Chinese Exclusion/Inclusion

The New York Historical Society has a wonderful exhibit now until April 19 on Chinese Exclusion/Inclusion in this country.Although I knew some of this history, the extent of the horrors these people experienced was something I never realized.  The above statements were statements made by those incarcerated on Angel Island.  The young woman pictured is sitting on a bunk watching and reading history.  I watched her for 10 minutes and her only movements were to change screens.  She looked like she was not moving until she saw it all.  The ping pong paddles are from relations between US and China in the Nixon era.

This is an exhibit everyone needs to see to prevent this type of discrimination from happening again.

Discrimination

My daughter told me my posts are getting too sappy lately, so here comes a controversial one. I actually wrote this one two years ago, but never hit publish. After this year's AP exams, I felt I had publish this.

Anyone who thinks discrimination is no longer an issue in New York City schools has not really seen a NYC school lately. For years, I have been bringing this to the attention of the administration. For years I have been told, yes it is a problem that we must address.

The AP courses in math and science are especially lacking when it comes to students of African American descent. I proctored the AP physics exam and I will tell you that group was not ethnically diverse. I had a conversation with one of the science teachers at lunch today and he agreed with me. The conversation began with a discussion of Jake, an extremely bright, extremely active African American boy whose grades in chemistry and math are way above average. while his Spanish, English and history grades are low. We both felt Jake could have been in an AP class if either one of us had known him as a freshman. We both felt Jake would have been doing better in all his classes if someone had noticed his intelligence early in his high school career.

A child must be groomed to take AP calculus or an AP science class from early on. Often, one strike and you are out. Many bright, children are immature when they start high school and end up falling out of the AP track. Once out, they can't get back in. No matter what anyone says, certain races and nationalities are picked out of this track sooner than others. Other races and ethnic groups are allowed to have second chances. Excuses are made for their shortcomings and they get to proceed.

I don't necessarily think that a lot of these decisions are made consciously. I pointed out the problem to a colleague who programmed kids a few years ago. At first, she denied the prejudice but then, she watched what she was doing and was forced to admit doing it to herself. The good thing is that she changed. Problems like these are not easily solved but realizing they exist is the first step towards the solution.

Looking Good Is All That Counts

jd2718 said...
one of the progress report categories, or is it NCLB? or quality review? whatever. One of the categories that schools are being rated on is how they help their weakest students, and how they help their lagging subgroups.All good ideas, yeah?Except they get credit for
a) doing better?
b) trying to do better?
c) showing someone that they have a plan to do better.

I think just c.

You know what Jd, I think C too! Yesterday we were given a list of all the students in all of our classes. We were told to contact every parent of every failing student and document the nature of our contact on a special form to hand in by Monday. Most of us have been contacting parents. Having us fill out these forms only serves to make the administration look like they are really doing something new to help the failing kids. When will it all end?

I've been thinking about the administration's push for our African American kids to succeed. Is it fair to help these kids and ignore the others? Is the Asian kid who needs help a "throw away" because our school has plenty of Asians that are succeeding? Instead of singling out one race, shouldn't we be finding ways to help them all, or at least help them all equally? If schools truly care about no child being left behind then statistics need to be thrown away and children need to be looked at.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

The school is suddenly concerned about the lack of African American students in AP and honor classes. They are also suddenly concerned about the low number of African American students receiving advanced regents diplomas.



The sad fact is that there is not one African American in any of the AP calculus class or on the math team. For years, I have been talking about this problem. We have lots of bright African American kids in our school. They seem to fall through the cracks in the system. As much as I hate to say it, racism is alive and doing too well in the twenty first century. If it wasn't for the outcry to improve our statistics, these kids would still be going through high school unnoticed. (Unless of course they do something wrong.)


Yesterday, Principal Suit came to our department meeting and brought up this subject. He wants us to do something about the problem. Today I handed the AP guidance a list of African American students from my Math B class that can use a little extra help, either academically, or with some extra motivation. They are all good kids, bright kids, but kids that can easily get lost in the system. I told her to put her money where her mouth is and find a way to help these kids. I've already doing all that I can for them. She took their names and promised to look into it. I want to look into how all the data the school has been collecting and analyzing lately will be used to help these kids.

Baynard Rustin

I came across Justice and Not Just for Us from a comment on my blog. This blog is written by a teacher who has been U rated and is not being given a chance to defend himself. The following is a direct reprint from his blog. Nothing could say my feelings about the way we teachers are being treated than this:

"When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.”
Bayard Rustin ...


I INSIST ON MY DIGNITY AS A HUMAN BEING AND AS AN EDUCATOR!

