In one of my first posts of the school year, I discussed how we as educators each find our tipping point for intolerable acts regarding children. At the end of the article I described the tensions of being mixed-race during the start of school integration, and a heinous situation that developed for me. Not only […]
(In my second blog I told the true story about a gang of boys dragging me to the “pussy-bushes” in 3rd grade) Then came 5th grade when a lone troubled boy stalked me in the hallways at recess, using the packed passageways as cover as he repeatedly pressed his groin against me. After months of […]
I wasn’t sure for a moment whether to laugh or cry because I failed to save a draft before an “open-tab-over-load” forced me to reboot. Thanks (or maybe no thanks) to Google docs my brain now assumes everything is being backed up automatically, so my heart raced when I realized this platform was different. However […]
(This is my yearbook photo from 9th grade) Berkeley Unified was one of the first districts in the country to integrate “by choice”. That sounds terrific — they didn’t need a court to order them to do, but as I’ve mentioned in my post: Reality Check https://mixedgirlsurvivalschool.com/reality-check/ Even though the buses brought the Black children to […]
(None of My Brothers or Sister Went College…and that is Truly a Shame) The only stress that rivals back-to-school time, is apply-to-college time. For some families college applications are the culmination of a decade (or more) of preparation, for others, it’s a last-minute gut-slam. So as the appointments with school counselors are made, as teachers […]
(My Father is on the far left of the back row) In some families everyone is a cop, or a doctor, or in the military. Well, teacher-families are a thing too. My children’s grandmother, grandfather, and mother all joined the education corps – so to speak. I can’t make parking tickets go away, but I […]
Lovely bulletin boards, PTA fundraisers, and singing kids at assemblies aside: let us not be fooled…shit-showness is always present to one degree or another. I support public education. Yes. I. DO. But the problems that schools have are the same problems that the country has. So unless America is going away, public schools can’t go […]
It’s here…FINALLY! The fashion show of new outfits, the chatter on the playground, the hugging of friends reunited — all of these eternal rituals unfold as the clock ticks down to the first bell of the 2017-2018 school year. Students’ anxiety, which hit when the first back to school commercial began airing, subsides as the […]
Excerpt from: The March Begins …I think I can actually smell the hair products, the cold sweats, hear the joyful laughter as well as the well rehearsed inspirational “welcome-back” and “looking-ahead” assembly speeches and intercom announcements…