tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74948267130236064932024-03-13T13:55:48.205-05:00Educating. All Our ChildrenBringing together research, analysis, advocacy and community on behalf of the public's schoolsLinda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-73874497965587824772019-02-09T08:00:00.000-06:002019-02-12T11:08:03.359-06:00NO STATE TAKEOVER OF OUR SCHOOLS! <div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">The Children Are Watching</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o0i_XspeVg8/XFyoAzlOSuI/AAAAAAAABOc/xc9RXKWDVdM2YDWw9oFskuRP8zejift7ACLcBGAs/s1600/School%2BChildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o0i_XspeVg8/XFyoAzlOSuI/AAAAAAAABOc/xc9RXKWDVdM2YDWw9oFskuRP8zejift7ACLcBGAs/s320/School%2BChildren.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The state of
Texas is threatening to “take over” the Houston Independent School District and
its schools. The threat first came
because several Houston ISD schools had persistently low scores on state tests,
thus triggering sanctions that included possible closing of those schools or
outsourcing them to charter chains or other organizations outside the
democratic governance of the elected school board. More recently, the state has
threatened to “take over” the entire district, dissolving the elected school
board and installing some kind of appointed manager or management team not
elected by or accountable to voters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Such a “take
over” would not solve the persistent problems in the Houston school
district.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, there is strong
evidence such a move would effectively destroy the public’s schools.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In short, the State that has starved our
schools can’t be trusted to run them.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We know from
cities where state neglect and predatory privatizers have instigated such ‘take
overs” that dissolving or over-riding elected school boards diminishes the
possibility of improved educational quality and sets in motion factors that
(often by design) decrease academic quality and increase inequality within and across schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/what-new-orleans-tells-us-about-the-perils-of-putting-schools-on-the-free-market">New Orleans</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/magazine/michigan-gambled-on-charter-schools-its-children-lost.html">Detroit,</a> <a href="https://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2018/06/dc_schools_cautionary_tale.html">Washington DC</a> are but
the starkest examples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We also have
clear evidence that Texas in particular – whether through the Texas Education
Agency or other state or out-sourcing entity – cannot be trusted to ensure
children’s well-being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The state’s
history of neglect, failed oversight, underfunding, and outright non-compliance
with legal mandates proves its lack of capacity and expertise to manage, much
less improve, its largest urban school district.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even more obvious is the state’s flagrant,
careless disregard for official requirements for children under its
jurisdiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two
prominent and contemporary examples make my case:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First,
thousands of children in need of special services have been denied those
services and the diagnostic examinations needed to determine those needs by
state policies capping “special needs” at roughly 8% of any school district’s
child population. <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/">Diligent investigative </a>reporting uncovered this policy by following the stories of
families willing to make public their struggles to find help for their
children. Many were told year after year
their children’s physical disabilities, cognitive limitations or other
conditions were just evidence of “slowness” or “not trying hard enough” or not
the school’s responsibility. The reporting traced these stories through
interviews with current and retired special education administrators, and
teachers who had tried in vain to get kids tested, across a number of school districts. What emerged was a strong directive from the
state that no more than 8% of children should be classified by – and thus
served by – special needs accommodations. Never mind that federal law requires
that <i>each child </i>that needs one have an individually prepared <a href="https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/what-is-an-iep/">education plan</a> (an IEP) and
that it be followed. The state --- TEA officials – denied putting forth such a
directive. Lawsuits, courts, new
pronouncements from the governor’s office, and a meek attempt at legislation add up to a sad
combination of further denials, promises to do better, and some new policies
which we hope will be diligently enforced.
If there has been compensation to the thousands of children who have
missed out on the early interventions and sustained programs which would have
helped them develop to their full potential, that hasn’t been made public. Experts estimate that in urban districts
with high poverty (and well as centralized medical facilities) as many as
12-13% percent of children have special needs that qualify for state and
federal support. These children and
their families have trusted the state at their peril. Not a good track record for taking over the
education of 200,000 Houston students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Children’s
Protective Services provides further evidence of the state’s inability – or
unwillingness – to act ethically on behalf of its children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The foster care system, perennially
underfunded and understaffed, “loses” children from time to time and fails to
provide robust, supportive care for many of those that do have family
placements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The record is stark, is
continuous, and is another<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>example of
careless disregard for the weakest youth in our state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revelations of <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/child-protective-services/collection/cps-evolving-foster-care-crisis-texas">serious problems</a> unearthed by
investigative reporters were followed by promises by the governor for
more funding to hire additional and better trained case managers and assurances
of special legislative action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None has been adequate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of the actions have matched the urgency
of need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Houston
Independent School District needs adequate funding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It needs an experienced educator for
superintendent, one with the vision of equity and educational excellence begun
under the brief tenure of Superintendent Carranza.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It needs a state funding formula that does
not require giving local tax dollars to other districts to compensate them for
their own lack of adequate state funding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It needs to overcome the system of management by fear and intimidation that
was the pride of the last permanent superintendent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it needs its currently elected school
board to rise above the embarrassing pettiness made public in several open
school board meetings and a recently revealed informal session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The state is investigating whether certain
actions taken by several members of this board violated the open meetings act;
a stupid thing to do if true. I’m equally concerned that the board’s on-the-record
talk stayed completely personal with NO MENTION –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>or at least none in the newspaper account – of a commitment to an
educational vision for the district as a whole, for particular schools or
children, for the role of teachers.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The answer
is for parents and teachers and friends of education (and yes, students – think
of the Parkland students and the leadership groups they inspired in Houston
around gun safety) to demand this board put the children ahead of their own
personal quarrels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The board
needs to build common cause with its employees, especially with teachers, with
parents and students, with those sectors of the business community that aren’t
in the pocket of the privatizers, with the faith leaders like Pastors for Texas
Children, with community groups -- to take on the state, not cede authority to
it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why doesn’t Houston ISD lead the other
urban districts in demanding this legislative session pass full funding for
Texas schools?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> With c</span>ompensatory funding for
those districts most needing to make up for past starvation-level funding for salaries
and facilities?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From other
so-called “take overs” we know the State is not always a friend of the public’s
schools. Too often the state’s role is to grab power – and funding – from local
elected boards and hand it over to the charter chains and “education
management” companies that are not in any way accountable to voters or
parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know the privatizers are
circling – new charter chain offices are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>opening in our city and their billionaire backers are writing the checks
to establish their foothold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t
let them have our tax dollars – or our kids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, no to a
state take over. No to out-sourcing our kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, to speaking out, speaking up, demanding this board get its act
together until we can elect a new one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you care about the future of our schools, the public's schools, and the children, then seek out
kindred spirits whose informed activism needs you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Community Voices for Public Schools invites
you to their <a href="http://www.houstoncvpe.org/feb_16_cvpe_meeting_state_lege">meeting</a> coming up on February 16.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-74226390599511454562019-02-07T15:01:00.000-06:002019-02-08T10:29:38.085-06:00School Blames Sick 2nd Grader for Funding ShortagesOr, Principal Sends Obscene Memo to Parents<br />
Or, The Memo I Can't Show You<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><i>The Children Are Watching </i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V6os7BJSC18/XFyUulpX1TI/AAAAAAAABN0/N_wK67SZVvs5rpRm__gqUTOC63UhvyUHQCLcBGAs/s1600/BlameBaby.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="257" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V6os7BJSC18/XFyUulpX1TI/AAAAAAAABN0/N_wK67SZVvs5rpRm__gqUTOC63UhvyUHQCLcBGAs/s1600/BlameBaby.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Well, maybe not obscene in the way you may be thinking, but definitely not up to “the moral standards of the community.” How else to describe a note to parents accusing them of costing the school money by keeping a sick child at home?<br />
<br />
The color-coded form bears the name of the school and the ominous opening line: “To the parents of __[our second-grader]_____________.” Then, “We are sending this letter to inform you that your child has missed ______ days of school so far for the 2018-2019 school year.” Presumably something the parents of a 7-year-old would be aware of.<br />
<br />
Then the real message: “Our average daily attendance drives our school budget….Every day your child is in school, we earn about $20 for our school budget.” Then a sentence claiming that as of mid-January of this school year, the school has “lost” tens of thousands of dollars due to student absences. “If a child is absent (excused or unexcused) we lose funding.”<br />
<br />
That the child also loses a day of instruction seems added as an after-thought. The form is signed by the principal.<br />
<br />
When I first saw this memo, sent to me by the child’s parent, its pre-printed format looked to be an official document of the school district, something I’d post here so you should it see for yourselves and not think I was making this up! But in checking with teachers at other schools, which I do when a school policy seems too absurd to be real, I learned that to their knowledge, the district requires no such message to parents. One elementary math teacher said it best, “We certainly don’t want sick children to come to school.” Neither does the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/index.htm">CDC</a>. Neither does the <a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/Councils/Council-on-School-Health/Pages/COSH.aspx">American Pediatric Association</a>. Nor <a href="https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2016/09/the-relationship-between-school-attendance-and-health.html">public health officials</a> at all levels. Only keeping hands washed ranks above staying away from others is promoted as sound disease prevention.<br />
<br />
What’s missing here? First, any concern or compassion and offer to help the child learn what she might have missed while she was out sick.<br />
<br />
Even more obviously omitted is any message that parents and teachers – and this principal – need to join together to fight for full, adequate, equitable funding for the schools. The idea that school attendance “drives our budget” is ridiculous. There was a time when school funding, especially the state’s share, was based on a school’s enrollment; enrollments were set by the number of<br />
students enrolled as of a certain arbitrarily chosen day, usually in October. Not a perfect formula, but one that stayed stable over the school year. A shift to dollars-per-daily attendance mocks the vagaries of childhood illnesses, flu season itself, and parents’ good-faith compliance with pediatric and public health directives, to say nothing of the factors like poverty, lack of transportation, or language barriers<b> </b>that directly impact children's ability to come to school. Blaming the children instead of the legislature, the governor and lieutenant governor, the drastic cuts by a previous governor (you, Rick Perry) which have never been fully restored, and more recently the millions drained from the public’s schools by the charter chains – absurd, undemocratic, and anti-child. I can only imagine how a less informed parent, or a parent new to American schools, would feel on getting this notice: “your child is costing us money! Is she really, really, really sick enough to stay home?” Would your child face punishment? Your family maybe be billed for the $20?<br />
<br />
When will educators and parents place the blame where it belongs? When will we all join in common cause to demand the funding our schools need for all our children to learn and for all our children and families to thrive? For all our teachers to do their best work? And for administrators to say no to harsh, degrading policies that undermine their good judgment?<br />
<br />
We're seeing this courage around the country: Families and students joined to support <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-lausd-strike-accelerated-school-20190114-story.html">LA teachers</a> who walked out in strike on their behalf. Teachers in very red states, with no union protection, <a href="https://educatingallourchildren.blogspot.com/2018/09/honor-americas-teachers-on-labor-day.html">walked</a> out to demand living wages for themselves and instructionally-sound funding for their schools. Texas teachers have for too long taken scarcity for granted. And now their principals, afraid of the “accountability” calculus that punishes them for children’s absences, shift the blame to the youngest, the sickest, the least powerful: the children. We’ve seen this in the harmful effects of the testing system, with the children who don’t test well blamed for low school ratings and even school closings. Struggling learners triaged out as liabilities to their school ratings. Now the sick kids get the blame for the state’s failure to fund our schools? The state's refusal to fund them abundantly, in proportion to the state’s incredible wealth? The state whose economy is said to be the world’s 10th largest?<br />
<br />
You see now why I call the bright yellow memo obscene: if it does reflect our communities’ shared moral standards, we are in deep trouble. And so are the children.<br />
<br />
Here are links to bills currently before the Texas legislature this very <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/15/texas-house-senate-budget-public-education/">session</a> TEXAS FREEDOM NETWORK and to the <a href="https://legiscan.com/TX">House</a> and <a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB3/2019">Senate</a> legislative committees charged with funding, sustaining, and protecting our public schools. And if you’re a principal or school board member or PTO president, why not hold an information session for parents to learn how our schools are funded, and under-funded, and which state officials have the power to make changes. Do it now, while the legislature is in session!<br />
<br />
They need to hear from you: the children are watching.Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-27028202531667007672018-10-29T08:00:00.000-05:002018-10-29T08:00:10.791-05:00Institutional Mourning: Chicago School Closings and the Supreme Court<br />
<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Children Are Watching</span></i><br />
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<br />
<br />
In 2013 Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/chicago-to-shutter-50-schools-largest-mass-closing-in-major-us-city/2013/05/22/a339875a-c321-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html?utm_term=.d31b5b60286e">closed</a> 49 public schools at one time. “Bad schools,” “failing schools” according to the official justifications. More than 80% of the children in these schools were African American. The schools anchored their communities, held the histories, centered the stories. None of that mattered to the bureaucrats who saw only test scores and “underutilized” classrooms: numbers silent on the things that matter in educating our children. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/05/24/chicago-promised-that-closing-nearly-50-schools-would-help-kids-in-2013-a-new-report-says-it-didnt/?utm_term=.e408462900c3">What happens when a public school is closed?</a> What happens to the students, the teachers, the families, the neighborhood when the public’s school is shuttered? We <a href="https://www.chicagoreporter.com/behind-sale-of-closed-schools-a-legacy-of-segregation/">know</a> that the children are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-the-new-orleans-school-makeover.html">scattered</a> to schools out of the neighborhood; families who can, move away; shops close, and property values begin to decline. That decline not a side effect or “unintended consequence” of the school closure but a key part of the strategy of real estate “developers” complicit in politicians’ claims to improve education by closing “failing schools,” reducing the costs of big money moving in to “gentrify” with shiny new, and newly unaffordable, condos and apartments. Public school closures are also central to the business plans of corporate charter chains and their investors, often given the keys to now vacant school buildings or tax breaks to come into the now open “education market.” Professional, experienced teachers who know the children and the community are let go, usually replaced by novice, often unlicensed, and markedly less expensive adults to oversee classrooms (most not yet teachers by any stretch of the definition). <br />
<br />
The record is clear: closing public schools does not improve the children’s learning, does not enhance the teaching profession, does not contribute to healthy neighborhoods and thriving communities. If we know all this, why is it still happening despite impassioned, strategic, collective resistance by parents, teachers, and their neighbors?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://eveewing.com/about/">Eve L. Ewing</a> tells us in her startling and essential new book: <i><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo27506579.html">Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side.</a></i> Ewing lives in Chicago and grew up on Chicago’s South Side. <i>Ghosts</i> is the story of a community in mourning when its school is closed, a community she knows well.<br />
<br />
Ewing takes us to Bronzeville, seen by Chicago’s elite business and political class as poverty and deprivation, but lived by its residents as the legacy of a rich history with vibrant possibility.<br />
<br />
Bronzeville is special. "Beginning about twenty blocks south of downtown Chicago… the region occupies a single place as Chicago’s historic hub of African American culture: …the destination of thousands of migrants…from southern states during the Great Migration and home to luminaries such as Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks."<br />
<br />
Ewing taught school in Bronzeville and grew up nearby. She is not a neutral observer. Her book documents the “dueling realities” of the school board’s cold reliance on numbers – and the then-superintendent’s claims the schools should be closed because they are “under-resourced,” with no acknowledgment that she is the official who can remedy that inequitable condition: she controls the resources!<br />
<br />
Ewing then brings us the stories: the voices of students, teachers, parents, and their allies who speak eloquently of loss, of powerlessness, of shock. None of what they value is valued by the officials so arbitrarily and callously selecting schools to close. Racism is a prime motivation that Ewing does not hesitate to document and call out herself and in the voices of those she interviews. Greed, real estate grabs, and power are not veiled –even by the powerful themselves.<br />
<br />
The book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the public’s schools, the centrality of neighborhood schools to democracy and any possibility we have for achieving equity and justice for America’s children. Buy the book, send a copy to your local school board, send copies to your state board of education and to anyone who thinks “failing schools” are the fault of the schools, not the officials who govern them.<br />
<br />
For me the message goes beyond even policy: the most powerful chapter is “Mourning.” Ewing, herself an artist and celebrated poet, brings her poetic voice and unique insights as a South Side native to a deep understanding of the nature of loss when a school is closed. She eloquently describes what she calls “institutional mourning.” The students and their parents, the teachers who have lost their jobs and their connections to their students – all talk of the closing of the school as a death. An inalterable loss. The generations of family members who went to the school are seen as being erased, along with the many stories – happy, sad, silly, perilous, hopeful stories – that get told and re-told when former students re-connect, when families get together. The lives and legacies of Black civic leaders, artists, writers, educators for whom the schools were named are lost as well, purging a community of pride, accomplishment, elders and identity. <br />
<br />