Not Handled Well

A few months ago I posted a story about two of my students who were accused of cheating on the math regents.. I've come to believe that the boy involved really was cheating but I am still having trouble dealing withe the way the whole thing was handled.

To begin with, the kids parents were never called. The kids themselves were never even told what they were accused of and they were never given a chance to try to prove themselves innocent. But, this is all old stuff that I have written about.

The girl involved got to take the regents in June. She found it easy and I am sure she did well on it. The boy was not allowed to take the exam.

The boy did not understand why he failed the class and why he was not allowed to retake the regents as the girl was. He is learning diaabled and will be placed in special education classes in September. He sent me an e-mail questioning his failing grade. I could only repeat what I had been told in June. His parents are fairly new immigrants to this country and his dad might have some learning disabilities also. They do not have the ability to question the failing grade and the disqualified regents.

If we are truly here to teach these kids, we should want this boy to learn from his mistake. Clearly, it was not handled in a way that would teach. And, since he doesn't understand his crime, there is nothing to prevent him from repeating it in the future.

The White Tree

This was taken from another blogger but it is important for everyone to read.
THE WHITE TREE: OLD HATRED IN THE DEEP SOUTH

During the past two years a saga has been unfolding in the small town of Jena, La., that harkens back to an era that the United States would like to think has long gone by. An era marked, in this small community, by violent and grotesque hate crimes and inequality, a time when Black Louisianans were taught to stay in their place or pay the consequences. Sadly it seems that time has passed by unnoticed in this rural southern town, which still clings to the “old” southern way of life. Blacks and Whites do not socialize, and racism is regarded casually as a natural part of life.

The story that proceeds is one that seems out of place in an era when we have a Black democratic contender for the Oval Office. It is a sobering reminder that old ways run deep, and hate and fear do not fade away easily, especially in the Deep South. Unfair trials, intimidation and notions of White Supremacy still deeply affect people of color living in this sleepy Louisiana town, which has recently been rocked by international news coverage.


“The White Tree”

On August 31, 2006, a small group of Black students asked permission from their school board to sit under the schoolyard tree, dubbed the White Tree. The White Tree was so named because of an unspoken rule that, since the school’s inception, barred Black students from enjoying its shade. The school board told the kids they could sit anywhere they want. However, the next day when the students arrived to school the tree was adorned with three nooses; two of the nooses were black and one was gold—the school colors. To White residents, the noose was nothing more than a tasteless prank. But to the Black community, it was a threat and a harkening back to the times of public lynching and burnings.

The racial tension ran high between White and Black students of Jena High in the days that followed. The school board’s decision to lessen the punishment of the boys involved in putting up the nooses to a simple slap on the wrist—three days suspension instead of the recommended permanent expulsion—only exacerbated the tensions. The school board dismissed the hanging of the nooses as a harmless “prank,” and the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune that “adolescents play pranks…I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” The harmless “prank” was not taken so lightly by the Black community of Jena. Perhaps it is because of Jena’s not so “harmless” past. Jena’s dark past is no secret, the racism is not veiled. If you search Google images for “Jena Louisiana”, the first two pages contain photos of lynching, burnings, and Klansmen.

Journalists visiting Jena have been dumbfounded by the racial separations in the town. However, most White residents in Jena are strangely adamant about not being racist. “I don’t think we are racist here,” said barbershop owner Billy Doughty, “We never talk about race.” But Doughty has never cut a Black man’s hair, and he never will—something he tells his occasional would-be Black client. “I don’t cut Black hair. I don’t think it’s racist. I just don’t do it,” he explains. Caseptla Bailey, a Black mother whose son is facing attempted murder charges, explains that “[Jena] is very racist and they don’t even try to hide it. It’s like, stay in your place or else.”

On September 6, Black students staged an impromptu sit in under the “White Tree” to protest the light punishment given to the students who hung the nooses. A school assembly was quickly convened. Surrounded by White police officers, the White District Attorney General, Reed Walters, warned the Black protestors that if they did not stop making a fuss over this “innocent prank…I can make your lives disappear with the stroke of my pen,” implying the filing of maximum or death sentences against the Black students involved.

The events that followed blatantly show the extreme hatred, fear, and institutionalized racism that dogs citizens of color in Jena. About three months after the noose incident, a Black student was assaulted by a group of White students as he entered an all-White party held at a locale called the Fair Barn. The victim was assaulted by White students and struck unaware in the face and then beaten with beer bottles and punches until adults intervened. There is no documentary evidence that any of the White students were ever charged.

