Patience is No Longer a Virtue

The drama in this little city is astonishing. We have the torment of the Board of Education to watch helplessly.  We have the Brown Administration ducking, dodging and fudging numbers everywhere while all the grandstanders, gardeners, gangsters, gamblers and glamour queens work hard to be the next headline.  The McKinley Mess once again rears it's ugly head, the beast of all school stories this year refuses to go away.  Neither does the arrogance of some of the powerful people in Buffalo.  With no regard for the sense of community, no regard for the welfare of children who watch every move we make, no regard for the public demand for someone to pay a price for all the wheeling, dealing, swindling and lying.  All the public wants is for something good to happen in Buffalo, something we can be proud of, something that makes us unify as a community.  The problem is it seems most of the people involved in developing our community, that have the power to make real change and set the tone for many effortlessly disregard this responsibility.  It's not just a shame, it is frightening.  Time to wake up people.  Time to stand together for the change we deserve and demand.  Time for picketing, time for patience to be forgotten and prices to be paid.  It's time.

The Times They Are A Changing

Yesterday, James A. Williams was heard speaking for the first time making sense. He was answering the awful graduation rate in Buffalo Schools, and stated that structures needed to change and there needed to be "other paths" provided for "youngsters" to have success in school. He was saying the system as it stands now doesn't work and we are failing our kids by not providing alternative routes of assessment and ways for them to make it through high school without the institutionalized testing that has been cemented by the Bush Administration. For the first time, our Superintendent sounded in touch with the reality on the ground. A eureka moment for all. It's not certain if he actually believes this or is prepping his mantra for the incoming Democratic agenda surely about to abolish No Child Left Behind and open options for assessment throughout the nation. One can be certain that Williams is politically savvy if nothing else. His language will change to adapt to the new educational ideology on the horizon. Call him a chameleon, politician or salesman. At times, he is all three. Interestingly the New York Times Magazine section has a lengthy story examining the Recovery School District trials and tribulations in New Orleans, LA since the horrible hurricane hit. This has been an experimental situation where charter schools have become the answer filled with new kids out of college teaching with a Peace Corps type spirit, to save the poor, many of whom have been recruited through Teach for America. The article is excellent, covering both sides of the issue, discussing the intense social problems that plague the poor and the smashing of stereotypical old school thinking by starting anew, starting an experiment and learning through experience in the large school district suffering from post traumatic stress from the disaster that changed America forever. The old hierarchical management has been dismantled giving more power to Principals and individual schools to decide what programming they need and what works best for their school individually. There are not mandates from above, instead creative, fruitful ideas are rewarded and replicated. Ideas that don't work are abandoned, period. It is exciting and interesting to watch a transformation in process in a large public district that suffers from some of the worst poverty statistics in the nation. It makes the argument for Charter Schools, that they work better than the old formula. I would beg to differ arguing that charters can be a integral part of the educational system, however all academic performance should be focused in the public schools with Central Office backing off and letting Principals make more decisions about what their populations of kids need. Either way, we are playing catch up in this country. New Orleans has been fertile ground to experiment with the charter idea, it will be interesting to watch how privatization on a broad scale does or doesn't add up.  Let's hope it doesn't become one big free for all pushing money and profit instead of inquiry and quality education.  As the USA trails far behind key European countries, never mind China and Japan. Our kids still think they are the best and brightest, when are we going to break the news to them that they aren't?