For Ewing, and those she listened to, the loss is not just the school as an institution. She says the loss of an institution is also the loss of who we were when that institution was with us. We mourn the building, the activities, the classes, the actions on the playground. But the “ghosts” aren’t just the names of favorite teachers now gone or class rolls of students; they are us – the “we” – who we were as a part of the life of that institution, a life before and after our presence there. A source of shared identity and common good gone. School closings are an erasure. Careless or deliberate? Racist or merely thoughtless? For Ewing there is no question: erasures are continuous with Jim Crow, with legal discriminations old and new, with cultural destruction. She asks “Is there room for democracy and real grassroots participation in a school system that has been run like an oligarchy?” If school closings and other policy decisions are framed as “what is the history that has brought us to this moment?,” then the questions of “who gets to decide?” and “how do power, race, and identity inform the answer to that question?” are more likely to shape the decisions. That is the hope she holds out, the reason she wrote this book as a re-framing.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Institutional mourning. </i>It turns out I needed these words. I was reading this book as the US Senate was voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Ewing spoke to me in that moment as I was seeing the highest court of the United States, the court whose rulings carry no mechanism for appeal, be in a sense “closed” to the American public. A man widely criticized for questionable application of the law and selective use of “facts” in his rulings in his current judgeship, a man deemed by his own law school professors as unfit for the higher court, and a man with a record of sexual misconduct was being confirmed to fill a seat on the nation’s highest court. <br />
<br />
We can’t romanticize the Court as always – or even mostly – fair and wise and just. The most recent court gutted the Voting Rights Act and opened political campaigns to uncounted floods of cash with already dire consequences in voter suppression and “dark money.” And it declared corporations as “persons” with religious beliefs (what could be more absurd?). So, no, the Court has not been perfect.<br />
<br />
But the addition of Kavanaugh to the bench feels like a certain kind of death for the court: the death of hope that the Court will any time soon restore voting rights, challenge big campaign money, protect our fragile environment, protect workers’ rights and everyone’s health. Like many Americans, I was feeling ill during every minute of those hearings. It was Eve Ewing who helped me understand what I was feeling: I was mourning the Supreme Court for what it has been at its best and for a best it would now not likely return to in my lifetime. Mourning an institution that I can recall as affirming the highest goals of our democracy, an institution whose “ghosts” are not only good justices from the past, but the plaintiffs and attorneys of the future who will search its halls for a standard of justice that, like the shuttered schools of Chicago’s South Side, may be systematically erased.<br />
<br />
Ewing’s book keeps the schools alive in the stories shared and keeps alive a hope for the neighborhood in the strength of organizing and challenging entrenched power. Turning mourning into action even when hope seems illusory. Thank you, Eve Ewing, for helping me understand and for giving us a language for thinking about the ways our institutions shape us and carry --- or erase -- our identity as a people.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-69830567822124701882018-10-26T17:00:00.000-05:002018-10-26T17:00:03.399-05:00True Confessions (by Republicans, No Less!)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yQJSkm_-FRY/W9N79POj63I/AAAAAAAABKA/9fI20Ur_Mm0V0uIxUKRmBdhepXmpKXABACLcBGAs/s1600/Voter%2BSuppression.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="740" height="172" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yQJSkm_-FRY/W9N79POj63I/AAAAAAAABKA/9fI20Ur_Mm0V0uIxUKRmBdhepXmpKXABACLcBGAs/s320/Voter%2BSuppression.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Despite all their invoking of religion and piety, I’ve never had high expectations that Republican politicians would confess to the errors of their ways or the damage they have caused to our country and the larger world.<br />
<br />
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, to my knowledge, never took responsibility for the irreparable harm their lies about weapons of mass destruction and their invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan caused to those countries and their people, to US soldiers and the US treasury, to US credibility in the world, and to the destabilization of so many countries in that region that now literally millions of families have been displaced by war. One might even add that the right-wing backlash throughout Europe against immigrants and refugees from mostly-Muslim Middle Eastern countries (too say nothing of the current US Muslim travel ban) can be traced back to the Bush-Cheney-Wolfowitz-Rumsfeld-Rice-Powell-et-al wars-based-on-lies. (No, I’m not nostalgic for W, even in the current political moment.)<br />
<br />
I don’t think Jeb Bush has apologized for the damage he did to Florida’s public schools while he was governor, nor to other states’ schools with his expensive consulting and cheer-leading for charter chains. Have any of the Republican governors who refused to expand Medicare under the Affordable Care Act apologized to the thousands of sick and disabled people in their states who remain uninsured, unable to get the medical care they need to heal? Have the governors in Arizona and <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/oklahoma-education-disaster/">Oklahoma</a> and West Virginia and <a href="http://houstonianonline.com/2017/02/28/the-failure-of-the-texas-education-system/">Texas</a> (you, Rick Perry) confessed to starving the public schools, crowding classrooms, cutting the arts and special services, forcing teachers to take second jobs? Have any Republican members of Congress recanted their denial of global climate change and stepped up to sponsor urgent planet-saving legislation? <br />
<br />
The list could go on. But you get the idea – Republican politicians tend not to connect their pious talk with humble, public confession when they do harm. That’s why it’s so amazing to see Republican politicians – individually and as a party – openly confessing during the mid-term elections! Their confession: <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Our policies are so bad, and our candidates so wrong, that if everyone were allowed to vote, we would never win. We win only when we decide who gets to vote.</b></div>
<br />
And unlike some confessions that are just words, these Republican confessions are visible in their actions: Many Republicans governors, secretaries of state and local officials around the country are doing everything they can to assure that if you’re not likely to vote for them, they’ll make sure you don’t get to vote at all.<br />
<br />
Here’s how they’re doing it:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--Restricting the times and places for registering to vote<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/28/politics/texas-voter-id-law/index.html">Requiring photo ID to register and to vote</a><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--<a href="https://www.axios.com/states-voting-restrictions-2018-midterm-elections-fee85e1b-70be-4c8f-9876-12af72073724.html">Drastically reducing the number of polling places</a><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--<a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article220557195.html">Moving polling places at the last minute </a>(or to outside of town, Dodge City!)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--Sending out false notifications about voting locations and dates<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--Not complying with state laws requiring voter registration in the high schools (yes, Texas, only 20% or so of our high schools are doing this and all our state officials are Republicans!)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--<a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/10/22/659591998/6-takeaways-from-georgias-use-it-or-lose-it-voter-purge-investigation">Purging registered voters from the rolls</a> (especially if they are African American, Latinx, poor, or students, and especially if the official in charge of voter registration is running for office and thinks these are not his/her likely voters!)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--Limiting the number of days for early voting<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/politics/georgia-voter-suppression.html">Holding up the processing of voter registrations</a> (again, especially African American, Latinx, and student registrations – and especially if the official in charge of registrations is running for office)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>--<a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-matters/2018/10/24/309193/why-prairie-view-am-students-are-suing-waller-county-over-alleged-voter-suppression/">Restricting students’ voting where they go to college</a><br />
<br />
And these are only the ones I know about; you may have other examples.<br />
<br />
<i>Voter suppression as Republican confession. </i> How embarrassing it must be (if they had shame) to have to publicly admit that your policies are so bad that you could not get elected if everyone who is eligible to vote was able to register and to vote?<br />
<br />
The perversion of our election system in this current era began with the stopping of the vote count in Florida in 2000. The Supreme Court, in a highly partisan and constitutionally unsupportable move, approved stopping the vote count that already showed the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, with more of the popular vote than George W. Many of the enablers of that terrible moment in our democracy were generously rewarded (think, chief justice of the Supreme Court, Texas senator, etc.). But that deligitimizing of the electoral process succeeded in breaking through the protections of the voting tradition. Old rules need not apply. Our democracy is at risk.<br />
<br />
We can’t undo 2000. But we can, and must, work to restore the right so many struggled and even died for: the right to vote. We can’t wait to see if Republicans' confession is followed by repentance and a change in their ways. Their confession won’t be good for the soul (of democracy) until everyone can vote. People have to believe their vote not only counts but is welcome and needed.<br />
<br />
I need to know the system will be fair to them when I urge my students to register and get out there and vote!Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-38843769044673485462018-09-17T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-17T08:00:00.197-05:00200 Students, $50 to Spend<div class="MsoNormal">
The thick envelope gave a hint of elegance inside. An invitation. Colorful graphics, fine card stock,
strategically placed photographs, “bold face” names inside the folds of this
multi-layered, professionally crafted solicitation. A separate card, two-sided on high quality
card stock, lists in bold contrasting colors the details of the events. Also inside, a return envelope for the enclosed
commitment card suggesting “underwriting opportunities” from a mere $500 to
levels of $50,000 and $100,000. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W_iebbCTwpw/W5rFN55LnNI/AAAAAAAABHM/AbAvt-4cnEg_pu7d47ftWxwDeXGHzytRQCLcBGAs/s1600/1583359082.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1536" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W_iebbCTwpw/W5rFN55LnNI/AAAAAAAABHM/AbAvt-4cnEg_pu7d47ftWxwDeXGHzytRQCLcBGAs/s200/1583359082.png" width="191" /></a>An invitation to a museum gala or symphony fund-raiser? A call to join the restoration of our Harvey-flooded opera house? The funding
categories would seem to so suggest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, this was an invitation to a fund-raiser for a corporate
charter school chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A private company
that has added “public” to its name because it is one of the corporate entities
that takes taxpayer dollars (the “public” part) to fund its schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My first inclination was curiosity:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who are these people?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked over the names of the funders
already listed on the invitation: the usual anti-public school billionaires,
some names of really good people who should know better, and some people I
didn’t recognize who probably have been sold on the idea that only by
contributing to these charter chains can they save the city’s poor,
minority children. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My next reaction was anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This invitation – fancy graphics, elegant card stock, thick white
envelopes – was expensive!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each one must
have cost several dollars, even accounting for a bulk order discount. I turned
each piece over to try to find the printing company that produced it. No
designer or graphics company attributed, but a line that caught my eye:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>contact the charter chain’s “manager of
special events” for more information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really??<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Manager of Special Events! I know of no public school, no
neighborhood school, that has a manager of special events – much less the budget to hire one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they all could
use that $100,000 for a long list of needs after years of underfunding.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then I immediately knew the source of my anger: the inequity
of it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These charter chains are
privately incorporated, but they not only take our tax dollars out of our
public schools – the public’s schools, but they may be using our tax dollars to
pay their special events managers and printers to advertise against our public
schools!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our tax dollars enable their
“marketing” in competition with the public’s own schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took
the invitation to a high-quality stationery store to ask if they had produced
it and what it might have cost. The woman said they hadn’t produced it but confirmed
it was definitely expensive and each would have cost “several dollars” even if, as I
had suspected, several hundred or thousand had been printed and mailed out
(yes, add the mailing costs).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even
if the printing had been donated by an individual or corporation, those dollars
would still have been taken from our public schools as a tax-deductible,
“charitable” contribution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the first inequity is that all of these “contributions," from the modest $500 (mere seat at luncheon) to the ‘naming rights’ (I’m not
making this up!) for donors giving $100,000, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> a</span>ll of these dollars end up subtracted
from the public treasury.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second inequity: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the costs of those invitations. I suddenly
realized <i>each one</i> must cost more than many of our teachers have for school
supplies and instructional materials on any given day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I asked some teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 7<sup>th</sup>-grade biology teacher new
to her current school was hopeful:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“They say I’ll have the supplies I need for labs and we’ve ready sent in
the order for frogs for the kids to dissect,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>so we’ll see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, so
good.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">The next answer was less optimistic: </span> “I’m told I have to require every student to bring a
ream of copier paper; when that runs out we won’t get any more, so I’m trying
to be careful to plan ahead.” From a high school teacher:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No, we don’t get to buy paperbacks for our
classrooms. We have some on hand but if we want to assign other titles, the
kids have to buy their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they
can’t afford it, I see if I have an extra copy at home or maybe I just buy it
for them.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this conversation with a high school English
teacher:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Teacher: “I get $50.00 to buy things I need for my teaching.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Me, somewhat seriously:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Is that per student?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And is it for each semester or for the whole
year?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Teacher: “It’s not per student.
It’s all I get for the whole year.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Me
(trying not to cry):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And how many
students do you have?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Teacher:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Right now I have seven classes, ranging from
20-some students to more than 40, but they are trying to adjust the schedule so
no teacher has more than the usual six classes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Me, doing the math:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“So right now you have about $7.00 per class for the whole year?
That will be a little more than $8.00 if you end up with six classes, but
you’ll still have almost 200 students?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Teacher:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, a charter chain with already enough money to have a
special events manager on staff, already taking our public tax dollars, mails
out invitations that each cost as much as one of our fine public school
teachers has for her entire instructional budget for the year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m preparing a series of posts on the damage these charter
chains are doing to the public’s schools, to our goals of educational equity,
to state and district education funding, and to our democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I had thought I'd begin by re-iterating that </span>regardless
of the words in their name, these are private, not public organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then my plan is to showcase the detailed new
reports that follow the money behind these charters and the politicians being
funded to enable them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then lots of
examples, from California to Ohio, from Florida to Texas, of charter chains
that move in and out of “markets,” often taking taxpayer dollars with them,
often leaving kids and their families stranded and – of course – leaving the
public’s schools, now lacking the money taken out by charters, to welcome and
educate those same kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lots to report on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lots of news stories, scholarly analyses and first-hand accounts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just didn’t anticipate finding a piece of
fancy and compelling evidence in my mail slot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stay tuned for my new
series:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grand Theft Schoolhouse</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
send me your examples of the impact of charter chains on your schools.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-90434229022866873902018-09-14T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-14T08:00:00.840-05:00“KidLit” Authors Taking a Stand for Children<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: #990000;">The Children are Watching</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sqDFgx3TDEo/W5qo-fW94pI/AAAAAAAABF8/qYBzOUCw1soGtqykvszbXXpKQ9UN9EyDgCLcBGAs/s1600/KidLitFamilyUnity.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="500" height="195" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sqDFgx3TDEo/W5qo-fW94pI/AAAAAAAABF8/qYBzOUCw1soGtqykvszbXXpKQ9UN9EyDgCLcBGAs/s320/KidLitFamilyUnity.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Children’s books are the best! The children
in my family – and my friends’ families – always know that their gift from Aunt
Linda will include at least one new book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When a sticker on <i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> announced "over a
million copies sold,” one of my daughters asked, “Mom, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how many copies of that book have you bought</i>?!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Well, not a million, but from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Corduroy </i>to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and <i>Snuggle Puppy </i></span>(and of course Sandra
Boynton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Barnyard Dance), </i>there is
nothing like a wonderful children’s book to give music to a hug, pause to a
tantrum, and rhythm to picking up toys or rocking to sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If the writers and illustrators of books for
toddlers and big kids did nothing but write and draw and paint, they
should be honored with statues in town squares (in front of the library!) and
boisterous parades of grateful parents and inspired children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But “KidLit” writers are doing more: they are
standing up for children. They are marching with children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A compelling <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/books/childrens-books-authors-activists-politics.html">article</a> in the September 7 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> by Maria Russo tells the
story of writers taking action:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“When photos began circulating of migrant
children separated from their parents and placed in what looked like giant cages
in detention centers, the young adult novelists Melissa del la Cruz and
Margaret Stohl had an immediate response.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They texted several other author friends and drafted a statement
denouncing such practices <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> that </span>“should be restricted to the pages of dystopian novels.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They gathered thousands of signatures of writers of children’s books and
raised nearly $240,000 for legal services assisting the migrant children and
their families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KbIbIZCxjzw/W5qlgCXMRoI/AAAAAAAABFo/1y2va3F2ia8qYXgpRw4GUe8qgmrC2EjdgCLcBGAs/s1600/KidsLitMarchesForKids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="720" height="224" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KbIbIZCxjzw/W5qlgCXMRoI/AAAAAAAABFo/1y2va3F2ia8qYXgpRw4GUe8qgmrC2EjdgCLcBGAs/s320/KidsLitMarchesForKids.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Children’s book writers had already organized
“KidLit Marches for Kids,” encouraging their colleagues to join in the March 24
marches for gun control organized by the student survivors of the Parkland,
Florida school shootings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We wanted to
boost the signal of the kids,” explained one of the authors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Boosting the signal of the kids</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">!
