?

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ever since

The Tallahatchie River. I think it actually clicked with me this summer that this is the river where Emmet Till was dumped. I can’t remember if I posted about Emmet Till, but if you’re reading this you may know the story, if you don’t then go read about it. On our trip to Greenwood we continued to Money, MS—a town between a river and railroad tracks. In Money we stopped at the rubble of Bryant’s Grocery, the location where 14-year-old Emmet Till wolf whistled at a white woman. It didn’t start running through my mind why I cared or felt something when I was at the store. More precisely, why I didn’t care for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I CARE about the Civil Rights Movement and Black history, indeed it is my favorite topic in history and I can talk about all day long. However, I feel like I should have known…it’s my history. I feel like I should know more about the big parts and the little parts, the extraordinary and the ordinary. So many things that happened in the past give reason to why things are the way they are in the present. It’s the legacy of oppression; it still oppresses.

It’s been a long, long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

How long will we have to wait until cities like Greenwood across this nation experience positive change? Will the youth of the nation have to sacrifice their lives where the government won't take the lead? I don’t know how we can ask someone to pull themselves up from their bootstraps when they don't even have boots.

We took a trip to Greenwood, MS. We don’t live there. Even when were in the city I was protected from the streets in a van—a University van. Thinking back on it I think just driving through (doing the infamous fly-over after Katrina), as I was looking out, protected, others were looking in. I hope I did not make them feel like they were some strange creatures in a strange world—that they were somehow detrimentally different.

I talk about change a lot, and of things I’ve posted, some might call them radical. But, I wonder if I have the strength to do it myself. I’m human; I’ve had dreams too. Can I ask you to sacrifice yours, without doing it myself? Is there a way that we don’t have to sacrifice? Must it always be from the bottom up? If only we lived in a perfect world, but we don’t, we live in this one. I have hope though that a change is gonna come, “oh yes it will.”

-Radical.


Note: Inter-paragraph lyrics are from Sam Cooke's song A Change is Gonna Come

Not just another “your experiences so far blog”

I hope you don't mind Ben, I kind of want to keep this one short. Let’s see, looking at the whole internship so far through the lens of topics/reading we’ve had, I think we’re progressing from race to class. That’s a big step.

I remember on the first day I mentioned the issues of classism when we spoke to Tucker, but we never really came back to it. It kind of sat out there in limbo, or more correctly on the side---as a aide note. However, from Mr. Barksdale last week to the SEF publications we’re reading now, class has become a central lens.

I know I wrote in the thank you letter to Mr. Barksdale, “Race is no doubt a factor, but to neglect the role of class is to do a disservice an even greater number of children.” I believe that wholeheartedly. Moreover, looking at the problems faced with class and race in concert paints a clearer, more disheartening picture.



Class. I think my entire life I’ve been privileged for the simple fact that class didn’t come up, not because we’re wealthy, but because I’m military. Somehow, overseas it seems we’re all on the same playing field and the government covers almost everything. Even people who enlist right out high school with nothing to their name seem okay because Uncle Sam takes care in many ways. My parents didn’t have the same exact privilege. Both grew up poor…poor. When I tried to explain a shotgun house to my mom last week she said, “Yeah, I grew up in one.” Even when they left Louisiana they were only one step up—living pay check to pay check. By the time my full brother and I came along it was maybe two or three pay checks to pay checks, but I couldn’t tell. I was oblivious. When it comes to class status I went from 'oblivion' to 'it was never mentioned'; that's how I lived my life for 16 years. Then, the orders came…”We’re moving to South Carolina.”

Sadly coming back to the United States opened my eyes to some things that I thought nothing of living overseas, going to Amherst did the same. I never realized I go straight for the clearance racks or shop at stores on that side of the tracks. Who knew the cashier would take note and tell my mom, “You always buy the sale items.” Of course I thought about paying for college, but I never actually thought I would turn away a school because they couldn’t give me aid. This is all coming from what I consider to be a middle class background. Can you imagine what it would be coming from a low income or working class background?

Going to college out of state, to a small Liberal Arts college out-of-state, also makes you notice some things. You would think noticing car brands might be trivial, not for me. It was one of first things I noticed. In New England everyone and their mother drives Audis, BMWs (the SUV model is popular), a Benz, Range Rover, Infiniti or foreign brand like Toyota. Aha! So that’s how those companies stay afloat. I used to wonder because where I frequent in South Carolina I see Chevy, Ford, Crysler, some Jeep, Honda, and some Toyotas too. I was almost certain Audis were pretty much non-existent in the U.S.—WRONG.

