Part Two: The Importance of the Enduring Relationship and Going Where They Are
In terms of my interaction with Damon Preston's family on this particular day suggesting in microcosm key programmatic features of the New Salem Educational Initiative, there was first of all the matter of my route to Damon's’s residence. Readers of Just Another Day at the
Office know that Damon comes from a family that has faced significant challenges relevant to psychological health and residential stability. In the early autumn of 2012, Damon’s mom, Evelyn Patterson, was working through a number of personal issues and had decided to sever a relationship that she had maintained for several years with Marcel Gifford, who had effectively been serving as Damon’s (very attentive) stepfather. Evelyn moved suddenly in late September 2012 without telling Marcel where she was going. I resolved to track her down.
When students enter the New Salem Educational Initiative, I communicate to them that they and their families will be building a relationship with me that is enduring. Typically, parents of my students let me know when their telephone numbers and residences undergo a (frequent) alteration. Evelyn, though, had made her most recent change with such suddenness that even my weekly appearances and forensic sensibilities had been unable to keep up with the shift.
But a week into October, Evelyn called me to let me know where she was staying, with the request that I not tell Marcel. Although I like Marcel and thought that on balance he was good for Evelyn, I abided by her request and started picking Damon up at the new apartment address in far South Minneapolis. The first two residences at which I had picked up Damon (one off Glenwood Avenue on Newton Avenue North, the other just off Olson Highway) had been on my most favored stomping grounds--- North Minneapolis.
Damon’s academic situation suffered for a while amidst the familial challenges, but in the course of the 2012-2013 academic year his math and reading skill levels stabilized once again as he remained absolutely dedicated to his studies with me as the most firmly constant and joyful experience in his life.
At the end of that academic year, Stacey told me ruefully that she was going to have to move again. Her rent, though covered largely by Section 8, had become too costly for her. The most decent inexpensive apartment that she had been able to find was in St. Paul, just northeast of downtown, northward a bit on I-35E. Stacey was greatly relieved when I affirmed that, if this was where I would find Damon, then that is where I would be.
So it was that on Tuesday, 13 August 2013, I set off for an eastern extremity of St. Paul. I preferably connect with students residentially situated in North Minneapolis. But the relationship is permanent. If they move, I continue to connect with them wherever they are. And, while I prefer to hold academic sessions at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in North Minneapolis, if I go as far afield as the eastern neighborhoods of St. Paul, I find other places to teach my students: the student’s home, a library, a quiet corner of a fast food restaurant; or, as on this given day with Damon, sometimes we pull up to a table in a park or playground.
Damon’s current apartment complex has a fairly nice playground with a picnic table suitable for study. This is where we held our session on the day of note. My arrival at Damon’s apartment, and my interactions with him and his family, featured numerous qualities that contributed to the microcosmic nature of the experience on this particular afternoon.
I record my observations and thoughts from the session conducted at the picnic table in Part Three of this series.
Aug 17, 2013
Part Three/ Interaction with Damon Preston on Tuesday 13 August 2013: The New Salem Educational Initiative in Microcosm
Part Three: The Power of the Well-Focused and Joyful Academic Session
Much can be accomplished by the adroit teacher and the receptive student in a short period of time. Teacher knowledge is crucial, and almost all students become receptive when explanations are clear, the love of learning on the part of the teacher is apparent, and the relationship between teacher and student is warm and joyful.
Damon has been a student in the New Salem Educational Initiative since his Grade 1 academic year. I have therefore known him for about four years. At this point, as Damon prepares to enter Grade 5 fully at grade level in both math and reading, with some sense on his part that he has needed my knowledgeable and loving assistance to overcome the life descriptors that have placed him at-risk, he trusts me and is always an open portal for the knowledge that I can pour into his bountiful brain.
While I was on a trip to visit family in Texas and New Mexico at midsummer 2013, I left a Grade 5 reading book with Damon. When I connected with him on 13 August 2013, I found that he had thoroughly read seven selections from the book and demonstrated generally good comprehension on these. As always, though, generally good comprehension is not enough for the level of content knowledge and vocabulary development that I want my students to have.
So, in a session that lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes at the occasion of this rather ad hoc meeting in August 2013, Damon and I went to work on a selection that read as follows:
>>>>>
Phillis Wheatley was a former slave who in the late 1700s became the first published African American poet. Born in 1753, she was kidnapped from her village in Senegal, Africa, at seven years of age and taken by slave traders to the British colonies in what would become the United States. She eventually was sold in Boston to Susannah and John Wheatley.
Slaves were by law not supposed to learn to read and write. Phillis Wheatley, though, yearned for knowledge. She began to try to read the Bible on her own, and to copy words down with a piece of coal in the Wheatley home. Susannah and John were kinder than most slave owners. Rather than punish Phillis for her efforts to learn to read and write, the Wheatleys encouraged her and taught her to read the Bible in Greek and Latin.
Phillis read everything that she could on the well-stocked book shelves of the Wheatley home. She loved to write poetry, and in time she successful published a book of poems in Boston. In 1776, Phillis sent one of her poems to George Washington. He was very impressed with her work. In return for her thoughtfulness in dedicating a poem to him, Washington invited Phillis to his home. Phillis used the opportunity of knowing such a famous person to write him a strong antislavery letter.
Phillis Wheatley died in that city in 1784. Later, more people read her poems, her fame grew again, and today her work can be found in many books.
<<<<<
To begin to understand what a poor knowledge base students enrolled in K-12 (in this case, Grade 5) public education inevitably have, consider just the first paragraph, given above. I had myself never gotten around to asking Damon about how centuries are calculated, and I know that this is rarely explained in the Minneapolis Public Schools. So I asked Damon what century the 1700s cover, to which he predictably but erroneously replied, “seventeenth.” I went through multiple examples covering the 1700s, 1300s, 1500s, 1800s, 1900s, and the years thus far of the new millennium to demonstrate that, for example, Phillis Wheatley was born in the 18th century, the century covering the years from 1701 through 1800.
I explained that the ending year of 1800 gives identity to that group of one hundred years as the 18th century, but that all other years running from 1701 through 1799 would be the 1700s. We discussed the 20th century with special care and noted that his own 2004 year of birth is in the 21st century and the third millennium A. D. Making reference to the latter necessitated an explanation of the terms B. C. and B. C. E. as referring to the years before Christ or the Common Era, while the traditional classification of “A. D.” means Anno Domino (“The year of our Lord”) or the years, decades, centuries, and millennia after the birth of Jesus.
I then asked Damon if he knew where Senegal is, and how it differs from Africa. I sketched out a map for him on my yellow pad and showed him where the nation of Senegal in West Africa, and we reviewed the seven continents and where these are on the globe. My next query, necessitating more explanations, concerned the British colonies, the British, Spanish, and Portuguese slave trade to the Americas, and the role of Boston as a key port for the arrival of slaves in the 18th century.