The Ship is SInking

I just got my hands on Jonathan Kozol's book Shame of the Nation.  The subtitle reads: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.  Another book is Many Children Left Behind, by Deborah Meier, et al.  It summarily states that No Child Left Behind helps further the agenda of privatization and an attack on public schools and how the focus only on testing dumbs down the classroom.  Funny how in big urban high schools in Buffalo, these two books are not the required reading.  Instead Administrators (and next year teachers) have to read the embattled Superintendent Rudy Crew's book Only Connect: The Way to Save Our Schools, and We Can't Teach What We Don't Know, by Gary R. Howard which argues white teachers can't effectively teach urban black children due to inherent privilege.  Seems like we should be looking more at the problems explored by Kozol's outrage instead of setting up more useless workshops on how to think black. There is no difference the way kids think when they are engaged.  Kids, when involved and guards are down, think together, they think of each other, not themselves.  They think aloud about things that bother them. For faculty to be focused  on differences will help no one. We can't change skin color but we can change what a kid thinks. Problem is, the Republican Agenda does not promote or foster any real thinking. Solving the race problem lies within the simplicity kids being friends who hang out together at each other's house and ask each other what they think about things. If people stopped focusing on difference and getting dissed we could move forward. We need to think in terms of the future of this country. It lies solely in the ability of our children to be friends. Eight years of the Bush administration has in effect reversed Brown vs. The Board of Education decision from fifty years ago.  Segregation is at its highest since 1968.  Is it just a coincidence that one of the most racist, right-white neocon Presidents and his cronies are at the helm during this poignant point in history, or is it just me again?  There certainly does appear to be a clear agenda to keep the poor not only locked within the grips of generational poverty, but to keep them stupid as well.  First, second and third ring suburbs around the City of Buffalo seem so out of touch with the disparity between the public schools that it's frightening.  Is this another part of the agenda?  To isolate and disconnect us from each other?  More and more headlines are reporting percentages in the 90% rate of students achieving Regents Diplomas in the surrounding suburbs, most recently Alden.  Even though Buffalo Schools is spending per pupil an agreed rate that is acceptable, if not high, it brings us to where the root of the problem lies.  It isn't about money, Buffalo Schools are overrun with money.  The sad part is they pay teachers a joke of a salary (compared to all the wasteful spending practiced as protocol) and have nothing in place to support young teachers up against the odds in public schools, never mind support systems established for the children that are desperately needed like triage units.  Urban school systems behave almost as if teachers are in the way, or a part of the problem instead of an integral part of the solutions they are supposedly seeking.  It doesn't appear they are seeking any common ground with professional teachers, instead they treat us as hostile witnesses to their crimes.  Outsourcing our public education woes sounds great but is destined to fail.  There is no long term research showing Charter Schools really do any better than the public schools.  Why this country does not wake up and realize we are creating millions of unskilled, angry, confused young adults from our failing schools is a crime.  Talk about the head in the sand policies.  Charter schooling has merit, however it needs to be tailored to those who are not going to pass these institutionalized testing practices which Kozol calls "pathological and punitive".  Charters should be the renewed vision of the vocation school where America is once again at the top of the trades and in building.  Charters should be sponsored by unions across the country instilling pride and membership in not only a Union, but as part of the family, community and most importantly this Great Nation.  Outsource Special Education, that's where all the money is.  It's rumored Buffalo Public Schools rakes in somewhere in the neighborhood of $12 million dollars a year from Medicaid alone.  The Federal Government should provide for the disabled.  That's what good governments do for its people, they take care of them when they can't for themselves. That's what a community is all about.  Academic rigor and excellence should be left intact within the public education realm where teachers are not expected to be Warden, Social Worker, Parent, Police Officer and Psychiatrist.  If kids were tracked out into trade schools, the public classroom would be open to those other millions of kids most often forgotten about, the good ones who really want to learn and enjoy it.  But that would make sense putting the booming prison business into a halt and the blame game in Washington turned on its heels.  Time to wake up people.  If we don't change something and fast, we are the Titanic going down fast while the violins play.

Battle Cry

The State of New York sets up summer school testing so high school students are taking up to 4 exams in a day.  One kid was taking 3 from 12:30 until 8:45 this evening.  The State "Officials" know by scheduling the exams like this there will be kids stuck taking multiple exams in the one day they have allotted.  Doesn't sound very smart, almost like they are setting these kids up to fail.  Almost like No Child Left Behind changed the drop out rule where you can still drop out at 16 but you can't enroll in GED classes until you are 17.  Hmm, sounds like a lot of kids were left behind with that one.  High Schools used to be able to track their drop out kids and get credit for the kid at least obtaining the GED, and not count as a failure against the school.  Bush and the infinite wisdom of the conservative think tanks thought dumping the kid into limbo for a year was a good idea.  Sounds like another way to set the poor kid up for failure if you ask me.  We sit around and stomp our feet like children, whining about unions and teacher's pay, but we are, as a notion not even close to being as aware of the real issues as we all should be.  But then again, it's usually always poor kids who are effected so who cares anyway?  The insidious agenda of the elite is ruining this country.  We have bred generations of sociopaths. If we don't wake up, and fast, our country will nose dive into the point of no return.  Or is that the mission of the conservatives?  Do we have it all wrong?  Imagine if George W. Bush was in charge of writing the Bill of Rights?  What would it say?  They don't really want all those poor colored people voting do they?  They really don't have a vested interest in all the poor of this country reading and being involved in the democratic process, do they?  You be the judge.  You look around, you tell me if you think the poor in this country have a fighting chance at making it these days.  Once in a gymnasium a kid was playing ball and $4,000 in cash fell out of his sock.  How do you argue with that kid?  How do you tell him it's important to stay in school?  He laughs.  Character education is non-existent, except in the daily battles each and every good teacher engages in.  A good teacher tries, but what can we really do except talk to the kids?  Give advice, try to put yourself in their shoes?  Some of the teachers I know can't even imagine what our kids are going through.  Daily brutal violence, paranoia, drug addicted parents, poverty and death in the neighborhoods all are not out of the ordinary in schools where the population is poor.  The lack of concern from our leadership in this country is astounding and it's created an epidemic.  Time to wake up people, it's about to knock on your front door.

