Fun Little Moments

It's been too long since there has been a post! I will be updating a little more regularly the next couple weeks, thanks to a couple bigger things I am a part of with some high school students. More on that later, but for now I thought I would share some of the highlights from the past few weeks with band students I work with.

The sixth graders are a quality group that have continued to loosen up as the year has worn on. They are always polite, and have shown bits and pieces of personality more often:

• One girl showed up with flashy purple and orange shoes a couple weeks ago. I thought they looked really cool, so I complimented her on them after class. She thanked me, and we started talking about how much we like the color orange (it is my favorite color). Apparently her whole bedroom is orange, and she made it clear that it was a bright orange. I asked her how she sleeps at night with such a bright room, and she said she is used to it. It's kind of like a night light.
• One of the flutes showed up with shutter shades the other day. I noticed them on her music stand before class, and commented on them. She said I could try them on. So I did, and I noticed quite a few grins from the students around. One of the clarinets spoke up and said it was a good look for me.
• This week was teacher appreciation week. I was oblivious to this until Thursday, but then one of the clarinets gave the band director and me little bags with goodies. The girl has exquisite taste (Starbursts, Hershey's nuggets, and a Lindt truffle!), but her demeanor was the best part. She walked up, handed me my bag, and said it was for teacher appreciation week. I thanked her as warmly as I could, which was easy, because it was such a heartwarming surprise. Even though she had taken the time to make the bags, she wanted to get the moment over with quickly and head back to her seat. I think I can relate - I was one of those students who always felt awkward in those situations where you wanted to show some sort of appreciation, but keep that professional distance that's hard to keep when you give someone a token of appreciation.

Now, on to the endlessly colorful fifth graders:

• I usually get to fifth grade band well before class starts, to monitor the kids in the hallway. They are bused to the junior high, and have to wait for a zero period class to finish up before they can go in the room. As I entered the hallway, one of the saxes zipped by me, and when he got to his friends just ahead of me, I heard him exclaim, "I beat Mr. Chalberg!"
• I recently did sectionals with each section over the course of several band periods. The flutes ended up being the last group, and long story short, they had to wait a while due to some scheduling complications. They were quite happy when they finally got their turn. In particular, one girl (who comes up to about my waist) started bench pressing her flute as we waited for one of the flautists to grab something from the band room. Several players in the section felt the urge to flaunt their flute-lifting abilities after that. For a couple minutes, we morphed from sectional to weight training, but it was a good time for a quick break anyway :)
• One of the fifth grade french horn players told me that he picked the instrument to improve his chances at college scholarships. How's that for thinking ahead?
• One morning a week ago, it seemed like show-and-tell. One girl came up to me, and made sure I saw her super cool pair of socks. A minute later, another girl came up and showed me a couple faces she had painted on her feet. I asked if they had names (no). I noticed they were a boy and girl, so I asked if they were a couple (not yet).
• Probably the quote of the year here. The most outspoken girl in the band (without question), burst into the hallway, came up to me, and yelled, "Junior high boys should NOT wear cologne! They are stinky enough already, and all they are tying to do is pick up girls!!" I couldn't help but laugh, and I told her I agreed with her. I also told her that I wasn't wearing any cologne.

This year, many of my favorite moments have been before and after class. Those aren't areas where much formal teaching takes place, but they are the best places to find out who the students are as people. I love getting to know the students on some sort of personal level, because they are great people. I also think it helps me get more out of them when it is time to learn.

The Power of Curiosity

A couple days ago I read an article about a remarkable fossil found. The fossils are part of a "new" species called Australopithecus sediba. I put "new" in parentheses because the species is estimated to be around a couple million years old. It probably would be more accurate to say it was recently discovered. Anyway, the big hoopla over the fossils is that they are really old, quite complete, and may help bridge the gap between apes and humans in evolution.

I have now shared everything I know about fossils. I'm not up for a creation versus evolution debate today, either. In fact, I'm not as interested in the first half of the article as I am in the second. The story behind the discoveries is fascinating. It starts out usual enough, with a paleoanthropologist (Lee Burger) and a graduate assistant. However, Berger also brought along his nine-year-old son, Matthew. The rest is now history:

Google Earth's satellite and 3-D capabilities provided the technology and the ability to share information with other scientists. Berger and geologist Professor Paul Dirks discovered approximately 130 known cave sites and 20 fossil deposits in the area.

