There's No place Like Home Part 1

I have recently been visiting several different schools. I find myself on this quest because there is a possibility that I will be getting a lucrative job opportunity---one that would crazy to pass up----one that I would've jumped at had I never experienced homeschooling.

I can only say that ALL of the places DISAPPOINT!

I decided to visit a school that is a selective enrollment option that you have to go through approximately 1,204 hoops to get into. I emailed the principal and asked if I could tour the school. I corresponded with him several times and sent William's standardized test scores that he took last year at his former private school. They were well above the mandatory score and so I  got a tour set up. Walking through the school was not in the least bit inspiring. The students didn't seem engaged at all when we entered the classes. William did not like it at all. Still I muddled through smiling and flashing my beguiling smile. Granted Middle Schoolers are hard to read in general---and there is the major fact that we are entering classrooms on this tour WITH the principal of the school. Yet, something just felt......como se dice --------BLAH. I haven't emailed back yet.


I called the CPS's Options for Knowledge department to inquire about just that: "my options for knowledge".  I was given a list of schools that had spaces left and that might be a rigorous learning environment for my son.


I was given a list of schools and their test scores. I visited websites and i ANALYZED the test scores. I am the type of woman who digs into the test scores of schools and was not surprised at what I saw at most of the schools.


I look at demographics, I look at gender performance, I look at performance by race, and I look at attendance rate. Many of the schools the African American male students had the lowest of the %'s that met and exceded the mastery of the standard. This of course was a big concern for me.


I also viewed one school that seemed almost picture perfect. It was pretty much equally divided by African American, white, and Latin Americans.The scores of the minority students seemed to be within one or two percentage points in general------ But a picture hanging in the office caught my attention. The graduating class was only minority students. Why is that I wondered. What happened to the white students?

to be continued.

Summer, Summer, Summertime

This has been an eye opening last few weeks for your friendly neighborhood educator-turned-homeschool mom.
I am going to start with just a brief synopsis of our summer. The next post will be about the current events.

William had a busy and awesome summer. It was filled with all the things he loves to do-----self expression through his talents.
He started the summer out with Choir Camp where he has an MP3 of him singing I'll Be There by The Jacksons. LOL That was followed by Guitar Camp. Guitar Camp took him to another level and I am happy to say he is learning a very difficult song completely prompted by intrinsic motivation! Yeah!

He celebrated his birthday with his good friend Raphael at Great America. He enjoyed himself and that was good thing. We couldn't even begin to top last year's birthday of Michael Jackson so we just settled for fun with good friends.

We had a week off to just hang out together and enjoy doing nothing----bored us to tears unfortunately. After Guitar Camp ended William attended a 4 week Theatre camp where he landed a big role in the production. During all these activities he went on several auditions for small plays and was casted in two other plays outside of his camp production. We were crazy and all over the place for a minute. Only one play proved a disappointment to him. These two plays at the small Theater company were directed by young college students and they were a little inexperienced. However, one of the plays turned out to be decent. The other play, however was nothing less than majorly yucky. He didn't want anyone to see the production. Unfortunately, his Aunt and her boyfriend did and he was mortified.

His acting mentor, my good friend, told him that doing a bad production was good experience for him because he NOW can identify the difference between a good production and a not so good production.

He also learned a bit about himself as well. He needs a structure and focus to bring out the best in him. The director was all over the place and didn't hold the children accountable for their parts in the play. When all around him the quality was low guess what?---so was William's. He learned a valuable lesson and he realized his parents were right all along. (Don't you just love it when they start realizing you are right? YEAH)

We have been telling William no matter what is happening around you BE YOUR BEST SELF. Be your BEST at all times. He realizes that there was nothing he could've done to make the one production a success---But he could've made his performance that much better.

Grier and I had summer camp as well. We went on a few picnics together- we went shopping, went to several parks, she took an art class, she became a member of an indoor play space, and she did 4 day summer camp! Thank you Living Social Coupon!

My children had a great Summer and so I had a great Summer!

And then it happend:

The prospect of going back into the workforce reared it's ugly head and it comes with an opportunity that can't be ignored. 

Ahhhhhh! Reason # 315 for why people homeschool.

Teacher Refers to First Graders as “Future Criminals”

