Malcolm X Elementary Principal J. Harrison Coleman has ordered the holding of “Trayvon Martin” Day at the elementary school. Students and parents will be given iced tea and skittles to honor the day.
The school says that the day is educational on race relations despite the fact that there has been no trial in the case and facts remain in dispute as well as public opinion. The school will hold a “Let’s Keep Our Children Safe” seminar using the facts of the case.
Coleman insists that the day will help reduce the needless violence and bullying in the community.
Given the deep difficulties in D.C. schools from low scores to school violence to drug abuse, the setting aside of this day on a still developing case is likely to be controversial. The school receives just 2 out of 10 points on school ratings. Last year, just slightly over ten percent of the third grade made the passing standards for DC on reading. Even in the DC system, the school was ranked as 24th out of 33 schools. In math, the percentage is only 4 percent. With the scores falling rather than improving at the school, I would prefer a focus on those issues during school days. This is not to say that the case should not be discussed in appropriate classes. I think the case is useful to discuss in terms of racism and other issues where they are relevant to the curriculum.
This is a school day, not a weekend seminar and activities. I understand the good intentions of looking at the problems of racism in society. However, I would have been more comfortable with a weekend event that did not take away from classes in a school district struggling with worsening problems of unemployment (now surpassing 50% in DC) and low performance. Moreover, is there sufficient confirmed evidence to declare Trayvon Martin days as part of public schools?
Source: WJILA
Malisha, here’s another radical thought: I’m not nearly stupid enough to waste any time or money trying to achieve equal academic results from a demographic whose average IQ is a full standard deviation below that of the general population, nor am I the slightest bit inclined to expect any sort of rational decisions to be made by those in charge of these “schools.”
That you find anything laudable in this palpably absurd display of backwardness really says all that needs to be said on the matter.
Shano, you really, really, REALLY don’t want to get into a YouTube video exchange on this subject. It…wouldn’t turn out well for you.
This one is for you, Zaphod:
Zaphod,
What is the appropriate amount of time before a school promotes education by honoring a kid who was killed by a stranger who described him as an “asshole” before learning anything about him, even his name?
How long is “long enough” to teach kids that they are allowed to defend their lives when armed strangers come at them at night?
How long is “long enough” to do these wondeful things while handing out free snacks made, sold and advertised by free enterprise corporations in a free market?
Here’s a radical thought: how about letting people make up their minds about how justified it is for someone to pick a fight with, and then kill, an unarmed teen-ager, just because the gun-bearer thinks the unarmed teen-ager looks suspicious?
Another radical thought: Untll you’re contributing significantly to the inner city schools, don’t set yourself up as the judge of their performance. They have taught lots of people to behave more honorably than George Zimmerman.
“Too soon?” What is the appropriate amount of time before a school promotes education by honoring a multiply suspended teenager, who at the very time he was killed was serving a two-week suspension?
How long is “long enough” to teach kids that violence might get you killed by idolizing a young man who got killed because he violently attacked a neighborhood watchman?
How long is “long enough” to do these wondeful things while handing out free candy and sugar water (laughably called tea) to a community plagued by obesity and diabetes, among other things?
Here’s a radical thought: how about at least TRYING to teach…oh, I don’t know, things like English, history, math, and science rather than ranting on about “racism” at every opportunity, no matter how absurd? It’s probably a futile attempt, but with all the tax dollars that get pumped into the D.C. schools, one could at least expect the effort to be made. Granted, the academic excellence of this school in particular is beyond reproach.
Zaphod, you are a disgrace to your planet (and Douglas Adams). Pick another moniker to hide behind, please.
Meek, “They should promote how not to act like a monkey and how not to attack some guy you don’t know.. Maybe then there would be less dead black people and others wouldn’t feel a need to carry a gun. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to watch Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton brain wash the black community and fuel racism.. You know black people are dumb when they actually buy in the the shit that comes out those guy’s mouth. Martin Luther had a dream people would be judged based on their actions not skin color. With that in mind, why is it that two individuals ( who want to be MLK so badly) who represent racial equality for the black community, are the first ones to stamp every crime or altercation that involves a black person and someone from another race as being racialy motivated.. The black community is somehow oblivious to the fact that they do this for publicity and money… Thanks assholes MLK’s dream has now become a nightmare”
Meek, first of all, you won’t be inheriting.
