Cleveland's Secret Gallery: Part 4 - How to find it.

I won't keep you guessing any longer. You will find the Free Wall at West 26th and Swift. Go ahead and Map It.

You get to Swift off of West 25th Street, but you have to look carefully or you will miss it. The road is south of Lorain Avenue, look for it on the right, immediately after you drive over this bridge. The road is in very bad shape, as it hasn't been maintained for a long time. If you don't see Swift, you can also turn right on the next side street - Queen , which also gets you to W.26th. Turn right on W.26th and if cars aren't blocking the street, drive to the end.

You may be able to catch a glimpse of the Free Wall from West 25th if you watch the west side of the street and pay attention. It also goes by other names in the neighborhood. I've also heard it referred to as "Fun Wall", "the Plaza", and simply "26th".

Have fun.

Cleveland's Secret Gallery: Part 3

Urban blight and graffiti; the term evokes the image.
Somehow, the graffiti in this place seems different. It feels like it belongs here.

This graffiti reminds me of weeds, or more specifically, dandelions. Considered intruders in an obsessive suburbanite's green patch of perfection. Lawnlords wage never ending battles to keep them at bay. Instead of dandelions, this city lot spawned graffiti, and like the weed, it spread, organically transforming the blight of an industrial wasteland to a visual feast.

An urban gallery with no curator.

There are no rules here. Images of one artist invade, or completely cover, the work of another. Sometimes the message or the picture will be visible for months, or it may only be seen for a few days. Never intended to be a legacy, this is ephemeral art, lasting only until the next painter claims the space.

"The"
In speech and writing, this is a word is so easily overlooked as to seem insignificant. Yet, it's inclusion can modify an ordinary noun to make it an object of prime importance. Here on the Free Wall, this three letter particle of speech is elevated from supporting cast to star.

Beginning at the gap where a door swung many years ago, the sprayed line moves off the wall and along the remains of the concrete slab which once was a floor, tracing a new path. A maze going no place.

Cleveland's Secret Gallery: Part 2

In all directions, on every flat expanse…graffiti. Vibrant crimson, brilliant yellow, chrome, black, tangerine, and teal - color, escaping from the confines of the ruined factory has spread to the bricks and concrete of adjacent properties. Retaining walls, bridges, dark brick buildings; blackened by a century of industrial residue are now vividly adorned in a chaotic Krylon rainbow.

Although I could see more painting beyond these pillars, I reined in my curiosity in favor of safety. That type of exploration is best done with a companion.

Art, defined and stripped to it’s most basic essence, is visual communication.
In this lonely place, spray paint becomes the voice of Cleveland’s forgotten young people. What are they saying?
Most are simply stating, “I was here!”
Others messages are funny, some are dark, a few are sad, and occasionally they are spiritual.

To be continued...

Cleveland's Secret Gallery: Part 1

The kids call it The Free Wall.
Barely off the beaten path, thousands of gentrified Clevelanders drive within a few hundred feet of these industrial ruins each day, yet few people even think to look past the old cars and brush adorned with litter, beyond the old tires. The surrounding neighborhood is what the politically correct call "disadvantaged", and the Crocker Park set would never venture into. I visited yesterday afternoon on my way home from work, and as I got out of my car for a moment, even I felt a bit apprehensive.

Apprehension was quickly eclipsed by intrigue, and then amazement. "Free Wall" is definitely a misnomer. This was not a solitary wall, but the remains of a demolished factory, or warehouse complex. The concrete foundations left behind have been turned into murals, not by a lone artist funded by some benevolent philanthropy, but rather by local kids armed with aerosol paint and a desire to leave their mark on the world. However, the Free Wall is indeed free. The Cleveland police will not interfere with the kids while they practice their art. Here graffitti is not art crime

Every surface covered in Krylon. Layers and layers of paint, image on top of image. Tags and 'toons, messages and scribbles, planned compositions and random splatters. A feast for the eyes, an explosion of colors in the midst of our dreary gray city on a gray lake.

Wonderland

Look at these trees! Although snow covered the ground the Friday morning after Thanksgiving (the 23rd of November), trees in my neighborhood were still displaying the full glory of fiery autumn leaves.Typically, this is a mid-October landscape in Northeast Ohio, yet December is just around the corner. What is happening to our seasons? Blizzards in April, heatwaves in October, autumn leaves in December? My brother, a staunch Neocon, claims the odd shifting of the seasons is simply a fluke, and global warming is another vehicle for the tree-huggers to add to the parade of liberal bandwagons. For once I wish he was right.

Tillman Avenue

This is the Cleveland I see from my classroom window.

I took this picture today with my cell phone, and although it looks pretty cool in color, the many shades of gray in the black and white version seem to capture the mood of the neighborhood.

Working class folks in neat little houses, struggle to keep it together, while corporate Cleveland rises, aloof, in the distance.
So close yet so far away.

A Drop-out Drops In ('07)

Year after year the scene is replayed:

There's a kid in my class, who "gets it". He gets the concept, has the right answers, gets the joke. The sarcastic comment that flew over the rest of the class like a 747, elicits a quiet chuckle. Assignments that take most of the students a whole class period to complete, this student will finish in a few minutes. He's always ahead of everyone else, until...until he starts missing class. At first it's a day here and there, then it's a few days at a time. I call home, leave a message, maybe a parent will call back, more likely I hear nothing. I check in with the school office.

"What ever happened to... (Mike/Ryan/Josh)..?" I inquire.

"He was withdrawn."

Hopefully, I ask. "Did he transfer to another school?"

"No, he was withdrawn for nonattendance."

"Oh!" I grimace. "Damn!" I think..."Another one bites the dust."

___________________________

Last month during open house, a former student, who had joined the ranks of high school drop-outs two years ago, stopped by my room to visit. He'd brought his girlfriend along, eager to introduce us, and to let me know he'd finally decided to take the GED so he could apply to Community College. Affable and extremely smart, when he was a student at Max Hayes, he stood out like a halogen torch in a procession of candles.

"What ever made you quit school? I asked.

"It was boring. I hated it. Everyday seemed like I was just wasting time in my classes. Art was the only reason to come to school, but eventually I couldn't even motivate for your class, so I stayed home and stayed high. I was high half the time I was at school."

That was pretty much my suspicion, but I was surprised he admitted it to me.

"Now I'm a roofer. It's funny, I'm the youngest one on the crew, but the owner put me in charge. Everyone keeps telling me I should go to college, so I signed up for the GED class.

"Do you regret not getting your diploma?"

"Not really, but I guess that will depend on how I do on the GED"

___________________________

Today I asked my students, "Who knows someone who dropped out of high school?" Not surprisingly, all hands go up.

"Who do you know?"

The answers were readily volunteered.They mostly responded with family members; parents, siblings, cousins; some close friends; some former classmates. One boy smiled shyly and told us that he quit going to school last year, but re-enrolled this year...he needed a drivers license, and couldn't get one if he was under 18 and not going to school.

"Why did the people you know quit school?"

By far, the reason given most for female drop-outs was pregnancy. Their male counterparts stopped going to school for many different reasons, including boredom, drugs, frustration, fighting, problems with teachers or principals, and the need to support a family.

"You know, school is not for everybody." a thoughtful 12th grade girl spoke up. "People learn in different ways. Some people need to get out and do things, not just sit in a room and listen...blah, blah, blah."

_________________________

"Hey, Ms Matthews!" I could hear the smile in the voice on the other end of the phone line. "I scored a 12/9 ( 12th grade 9th month) on the GED. I'm going to college! I thought you would like to know."

I hope he calls me again when he gets his degree.

Cleveland School Shootings: One Week Later

The initial commotion over last week's shootings at Success Tech has begun to settle down, and the district is beginning to implement a new security plan. Students are back in the classroom, and things are once again feeling like business as usual.