Even with all this, I lived a privileged life: 1) because my parents sacrificed for me; they still do 2) When I was young my parents could provide all of the boring Hooked On Phonics, Arithmetic drills, and books I needed to keep my mind busy. They reinforced they cared with words and actions. My life may have turned out a lot different if my parents, even if they wanted to, couldn’t provide for my education. That’s what class does. It’s not about the clothes, or the cars, it’s about the opportunity.

How can I buy a Beamer when I can’t afford a book? How can I think about wearing Armani when I can’t articulate a complete sentence? That’s what class has been doing for...forever. It castes, it restricts, and in many instances it segregates people from people, and people from opportunity.

Race is no doubt a factor, but to neglect the role of class is to do a disservice to an even greater number…

-Radical.

P.S. Okay, so maybe this one wasn’t as short as I expected.

Reflection on Another’s Journey

For this blog post I read Angela Doyle’s blog. I was trying to figure out which blog I should read. I’m sure many of the teachers have great or insightful things to say, but I didn’t have time to read all of them and I only knew a couple of the teachers that we were actually able to choose from. So, I used the clues around me to choose a teacher who I thought probably kept a pretty good blog. Simply, I chose Angela Doyle because I walk past the Outstanding Portfolio Plaque with her name on it as the 2009 recipient of the award. If she kept a good portfolio, maybe she also kept a good blog.

Angela’s first-year blog surprised me. I started the blog thinking not all of the blogs were going to be sunny and rosey, but frankly, hardly any of the blogs that first year were sunny or rosey. Angela gave it to us straight, and as the first semester progressed she became more and more frustrated with the students. She even went to the point of swearing them (only in the blog of course!). I felt bad for her. And when she talked about the football game, I just felt sad. I had no idea that the students' potential is in everything they do, but their lack of motivation or follow-through is also in everything they do.

The major obstacle I found Angela to have was student’s actually caring; she explains this in her “Managing my classroom would be easier if students cared” blog. Angela started out the year with the mindset and goal that she would be like her teacher who helped the students take responsibility for their education. Unfortunately for her she soon came to realize that most of these students do not care and that making them care would be more difficult to the Nth degree than in the school she went to because these students are facing N times more variables telling them they shouldn’t care.

I’m glad the Angela experienced some success with her "successlets" and one student who excelled in mathematics. In connecting with an earlier post, I think it would be easy to look at Angela’s successlets and wonder how she ever term them successlets. Like I said, success is measure based on a sliding standard. You give all that you can, that’s all I can ask.

Ok, a quick switch. I know the MTC second-years and staff members (alumni) complain substantially about inadequate administrative support. When I hear all of this, I have two thoughts: 1) “Wow. How can you operate when the teachers and administrators are at odds? How could they be promoted to such a high position and be so incompetent? Someone please shut down the institution that’s producing these people. 2) How bad can it really be? Teachers have to operate in a broken system, but shouldn’t have to teach in an environment where they are in physical danger. For a principal to put the responsibility entirely on Angela to get a student to stop physically harassing her is incredulous. The principal put Angela in danger everytime they sent the student back to class, refused to suspend the student (or expel because of the nature and habitual nature of the offense), or have the school bring charges against the student. The least they could have done was talk to the student. SOMETHING! Make him know that his actions are not okay and will not be tolerated.

There is a marked difference between Angela’s first year blog and her second year blog. She taught her first year at Holly Springs High School (the same location of summer school this year; with a name like that you wonder how bad the place can be), but transferred the Potts Camp High School her second year. I can tell Angela had an easier time teaching at Potts Camp. The students didn’t come to school just to have meal and/or make life a living hell for the teachers. It seemed her students wanted to actually make something of themselves and cared about their community (the student-made flyer circulated around school addressing gossip illustrates this). But Angela picked up on something worth noting, something that I also thought about. The flyer named “Holly High” explicitly as a bad example, a 1.7. In an earlier blog a parent said the problem with the Holly Springs was the morale. The county, the parents, even other students tell Holly High students they aren’t worth anything. You never want to be that school. I know many students who went to private school in Charleston instead of public high school in North Charleston (No. 7 in 2007 for the most dangerous cities) looked at my school that way. It was the same way people from my school characterized Stall High School, only right down the street but in a different district and a completely different environment.