That was just the first paragraph, which will give you an idea of just what knowledge deficits most public school students bring to the task of reading. My mission in the New Salem Educational Initiative is to ensure that students get a good liberal arts education at the same time that they attain grade level and above skills in math and reading. Any notion that making sure that students are fluent readers with good vocabularies denies teachers the opportunity to teach other subjects is just so much muddled thinking. Reading is a skill but also the key vital conduit through which knowledge flows. When students are asked to read content-rich material, explained by a teacher with a keen grasp of knowledge from across the liberal arts curriculum, reading abets (and by all means does not impede) the acquisition of subject area knowledge.
So as we read together the other four paragraphs, I continued to explain any unfamiliar words, historical references, and other content-specific matters. Hence, we discussed subjects related to conditions of slave life, Greek and Latin as languages often used to render the Bible, George Washington’s roles as head general for the American revolutionary army and as president of the United States, and the difference between poetry and prose. We also discussed the terms “antislavery” and “abolition,” and in the course of our discussion Damon learned the meaning of the prefix, “anti.” And as we covered the final few sentences, Damon also learned what the terms, “free African American” and “free black” meant; and we discussed Phillis Wheatley’s place among African American poets to follow in her footsteps.
Discussion naturally turned then to poets who flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. I identified the heyday of that period of cultural flowering as lying in the 1920s, which gave me an opportunity to review the system of classifying centuries by asking Damon to identify the century encompassing the 1920s. He correctly responded with, “the 20th century.”
The book that I had bought for Damon cost only $4.00. All of my explanations were given orally or written on a yellow pad that cost about $2.00. On the latter inexpensive item, I included as vocabulary items the words “published” and “decline,” along with terms already mentioned for their historical, geographical, or topical importance. I also did a quick math review, generating four-digit additive and subtractive problems necessitating regrouping (carrying and borrowing). And just with spoken words alone, I ran Damon through his multiplication tables involving the numbers one through nine, a task that he performed to perfection.
Careful readers will understand just how rich and monumentally important this just over one hour academic session was for Damon. Whether one poses as a criticizer or a defender of public school systems, one must grasp the weakness of the knowledge base that most all students (especially those of poverty and familial challenge) bring from a public school education. I know that I must provide most of the real education that a student is going to receive, and toward that end, and in the service of that mission, I will follow my students wherever they go to make sure that they receive the education that they deserve.
On this Tuesday, 13 August 2013, it was of immense importance that the economically impoverished, residentially mobile Damon Preston gained even more confidence that when I say I will never go away, I mean just that. It was enormously important that he advanced his subject area education and learned words that he will never learn around the familial dinner table or, apparently, at school. When one embraces the sacred mission of educating a precious young student, it is incumbent upon the teacher not to make excuses but to offer solutions. Damon has known only solutions under my guidance. He knows that I will always find him, wherever he goes. He knows that I will appear consistently, dependably, forever. He has, after four years of participation in the New Salem Educational initiative, a growing confidence in himself as a person who, for all of his life challenges, will live a life of satisfaction and success.
Consider the power of Damon’s confidence and his certain success for himself, his current family, future generations who will no longer be stuck in cyclical poverty, and for a society that can observe a probable severe liability become a major asset.
Consider the power of Damon’s experience week in and week out, throughout his K-12 years, in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
Much can be accomplished by the adroit teacher and the receptive student in a short period of time. Teacher knowledge is crucial, and almost all students become receptive when explanations are clear, the love of learning on the part of the teacher is apparent, and the relationship between teacher and student is warm and joyful.
Damon has been a student in the New Salem Educational Initiative since his Grade 1 academic year. I have therefore known him for about four years. At this point, as Damon prepares to enter Grade 5 fully at grade level in both math and reading, with some sense on his part that he has needed my knowledgeable and loving assistance to overcome the life descriptors that have placed him at-risk, he trusts me and is always an open portal for the knowledge that I can pour into his bountiful brain.
While I was on a trip to visit family in Texas and New Mexico at midsummer 2013, I left a Grade 5 reading book with Damon. When I connected with him on 13 August 2013, I found that he had thoroughly read seven selections from the book and demonstrated generally good comprehension on these. As always, though, generally good comprehension is not enough for the level of content knowledge and vocabulary development that I want my students to have.
So, in a session that lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes at the occasion of this rather ad hoc meeting in August 2013, Damon and I went to work on a selection that read as follows:
>>>>>
Phillis Wheatley was a former slave who in the late 1700s became the first published African American poet. Born in 1753, she was kidnapped from her village in Senegal, Africa, at seven years of age and taken by slave traders to the British colonies in what would become the United States. She eventually was sold in Boston to Susannah and John Wheatley.
Slaves were by law not supposed to learn to read and write. Phillis Wheatley, though, yearned for knowledge. She began to try to read the Bible on her own, and to copy words down with a piece of coal in the Wheatley home. Susannah and John were kinder than most slave owners. Rather than punish Phillis for her efforts to learn to read and write, the Wheatleys encouraged her and taught her to read the Bible in Greek and Latin.
Phillis read everything that she could on the well-stocked book shelves of the Wheatley home. She loved to write poetry, and in time she successful published a book of poems in Boston. In 1776, Phillis sent one of her poems to George Washington. He was very impressed with her work. In return for her thoughtfulness in dedicating a poem to him, Washington invited Phillis to his home. Phillis used the opportunity of knowing such a famous person to write him a strong antislavery letter.
Susannah and John Wheatley made clear in their wills that Phillis would be free at the end of their own lives. So after they died, Phillis was no longer a slave. She married a free African American man and moved away from Boston. She continued to write poems, but her popularity declined. Her marriage was not happy, and eventually she returned to Boston.
Phillis Wheatley died in that city in 1784. Later, more people read her poems, her fame grew again, and today her work can be found in many books.
<<<<<
To begin to understand what a poor knowledge base students enrolled in K-12 (in this case, Grade 5) public education inevitably have, consider just the first paragraph, given above. I had myself never gotten around to asking Damon about how centuries are calculated, and I know that this is rarely explained in the Minneapolis Public Schools. So I asked Damon what century the 1700s cover, to which he predictably but erroneously replied, “seventeenth.” I went through multiple examples covering the 1700s, 1300s, 1500s, 1800s, 1900s, and the years thus far of the new millennium to demonstrate that, for example, Phillis Wheatley was born in the 18th century, the century covering the years from 1701 through 1800.