The main differences affecting the staff and students in our building are the new bans on book-bags in classrooms, the increased implementation of lock-outs and hall-sweeps, and the relocation of a security guard from the second floor to a desk by the main entrance.

My students seem to be in agreement that a metal detector in the building would not be much of a deterrent to any student who was intent upon bringing a weapon into the school. There are too many entrances (at least 15) and easily accessible first floor windows. These would be almost impossible to control, especially if there was more than one student determined to enact a vendetta type of confrontation. Every one of the kids in my morning class told me they had already figured out a way to smuggle something into the building if a metal detector was brought in, and quite frankly, it wasn't much of a challenge. One boy said there was probably more to fear from an assailant out in the parking lot than inside the building anyway.
Good observation, I thought.

One point of discussion the kids raised was the fact that in all of the school shooting cases where the shooter was a student, there were plenty of signals and even warnings, that were ignored or not taken seriously.
A twelfth grade boy said, "It's hard enough to make the decision to snitch, but then, when you do tell a teacher or a principal, and they act like they can't be bothered with your stupid stuff, it makes you not want to talk to any of the adults, 'cuz they 'll just blow you off."

The conversation then morphed into a gripe session about teachers; which ones they could talk to, who they could trust, who was fake, who liked to get kids in trouble, who was mean, who really seemed like they cared.
I just listened.

Often times teachers and administrators try to avoid gripe sessions, claiming they are unproductive. I think the real reason administrative leadership dislike gripe sessions, is because these discussions point out problems, and many administrators don't like to hear about problems...because, god forbid, they might have do something about them. It is easier to pretend that everything is "great".

If you want to know what the problems are, you need to pay attention when people talk, especially when they complain. Any leader who says they are tired of hearing complaints, should start dealing with the issues. Problems don't go away when you pretend they don't exist.

If there is any lesson the Cleveland school administrators should take away from last weeks tragedy, it should be that communication needs to be a two way effort. If you are going to ask people to talk to you, you need to pay attention to what they have to say. Success Tech parents complained about the lack of security guards, and they were ignored. Students tried to discuss a troubled classmate with the principal, she was too busy to talk.

This year Dr. Sanders added a new page, called "Talk to the CEO", to the official CMSD website. Billed as a community forum, the page only allows comments of 100 words or less to be typed at the bottom of the page, but none of them are published for public viewing. Nor is there any format available for the writer to receive a response to his comment. The term forum is defined as a medium of open discussion or expression of ideas. How is this a forum? The CEO "hot-line" allows you to leave a voice mail. I wonder if he (or anyone) ever returns calls?

What's the point in talking if there's nobody listening?

Code Blue

"Hello MaryBeth! Are you okay?"

It was my friend, Ruth Glendinning, in Austin, Texas calling my cell phone.

"I'm just ducky, why?"

"Breaking news says a student gunman has shot a teacher in a Cleveland school, so I wanted to make sure you were safe."

"I'm not even in the building right now, I took my lunch break late and ran out to Borders to buy some sketchbooks for my after school art program. Did they say what school?"

"No, not yet."

"Well thanks for checking on me. I'm gonna call someone back at Max Hayes and find out if they know anything."

When I hung up, I stood there in the aisle for a few moments just staring at my phone. Damn! This past week at our school there were two serious gun incidents. One boy fired a gun several times in the air during an after school fight, and the next day, a teacher found a loaded assault rifle in a student's gym bag... Maybe the shooting was at Max Hayes.
I called one of my colleagues in the shop class down the hall from my classroom.

"Hey I'm not in the building right now, and I just got a call from a friend that there's been a shooting in a Cleveland school. Have you guys heard anything?"

"No, that's news to us....wait a minute....the PA just came on...they're calling a "code blue"...Talk to you later."

"Code blue" is the phrase used when teachers and students are to respond to a security threat, and take appropriate actions: closing and locking doors, moving to a safe space in the classroom away from the door, etc.

After about fifteen agonizing minutes I called another friend at school, who said they were watching TV, and filled me in on the details as Channel 19 broke the story of the Success Tech shootings.

"You know," she said, "Always, in the back of your mind, you know something like this could happen here. Now it's going to be hard not to worry each time you have to reprimand a student, or when some kid gets upset. You never know who has a gun on their person, in their book bag, in their locker, in their car. We know they have them, and they aren't afraid to use them. This city has gone gun crazy."

I went home, turned on the TV, and watched the story unfold.

Asa Coon, 14 year old boy with bipolar disorder from a troubled family, stops taking his medication. He is teased and bullied by classmates, gets in a fight, gets suspended, and in the confusion of his mental illness decides to seek revenge. He walks -unchecked- into the school building, with two guns, knives and a change of clothes. He shoots and wounds two teachers and two students before turning the gun on himself.

Today Cleveland city leaders and CMSD school administrators are hustling to come up with some kind of new safety and security action plan.
Tomorrow we will discuss our concerns during our staff development day meetings.
Monday classes will resume.
Will we feel any safer?
I wonder how many parents will be keeping their kids home?

What's So Good About CMSD?

More than a hundred high school students from schools across the district found their way to the Idea Center at Playhouse Square Thursday afternoon to experience the arts. The event drawing them together was the 6th annual All City Arts Program open house, designed to introduce CMSD high school students to the after school program.

In small groups they met with professional artists in a variety of arts disciplines to explore new outlets of creative expression. They danced, sang, acted, painted, and learned how to perform poetry that they wrote.

Before they left that evening the students gathered in the Westfield theater to present their afternoon's work to the group. The energy in the theater was remarkable. The applause and cheering could be heard throughout the building for more than half an hour as the teenagers amazed themselves and each other with their presentations.

The All City Arts Program has evolved over the past 6 years from simply a cadre of student performance groups to an after-school art school for Cleveland high school students. Meeting twice a week at the new John Hay High School at University Circle, the program will offer arts experiences for teenagers across the district that are not available to them in the regular curriculum's of the individual high schools.

This year, for the first time, the visual arts have been added to All-City with the creation of the Atelier program. Atelier students will meet at John Hay Monday and Wednesday afternoons for workshops, and have the opportunity to participate in field trips and other arts events and programs throughout the city. October 1st will begin the first session.

Thursday September 27th at 4:00, arts organizations from across Cleveland will be meeting at Trinity Commons to discuss after school programing for teens, and to brainstorm ideas for new collaborations and the development of new partnerships.

If you are interested in attending this meeting please send me an e-mail.
mary.matthews@cmsdnet.net

Cleveland Students Talk About Guns

I posed the question again to another group of students. "What do you think is the reason for all the gun violence in the city lately?"

Once again, the answer was immediate, but this time it was different.

"Drugs"

"Can you explain ?"

"Well, if you sell drugs you need a gun, 'cuz you have to protect yourself from the crazy crackheads who buy from you, and you have to protect your money too, because when people know you're sellin' they'll try to jump you for either the drugs or the cash."

"Are guns easy to get in Cleveland?"

"Real easy"

One of the girls who lives in Slavic Village, a neighborhood that has been in the news lately for several violent crimes, walked across the room to join the conversation. "My little brother was playing soldier outside, and he came running in the house with a loaded handgun that he found on the tree lawn."

"Wow! Lucky he didn't shoot someone. What did you do?"

"My mom took it away from him."

"Did she call the police?"

" I don't know."

One of the boys offered, "That gun probably had a body on it. Why else would someone toss it?"

Another boy countered, "Guns with bodies don't get tossed whole, they take 'em apart and get rid of them piece by piece. Throw 'em in the lake."

"How do you know this stuff?" I asked.

"Doesn't everyone?"