Do we not think that students recognize this? We do. They do. How can we expect a turn around success when we set them up for failure mentally; when we refuse to even acknowledge the success that do bud.

Let me stop blogging here. I’m beginning to wallow and I can't think to be of any help if I’m caught up feeling sorry for someone. I don't’ know how.

-Radical.

“No Time to Lose”: Questions, Statements, and Revelations

For copious reasons (e.g. time, workload, simplicity, and effectiveness) this blog post will be almost a replica of the notes I took from the reading No Time to Lose: Why America Needs an Education Amendment to the US Constitution to Improve Public Education. Before I begin, I need to preface this post. I read the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) publishing very emblazoned at some points. Therefore, some parts of the post may be slightly inarticulate and rely on simple and rather uneducated words. (words that I myself might not speak aloud) ☺

Key: Q=question S=statement/comment

Pg. 4-Low income/minority funding disparities
-Why is America so afraid of opportunity for all of its citizens? I’m not even arguing for a flat world, it’s for your own people. It’s for you.
-Political race: Political race is what Lani Giuner and Gerald Torres refer to as the act of enlisting race to fight injustices. Low income whites and minorities as a whole are citied together in political race because low income whites are raced as black or brown, that is, in some instances low income people suffer the same injustices minorities face.

Q-Are the Federal governments in countries out performing us (with better education rankings), such as China and India investing more money per pupil? I suspect so.

Q-I wonder if we need another Cold War to kick people into gear to realize that education is an urgent matter.

Q-If you can have state take-overs of failing schools and school districts, why can’t you have federal take-overs of failing states. Then again, would that mean almost every state would be taken over?

Pg. 9-“In the United States today, most students in doctoral and post-doctoral programs in the fields of engineering and mathematics are ‘foreign nations’…if this trend continues, the US could have…a problematic over-reliance on other nations for technical know-how.”
-The prescience of this quote is proven in the Deep Horizon oil disaster. Deep-sea technology is not available in the US, it’s only available in five countries (e.g. China, Russia, Japan) I first heard about this from an official from the U.S. Coast Guard on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, but here’s a link to an online article about technology the US does not have that more advanced countries do: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-real-reason-america-refused-international-help-on-the-oil-spill-2010-6


S-Social Security will not be worth sh—squat. Education is linked to the economy. The economy is linked to Social Security. Therefore by transitive property education is linked to Social Security. If we’re sowing generations of uneducated citizens our economy will reap the costs. Social Security will not be non-exist because of the quantity of baby boomers; Social Security will be non-existent because of the quality of education baby boomers received compared to what we’re offering today.

S-You pay now or you pay. Invest in education now. I guarantee you you’ll be covering more than principal if we postpone this even longer.

S-If this comes back to bite me in the butt 10, 20, 30 years from now or even tomorrow…I don’t care: Socialism=highest democracy. I’m not arguing for complete socialism, some things just don’t need micromanaging. However, I am a proponent of bigger government. Who exactly do I hold accountable when I have problems of this magnitude. Clearly districts, counties, parishes, and states aren’t getting the job done, but whom within those states bears liability? If the Federal government took a larger roll we’d have one place to look instead of many. Besides, people feel like they have more at stake when the Federal government gets involved; the YOU become WE.

Pg. 15-That’s why people bi—h (complain) about No Child Left Behind, it’s not necessarily that the concept (or all of it) is bad, but nothing’s funded. I can’t make something out of nothing.

S-Lawmakers, “movers, and shakers” disassociate themselves and their interests (what’s at stake) from those most hurt.
-Many people who have the “power” to do something on a grand scale block themselves in and others out with an US/THEM mentality. Being human is not enough. It’s quite sad that the root of the word ‘political’ mean people, too many of us forget that.

Pg. 19-What are they doing? I know I’m not the only one with access to these numbers! Check out the Cold War period in these graphs. I’m a history person, I look for tends and patterns and try to find explanations within historical context.

Pg. 26-I wrote about Cold War education in my final semester one history paper.

Pg. 26-What I say on page 15 about NCLB?

Pg. 32-You know why an education amendment just might work in the long run? Who’s bi—ching (wanting to repeal) the Social Security Act—not that many people. Once people realize an education amendment is for the greater good (for them) they’ll buy into it like an inside trader.