Secondly, you presume quite a bit of authority in choosing a curriculum for schools. Let’s see what your curriculum would include:
“how not to act like a monkey” = OK, no climbing high trees, or is that perhaps, “don’t act or look like Meek’s vision of a Black person”?
“how not to attack some guy you don’t know” = OK, “no fighting with strangers who come to you in the dark and who may be armed and dangerous and who may be kidnappers or murderers or who may just be mentally deranged people who have mistaken you for someone else,” or is that “Never try to defend yourself against a white guy”?
“Maybe then there would be less dead black people and others wouldn’t feel a need to carry a gun.”
OK, Meek, right at this point, I would have to say that the curriculum is confusing to me. First of all, no child should have been left behind when you were in what is commonly known as “grammar” school. Perhaps you are trying to say, “Maybe then there would be fewer dead Black people,” but after all, your parents might not have gotten themselves involved in your education. But on to the real meaning of this sentence in your curriculum guide: If there were fewer dead black people, others wouldn’t feel a need to carry a gun”? Is that it?
So now we should really try to teach these kids how to decrease “other” people’s feelings of “need to carry a gun.” What would we really teach them, and how? We could teach them abnormal psychology. (“There are people in the world who are so insecure that they feel they need to carry a loaded weapon when they are on their way to the grocery store; you need to learn how to recognize these people and exactly how to deal with them.”) Or we could teach them self-defensive sociodrama. (“When you see a person who seems to be one of those “others” who feels insecure to the point of needing to carry a loaded gun, drop to the ground, no matter where you are and no matter what you are doing, and pretend to be dead, so there will not be any need for that needy person to get frightened.”) Or should we teach them psychological mirroring? (“If you should spot someone who appears to feel the need to carry a gun, immediately draw your gun and keep them in your sites until the National Guard arrives.”)
Then you advise, “Maybe then I wouldn’t have to watch Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton brain wash the black community and fuel racism.”
Well, Meek, first of all you do not have to watch Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. It doesn’t even ask that question on your tax return. Oh maybe if you’re in prison or jail, and you can’t choose what to watch, and all the other prisoners brutalize you and force you to watch what you don’t want to watch, maybe then, but my guess is that you’re not forced to watch this objectionable material at all. And as to these public figures fueling racism, you don’t have to change any curricula for that part, Meek. You just go on TV and get an audience and tell them that Sharpton and Jackson are all wrong, and you get a bigger audience than they’ve got and you’ll be fine. I won’t even tweak the curriculum for that one.
Your advice continues: “You know black people are dumb when they actually buy in the the shit that comes out those guy’s mouth.” and then on and on and on, culminating in your conclusion that MLK’s dream has become a nightmare.
Well right here, I won’t worry about changing the curriculum myself any more. You’re a citizen. You go ahead and write this up as a lesson plan. Send it around to all the public schools. YOU VOLUNTEER TO TEACH IT YOURSELF. You go into those classrooms and explain to the kids that if they buy into what Sharpton and Jackson say, that proves that they’re “dumb.” That should really bring up the educational achievement of our country a lot…
well actually it might,
by causing the unintended consequence of the…ahem…silencing of one of the teachers who wasn’t really on track with the stated goals of our public education system in globo…
I’m just saying…
Oh and one more thing.
President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush visited this very school, the year after the play was presented, because he wanted to show approval for the school’s achievement in the testing that had been done (and he wanted a photo op patting the heads of some little Black kids). My friends, the teachers, were in on a meeting with him and Laura. They had carefully locked down the school as if it were a prison, and screened the parents for who would be allowed to attend, of course. President Bush spoke of accountability and my friend Jennifer, Montessori teacher of the 3 – 6 year olds, spoke on what Montessori Philosophy believes about how to teach accountability. He said to her, “Where is your accent from?” (She’s from Capetown, South Africa) She was featured on the radio that week as “person of the week.”
Carver, thanks.
I don’t actually understand what it is about this school’s “Trayvon Martin” Day that has so inflamed some folks. Let me give my credentials first, before embarking on my own [I believe] CREDIBLE attempt to disarm a bunch of silly attacks on this activity.
FIRST, yes, I have actually DONE SOMETHING to contribute positively to the educational achievement of inner city schools that were lagging behind in the national ratings. Yes I have. I was asked by friends of mine who were at the time Montessori teachers in an inner city school in Washington, DC, to contribute to the arts and drama curriculum, especially after April of the year, when the standardized testing for “No Child Left Behind” was over. The testing of the whole school was raised by the scores of the three school-within-a-school Montessori classes, ranging in age from three to 12.