"Gee, I must be out of the loop. " I shook my head "What do you know? You can learn something new everyday."

My student's face took on the subtle smirk of superiority. He knew something I didn't. He was smarter than the teacher.
I think that's what they call "street smart."

Cleveland, Ohio: "The Shoot 'Em Up City". My Students Respond

"Hey! Do you have today's paper?"

"No, I forgot to bring one up this morning. Why?"

"My picture's in it!"

I smiled, "Well, that's a pretty big deal. Go down to the office and see if they have any more copies."

Ten minutes later Joe walked back into the classroom, opened the paper up and said, "See, there I am."

There in a picture that took up most of the page, was Joe, standing with a group of people in the hospital room of Johanna Orozco. Johanna was a girl from his near west side neighborhood who was raped and then shot in the face by her ex-boyfriend, another kid from the neighborhood. The Plain Dealer ha been running a series all week on the story of Johanna's tragic ordeal, and her heroic struggle to recover.

"You must know her very well"

"Oh, yeah. We have been friends for a long time. I know Juan Ruiz too, we went to school together. We used to be friends."

"Things must have been awful, very confusing, when this first happened."

"Even before that. Oh yeah.
Juan had been asking me questions about her, like what was she doing, who was she seeing. Then after she was shot, and the police and reporters started asking questions, some of his people started calling me up, warning me not to talk."

"You got threatening phone calls?"

"Yeah, anonymous callers. But I didn't care. They can't scare me. I'll talk to whoever I want to talk to."

"Nothing happened?"

"No, I told the police, the reporters, everything I know."


Joe took the paper to his table and spread it open to read the article, which was several pages long. After a few minutes he folded the paper up, got his project out and began to sketch. The rest of the students were busy working too, so I decide to take advantage of the quiet, and the mood, to ask the class a question; "Why do you guys think we've had so many shootings in Cleveland lately?"

Without so much as a seconds' hesitation, Joe nearly spat the word, "Scarface!"

"Scarface? How's that?"

"You know, Scarface, the best movie ever. It's like everybody wants to be Al Pacino. Somebody pisses him off and, BAM! He shoots 'em."

One of the girls chimed in, "It's not just Scarface, there's lots of movies like that. Video games too. You shoot people to get points, you run from the cops, then if you get caught or killed, there are no other consequences, it's just 'game over'."

The girl's friend, sitting beside her, continued to draw, and without looking up, quietly added, "But in real life, shooting a person doesn't end a problem, it's really just the beginning."

'It is one of life's great ironies: schools are in the business of teaching and learning, yet they are terrible at learning from one another. If they ever discover how to do this, their future is assured.'

Fullan 2001

Another Year: Old Problems, New Programs

It's that incredibly disturbing trick of time. If you've been around for more than a couple of decades, you know what I mean. The older you get, the faster time passes.

We are three weeks into the school year already, and interim progress reports will be due in two more weeks.

Because this is Cleveland, I dare not even enter names in my district issued grade book yet, as my class rosters continue to change daily. In fact, three weeks ago I only had four classes listed on my schedule, a fifth class was added last week, and the principal informed me yesterday I will be teaching a sixth class, probably starting next week. When I was a rookie Cleveland teacher 19 years ago, I was told to keep a temporary roster and not even attempt to enter names in my grade book until after ADM week (the first full week of October) since the teacher and student shuffle in the district never subsides until all bodies are accounted for and redistributed. The same holds true today. I wonder if this happens in all big city districts, or if this annual lack of organization is unique to Cleveland.

I have now been officially hired as the director of the All City Arts Program Atelier, a consultant position that will keep me busy after school, and occasionally, on weekends. The Atelier is being designed as an extra-curricular (after-school/weekend) activity for talented high school students throughout the district. The idea is to partner with community arts organizations across the city to provide visual arts experiences for students that they cannot get in a regular classroom.

This month we will be having two planning meetings; the first with all the CMSD high school teachers and the second with the arts community. These will be brainstorming sessions where we will introduce the program, discuss possibilities, identify potential partners, and envision how the arts can help create a new future for Cleveland. Anyone who is interested in participating in this discussion please email me, and I will send you more information.

The Atelier was kicked-off this summer with a pilot program, entitled Atelier Summer Intensive. Sponsored by the Human Fund , and launched in collaboration with two community arts organizations - Passport Project on Cleveland’s east side and Art House on the west side of the city - students traveled to Pittsburgh in July to visit the Mattress factory and the Warhol Museum. In the three weeks following the trip, they worked with artists on photography and printmaking projects, inspired by the work of Andy Warhol. Artists Jen Craun and Laura Webb shared their lesson plans with CMSD high school teachers so that other students in the district could also participate in the Warhol inspired projects. Selected student work will be auctioned in October along with original artwork by Andy Warhol at the Human Fund annual benefit gala.

Next week , PBS channels 45 and 49 will be sending a TV crew to my classroom to film part of a story on the Human Fund. Some folks love to be on TV; not me. I agreed to the interview, even though I really hate being in front of the camera. I'm very self conscious, and never watch or listen to tapes of any interviews I've ever done, at least if I can avoid it. The segment is scheduled to air October 11th, 12th, and 13th . So if you want to, go ahead and check it out...I'm planning on being busy not watching TV.

The First Day of School: A Teachers' Perspective

"I was studying this man-almost all of us were-for the critical signs. We wanted to know what we had on our hands. What manner of man was this? What given the ongoing war of us-against-them, would we be able to get away with?"

Mark Edmundson; 2002, Teacher, "The First Day"

More stressful than a job interview, every teacher can vividly recall the first day they walked into their very own classroom.We become teachers with the intention of shaping the future, yet on that fist day of school when we meet the future, the future looks back at us with the most critical of eyes. They examine our figures, our clothing, our voices, searching for flaws, any sign of weakness to exploit for the benefit of their own entertainment.

I can recall my own student past, as a seventh-grader, listening to the smirking laughter of my classmates, when one morning it was announced our math teacher would not be returning to the classroom. Our obnoxious behavior had effectively driven him out of teaching. Rumor had it, he'd suffered a nervous breakdown, and needed to be hospitalized.

The law of the pack makes victims of whomever is the weakest. In the classroom, the victim is typically the student who is perceived as different, or weird. Occasionally, however, it is the teacher who is the weak link.So we prepare ourselves, toughen up our sensitive skins to repel the arrows of insult that will inevitably be fired in our direction. Those of us who have survived have learned a few techniques; self-depreciating humor, intellectualizing adolescent behavior, and learning to not take things personally. We have also learned that students will back off when they begin to respect you. They never respect teachers who disrespect them.

One early September morning in 1979 I walked into a classroom for the very first time as a brand new student teacher, and began my career on the shakiest ground any educator could imagine. (read the archived post here) In about two more weeks I will stand in front of a fresh group of teenagers, and while I will look over my new students, trying to size them up, they will be studying me, just as thousands of kids have done before.

What a marvelous opportunity we have as teachers, each year we have a new chance to make a first impression. I hope I have eventually become a little better at it.

The NEA's 12 Step Drop Out Action Plan. What Were They Thinking?

Approximately 25% of the nations' students drop out of high school. In Cleveland, 45% of our students don't graduate.

Having an educated workforce is a key element in the economic development of any region. So as educators focus on developing curriculum that will prepare our kids for 21st century jobs, we also need to concentrate on how to retain those students who just can't seem to keep up with their peers. In Cleveland 45% of our young people can't keep up. Is it any wonder we top the poverty scale in the nation?

Last October the National Education Association announced a 12 Step Action Plan to battle the drop out issue. One of my readers sent me a copy of the plan, and asked my opinion of it. Although I'd heard about it in a press release last fall, I hadn't taken the time to read it through. This week I finally took a look at it, and my reaction was , quite frankly, "What the *$&# !"