I explained that the ending year of 1800 gives identity to that group of one hundred years as the 18th century, but that all other years running from 1701 through 1799 would be the 1700s. We discussed the 20th century with special care and noted that his own 2004 year of birth is in the 21st century and the third millennium A. D. Making reference to the latter necessitated an explanation of the terms B. C. and B. C. E. as referring to the years before Christ or the Common Era, while the traditional classification of “A. D.” means Anno Domino (“The year of our Lord”) or the years, decades, centuries, and millennia after the birth of Jesus.
I then asked Damon if he knew where Senegal is, and how it differs from Africa. I sketched out a map for him on my yellow pad and showed him where the nation of Senegal in West Africa, and we reviewed the seven continents and where these are on the globe. My next query, necessitating more explanations, concerned the British colonies, the British, Spanish, and Portuguese slave trade to the Americas, and the role of Boston as a key port for the arrival of slaves in the 18th century.
That was just the first paragraph, which will give you an idea of just what knowledge deficits most public school students bring to the task of reading. My mission in the New Salem Educational Initiative is to ensure that students get a good liberal arts education at the same time that they attain grade level and above skills in math and reading. Any notion that making sure that students are fluent readers with good vocabularies denies teachers the opportunity to teach other subjects is just so much muddled thinking. Reading is a skill but also the key vital conduit through which knowledge flows. When students are asked to read content-rich material, explained by a teacher with a keen grasp of knowledge from across the liberal arts curriculum, reading abets (and by all means does not impede) the acquisition of subject area knowledge.
So as we read together the other four paragraphs, I continued to explain any unfamiliar words, historical references, and other content-specific matters. Hence, we discussed subjects related to conditions of slave life, Greek and Latin as languages often used to render the Bible, George Washington’s roles as head general for the American revolutionary army and as president of the United States, and the difference between poetry and prose. We also discussed the terms “antislavery” and “abolition,” and in the course of our discussion Damon learned the meaning of the prefix, “anti.” And as we covered the final few sentences, Damon also learned what the terms, “free African American” and “free black” meant; and we discussed Phillis Wheatley’s place among African American poets to follow in her footsteps.
Discussion naturally turned then to poets who flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. I identified the heyday of that period of cultural flowering as lying in the 1920s, which gave me an opportunity to review the system of classifying centuries by asking Damon to identify the century encompassing the 1920s. He correctly responded with, “the 20th century.”
The book that I had bought for Damon cost only $4.00. All of my explanations were given orally or written on a yellow pad that cost about $2.00. On the latter inexpensive item, I included as vocabulary items the words “published” and “decline,” along with terms already mentioned for their historical, geographical, or topical importance. I also did a quick math review, generating four-digit additive and subtractive problems necessitating regrouping (carrying and borrowing). And just with spoken words alone, I ran Damon through his multiplication tables involving the numbers one through nine, a task that he performed to perfection.
Careful readers will understand just how rich and monumentally important this just over one hour academic session was for Damon. Whether one poses as a criticizer or a defender of public school systems, one must grasp the weakness of the knowledge base that most all students (especially those of poverty and familial challenge) bring from a public school education. I know that I must provide most of the real education that a student is going to receive, and toward that end, and in the service of that mission, I will follow my students wherever they go to make sure that they receive the education that they deserve.
On this Tuesday, 13 August 2013, it was of immense importance that the economically impoverished, residentially mobile Damon Preston gained even more confidence that when I say I will never go away, I mean just that. It was enormously important that he advanced his subject area education and learned words that he will never learn around the familial dinner table or, apparently, at school. When one embraces the sacred mission of educating a precious young student, it is incumbent upon the teacher not to make excuses but to offer solutions. Damon has known only solutions under my guidance. He knows that I will always find him, wherever he goes. He knows that I will appear consistently, dependably, forever. He has, after four years of participation in the New Salem Educational initiative, a growing confidence in himself as a person who, for all of his life challenges, will live a life of satisfaction and success.
Consider the power of Damon’s confidence and his certain success for himself, his current family, future generations who will no longer be stuck in cyclical poverty, and for a society that can observe a probable severe liability become a major asset.
Consider the power of Damon’s experience week in and week out, throughout his K-12 years, in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
Part Four/ Interaction with Damon Preston on Tuesday 13 August 2013: The New Salem Educational Initiative in Microcosm
Part Four: Relationships with Families and Understanding of the Home Environment
The trip on 13 August 2013 to the new residence of Damon Preston was my third. I had in early July texted Evelyn, asking how the move had gone and inquiring as to the specific new address. She got right back to me, conveying the sentiment that the move went okay and letting me know the precise new address.
Soon after receiving this return message, I went by the new domicile, just to run a check-in with the family. I wanted Evelyn and Damon to know that I was serious about continuing to be a presence in Damon’s life, even with the family’s move to St. Paul.
So that check-in was the first visit to the new residence. The second came a few days later, just as I was about to visit my own family in the Southwest. At that time, I left the book mentioned in Part Two of this account and agreed with Damon that he would read at least five articles (remember that he went beyond this goal to read seven articles) while I was gone. Before I met with Damon and Evelyn, though, on my way into the apartment building, I ran into Marcel Gifford, the erstwhile significant other of Evelyn and de facto stepfather to Damon.
Marcel was elated to see me, and I was similarly glad to see him. Marcel had grieved over loss of contact with Damon when Evelyn had made her sudden move of residence to far South Minneapolis back in late September 2012. During the entire time (the remainder of academic year 2012-2013) that I had picked up Damon at the Southside address, Marcel had been physically absent and was never mentioned by Evelyn. I still do not know the details, but Marcel’s presence at this still newer address in St. Paul signaled to me that Marcel was at least back on speaking terms with Stacey and that he was present in Damon’s life again.
I inquired as to how Marcel was doing. He seemed upbeat, letting me know that among various gigs as a cook was one that appeared promising for long-term employment, a position that would have him using his skills on the food staffs at several sites of the Minneapolis Public Schools. I wished him well and went forth to my visit with Evelyn, Damon, and Damon’s little brother, Javon.
Then when I arrived for the third visit, detailed in Part Two above, I found that it was Marcel who was keeping Damon and Javon on that Tuesday, 13 August 2013, while Evelyn pursued a three-day-a-week job. I took high interest in this circumstance. When my academic session with Damon was complete, I let Marcel know that I had a bit of time and would work with Javon for a while. This was my first formal session with Javon, who for several years had watched as I picked Damon up for our sessions and had for a long time wanted to go. Evelyn had asked me about working with Javon even when he was four years old; now that he is five and about to enter kindergarten, I signaled that I would make the time.