Once the sites were identified, it was time for Berger and his team to begin looking for fossils. But neither he nor his team were responsible for finding the first sediba fossils.

Berger's 9-year-old son Matthew made discovery.

Two years ago Berger took Matthew out to the site along with a graduate student and their dog. Like all curious little boys Matthew ran off to explore, and after traveling about 15 minutes outside of the site Matthew ran back and yelling, "Dad, I found a fossil!"

(source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fossil-hold-key-evolution-show-apes-humans/story?id=10320180&page=2)

That's right, after all that research and education by the grown-ups, it was the kid that wandered off in whatever direction for whatever reason, and made a discovery that he probably can't wrap his head around yet. He wasn't actively looking for anything. He was just being a nine-year-old, looking for a good time while Daddy did his job.

That's probably a little romanticized. How many nine-year-olds can identify a fossil in the wild? The kid has some knowledge, and probably has accompanied his father on other explorations. It's still a super cool story though. Matthew was simply curious to see what was out there, and when he found something he thought was cool, he had to show his Daddy!

I'm a little jealous. I think the coolest thing I ever showed my dad was a bee hive I spotted on the eave of our roof. My dad didn't have any troubles containing his excitement. ABC News didn't report on it either.

Anyway, I'm not bitter. I salute Matthew, and I have already filed away his story in a safe place. It will come in handy some day.

One thing that constantly frustrates me when I tutor high school math is how math gets portrayed. Virtually every student sees math as a tangled web of equations, formulas, and functions. Everything is rehearsed repeatedly in homework. It's so mechanical, and it seems to drain the students.

It drains me to watch it.

Also, it's not just in math. For instance, I learned chunk writing in high school. Just about every basic skill learned in school has been broken down into a basic, repeatable, learnable, process. I don't think that's a problem by itself. Actually, it should be very helpful.

What frustrates me is that processes should be tools. Somehow, they have become more than that though. Education, far too often, is zapping students of their natural curiosity.

The current system seems to engrain in students that success is solely about sticking to the specific path outlined by the processes learned in curriculum. It's an assembly line approach. A student comes in, one teacher gives them this, another that, and at the end of the year they come out the end altered as desired, and altered in the same way as every other student. Or, as education likes to put it, things are "standardized."

The story of Matthew and the ancient fossil is a powerful metaphor. The adults took an assembly line approach. They had specific strategies, a carefully devised method, and in general were using the processes they had learned and acquired. Matthew, on the other hand, had no approach at all. All he had was curiosity. Fifteen minutes later, Matthew was the one screaming "look what I found!" while the adults were sifting through dust.

Now, I'm not promoting educational anarchy. Matthew had a much better chance of finding something thanks to his father's strategies. It was his father's research and strategic exploration that put him in position in the first place. However, old-fashioned curiosity, with no learned method or strategy attached, is what finished the job. In the end, it was a blend of knowledge and curiosity that brought forth a great discovery.

Education can't lose sight of curiosity. Curiosity needs to be fostered and promoted, but I think standardization tends to suppress it. A nine-year-old can find a missing evolutionary link with it. Curiosity is pretty powerful.

Favors

I worked with a high school student yesterday on their math homework. I had not worked with this student before, and the first words out the student's mouth were, "I'm no good at math." That's not the first time I've heard that out of a student's mouth, and I'm sure I have many more times to look forward to hearing that too.

As I started working with the student, I found out a little more about him. He is an athlete, and was quick to talk about football. This student was quickly gravitating towards the jock archetype in my head.

By the way, "jock" isn't necessarily a bad title in my head. I am a big sports fan, and I was interested to hear about this student's football career. I think sports can be very powerful and educational, and often they are. However, with the fame and glory around athletics, they are also prone to corruption.

In particular, the student I worked with yesterday might have already experienced a taste of it. About halfway through the worksheet, he told me his math teacher last year was a big supporter of the football team - so big that the student thinks the only reason he "passed" is because he is on the football team.

I don't know the teacher, and I didn't see any of this student's math work from last year. I have no idea what really happened. That doesn't really matter though. Perception is reality, and this student perceived that he got a favor because he plays football.