I have reprinted it here in it's entirety. Scroll to the bottom for my comments.

NEA's 12 Dropout Action Steps:

1. Mandate high school graduation or equivalency as compulsory for
   everyone below the age of 21. Just as we established compulsory attendance to the age of 16 or 17 in the beginning of the 20th century, it is appropriate and critical to eradicate the idea of "dropping out" before achieving a diploma. To compete in the 21st century, all of our citizens, at minimum, need a high school education.
2. Establish high school graduation centers for students 19-21 years old to provide specialized instruction and counseling to all students in this older age group who would be more effectively addressed in classes apart from younger students.
3. Make sure students receive individual attention in safe schools, in smaller learning communities within large schools, in small classes (18 or fewer
   students), and in programs during the summer, weekends, and before and after school that provide tutoring and build on what students learn during the school day.
4. Expand students' graduation options through creative partnerships with community colleges in career and technical fields and with alternative schools so that students have another way to earn a high school diploma. For students who are incarcerated, tie their release to high school graduation at the end of their sentences.
5. Increase career education and workforce readiness programs in schools so that students see the connection between school and careers after graduation. To ensure that students have the skills they need for these careers, integrate 21st century skills into the curriculum and provide all students with access to 21st century technology.
6. Act early so students do not drop out with high-quality, universal preschool and full-day kindergarten; strong elementary programs that ensure students are doing grade-level work when they enter middle school; and middle school programs that address causes of dropping out that appear in these grades and ensure that students have access to algebra, science, and other courses that serve as the foundation for success in high school and beyond.
7. Involve families in students' learning at school and at home in new and
   creative ways so that all families-single-parent families, families in poverty, and families in minority communities-can support their children's academic achievement, help their children engage in healthy behaviors, and stay actively involved in their children's education from preschool through high school graduation.
8. Monitor students' academic progress in school through a variety of measures during the school year that provide a full picture of students' learning and help teachers make sure students do not fall behind academically.
9. Monitor, accurately report, and work to reduce dropout rates by gathering accurate data for key student groups (such as racial, ethnic, and economic), establishing benchmarks in each state for eliminating dropouts, and adopting the standardized reporting method developed by the National Governors Association.
10. Involve the entire community in dropout prevention through family-friendly policies that provide release time for employees to attend parent-teacher conferences; work schedules for high school students that enable them to attend classes on time and be ready to learn; "adopt a school" programs that encourage volunteerism and community-led projects in school; and community-based, real-world learning experiences for students.
11. Make sure educators have the training and resources they need to prevent students from dropping out including professional development focused on the needs of diverse students and students who are at risk of dropping out; up-to-date textbooks and materials, computers, and information technology; and safe modern schools.
12. Make high school graduation a federal priority by calling on Congress and the president to invest $10 billion over the next 10 years to support
    dropout prevention programs and states who make high schoolgraduation compulsory.

Will problem areas pop up? You betcha!

I immediately have a problem with Step Number 1
"Mandate high school graduation (or equivalent) for everyone by the age of 21"

The purpose of public education is to prepare our citizenry to become productive members of society. Do we really need to legislate compliance for those people who are legally competent to make their own choices?
If a mandate from the government carries the force of law, what would the consequences be for those persons who failed to comply with the mandate?
Will high school drop-outs be fined? Face community sanctions? Imprisoned? High school drop outs have a tough enough time trying to keep up with the folks who have received their diplomas without criminalizing their choice to quit school. Ask anyone with a criminal record how hard it is to get a job, no matter how educated they are.

Think about the reasons high school kids drop out: Family problems, frustration, and pregnancy, to name a few. If a girl or boy drops out of high school to care for a child, or a sick parent, or to work to help support a family, would they be punished by the state?

Number 4 is also very poorly thought through. No, let me restate that...it's stupid.

"For students who are incarcerated, tie their release to high school graduation at the end of their sentences."

Does this mean a student would get early release if they complete graduation requirements while incarcerated? Probably not, since a prisoner's work towards attainment of a GED is already requisite in their being approved for "good time " status, allowing a reduction of between 10 and 15% of their sentence.

No, I believe it means they will not be released until they complete graduation requirements. In that case, an inmate with a 4 week sentence could wind up being incarcerated for years. Do these people have a clue as to how the justice system works? Why are they intent on criminalizing a lack of education? Aren't our prisons full enough? Do they know how much it costs the taxpayer per day keep a person incarcerated?

I'm afraid the NEA's 12 Step Action Plan might be more beneficial to the corrections industry than the educational community.

One more reason students give for dropping out of high school is "irrelevancy". I have heard students say time and time again they see no relevance to their future in the classes they take. There is no mention at all in this 12 step action plan of improving curriculum, or making any changes in the teaching and learning process, to help students want to stay in school. This plan is heavy on the punitive measures, and sorely lacking in any proactive steps toward improvement. It is as if they are saying, "Public education is just fine the way it is. All we have to do is just keep the malcontents in the classroom, and everything will be peachy."

The rest of the Action Steps are way too vague to really produce any specific action. For example, "integrate 21st century skills into the curriculum" What does that mean exactly? What skills would those be, specifically? What are "high-quality, universal preschools and full-day kindergartens", or "strong elementary programs", or "creative partnerships"? All of these terms are ambiguous. In fact most districts will claim "We already have those things." The same goes for the proposal, "Monitor students' academic progress in school through a variety of measures during the school year." Gee, I thought those were called progress reports.

As teachers we are supposed to know how to write plans with measurable goals and objectives. This 12 Step Action Plan is a mess, and I am ashamed that it came from the National Association of Teachers. Teachers Union dues paid for this? What a joke. The more I think about it the more disgusted I become.

Cleveland's New Student Dress Code

I've had mixed feelings regarding the new district-wide dress code policy announced this week for all Cleveland students. (Follow the comments on the Plain Dealer article here)

My first response when teachers were polled this past school year regarding our thoughts on the proposed dress code was,

"Oh great! A smoke and mirrors policy. An easy, highly-visible rule change, set-up to appease the public, so the administration can appear to be doing something to improve the schools. How will this help my teaching? How will it be enforced? Will good students loose valuable classroom time for dress code violations?"

I could envision students being sent home for wearing a pin-striped shirt instead of a solid color, or serving suspension time "in-house", which many kids regard as a joke not a punishment, rather than attending class.

When I discussed the proposed dress code with my students, a number of them said they would consider transferring to a charter school with no dress code, or enroll in an on-line home-school charter.

It will be interesting to see if there will be any drop in enrollment corresponding to the new dress code. I will also be curious to see the corresponding statistics for attendance, suspensions, and dress code related disciplinary actions. Will anyone be following those numbers?
I know that everyone will be watching the districts' test scores in the spring. Will collared shirts and twill slacks improve teaching and learning?
Will schools that can not even managed to keep students from roaming the halls and hanging out in the parking lots be able to enforce a dress code?
Will there be a survey at the end of the school year to evaluate the dress code policy?

Yes, I did say my feelings were mixed regarding a district-wide dress code, and so far I have only expressed concerns. What I do feel positive about is the fact that the superintendent has listened to the community, and responded. The voting, tax paying, citizens of the city were tired of watching teenagers traipsing to school in drooping jeans and hoochie-mama skirts. They wanted to see kids walking to school looking like they were ready to work instead of party.

Dr. Sanders came to Cleveland asking questions, he paid attention, and now he has acted. A new dress code isn't the silver bullet that will fix the city's failing schools, but communication is. Resist the temptation to hide in the ivory tower of academia, and keep on talking to those of us who are in the classrooms, in the community, and on the streets. That ivory tower, the pedestal of a superintendent, can also be very much of a silo, with its layers of bureaucracy acting as a wall, keeping educational leaders insulated not only from the community they serve, but the teachers who work on the educational front lines.