I was asked to write a play for these kids that would both teach some real point of history, and at the same time, develop acting and stage-related talents among them.
Mind you, this school was disadvantaged and every single student in there came from a home in which the family income was low enough that each child qualified not only for free lunch but also for free breakfast in school. The genrally arrived at school at 7:15 because their parents either both worked or one worked and the other was in prison or even a hospital or was just absent or they lived with grandparents who worked. Not one white kid in the school; not one Hispanic kid in the school; no Asian kids; only African American kids, and all below poverty level. (One exception with respect to poverty level was a family where father was a teacher and mother worked and there were four kids so they got food supplements but were not below poverty level per se.)
First, I took four copies of a children’s book about the Dred Scott case out of the library and circulated it in the classroom, asking the kids to read the whole thing, out loud, one to the other or each taking turns in front of the class. They read it and studied it and then I asked them to answer me in writing, “Do you want to be in a play about Dred Scott and his family?” They only had to write one sentence but some wrote much more. I did not have any “no” answers but one girl said, “I don’t want to be in it but I will help somebody else be in it.”
I wrote the play so that every single kid had a part. The three-to-six year olds were the chorus singing the Negro Spirituals. Every kid from 7 on up had a speaking part, if only as a “townsfolk” commenting on what they had heard.
The part of Sanford, the slave owner, was played by an African American kid who went on to graduate on scholarship from the well-known Cathedral School in DC. The kid who played Dred Scott did the same at some other prestigious private high school — all financed by scholarship funds, privately. These kids are among the intelligentsia now. Not every kid in that class succeeded as well as these two fabulous actors, but they all benefitted greatly and said so and demonstrated it. One became a real scholar during her high school years on the subject of the legal decisions that led to the Dred Scott Decision. She was doing college level research in her sophomore year.
I came to that school with a borrowed car, the hatch back filled with fruits and cookies and little packaged soft drinks. I brought the props and costumes (gathered from thrift shops and friends) in a rolling suitcase. We put on a production nobody would fail to be proud of. And some parents wrote “book reports” on seeing the play. There was not an empty seat. One woman came up and told the teacher in charge that she was sorry her husband was incarcerated because seeing the play would have “changed him how he needs to change.”
So there are my credentials. Every parent was involved. EVERY ONE.
So when I read, “The parents of the kids at these schools virtually never show up for any proactive educational purpose, although they often protest when the school board decides to change something after years of little or no parent involvement. When I would do parent/teacher conferences only the parents of the kids who were doing well would typically show up to hear how well their kids wered doing and inquire how they could keep their kids on track. The parents of the struggling kids simply didn’t bother to ever come to school unless the kids were being threatened with suspension. I would be curious to know how many of the parents who show up for Travon Day read to/with their kids every night. I like to see how many of them request extra time with the faculty of the school to address their children’s lack of achievement.
Can third graders grasp the complexity of the Travon Martin/George Zimmerman case? I doubt it. Before any evidence had been released the (by and large intelligent) posters on this blog had for the most part made up their minds part about the case. Will the principle discuss Zimmerman’s broken nose and bloody head with the students? Will there be a follow up program with the students if Zimmerman is found not guilty? The principle in this case, as opposed to taking advantage of a “teachable moment”, seems to be pulling a classic, “Ingnore the man behind the green curtain, I am Oz!”. This is just a distraction from the rotten job the schools and even more so the families, of these kids are doing; more fuel to reinforce the learned helplessness of our nation’s permanent under-class.”
It disturbs me, it really does. Who has the authority to decide that the problem is that these parents refuse to “address their children’s lack of achievement”? I did not see that at all. I saw parents disabled by their own desperately difficult lives jumping at the opportunity to become part of a valid educational activity.
Was I sweetening the pot with the cookies and picnic fare and so forth? Hell yes I was. I realized that if someone has to wake up at five to get her kids to baby-sitters and school and on the bus and train to work for minimum wage and come home and deal with problem after problem after problem in a never-let-up assault of the “realities” on her ability to keep things together, maybe she’ll bring the kids down on a Saturday to rehearse if there is a nice, big spread and we’re all having fun. Maybe she will think of that as more doable on a Saturday morning when she just wants to get 45 minutes more sleep and keeping the world at bay, once a week, if that. Maybe she’s sure I won’t be blaming her for some kid’s inability to figure out algebra, or interrogating her on whether she has done all she should do, as a proper decent mother, from my superior vantage point of being the know-it-all about her responsibilities. Maybe she’s flattered when I say, “You help us with costumes, OK? You have style.” If you’ve ever done anything to try to DE-inforce the learned helplessness of people who have really serious disadvantages to overcome, then throw the first stone.