In the end, all I really did was point at a helpful formula in the student's textbook, and that's almost all he needed to figure out the assignment. He was incredibly thankful though. He said it is the first time he has got an assignment done in a long time. There were fist bumps after every other problem or so (he is an athlete after all). This student was clearly enthused to get his math homework done, and to do the work himself. He even flashed remarkable mental math abilities, commenting that he doesn't like to take shortcuts with his work.

I worked with the student for maybe 15 minutes, but it was fascinating. I am inclined to believe that this student was passed through the system for some reason, and perhaps it was football. It also seems reasonable to assume that the math teacher thought it was better to pass him through than not.

However, the strategy backfired. Is it that surprising this student had no confidence in his math abilities, when he thinks he didn't earn the math grade he got last year? Furthermore, I don't have a great feel for how much the student likes math, but he clearly demonstrated a good work ethic, a desire to learn the material, and the potential to master the content. That doesn't sound to me like the type of student that needs to be passed through any class.

I think anyone would say that a teacher isn't doing a student a favor by giving free rides. However, I think people tend to assume that the alternative meets some resistance from the student. Clearly, at least in some cases, that isn't so.

Unpaid Internships Exploited

Quickly becoming a staple of undergraduate college experiences are internships. At first blush, this is a good thing. It gets a student's feet wet in a career path they are interested in, and will have the skills to go into after graduation.

Not all internships are created equal though. In particular, some are paid, and others are not. You would think paid and unpaid ones to look different, and you are right.

There are problems in the differences though.

Moreover, there are problems with unpaid internships, as this New York Times article discusses. It should not be too surprising either. A for-profit company is still looking to make a profit, even when they offer internships.

In theory, an internship is an educational opportunity for a student. However, if a company is primarily worried about making a profit, what stops them from exploiting unpaid interns for labor? Interns have absolutely no experience or seniority, so they aren't likely to cry foul. Interns could jeopardize their entire career before it even starts by speaking up. Advantage: company, in a landslide. In fact, given the leverage companies have over interns, what's stopping a company from making interns do the jobs nobody else wants to do? It's not that far-fetched to see a board of directors incorporating unpaid internships into their business model.

Unpaid internships could easily be used by companies to increase profits. Anecdotal evidence screams loud and clear that it is happening too, and may have been accelerated by the slumped economy.

This is what happens when worlds collide. On one hand, we have colleges and universities concerned with giving their students an educational experience outside the classroom that helps them when they enter the "real world." On the other, we have future employers constantly looking for ways to increase their bottom line. Their motivations are not going to change, even when a university opens up their student body to them.

That's not to say that companies and university don't have some shared goals. There are benefits on a company's end to letting students get a taste of what working at their company is like. If all goes right, that student will be a more qualified employee when they hit the work force, and the student will  perhaps prefer to work for that company over others. In a perfect world, this is how internships work. They should benefit everyone involved.

However, a business is still a business, and it seems the invisible hand shoves unpaid interns towards menial tasks the company does not want to pay someone minimum wage to do. To me, the easiest solution is to only let organizations with non-profit status offer unpaid internships. It may not fix everything, but it would go a long way towards limiting the exploitation going on now.

It is disheartening how easily education gets tossed to the wayside sometimes.

Speaking of Gaps....

First, my sincere apologies for being very absent-minded lately. I will be trying to post more regularly on the blog to help create a more continuous dialogue.

Second, Tim's post about the poor teachers "feeding" the achievement gap was really interesting. The first Newsweek article was fascinating! I can begin to understand this concept and the difficulty in defining what is a bad teachers. Additionally, it is unfortunate teacher unions do not place more emphasis and/or encourage skills development for improving teaching performance. I would think, being in the business of teaching, that teachers would need to meet some union standard or participate in career development or evaluation standards. But then again, how do you implement this? How do you enforce it without inserting more government bureaucracy? Hmmm....

What has prompted changes in the teaching profession, where recruited teachers are not up to the previous standards? It was a surprise to realize that weaker teachers were often paired with weaker students. Somehow this does not seem reasonable. Teachers should be held to a high standard with strict consequences. Teachers are responsible for future generations!

Tim, what are your follow-up thoughts? What do you think about charter schools?

Well....as a parallel to the educational system, there is also a gap in the criminal justice system. I think I am going to research and find some supporting facts and data for this concept. However, for now, I will begin to explain my perspective. First, I do not believe the gap exists on the law enforcement level. This stage is simply acting upon the commission of crimes and their influence more or less ends after suspects are booked into jail and perhaps lasts into a trial. I believe the majority of the gap occurs between the court and the method for corrections.