I ran Javon through a quick oral basic skills exam for numerical sense and verbal ability. Javon had attended preschool classes but had not, as revealed in this exam, learned what he should have learned upon entry to kindergarten. Some of his ABCs were shaky, and he did not count as adroitly as students who have had the best early childhood training do these days. So I’ll have a heightened sense of responsibility to make sure that Javon gets off to the right start through kindergarten, ensuring that by the time he enters Grade 1, he will not only be ready but every bit as academically well-prepared as children from families living in, say, toney areas of Minneapolis such as Linden Hills and Lowry Hill.
By the time that I had finished this first session with Javon, Evelyn had returned to the apartment from work, and it was she to whom I gave the report at the door. She was gratified that Damon had learned as much as he had, and she was elated that I had found time to work with Javon. She said nothing about Marcel’s presence. But I have the definite sense that Marcel is back in Evelyn’s life, that he is living with the family again, and that he is poised to resume pertinent roles that he had been performing at both the first apartment off Glenwood and the second off Olson Highway.
Knowing the family situations of my students is crucial. I was always aware of how Evelyn’s distancing herself from Marcel might affect Damon. As the family went through its struggles in autumn 2012, I was extra careful to speak to Damon in a loving and concerned way, to examine his face for any signs of distress, and to be ready with quips to cheer him up, even as I nurtured his academic life and praised him for his accomplishments. Just as going to the new residence signals to the family that I will remain dedicated to our relationship, understanding shifting circumstances of family composition and definition is also important. Taking Javon on the same academic and life journey onto which I have thrust Damon tells the family that I care about each member and want to maximize the success of all of those in the up and coming generations.
In Part Five of this series I will give some overall reflections on the microcosmic nature of my interaction with Damon and his family on Tuesday, 13 August 2013.
The trip on 13 August 2013 to the new residence of Damon Preston was my third. I had in early July texted Evelyn, asking how the move had gone and inquiring as to the specific new address. She got right back to me, conveying the sentiment that the move went okay and letting me know the precise new address.
Soon after receiving this return message, I went by the new domicile, just to run a check-in with the family. I wanted Evelyn and Damon to know that I was serious about continuing to be a presence in Damon’s life, even with the family’s move to St. Paul.
So that check-in was the first visit to the new residence. The second came a few days later, just as I was about to visit my own family in the Southwest. At that time, I left the book mentioned in Part Two of this account and agreed with Damon that he would read at least five articles (remember that he went beyond this goal to read seven articles) while I was gone. Before I met with Damon and Evelyn, though, on my way into the apartment building, I ran into Marcel Gifford, the erstwhile significant other of Evelyn and de facto stepfather to Damon.
Marcel was elated to see me, and I was similarly glad to see him. Marcel had grieved over loss of contact with Damon when Evelyn had made her sudden move of residence to far South Minneapolis back in late September 2012. During the entire time (the remainder of academic year 2012-2013) that I had picked up Damon at the Southside address, Marcel had been physically absent and was never mentioned by Evelyn. I still do not know the details, but Marcel’s presence at this still newer address in St. Paul signaled to me that Marcel was at least back on speaking terms with Stacey and that he was present in Damon’s life again.
I inquired as to how Marcel was doing. He seemed upbeat, letting me know that among various gigs as a cook was one that appeared promising for long-term employment, a position that would have him using his skills on the food staffs at several sites of the Minneapolis Public Schools. I wished him well and went forth to my visit with Evelyn, Damon, and Damon’s little brother, Javon.
Then when I arrived for the third visit, detailed in Part Two above, I found that it was Marcel who was keeping Damon and Javon on that Tuesday, 13 August 2013, while Evelyn pursued a three-day-a-week job. I took high interest in this circumstance. When my academic session with Damon was complete, I let Marcel know that I had a bit of time and would work with Javon for a while. This was my first formal session with Javon, who for several years had watched as I picked Damon up for our sessions and had for a long time wanted to go. Evelyn had asked me about working with Javon even when he was four years old; now that he is five and about to enter kindergarten, I signaled that I would make the time.
I ran Javon through a quick oral basic skills exam for numerical sense and verbal ability. Javon had attended preschool classes but had not, as revealed in this exam, learned what he should have learned upon entry to kindergarten. Some of his ABCs were shaky, and he did not count as adroitly as students who have had the best early childhood training do these days. So I’ll have a heightened sense of responsibility to make sure that Javon gets off to the right start through kindergarten, ensuring that by the time he enters Grade 1, he will not only be ready but every bit as academically well-prepared as children from families living in, say, toney areas of Minneapolis such as Linden Hills and Lowry Hill.
By the time that I had finished this first session with Javon, Evelyn had returned to the apartment from work, and it was she to whom I gave the report at the door. She was gratified that Damon had learned as much as he had, and she was elated that I had found time to work with Javon. She said nothing about Marcel’s presence. But I have the definite sense that Marcel is back in Evelyn’s life, that he is living with the family again, and that he is poised to resume pertinent roles that he had been performing at both the first apartment off Glenwood and the second off Olson Highway.
Knowing the family situations of my students is crucial. I was always aware of how Evelyn’s distancing herself from Marcel might affect Damon. As the family went through its struggles in autumn 2012, I was extra careful to speak to Damon in a loving and concerned way, to examine his face for any signs of distress, and to be ready with quips to cheer him up, even as I nurtured his academic life and praised him for his accomplishments. Just as going to the new residence signals to the family that I will remain dedicated to our relationship, understanding shifting circumstances of family composition and definition is also important. Taking Javon on the same academic and life journey onto which I have thrust Damon tells the family that I care about each member and want to maximize the success of all of those in the up and coming generations.
In Part Five of this series I will give some overall reflections on the microcosmic nature of my interaction with Damon and his family on Tuesday, 13 August 2013.
Part Five/ Interaction with Damon Preston on Tuesday 13 August 2013: The New Salem Educational Initiative in Microcosm
Concluding Comments: Reflections on the Microcosmic Nature of My Interaction with Damon Preston and His Family on 13 August 2013
What was true of my interaction with Damon Preston and his family on 13 August 2013 is substantially true in every single encounter with a student and her or his family in the New Salem Educational Initiative. Each represents in microcosm the goals of the program and the features that make it possible for me to develop quality relationships, ensure high attendance and retention, and put young people who were originally floundering academically on a college preparatory track of study.
Damon’s case is particularly salient. Evelyn and Marcel had just moved to Minneapolis from Southside Chicago when they enrolled Damon in the New Salem Educational Initiative during his Grade 1 (2009-2010) academic year. Damon had been studying with me ever since that time, and this is true of all---every single one, no exceptions--- of my students. Not one of my students ever indicates any desire to discontinue, and the families parents and guardians of my students typically have younger family members lined up waiting to participate as they come of age.