August 30, 2011 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World



Jennifer O’Brien, a teacher in Paterson, New Jersey is in serious trouble after some remarks she made about her first graders on Facebook.  The teacher, who’d grown frustrated with her class, went to Facebook to state that some of her students were “future criminals.”  The bulk of O’Brien’s students are black and hispanic.
During her peculiar Facebook post, O’Brien stated that she’d just spent another day in the “blackboard jungle.”  She then went on to say “I’m not a teacher, I’m a warden for future criminals.”
Later in the day, O’Brien went back to Facebook to ask why her first graders couldn’t be put into a scared straight program, which allows young people to meet real prison inmates.  “They had a scared straight program in school — why couldn’t i bring 1st graders?” she said.
O’Brien’s comments got back to the school board, who suspended her immediately.  This week, she appeared before a government school inquisition, who asked her about the situation.  That’s when O’Brien told an administrative judge that she wrote the post because six or seven students kept disrupting her lessons and interrupting the children who wanted to learn.
O’Brien claims that one boy hit her, another one hit a child in the class, and she had filed several disciplinary reports to the principal.
“I was speaking out of frustration to their behavior, just that build up of ‘I don’t know what else to do,’ and I’m actually scared for their futures, for some of them,” O’Brien said. “If you’re hitting your teacher at 6 or 7 years old, that’s not a good path.”
“The reason why she was suspended was because the incident created serious problems at the school that impeded the functioning of the building,” board president Theodore Best said to North Jersey.com. “You can’t simply fire someone for what they have on a Facebook page; but if that spills over and affects the classroom then you can take action.”
“This is not first time I’ve heard something like this from a teacher,” Best said.  “Overall, I think we have really good teachers. But there’s also a significant population of teachers here to collect the paycheck and don’t have the best interests of the students in mind.”
While O’Brien’s frustration is certainly understandable, it’s not difficult to see that her comments are rooted in the same racial bias that destroys so many black and brown children in America’s broken school system.  Although Ms. O’Brien would like to believe that these six year old children have already routed themselves to prison, the truth is that she herself has incarcerated her kids in the prison of low expectations.  Instead of spending her time trying to elevate their minds to become doctors, lawyers and professors, Ms. O’Brien seems to believe that the most she can do for her six year olds is keep them out of jail.
I find myself personally disappointed with those remarks because I was one of those children:  Horrible grades, in detention more than class, and in the principal’s office so much that I knew the names of all of his children.  The truth was that I wasn’t a dumb child or one who was destined for the penitentiary; I was looking for a teacher who gave a damn about me and didn’t think I was a menace to society.  Also, school bored me to death.
If Ms. O’Brien can’t handle little black kids, she doesn’t need to be teaching them.  The school district in Paterson would be wise to realize that there are thousands of highly-qualified black and brown teachers, consultants and counselors who know how to handle black children.  Unfortunately, the overseers of our educational systems would rather have the black/brown inner city children poisoned by the white female teacher from the suburbs than to have that child exposed to someone like myself or Dr. Marc Lamont Hill at Columbia University (controversial and “dangerous” black men).  So, in some ways, even as an adult, many of us are still being treated like the children in Ms. O’Brien’s class.
I recall visiting an inner city school in my hometown of Syracuse.  The school was 70% black and latino, yet every single teacher in the seventh grade was a white woman from the suburbs.  The school was depressing both inside and out, like a cross between a penitentiary and an insane asylum.  I was asked to speak to the children with alleged learning and behavioral disorders.  It was interesting to see the shock on the faces of the teachers when they saw how well their black male students responded to another black male:  They were quiet, respectful, and many of them came to me to ask what they should study in college.  This outcome was in stark contrast to what the white female teachers claim they’d seen from the students every other day.
The reality is that educating black and brown kids is not rocket science.  But trying to educate them without sufficient cultural competence in the educator’s background is like running a nuclear reactor with a manager from Burger King.  Our children have a tremendous amount of potential.  But unfortunately, their futures are aborted before they even have a chance to exist.  The American school system is probably one of the worst places in the world for black kids to be educated, and women like Ms. O’Brien should have a zero tolerance policy for such immature and short-sighted behavior.
There is no such thing as a six-year old convict.  It’s up to us to at least give that child a chance.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Facebook, please visit this link.

A series of Peculiar Events; The Chicago Public School automated call

My phone rings and I rush to find it waiting in anticipation for me to fiddle with it. It's a 312 number that I don't recognize. I am really unsure why I answered it- it's not my style to answer an unknown number. But today I did. And that is the first peculiar thing about this 52 second series of events.

It was an automated message. I usually hang up---but I was on a role and playing the un-Dana so well that I decided to listen. Peculiarity #2. It was from Chicago Public schools. The normal Dana would've just hung up but I didn't. Peculiarity #3.

The automated voice was pleasant. I wish they would get someone from the CPS mailroom to do the automated voice instead---spice it up a bit. Or maybe they could get any one of the CPS school clerks who have been that not-so-friendly face in the school office for 32 years +. You know that school front office manager that treats you, the parent, like you are a child with late crumpled attendance slips trying to sneak a piece of stale candy from the porcelain red apple dish on the counter?

Anyway, it was a pleasant voice and she requested that I listen and consider taking a survey. I mean the un-Dana wanted to so I appeased her. The voice  explained that it should only take 5-7 minutes. Now, the maximum time I ever allot for providing my opinion to automated voices is a 3 question minimum and it that should only take 2 minutes tops. But peculiarity #4 was bursting to the surface so I decided to complete the survey. And "the voice" was so pleasant.

First question:
Do you have a school aged child or grandchild (shout out to the grandparents raising their children's children!) currently attending a CPS school? I am a homeschooling mom who got fed up with CPS and so I pressed the digit that corresponded to the "No" but I was feeling that they should've had a "Hell No!" option to pressor maybe even a "been there done that" option. 

As soon as I pressed the button she said: "This survey will now end Thank You!"

I thought about the public school my son attended and the others where I taught, and then the  12 others where I trained the after-school coordinators. I think I have a lot to say that is of value.

I am very curious about the content of the other 6:08 seconds. What did they ask those other parents? !?!?! I'd really like to know.

I do hope they call me back and ask why I removed my son from their environment. I think they probably wanted to know if the parent or legal guardian, or grandparent, was  happy with the school their child is attending.

Most schools across the city aren't doing well--maybe 5% are.

Doesn't "the voice" realize the state of the schools and that no one is satisfied with the CPS system?

Peculiar