Not preaching to them or exhorting them or dismissing them as too young, too
inexperienced, too novice to organize demonstrations across the whole country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, “boosting their signal.” First, listening
to what the kids were saying, then taking it seriously, then marching alongside
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Some of these authors have created a PAC
dedicated to supporting Democratic candidates in state and local races, and
others have established a PAC to advise “giving circles” on ways to more
effectively direct their contributions in support of children.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">As one publisher said, “Our life and work
revolve around the children.”</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Thank you, KidLit writers, for all the
picture books and storybooks and chapter books we – and our kids – can’t live
without. And thank you for risking your audience, your “market,” and your
precious writing time to stand with and march beside and act for the children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">They, and their grateful parents and teachers, are watching.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-4072438945666352982018-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-14T10:51:23.795-05:00Your Kids, Their Data, No Privacy<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Who, exactly, is watching?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RuR-qIoVwj0/W5qrb0SqCgI/AAAAAAAABGU/70kyWUB9XOoOi5VXPsGBMxoobZzuVDD_ACLcBGAs/s1600/kidsdataprivacy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="256" height="152" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RuR-qIoVwj0/W5qrb0SqCgI/AAAAAAAABGU/70kyWUB9XOoOi5VXPsGBMxoobZzuVDD_ACLcBGAs/s200/kidsdataprivacy.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>A woman is pacing up and down the sidewalk in
front of your child’s school, taking pictures of the children and the school. She seems especially interested in the front and side entrances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A kid runs in to tell his teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An alert parent in the carpool lane calls
911.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></i>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Your daughter sees a shadow outside her
bedroom window and hears a rustling in the flower bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You rush outside too late to see the culprit
but find a large shoe print in the newly raked soil and call 911.<o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>The coach catches the shy sophomore boy
everyone believed to be kind and polite sharing nude photos on his phone
with the guys in the locker room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
takes the phone and calls the principal – who then has to call the girl’s
parents to let them know their daughter’s body is no longer her own private
self.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When children’s privacy is violated in ways
that are overt, visible, knowable, the violation is unquestioned. It is
unacceptable. In most cases it is illegal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even when a perpetrator is caught, prosecuted and punished, the unease
remains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fear doesn’t go away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The child may not feel safe, may not be able
to trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the parent – or teacher –
lives with the vulnerability of not being able to protect that child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So why is it different when the violation is
hidden, opaque, electronic, commercial, and complicated?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Kim Slingerland, a mother of three in
Alberta, Canada, discovered an intrusion into her children’s privacy by an
unlikely source:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a game app marketed
for children in the “family” section of Google Play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The app, which has kids racing cartoon cars
driven by animals, looks innocuous, and is even labeled as age-appropriate for
young children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In a report titled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/12/technology/kids-apps-data-privacy-google-twitter.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=1F3BA1E1F9A21FA50AE89C7F36A758CD&gwt=pay">How Game Apps CollectData on Children,</a>” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>
reporters say that the game is designed to do more than make racing against
animal drivers fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They write “Until
last month, the app also shared users’ data, sometimes including the precise
location of devices, with more than half-dozen advertising and online tracking
companies.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The attorney general of New
Mexico filed a lawsuit claiming the maker of Fun Kid Racing had “violated a
federal children’s privacy law through dozens of Android apple that shared
children’s data.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The suit charges the
maker of this and other apps designed for children of
“flouting a law intended to prevent the personal data of children under 13 from
falling into the hands of predators, hackers and manipulative marketers.” And
the suit charges Google with misleading parents and other consumers by listing
these un-private apps in the “family” section of its products.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times
</i>analysts did additional research, confirming academic studies and other
investigations that show that without parental consent (or even knowledge),
many apps aimed at children are collecting such personal details as names,
physical locations, email addresses and tracking other connections such as ads
the users click on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The article, which extends to a full-page
story in the Business section, follows attempts to regulate apps designed for
children, and restrict their capacity to collect data on children, through laws
and regulatory policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The writers
document pushback by Google and others, both denying and defending their
practices and urging “self-regulation” by the industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Graphics accompanying the article show how
the data moves from the “user” (a child!) to being collected to then being
marketed to third parties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The article concludes with statements by regulators
and industry leaders about whether new laws can protect children’s privacy
(their “data” is their lives!), suggesting without good, consistent enforcement
these companies will never be compliant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So about that 911 call:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>if we don’t know that the person lurking
outside the window is really an electronic signal hiding already inside the
child’s room, how can we call to report the violation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Some speculate that the current generation of
parents who grew up on computers and cell phones and social media don’t even
expect for their personal information to be confidential. They think privacy is
passé – it’s over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’m not so
sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If these same parents call 911
about that woman with the camera taking pictures of kids who aren’t hers, these
parents clearly do care about privacy. They do care about protecting their
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The intruders are just not
visible from the carpool lane. They’re not leaving footprints in the flowerbed.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I’ve <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://educatingallourchildren.blogspot.com/2016/05/learning-to-be-watched-you-wish-you.html">written before</a></span> about the ways
instructional software and digital testing programs increasingly dominating our
classrooms are gathering data on the students – not just from their digital
homework and tests but from any other social media they have open on their
devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Researchers are making these
intrusions – and the very inadequate laws meant to regulate them – known, but
policymakers, often reliant on the big campaign contributions of the tech
companies, have been slow to act. And most have little knowledge of how any of
this works.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So it may be up to parents to step up, speak
up. I suggest sending this article to all the parents you know who may be
concerned in general about the amount of “screen time” they allow their young
children but think these cute kiddie apps are harmless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The apps and the hidden systems behind them are not safe and there is no way to know just how much of your children's information has been sold to these third parties or what they may already be doing with it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>Let’s stop them from watching.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-74755855095224587732018-09-11T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-13T12:33:03.870-05:00Teaching and Learning the Truths of Our History: James Loewen’s New Book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5hIh9FZdtDQ/W5Ft5LpaEuI/AAAAAAAABEw/jm5RsIBnXcQphsSi345BWCWV6caPDCxagCLcBGAs/s1600/Lies%2BMy%2BTeacher%2BTold%2BMe%2B-%2BJames%2BLoewen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1060" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5hIh9FZdtDQ/W5Ft5LpaEuI/AAAAAAAABEw/jm5RsIBnXcQphsSi345BWCWV6caPDCxagCLcBGAs/s320/Lies%2BMy%2BTeacher%2BTold%2BMe%2B-%2BJames%2BLoewen.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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When scholar and educator James W. Loewen published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lies My Teacher Told Me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything Your American History Textbook Got
Wrong </i>in 1995<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>he<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>based his claim on careful examination of the 12 most
influential US history textbooks in our public schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that time, “the” textbook was a
teacher’s main resource, the stuff of the curriculum. Schools purchased
1000-page survey texts that chronicled (usually literally chronologically) the
history of America.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Loewen examined the content of those widely used texts and
found them to be at best incomplete and at worst completely inaccurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From partial accounts that omitted the
least savory of America’s past to “facts” that were in fact erroneous, Loewen
revealed the content of these textbooks, and thus of much of the “history” that
America’s youth were encountering in their required history courses, to be
creating a false narrative of America’s successes and a silence about its
injustices, failures, and questionable policies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For his comparisons, he often sought out official US
government documents of historical events; the textbooks’ brief and often
uncritical accounts of the US war in Vietnam were prime examples of textbook
content that directly contradicted even official sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similar investigations of such historical
periods as Reconstruction and of such American luminaries as John Brown and
Abraham Lincoln contrasted the historical record, as documented by numerous and
varied serious historians’ analysis of the record, with “hero-villain” and
other simplistic renderings in the texts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His discussion of the portrayal of Native Americans throughout our
history as well as at pivotal moments of treaties, Indian “removal” and oppression
are vital corrections to the record, as are his calling out the lack of
information about Japanese internment and other systemic injustices.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lies My Teacher Told
Me</i> has just been released in a third edition. It belongs on every history
teacher’s desk, in every school library, in teacher education programs
preparing the next generation of social studies teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much has changed since the original edition
was published:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>many schools no longer
buy textbooks but rely on “digital resources” produced by the big testing
companies to be “aligned” with their state-mandated tests, further reducing the
historical content to fragments of fact conducive to the company’s own
multiple-choice tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some schools are
even considering eliminating social studies departments and subsuming history
and government courses into English-Language Arts departments as “reading
skills for non-fiction.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Content-free "skills." </span>The “lies” –
the omissions and glossy narratives – are not, then being told by teachers themselves so
much as being packaged, in textbooks or digital formats,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for students’ passive consumption.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Loewen directly addresses the current political climate in
which “alternate facts” are not the satire of writers at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Onion,</i> but pronouncements from the White House, when
claims of “fake news” are used to cover the painful realities of injustices,
conflicts of interest, and official malfeasance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loewen truly believes that knowledge is
power. If our students are ignorant about their history, they will be more
likely to be passive rather than active citizens and more likely to be
vulnerable to those who would use “alternate facts” to manipulate them and run
roughshod over their rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">From his Preface to the third edition, Loewen's vision for teaching the truths of our shared history:</span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<i>"First, the truth can set us free. That is, when we understand what really happened in the past, then we know what to do to cause our nation to remedy its problems in the present.....Second, there is a reciprocal relationship between truth about the past and justice in the present. When we achieve justice in the present, remedying some past event or practice, then we can face it and talk about it more openly, precisely because we have made it right.....Conversely, a topic that is mystified or distorted in our history, like secession, usually signifies a continuing injustice in the present, like racism. Telling the truth about the past can help us make it right from here on."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Loewen could have added that only teaching which faces, embraces, and examines the truth is credible to our students. And only truthful teaching empowers them to value themselves as thinkers and learners who will be active in civic life.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-27948078033652605072018-09-10T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-10T08:00:06.242-05:00Student Rights: Know Your Rights and Claim Them<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pBdzYSIKwLs/W5GJrNTVMwI/AAAAAAAABFE/-eUsgkNH1P4qs0d30SSnPEU-i2YEn_x2QCLcBGAs/s1600/Lady%2BJustice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pBdzYSIKwLs/W5GJrNTVMwI/AAAAAAAABFE/-eUsgkNH1P4qs0d30SSnPEU-i2YEn_x2QCLcBGAs/s320/Lady%2BJustice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: #990000;">The Children Are
Watching</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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What would we do without the ACLU? Right now, while the US government is
stalling and resisting judges’ rulings requiring them to immediately re-unite immigrant parents with the children stolen from them by border agents and other
US government employees, it's the ACLU that has brought the lawsuits that have
led to these rulings. And it's the ACLU now engaged with non-profits and legal assistance
organizations in our country and in Central America to find parents who were
deceptively deported and reunite them with their children who may be scattered across the US
in detention centers we hadn’t even known about. Thank you, ACLU.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The ACLU – the American Civil Liberties Union – is also
marking the beginning of this school year by reminding us that when a child enters
a public school, he or she does not surrender their rights. This would seem obvious in a democracy, in a
country governed by the rule of law, but in fact has been contested over many
decades, especially since students began protesting the US war in Vietnam and
bringing those protests to schools. Do
students have a right to free speech at school?
Can a student wear a t-shirt with a peace symbol to school? Can students wear black armbands protesting
the war – and the military draft, which all boys over 18 were facing – in
class? Did a dress code forbidding boys’
long hair to be longer than their collar violate freedom of expression? <o:p></o:p></div>
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These and other questions of student rights arose during the US war in
Vietnam and had to be litigated, fought for.
Courts would often rule in favor of school regulations that forbade anything
that “disrupted learning,” meaning if a teacher found the peace symbol shirt
distracting, or saw boys’ long hair as disrespectful, he could send the student home or refer for disciplinary action. A teacher who found armbands unpatriotic and
therefore disruptive (especially if the teacher made a big deal out of it, thus
causing other students to be “distracted”) was often supported by rulings that valued keeping the school
“smooth-running” over individual rights.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>We need the ACLU’s reminder that students have rights. Share their <a href="https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/students-free-speech-rights-public-schools-printable-version?ms_aff=NAT&initms_aff=NAT&ms=180903_juvenilejustice_racialjustice_backtoschool&initms=180903_juvenilejustice_racialjustice_backtoschool&ms_chan=eml&initms_chan=eml">guide</a> to student rights with your children and
grandchildren, your students and fellow teachers, your school’s administration.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The issue of student rights is more urgent, more timely,
today than ever. Today, we have to worry
about the criminalization of student behaviors, the role of the school’s
discipline policies in setting some youth – mostly African American and Latino
and poor – on a path into mass incarceration by turning school disciplinary practices
into policing. We have to worry about schools being pressured to reveal
immigration status of children and their families (it’s illegal, by the way). We have to worry about the rights of students walking out to advocate for gun safety laws and DACA protections. And we especially have to worry about the uses of technologies in classrooms that open children to data gathering and data mining for commercial and other
purposes – a danger little known to parents (who are promised that computers in
schools help “prepare their kids for 21<sup>st</sup>-century jobs….”). These dangers have been recently <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/schoolhouse-commercialism-2015">well documented</a> in detailed studies by Alex Molnar and his colleagues at the
National Education Policy Center (see also my blog entitled <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.79px;"><a href="https://educatingallourchildren.blogspot.com/2016/05/learning-to-be-watched-you-wish-you.html">“Learning to be Watched”</a></span>.)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m very grateful to the ACLU for reminding us that children
in schools have rights. These rights
were fought for by individual youth and their families, by student journalists,
by teachers, and by many pro bono lawyers over many years. I’ve been dismayed
to see these rights often buried in the back of student handbooks (now
websites) under the school rules – showing up as just another administrative
document under “Rights and Responsibilities.”
We need to bring student rights out into the light – not as bureaucratic
detail but as an affirmation that our children are protected in our democracy.