Dream a Little Dream For Me.

Dale Volker's commercial of him walking around a picnic and shaking hands ending with the statement that he will "make you feel better" is so insulting that it makes the educated person want to head for state lines.  Is this like when we invaded Iraq the first time and George Sr. got on the 7 p.m. news and made us all "feel better" about the prime time war?  What kind of commercial has Volker put together here?  He doesn't make anyone feel better, in fact he is quite frightening in his callousness, his icy demeanor and his gritting of teeth when asked the tough questions like he's going to blow a gasket.  He strikes me as the kind of guy that's going to keel over any moment from a stroke or heart attack.  He seems bothered by public questioning, by people in general.  What is his commercial supposed to tell us?  Are the Republicans out to make us feel better about things? Is that some kind of giant inside joke? Is this like George W. recently making statements that he thinks the economy is strong and has a good foundation?  This is all propaganda to make us stop asking questions, stop thinking about our future and stop the call for accountability from our leadership.  We don't want to feel better, we want answers.  We want to know why we are struggling and no one seems too concerned about it.   Living in the second highest taxed state people are on the brink of mutiny.  Cities like Buffalo are dead, only on the upswing because real estate is still affordable.  It is one of the last bastions of affordability because of it's dead label.  This soon will pass as well.  Developers are buying and land banking properties.  Buildings sit idle with for sale signs in dirty windows for years, they aren't really for sale they are being kept for future profit.  Guys like Sam Hoyt, career politicians who make their living sniffing out the camera and not much else, have done nothing to move this city forward.  It seems the few rich families that have ruled Buffalo for years will continue to do so.  They are happy with the status quo.  These are the only constituents the politicians pay attention to.  These are the people with too much money. Jimmy Griffin ruled for years, under the guise of fighting for the little guy, through fear and apartheid style politics which successfully divided this city right down the middle. It was all fake.  They all walked away with pockets full of taxpayer's dollars.  Mistakes for which we still pay dearly for. He gave Democrats a bad name forever in this town.  Corruption, cronyism and campy chat made any educated person want to vomit. His practiced racism and absolute disregard for people of color was not only insulting, it was devastating to this city now  tries to play catch up in 21st century thinking.  It's no surprise that what goes around comes around in his rumored battle with the brain eating disease that killed him.  Not surprising as well is the blue collar mentality that he was a man of the people, who made us all feel better by telling us to go get a six pack and forget about it.  Please.  That doesn't make anyone feel better, in fact it is dismissive and demeaning.  I suppose when politicians talk down to us as if we are children it is assumed it will make us feel better, stop us from questioning their criminal behaviors and their dismissal of our intelligence.  Just like the folks in Washington D.C. don't listen to the people, it has trickled down to local politics where that has now become standard protocol.  Who cares what the constituents say, who cares what they want and who cares if we don't answer them.  A microcosm of this is the Buffalo City Schools.  Parents and people from all walks of life packed into those Board of Education Meetings time after time, demanding heads roll.  What has happened?  Absolutely nothing.  They made a scapegoat out of a Human Resources Director who was not responsible for what they pinned her for.  Something is seriously wrong here, not just in Buffalo but nationally.  We have become so accustomed to being bullied by fear and intimidation tactics that we surrender to the machine by just complaining and feeling so overwhelmed that it renders us impotent.  The facts are that this country is in big trouble.  No one is sounding the alarm in our leadership positions that has the power to motivate and empower the people of this nation.  There seems to be a powerful agenda at work, keeping the poor stupid and keeping the middle and upper classes programmed in a matrix system that keeps us all disconnected and isolated.  Racism will see a resurgence, hatred will surface in ugly ways matriculating down through the system in increased crime and violence everywhere.  People are discontented.  We don't want to feel better and talk to someone like Dale Volker at a picnic.  What we want is accountability, an end to lies and fabrications and to be taken into account when decisions are made.  Keep dreaming. 