This is true, as noted in Part Three, in the case of Damon’s little brother, Javon. Marcel, Evelyn, and I formed a bond almost immediately. This, too, is a key feature of the New Salem Educational Initiative. I love the parents of my students. I know the struggles born of history, both societal and familial, that they have endured. I admire them for wanting a better future for their children. And, make no mistake about it, all parents want such a future for their children. They may not have discovered a secure route, they may not themselves be well-educated enough to negotiate the public education system, they may not have the background to give their children academic assistance themselves. But to a person I always find that parents of children in North Minneapolis want the best for their children and deeply appreciate my efforts to provide a route to success.
So I have great relationships with the parents of these Northside students from challenged circumstances. They let me know when their cell phone numbers change. They notify me when they are making a residential move. They thank me profusely for showing up week after week and for the academic improvement that they witness immediately and as an ongoing matter. We hug. We laugh. At times, we cry. We feel part of the same family called Human.
The young people in the New Salem Educational Initiative know that I will never go away. Damon knows that I will follow him anywhere he moves, that I will provide him the minimal materials and the abundant knowledge that he needs to succeed, and that I will do this until he is in college and beyond. Little brother Javon has seen me week after week and has been chomping at the bit to participate. Now he is participating. One life comes to include many lives, and the future of succeeding generations becomes more promising. This is the power of love and concern and teaching that never goes away.
The academic instruction that Damon and now Javon receive is of the highest caliber. It is the product of years of study, keen intellectual pursuit, enormous curiosity about every aspect of the world, and a fervent desire to pass this knowledge on. Students such as these feel my own excitement about the world of learning. They absorb it. They manifest it. They pass it on.
So on this particular day of 13 August 2013, I drove my hail-beaten ’96 Honda to eastern St. Paul from my base in North Minneapolis, connected with the significant adults in Damon’s life, reinforced and advanced his skills in reading and math, provided an array of liberal arts academic content, maintained light-hearted banter against the backdrop of a life that has known multiple challenges, started little brother Javon on a successful academic track of his own, and left all concerned with no doubt whatsoever that I would return again, week after week, month after month, year after year.
My efforts in the New Salem Educational Initiative are undergirded with the programmatic features of enduring relationships, loving and empathetic communication with families, knowledge of familial circumstances and shifts in cell phone numbers and residence, flexibility as I track students down wherever they are on a given day, with all of this making possible our avowed mutual goal of exploring the exciting and vivifying world of knowledge toward life satisfaction and good citizenship.
All of this may be seen in motion and implementation as I interacted with Damon and his family on 13 August 2013. That interaction was composed of constituent parts in formation of a Gestaldt that is leading Damon and others toward a better life. The parts are lubricated with elbow grease, a huge dose of love, a great desire to know, and passion for the healing power of knowledge.
What was true of my interaction with Damon Preston and his family on 13 August 2013 is substantially true in every single encounter with a student and her or his family in the New Salem Educational Initiative. Each represents in microcosm the goals of the program and the features that make it possible for me to develop quality relationships, ensure high attendance and retention, and put young people who were originally floundering academically on a college preparatory track of study.
Damon’s case is particularly salient. Evelyn and Marcel had just moved to Minneapolis from Southside Chicago when they enrolled Damon in the New Salem Educational Initiative during his Grade 1 (2009-2010) academic year. Damon had been studying with me ever since that time, and this is true of all---every single one, no exceptions--- of my students. Not one of my students ever indicates any desire to discontinue, and the families parents and guardians of my students typically have younger family members lined up waiting to participate as they come of age.
This is true, as noted in Part Three, in the case of Damon’s little brother, Javon. Marcel, Evelyn, and I formed a bond almost immediately. This, too, is a key feature of the New Salem Educational Initiative. I love the parents of my students. I know the struggles born of history, both societal and familial, that they have endured. I admire them for wanting a better future for their children. And, make no mistake about it, all parents want such a future for their children. They may not have discovered a secure route, they may not themselves be well-educated enough to negotiate the public education system, they may not have the background to give their children academic assistance themselves. But to a person I always find that parents of children in North Minneapolis want the best for their children and deeply appreciate my efforts to provide a route to success.
So I have great relationships with the parents of these Northside students from challenged circumstances. They let me know when their cell phone numbers change. They notify me when they are making a residential move. They thank me profusely for showing up week after week and for the academic improvement that they witness immediately and as an ongoing matter. We hug. We laugh. At times, we cry. We feel part of the same family called Human.
The young people in the New Salem Educational Initiative know that I will never go away. Damon knows that I will follow him anywhere he moves, that I will provide him the minimal materials and the abundant knowledge that he needs to succeed, and that I will do this until he is in college and beyond. Little brother Javon has seen me week after week and has been chomping at the bit to participate. Now he is participating. One life comes to include many lives, and the future of succeeding generations becomes more promising. This is the power of love and concern and teaching that never goes away.
The academic instruction that Damon and now Javon receive is of the highest caliber. It is the product of years of study, keen intellectual pursuit, enormous curiosity about every aspect of the world, and a fervent desire to pass this knowledge on. Students such as these feel my own excitement about the world of learning. They absorb it. They manifest it. They pass it on.
So on this particular day of 13 August 2013, I drove my hail-beaten ’96 Honda to eastern St. Paul from my base in North Minneapolis, connected with the significant adults in Damon’s life, reinforced and advanced his skills in reading and math, provided an array of liberal arts academic content, maintained light-hearted banter against the backdrop of a life that has known multiple challenges, started little brother Javon on a successful academic track of his own, and left all concerned with no doubt whatsoever that I would return again, week after week, month after month, year after year.
My efforts in the New Salem Educational Initiative are undergirded with the programmatic features of enduring relationships, loving and empathetic communication with families, knowledge of familial circumstances and shifts in cell phone numbers and residence, flexibility as I track students down wherever they are on a given day, with all of this making possible our avowed mutual goal of exploring the exciting and vivifying world of knowledge toward life satisfaction and good citizenship.
All of this may be seen in motion and implementation as I interacted with Damon and his family on 13 August 2013. That interaction was composed of constituent parts in formation of a Gestaldt that is leading Damon and others toward a better life. The parts are lubricated with elbow grease, a huge dose of love, a great desire to know, and passion for the healing power of knowledge.
Aug 3, 2013
We Must Regard all Students as Members of the Human Family
Charged with the responsibility to provide an excellent education to all of our precious children, we have the responsibility to regard all students as part of the human family.
Too often, commentators of both the political left and the political right variously apologize for the inadequacies of K-12 public education or moan pessimistically about prospects for gaining better results, based on the putative failings of families mired in poverty. Many of those so apologizing or so moaning write as if they themselves are nestled in cozy domestic retreats or are engaged in the conceit of philosophical speculation from the safety of think-tanks.