Otherwise, here’s my view of the Trayvon Martin Day: Will it get the parents and the kids down there and together to engage them in what should be an educational endeavor in their own (or their kids’) best interests? Will it mean something to them? Will it encourage them to deal with things that are hard to deal with, whether it’s about their kids test scores or their kids’ feelings of insecurity when walking around in the streets? Is there any GOOD that can possibly come of it?
Oh yeah?
Then why not have it? Where’s the skin coming off your teeth? Somebody’s being an attention whore? Oh BOO HOO. I wanted the girl who played Harriett Scott to be a real attention whore when I was ringing her out to act up on that rickety fall-down stage in the unglamorous auditorium. I WANTED THAT on the part of these kids who were doing something that warranted lots of positive attention.
Trayvon Martin will never have a chance to grow and shine and do what he might have been able to do. Some people don’t care about that. The kids in this school might very well CARE ABOUT THAT and if it helps them care more about themselves, I say let’s have it and plenty more where that comes from.
Perhaps the police academies should start giving out free “George Zimmerman Days” to show the public what they should and should NOT DO when they’re trying to be helpful to the law enforcement departments in their communities; I wouldn’t oppose that either.
They should promote how not to act like a monkey and how not to attack some guy you don’t know.. Maybe then there would be less dead black people and others wouldn’t feel a need to carry a gun. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to watch Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton brain wash the black community and fuel racism.. You know black people are dumb when they actually buy in the the shit that comes out those guy’s mouth. Martin Luther had a dream people would be judged based on their actions not skin color. With that in mind, why is it that two individuals ( who want to be MLK so badly) who represent racial equality for the black community, are the first ones to stamp every crime or altercation that involves a black person and someone from another race as being racialy motivated.. The black community is somehow oblivious to the fact that they do this for publicity and money… Thanks assholes MLK’s dream has now become a nightmare
“MeeK’ — I do not know what is more offensive, your comment, or that you have appropriated one of the great passages on peace in world history as the moniker for your bile.
A related comment — I love how all of the trolls who spew hate on these and other race issues always hide their names. Oh, so brave!
Years ago I taught school in a rotten part of south Dallas before going to law school. I have friends who teach in the public schools here in Chicago. For years I worked as a public defender and I still get appointed to represent negligent/abusive parents who are at risk of loosing their parental rights. Bottom line, I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with the mess that is our nations inner city schools. The parents of the kids at these schools virtually never show up for any proactive educational purpose, although they often protest when the school board decides to change something after years of little or no parent involvement. When I would do parent/teacher conferences only the parents of the kids who were doing well would typically show up to hear how well their kids wered doing and inquire how they could keep their kids on track. The parents of the struggling kids simply didn’t bother to ever come to school unless the kids were being threatened with suspension.
I would be curious to know how many of the parents who show up for Travon Day read to/with their kids every night. I like to see how many of them request extra time with the faculty of the school to address their children’s lack of achievement.
Can third graders grasp the complexity of the Travon Martin/George Zimmerman case? I doubt it. Before any evidence had been released the (by and large intelligent) posters on this blog had for the most part made up their minds part about the case. Will the principle discuss Zimmerman’s broken nose and bloody head with the students? Will there be a follow up program with the students if Zimmerman is found not guilty?
The principle in this case, as opposed to taking advantage of a “teachable moment”, seems to be pulling a classic, “Ingnore the man behind the green curtain, I am Oz!”. This is just a distraction from the rotten job the schools and even more so the families, of these kids are doing; more fuel to reinforce the learned helplessness of our nation’s permanent under-class.
Manufacturers product placement is solidly placed in schools I see…..
Anon: This list of buzz words is enormous. If the government is following this blog we were wondering over at the dog pack meeting today if they would be offended and send out the dog catcher if we told them to eat dog dick. Talkindog said to tell them to eat dick, jane and sally. Heinz57 the German Shepard said to tell them to ich mochter double zimmer for ein nach in Nashweinstein. HoundDog said to tell them to learn tracking by smell and not words. And then he farted.
Malisha, your posts are spot on. Thanks.