At the end of No Time to Lose, current and past court cases are discussed. Although I think power exists in the judicial system and that this is one of the, if the only, first line of offense to redress grievances. However, a judicial order is not the same as a law. This is a nation wide problem. It won’t get solved with a new policy or renewal of energy once every four to eight years. Something, somehow has to make education reform more stable, effective, and sustainable. Our future is at risk.

-Radical.

The Measure of Success

Let me first just start out by saying the Barksdales are amazing people! I would really love to speak about both, but I’m going to focus on Mrs. Barksdale in this one (I think in my next freewriting opportunity I’ll write about Mr. Barksdale since I’ve already started a written reflection on his talk with us).
 
I titled this blog the measure of success because Mrs. Barksdale talk about Connor. Du Bois dedicates an entire chapter of his book The Souls of Black Folk to "the Meaning of Progress." In the chapter Du Bois teaches the children of sharecroppers in the backwoods of Tennessee. He questions what progress would be for these children and these families. Was he really helping them by educating them when they really could use economic not intellectual progress. Since I read that book I've been questioning the meaning of success. Whose meter (or yard) stick do we use to measure it? Is it a formula with a single prescribed outcome? Mrs. Barksdale and Brandon fall right into my line of thought.

Here's my theory: You don't have to go to the best colleges, make the most money, or be the most famous person in the world to be a success. Success is something intangible; it's measured in steps forward.

Connor is not the romanticized poor student born to a crackhead mother and father by DNA alone, who beats the odds to become the best student, graduate for a top college, and goes on to live a lucrative life. Connor's life mimics the reality of the most children born into his situation. Educational advancement of correlates to economic status. Connor never received the early childhood education, consistent teaching excellence, or simply the attention he needed from the school system in Mississippi. Almost without a doubt he would have received these basic rights had he won the genetic lottery and was born to a more affluent family.

However, two people didn't fail Connor. In the fifth grade Connor's teacher assigned Mrs. Barksdale to Connor as a reading coach. Mrs. Barksdale became more than a reading coach to Connor, she became his guardian. It takes someone special to give up a good chunk of their life to help another person's child. It goes completely against everything I studied this past semester in biology class. Then why? Why would she do it? Frankly, I don't know; I didn't ask. I suspect, though, that part of the reason is because it's the right thing to do, and every child deserves a chance.

The other person who didn't fail Connor is himself. Just as there is the cliche story of "success", there's the more common story of the cycle. Connor worked, and continues to work, for what he gets. Every step forward is taken with his own feet and every brick torn down is with his own hands. He holds a steady job, treats others kindly, and works voraciously to stay on track in school. The cycle of immobility is just too common where poverty and ignorance spiral into a quagmire nearly too overwhelming to overcome.

What is the measure of success? In Connor's case it's not becoming one more number, one more statistic, one more person withdrawing from life and depositing nothing into it. There is no standard of success; it's entirely individual. America celebrates rags to riches stories, but they are not that common. Therefore, we can't forget to celebrate the stories of progress, of moving forward, no matter how great or small for those too are measures of success.

-Radical

A Portrait of Mississippi

This blog about my experiences so far is not through the lens of food or through pictures. It's through numbers.

The other evening I read the Human Development (HD) Report ("A Portrait of Mississippi) that presented the HD index numbers for Mississippi. The report related Mississippi to other states and the United States in general. It also, hypothetically, made Mississippi a state and compared to nations around the world. In addition to comparisons, the report breaks down the HD index number of populations (black female, white male, black male, white female) in the state and in the state counties.

I've been in Mississippi for two and a half weeks. I didn't need the report to tell me that Mississippi was in bad shape. My parents come from a poor part of Louisiana, and I live in South Carolina. The South as a whole is behind the curve, but the mid-South in particular (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas) lags behind.

A significant factor that contributes to Mississippi’s backwardness is its legacy of racism and classism towards blacks and poor whites. Both of these scopes act as the foreboding miner’s canary of the problems in Mississippi.

Health:

Infant mortality and life span act as the two best indicators of health. In my experience so far, I can't tell from looking around me what the rates are for either (however I can see, sadly, expanded waistlines) but the index numbers open my eyes wide and clear. The infant mortality rate in Alcorn-Prentiss for non-whites is 18.8/1000 births. 18.8! That’s more than Libya and Thailand. Clearly there are still some Third World places in this First World country. This infant mortality rate absolutely appalls and befuddles me. How can this be happening in the United States of America? It crossed between if most people in the United States remain in the dark over the issue or do most people just not care? I’m going to err on the side of the former, but I know full well much of the latter exists.