We want them to grow up to be active, to feel that freedom to speak and choose
the message on their t-shirts, to lead out on social issues, and to respect and defend the rights of others.</div>
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We need to keep working to protect these rights as the
encroaching and invasive technologies work to undermine them in such
surreptitious and technically sophisticated ways we are often unaware.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">We can’t let that happen:
the children are watching.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Here’s the ACLU’s most recent information on the larger issue of rights:<br />
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="m_7712971212972011911emailwrapto100pc" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 19.5px; width: 600px;"><tbody>
<tr><td align="left" class="m_7712971212972011911logo-spacing" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/t/gcH1AAhbaU-OgQC31sHKAcEUBeaVPHrB1FB2eaaaa-TMwBNY--Mzaa?m%3D8_07wEvG~amp;W%3Dsfjfjglbs~25x7ZtTpe.jht~amp;e%3Do~amp;q%3D&source=gmail&ust=1536343118431000&usg=AFQjCNF74NX9-2fVrWVzmFEm9AJahVvPsA" href="https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/t/gcH1AAhbaU-OgQC31sHKAcEUBeaVPHrB1FB2eaaaa-TMwBNY--Mzaa?m=8_07wEvG~amp;W=sfjfjglbs~25x7ZtTpe.jht~amp;e=o~amp;q=" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img alt="ACLU" border="0" class="CToWUd" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/pYpVuwUljyrs9qGzBbnuhqY1dQ47Uoem-SGFf1mvZMPG5uxURse3Zu_eomM2lveS1FP5nccj0Q57OtIRlMR9EHXzYU_R_SLcHDZgLhCzHVYXoTg-VNUmxU8fR882Ywc=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/img/global/aclu-logo-white-on-blue.png" style="border: none; display: block; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="m_7712971212972011911emailbodytext" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #3c3532; font-family: arial, 'helvetica neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 20px;" valign="top"><div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
Over the past year, students embodied our democracy. They organized against injustice, participating in a mass walk-out and taking hold of a national conversation.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
But as students are heading back to school, many of them are being greeted by more police and metal detectors, and few, if any, counselors. Increasingly, students of color are entering a school system that's policing the children it's tasked to protect – conducting invasive searches and subjecting them to disproportionate punishment.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
<strong>We just released an interactive report analyzing data on race, discipline, and safety in our public schools – all 96,000 of them.</strong> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/t/gcH1AAhbaU-OgQC31sHKAcEUBeaVPHrB1FB2eaaaa-TMwBNY--Mzaa?m%3D8_07wEvG~amp;W%3Dsfjfjglbs~25x7ZtTpe.jht~amp;e%3Dr~amp;q%3D&source=gmail&ust=1536343118432000&usg=AFQjCNEQPWaDvGN8Skbwx_0KFC4sf7y0Og" href="https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/t/gcH1AAhbaU-OgQC31sHKAcEUBeaVPHrB1FB2eaaaa-TMwBNY--Mzaa?m=8_07wEvG~amp;W=sfjfjglbs~25x7ZtTpe.jht~amp;e=r~amp;q=" style="color: #0055aa; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Check out these findings that show how public schools are performing nationwide, and in your own county.</a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
Here are some key takeaways:</div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px;">For the first time in history, public schools in America are serving mostly children of color.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px;">Students who missed school in 2015-16 because of suspensions – disproportionately students of color – were denied a total of 11 million days of instruction. That’s 60,000 school years and 60 million hours of lost education. All in a single school year.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px;">Millions of students are in schools with cops but no counselor, social worker, or nurse. In 2015-2016, there was a student-to-counselor ratio of 444:1.</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
The Trump administration is calling for increasing "law and order" with more school police, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is even considering allowing the use of federal funds to arm teachers with guns – moves that will harm students of color the most and deepen education inequality.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
We're facing a national school system that’s harming the students it has a duty to protect, but this past year showed us the power that youth have, even so.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
LM, summer has ended, so gear up for this year and get ahead of your homework: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/t/gcH1AAhbaU-OgQC31sHKAcEUBeaVPHrB1FB2eaaaa-TMwBNY--Mzaa?m%3D8_07wEvG~amp;W%3Dsfjfjglbs~25x7ZtTpe.jht~amp;e%3Ds~amp;q%3D&source=gmail&ust=1536343118432000&usg=AFQjCNHzjDPeNDxkZQ_5GdEuCgNTUNoh-A" href="https://ms.clicks.actions.aclu.org/t/gcH1AAhbaU-OgQC31sHKAcEUBeaVPHrB1FB2eaaaa-TMwBNY--Mzaa?m=8_07wEvG~amp;W=sfjfjglbs~25x7ZtTpe.jht~amp;e=s~amp;q=" style="color: #0055aa; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Learn more about race, discipline, and safety in our country's public school system – including in your home county – and see what policy changes are needed now.</a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
We all need to be back-to-school ready.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 20px;">
The <span class="il">ACLU</span> Team</div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-86696872029636469902018-09-07T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-07T08:00:06.952-05:00Meet the Lumberjills in Caroline Leech's new book "In Another Tme"!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-16FLreosjcM/W5FmnxrM_UI/AAAAAAAABEI/N6kMHdQcmRctFGzCp4fb00_2i1t1j-8NACLcBGAs/s1600/InAnotherTIme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-16FLreosjcM/W5FmnxrM_UI/AAAAAAAABEI/N6kMHdQcmRctFGzCp4fb00_2i1t1j-8NACLcBGAs/s320/InAnotherTIme.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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Sometimes good news!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Caroline Leech has written another wonderful book for teens (and adult
readers of all ages!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Another Time </i>takes us back to
Scotland during World War II, a time when the war is upending normal life in
ways no one could have expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who
would have imagined that the war would take teenage girls and young women out
of their schools and kitchens and into the forest to harvest timber essential
for the war effort?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who knew there were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lumberjills?!</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Caroline Leech picks up this hidden thread of history and
weaves a story that brings to life the ironic ways war may inspire courage,
open new paths, forge friendships, and – always – cause lasting and even
inexplicable pain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Maisie McCall shrugs off her last year of high school to
leave home to serve in the Women’s Timber Corps, taking on the hazards of axes, saws and all kinds of weather, to fell trees in the forests of
Scotland for the war effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
tenacity in the treacherous work is transformative for her and for the young
women friends she makes among the Timber Corps as they build physical strength
and daunting persistence that they – and their families – would never have
imagined possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But in showing us the human capacity to create new
possibilities during dangerous times (the growing power of girls and women,
especially), Leech does not romanticize war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In her first novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wait for Me, </i>also
set in Scotland, the war is ever present: the enemy is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">here</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a German POW works on
the family farm!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Another Time </i>feels at times less urgent, less threatening
because the enemy – the Nazis and their war planes and soldiers – are not
physically present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maisie doesn’t see a
German soldier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, she learns
that the dangers and pain of war are not just of the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this story, the ravages of war are lived
everyday in the life – and recovery – of John, the Canadian lumberjack she
meets and grows to love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Leech’s characters are so real you keep them with you after
you put the book down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Herself Scottish, s</span>he’s a true
storyteller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her stories of the courage and spirit of Scots during World War
II teach us their inspiring history and also remind us we don’t want to
create more war stories in our time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you have a teen reader at your house, if you’re a
teacher, if you’re a grownup who loves a good story that takes you to another
time, get yourself to your neighborhood independent bookstore, your public
library or to HarperTeen to get this book!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Buy a copy for your school library or afterschool program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In
Another Time </i>is a delight to read and share! Thank you, Caroline Leech! We
can’t wait for your next book!<o:p></o:p></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-84054930065264839502018-09-05T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-05T08:00:05.983-05:00“Let Kids Play: Doctors’ Orders!”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LxtbSomNm0s/W4hMnKOHTZI/AAAAAAAABCg/fWBsjlAT7LwdIVdT9DEc4SSDy7opxiz1QCLcBGAs/s1600/Kids%2BPlay.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="285" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LxtbSomNm0s/W4hMnKOHTZI/AAAAAAAABCg/fWBsjlAT7LwdIVdT9DEc4SSDy7opxiz1QCLcBGAs/s400/Kids%2BPlay.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">So reads the headline in a story by the always insightful Dr. Perri </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">Klass in the latest Science section of the New York Times. The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">“doctors’ orders” are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/well/family/let-kids-play.html">“The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in </a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/well/family/let-kids-play.html">Enhancing Development in Young Children.”</a> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">Yes, the American Academic of Pediatrics wrote out a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">prescription for its own membership: pediatricians are told to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">“encourage playful learning for parents and infants by writing a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">‘prescription for play’ at every well-child visit in the first two </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">years of life.”</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">The report characterizes play as “intrinsically motivated, involving </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">active engagement and resulting in ‘joyful discovery.’” Citing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">extensive research on the developmental and neurological benefits of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">play (including such simple interactions as peek-a-boo as helping </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">children, through repetition, “experience the joy of knowing what is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">going to happen”), the report documents the role of play in children’s </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">physical, emotional, psychological and social development.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">Did we need an expert report for this? That play is not only </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">beneficial but essential to children’s full development should be too </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">obvious to warrant an official statement from the medical profession. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">But, as the authors note, play is under siege. Many schools have </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">severely cut back on recess, parents feel pressured to provide their </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">children with organized sports or adult-directed activities, and many </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">neighborhoods lack safe places for children to play. Also, parents’ </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">jobs and other responsibilities can leave limited playtime. The </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">“prescription” is not meant to make parents feel guilty but to remind </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">pediatricians that play, like height and weight growth, should </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.5px;">be a focus of each wellness visit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">The affirmation of play – free, child-initiated, play – is so welcome </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">that posing a criticism or two doesn’t seem polite. But limiting the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">“prescription” to age 2 seems short-sighted. And I do wish the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">esteemed physicians who prepared the report didn’t feel they needed to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">add an economic justification with the utilitarian rationale that </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">“Kids develop 21st -century skill in play….skills that are crucial </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">for adults in the new economy, that help them collaborate and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">innovate.” (Maybe the good doctor needs to play more?)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">One of the goals of the report – and of pediatricians’ talking with </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">parents about the need for play – is to give permission for parents </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">(and teachers) to say no to the cultural pressures for video games, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">competitive and calendared activities and follow their common sense to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">let the kids play. And to rediscover play themselves.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;">Now it’s time to stop reading and go out to play!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7IoBM_s-t3Y/W4hOEe4nMXI/AAAAAAAABCs/C94uacR17WoIwVx93T4YJxrTJ8YkhDIqACLcBGAs/s1600/Kids%2BPlay2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7IoBM_s-t3Y/W4hOEe4nMXI/AAAAAAAABCs/C94uacR17WoIwVx93T4YJxrTJ8YkhDIqACLcBGAs/s320/Kids%2BPlay2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.5px;"><br /></span></span>Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-73974609833760343492018-09-03T08:00:00.001-05:002018-09-03T15:49:53.789-05:00Honor America's Teachers on Labor Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i6pR2keL29c/W4hUdISVv5I/AAAAAAAABDM/MIL8rCp4EAg536thqgVT4Jggu1HvyAI1wCLcBGAs/s1600/WVirginiaTchWlkOut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1082" data-original-width="1484" height="233" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i6pR2keL29c/W4hUdISVv5I/AAAAAAAABDM/MIL8rCp4EAg536thqgVT4Jggu1HvyAI1wCLcBGAs/s320/WVirginiaTchWlkOut.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As we celebrate America’s workers this Labor Day, let’s be sure to honor our children’s teachers: teachers who every day inspire our children’s minds, spark their curiosities, (wipe their noses and search for missing mittens), nudge hesitant writers, cheer on insecure readers, seek out the child on the sidelines, and then do it all over again the next day. And the next.<br />
<br />
Honoring our teachers means voting for candidates who will restore the massive funding cuts that have starved many of our schools and made being a teacher even more financially precarious than it has traditionally been in many of our states.<br />
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Honoring our teachers means marching with them when they feel they have to march and rally and petition to get politicians’ attention – then following up with our own messages to those politicians so they can’t claim the “teachers are just complaining.”<br />
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Honoring our laboring teachers means volunteering in their classrooms, learning first-hand what they need to do their jobs well for our children and grandchildren, then joining our voices to theirs to make these needs persistently known.<br />
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Honoring the teaching profession means becoming so politically active and effective that no teacher has 7 classes of 24 to 42 students (yes, that’s a teacher I know here in a Houston public high school), that no charter chain takes one more dollar from our public schools, that no US secretary of education gets one piece of voucher legislation through Congress, and that no more billionaires use their wealth to try to “buy” our public schools (yes, that’s you, Los Angeles and Little Rock).<br />
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And if we truly honor our teachers, we will follow the lead of the students of Marjorie Stedman Douglas High School and the thousands of other youth and their families around the country in working tirelessly for good, strict gun safety and gun control laws so that no teacher ever has to protect her students from a shooter and no teacher ever ever is expected to have -- or use -- a gun at school. Ever.<br />
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Honoring our laboring teachers means joining forces with them to protect the public’s schools and, by so doing, protect our democracy.<br />
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Thank a teacher, hug a teacher – then go to work on their behalf!<br />
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-89878380481321029982018-08-31T08:00:00.000-05:002018-09-01T09:34:43.606-05:00“The Children Are Our Future”: Lessons from Acoma Seed Pots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vg_7spw3684/W4hAVt2CWPI/AAAAAAAABCI/uoLP7929p4UBEnmAC9pfMA-XhQghsATRQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0569.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vg_7spw3684/W4hAVt2CWPI/AAAAAAAABCI/uoLP7929p4UBEnmAC9pfMA-XhQghsATRQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_0569.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“The children are our future.” How often have we heard – and said – that truism? Those few words embody the health of a society: <i> children,</i> the next generations; <i>our</i>, the collective, the social contract; and<i> future</i>, continuities and possibilities. A statement we should be able to agree on, even take for granted. If the children are our future, we will take care of them, love them, take responsibility for them, and make sure they thrive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A recent ruling by a federal judge reminds us we cannot take for granted that everyone cares about the children, is thinking about the future, or has our collective good at heart. Federal District Judge </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Stephan Murphy III just ruled that the youth of Detroit do not – repeat, DO NOT, have a right to “access to literacy.” The youth sued for remedy to their seriously underfunded, understaffed, under-resourced public schools: they sued to get an education. The judge ruled against them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A very different, hopeful, result in New Mexico came from a state district judge who ruled in favor of plaintiffs’ claim that New Mexico’s schools are woefully inadequate, especially harmful to children with special needs, children whose first language is not English, and Native American children. The good news of Judge Singleton’s ruling – and its respect for children and their cultures – was quashed the very next day by the announcement by the Republican Governor of New Mexico that the state would immediately file an appeal rather than act on the judge’s ruling to fully fund the schools. Governor Susana Martinez does not believe the state is obligated to educate all its children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">These two rulings made me think of the tradition of protecting the “seed corn.” Every agricultural society throughout history has had some way of saving the seeds from this year’s harvest for next year’s </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">planting. The seeds of the future. The seeds of sustenance for a family, for a community. Among many Native peoples of the American Southwest, the survival crops are the “three sisters”: corn, beans and squash. In that arid climate, pots were designed to hold and protect the seeds from these essential crops to assure food for the next year. Circular in shape, wider in the middle and nearly closed on top, the pots kept out moisture, insects and critters that could destroy the seeds over the winter. A tiny hole on top received each individual seed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I love my collection of Acoma seed pots. These contemporary pots are too small to carry the seeds of a harvest; instead their intricate images carry the seeds of the culture – the plants, birds, animals, rains essential to the continuity of life. They remind us of a reverence for life, embodied in these artists <a href="http://www.acomaskycity.org/main.html?pgid=6">themselves</a> and in the images they so delicately produce.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Is it too harsh to imagine Judge Murphy and Governor Martinez with hammers in hand, smashing the seed pots -- the schools, the constitutional guarantees, the institutions of justice – that our children need for their protection and nurturing if they are to carry the weight of and enjoy the possibilities of “our future”? I wish I could send every judge, every governor a beautiful seed pot from one of the Acoma potters as reminders to plan for a future made possible by protecting, and educating, the children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are summaries of the judges' rulings. If you live in New Mexico or Detroit, speak up for the children – challenge current politicians, vote for pro-education candidates in November and let them know you’ll be watching what they do after they’re sworn in. And let them know the children are watching, too.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Detroit Ruling (June 29th, 2018)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Michigan Federal District Court judge(U.S. District
Judge Stephen Murphy III) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/education/detroit-public-schools-education.html">dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by students</a> at troubled schools in
Detroit. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The suit argued that the under-performing schools in the district - predominately filled with racial minorities - were denied access to literacy due to mismanagement, discrimination, and a lack of funding. The schools suffered from pest infestations, a lack of teachers and essential resources as well as mass overcrowding.</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Judge Stephen J. Murphy III
said that “access to literacy” was not a fundamental right though he recognizes the poor state of the schools and the role state officials bore for the education levels in the district. </span>“But those points do not necessarily make access to literacy a fundamental right,” he said.</span></li>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“A report from the congressionally mandated
National Assessment of Educational Progress found that last year,
students in Detroit’s public school district scored lower in reading and
math than students in all of the other 26 large urban districts
measured.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></li>
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<b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">New Mexico Ruling (July 20th, 2018)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A
state district judge has ruled that New Mexico is v<a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/judge-rules-against-state-in-landmark-education-funding-lawsuit/article_4a963946-175d-538e-8705-9babff09ee7c.html">iolating the rights of at-risk students by failing to provide adequate funding for public schools</a>.<b>
</b>District Judge Sarah Singleton's said poor funding leaves students "in an inadequate system.".She wrote that the defendants
"violated the rights of at-risk students by failing to provide them
with a uniform statewide system of free public schools sufficient for
their education." "Legally," Singleton wrote,
"lack of funds is not a defense to providing constitutional rights."</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Singleton said trial evidence proved that
most at-risk students "finish each school year without the basic
literacy and math skills needed to pursue post-secondary education or a
career." This is reflected in New Mexico's position at the bottom of educational achievement in the nation.</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some advocates and policy experts say <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1201342/advocates-ruling-holds-promise-for-native-american-students-ex-nm-to-serve-as-a-turning-point-on-how-to-follow-through-on-decisions-made-years-ago.html">Native American students are among those who could benefit the most</a> from this ruling as the state has been tasked by a district judge to follow through with promises made years ago under New Mexico’s Indian Education Act.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The act calls for an equitable and culturally relevant learning environment in schools that serve Native American students with the intention of boosting educational performance and promote culture. New Mexico failed to provide students with a sufficient public education nor have they managed to address shortcomings in the unsuccessful education system.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The plaintiffs believed the state failed to properly fund public schools, programs, or services geared towards the academic and civil readiness of students, particularly those who are Native American, low-income, or those with disabilities.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>New Mexico Government Appeal (July 24th, 2018)</b><br />The <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/n-m-to-appeal-ruling-on-education-funding-for-at/article_56129910-4658-5903-b88e-0954eb20be6c.html">state government has appealed</a> the ruling that New Mexico must provide more resources to public schools to ensure at-risk students receive a sufficient education. “Unfortunately, the judge missed the boat with this ruling,” state Public Education Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski said late Monday, when he announced plans to appeal the decision. Teachers unions and political leaders opposed the news with the following statements.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Governor Martinez to not to appeal the decision. She ensured that she would “immediately halt any appeal initiated by her administration upon taking office.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kevin Sheridan, a spokesman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Pearce, didn't outright oppose the appeal but said, “As the court battle goes forward, Steve Pearce remains committed to taking action as governor to fix New Mexico’s broken education system and addressing the serious problems the judge points out in her decision.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Charles Bowyer, executive director of the National Education Association of New Mexico, was “extremely disappointed, but not surprised”.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The President of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, Stephanie Ly, had this to say; “This administration is woefully out of step even in its waning days, as it has been throughout the last eight years. Educator voices and stakeholders from across the spectrum have championed the court’s recent decision, and further delaying adequate funding for our public schools only deepens the crisis of funding which exists in New Mexico.”</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-36477509428374570952018-07-17T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-17T08:00:17.616-05:00Can a Hurricane Wipe Out Democracy?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In her powerful book, <i>Shock
Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster
Capitalism</i>, <a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine">Naomi Klein<b> </b></a>explained the ways disasters – both natural and man-made –
can be so destructive, can leave people so vulnerable, that a hostile takeover
may be welcomed as a rescue.