From the perspective of one who is on the streets and in the homes of those about whom the lefties and the righties despair, the apologizing and the moaning have the aura of the surreal, reality skewed by the romantic ruminations of those more interested in sounding smart and professing concern than working toward solutions. And the solutions are available if we were to embrace, depending on the religious or humanist orientations of the commentators, either our religious or our civic responsibility, to consider ourselves part of the human family and thus to regard all children as our own.
This is my approach, pursued seven days a week, in the New Salem Educational Initiative. Increasingly, new students who enter my program are very young, typically younger members of families who already have at least one child (and often two, three, or more) in the Initiative. New participants understand, without even having to wonder, that they are now more active members of a family to which they already belong, a family that is an extension of their natal domiciles, the extended family that is New Salem. They know that the relationships that they form with me are eternal. They know this because they have witnessed other family members pack into my car every week and ride off for two hours of training for eventual performance at the highest levels in math, reading, and a broad and rich liberal arts curriculum.
These newer students tend to be in kindergarten when they first enroll. This means that they will study with me, converse with me, go to Shakespearean festivals with me, dine on dinners of my preparation, and demonstrate their stratospheric feats of academic skill and talent at the annual banquet of the New Salem Educational Initiative across the weeks, months, and years to come. These students will hear stern words from me about the consequences of faulty academic effort at school, homework not turned in, projects that are neglected.
They will rarely face those consequences, because they do not want to disappoint me, to hear a reiteration of those words; and over time they internalize the ethic of educational excellence so thoroughly that they want to succeed for themselves, their lives, their futures. My students feel my love, as all children do when nurtured by a caring adult. They feel in it in the way that I speak to them, ask about their lives, listen to their complaints, offer counsel when they are laden with the burdens of growing up in tough urban environments. They feel the love in my hugs. They know I mean it when I say something like “You know I love you, right?” because they are likely to reply, “Yeah, and I love you, too, Mr. [or, more typically, without the title of “Mister”] Gary.”
When a teacher deserving of the appellation embraces the sacred responsibility of educating all children who grace her or his life, that teacher regards each as that caring adult’s own. A teacher whose students are mostly those from challenged economic and familial circumstances does not ring her or his hands while uttering apologies for not being able to do the job or emitting moans that nothing can be done until all families are more nearly an approximation of perfection. She or he instead communicates that an enduring relationship has been formed, that the caring is as deep as if forged by bonds of consanguinity, that the standards are high, that the academic goals will be met, and all necessary help will be rendered in the ascent toward success.
To the degree that student failure in K-12 education occurs because of familial circumstances, those shortcomings are those of the human family of which we are all a part and for which we all bear religious or humanistic responsibility.
Too often, commentators of both the political left and the political right variously apologize for the inadequacies of K-12 public education or moan pessimistically about prospects for gaining better results, based on the putative failings of families mired in poverty. Many of those so apologizing or so moaning write as if they themselves are nestled in cozy domestic retreats or are engaged in the conceit of philosophical speculation from the safety of think-tanks.
From the perspective of one who is on the streets and in the homes of those about whom the lefties and the righties despair, the apologizing and the moaning have the aura of the surreal, reality skewed by the romantic ruminations of those more interested in sounding smart and professing concern than working toward solutions. And the solutions are available if we were to embrace, depending on the religious or humanist orientations of the commentators, either our religious or our civic responsibility, to consider ourselves part of the human family and thus to regard all children as our own.
This is my approach, pursued seven days a week, in the New Salem Educational Initiative. Increasingly, new students who enter my program are very young, typically younger members of families who already have at least one child (and often two, three, or more) in the Initiative. New participants understand, without even having to wonder, that they are now more active members of a family to which they already belong, a family that is an extension of their natal domiciles, the extended family that is New Salem. They know that the relationships that they form with me are eternal. They know this because they have witnessed other family members pack into my car every week and ride off for two hours of training for eventual performance at the highest levels in math, reading, and a broad and rich liberal arts curriculum.
These newer students tend to be in kindergarten when they first enroll. This means that they will study with me, converse with me, go to Shakespearean festivals with me, dine on dinners of my preparation, and demonstrate their stratospheric feats of academic skill and talent at the annual banquet of the New Salem Educational Initiative across the weeks, months, and years to come. These students will hear stern words from me about the consequences of faulty academic effort at school, homework not turned in, projects that are neglected.
They will rarely face those consequences, because they do not want to disappoint me, to hear a reiteration of those words; and over time they internalize the ethic of educational excellence so thoroughly that they want to succeed for themselves, their lives, their futures. My students feel my love, as all children do when nurtured by a caring adult. They feel in it in the way that I speak to them, ask about their lives, listen to their complaints, offer counsel when they are laden with the burdens of growing up in tough urban environments. They feel the love in my hugs. They know I mean it when I say something like “You know I love you, right?” because they are likely to reply, “Yeah, and I love you, too, Mr. [or, more typically, without the title of “Mister”] Gary.”
When a teacher deserving of the appellation embraces the sacred responsibility of educating all children who grace her or his life, that teacher regards each as that caring adult’s own. A teacher whose students are mostly those from challenged economic and familial circumstances does not ring her or his hands while uttering apologies for not being able to do the job or emitting moans that nothing can be done until all families are more nearly an approximation of perfection. She or he instead communicates that an enduring relationship has been formed, that the caring is as deep as if forged by bonds of consanguinity, that the standards are high, that the academic goals will be met, and all necessary help will be rendered in the ascent toward success.
To the degree that student failure in K-12 education occurs because of familial circumstances, those shortcomings are those of the human family of which we are all a part and for which we all bear religious or humanistic responsibility.
Celebrating the Academic Ascent of Monique Taylor-Myers
Sunday, 4 August 2013, will be a day for even greater celebration than is each day in the life of the New Salem Educational Initiative. For that will be the day when Monique Taylor-Myers (name assigned for data privacy reasons) moves from her high perch as a superlative student possessed of extraordinary math and verbal skills, toward the academic summit as a young person realistically aspiring to be the best student in the state of Minnesota.
Such things happen for a reason. Preparation begins years in advance. Monique first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 3 student. I observed immediately that she is very bright. But I also heard accounts from her mother (Janette) and grandmother (Sonya) that Monique struggled at times at school, that teachers identified her math and reading skills as languishing below grade level, and that there was at home considerable concern over these indicators of subpar academic performance. I also witnessed a couple of academic years go by before Monique's performance on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) in math and reading met the goals that she, her mother, grandmother, and I had for her.
Then, at the beginning of Monique’s Grade 5 year, she reached grade level performance and began a steady, sure ascent toward the head of her class. Each week she mastered math skills above grade level and successfully took on challenges more typical of those at the Grade 6 and Grade 7 levels. Her vocabulary became ever richer; she even acquired an understanding of many words properly termed college level. She rarely missed a weekly academic session with me, and when she did, she rescheduled to another day.