The average life span in Mississippi (not taking into account the differences between races and classes) hovers around 75 years in comparison to the nationwide average of about 79 years. That may not seem not that bad, but when you take into account the quality of the life (in terms of health) the difference is disparaging. Think about 79 years with fairly regular doctor visits and death of natural causes versus 74 years without medical treatment and death of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). Not that bad doesn’t mean that good.

Education:

Education. You really can’t speak enough of the importance of it in the 21st century, the power of it in the 21st century, and the lack of in Mississippi the 21st century. Mississippi lies at the bottom of education rankings in both quality of education and the quantity its citizens have. Across the board whites are less likely to drop out of high school and more like to get a higher education degree than blacks. In terms of gender, white females are more likely than males to have a high school diploma, but the numbers make an abrupt reverse in higher education degrees. Conversely, black women are more likely to have degree at every level than black men.

At the University of Mississippi (and really all over the United States; once again, Mississippi is a canary) blacks just seem to “disappear” during the academic year because of their small numbers in comparison to white students (MTC staff member). The University of Mississippi does not reflect the white-black ratio in Mississippi as a whole. In a state where the white-black ratio is 60:40, the Flagship University is closer to 75:25. I haven’t yet heard, but it wouldn’t surprise me if most of the black students on campus were female. It’s a trend I’ve noticed even at Amherst, and have heard countless complaints about from black women in college.

I’ve been writing about higher education, but the real struggle is in the primary and secondary school. Maybe you can chalk up the ratio at the University of Mississippi to black students going to different schools in state or out-of-state all together, but there’s no where for primary and secondary children to go and it shows. In primary and secondary school poor whites are almost as bad off as blacks, period. In this case, class presents the issue. Almost without a doubt, a poor parent(s) does not provide the same educational opportunity for their child that a rich parent does. This is not to cast all impoverished parents in a bad light as if they were all dead beats. The fact is, even if an impoverished parent did everything they could to make their child “succeed”, poor parents just don't have the resources more affluent parents do. Resources include more than just dollars. Time to devote to staying home in the first few months or years, access to day care providers that have an appropriate academic curriculum, and a broader vocabulary and life experience. These resources you can’t buy, and often poor parents can’t provide.

I don’t mean to be judgmental, but you can tell. You can tell which children had those critical resources provided in the early years and still have them now. I could definitely tell at in my Third grade classroom in South Carolina and I can tell at Holly Springs Summer School.


Poverty:

Education disparities directly correlate to income and opportunity disparities and exist on race, class, and gender lines. In a depressing cocktail of all three, poor black women bear the brunt. Black women in Mississippi, on average, earn less than the typical American in 1960 (A portrait of Mississippi). Wait, what? Black female Mississippians plod 50 years behind America. In the words of Marvin Gaye, “What’s Goin’ On?”

One level up, blacks as a whole in Mississippi, still fare terribly. The worst off whites in Mississippi make nearly as much as the best off blacks. I was so shocked when I heard this. Firstly, the “best” income is barely an income at all, regardless of race. Secondly, difference between the income between blacks and whites harkens back to pre-and during the Civil Rights Movement when blacks and whites who held the same job titles earned drastically different wages and salaries. What does say to people? I know what it says to me; even at my best I’m no better than your worst. How the hell can you pull yourself up from your bootstraps when they’re glued to the ground?

Problem, problem, all these problems, how can we fix them? They seem too overwhelming. The cliché line is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” The personal line is, “generations of injustice in Mississippi begin to end with one person. There is no panacea, there is only us.” The people in my next blog are the beginning of the end.

Mission and Culture...They're so much more than objectives

Here’s an excerpt from my journal. To put the excerpt in context, consider the bolded sentences the topic.

Talk about the mission of the organization. Is it a big part of the culture?

If you look on the Mississippi Teacher Corps (MTC) website the closest category to “Mission Statement” is “Objectives. What’s listed under “Objectives” is:

1. To provide dedicated, talented teachers for critical-needs school districts in Mississippi.
2. To afford a structured entry into the teaching profession for outstanding liberal arts graduates who have never before taught.
3. To identify and nurture educational leaders in the 21st century.