Communication is the key.

Make yourself and you thoughts accessible. Keep the conversation going.
How about adding a superintendent's blog to that new CMSD website?

New Name for CMSD

By the way, in case you didn't notice, or hadn't heard; the Cleveland Municipal School District will now be known as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Gee... I guess that means new stationary, new signs, new business cards.
I hope all those contracts are with local businesses

Cleveland Atelier: Kick-off at the Warhol

The Cleveland Atelier has been launched!

Atelier is the visuals arts componenet of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's All-City Arts program. Sponsored by The Human Fund, the program will connect the Greater Cleveland arts community with the most talented high school art students from across the entire Cleveland school district.

Last week RealNEO posted an article about the summer arts intensive program collaboration betweem Cleveland Atelier, ArtHouse, and Passport Project. You can read about it here.

I am re-posting my comment here describing our first group activity: a trip to Pittsburgh to visit the Andy Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory

Saturday was a great day for the trip to Pittsburgh. Gorgeous weather and a fabulous bus driver made the two hour drive seem so much shorter.

The students on the trip were top-notch, bright kids, and just drank
everything in. One of the girls confided in me that this was her first trip outside of Cleveland. Ever.

The installations at the Mattress Factory were our first stop, and to my surprise, they all "got it". Conceptual art is often difficult for many people to understand, let alone appreciate or, even in some cases, tolerate. As we explored the buildings, walking from room to room, you could hear them talking together;

"This is sooo cool."
"Wow! Look over here!"
"How did they do that?"

Never once did I hear;

"I don't get it" or
"Why would they call this art?"

The seven floors of the Warhol Museum kept us busy for hours. Each one of us wandering off on our own. As a teacher, it was so very gratifying to walk into a gallery room and see our students not only looking at the art, but reading. As a veteran of 27 years of high school field trips, I am accustomed to teenagers dashing through museums, and then finding an out-of-the-way spot to hang out with their friends until the adults finally round them up. This was such a completely different group of kids, mature, focused, interested.
I can't even begin to express how impressed I was.

By late afternoon, when it was time to leave, we had no trouble finding anyone, since they all were in the basement workshop, making art.

Tuesday, the printmaking session of the summer intensive will begin at ArtHouse, and then on Thursday the students will begin working on photography at Passport Project. When the school year begins in August we will begin to grow the Atelier program with our current partners, and continue to explore opportunities to form new partnerships with other arts organizations throughout the city.

Why worry about attracting creative new talent to our city? We have all the resources right here.
We can simply grow our own .

Atelier:A New Program for The Cleveland Municipal Schools

We are in the process of developing a new city-wide high school visual arts program for the Cleveland Schools which will offer our most talented art students the opportunity become acquainted with the arts community in Cleveland, and to study and work with professional local artists.

The program called "Atelier" will be launched next month on a small scale with summer workshops in photography and printmaking, and continue as an after-school/weekend program throughout the coming school year

We would like to talk with artists, galleries, and community arts programs who are interested in collaboration and developing the vision of what "Atelier" can become.

Please contact me via email at :
mb.matthews@yahoo.com


Atelier
Main Entry: ate·lier Meriam Webster Dictionary
Pronunciation: "a-t&l-'yA
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French astelier woodpile, from astelesplinter, from Late Latin astella, diminutive of Latin astula
1 : an artist's or designer's studio or workroom
2 : WORKSHOP = : a usually brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field

(taken in part from Wikipedia)
....Atelier:A studio is an artist's workroom, or an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, photography, cinematography, animation, radio or television broadcasting or the making of music.
The etymology for the word "studio" is derived from the Italian word, from Latin studium, from studere, meaning to study or zeal.

The French term for studio, atelier, in addition to designating an artist's studio is used to characterize the studio of a fashion designer.

The studio of a successful artist, especially from the 15th to the 19th centuries, characterized all the assistants, thus the designation of paintings as "from the workshop of..." or "studio of..."
An art studio is sometimes called an atelier, especially in earlier eras. In contemporary, English language use, "atelier" can also refer to the Atelier Method, a training method for artists that usually takes place in a professional artist's studio.

The Atelier Method is a method of arts instruction modeled after the private art studio schools of 15th-19th century Europe. Taking its name from the French word for "artist's studio" the Atelier Method is a form of private instruction in which an artist, usually a professional painter, works closely with a small number of students to progressively train them.

Atelier schools can be found around the world, particularly in North America and Western Europe.

The term atelier also refers to a printmaking studio, where master print-makers, work collaboratively with painters & sculptors who want to make limited editions of their art using printing presses, such as lithography, gravure and screen printing

On Experiential Learning, Student Failure, and the Ever Growing Prison Industry

This weekend I received the following e-mail:

Ms Matthews,

I had written to you in September 2006 and had bookmarked your blog to give
me a connection to what other teachers were experiencing. I agree with your
opinion: " Experiential learning is, by far, the most effective method, though
under-utilized within the walls of academia". In Texas, so many of the teachers
are teaching for the state mandated tests. How can experiential learning exist
in a classroom when the state is telling the student what it expects them to
learn? Is there a way to blend the two?

I guess the prison industry is more important than education in Texas as it
is in Ohio. Does it seem to you there are more failures than successes with the
students?
Thanks for your time,

KS

K,

Great questions! In fact, this will be the next post on my blog which, once again has been neglected for too long.

Experiential learning strategies are more easily adapted in some curriculum subject areas than others. Because I teach Visual Art, I have the luxury of teaching in a subject area that does not require any mandated testing in the state of Ohio, and so I am not fettered in the way my colleagues are in the core curriculum areas. The Ohio state standards for the arts were written by fine arts teachers from across the state, and I must compliment the standards committee on their wisdom and common sense in the development of standards that not only allow but encourage creative and flexible lesson planning and a variety of methodologies.

But the fine arts folk have always seemed to march to a different drummer than our teaching brethren in the academics.

That is not to say that the core subject areas are lost causes if teachers would like to implement experiential learning methods. You all just need to step outside your comfort zones and take on the challenge.
Don't try to suddenly makeover the whole course as an experiential learning class. Start with small steps. Try one pilot lesson.

First, look at the material that needs to be covered before the state test, and pull out your curriculum map. Find one unit that might adapt to an experiential learning strategy and plan it carefully. Choose a unit that you would typically take one week to cover, and develop a lesson using whatever experiential learning methods you can adapt, and see how it goes. The key is in the planning. If you can work as a team with other teachers, either in the same department or cross curricular, the odds for success are even greater. Make sure you come up with an assessment tool that honestly evaluates student learning, as well as using sample questions from the state test that apply to that unit. Ask what worked and what didn't, and above all ask why. Next semester, or next year, try it again with the same unit, making whatever changes are needed, and perhaps even plan a second unit using experiential learning strategies.

My academic colleagues and I have, over the years, often discussed the pros and cons of state standards and "teaching to the test". It is my humble opinion, based upon observation, that the teachers who have always been the most creative in their lessons were the ones LEAST likely to complain about having to "teach to the test". The tests simply affirmed their students were learning the required material.
On the other hand, the teachers who complained the most were the ones who tended to religiously supplement their basic lessons with jumbles, crossword puzzles, word searches, and current events summaries.
The state tests required that actual teaching and learning were taking place during class time, as opposed to the "busy work" that gave the students the appearance of being "on task", yet no real learning was going on.

Good teaching requires a lot of planning. Creative teaching requires even more planning, as well as a whole new set of problem solving skills.

