Back to School: Investing In Distraction
My guest today is Sabrina Stevens Shupe. Sabrina is a teacher, writer, and activist who has worked with students in struggling communities in Philadelphia and Denver. She recently helped to organize the Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action, and she also launched the Failing Schools Project, which aims to empower teachers, students, and parents in so-called "failing" schools to share their stories about what it's really like to work and learn in such schools, and to promote alternative ways of thinking about and solving the problems these schools face. She currently uses her written, artistic and multimedia skills to serve organizations, candidates, and campaigns that work to advance democratic solutions to educational and social problems.
(Or, “If I had a [b]illion dollars...”)
I will never understand how some people spend their money.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve visited school buildings and classrooms where temperatures had risen above 90 degrees. (In kid terms, that means fidgeting, nosebleeds, nausea and worse-- not so much in the reading, writing, & ‘rithmetic department.) That, in a time when districts across the country are switching to a four-day school week to save money, asking parents to pay out of pocket for things like bus service and extra curricular activities, and laying off teachers and other school personnel.
Yet, wherever else I go, I can’t stop seeing online banner ads or billboards for the