The objects on the website do not do the mission of MTC service. Simply, the objectives are inadequate for the scope, power, influence, and necessity of this program. I’ve been here only a week and have heard countless times; “Mississippi is last in anything good and the first in anything bad.” Frankly, it’s not too far off target and education in Mississippi is no exception.

In an in-person conversation Representative Cecil Brown, Chair of the Education Committee in the Mississippi House of Representatives, laid out just some of the challenges to adequate education in Mississippi to put the problem in perspective. Poverty, race, prejudices, dropout rates, teen pregnancy, health care, and teacher shortage present just some of the issues plaguing the state education system. The Mississippi Teacher Corps can’t tackle all the problems, but they try to alleviate what they can by placing top-notch teachers in critical…CRITICAL…needs areas.

MTC is the most selective teaching program in the nations. I’ve filed paperwork for first year teachers from institutions such as Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, University of Mississippi, Millsaps College, Rhodes College, and (the best of all) AMHERST COLLEGE!!!! These teachers receive intensive training throughout the summer to prepare them for teaching during the school year. Also during the summer, they teach summer school and being classes for their M.A. in education from the University of Mississippi.

The teachers/grad students in this program are not only the best of the best academically, they also exhibit a level of social awareness and are that many others lack. Teachers must have socially and racially conscious minds. Critical needs doesn’t just describe the areas where a teacher shortage exists, it also describes at risk children; it describes a place where one decision is the difference between perpetuating a cycle and breaking free.

Awareness and care make up a big part of the culture. Yes, on campus teachers and interns interact with each other lightheartedly, but in the classroom students don’t need that type of interaction. I’ve spoken with a number of current and former MTC teachers; they prescribe a recipe of tough love, “Care about the students, not what they think about you.” Teacher in Mississippi public schools deal with issues that make the fodder for movies. Rape, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, neglect, malnutrition, and a host of other problems converge on school grounds and often students look to the best teachers to help solve their problems. Because MTC selects people who exhibit a high level of consciousness and care, their teachers are often the ones students turn to.

You won’t find a bad person in this group; they just wouldn’t be here. Success in MTC requires a person to think of others, not themselves. It also requires optimism that things can and will get better. MTC builds these qualities more than anything into their culture, and it shows well.

-Radical.

Surprise Surprise

Without a doubt, my second week in Mississippi was much more demanding than my first week, in terms of admin work at least. If I had to title week two it would be: Reality Check. I think I got a little caught up being chauffeured around to speakers, taking killer notes, and discussing the issues (not actually doing the nitty-gritty work involved in alleviating the issues). However, like most interns I’m also here to get the little jobs done that contribute to a successful big job.

This week Betsy (the other Amherst intern) and I collected, filed, scanned, and copied documents from the first-year teachers. On Sunday we sat in on a staff meeting (my first staff meeting!). We also began preliminary planning for our oral history project. Honestly, no one told me this internship was going to be so much work. Past interns only informed me of the great speakers, fun day trips, and the “chill” bossman. I’m not mad though, I’m gaining skills that I’ll probably be able to use later in life ☺. Besides, I know how great an internship program I’m in. I’ve already begun to hear horror stories from friends about their summers. Eeek!

Anyway, what has surprised me? MMM…how about the volume of work that we’re going to get done this summer. I know, I know, I’m not complaining, just belaboring the point….lol. What really surprised me is the reality check that first-year teachers get. Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know; I think coming into the program people have these fairy tale ideas of themselves being that teacher who comes in (some resistance from students in the beginning, but it’s all good after a couple of weeks) and inspires their students to strive for something more than the lives they see outside their barred windows. All the students succeed.

That in most cases is fiction. Fact: Most teachers aren’t that teacher and the overwhelming majority of “those” students go from looking outside the window to being on the other side of it, nostalgically looking in.

The First-years began academic classes and initiation into the reality of race in Mississippi. The others and I enjoyed watching the Daisy Pictures documentaries, even though I know the films were just the tip of the iceberg (The movies were filmed in Oxford, MS on a University campus. In Mississippi that’s a fairly progressive location).

The teachers have to go through a lot more than I expected. Can you imagine teaching full time, coaching, having students come to you with out-of-this-world problems and staying on top of your studies? Geeze Louise. I hope at summer school I get the opportunity to see the first-years, second-years and MTC alumni in action in the classroom. Every week I’m realizing more and more how much of a commitment MTC (and teaching) is. Forget the facts, I hope each and every one of these teachers is that teacher.