On December 4, 2006, a few days after this event, during lunch hour at school, the same boy that was beaten at the Fair Barn party was verbally assaulted by one of his attackers. The White boy used the N-word, and taunted the boy for getting his “ass-whipped” at the party over the weekend. The White boy was also close friends with the boys who hung the nooses. An altercation ensued, with the White boy reportedly being knocked to the floor by a group of six boys, although only three of the six boys charged were actually involved, and rendered unconscious. The victim, Justin Barker, was in the hospital for three hours before being released and attending a school ring ceremony that evening.

The boys involved in the attack were arrested in under an hour and charged with aggravated assault and premeditated aggravated assault. Then, in an astonishing move, District Attorney Reed Walters, the same man who threatened to “wipe [their] lives out,” upgraded the charges against the alleged attackers to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

On June 28, 2007, Mychal Bell, the first young man to stand trial, was found guilty by an all-White jury and a White judge of second degree battery and conspiracy to commit second degree battery. All witnesses called were White and many of them had close ties with the District Attorney and the victim’s family. He will be sentenced on July 31. He could face up to 22 years in jail. After the ruling, Edna Thompson, a longtime friend of the Bells, was quoted as saying that “the best thing, if you’re Black in this town, is to stay out of the system, because once they get you, you’re done for. You’re not getting out.”

It is imperative that these six Black youth are not tried in Jena, La., as the town has proved itself unfit to provide them with a fair trial. The local community has been organizing and there has been international attention and outcry regarding the unfair treatment of these young men. They have their whole lives ahead of them. Bell is a star athlete who had offers from UCLA and other top schools. A racist, small-town community should not have the power to ruin their prospects for a happy and prosperous future.

Get Involved!—Write, email, or call one of these local organizations:

The Jena 6 Defense Committee
PO Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342
jena6defense@gmail.com

Friends of Justice
507 North Donley Avenue
Tulia, TX 79088
www.fojtulia.org

ACLU of Louisiana
PO Box 56157
New Orleans, LA 70156
www.laaclu.org
(417) 350-0536

Fair Treatment

Mimi was in eighth grade when she was accused of plagiarizing a paper. Being an over protective mother, her mom immediately made an appointment with the AP and the teacher. She could not believe her little darling would do something like that.

Mom and Mimi were presented with her paper and another one exactly like it. Both girls had copied text from the same book. Mom had to agree that the teacher was correct. Luckily for them, the penalty was not too severe. The kids were young and were treated like kids that made a mistake. The teacher explained that sometimes kids don't understand when they need to credit sources. Mimi never made the error of plagiarism again.

Mimi was wrong. The difference between her treatment and my student's treatment were world's apart. She was presented with the evidence of her "crime". She was forced to acknowledge what she did wrong so she would not make the same mistake twice. The kids in my class never had a chance to look at their identical answers. Their parents were never informed. That injustice was as big a crime as the cheating they were accused of.

Convicted Without A Trial

Two of my kids were accused of cheating on the math regents. Did they really cheat? I'm not sure. I wasn't in the room. I know some of the boys answers were probably copied off of the girl behind him. His long answers were the same wrong answers as she had, only he had no work to support his results. His short answers were different than hers. Both kids had their papers disqualified. The girl (a 90 student) had her grade lowered by 5 points) and the boy (a 65 student) failed.

I have some problems with all of this. The kids parents were never called. The kids were never allowed to come in, face charges and try to defend themselves. Even if they were guilty, they were entitled to a hearing. When the girl came into the ofice to talk to my a
AP, the teacher who saw her yelled out "that is the girl that cheated." The poor kid felt branded. She never got to open her mouth. She went to the dean. The dean wouldn't let her write a statement and told her not to worry. I wrote a letter to Principal Suit about both students. I didn't say that they cheated or didn't cheat, since I was not present during the regents. I just told him about the kids, about the girl's hard work that took her from a double period class to almost honor Math B class and how the boy who is probably going into special education spent every lunch period with me in the library, getting tutored. I think this poor kid freaked out when he saw questions on the Part III and Part IV that were so different from anything he had ever done.

It is not my job to decide penalties for these kids. Principal Suit made the decision, never asking me anything about either one of them or even acknowledging the letter I wrote. My own AP screamed at me for not coming down on the kids. I told him, I didn't see anything and did not feel comfortable accusing them on another persons word.

School teacher just wrote a piece on discrimination and racism in the schools. She is so on target with what she has written. These kids are from immigrant families, practicing a religion that is not in favor with most of the country. I wonder, would their treatment have been better if they had been while, middle class kids? I think the answer must be yes. I would never allow any school to treat my child this way and I don't know too many American parents that would. Immigrant parents don't always know their right and because of this are not given fair treatment. That is what has happened in this case.