THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: 2008 archive

2008 archive

The Latino “problem”: America’s addiction to cheap labor
“Them” Apples: An account of one funeral in Oakland
Provoking a Fed: Why NCLB won’t work
The billionaires' Frankenstein monster: The state takeover of OUSD
A recent history of OUSD: Billionaire Eli Broad’s connection to Oakland's state-occupied school district
My farewell: Saying goodbye to Bret Harte
Avoidable Losses, and more: When we look back on these years, what will we see?
Oakland ’s history: A very short history of Oakland and its primary subgroups
Actual learning time: It turns out that students spend very little time in the classroom
Different childrearing styles: About “concerted cultivation” and “natural growth” (from A. Lareau)
Lessons learned: My family’s Oakland public school experience
Not for the squeamish: Oakland middle school graffiti
Part 1: Another view of the Oakland situation: A small set of students is very powerful
Poetry: the Spielberg incident: From “The Best American Poetry 2003”
Part 2: Another view of the Oakland situation: The power of the “code,” and newcomers disregard a community’s history
Happy Birthday, pooch!: Some students’ day off and an on-duty dog
Right, again.: Suspensions and expulsions in OUSD
Part 3: Another view of the Oakland situation: This new approach is missing the boat
OUSD alternative schools : A summary for the community
Chinese language basics: A brief lesson (since so many people, including many OUSD personnel, are clueless)
Poetry: Lady Bobcats: Beauty on the courts
The starvation diet of one school: Just how much will be taken away while nobody says a thing?
Why They Kill: Crime waves, babies being born, and hopelessness
Teachers displaying status (or not): Why new teachers need to know about “status transactions”
One response to Nextset: Considering the damage caused by decades-long unemployment
Gang Awareness Workshop: Commentary and Summary: Information that needs to get out to my community
Poetry: Lake Bret Harte: Remembering the stench.
A dirty secret about philanthropists: Millionaires and billionaires think they know how to turn every pauper kid into the bourgeois
Any evidence of shame?: Watch “gangsta 7 year old steals car” on YouTube
Four stories: Church volunteers, at the movies, the lawyer’s son, and a lovely young woman
Who would have guessed?: A look at OUSD’s increasing achievement gap
Fifteen percent: One interracial marriage
(School) climate change: The real reason why parents won’t use public schools
Poetry: Arithmetic Lessons: A client accepts a deal
What else contributes?: A look at less popular factors that can influence test scores
On nurturing: Struggling schools are missing TLC
Different kinds of parents: Stories from the front line, and what struggling schools are coping with
The Parent Center years: How it all started, what I did, and why I left
High 9’s, low 9’s and homerooms: Maybe we should take a look at ideas from the past
Unrealistic expectations: About those young, idealistic, temporary teachers, and Rothstein explains the achievement gap
Because it’s interesting: A love letter from a drug addict to his jailed wife
Poetry: Family Album: That the school was selling so much junk food nearly drove me nuts
Caring, or not, and how much: Is it enough to say one “cares?”
Our “democracy”: Something has happened to our country
The struggle: It’s not always easy to be a public school booster
1927 news story: “Girl In Man’s Attire Ordered To Leave City”
Poetry: A Daguerreotype of "Renty," a Congo Slave
The Broader, Bolder Approach : A well-reasoned strategy to lift all children
Old dogs and new tricks vs. seeing the light: Embracing the local public school, instead of shunning it, could help it become the school of your dreams
An update on “The Gap”: A growing achievement gap between the two lowest-performing groups
“Sellout”: Randall Kennedy’s book sheds light on one reason for low academic achievement
Baby College: Geoffrey Canada’s HCZ is looking for the answer
Expulsions, student behavior, and the shortcomings of principals: Negative student behavior could be reduced if a strategic, unified plan existed.
It’s really quite simple: The billionaire changes his mind about small schools being the answer
A letter to prospective parents: Sharing our high school experience
Haves and Have-Nots : Comparing the school districts of Piedmont and Oakland Unified

Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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2008 archive