By Grade 8, Monique entered a rigorous weekly session that I created expressly for her and two other students in the same grade who were also probing the academic heights. She and these two students began to train for SAT and ACT exams that even now, as students entering Grade 11, they will not actually take until the end of this academic year. Thus, they know full well what to expect, and their brains are full of skill and knowledge sets that maximize their chances for outstanding performances on these tests.
By the end of her Grade 10 academic year, Monique was distinguishing herself as a student soaring even above the academic eminences of her talented session mates. She consistently conjoined high intelligence and years of training under my direction in math, reading, and subjects across a rich liberal arts curriculum with meticulous habits of academic study and personal discipline. Thus it was that Monique earned designation at the 8th Annual New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet as the best student of my (to date) four decades-long career.
And thus comes the special occurrence of August 4, 2013. Monique has agreed to weekly one-on-one tutorials, to be held every Sunday from 5:00 until 7:00 PM, in which she will train with me toward becoming the best student in the state of Minnesota. Monique will joyously and rigorously train at the university level in the skill and knowledge sets pertinent to math, literature, economics, psychology, history, government, fine arts and the natural sciences. When I feel that she would benefit from professorial expertise that ranges into the third and fourth years of college, I will arrange for her to meet with professors in advancement to that level of knowledge mastery.
Monique Taylor-Myers, on the cusp of her Grade 11 academic year, has at this point mastered algebra, geometry, and much of trigonometry. She has read, line by line, accompanied with my careful explanations, the Shakespearean plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Monique has for three summers running traveled with me and others from among my most advanced students to see most of these plays at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona.
In weekly academic sessions with me, Monique has in recent years studied economic topics pertinent to such matters as national debt and deficit, the stock market (understanding the vagaries of Dow Jones, Standard and Poor’s, and Nasdaq), the Federal Reserve, minimum wage, economic quarters and how these relate to recession and depression. She knows the difference between Shi’ites and Sunnis, she understands the movements of Al Qaida and the Taliban, she knows the social background that gave rise the vicious attack on the courageous Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai. Monique has explored in depth articles from major journals on topics ranging from the electoral college; to the nature of asteroids, meteoroids, meteorites, meteors, and comets; to forms of domestic violence from the perspectives of psychology and law; and many more.
This is a great deal of academic training for a young woman entering her Grade 11 year at school. And now she aspires to the very summit of academic achievement in the state of Minnesota. Monique Taylor-Myers is dwelling near the apogee of the intellectual heights that I envision for all of my students. The stunning success of Monique Taylor-Myers demonstrates clearly what can be accomplished as a result of the academic weight and ballast acquired when admirable qualities of personality and intelligence are given full rein in a program of highest expectations and excellence of training.
Monique Taylor-Myers is at the pinnacle of the aspirations that I have for all of my students, all of whom face economic challenges and issues pertinent to life circumstance. She demonstrates the possible. She augurs the future. Her personal qualities and those measures that have given rise to her accomplishments are cause for great celebration.
And, to be sure, she and I will be celebrating at 5:00 PM on Sunday, 4 August 2013, as we begin the most amazing chapter yet in the book of achievement that Monique Taylor-Myers has composed for herself as the most superlative student in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
Such things happen for a reason. Preparation begins years in advance. Monique first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 3 student. I observed immediately that she is very bright. But I also heard accounts from her mother (Janette) and grandmother (Sonya) that Monique struggled at times at school, that teachers identified her math and reading skills as languishing below grade level, and that there was at home considerable concern over these indicators of subpar academic performance. I also witnessed a couple of academic years go by before Monique's performance on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) in math and reading met the goals that she, her mother, grandmother, and I had for her.
Then, at the beginning of Monique’s Grade 5 year, she reached grade level performance and began a steady, sure ascent toward the head of her class. Each week she mastered math skills above grade level and successfully took on challenges more typical of those at the Grade 6 and Grade 7 levels. Her vocabulary became ever richer; she even acquired an understanding of many words properly termed college level. She rarely missed a weekly academic session with me, and when she did, she rescheduled to another day.
By Grade 8, Monique entered a rigorous weekly session that I created expressly for her and two other students in the same grade who were also probing the academic heights. She and these two students began to train for SAT and ACT exams that even now, as students entering Grade 11, they will not actually take until the end of this academic year. Thus, they know full well what to expect, and their brains are full of skill and knowledge sets that maximize their chances for outstanding performances on these tests.
By the end of her Grade 10 academic year, Monique was distinguishing herself as a student soaring even above the academic eminences of her talented session mates. She consistently conjoined high intelligence and years of training under my direction in math, reading, and subjects across a rich liberal arts curriculum with meticulous habits of academic study and personal discipline. Thus it was that Monique earned designation at the 8th Annual New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet as the best student of my (to date) four decades-long career.
And thus comes the special occurrence of August 4, 2013. Monique has agreed to weekly one-on-one tutorials, to be held every Sunday from 5:00 until 7:00 PM, in which she will train with me toward becoming the best student in the state of Minnesota. Monique will joyously and rigorously train at the university level in the skill and knowledge sets pertinent to math, literature, economics, psychology, history, government, fine arts and the natural sciences. When I feel that she would benefit from professorial expertise that ranges into the third and fourth years of college, I will arrange for her to meet with professors in advancement to that level of knowledge mastery.
Monique Taylor-Myers, on the cusp of her Grade 11 academic year, has at this point mastered algebra, geometry, and much of trigonometry. She has read, line by line, accompanied with my careful explanations, the Shakespearean plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Monique has for three summers running traveled with me and others from among my most advanced students to see most of these plays at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona.
In weekly academic sessions with me, Monique has in recent years studied economic topics pertinent to such matters as national debt and deficit, the stock market (understanding the vagaries of Dow Jones, Standard and Poor’s, and Nasdaq), the Federal Reserve, minimum wage, economic quarters and how these relate to recession and depression. She knows the difference between Shi’ites and Sunnis, she understands the movements of Al Qaida and the Taliban, she knows the social background that gave rise the vicious attack on the courageous Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai. Monique has explored in depth articles from major journals on topics ranging from the electoral college; to the nature of asteroids, meteoroids, meteorites, meteors, and comets; to forms of domestic violence from the perspectives of psychology and law; and many more.
This is a great deal of academic training for a young woman entering her Grade 11 year at school. And now she aspires to the very summit of academic achievement in the state of Minnesota. Monique Taylor-Myers is dwelling near the apogee of the intellectual heights that I envision for all of my students. The stunning success of Monique Taylor-Myers demonstrates clearly what can be accomplished as a result of the academic weight and ballast acquired when admirable qualities of personality and intelligence are given full rein in a program of highest expectations and excellence of training.