Specifically, a hurricane or a political coup or a tsunami may wipe out
so much, and leave people so desperate, that they’ll agree to anything that
seems like a quick fix. Especially, as Klein describes, “fixes” that they would
never agree to under normal circumstances, would never vote for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The “shock,” then is the disaster. The “shock doctrine” is
the strategic goal to replace democratic institutions, public goods owned by
and governed by the people, with private, corporate entities that make a profit
off what was once the public’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Klein
traces the privatization doctrine back to economist Milton Friedman, then
tracks his influence through not just the spread of his ideas but also specific
individuals who studied under him and took government jobs or think tank
consultancies in countries like Chile during the time of Pinochet (the case of
a “disaster” being a violent, anti-democracy political coup).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For those of us in education, the most compelling chapter
may be the story of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded most of the
city, dispersing its population across the country and disrupting most city
services, including the schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before
New Orleans’ public school teachers could return to the city, before any of the
public’s schools had been rebuilt, the corporate forces and their politicians
moved in with their shock doctrine fix:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>close the public’s schools and replace them with corporate charters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using the public’s tax dollars of
course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Louisiana member of Congress,
even before the flood water receded, that “Hurricane Katrina did to the Lower 9<sup>th</sup>
Ward what we’ve never been able to do politically.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meaning, wipe out this mostly African
American neighborhood and “re-develop” it for profit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New Orleans voters would never vote to close
their schools or fire their teachers; but, hey, a hurricane took care of that
messy chore in Lower 9<sup>th</sup> and other mostly poor, mostly African
American communities. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We know what came next: public school teachers fired,
replaced by much less qualified Teach for America and other less credentialed
people in for-profit or (supposedly) non-profit corporate charters of
questionable educational quality and documented detriment of democratically
governed, community-based schools.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s in that context of corporatizing traditionally
democratic institutions that Klein’s new book takes us to Puerto Rico, where
the “shock” of Hurricane Maria had already been preceded by the “shock” of Wall
Street, colonizing the Puerto Rican economy by complex forms of new
indebtedness to the big banks and investment firms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Into this already precarious – and largely
avoidable – financial situation roared Hurricane Maria last September, essentially
wiping out the island’s infrastructures for electricity, communications, roads
and bridges, and its schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2018/03/battle-paradise-puerto-ricans-and-ultrarich-puertopians-are-locked-pitched-struggle">The Battle for Paradise</a> </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>documents this next round of
post-disaster predatory capitalism – exploiting the exhaustion of thousands who
still lack electricity with a plan to privatize (corporatize) the power grid,
taking advantage of people still struggling to find drinking water and medical
supplies and ways to repair their homes by cutting deals with high level
officials to turn every possible public institution into a profit stream for
corporate interests. The schools are not immune: a plan to charterize
schooling, shutting down not only the schools that need rebuilding but many
that were never damaged (since the publication of this book, a judge has <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/09/puerto-rican-judge-declares-charter-schools-unconstitutional/">ruled</a> against the charter plan. But the fight is not over)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But Puerto Ricans are fighting back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Battle for Paradise </i>is the story of that struggle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not sugar coat the huge financial and
political powers aligned to undermine democracy in the island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in the face of those daunting powers
that people are coming together in new and creative alliances to shape the
rebuilding of Puerto Rico’s social institutions at the same time as, and as
seamless with, the rebuilding of the physical infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The book arose out of a forum on the dangers of disaster
capitalism to “undermine our country’s well-being, especially that of our most
vulnerable inhabitants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These [corporate
privatization] policies will limit access to basic rights such as water,
electricity, and housing and will destroy our environment, health, and
democracy, as well as our quality of life …and all the while they will increase
the transfer of wealth to the already rich.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Klein also sees hope. This slim volume contains beautiful
examples of the strength of communities working together. My favorite is Casa
Pueblo, a civic and community center where 20 years earlier solar panels had
been installed, to the derision of many. While politicians dragged their feet, highly questionable contracts were
signed with completely unequipped repair companies, and huge areas of the
island remained without power for months, Casa Pueblo had light!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Literally, electricity, but figuratively as
well:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a beacon of collaboration,
sensible science, community-based practicality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People came from miles away to charge phones
and medical devices, prepare healthy meals, convene community gatherings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The battle for paradise is – and will be – a struggle
between democratically, locally-based, community-strengthening rebuilding,
or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the predatory displacement of local
control by corporate investors exploiting the shock of financial and hurricane
disaster for greed and profit:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>supported
by the wealthy in gated enclaves unaffected by the long-term harm to the
island’s schools and neighborhoods and daily activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Klein’s book holds out hope because she has
spent time with and seen up close the 60 organizations that have come together
as JunteGente (people together) to build a democratic Puerto Rico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She knows time is of the essence, the people
with money and power can move more quickly and irreversibly, the collision of
the two visions of Paradise is inevitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Battle for
Paradise </i>is not just local to Puerto Rico:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Klein’s analysis captures the threat to democracy in our larger society
and, especially, in our schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I offer
her book as a prelude to the new series of posts which, following The Children
Are Watching, will trace the battle to protect the America’s public schools –
so central to our democracy – from those who would destroy them and replace
them with a “market” of corporate charter chains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m calling that series Grand Theft
Schoolhouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the model of Naomi Klein
I hope to write concretely and clearly about what is at stake when “disaster
capitalism” walks through the doors of our children schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I hope to highlight, as she does, those
examples of civic action and hope which are essential to ending not only
disaster capitalism but the vulnerabilities it so shamelessly exploits.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></span></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-60726184635114092802018-07-16T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-16T08:00:13.819-05:00Teaching for Black Lives<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #a64d79;">The Children are
Watching</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Teachers love summer! It is a great time for learning, for
gathering up new ideas for our students, for planning new ways to engage
children in powerful learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><a href="https://www.rethinkingschools.org/books/title/teaching-for-black-lives">Rethinking Schools</a> once again makes that learning exciting, that
planning inspiring. Their new title is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Teaching
for Black Lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>It is a
comprehensive compendium of very timely information and instructional plans for
teachers of Black students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The authors
are all educators, most of them in public school classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many are themselves African American or
teachers of color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many teach in
challenging schools; others teach students whose toughest challenges are
outside the school in their communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The entries are beautifully written, themselves the kinds of
compelling prose we hope to model for our students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The topics bridge the historical, the
personal, the political, the literary, and, frankly, the urgent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each chapter includes substantive
background information for teachers, and for teachers to share with their
students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That level of substance
provides a level of credibility and honesty seldom evidenced in traditional
textbooks, assuring a foundation for the lessons that will engage students in
research, investigation, personal reflection, writing and analyzing issues of vital
important to Black lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Such real life issues as the interactions of Black youth and
police officers, and the justice system itself, are dealt with in ways that invite
critical thinking and open dialogue, as well as deeper probing into historical
factors at work over time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
impending (or already experienced) loss of homes or neighborhoods through the
absurdly named “gentrification” is explored in depth through readings, oral
histories, mapping, and personal stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like housing, the abundant resources in this volume have relevance to
students who are not African American but who experience many of these same displacements or marginalizing
forces, or who don’t and need to learn about them. If these lessons were taught in all schools, youth in varied
circumstances and cultures could come to know and make common cause with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I can’t end this plug for this amazing book without
congratulating its editors on the brilliant art work throughout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exuberant cover hints at great
visuals throughout, gripping in themselves and perfect as writing prompts!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congratulations again to everyone at
Rethinking Schools for this book we’ve been needing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re a teacher, order it today! If you
know a teacher, buy it for her beach reading!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-69552753938342253032018-07-13T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-13T08:00:08.256-05:00And Still The Children Watch<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Children are Watching</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The sheer innocence in the face of this
little boy peering over the border wall from his home in Mexico into the US got
me to thinking about what he would see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would
he see friendly neighbors, a wall of uniformed guards, a “land of opportunity,”
or a threat to a healthy, peaceful childhood?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">His openness becomes our obligation:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is what the grownups are doing – and making –
and undoing – good for children? Is it what we want them to see and to find
security in and to one day emulate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
photograph reminded me of a simple but powerful book written by Ted and Nancy
Sizer, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Students are Watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>The subtitle carries the Sizers' central
message:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Schools and the Moral Contract.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Written
in 1999, partially in response to the killings of students by students at
Columbine High School, the Sizers write about schools as representing our
social contract with our youth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the
ways they teach, not just the content they teach, our schools have the
potential to foster in youth an individual moral agency grounded in the common
good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://essentialschools.org/founder-ted-sizer/">The</a> <a href="https://www.heinemann.com/authors/3604.aspx">Sizers</a>, educators committed to equity and to a public education
system predicated on democratic values and practices, address the alienation
many youth feel in large, impersonal, bureaucratic schools where teaching and
learning are generic, routinized, or aimed at a technical mastery. They argue that
such schooling precludes the experience of, and deep understanding of, the
values imbedded in our domains of knowledge and in our democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Nancy and Ted Sizer, the “standards” our
schools need to attain are the values of empathy, curiosity for learning,
respect for thinking, and concern for the common good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students will find these credible and be
inspired to grow toward them when they see the adults – in the school and in
the community, enact them as a part of normal everyday practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We know the children <i>are</i> watching:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what are they seeing in the adults around
them today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began this “Children Are
Watching” series of blog posts thinking I’d be writing about such issues as
whether Congress would fully fund the critically needed Children’s Health Insurance
program (<a href="http://www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/what-we-offer/chip">CHIP</a>), and protect <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/02/politics/daca-explained/index.html">DACA</a> considering the president’s arbitrary cut-off date
for these young people’s safe immigration status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The increasing urgency of gun control. Lots
of issues pending that related to the needs of children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I never dreamed I’d have to be writing about
babies and toddlers taken from their parents by our own government and by all
accounts “lost” in the increasingly anti-immigrant system being erected by this
administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have shuddered
to think we’d need to write about the US government threatening to cut off
military aid (military aid?) to Ecuador for introducing into a World Health
Organization resolution a statement encouraging <u><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html">breast feeding</a> (those
formula companies need their profits!</u>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The children are not just watching – they are
living this anti-child nightmare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
sick child may not know what CHIP is, but she does know if her mama says “we
don’t have money for a doctor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The at
least 800,000 youth covered by the DACA status are now teenagers and older, but
they have younger siblings, sometimes children of their own, children growing
up with the anxiety of impermanence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And even very young children see the images
of children in cages at the border, or whisked down dark streets to “shelters” out
of the public eye. They cannot miss the tears and horror that their own parents and
teachers can’t hide from them at each new story of family separations, of
children held hostage far from their parents. You don’t have to be a brown
child who speaks another language and just got here to feel the fear that my
parents may disappear, that my parents can’t always protect me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Sizers were right: the children see what
we do as our enacted values. What values are the children seeing in us right
now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope in addition to seeing the
official cruelty of these immigration policies, the demonizing of<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/01/30/trumps-state-of-the-union-a-diatribe-against-immigrants/?utm_term=.15a0a917b563"> “people not like us,”</a>, they can see the
thousands of Americans who are rising up on behalf of children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The children can also see people who love
them, speak up for them, take political risks for them (why should being an
advocate for children be risky in our democracy?), take on the powerful on
their behalf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope may be less visible
than all these outrages, but it is emerging in powerful new ways: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">School children, grandmothers, community
groups, civic leaders, mayors and governors and courageous senators have
stepped up to protest using child separation to intimidate asylum seekers into
leaving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From teachers to psychiatrists
and psychologists to pediatricians, professional organizations have used their
expertise to speak out on behalf of these children, to end the harm of trauma
and separation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Airlines have told the
government they will not transport the separated children, nor profit from
those separations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lawyers are offering
to represent immigrant families pro-bono to get them released from these
illegal detentions, to demand legally required credible fear hearings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ordinary Americans of all ages and cultures
and political persuasions – and many people in other countries, are raising
money to assist these families get their kids back (I hope the news isn’t true
that these already traumatized families are having to pay for the DNA tests to
prove their kids are theirs, or for the airfare to bring their kids back from
across the US.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are still many
profiteers, eagerly scooping up our tax dollars without regard to the children
they are exploiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there is no