How is this for a challenge: What if you had to teach a unit without lecturing?
I would be willing to bet more than half of my teacher colleagues at the high school level would have no idea where to even start.


Are there more failures than successes with the students?

Whoa! Now that's a tough one.
I guess it all depends on how one wants to interpret the statistics.There are some groups who will tell you that the No Child Left Behind Act has improved American schools, however, what I see in Cleveland, Ohio tells a different story. We have an unacceptable drop-out rate (more than 40%) and an equally dismal number of students who failed the Ohio Graduation Test. Yes, sadly, I see a lot of failures.
What does the future hold for those young people we fail to educate?

Looking at the statistics, and noting the recent trends reported by the Department of Justice, they may very well find a future in the corrections industry.
75% of Ohio's prison population are high school drop-outs.


Your comment regarding the Prison Industry vs Education touched on a topic that inevitably raises my blood pressure. The correlation between failing schools and the booming corrections industry is irrefutable, yet conveniently ignored by both our politicians and the mainstream media.

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Nicole Colson, titled " Incarceration Nation"

"A Justice Department report released in December revealed that a
record 7 million people--one in every 32 adults in the U.S.--was either behind
bars, on probation or on parole at the end of 2005.
Though the U.S. has just
5 percent of the world’s population, it has an incredible 25 percent of the
world’s prison population--2.2 million people. Since 1970, the U.S.
incarceration rate has increased by 700 percent, and that number is still
rising.

“After a 700 percent increase in the U.S. prison
population between 1970 and 2005, you’d think the nation would finally have run
out of lawbreakers to put behind bars,” states a February report by the Pew
Charitable Trusts. Evidently not...

...The prison industry may
be bad for people, but it’s certainly good for business.
Private prison
companies operate in about three-quarters of U.S. states. According to a recent
CorpWatch report by Deepa Fernandes, the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation
of America (CCA), America’s largest private-prison operator, announced that
revenues had increased to almost $300 million for the second quarter of
2005."

According to Wikipedia: Today, non-governmental enterprises, in the form of publicly traded companies, operate 264 correctional facilities housing almost 99,000 adult offenders. Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, Inc, and Cornell Companies.
The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) website lists a capacity of 69,000 beds in 63 correctional facilities.The GEO Group operates 61 facilities with a capacity of 49,000 offender beds, while Cornell Companies has 79 facilities to service 19,226 adult and juvenile offenders in secure containment and community-based corrections.

US Department of Justice statistics show there are currently 199,356 federal inmates housed in 191 federal prisons at a cost of approximately $4,745,000,000 a year, or 13 million dollars per day.

The Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Correction manages 45,854 inmates, operates 33 facilities, contracts with 2 private prisons, and has 13,938 employees. The agency's annual budget is over $1.6 billion.

By 2010, the number of American residents in prison or with prison experience is expected to jump to 7.7 million, or 3.4 percent of all adults, according to a 2003 US Department of Justice report.

The prison industry is booming. Profits are dependent upon the continuous increase in the numbers of persons who are incarcerated, and those numbers are comprised predominately of immigrants, the poor, and the uneducated.
Our educational failures are fueling prison profits and feeding corporate greed.

" You can't fix the public schools by throwing more money at them."

This is the mantra of many conservatives who are disgusted with the state of public schools in America, and have withdrawn their support. These are the same folks who promote "Zero Tolerance" policies and the lock-em-up mentality.
These philosophical mind-sets combined with the prison-building-as-economic-development strategies that are being adopted across the country, and the privatization of the corrections industry, add up to one rather frightening future.

In an era where profits consistently trump social good, can impoverished districts serving a demographic consisting mainly of minorities ever hope to get the support we need?

MB

Neal: On living in Cleveland

"Truthfully, there aren't too many great things about Cleveland."

Neal's response was immediate, without a moment's consideration.

"It's not the city, it's the people who make the city bad. People run around shooting each other."

Like so many kids living in Cleveland's neighborhoods, Neal is very aware of the criminal presence that is a daily fact of life in the city. Night after night, local television newscasters will report on a west side drug bust, a south side shooting, or an east side robbery. It doesn't go unnoticed that a suburban murder makes the Cleveland Plain Dealer headlines, while inner city shootings only rate a two inch column on page B-3. Drugs and poverty have made the neighborhoods dangerous; people get killed. It's not really big news anymore.

"My neighborhood, for the most part, is good. I live in West Park, so my street is full of firefighters and cops. All of my neighbors, including me, get along. We all get together during the summer, hang out and talk. There is one house on the street though that is a rental. Some white-trash meth addicts moved in and have overstayed their welcome." Neal rolls his eyes in disgust. "You know what the problem with Cleveland's neighborhoods is? You have these people who own these houses, but they want to get out of the city. They move away and don't care about the neighborhood anymore so they rent to anyone, they rent to trash who destroy the neighborhood. Like, the guy across the street from us moved, and now the house is rented by drug dealers. Cars are pulling in and out of the driveway day and night. Strange people, crackheads, come and go. The worst part is, the guy who owns the house was a Cleveland cop. He moved away, so he has no idea what is going on over there."

I asked Neal what he would say to Mayor Frank Jackson if he had the opportunity.

" I would tell him to stop trying to make himself look good to the people in the suburbs, and work on the schools. They want to put kids in uniforms so they look like nice private school students, but who cares if they learn anything. We have substitutes in our classes for months, never enough supplies for the classes or materials for the shops,and the buildings are falling apart."

We look up at the ceiling of my classroom where there are thirty six tiles missing leaving gaping holes from water damage that happened more than a dozen years ago. Several more tiles are barely hanging on. Cracked asbestos floor tiles were finally replaced a couple of years ago in the hallways, but not the classrooms. Of the one hundred panes of glass in the windows on the north side of the room, twenty seven are cracked, and have been that way since I came to this building nearly a decade ago. At that time, (Neal was in second grade) Clevelanders voted to raise their taxes to repair the schools. A few new buildings have opened, yet tens of thousands of Cleveland students continue to attend classes in environments that can only be described as disgraceful.

My next questions for Neal concerned his plans after graduation.

"The thing I look forward to is getting a good job so I can support myself and leave the nest. I don't plan on staying in Cleveland, because there are no jobs here."

Neal studied the machine trades in the vocational program at Max Hayes, but doesn't feel he would be very happy with a manufacturing job. Neal likes to spend time in Pennsylvania with relatives at a family farm, and prefers the rural lifestyle. He enjoys the outdoors, and dreams of running a small dairy farm some day.

"Is there anything that could make you stay in Cleveland?" I asked.

" No, " he said " absolutely not."

The Neal Interview - Part One

The rain was falling hard enough to make a racket on the roof of my car. Without a hat or a hood I would have to make a dash for the door.
I looked in the rear view mirror, and leaned back to get a better angle so I could check out my hair. Damn, it was already frizzy. Since there was nothing to save, there was no need to run. I cut through the custodians' entrance to save a few steps anyway.

Just inside the doorway stood Neal, with a couple of sheets of paper in his hand.

"I laughed for half an hour when I read your post. I had to print it out for my mother to read. She's computer illiterate."

"How are you coming with the questions I gave you?"

"I was working on them yesterday. I wrote about a page. I'm not done with them yet, but I will show you what I finished when I come up to your class."

I have to admit, the interview questions I gave Neal were pretty lame, so he answered most of them with a single sentence. I needed him to elaborate, so we talked about his answers when he came to class this morning. I will share what I have learned about him here.

Neal lives in the West Park neighborhood of Cleveland with his mom and dad. He told me that he took offense to my reference to the "gritty sidewalks of the near west side", as his neighborhood is kept up and "believe it or not, I know who my daddy is." He has lived in Cleveland all his life, attending grade school at St. Pat's West Park.
When asked why he chose to come to Max Hayes High school he responded, "The only reason I came to Max Hayes was because I had no other place to go. I was out of options." Pressed to explain he said "Holy Name wouldn't take me. They rejected me because my grades were awful. My best friend, Eric, goes there though."