Prison and jail are simply no longer deterrents. Recidivism is on the rise and many "repeat" offenders are continuing to commit many of the same crimes with little evidence of stopping. In the State of Washington, shorter prison terms seem to be a popular trends among courts, for example, in a particular case, a drunk driver who was travelling 50 mph in a 25 mph zone who hit a pedestrian, killing them, and left the scene only to be arrested by detectives 24 hours later, recieved seven years in prison. However, what is not often revealed is only 2/3 of the sentence is served while incarcerated. Often times, the last 3rd (or more) is servied while in community custody (probation or parole).

Since this post is beginning to ramble on....my final thought is the need for creating programs geared to changing behavior through other means than incarceration alone. I support skill development programs, labor-intensive programs, counseling, and substance abuse education. More to come....

The Role Teachers Play In The Achievement Gap

I've been meaning to get to how teachers impact the achievement gap. They are arguably the most influential group, considering that teachers are the ones directly interacting with hundreds of students every day. Everyone else largely provides the scaffolding teachers and students work in. Obviously, bad framework makes it harder to progress, but not even the best-designed skyscraper will stand in the rain if it's made of cardboard. That's kind of what it's like to have a bad teacher.

A couple articles passed along to me highlight some of the problems with teacher accountability right now, and how painfully hard they are to fix. The first (available here) highlights how little accountability there is in teaching right now. There is practically no way to weed out bad teachers right now, and statistics back this sobering fact up. The second (available here) digs into the struggles with teacher unions.

The bottom line is that ineffective teachers are feeding the achievement gap. They are arguably the biggest culprit, and also arguably the most realistic area for improvement.

While I understand that it is a union's responsibility to protect its worker's rights, I wish teacher unions better recognized how badly it reflects on the good teachers when so the bad ones continue to pass through unchallenged. I believe it is in a teacher union's best interest to explore teacher accountability too, though that does not seem to be the mainstream thinking at the moment. There are sporadic glimmers of hope from time to time though.

Typical Morning

My mantra, especially with the fifth graders I work with, is "always an adventure." Here is a sampling of what I'm talking about. Actual questions and quotes from about 75 minutes of action with fifth grade band students this morning:

• "I'm usually at the bus stop at 6:45, but I woke up at 6:47 so I had to hurry out of bed and get my clothes on. I didn't have time to go to the bathroom or anything.  I ran to the bus stop, and it was just about to leave when I got there! Is it okay if I go to the bathroom?"
• "You should have brought your saxophone today. It sounds WAY cooler...It sounds like jazz."
• "What was the first book Dr. Seuss wrote?"
• "She's scary!" (accompanied by a finger point, and hiding behind my back)
• "Who invented the printing press?"
• "I broke my foot...(I ask about it)...Yeah, it hurts. It feels like it's burning."
• (I ask if this student had a Mountain Dew this morning) "NO! PEANUT BUTTER!"
• "Can I go to the bathroom?"
• "Can I get a part for Nottingham Castle?"
• "I left my book here last time. I think someone took it by accident."
• "Can I get a part to Star Wars?"
• "SHE'S SITTING IN MY SPOT!"
• "Can you fix my reed?"
• "My clarinet doesn't sound very loud today."
• "Is it okay if I go to the bathroom?"
• "My ears hurt!"
• (I complement a student on being ready for class) "HE KNOWS MY NAME!"
• "Can we play number 55 after this?"
• "I can't hear myself play."
• "Is it alright if I go to the bathroom?"
• "Can Mr. Chalberg play Star Wars at the end of class?"
• "It's my birthday tomorrow...(I ask if the student came down just to tell me that)...Yeah."

Always an adventure.

Long-term Consequences

Well, first I apologize for it being so long since my last post. Last week I was at a training conference and gone all week. This past week seemed busy with a more serious call load than normal.

Anyway, Tim's last few posts got me thinking about the long-term consequences I see everyday. It is truly amazing how influential childhood circumstances can be in an individual's life; it literally can be lifelong. I find myself asking, "what if someone had cared enough?"......cared enough to spend that quality time with their child, cared enough to offer support and encouragement, cared enough to simply display genuine interest in the life in their life? What could have been?