No, it is not too soon, and while we do not know (and probably never will know) what occurred when Zimmerman confronted Trayvon, it was the broader dynamic that touched societal nerves. There is no question that Zimmerman saw a young black man in his neighborhood, thought he was a danger to the community simply because he was a young black man, and stalked him. We can presume that Zimmerman also confronted him based on his racist supposition. That is the reality for young black men in the US today. That is enough to use what we know about the case as a “teachable moment”.
With those test scores and ranking within THAT school district this dog would say that X marks the spot. They could have a rememberance day for every person shot. Lincoln, Garfield, Kennedy, Kennedy, King, and then when they run out of dead guys they can remember druggies who shoot up.
Then they can start doing things positive and tell the kiddies that wearing the hoody is not the entrada into the real world.
I nominate ANON for the blawg attention Whore of the day.
His yard-long post of “terror” words does it for me.
Why not nominate the dictionary. The latest rumours on NSA indicate that the list is radically expanding, with both denotations, connotations, and semantics. With brief bows in certain directions.
You know that was a love clap, don’t you ANON? It was in fact. Passive-aggressive mumble mumble. Self-ref…….!
http://www.khou.com/news/local/Honor-Student-Jailed-for-Absences-153847275.html
HOUSTON—A judge threw a 17-year-old 11th grade honor student from Willis High School in jail after she missed school again.
Judge Lanny Moriarty said last month Diane Tran was in his Justice of the Peace court for truancy and he warned her then to stop missing school.
But she recently missed classes again so Wednesday he issued a summons and had her arrested in open court when she appeared.
Tran said she works a full-time job, a part-time job and takes advanced placement and dual credit college level courses. She said she is often too exhausted to wake up in time for school. Sometimes she misses the entire day, she said. Sometimes she arrives after attendance has been taken.
The judge ordered Tran to spend 24 hours in jail and pay a $100 fine. Judge Moriarty admitted that he wants to make an example of Tran.
“If you let one (truant student) run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em? Let them go too?” Judge Moriarty asked.
Tran said she is working so hard because she is helping to support an older brother who attends Texas A&M University and a baby sister who lives with relatives in Houston. Tran said her parents divorced “out of the blue” and both moved away, leaving her in Willis. Her mother lives in Georgia, she said.
“I always thought our family was happy,” the teen said tearfully.
Tran lives with the family of one of her employers.
There are apparently other, and bigger, fish to fry in the ‘schools are FUBAR’ category:
“Jackson, Miss., schools to no longer handcuff students”
AP 5/24
“JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Public schools in Jackson, Mississippi, will no longer handcuff students to poles or other objects and will train staff at its alternative school on better methods of discipline.” …
“Nationwide, a report from the U.S. Department of Education showed tens of thousands of students, 70 percent of them disabled, were strapped down or physically restrained in school in 2009-10. Advocates for disabled students say restraints are often abused, causing injury and sometimes death.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-05-25/handcuffing-students-mississippi/55211598/1?csp=34news
I’m with mespo and Malisha. My sentiments exactly about attempting to invalidate what the school is trying to do by creating a diversion. It smacks of an ad hominem attack. Here’s an example, according to Wikipedia:
“Candidate Jane’s proposal about zoning is ridiculous. She was caught cheating on her taxes in 2003.”
I’ve said before, and I’ll say again: Mr. Turley has shown a bias against Trayvon from the very beginning, and I find it very troubling.
“With the scores falling rather than improving at the school, I would prefer a focus on those issues during school days. This is not to say that the case should not be discussed in appropriate classes. I think the case is useful to discuss in terms of racism and other issues where they are relevant to the curriculum.”
************************
I think the Principal’s sentiments are laudable and if they take any steps to remedy or highlight the problem with bullying how can anyone be against it? Complaining, as JT does, about the poor academic performance of DC schools seems inapplicable (and a bit unfair) as I can see no diversion of resources by this act on this one day that would negatively affect the District’s efforts to improve itself.
Where is it written that if you can’t do everything, you shouldn’t do something?
too soon, even for me.
Anon: Pork World Health Organization?
OT.
Back to the Trayvon Day: Trayvon Martin is now part of the American Consciousness and the American Conscience. He did not try to catapult himself into this position by getting dead. It is not up to us to try to moderate how the responses to what happened will shape our common wisdom or our future, except to the extent that we try to add our bit, which each of us has been doing, here.
If these folks who organized this are trying to get attention, so what? Surely that is not outside the First Amendment rights granted in the Constitution in an Amendment well before the 13th and 14th thereof.
More power to them.