On his questionnaire he describes himself as a mystery.
In his words: "I say this because you can look at me and you have no idea what I am thinking, but on the other hand, I can look at you and read your face and know what you are up to." I disagreed with his terminology, saying he was perceptive rather than mysterious, and suggested he might want to take some psychology classes, if he goes to college.
But Neal isn't thinking about applying to any college programs this year, instead, he jokes about staying in high school until he is 21.

After school, Neal likes to work on things.
He recently bought a riding lawn mower off of Craig's List so he could earn money cutting neighbor's lawns this summer. He says there are a lot of older people on his street who need some help. He would like to start a business fixing lawn mowers, but he admitted he works slowly, and customers couldn't expect to have any work finished overnight.
After last month's snowstorm, he made quite a few bucks cleaning peoples' driveways. Like so many teenagers, sleep is high on his list of things he likes to do when he is not at school, followed by fishing and camping. On weekends, he and his buddy Eric take "road trips"; anywhere out of the city, anywhere but Cleveland.

When asked to share his thoughts on being a public school student, and in particular how he viewed his educational experience at Max Hayes, Neal first expressed his disappointment in the way people look down on public school students.

"There are a good amount of students who want to learn. They do care, but the ones who don't really make the whole school look bad."

He observed how that attitude also extended to the teaching staff. He noted that there were very good teachers at Max Hayes High School, but then there were some teachers who didn't seem to care about the students. He said you could tell which ones were only in the classroom to collect a check. Admittedly this is most likely true at most schools, but Neal's concern is with his own experience.

When asked if anyone at Max Hayes has made a positive impact on him, not surprisingly, the head custodian, Duane Gibson was the person who he said was his best influence.

"I always think about the advice he gave me, " Neal laughs. "He told me 'Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.' "

True enough, Neal.

I also asked Neal some questions dealing with his views on the city of Cleveland, it's neighborhoods, it's leadership, and what it would take to keep him here. He's still thinking about those questions. I will share his answers with you later this week.

Neil...(oops)...Neal

His face, blushing pink, registered an uncomfortable hybrid expression of both delight and fear.

"You really wrote about me?"

"I told you I would, so I did. Friday afternoon, during my lunch break. I posted it online this morning before I left for work."

"Let me go down to the library right now, I want to read it."

"Sorry Neal, the network filter won't permit access to the site. You'll have to read it at home. Hey, I'd like to do a mini-series of posts about you. What do you think? How about an interview?

"Okay." He nodded, but a second later, dark eyebrows knotted, his thoughtful stare became a grimace. "What kind of questions are you going to ask? Can I write out the answers?"

I'll talk about it with you later. Why don't you get busy on your assignment?"
Neal scrawled a horizon line across his sheet of drawing paper. "Can you help me get started? I want to draw a barn."

Neal is not the student-stereotype who most people imagine roam the halls of a Cleveland public high school. He is the kind of kid who would look more at home sitting on a tractor, plowing the back forty than shuffling along the sidewalks of Cleveland's gritty near west side. Early each morning on his way to work, Neal's father drops him off at the high school before most of the faculty arrive, and so he has built some very close relationships with the custodial staff. He spent so much time hanging out in the boiler room before and after school, that eventually the custodians put him to work. He stands head and shoulders above most of his classmates, and more than a few visitors to the building have mistaken Neal for a member of the staff. On any given day he can be spotted tossing salt on an icy sidewalk, carrying a ladder down the hallway, or lugging boxes of copy paper to the third floor teacher's classrooms.

Each fall the twelfth grade students of Max Hayes Vocational High School hold a fund raiser to help pay for prom and graduation. The Senior Auction is always a popular event where members of the class auction off their services for one day. Bidding starts at two dollars and has been known to pass the hundred dollar mark upon occasion. Each year I bid on a few of the students in my art classes who I have gotten to know, and who I won't mind spending the day with. This year I quickly scanned the list of seniors and checked off six names of kids who either were taking my class this year, or passed my class a while back. All of them were talented artists and good students, except for Neal.

Neal's daily mantra in Art class is "You know I can't draw", and his academic record leaves something to be desired, yet he was my first choice.
You see, Neal is connected.

Normally when I send a student to the custodian's office for paper towels, they will bring back a package. When I send Neal, he brings me a case. He personally installed two brand new pencil sharpeners in the classroom when he discovered how useless the old ones were, and personally makes sure they are emptied regularly and working properly. When the wind off Lake Erie began to blow cold, and my classroom morning temperature dipped into the low fifties, Neal came to the rescue once again. Within days the custodians were tinkering away with their wrenches, and the Uni-vents that for years had only provided anemic heat at best, were suddenly blowing plenty of hot air, and keeping us toasty.

I wasn't the only faculty member who appreciated Neal's talents, but I did manage the winning bid at thirty dollars.

Neal spent most of his day of servitude hanging artwork, organizing the back room, and cleaning the sink. That afternoon we walked next door to the Harp for a corned beef sandwich. While we were reading over our menus, Neal looked up and whispered.

"You can order a beer."

"No, I can't. Technically I'm still working."

"I won't tell."

"That's irrelevant. I can hardly keep my eyes open after lunch the way it is. If I had a beer I would be snoring through my last period class, and drooling on the desk. Then some student with a cell phone camera would take my picture, and I would be all over the evening news on Channel 19."

"C'mon. It would be funny."

I rolled my eyes and changed the subject. "So what do want to do when you graduate?"

We spent the next hour talking about school, and plans for the future. Neal is articulate, opinionated, and funny. An eighteen year old going on thirty...maybe forty.

Neal is Future Cleveland.
Maybe.
Maybe not.

He talks about moving away from the city like so many of his classmates do. They don't see a future for themselves here. Over the next few days I will post interviews with Neal and several other students who said they would like me to write about them. I will be asking them to share their views about the city and the school district. I will ask them to share their stories. If you have any questions for them, you can email me, or simply post a comment.I will make sure they get your messages.

Keep an eye on this site.
Later.

MB

Big Neil

Approaching Dead Man's Curve, frustration simmered as my speedometer slowed to a single-digit reading. I was stuck behind a rusted pick-em-up truck dropping scraps of cardboard. Semi's to the right and left boxed in my little Celica, and frustration became road rage. I wouldn't be late to class this morning, but I would be rushed, and I hate feeling rushed.

By the time I turned into the school parking lot, I had nearly exhausted my entire vocabulary of nasty words in English, as well as a few choice phases in Polish, German, Arabic, and Croatian I've picked up from various friends, family members, and acquaintances. I rarely ever curse, unless I'm driving. I call it "profanity therapy". I learned it from my father. Mom never approved, but it works.

When I looked to the far corner of the parking lot, my furrowed brow relaxed and I smiled...my favorite spot, near the building exit, was still empty, and I would have five minutes to make it upstairs to my classroom before the tardy bell rang...the sun was shining, it was Friday and life was good.

As I hurried toward the faculty entrance, I passed the custodian's door. Big Neil, a senior in my first period class, stood in his usual early morning spot, about five steps away
"Darn...you're here." He shook his head, but his grin gives him away. "I might be late to class." he adds.

"Good morning to you too. I'll see you when you get there."

True to his word, Neil arrives about ten minutes late. The class was already engaged in discussion, or shall I say complaining, about the results of the Black History Month poster contest. Since Neil didn't complete his poster in time to enter the contest, (and still has not turned his assignment in), he had no interest in the conversation, and changed the subject.