All too often, I witness the personal and emotional needs and difficulties of parents being placed in front of their children, preventing any positive personal interaction. Too often, drug and alcohol addictions, poor relationships, emotional struggles, socio-economic status, and other conditions limiting human functioning seem to overwhelm many families. These traits usually become instilled in children and the trend is passed down.

While my statements above seem to lack thoughtful analysis, I am perfectly aware all of us endure hardship at one point. I am more addressing the extreme cases where literally the family system does not display any signs of healthy functioning. Growing up myself in a lower-middle class status, my parents struggled with finances and my mother endured some harsh circumstances as a child which effect her today----but they did not prevent our family from practicing healthy habits and functioning as a family unit.

Having a child requires RESPONSIBILITY! It automatically implies effort and self sacrifice. The goal is to provide your child with love and support and help them develop skills to live an emotionally, physically, and mentally successful life. Children cannot raise themselves. They are adaptive and learn by example. Their functioning depends on the people around them, especially parents. If you want to raise children, please, put them first!

Home In The Classroom: Income

The last time I wrote about the achievement gap, I touched on the difference parenting can make. That is not the only difference parents make though. Income has quite a bit to do with the gap as well.

A couple weeks ago, I had to spontaneously write for a grad school application. It was a 30-minute, timed response to a short article about a study on teacher movement in a school district. The article covered how the district went from intentionally integrating the district's demographics, to discontinuing the practice. Quickly, schools stratified, based on race and income (which are, unfortunately, correlated). Soon after the switch, teachers within the district moved to the schools with more affluent students.

It shouldn't be too surprising. Pretty much anywhere, money talks.

The problem is that education should be what fuels an open class system. It should be the "golden ticket" for people to make what they want of themselves. In a nation with public education, and "the American dream," there is a pledge to give everyone a fair chance. That can't really happen in a system where there are the "haves" and "have-nots," and it has a ton to do with parents' income.

The rich will tend to stay rich, and the poor will tend to stay poor. Students that could benefit the most from good teachers are left with lackluster ones. Just yesterday, I was reminded of this starkly a couple times.

One student had a worksheet with story problems, and I suggested we read through them together. The student's response was, "I think the teacher just wants the answers. She said we would get freaked out if we tried to read the problem." So inspiring.

Later on another, much younger, student kept falling asleep, and complained about being really hungry. The student didn't get lunch because their teacher gave them five minutes to chow down before making them work some more.

I'll stop there for now. Education impacts income, and income impacts education. It's a symbiotic relationship that makes it difficult for students to move up or down in the world based on their own merit. Of course, this wouldn't be such a problem if there were more good teachers to go around and/or if the bad ones weren't so bad. That's a topic for another post though...

Pure Greatness

I tend to be a Debbie Downer with all the achievement gap stuff. It's time to lighten the mood a bit again.

With the Winter Olympics underway, high achievement is on my mind. I'm always amazed at how good world-class athletes get at their sport, particularly Olympic sports. Not to take anything away from, say, an NBA basketball player, but there is a degree of fame in mainstream sports that isn't there in most Olympic events. Yet there are world class curlers and cross-country skiers, and they still completely dedicate themselves to being the best they can be. Without much fame involved, their dedication has a purity that mainstream sports simply can't have.

These people come from somewhere, and one of the most exciting parts of working with students is watching their potential, and what they do with it. For instance, the other day I was talking with one of the sixth grade band students I work with. She is one of the stronger players in the class, and already devotes lots of time each week to practicing. However, this weekend she is off singing in an honor choir. She squeezes this all in while playing volleyball and basketball too (though thankfully those sports don't overlap). Something tells me her grades aren't suffering either.

Oh, and she does it all with a smile on her face, and remarkable courtesy and respect. When she started talking about her sports involvement, I said, "Geez, what don't you do?" and she smiled/giggled for a few moments, then responded with, "They keep me active and in shape." It's not about standing out in a crowd; it's about doing what she wants to do.

Some kids are really driven, and even as they explore a bunch of directions, they never back off the throttle. Kids like that can go so many directions in life, and succeed no matter what path they choose. Watching their skills and interests develop, and maybe giving them a little wisdom as they make big choices, is totally awesome. It's kind of like that big present under the Christmas tree that doesn't really shake or rattle: You don't know what it is, but you know it is going to be great.