longer silence. The children can see much creative action to end this cruelty
and hear the loud chorus of “never again, not in our name.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But the children aren’t merely watching:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Literally millions of Americans of all ages
joined in the rallies and marches led by the students of Marjorie Steadman High
School of Parkland High School to pressure Congress and the states for gun
control laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These youth mobilized a
nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Historians and psychologists and
anthropologists and biographers will no doubt look back on this anti-child
period of our history and give us explanations for what is right now, as we
live it, inexplicable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did our elected
leaders hate their mothers, or their children? Did the growing awareness of the
fragility of the planet engender a futureless fatalism?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did fear supplant optimism as the American
civic currency?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t speculate with
any real sense of understanding. But I do know that the children are
watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s not give them reason to
give up on us.</span><span style="font-family: calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-7128993432992191142018-07-10T14:58:00.000-05:002018-07-10T14:58:03.852-05:00Fears, the Stranger and the Muslim Travel Ban<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A Lesson from a Poet </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: center;">Fear is the handy weapon wielded by the
people in power when they know their ideas would never be accepted by a
thinking public, by informed voters. I always think that when politicians have
to resort to scare tactics they are admitting a failure of imagination. Their weakness becomes power only when they
make everyone else afraid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The uses of fear to marginalize, subjugate,
militarize, and exploit have a long history even in our democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the Europeans’ demonizing of the Native
Peoples as savage to justify usurping their lands, to white Southern men’s
claims that Black men were a danger to “their” white women (thus maintaining
dominance over both), to hysteria that asylum seekers at our border with Mexico
(many of them mothers and very young children) are gangsters, the people of the
“home of the brave” can be embarrassingly quick to give in to manufactured
fears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-travel-ban.html" target="_blank">travel ban the US Supreme Court </a>just last week affirmed is an especially clever case in point:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Koreans and Venezuelans were conveniently
made honorary Muslims to slip the travel ban past the Constitutional barriers against overt
religious discrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the babies
coming in from Central America are all proto-MS-13 gang members, the Muslims
from designated countries (Korea but not Saudi Arabia!) are all likely
terrorists: Keep them out! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If we have a justifiable fear, it is of those
who would rule by fear, who belittle and dismiss our better instincts (“soft on
Communists/terrorists/gangs”), and who silence our most generous instincts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A friend reminds me that sometimes a poet can
break into that silence, be our voice not just for rejecting fear, but for overcoming it. She sent me this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye. <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/naomi-shihab-nye" target="_blank">Naomi Shihab Nye</a> is a Texas treasure, Palestinian and
American; a wise and graceful writer. I share “Red Brocade” with you as our
meditation for strength beyond fear:</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; letter-spacing: -1.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Red Brocade</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 18pt;"><i>The Arabs used to say,</i></span></div>
<i><span style="color: #222222;"></span><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 18pt;"><i>When a stranger appears at your door,</i></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222;"><i>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></i></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><i>feed him for three days</i></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>
</i></span></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 18pt;">before asking who he is,</span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>
</i></span></span>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 18pt;">where he’s come from,</span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">where he’s headed.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">That way, he’ll have strength</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">enough to answer.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">Or, by then you’ll be</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">such good friends</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">you don’t care.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">Let’s go back to that.</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">Rice? Pine nuts?</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">Here, take the red brocade pillow.</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">My child will serve water</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">to your horse.</span></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">No, I was not busy when you came!</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">I was not preparing to be busy.</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">That’s the armor everyone put on</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">to pretend they had a purpose</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">in the world.</span></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">I refuse to be claimed.</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">Your plate is waiting.</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">We will snip fresh mint</span></div>
</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">into your tea.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">-Naomi Shihab Nye</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">19 Varieties of Gazelle, 2002</span></div>
</span></i></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: normal;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
</div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-34934069623928158472018-07-09T15:25:00.000-05:002018-07-09T15:25:06.237-05:00Kids Count – or Do They in Texas? (Part II)<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">The Children Are Watching </span> </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In an earlier blog I stated that the cruel treatment of
immigrant children being separated from their families at our southern border
resides in our government’s sense that these are “other people’s children,” not
ours to take care of, show compassion to, or be responsible for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said surely if we understood the humanity
of these very young children, we would never take them far away from their
parents, would not deny their parents an asylum hearing for fleeing known harms
threatening their children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely if we
saw them as “all our children,” we would show compassion, be smart and kind in
our treatment of these traumatized arrivals, and in respecting their humanity
affirm our own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Turns out I was wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two new studies show our country doesn’t do too well by its own
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many are poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many lack access to health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many fail to graduate high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And too many lack safe housing and basic
services essential for children to thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I previously highlighted the <u><a href="http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1">new report by the UnitedNations</a> </u>on extreme poverty worldwide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It shows the very wealthy US with as many as
one-fifth (20%) of its children living in poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many in extreme poverty – the measure of
which is a mere $2.00/day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>columnist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/nikki-haley-united-states-extreme-poverty.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fnicholas-kristof&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection">Nicholas Kristof</a> reminds us in reporting out the UN study, the
US regularly separates American children from families through mass
incarceration and over-use of the foster system, both of which
disproportionately to lasting harm to African American families and children. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what about Texas? The nation and the world<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have their eyes on Texas as the detention
tents, internment camps and “baby jails” are constructed along our southern
border for migrant families seeking safety for their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the cameras turned away from the border
to scan the communities where “our” children live, what would they see?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The just-released <u><a href="http://www.aecf.org/resources/2018-kids-count-data-book/?gclid=CjwKCAjwg_fZBRAoEiwAppvp-dOF77zHvKuA6R2NCjHEPVZfC_zBg_2sV3En8bMsNF55NogBG1JmHxoC_S8QAvD_BwE">Kids Count 2018</a></u> by
the Annie E. Casey Foundation has the numbers and they are not good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas, one of the richest states in the US
and one of the richest economies in the world, ranks among the lowest 10 states
in the welfare of its children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
facts are shameful, the need for action never more urgent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a summary of this year’s Kids Count
Texas from the </span><u><a href="http://forabettertexas.org/kidscount.html"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Center for Public Policy Priorities:</span></a><o:p></o:p></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt;">Texas Ranks 43</span></b><b><span style="background: white; font-size: 9pt; position: relative; top: -5pt;">rd </span></b><b><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt;">in Latest National Rankings of Child Well-Being </span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Reflecting overall
trends in the United States, Texas child poverty and health insurance rates
have improved. An estimated 22 percent of Texas children lived in poverty in
2016, down from 23 percent in 2015. Despite these gains, Texas still lags
behind other states, ranking 37</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">th </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in child poverty and
48</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">th </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in the percent of children without
health insurance. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The national </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">KIDS
COUNT Data Book </span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">annually
ranks each state in four core areas of child well- being: health, education,
economic well-being and family and community. Texas lags behind most states in
child well-being, and state legislators need to enact policies to improve child
outcomes. Texas ranks: </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">35</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">th </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in
economic well-being. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Although the number of children in poverty has
decreased, more than 1.6 million Texas kids still live in poverty. About
27 percent of kids in Texas live in families where no member of the
household has full-time, year-round employment. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">32</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">nd </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in
education</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.
Data in the report confirm that Texas needs to do more to support
education. A majority of Texas kids lack the reading and math skills they
need to pursue higher education. Texas has a better on-time graduation
rate than the U.S. average. 11 percent of Texas high schoolers did not
graduate on time in the 2015-16 school year compared to 16 percent of
students nationally. However, challenges in college and career readiness
remain. Texas struggles to help its children improve in reading and math.
Seventy-one percent of Texas fourth-graders scored below proficient in
reading levels, and 67 percent of Texas eighth-graders scored below
proficient in math levels. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">47</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">th </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in
the family and community domain. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Data
Book </span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">refers
to nurturing families and supportive communities as "family and
community." Although the numbers are declining, 17 percent of Texas
kids still live in high-poverty areas. An estimated 20 percent (almost 1.5
million) of kids in Texas live with a parent who lacks a high school
diploma, down from 23 percent in 2012. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• </span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">41</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">st </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in
health. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Texas
child health insurance rates have improved since 2010, but still rank third to
last in the United States. Lawmakers at the federal and state levels must
protect and expand insurance access. Recent improvements are largely the result
of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which increased kids' access
to critical physical and mental health care and strengthened families’
financial security by reducing unexpected medical expenses. Threats to cut the
popular Children's Health Insurance Program in 2017 and continued attacks on
the ACA are not in line with keeping kids healthy. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">CPPP has actively
engaged in the <span style="color: blue;">Texas Public School Finance Commission</span>,
which has been meeting this year, and urges that group to recommend boosted
public school investment for Texas children. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“This report confirms
that state leaders need to take more aggressive steps to improve the lives of
millions of children and families, and that includes ensuring an accurate
census," said Kristie Tingle, a research analyst at the Center for Public
Policy Priorities in Austin. "Texas demographics — our large immigrant
population and diverse overall population — have long made it a major challenge
to get an accurate, full count of residents, and that <span style="color: blue;">challenge
</span>could be even larger in 2020 because of changes to the census." </span><span style="font-family: "arialmt" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">Three important
observations emerge from these statistics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11pt;">As the Center for
Public Policy Priorities points out, all of these conditions are
remediable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More Texas children have
access to health care because of the Affordable Care Act – a federal initiative
resisted by most Texas politicians but vital to our children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11pt;">These problems can be
solved with action, with smart legislation, with public activism that pushes
our Texas elected officials to act on behalf of children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They need to lead out on expanding access to
affordable health care for families and on protecting and expanding funding for
CHIP (the federal Children’s Health Insurance).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Solving these
problems will require an accurate count of all the children in Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The upcoming 2020 census threatens to leave
children out if the census is used as a tool of immigration policing or other
restrictive purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may undercount
rural children, the high number of children living in poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal funding, legislative representation
and many other policy imperatives depend on an accurate count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We have been
horrified as the stories emerge about parents who have no idea where their
children are and children, most of them not speaking English and many even too
young to talk, having no idea where their parents are, who these strangers are
keeping them captive, and where they are.
The slow, uncaring response from the White House and government
officials has made many question whether this is even America any more. CPPP reminds us that knowing who the children
are and where they are is equally critical if we as Texans are to assure all
children thrive. That’s why something as
seemingly arcane as the 2020 census becomes crucial. Here is more from CPPP on that urgency:</span><span style="font-family: "arialmt" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Possible
2020 census undercount could worsen conditions for Texas kids </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">AUSTIN,
Texas </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">—
Texas children cannot afford to have an inaccurate census count, as the data
would have major consequences for their health, wellness, education and
economic opportunity. Texas ranks 43</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">rd </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in
child well-being – one of the 10 worst states for kids – though there are a few
bright spots, including a decrease in the number of uninsured Texas children,
according to the </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">2018 KIDS COUNT</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 7pt; position: relative; top: -5pt;">® </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Data
Book </span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">released
today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report confirms challenges for
Texas kids and highlights the critical role of the upcoming 2020 census. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Billions</b><u> </u><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">of dollars in federal aid to states rely on the accuracy of the census,
including significant support for children's health care, housing and food
programs. </b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">“We have to count all
the children and families in Texas, because we can't support people we don’t
know are here,” said Ann Beeson, CEO of the Center for Public Policy Priorities
(CPPP). “The data show us that Texas children have many challenges, and we need
an accurate census to advance proven policy solutions that make this the best
state for kids.” </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Census surveys via
internet may also not pick up lower-income populations without internet access.
