Words: Change the World

"Ms. Lewis, have you heard about all the fights lately? It always happens when the weather gets warm."
"Yeah... I wish there were more activities for kids in the neighborhood to do after school."
"Yeah, since there's nothing else to do, kids just grow up thinking that violence is fun."
"How about let's change the world together, Jerome."
"You already do change the world, Ms. Lewis, by helping so many kids."

<3

Printed: Pink Slime

This week's hot topic: pink slime in cafeterias.  If you haven't read about it yet, do it.  There's also an interesting (and dramatic) video:

Captured: Freshmen Dedication Ceremony

"I dedicate my tshirt and the rest of my hard work this year to..."

Captured: Ripples of Hope

Jean Claud Brizzard, new CEO of Chicago Public Schools

Ripples of Hope is our biggest annual fundraiser.  This year, we honored Jean Claud Brizzard and Frank Clark (CEO of ComEd.  He's on forbes.com.  He's also a super inspiring, humble, and caring self-made millionaire.)  Two students spoke to the huge audience about their positive experiences with City Year <3  And I cried when Lisa gave her last speech.  Typical.

I sat at my team sponsor's table (BMO Harris Bank) with Ellen Costello (who I love), Andy Plews, and some other cool cats.  It's so refreshing to be reminded that there are so many others out there pulling for these kids in the ways that they can.  I'm sure that all my business and sponsor interactions over these 2 years will serve me well as a teacher (which I would have never thought twice about before).

Conversation with a BMO exec: "Well that will be good for you when you're a principal."  "...What?"  "Oh I can already tell you'll be a great principal one day."  :-)

My family

Rambling: Homeless

The homeless people in the city have been breaking my heart more than usual lately. Every time I just think about how that could be my kids' future, after years of poverty, dysfunctional school systems, possible neglect or trauma at home, no substantial health, sex, or technology education, a lack of career counseling, and generally feeling that society does not respect or want them.

Most memorable was the man on the train recently who was not asking for money, but asking for people to take and read his resume.

Printed: Mountains Beyond Mountains

Ok, there is just too much goodness in Mountains Beyond Mountains.  I had to dump my favorite quotes somewhere, so here they are:

"'Political work is interesting to me, and it has to be done,' he said...
'Well then, do it,' Paul said.
'But didn't we always say that people who go into policy make a preferential option for their own ideas? For their own sorry asses?'
'Yeah, but Jim, we trust you with power.  We know you won't betray the poor.'" p174

"At moments like that, I thought that what he wanted was to erase both time and geography, connecting all parts of his life and tying them instrumentally to a world in which he saw intimate, inescapable connections between the gleaming corporate offices of Paris and New York and a legless man lying on the mud floor of a hut in the remotest part of remote Haiti." p218

"Diplomacy and data and personal charm, he seemed to say, could win over all sides." p232

"Paul is a model of what should be done.  He's not a model for how it has to be done.  Let's celebrate him.  Let's make sure people are inspired by him.  But we can't say anybody should or could be just like him." p244

"As for Ti Fifi's fear that parents would besiege Zanmi Lasante with demands that their sick child be flown to Boston, too, nothing like that occurred... I asked Zanmi Lasante's chief handyman what the people in the region were saying about the case.  He told me that everyone talked about it.  'And you know what they say? They say, 'Look how much they care about us.'" p278

Moment: Man at Subway

The train stops and, just for a moment, I am sitting parallel to him

Me in the train, sheltered by the steel walls,

him in the station, vulnerable and in the midst.

He is playing an instrument,

vigorously, desperately,

and suddenly, I see from his perspective.

People rush by, averting their eyes, head down, briefcases clutched.

We’ve seen this before.  It is familiar. Ignore the needy so you’re not responsible.

But today I’m with him on the receiving end.   

Trains come, trains go.

People come, people go.

It is colors and noise and movement and somehow he seems so separate.  Fixed.  Not a part of the ‘real world.’  Things happen around him, not with him.

His necessity is their inconvenience.

He gives his talent freely to an unwilling audience, a resisting audience.

Yet he stays, plays, waits.

The doors close and the train speeds away, bringing me closer to my important appointment or meeting or deadline.

And I can forget about him.  We can all forget about him and hide behind deadlines and luxury and noise. 

And not just him, but all of them

The man who beats his cup for change next to the grocery store 

The boys who play buckets like drums in the subway tunnel 

The man with the long hair who wanders the same block downtown over and over again  

The woman who sits under the awning covered in blankets

The war veteran with the cardboard sign

The man who tries to make conversation with everyone in sight

The unemployed man who walks the trains not to ask for money, but to pass out his resume

The boys who stand on the corner during the day because school has failed them

The senior citizens who stay in their homes all day because they don’t have the bus fare

The eager students who don’t know that 60% of their classmates will not graduate

The refugees who spend their lives waiting for something better than stick tents

The teens who leave their families and think it is better for them across the border

The children whose parents have been killed or lost

The villagers who see more deaths than births since disease has taken over

The victims of the latest natural disaster

The urban slave workers who have made my shirt  

That is what character is, life is.  Deciding what you notice.

Printed: Your Fault

"The annals of international health contain many stories of adequately financed programs that failed because 'noncompliant' patients didn't take all their medicines.  Farmer said, 'The only noncompliant people are the physicians.  If the patient doesn't get better, it's your own fault.  Fit it.'" - Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, pg. 36

High five for treating people as people, Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health in Haiti.  I never realized before how many parallels there are between the health field and the education field, especially internationally.  If your student isn't learning, it's likely your fault.  Fix it.

Words: Florida

"It's the perfect storm... low income families, and a school district that focuses too much on standardized test scores to provide for the social and emotional needs of the children." - A School Psychologist friend in Florida

Words: Urban Teachers

"As urban teachers, we need to have a real shift in how we see our work.  If teachers don't connect their daily tasks to the bigger picture of what they're doing in society, they're going to burn out."  - Ms. Stevenson, resident principal