Home In The Classroom: Parenting

Time for me to continue my little look at the achievement gap from different perspectives. This post is the first about the role parenting plays.

It is known that a student's home life has a tremendous impact on their success in school, which makes sense. A home that offers a good study environment gives a student a good place to do homework, while also sending a message that their education matters. That message is further reinforced when parents make sure their kid gets their homework done, and when they show up to their sports games, concerts, and whatever else. A student is more likely to take their education seriously when the adults in their life make it a priority.

On the flip side, a bad or negligent home environment gives the opposite message. When a kid has to worry about yelling, screaming, and maybe even physical abuse when they get home, those worries come before homework. Even if the abuse is only around the student, and not directed at them, it creates a toxic environment (would anyone study at a library if it regularly held WWE events?).

In some ways though, an absent parent is the worst of all. The type that watches television and barely notices when their kid comes home, much less when they have a big test or project. They send a message that the kid's schoolwork does not matter, or maybe something even worse: the kid doesn't matter. Education is filled with challenges and obstacles, and a kid with a "why bother?" attitude will not have the will power to make it through, even if they have all the ability in the world.

That is my pitch for why parents should be an active part of education. Just sending the message to a kid that education matters, and that they can learn what they are being taught, does wonders. Absent parents that adopt the attitude that it is school's job to take care of education do their own kids a disservice. It gives them a major hurdle to climb over in the classroom.

While I think parenting is not a major cause of the achievement gap, it plays a pivotal role in which students persevere. In an educational system that has fostered an achievement gap, perseverance is critical to success, and parenting is the best way to cultivate it.

Again, play nice.....funny joke.

WHY YOU NEVER QUESTION A DRUNK ... I was shopping at the local supermarket where I selected: A half-gallon of 2% milk A carton of eggs A quart of orange juice A head of lettuce A 2 lb. Can of coffee A 1 lb. Package of bacon As I was unloading my items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind me watched as I placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated, 'You must be single.' I was a bit startled by this proclamation, but I was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since I indeed had never found Mr. Right. I looked at the six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about my selections that could have tipped off the drunk to my marital status.. Curiosity getting the better of me, I said , 'Yes you are correct . But how on earth did you know that?' The drunk replied, 'Cause you're ugly.

Play nice with the other children

I have come to believe the people LE typically deals with are pretty much are adults stuck in a child's body.....and like Tim's last post, these adult children can sometimes be very funny (though not really cute....more repelling). For example,

• My favorite line is: "I'm tryin' to be honest with you"......how do you try to be honest?

• I contacted a guy at a gas station......."I'm no criminal, I been arrested for theft".......3 minutes later....."I'll be honest with you, I got arrested once for drugs, but they set me up"........5 minutes later......."I might have some warrants, but its only for domestic violence"......."I did sell drugs one time, but that was a while ago" - hmmmmm

• A while ago my partner and I went to an attempted suicide where a person attempted suicide. They had texted a friend that they had cut their neck and wanted to overdose on pills. When we arrived medics determined the cut was only superficial (though bleeding pretty good). The person became enraged when we had to transport them to the hospital for a mental evaluation!!! They insisted they were fine and did not have mental problems!! - like a kid saying "NO!"......oh yes. Yep.

• While on the way to the jail, our arrestee asks from the backseat, "Do you think we'll get there in time for dinner?" -is this your most immediate concern at the moment?!

It's funny how some of the people we arrest are so simple minded (not a negative connotation). They are like overgrown kids! It will never cease to amaze me!
 

Toys, Toys, Toys

This is the joy of working with kids. This was my Tuesday in three snapshots:

• A group of 5th graders before class was huddled around a handheld version of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" For the record, they weren't doing too bad.
• In that same class before the period started, one of the 5th graders came up to me and proclaimed, "I need 5,000 yams and an AK-47!" I told him I doubted that he could get that many yams in the school, and I was even more sure he wouldn't get an AK-47 in. He assured me he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone, since he just wanted to spray yam guts around. I've chosen to be impressed by his imagination...
• In the evening I worked with a 5th grader one-on-one at a mentoring program. The group activity at the end of the night was making cards/drawings/messages to send to Haiti earthquake victims. My student asked if we could skip it and go play basketball. I said no, but we could play after we were done. So, I was concerned he would blow off the activity, but he decided to get two sheets of paper and told me to copy what he did. We proceeded to fold the paper into boats, and then cut out masts and glue them to the center. On the mast, he wrote "we care," and then on the boat itself, he wrote his name and "we love." I told him he has a big heart. He asked if I was sure, and I said yes. He added that he hoped the victims could play with the boat and have some fun, at which point he pointed out that it can actually float in water.