Brace Yourself

The facts are that this country is headed over a cliff. Some thoughtful ideas on the future of this country include the toxic secular society and the brainwashing techniques employed by facets of our culture in our media, education and religion.  Hurting, broken young people are the targets. The occupation in Iraq has become the biggest problem of their future and they don't even understand what happened.  The story that we went there to get our hands on Weapons of Mass Destruction doesn't float, we know now this was all truncated lies.  We remain because we made a mistake? We remain because oil companies are there setting up for the heist of the century and now there's nothing we can do to stop it.  At least in VietNam we had line in the sand at the 38th parallel.  Here we have nothing but a fiasco that will have lasting effects on future generations all over the globe. Selfishly we sit by, not really knowing what to do, if we even care.  Some of us put magnets on our car.  The small silent protest that has been occurring at Buffalo's Bidwell intersection is cute, but lacks any punch to raise any kind of real awareness. I like the veterans who go the Thursday in the Square and try to talk the kids out of joining the military and call recruiters liars.  They always get a nice, interactive group listening and talking about issues.  Other than that, there isn't much going on.  We shop, sit at our computers, complain about gas prices hoping they will magically fall and get back to our busy lives where we basically do nothing except work and pay bills.  We are programmed to shut up and take it.  If we are, imagine the next generation of nit wits coming up the ranks.  Our only hope that they have not lost hope, that somehow wave of anger among our young will develop that is no longer turned inward but outward at the culprits who stole their futures. Wouldn't it be so exciting to see mass protests, revolutionary thinking and debate on the news instead of what some celebrity is doing or who slept with who? Where are we headed?  We are so distracted by nonsense that the big issues keep growing while we are looking away at the tube.  We finally turn around and now these problems are screaming in our face, like monsters.  What are we going to do?  How are we going to change the shift in the apathy and arrogance our youth show?  They don't understand what has happened, they don't know the truth behind what is going on and aren't privy to any information about their future. They are rendered helpless.  They are pissed.  Teachers push college.  Kids ask for what?  What is the answer?  For what is right.  There is no pride left in trades, education or ownership.  That dwindling population has hiked it to the suburbs and want to dig a mote around their house.  Where are the foundations of integrity, truth and kindness? Where are these things that make us whole? Where they used to be, there is just a big hole just like where those twin towers once stood.  Now there is just a big hole. That's where our integrity as a nation once stood.  Now it is gone.

You've Got Class

With the coming school year upon us it's time to revisit the public education problem.  Schools "under review" (SURR), schools "in need of improvement", (SINI) are terms you hear in Buffalo Schools that summarily mean the schools are failing and intervention is needed.  The tactics used to intervene are put in place yet fail to address any long term issues. The list is short of schools that actually improve enough to get off those dreaded lists.  It seems the more problematic public education becomes, the less people in leadership roles are making decisions grounded in reality. Do charter schools work?  Yes. Why?  They are allowed to remove those troublemaker kids from the school, shuttled right back to the front steps of the public high school in the area. Simple. What can the public high school do? Nothing.  They don't have anywhere to send the delinquent kid who is dumped back onto their doorstep.  There are no intervention programs, punishments in place or alternative judgement options for kid's behavior problems.  Not so simple.  Kids break rules, they get detention or are suspended and the behavior can't be "fixed", so the kid continues on the treadmill of in and out of school. The problem is not a few bad kids, but a lot of bad kids put together makes for an impossible situation. This is where the good kids go bad, where they are influenced, where they give in and give up by making bad decisions that ruin their futures. Expectations are lowered, standards are driven down as educators aim for the middle, and discipline is not supported by the downtown administration.  In many cases, public schools are undermined by the very people expecting these kids to be held accountable out of a cowardice of parental retaliation and petty litigation.  The problems in public education are not inherent of the education system.  The problems public education faces are inherited from decades of terrible social programs, The Republican Agenda and a disparity between the classes that is unprecedented in modern times, (unless you compare us to a third world nation).  Black kids are suffering now more than ever.  Poor kids are suffering, no matter what color they are.  It is more a class issue rather than race.  Just so happens public schools are full of poor who happen to be Black.  The epidemic of failing schools across the nation has gone unnoticed and is a sleeping giant.  It is the next nation crisis affect each American, even the ones in gated communities, in denial. No Child Left Behind is a smoke and mirrors failure.  Eight years later the realization of this damaging public education mandate is starting to rear its head.  The looming recession and millions of uneducated, poor citizens has reduced our capacity as a nation to recover from the damage done by the Republicans.  The idea that everyone has an equal chance in this country is a hoax put in place so we can shrug our shoulders and say, well "they brought it upon themselves, so there".  Get ready folks, it's about to bring something to all of us we aren't expecting.