-Radical.

A Reflection from Within

My favorite part of the speaker series in the first few days was listening to Melissa Cole, Jr. Garth, and Torsheta Bownes. Why? Because it was real. Real in a different way than I described how I felt about Brown v. Board…Let me explain what I mean. You know how you see those feel good movies of teachers going up against insurmountable odds and students succeeding beyond all doubt? That’s what meeting them was like. The only difference is the true story doesn’t begin with the teachers entering the picture and there’s an endless supply of students. Like the previous post, I’d rather break down the speakers into parts and discuss what I got from each.

Melissa Cole:
Melissa is a recent grad (a.k.a she’s been an alumna for a matter of weeks) from the University of Mississippi. I don’t think you can get a more fresh perspective on the University than this. Amherst (save the invention of biological warfare by our namesake) doesn’t have the racial history of UM. The first black student at Amherst was Edward Jones in 1822. The first black student at UM was James Meredith in 1962, 140 years later. As you can imagine, the foundations of the University still tremble with aftershock. That’s why I think Melissa is courageous. It hurts to talk about race when most people want to sweep issues under the rug or bring it to the forefront and make it a marker for prejudice. I realize the courage that it takes for her to make the University her home too. Melissa, in the documentary The South Will Rise Again and in person, made me realize that we still have a long way to go until we’ve reached racial reconciliation.

Torsheta Bowens and Jr. Garth:
I don’t think…Scratch that, before Friday night I had never met a teacher that openly said “I hit my kids.” But I have also rarely met teachers who seem to care so much for their students, their kids. I think Torsheta more than Jr. seems like a “don’t start none, won’t be none” teacher. I’m not going to lie, if I had her as a teacher I would be intimidated. But when she said, “They know. They know if you care,” I knew she did care. Along the same lines, when Jr. said, “You have to care about them, but not care what they think about you,” I got the same feeling.

In my previous blog when I talked about home-grown talent from the community, Torsheta and Jr. are examples of this talent. Both are from Mississippi. I can’t believe someone would think, let alone say, Teacher Corps teachers from out of state are needed because Mississippians are unable to educate themselves. Students should be able to see people like them, people who come from the community, succeed. The people who go down and bring them up should be able to come from their community, and they can. I know sometimes you need a fresh pair of eyes and perspectives, but that doesn’t mean people who are in the fish bowl are invalid. If anything, they have more at stake.

Melissa, Torsheta, and Jr. make me question what I can do in Amherst. I have an idea of what I could do in South Carolina, but for the past year I’ve been wondering what the heck I could do for community service in Amherst. I wasn’t sure if I just wanted to tutor students, or be a big sister for one day a week. Those are both honorable and I wouldn’t have a problem doing either, but I just wonder, something else (I don't what) makes me wonder.

-Radical

The First Few Days

My first few days in Mississippi really haven’t been spent much in the present. Let me explain what I mean. Learning about the state of Mississippi now has required me to learn about the history of the state, “a journey into Mississippi’s dark past”. (Eubanks) Before I crossed the state line my mind was caught dancing between the horrific history that frequents textbooks and older generation conversations about Mississippi and a blissfully ignorant “How bad could it be? We’re in the 21st century?” frame of mind. Now, I’m starting to know better, but I think I can explain my walk more intelligibly through what I learned (and am learning) from the speaker series:


Day 1: Mississippi Innocence Project

The official mission of the Mississippi Innocence Project is: “ providing the highest quality legal representation to its clients: Mississippi state prisoners serving significant periods of incarceration who have cognizable claims of wrongful conviction. In addition, the Project seeks to identify and address systemic problems in the criminal justice system and to develop initiatives designed to raise public and political awareness of the prevalence, causes and societal costs of wrongful convictions” (MIP website). Long mission statement short—justice. I absolutely love hearing from people who are passionate about what they do. Tucker Carrington, Director of the Mississippi Innocence Project, is not exception. Something he said Thursday I think will stick with me for a long time. “We have civil rights violations here” (Carrington)… America is supposed to be so great, land of the free and home of the brave. From sea to shining sea anyone fulfill the American Dream if they just work hard enough. Oh! Did I forget to mention this happily ever after doesn’t work in just the same way if you are a minority? I did didn’t I? But wait, there’s more! You’ve hit the jackpot of injustice if you’re black in the rural crevices of the Magnolia State.