Working with younger kids has reminded me how awesome toys are. I loved Legos growing up, and some of the kids I work with love them too. I like talking about toys with them when I get the chance, because it gives me a glimpse into their interests. They are always excited to talk about something they play with.

In my short time regularly working with 5th graders, I've realized that you are always on the brink of something memorable with them. It may be funny, it may be outrageous, or it may even be deep and meaningful. It is part of the adventure.

The Achievement Gap: The "Dirty Little Secret"

I will do my best to regularly post on Wednesdays. Consider this my first "regular" post.

As I mentioned the last time I wrote, I have my first big topic I want to discuss: the achievement gap, particularly in the Tacoma school district. Simply put, minorities don't do as well in school as whites. It's been a "dirty little secret" for some time, and it's long overdue to receive proper attention. It's now gaining some of its due recognition in Tacoma, as evidenced by this report.

One problem is that the achievement gap is easy to overlook, especially when nobody wants to look at it. The Tacoma school district is a poster child for how this happens. In 1961, they became the first school district to desegregate schools without a court order. Pressure from many groups kept the movement alive, and in 1979 the US Commission on Civil Rights deemed the city of Tacoma a "direct beneficiary" of the district's "successful desegregation effort."

In theory, desegregation should even the playing field. In reality, desegregation looks something like this in Tacoma public schools right now:

• As of 2007-2008, 49% of Tacoma school district students were white, and 51% minorities, making Tacoma a majority-minority district. Keep these percentages in mind for the following numbers.
• 37% of high school students in honors Language Arts courses were minorities in the 2007-2008 school year, while 57% of high school students in intervention (remedial) Language Arts courses were minorities
• 44% of high school students in honors Math courses were minorities in the 2007-2008 school year, while 55% of high school students in intervention courses were minorities. The splits were particularly bad for Hispanics (7% of honor students, 14% of intervention students, 13% of total population) and Blacks (15% of honor students, 29% of intervention students, 23% of total population)
• The splits were even more dramatic in middle school for the 2007-2008 school year. In Language Arts, 40% of honors students and 61% of intervention students were minorities. For math, minorities comprised 34% of honors students, and 61% of intervention students.

The Tacoma school district is the second largest in the state of Washington with, as of the 2007-2008 school year, 29,677 students enrolled. Considering the size of the district, the significant portion of the population comprised of minorities, and the wide splits in the numbers, it is unreasonable to conclude that the variation in the statistics is simply by chance.

The bottom line is that an honors classroom has significantly fewer minorities than an intervention one in Tacoma, and honors classes give students the best access to post-secondary education. In an economy where post-secondary degrees are demanded more and more, access to honors programs is critical.

On a societal level, the current gap in Tacoma likely guarantees that a significant portion of the city is destined to earn lower wages and be much more susceptible to poverty. Sean can speak more to this from an LE perspective (and I hope he does), but poverty and wage gaps simply aren't good. They create tension, unrest, and a climate that incubates criminal activity, even if you aren't interested in the injustices of such a system.

There will always be people that succeed in school more than others, and earn more money than others. That is not the issue. The achievement gap speaks about an opportunity that should be there for minorities but is not. There is no shortage of places to point fingers, either. I will start pointing mine in future posts.

YouTube link to relevant video...

Did You Know 2.0

This video presentation focuses on the future of our society. It asks the question is our educational system doing enough to prepare children for success in "exponential" times? If you have never watched this video before, I think you will enjoy it. During my introduction class into the Human Services major, my professor showed this video and it made an impact on me and how we can prepare both children and a population that struggles in life how to be successful. Enjoy.

Tim~ what are your thoughts?

Thoughts From an MLK Celebration

It didn't take long for me to find my first big topic for this blog.

As I mentioned in my first post, I work at an after-school program in Tacoma. It is the Hilltop Scholars program at Peace Community Center. According to Peace's numbers, about 60% of the students in the Hilltop Scholars program are African American, and approximately 75% of students are minorities.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day. Though it is a big day for all of America, I hope you can see what I think it's a bit bigger deal for the students I work with.