Monique Taylor-Myers is at the pinnacle of the aspirations that I have for all of my students, all of whom face economic challenges and issues pertinent to life circumstance. She demonstrates the possible. She augurs the future. Her personal qualities and those measures that have given rise to her accomplishments are cause for great celebration.
And, to be sure, she and I will be celebrating at 5:00 PM on Sunday, 4 August 2013, as we begin the most amazing chapter yet in the book of achievement that Monique Taylor-Myers has composed for herself as the most superlative student in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
Jul 11, 2013
Bernadeia Johnson's High Potential as an Agent for the Overhaul That We Need in the Minneapolis Public Schools
Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has a genuine chance to be an agent for the overhaul that we need in K-12 public education.
This comes as something of a revelation to me. Readers of this blog, and of my recent opinion pieces in the Star Tribune, know that I am at once a strong supporter of the concept of centralized school districts and a ferocious critic of the way that the education establishment shortchanges K-12 students, especially those from families of poverty or dysfunction.
But I am now more optimistic than I have been for a long time. Here’s why, based on my definition of an excellent education, which is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a rich, logically sequenced liberal arts curriculum to all students:
The first item in that definition, concerning excellent teachers, is paramount. To get more excellent teachers into the classroom, we must have more flexibility in our efforts to hire such teachers, increasing their numbers in the available prospective teacher pool by considering those who have opted for nontraditional pathways such as Teach for America and alternative licensure. Once we have more talented and promising teachers in the pool, school principals keen on getting the best possible teaching talent into the classroom must be allowed to offer contracts to such teachers. Two conditions at the Minneapolis Public Schools serve as harbingers of hope on the matter of enhanced teacher quality:
First, Superintendent Johnson clearly understands the need to elevate the quality of teaching in the classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools. In a speech delivered in mid-May 2013, on the cusp of negotiations with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), she argued forcefully for hiring of teachers on the basis of quality, rather than seniority. She asserted that offers for new teacher hires should emanate from building principals and others acting in behalf of the school district, rather than at the behest of the union.
Second, Johnson and her human resources department head, Rick Kreyer, know that they must become ever more energized in their implementation of the very promising teacher evaluation process already in place at the Minneapolis Public Schools. These two key officials know that ineffective teachers must be jettisoned and that we need to move as rapidly as possible toward the goal of genuine pedagogical excellence. And in an atmosphere in which teachers are judged on student performance, administration of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for math and reading will continue in grades 3-8. Likewise, the grade 10 reading and grade 11 math MCAs, though no longer required for graduation, will still be administered. This means that representatives of the MFT cannot prevail in efforts to avoid objective testing and genuine teacher accountability.
As to the second item in my definition of an excellent education, I also see hope that Superintendent Johnson understands the need for a richer liberal arts curriculum, sequenced logically throughout the K-12 experience. At one of the “Soup with the Supe” events held by the Minneapolis Public Schools during the past (2012-2013) academic year, I asked some very tough questions and made very forthright assertions concerning curricular weakness, particularly at the K-5 level. The superintendent handled those questions with good grace and conveyed to me the general sense that her own moves toward focused instruction and curriculum standardization are meant to address the problem with curriculum, and that further improvements will be forthcoming.
Buoyed by the prospects for Bernadeia Johnson becoming that most unlikely of public figures, the truly great and transformative public schools superintendent, I intend to do everything I can to support her and urge others to do the same. Too often, representatives of the MFT and those school board and state legislative representatives endorsed and supported by the union have successfully set an agenda advancing the interests of adults in the education establishment over those of students. Citizens should rally to the efforts of people in such organizations as the African American Leadership Forum, StudentsFirst, Put Kids First Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Foundation, MinnCAN, and my own New Salem Educational Initiative to encourage Bernadeia Johnson along a pathway that follows her own best instincts.
Those instincts are very sound, and with them come the prospects for Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson being an agent for educational excellence in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
But I am now more optimistic than I have been for a long time. Here’s why, based on my definition of an excellent education, which is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a rich, logically sequenced liberal arts curriculum to all students:
The first item in that definition, concerning excellent teachers, is paramount. To get more excellent teachers into the classroom, we must have more flexibility in our efforts to hire such teachers, increasing their numbers in the available prospective teacher pool by considering those who have opted for nontraditional pathways such as Teach for America and alternative licensure. Once we have more talented and promising teachers in the pool, school principals keen on getting the best possible teaching talent into the classroom must be allowed to offer contracts to such teachers. Two conditions at the Minneapolis Public Schools serve as harbingers of hope on the matter of enhanced teacher quality:
First, Superintendent Johnson clearly understands the need to elevate the quality of teaching in the classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools. In a speech delivered in mid-May 2013, on the cusp of negotiations with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), she argued forcefully for hiring of teachers on the basis of quality, rather than seniority. She asserted that offers for new teacher hires should emanate from building principals and others acting in behalf of the school district, rather than at the behest of the union.
Second, Johnson and her human resources department head, Rick Kreyer, know that they must become ever more energized in their implementation of the very promising teacher evaluation process already in place at the Minneapolis Public Schools. These two key officials know that ineffective teachers must be jettisoned and that we need to move as rapidly as possible toward the goal of genuine pedagogical excellence. And in an atmosphere in which teachers are judged on student performance, administration of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for math and reading will continue in grades 3-8. Likewise, the grade 10 reading and grade 11 math MCAs, though no longer required for graduation, will still be administered. This means that representatives of the MFT cannot prevail in efforts to avoid objective testing and genuine teacher accountability.
As to the second item in my definition of an excellent education, I also see hope that Superintendent Johnson understands the need for a richer liberal arts curriculum, sequenced logically throughout the K-12 experience. At one of the “Soup with the Supe” events held by the Minneapolis Public Schools during the past (2012-2013) academic year, I asked some very tough questions and made very forthright assertions concerning curricular weakness, particularly at the K-5 level. The superintendent handled those questions with good grace and conveyed to me the general sense that her own moves toward focused instruction and curriculum standardization are meant to address the problem with curriculum, and that further improvements will be forthcoming.
Buoyed by the prospects for Bernadeia Johnson becoming that most unlikely of public figures, the truly great and transformative public schools superintendent, I intend to do everything I can to support her and urge others to do the same. Too often, representatives of the MFT and those school board and state legislative representatives endorsed and supported by the union have successfully set an agenda advancing the interests of adults in the education establishment over those of students. Citizens should rally to the efforts of people in such organizations as the African American Leadership Forum, StudentsFirst, Put Kids First Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Foundation, MinnCAN, and my own New Salem Educational Initiative to encourage Bernadeia Johnson along a pathway that follows her own best instincts.
Those instincts are very sound, and with them come the prospects for Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson being an agent for educational excellence in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
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