Whoever makes the rules of the game will win. Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer were pawns in a criminal justice system and racist and classist society designed to keep them in line, out of sight, and under the white man. Yeah, I said it. How can we focus so hard on the problems in other nations when we have problems on our own land? This isn’t an argument for isolation from or apathy of worldly affairs. This is an argument to do the right thing for our own injustices. Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer didn't need DNA to exonerate them; they needed a defense. The Mississippi Innocence Project provided that civil liberty. Plain and simple. The message I received from this talk:

SWEEP AROUND OUR OWN FRONT PORCH. (Darn it! J)

Day 2: Brown v. Board, Education in Mississippi, and The Murder of Emmet Till

Morning:
Professor Winkle, Professor Winkle, another one of the passionate good guys. This Supreme Court case has never seemed more interesting and relevant. There’s nothing like actually reading the decision, not quoting it—“separate is inherently unequal…with all deliberate speed”—not citing from it (in this case and that), but actually reading the language of the landmark. Don’t get me wrong. The decision has always meant something to me. There’s a great possibility I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if Mr. Marshall, Mr. Houston, and honorable families who fought on the side of justice did not win the case. However, to understand the decision is something more, something…intangible.

Early Afternoon:
Representative Cecil Brown…standing up against the idiots. “What are your credentials?” People get asked this all the time. Unfortunately I think many politicians fail to complete the first criterion—actually care about the people who are affected by their committee! Representative Brown passes with flying colours. In the meeting Rep. Brown was clear and concise. There’s no BSing with this man. His attitude and approach to education seem like what this state needs. He recognizes the many challenges to providing adequate education and he doesn’t make excuses for them. Moreover, he works to overcome these challenges.
I just want to add a side note. The meeting was the first time I heard about The Ovarian Lottery. Isn’t that a kicker? Take it as you will, but it somehow it feels good to hear privileged people like Warren Buffet to say something like that, to acknowledge that. It feels good, and makes me think.

Late Afternoon:
Jerry Mitchell. His name is so plain. His actions are so great. But he’s so down to Earth! If you ever want to meet a real Cool Cat, go find Jerry Mitchell. Now, for a red-headed journalist from Texasarkana you might have to look in some pretty unorthodox places. Mr. Mitchell can be found anywhere from buried in Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files to consoling a four decade widow to interviewing an unapologetic KKK member. Anywhere you look though, you can find him seeking justice. What I think makes Jerry so cool is that he’s doing what he does for something bigger, and he carries a light heart. The person imagined in Out of the Past and the person I met at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger almost seem to be at odd, polar opposites. It’s like he’s gravel and silt, strait from the fruit and pulp-free…how can that be? I don’t want to question it, and I don’t intend to try and fashion an answer for it. I’ll just let it be what it is. Oh…so…cool.
Evening:
See the next blog for what we did in the evening. :)
Day 3: Father Dall and the Ward
Speaking of “something bigger” (I’m sure by now you know I was making an allusion to God. If you didn’t then just keep it to yourself). I want to speak about Father Lincoln Dall. I’ve met more Priests than you can count on two hands, and been in about the same number of churches, but Father Dall is the first Father I’ve met that has built a Parish in, and of, the community, including with those who are still a little wet behind the ears. Meeting Father Dall gave me a new perspective on community. Up until talking with Father Dall it seemed like great ideas (even, to a certain extent, people) had to be imported. That’s not true, not true at all. Father Dall’s parishioners are the ones who are supporting each other in times of need, thinking of creative ways to strengthen their faith, and improving their lives. These people didn’t come from elite Northern institutions; they came, and continue to come, from local stock. People from the community are the cream of the crop for improvement.

Later that day we met with Ward Schafer, a (dare I type it) Wi-Wi-Wi-Williams (blagh) graduate and Teacher Corp alumnus. Ward is like the younger version of Jerry Mitchell; he has the chill factor down pat. It was nice getting a perspective from an educational journalist. I also think it's neat how he is able to stay connected with education even though he’s not teaching students in the classroom anymore. That being said, he’s just as important in lending his voice in improving education in Mississippi.


So, those were my first few days. I don’t want to BS you so I will keep it short. I learned a lot, debunked some myths, and confirmed some others. I can’t wait to see what June and July have in store. I’m sure the impact will be for longer than two months.

-Radical