In Texas, 30 percent of young children under the age of five live in hard to
count census tracts. These 582,000 children are at risk of being undercounted
in the upcoming 2020 census, and federally funded programs that have driven
youth success are in jeopardy. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">CPPP offers the
following recommendations to achieve a more accurate census: </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Identify
the ‘hard to count’ communities. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Community leaders and elected
officials should learn about Texas’ “hard to count” communities and begin
reaching out to them now. Visit <span style="color: blue;">www.censushardtocountmaps.us
</span>to find areas of Texas that are the hardest to count. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Conduct
outreach across Texas</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. State and local governments and community
organizations need to ensure that all communities are counted. Create
statewide and local 2020 census “complete count” committees. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Speak
to your local officials. </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">All Texans can encourage their
city and county officials to work with library systems, schools or other
locations that might be helpful in encouraging residents to participate in
the census. Texans can call their members of Congress and encourage them
to maximize the Census Bureau’s capacity. Federal lawmakers should fully
fund the census outreach effort,</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The only reason for Texas
children not to thrive is if we take these dire statistics as inevitable rather
than as inspirations for concerted, collective action. The children of Texas
are watching. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-90591932073124817902018-07-07T14:34:00.000-05:002018-07-07T14:34:15.962-05:00Kids Count, or Do They? Neglecting "Our" Kids (Part I)<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">The Children Are Watching </span> </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In a previous post, I asserted that the US
government’s cruel and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>inhumane
treatment of immigrant children crossing our border showed a callous view of
these Mexican and Central American children as “not our kids.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very young children could be ripped away from
their parents and shipped off to faraway states, with no plan to reunite them
with their asylum-seeking parents or even let their parents know where they
are, because these are “other people’s children,” not ours and not our
responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I was right about the cruelty of the
treatment – we’ve heard audio tapes of babies and toddlers crying desperately
for their mamas. We’ve learned of older children believing their parents have
abandoned them, even thinking of killing themselves because of their lack of
hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Workers in these detention
facilities – and in the airlines that transport these child hostages – report
feeling anger, guilt, and helplessness as they realize how complicit they are
in the separation, in obeying rules not to hug sobbing toddlers or let older
siblings comfort younger ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As more
of these courageous “shelter” workers bring out audio and video confirmation of
these conditions, we know we’re right about the cruelty, to say nothing of the
un-Constitutionality of this dark moment of the American soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But I got the “our kids” part very
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two new reports – one from the UN
and one by an established child-advocacy research organization, show that what
the US is doing to these immigrant children is in many ways continuous with our
neglect of our own kids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Nicholas Kristof in his June 28, 2018 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/nikki-haley-united-states-extreme-poverty.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fnicholas-kristof&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection" target="_blank">column</a> reminds us that “American systematically shortchanges tens of
millions of children, including homegrown kids.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He cites that American kids are “more likely
to be poor, to drop out of high school and even to die young than in other
advanced countries.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He reminds us that
we tear apart “homegrown” families through mass incarceration and overuse of
foster care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And the world knows. A United Nations study
of poverty <a href="http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1" target="_blank">shows</a> a very direct line between the mistreatment of immigrant kids
on our southern border and the severe conditions under which many American
children live:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Philip Alston, the UN’s
special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights reports that one-fifth
of America’s children live in poverty; one-fifth of America’s homeless are
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most Americans would not
believe that at least 3million American children live in extreme poverty, the
global metric for which is $2.00/day. Once a leader in educating and caring for
its children, the US now lags behind all its peer countries, and many less
“developed” ones, that provide universal health care to children and
families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The UN’s Philip Alston sees the connection as
a lack of compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently the US
Ambassador to the United Nations is eager to confirm his assessment:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nikki Haley protested the UN report saying
“it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in
America.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Kristof column and the UN report are
worth reading in their entirety and forwarding to everyone running for office
in the US mid-term elections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to
everyone who needs to vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must
invest in our children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must tackle
directly those forces that make a few people at the top richer and richer while
our children and their families are in poverty and getting poorer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One immediate investment that should be a
bi-partisan priority is early childhood education. According to a World Bank
analysis, if the US were to invest in effective early childhood programs, “the
lifelong benefits would be so transformative <i>that American inequality could be
reduced to Canadian levels”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i> </i>[emphasis added].</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">That investment should be a given (if
Americans can swallow their pride and admit the wisdom of our northern
neighbors). But there is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>much more to be
done – from taxing the rich, regulating environmental pollution and financial
institutions, restoring the voting rights act, re-investing in public education
and its teachers, and creating meaningful jobs with fair and living wages for
the adults in children’s lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must also protect our civil liberties so we all have a voice in this urgent civic project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The children are watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do they believe we care about them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See my next post for the new Kids Count
report that shines a light into the dark realities of children’s well-being –
or lack of it – in Texas.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-63347661054244168602018-07-06T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-06T08:00:12.213-05:00 Home: A Nation Rallies to Keep Families Together<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">The Children Are Watching </span> </span></i></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vCZ0ig23pBE/Wz5gCyJ4-HI/AAAAAAAAA78/1yrT2JYok6gvcWCYru6HvvIJlF0cnRFlgCLcBGAs/s1600/Immigration-March002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="620" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vCZ0ig23pBE/Wz5gCyJ4-HI/AAAAAAAAA78/1yrT2JYok6gvcWCYru6HvvIJlF0cnRFlgCLcBGAs/s320/Immigration-March002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The US government’s cruel separation of
families seeking asylum at our border with Mexico has spread a collective grief
across the nation unlike perhaps anything seen since the 9/11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and Pentagon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as
the nation thought no grief could exceed the pain of the shootings of little
children at <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/03/sarah-clements/556355/" target="_blank">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> or the students of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-parkland-students-are-embarking-on-a-nationwide-summer-activism-tour-629279/" target="_blank">Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School</a> just this past spring, the growing awareness that our own
government is holding little children hostage to try to force their parents to
give up their asylum claims and return to eminent dangers in their Central
American communities has once again sent us into mourning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">These tragic events have more in common than
grief:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they reveal the deep divides
between – “we the people”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- and the
people in power. The school shootings have inspired activism – led this time by
the students themselves, while at the same time shutting down elected officials essentially
owned by the gun lobby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The now public
separation of families, coldly justified as protecting America from hordes of
MS-13 gangsters, has awakened Americans to action. This can’t be happening in
our name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">On Saturday, June 30, a day breaking heat
records all across the country, Americans in more than 700 cities and towns
marched to say Keep Families Together. Do not separate families in our
name:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we are not afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rallies coincided with <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-judge-immigration-20180626-story.html" target="_blank">rulings</a> by two
different federal judges<b> </b>that children cannot be separated from parents
seeking asylum; one judge gave a deadline of 14 days for reuniting children
under 5 years of age with their parents, and a deadline of<span style="background-color: white;"> 30</span> days for older
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Another federal judge <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/5/asylum_seekers_win_in_court_as" target="_blank">ruled </a>that individuals who pass the credible fear interview should be granted humanitarian parole instead of indefinite detention as is currently imposed by the U.S. </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">As I’ve written in previous
posts, the government is stalling, says the deadlines are unrealistic because
they don’t actually know where all these more than 2500 children have been
taken.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">And besides, who knows if the
people claiming to be their parents aren’t maybe child traffickers or
perverts!</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I’m not joking, that’s an
official pronouncement coming out of various federal agencies whose confusing
jurisdictional domains obscure where the children are and who is responsible
for the reunifications.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There will be more stalling, more tragic
stories of toddlers “representing” themselves in immigration hearings, more
brave insider reports of the tears (and silences) of children held for months
without their parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And there will be more rallies, more
activism, up against even more barriers now that the Supreme Court will most
certainly be even more hostile to immigrants and their rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And there will be more things that happen to inspire
and build common cause on behalf of the families and individuals who risked
their lives to come here because they believed in the US tradition of welcoming
those “yearning to breathe free.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One of the most powerful moments among the
many moving testimonies from the June 30 rallies occurred in a small city in northern
California when a woman stood to read a poem by a Somali poet. The poem is
“Home.” The poet is <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/warsan-shire" target="_blank">Warzan Shire,, </a></span>a British/Somali
woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The message is simple:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“you have to understand….no one leaves home …no
one puts their children in a boat/ unless the water is safer than the
land.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I found several variations of Shire’s poem
and share this one in the hope that it conveys the power to teach us who these <span style="background-color: white;">seekers</span> are – the neighbors who come to our borders with their children.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">“Home,”</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="font-size: 9.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">no one leaves home unless </span></span></i></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">home is the mouth of a shark</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">you only run for the border</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">when you see the whole city</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">running as well</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">your neighbors running faster</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">than you</span></span></i></div>
</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>breath bloody in their
throats<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">the boy you went
to school with</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">who kissed you dizzy behindthe old tin factory</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">is</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> <span style="background: white;">holding a gun bigger than his
body.</span></span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">you only leave home</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="font-size: 9.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">when home won’t let you stay.</span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">no one would leave home unless</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">home</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">chases you,</span></span></i></div>
</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">fire under feet,</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">hot blood in your belly.</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">it’s not something you ever thought of doing</span></span></i></div>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">until the blade burnt threats into</span></span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>your neck<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">and even then you carried the
anthem under your breath,</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">waiting until the airport toilet</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="font-size: 9.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">to tear up the passport and swallow,</span></span></i></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">each mouthful of paper making it</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">clear that</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">you would not be going back.</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">you have to understand, </span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">no one puts their children in a boat</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">unless the water is safer than the land.</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">who would choose to spend days</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">and nights in the stomach of a truck</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">unless the miles travelled</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">means something more than</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">journey.</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">no one would choose to crawl under fences,</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">be beaten until your shadow leaves</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">you,</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">raped, then drowned,</span></span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">forced to the</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> <span style="background: white;">bottom of </span></span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">the most because you are darker,</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">be</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> <span style="background: white;">sold,</span> <span style="background: white;">starved, shot at the border like a sick animal,</span></span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">be pitied, lose your name, lose your</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">family,</span></span></i></div>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">make a refugee camps a home for a </span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">year or two or ten,</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">stripped and searched,</span></span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>find prison everywhere<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">and if you survive and you are</span></i></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">
<i><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">greeted on the other side</span></i></div>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">with go home blacks</span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">refugees</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">dirty immigrants</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">asylum seekers</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">sucking our country dry of milk,</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="font-size: 9.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">dark, with their hands out</span></span></i></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">smell strange, savage</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">look what they’ve done to their own </span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">countries, </span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">what will they do to ours?</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">the dirty looks in the street</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">softer than a limb torn off,</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">the indignity of everyday life</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">more tender than fourteen men</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">who</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">look
like your father,</span></span></i></div>
</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">between</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> <span style="background: white;">your legs, <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>insults easier <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">to swallow</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">than rubble</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>than bone<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>than your child’s body in
pieces – <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">for now, forget about</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> <span style="background: white;">pride</span></span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">your survival is more important.</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">I want to go home,</span></span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">but home is the</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"> <span style="background: white;">mouth of the shark</span></span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">home is the barrel of the gun</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">and no one would leave home</span></span></i></div>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">unless home chased you to the shore</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">unless home tells you</span></span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>to quicken your legs<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>leave your clothes behind<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>crawl through the desert<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>drown<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>save<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>be hunger<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>beg forget your pride <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">your survival is more
important</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">leave what you could not behind,</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="font-size: 9.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">even if it was human.</span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">no one leaves home until home</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">is a damp voice in your ear saying</span></span></i></div>
</span>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 9.5pt;">leave, run now,</span></span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;">i don’t know what</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">I’ve become</span></span></i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>but I know that anywhere <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-71841883447495832018-07-03T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-05T14:41:02.238-05:00Reverence For Life, An Immigrant Mom, and the Nun on the Bus<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #a64d79;">The Children
are Watching</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What can be
more sacred than a nursing baby, safe in its mother’s protective arms? That moment of nurture and love and
connection calls to mind Albert Schweitzer’s writings on <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Albert-Schweitzers-Reverence-Life-Self-Realization/dp/0754661067" target="_blank">The Teaching of Reverence for Life.</a><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Does anyone
read Schweitzer any more? Is his affirmation for all life – including the lives
of people who seem very different from ours – taught in our schools?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I don’t know. But I do know that Schweitzer’s reverence for life — and our calling to live it — has a powerful voice in the person of Sister Simone Campbell, the attorney-nun who came to fame as one of the “Nuns on the Bus,” speaking out for the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed right here in our country. Why do we need the voice of Sister Simone? Because today’s news story tells me that the reverence for life — our humility before the very essence of human existence —is in jeopardy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Read this news from CNN. You'll stop breathing.
You may feel tears.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">You may wish you
could get on a plane to McAllen and go find that baby.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">(And you wish you could just shake that
immigration officer – but that would be fueling the cycle of inhumanity—we
can’t let them make us cruel.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><u><cite><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.5pt;">" McAllen, Texas
(CNN)</span></cite><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.5pt;">The undocumented immigrant from Honduras sobbed as she told an
attorney Tuesday how federal authorities took her daughter while she breastfed
the child in a detention center, where she was awaiting prosecution for
entering the country illegally.<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><u>When the woman resisted, she was
handcuffed, Natalia Cornelio, the attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project,
recalled from her interview with the woman, who had been detained under the
Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy to refer anyone caught crossing
the border illegally for federal prosecution. "</u></i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Surely none of us is so cruel to as rip a
nursing baby from her mother. But if we
do nothing, we are complicit. Complicit in an action we could not have
imagined, or might have imagined as being the actions of a “third-world” despot.
Surely not in a democracy. Surely not in a country with laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Right now the laws are being inverted,
perverted, controverted to impose cruelty, not justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there is a lawyer who can teach us how
to reclaim our humanity:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sister Simone
Campbell, one of the Nuns on the Bus!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sister Simone is one of my heroes: she keeps
speaking out about poverty when no one (most notably not even one of the
presidential candidates in 2008 or 2016) is mentioning this growing crisis. She doesn't tolerate silence when there is injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She speaks
candidly about the human costs of war, about fairness and equity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And she is eloquent on the matter of the
peoples whose perilous lives are bringing them to the US even when they know
their dreams of a safe place for their children are now threatened by the
policies of an administration hostile to them as people. (I won’t repeat the
words the president and attorney general use to describe these, their fellow
human beings – you’ve already heard them and I don’t want a word search to
attach them to my name).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y_Ls7Kt3uY" target="_blank">Here is a video of how Sister Simone describes the situation:</a></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>What is at stake?</b></div>
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What Sister Simone sees at stake is the values and ethics of a nation complicit with the poor and inhumane treatment of immigrants, specifically immigrants crossing the Mexican border. <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/06/16/nun-contradicts-jeff-sessions-on-the-bible-calls-immigration-policy-a-travesty/" target="_blank">Here</a> is an article citing her condemnation of the use of the Bible to justify separation of families at the border.<br />
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<b>What should we do?</b></div>
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She calls on us to treat migrants in a way that is “humane, just, and fraternal” by improving our detention and deportation practices. “It is a mandate of our faith and our nation. Laws that separate families are unjust and immoral and are no laws at all," she says in regard to the cruel immigration laws enforced by the Trump administration. <a href="https://networklobby.org/issues/immigration" target="_blank">Here</a> is a Link to the Federal Policies Sister Simone and NETWORK supports as well as some Policy Solutions they have put forward (scroll down to see their ideas for solutions). </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I could not be more grateful for the life,
the work, the mission, the example of Sister Simone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>ask us to turn that gratitude into action, that admiration into
advocacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her example is powerful to
the extent we follow it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>To share your ideas about Sister Simone,
babies taken from their moms, and actions you are taking to end the immigration
cruelty, please click on the “comments” pencil.</i></span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-41527839250637854242018-07-02T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-05T14:41:20.519-05:00Educators Speak Up for Immigrant Children! <div class="MsoNormal">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "calibri";">The Children Are Watching</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4DLy-CSb09Q/WzU2cu5P6rI/AAAAAAAAA6k/sHAyD8TF3ekULlo1oWamlVKLVU5_7JP3wCLcBGAs/s1600/AERA%2Blogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="515" height="108" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4DLy-CSb09Q/WzU2cu5P6rI/AAAAAAAAA6k/sHAyD8TF3ekULlo1oWamlVKLVU5_7JP3wCLcBGAs/s320/AERA%2Blogo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">My own professional organization, the
American Educational Research Association, puts forth a firm statement
against the US government’s separation of families and detention of
children.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The statement is a strong affirmation of the need for us all to work for the well-being of children and
to adamantly oppose those policies and practices that do harm – in this case
lasting harm to the children’s development and well-being.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A statement from <a href="http://www.aera.net/" target="_blank">AERA</a> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">won’t be surprising – this is our
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, this consensus
transcends the individual and professional interests and political leanings of
our more than 25,000 members in every state of the US and many other countries,
and across such disparate fields as testing and measurement, educational
administration, teaching and learning, educational history and policy,
curriculum studies and the social contexts of schooling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are united in support of the children. I
could not be prouder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is the full text of our stand for the
children:</span><span style="font-family: calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "inherit" , "serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; padding: 0in;">Statement by AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine on the<br />
Trump Administration’s Detainment of Immigrant Children</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><br />
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</span><b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "inherit" , "serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; padding: 0in;">June 22, 2018</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;">We express our continuing
concern for the thousands of children and their families who are living in
trauma and experiencing the pernicious effects of “zero tolerance” and
separation policies and practices that render irreparable harm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;">We join with others in
the scholarly and research communities and the groundswell of people in our
country who are deeply concerned about the effects of the Trump
administration’s policies and practices on the well-being of these children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;">The Trump
administration’s policy of separating detained immigrant children from their
parents or caregivers is not only morally and ethically reprehensible but
exposes these children to great risk of emotional and psychological trauma. The
research evidence shows that forced separation and detainment of children in
situations such as this can have long-lasting effects on their socio-emotional
development and well-being, leading to years of behavioral and learning
problems. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;">For children removed from
their parents, the trauma can have pervasive effects throughout their formative
years, harming their emotional development and academic growth, with serious
lifelong ramifications for individuals, their families, and their communities.