Last night there was a big MLK day celebration at Peace, and it was really neat on many levels. It was particularly moving for me to watch all the student involvement, particularly knowing that they had spent a couple months worth of Friday afternoons preparing. The positive energy from the students was infectious.

However, there were also sobering moments in the celebration. In particular, the Peace education director spoke about the achievement gap in Tacoma public schools. It has always been a problem, and is finally getting some needed attention. Last September, this report was prepared for the superintendent.

I am yet to really go through the report. I will though, and post my thoughts on this blog in (hopefully) bite-size chunks. The students I work with largely are the statistics in the report, and I hope that aids me in connecting the picture the stats paint with the sketches of everyday life.

Oh, and though I will stay focused on Tacoma and my experiences, the achievement gap is a nation-wide problem. It's a big deal to me, and there are all sorts of reasons that it should be a big deal to all of us. The achievement gap is a major issue that should get more attention than it does. It will get its proper due on this blog.

Starts with Family....

In my experience with individuals I have arrested or have dealt with, I believe a common factor between most, not all, but the majority, is the family background and structure. I think Tim would agree that being successful in life (successful implying a sense of genuine happiness and satisfaction in life, not necessarily focused on material wealth) begins with family. Fortunatley, in my childhood, I experienced unconditional love, support, and positive interaction with my parents and brother. My family strugged significantly financially, meaning material wealth did not substitute for happiness. Rather, the interest my parents took in my life included recognizing my developmental needs including a healthy physical, emotional, and mental environment, spiritual guidance, support, emphasis on educational success, etc. I grew up with my biological parents (who are still currently married) and observed their positive work ethic, which I inherited.

While my experience in childhood was overal positive, I am aware that I do not share the same experiences many other individuals experienced in their childhood. Thus I a cannot judge any particular individual's predisposition or their circumstances, because I am not in their shoes. I can only draw from my own observations and experiences. This is especially true in regard to the population with whom LE (law enforcement) and the CJS (criminal justice system) interacts. Often these individuals experience, divorce, violence, mental, emotional, and/or physical/sexual abuse, alcholism and/or drug addictions, mental disorders, etc. These situations often inhibit an individual from functioning in a positive and progressive way and unfortunatley, it commonly transitions into the next generation.

While it may seem a child in these circumstances is automatically placed at a disadvantage, there is HOPE! A child can overcome this disadvantage with support and guidance. I'm going to leave this entry at that.....I'm excited to hear Tim's perspective with his background in education.......

Between a Cornerstone & Hard Times does not claim ownership over this cartoon drawing. It can be located at :  http://lucysnell.com/school%20cartoon.gif

The Other First Blog

I promise I'll have more original titles in the future.

As Sean mentioned, my name is Tim, and I am pursuing a career in education. I hope to be a secondary math teacher. As a college undergrad, I was thinking more of being a middle school teacher, but in the past few months have found myself more drawn to high school.

Right now, I have a couple part-time jobs that I enjoy tremendously. Four mornings a week I work in the Puyallup School District with fifth and sixth grade band students. Two to three afternoons a week I am a tutor at an after-school program in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma.

I anticipate that many of my posts will include stories from my jobs, so that is why I felt they were worth mentioning. Also, though I cannot provide exact statistics, the students I work with at the two jobs come from noticeably different demographics. That may or may not pop up in posts; we'll see. It is certainly something I enjoy about the two jobs.

I can't imagine going into criminal justice like Sean. It is a career I never really considered, while education has grown into a passion for me. At first blush, the two are very different.

However, in talking with Sean, I think there are connections to be made between the work we do. I hope those connections emerge as this blog takes shape, post by post.

First blog....

I am excited to start blogging. I've never created any type of content online before, but I've always been curious about the process. Tim suggested creating a blog together and possibly discussing our individual fields and how they relate to another. I am in law enforcement as a reserve officer and police dispatcher and Tim is an educator interested in working with lower-income communities (Tim-you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong).

"Between a Cornerstone & Hard Time" is a sort of play on words about how education (a society cornerstone) attempts to empower kids and keep them from trouble and how the criminal justice system attempts to do the same in a different setting (hard time). Both systems are not without their successes and flaws.

Tim and I welcome and encourage comments and other insight regarding education and/or the criminal justice system.

Welcome.