"When was the last time you wrote an article on your web site?" His question caught me off-guard, and I stuttered, trying to recall my last entry.

"October...I think."

"When are you going to write about me? You said you would write about me."

"I think I was kidding. I haven't had much time to write anything lately."

"So what...You said you would write about me."

"Okay, I will."

"Write something today"

"Today?"

"I'm going to check on you."

Hey!...Was this a challenge?
I'll show him...Maybe if I start writing again, I can get Neil to finish his assignments.

Okay Neil, I'll write about you, but now you are going to have to do something for me.
Deal?

To be continued...

Fall Quarter Reflections

If you hear someone knocking, it's me. I'm knocking on wood to stay on the safe side of superstition. "Tap, tap."
The first quarter of the school year ended, and I have nothing to complain about. "Tap, tap, tap."

My students this year, for the most part, are all great kids. They come to class prepared to work, participate in discussions, do their projects, and have no real behavior problems. Some of them are even pretty talented. This all makes for a great learning environment. Unfortunately, a quiet classroom full of kids studying the proportions of the human face, and working on their drawing assignments, like they are this week, is just not that darned exciting. And it's not why people read my blog.

Mostly people respond to the stories of struggle, hardship, and violence; the stories that affirm the reputation of the urban high school as a "blackboard jungle".
So far this year my classes at Max Hayes do not even come close to that stereo-type. We are not participants or victims of the oft imagined black hole of ignorance, draining tax-payers dollars.

In my classes we have been practicing skills and learning new techniques, we critique our work, we discuss art as communication, and artists as collaborators. A student who writes poetry is working with a student in the machine shop to create a sculpture of lucite panels, engraved with passages from her poems about adolescent pain and desperation. Several of my students, who are also welders, are fabricating steel towers of geometric forms, and my students who are studying the building trades are sanding down old school chairs and stools to recycle as decorative furniture, and building display cases for Mexican "day of the dead" or "dia de los muertos" dioramas.

Yes, the school building remains shabby, and the heaters are only functioning sporadically. A few mornings this week several of the kids donned the crocheted wool afghans that I keep in the classroom for the days when the wind blows through the gaps in the windows and the temperature hovers around 50 degrees indoors. Nothing much has changed over the past few years in that regard.

As for my thoughts on our new superintendent: He seems to be making an effort to connect with the community, and he also seems to be paying attention to their concerns, as "Customer Service" has been a recurring theme for all employee directives so far this year. Continuing to listen seriously to the students, parents, and teachers, those on the front lines of public education, will certainly bring to light the real issues and perhaps even elicit new solutions to the myriad problems faced by our troubled schools. For too long the agenda has been controlled by the politicians, the pundits, and the PhD's of academia, whose connections to the classroom were tenuous, at best. I hope this grassroots approach to problem solving continues, since the status quo approach of having the community's needs presumed by the administrative hierarchy has failed miserably.

Perhaps the superintendent should start a blog, then he could really get some helpful feed back from the citizens of Cleveland.

And when
I am
in the street
with
the people
I am
closest
to
Him.

James E. Magner Jr.
Only the Shadow of the Great Fool. 1996

"You haven't posted anything for soooo long!"

"I'm sorry, I know it's been a few months, but I've been distracted. My personal life is in...a period of...ummm...upheaval. Forgive me. There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel now, so keep checking in. I will be back to sharing my thoughts again soon."

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right."

Mahatma Gandhi, 1931

Comments on Brewed Fresh Daily

Please take a look at the discussion going on at Brewed Fresh Daily. George linked to my last post, prompting quite an interesting conversation.

Who Profits from Failing Schools? (part 1)

Recently I was asked the question, "What are you passionate about?"

My immediate reaction was, "Huh?"
The question was clarified, "What gets you going, gets your blood boiling, motivates you to take action?"

"Gee...That could be a number of things, but I guess the common denominator would be injustice. You know, when somebody is getting screwed...bullied, conned, neglected or abused. Anytime the powerful take advantage of the less powerful; those things incite my passion."

For a long time I have been disturbed by the glaring failures of the city schools, and the subsequent effects on the economy. I have been doing a lot of research lately, and want to share some interesting statistics with you.

Budget Priorities: Education vs. Incarceration

• First year that the 50 states combined spent more on building prisons than colleges: 1995
• Number of state universities built in California, 1984-1994: 1
• Number of prisons built in California, 1984-1994: 21
• Increase in corrections spending in New York between 1984 and 1994: $761 million
• Decrease in spending on state colleges and universities in New York between 1984 and 1994: $615 million
• Average percent increase in state spending on higher education, 1985-2000: 29%
• Average percent increase in state spending on corrections, 1985-2000: 175%
• Number of African-American men in prison or jail, 2000: 602,900
• Number of African-American men in higher education, 2000: 603,032
• Increase in African-American male prison population, 1980-2000: 460,000
• Increase in African-American male higher education population, 1980-2000: 139,293

This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative. Footnotes for all facts are available in the print version available for online order.
Prison Policy Initiative, PO Box 127, Northampton MA 01061
(413) 527-1333 staff@prisonpolicy.org

The following statistics are taken from The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) report Cellblocks or Classrooms? The report, released locally by Policy Matters Ohio, found that Ohio’s corrections budget skyrocketed between 1985 and 2000, while increases in higher education spending lagged. Other Ohio findings include:

From 1985 to 2000, Ohio increased spending on corrections at five times the rate that it increased spending on higher education. Higher education spending increased by 38% or $670 million while corrections spending skyrocketed by 211% or $1.026 billion. While Ohio spending on higher education ($2.432 billion) exceeded what was spent on corrections ($1.1512 billion) in 2000, over the last 15 years, spending on prisons grew at 5.5 times the rate of higher education.

In 2000, JPI estimates there were more African American men in Ohio’s prison system (23,200) than there were in Ohio’s colleges (20,074). This does not include most of the large numbers of African American male individuals incarcerated in jails in Ohio.

Between 1980 and 2000, African American men were added to Ohio’s prison system at 38 times the rate they were added to Ohio’s colleges.

Between 1992 and 2001 in Ohio, tuition increased by 32% at public four-year institutions (from $3,845 to $5,058) and by 26% at private four-year institutions (from $12,667 to $15,915). During these years, state spending on aid per student increased 62% (from $257 to $415). New students starting next week at Ohio State University will pay 19% more than new students paid last fall.

Ohio has the 10th highest university tuition in the country and is ranked 39th in the nation in the percentage of the population with a Bachelor’s degree (17%). Ohio ranks 40th nationally in public investment per full-time student.

The annual cost of incarcerating one person in an Ohio prison is $22,044. For the cost of incarcerating one person in Ohio, the state could pay the annual tuition of four students at a public university.

In 1996, Ohio had the 7th highest rate of non-violent drug admissions in the country. Drug offenses were responsible for 40% of admissions of African Americans to prison and 19% of white admissions.
From 1986-1996, the percentage of African Americans in prison for drug offenses increased by a staggering 213%; for whites, it increased by 23%.

A bachelor’s degree became more essential to economic well-being during the 1980s and 1990s in Ohio. Workers with only a high school diploma saw their wages drop by 13.9% in Ohio between 1979 and 2000. Even workers with 1-3 years beyond high school experienced an 8.7 % wage decline during this period. Only workers with a bachelor’s degree or more experienced wage growth between 1979 and 2000.

What the hell is going on? Why aren't more people outraged? Why aren't more of our politicians working on the remedy?

One thing I have learned from my life experience is this:
Anytime things don't make sense, ask this question: Who is profiting?
Isn't it time we started asking that question in Ohio? Why doesn't Ohio fix school funding? Who stands to profit from failing urban school districts?
Follow the money.

Experiential Learning

"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."

-- Will Rogers