The length of time and conditions in which these children are being held,
without clear plans for speedy reunification, only compound the likelihood of
harm to already vulnerable children. This is not what the United States stands
for and cannot be part of our country’s legacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Members of the American
Educational Research Association are dedicated to advancing knowledge that
promotes the well-being of children, and substantial numbers of scholars in our
community have long contributed to the evidence base in this area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Although the Trump
administration has rescinded its separation policy, it still falls on the
administration to act immediately and forcefully to reunite the thousands of
children who have been taken from their parents since May. It is the
administration’s responsibility to ensure that, moving forward, its practices
and policies support children and do not place them at further risk. For now,
the clock is ticking for these children and their families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I urge all my AERA colleagues to add action
to our words:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>share this statement
widely with your colleagues, with your members of Congress, with your city
officials who may be pressured to permit ICE “baby jails” in your town, with
anyone you know who isn’t sure that this detention thing isn’t so bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is and we can’t let it go on.</span><br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></span></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-64981124130407445012018-06-29T08:00:00.000-05:002018-07-05T14:41:39.454-05:00Deliberate Losses: Children at our Border<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">The</span><span style="color: #a64d79;"> Children Are Watching</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> The white vans pull up to the shelter in a tight line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shelter workers bring their charges out
to be loaded in, careful to document the identity of each one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having been examined and, if necessary,
treated at the shelter’s clinic, then perhaps fostered by caring volunteers,
the charges are healthy and well-prepared for the trip. The van driver
meticulously confirms the information, matching the details of identity, route,
and destination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;"><i>Only after all documents are verified does the silent line of vans proceed down the highway to a faraway state. Upon arrival, the same care for clear document check precedes the discharging of the passengers into the arms eagerly waiting to receive them.</i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rr_Op_g8yDY/WzVJwRjD-eI/AAAAAAAAA7I/TTc1AlRpx_wIEEO1_iYjfLXjcrvfIa7CQCLcBGAs/s1600/ICE%2BVAN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rr_Op_g8yDY/WzVJwRjD-eI/AAAAAAAAA7I/TTc1AlRpx_wIEEO1_iYjfLXjcrvfIa7CQCLcBGAs/s400/ICE%2BVAN.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">No, I’m not describing our government’s
treatment of immigrant children ripped from their parents’ arms at the US –
Mexico border. No, I haven’t come across hidden evidence that in fact all is
well with the more than 2000 children dispersed across what we now know is more
than 17 states in places for the most past unknown to and unreachable by their
parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, no, I’m not reporting that
stories of missing documentation, lost names and family connections, have
suddenly been proven false.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The white vans I’m describing take rescue
pets from shelters in Houston to rescue organizations in other states where
stray, adoptable dogs are scarce, and where families are eager to adopt one of
the thousands of abandoned animals in our city that would otherwise be
euthanized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the lead volunteers
of this pet rescue organization recounts the professionalism and precision with
which the Houston organization, and our local animal shelters, coordinate with
their counterparts in states like Colorado, providing careful and detailed
documentation on each animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, yes,
the organization does have its own clinic, assuring the animals are healthy
before they are transported; those needing time to heal from neglect or
injuries or illness are placed with knowledgeable and caring foster families
before they begin their journey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When I first heard that ICE, Homeland
Security, the US Justice Department, and other federal agencies had together
managed to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/us/immigration-refugee-child-missing-hhs-obama-photo-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">“lose” more than 2000 children</a> after taking them away from their parents who came here seeking asylum, I was
appalled at the incompetence and lack of caring for these, “other people’s,”
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we further learned that many
of these children were babies – infants and toddlers, even still nursing, and
that many were not even old enough to speak, a collective horror arose across
the nation. And that was before we found out that not only did their parents
not know where they were, our government doesn’t either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s when the mental image of the pet
rescue vans came to me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the pet rescue folks
know where the pets are at any given time because they care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our government, with its high-tech
surveillance systems and sophisticated communication networks, would know where
the children are – and who their parents are – if they cared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as I wrote about in a recent post, these
are “other people’s children,” not “our kids.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Given the capacities of the US government,
its millions of employees and thousands of departments and agencies, one can
only conclude that the disappearance of these children is deliberate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the result of incompetence or
bureaucratic snafus or poor planning:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>deliberate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">To even think such a thought evokes guilt:
how could we accuse anyone of deliberately “losing” little children?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we began to listen more carefully to
the words – the words of the president, of <u>Jeff Sessions</u> (why is he so
afraid?), of the various Cabinet secretaries and spokespeople.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/06/19/sessions-defends-controversial-immigration-policy-deterrent-sot.cnn" target="_blank">Really listen</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s when we knew the children are not
taken away from the heat of the border for their own benefit: they are being
held hostage as leverage to get their parents to sign away
their rights to an asylum hearing, to just leave, regardless of the violence
that forced them to flee their home countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We know that losing track of this many
children is not the result of a hasty policy pronouncement or poor planning:
the government had plenty of time to award multimillion dollar contracts to the
for-profit and (putatively) non-profit companies like <a href="https://mobile-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/us/migrant-shelters-border-crossing.amp.html?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAE4AQ%3D%3D#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2018%2F06%2F21%2Fus%2Fmigrant-shelters-border-crossing.html" target="_blank">Southwest Key</a> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">for the tents, and to the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17485238/ice-contract-microsoft-motorola-dell-hp-enterprise-deportation" target="_blank">computer</a> and <a href="http://time.com/money/5318933/organizations-doing-business-with-ice/" target="_blank">communication companies</a> to set up the detention centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plenty
of time to install all those wire cages – and to line up the trucks and people
to carry all these materials and equipment to remote places in the desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plenty of time to coach border agents on
standing <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">on the border</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">marker</span>, not an inch behind it, to
prevent asylum seekers from lawfully entering the US to be able to petition for
a hearing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plenty of time to commit taxpayer millions to bus
tickets and airline tickets and “shelter” contracts and subcontractors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plenty of time to divide up the tasks among
Homeland Security and Justice Department and HHS and numerous others agencies in
a planned chaos of hidden machinations and distributed (and therefore
non-existent) accountability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Plenty of time to set up the apparatus of control.</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: calibri;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The parents have been given a<a href="https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2018-Jun/next-steps-for-families.pdf" target="_blank"> how-to-guide</a>
for reuniting with their children, complete
with a 1-800 number to call to ask where to find them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes no one answers. Sometimes the
person who answers doesn’t speak the parents’ language. Sometimes the person
knows where the child is but won’t say, or says the child is fine but gives no
more <a href="https://www-washingtonpost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/the_americas/the-chaotic-effort-to-reunite-immigrant-parents-with-their-separated-kids/2018/06/21/325cceb2-7563-11e8-bda1-18e53a448a14_story.html?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAE4AQ%3D%3D#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fworld%2Fthe_americas%2Fthe-chaotic-effort-to-reunite-immigrant-parents-with-their-separated-kids%2F2018%2F06%2F21%2F325cceb2-7563-11e8-bda1-18e53a448a14_story.html" target="_blank">information</a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As of June 27, only 6 of the more than 2000
children missing one week before have, according to official sources, been
reunited with their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
meantime, another caravan of white vans have left Houston with rescue pets that
reached their intended destinations, cared for safely and attentively all along
the way. None lost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To share your thoughts on ways we can provide a safe welcome to children migrants, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
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Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-1039634230798695892018-06-28T18:00:00.000-05:002018-06-28T18:00:12.882-05:00Kiddie Cages and Baby Wall<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><i><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Children are Watching</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I’m so proud that Houston’s mayor, Sylvester
Turner, has told ICE in no uncertain terms that he does not want a detention
center for young children separated from their parents at the border to be in
our city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Here's our mayor in his own words:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>“I do not want to be an enabler in this
process ”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>“There comes a time when we must draw the
line, and for me the line with our children”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>“I don’t want our facilities and property
owners to participate in this process”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7494826713023606493" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>“There comes a time when Americans, when
Houstonians, when Texans, have to say to those higher than ourselves: This is
wrong” </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">He is joined by Catholic nuns, rabbis,
African American protestant ministers, parents with their young children,
people representing the myriad nationalities and cultures that make up this,
the nation’s most culturally diverse, city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many voices, one message:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No Baby
Jail in Houston!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No “tender care
facility.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No facility is “tender” if
the children have been taken away from their parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is definitely not “caring” if it
exists to hold children hostage to force their parents to leave our country, no
matter how strong their claims for refuge and asylum from the dangers they have
so courageously fled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Houstonians are not demonstrating to keep one
baby jail out of our city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
demonstrate to demand that families be united, that families crossing our
border be granted just and lawful hearings, that parents not have to bargain
their own safety away to get to hold their babies again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are plans for this Saturday’s community
protest: </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SrTStF0JdmI/WzU1E11UbkI/AAAAAAAAA6Q/Rs7bLfKwU64i4oachKc491l_7rM1Kdo_ACLcBGAs/s1600/National%2BDay%2Bof%2BAction%2BPoster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="900" height="145" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SrTStF0JdmI/WzU1E11UbkI/AAAAAAAAA6Q/Rs7bLfKwU64i4oachKc491l_7rM1Kdo_ACLcBGAs/s400/National%2BDay%2Bof%2BAction%2BPoster.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We do not want Donald Trump’s border wall
paid for by the blood of Central American families:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No border wall! No baby wall!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And no cages!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The sight of very young children huddled under thin mylar “blankets”
inside cages made of cyclone fencing has shocked the nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tough reporters have been moved to tears and
members of Congress rendered speechless at the sight—when they have been
permitted to enter and see for themselves what it means for a powerful
government to “detain” powerless children.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7iCQ9hhUo04/WzU1K9_uO8I/AAAAAAAAA6U/rLT6MFbqbIc0eDPMOT0metjCxg0LUgTkQCLcBGAs/s1600/Kids%2Bin%2Bfoil%2Bcovers%2Bin%2Bdetention%2Bcenter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="882" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7iCQ9hhUo04/WzU1K9_uO8I/AAAAAAAAA6U/rLT6MFbqbIc0eDPMOT0metjCxg0LUgTkQCLcBGAs/s400/Kids%2Bin%2Bfoil%2Bcovers%2Bin%2Bdetention%2Bcenter.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>Ross D. Franklin/AP</i></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The horrified and generous responses to the
sight of those cages --from pro-bono lawyers, from ordinary families setting up
go-fund-me sites to raise money for assistance in re-uniting families, from
church groups and human rights activists -- has been immediate and inspiring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But I fear another, less noticed, response:
it is the impulse to see anyone incarcerated as probably guilty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that defense attorneys don’t want the
jury to see their clients in that orange prison jumpsuit – and definitely not
in handcuffs or those clanking shackles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A person accused of a crime who’s dressed in prisoner garb looks much
more guilty than a guy who’s had a haircut and wears a crisply ironed shirt to
the courtroom– maybe even a suit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My point here is that people in a cage, or
being marched into a detention center’s maze of cages <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">can look to an uninformed obs<u>erver</u></span> like a prisoner – like a guilty
person – not like a person who is waiting for a legally required,
Constitutional hearing on his reason for being in our country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sight of a woman in a big wire cage may
prompt in an observer not a gut-punch of sympathy for the violence she left to
protect her children from, but </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">a twinge of suspicion of some terrible thing
she must have done to warrant being so brutally locked up.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I hope I’m wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the anti-immigrant press (and shouters)
don’t use the term “illegals” lightly. They mean the people themselves and the
laws they (supposedly) break just by crossing the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The term allows them to ignore the very <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">legal act of seeking asylum</i>, of being
afforded a legally required assessment of the danger and persecution they are fleeing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The sight of those cages and the exhausted, often
terrified people being pushed along in lines by uniformed guards creates a
powerful visual of criminals getting what they deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A visual of tall wire enclosures keeping
these “others” out of our neighborhoods, out of our country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">At a time when so much fear has been
fomented, so much hate shouted from the White House as well as by traditionally
whites-only, anti-immigrant groups, we can’t assume that everyone is seeing
those cages, those faces, the same way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s why smart, steady, sustained action is demanded by all who value
the Constitution, who understand the need for children to be with their parents,
who are grieving the terror and fears our officials – and these detention
center profiteers – are exploiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The president claims to want a safe border
and no crime. Right now the crime is in denying legal due process to
asylum–seekers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The crime is in
“processing” people without a legally-required hearing to determine the
validity of their claim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And our borders
won’t be safe until these families are re-united and the baby wall comes down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">To share your thoughts, click on the “comments” pencil.</span></div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494826713023606493.post-82886517422334354942018-06-19T08:00:00.000-05:002018-06-19T08:00:08.840-05:00Mexican American Studies in Texas!<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="line-height: 1.2;">Los Niños Nos Miran </i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8HuBFmWzIOU/WyLiEL7kI4I/AAAAAAAAA5o/yEVteu_jfj4WcXQxrVNFXfsLGgmqihuZwCLcBGAs/s1600/Mexican-American%2BStudies%2BProtest%2BSign.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8HuBFmWzIOU/WyLiEL7kI4I/AAAAAAAAA5o/yEVteu_jfj4WcXQxrVNFXfsLGgmqihuZwCLcBGAs/s320/Mexican-American%2BStudies%2BProtest%2BSign.png" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #676767;">Signs from a June 12 protest against the name change.</span><i><span style="color: #1a1718;"> RUBEN PAQUIAN</span></i></span><span style="color: #676767; font-size: 15pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Whose knowledge is of most worth? Whose stories comprise our
collective histories and whose are rendered silent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which Texas children find their communities’
accomplishments and struggles and names between the covers of their
textbooks?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who decides?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The teaching of history – histories – in Texas schools came
closer to true authenticity today with a decision by the State Board of
Education that the state will not only have credit courses in Mexican American
Studies but that the courses will in fact bear that name – the name chosen by
Mexican Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The name should not have been an issue. But in what seemed
be an act of resistance to the very idea of ethnic studies – and to the
sustained, organized advocacy for the inclusion of Mexican American Studies in
our schools, members of the SBOE (mostly Republican and Anglo) decided in April
that their grudging okay for the courses would be granted on the condition the courses be named “Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A name that evoked the demeaning othering from the Jim Crow era. A name not used by Mexican Americans to name themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Angela Valenzuela, scholar activist and one
of the leaders of the concerted effort for Mexican American Studies, has <a href="https://www.blogger.com/link%20to%20her%20blog%20http://texasedequity.blogspot.com" target="_blank">written powerfully and frankly </a>about the struggle for the courses and the insulting naming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The name could not stand in contradiction to the courses themselves.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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She and her colleagues focused on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">content</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>historically
accurate, culturally rich, research-based histories and literature grounded in
the centuries of experiences and breadth of knowledge of Mexicans and Mexican
Americans in Texas and the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Mexican
American Studies” is itself an established body of scholarship with myriads of
serious publications, journals, professional expertise, and academic
courses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They argued that the K-12
curriculum needs to build on and draw from that breadth and depth of established
knowledge and ways of knowing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What caught my eye in the Republican characterization was
the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">overview</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> "Overview" is pedagogically indefensible. </span>An “overview” is by definition superficial;
it holds the “viewer” at a distance from the subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The subject itself is static; the viewer
(presumably learner) is passive, observing but not engaged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Studies” on the other hand denotes active
inquiry, discovery, cognition, exploration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">studies</i> engages,
questions, delves, and – this must be emphasized – adds to the subject,
contributes to the collective knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An “Overview of…” posits the subject as fixed, as derived from an external authority or fixed source separate from the learner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ethnic Studies” invites the learner in,
requires the learner’s active role.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That active role – embodied over many months by the
students, teachers, parents, community elders, scholars and allies who built
the coalition in support of Mexican American Studies – may be what intimidated
the conservatives on the SBOE to try to slip “overview” into the title. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is Angela Valenzuela’s post on June 14, celebrating the
SBOE’s acceptance of the name Mexican Americans call themselves and their
history here in Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I urge you to
seek out her blog posts from this past April as well as <a href="https://www.blogger.com/link%20to%20her%20blog%20http://texasedequity.blogspot.com" target="_blank">June 13 and 14</a> to read her account, and her generous posts of other writers’
recounting, of this successful struggle to make our children’s schooling
consonant with their histories:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thursday, June 14, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="4350934495362096878"></a><span style="color: #2198a6; font-family: Times; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/whats-in-a-name-texas-sboe-tentatively-approves-ethnic-studies-mexican-american-studies/"><span style="color: #2198a6;">What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic
Studies: Mexican American Studies’</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Happy to see that the Texas Observer gave us some ink.
Still savoring the taste of victory this morning. <span style="background: white;"> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'm hoping that we
can continue to be a presence and force in SBOE policy and politics, as a
whole. It is our moment to own public education. Latinos will be a third of the
entire US population by 2050 or 2060 no matter what anyone does to limit our
presence. So the education of Latinos should be everybody's business at the
same time that we need to grasp that only we can and must do for ourselves
since there's nobody else out there that will do this. Plus, we are not only
abundantly capable of doing this, but what we have still to offer this country
is breathtaking. Why? Because we have such amazing leadership and we also have
amazing super powers—as Tuesday’s show of strength revealed! </span></i></b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally, we need new adherents and allies and
we need to continue being allies to all who suffer and whose stories have
similarly been marginalized by the dominant narrative. </span></i></b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sí se puede!</span></i></b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Angela</span></i></b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>To comment on this struggle and the education of all our
children, click on the “comments” pencil.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Linda McSpadden McNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16602299001672978459noreply@blogger.com1