Kristof: "When Whites Just Don’t Get It"
The net worth of the average black household in the United States is $6,314, compared with $110,500 for the average white household, according to 2011 census data. The gap has worsened in the last decade, and the United States now has a greater wealth gap by race than South Africa did during apartheid. (Whites in America on average own almost 18 times as much as blacks; in South Africa in 1970, th
by rss@dailykos.com ... / 28min
Students began classes on Wednesday, so I am getting back into the rhythm that has been so much of a part of my life for the past two decades or so. And is my wont I take some time on a Saturday morning before returning to the tasks associated with being a high school social studies teacher to reflect upon my teaching life. There have always been at least a few people here who are interested in what I choose to share. And as I have found out in the past few days, there are going to be some more, because some of my students have already found me here!.
So let me set the context of where I teach, the time spent preparing for this school year, including a few glitches, and what has happened in three days of teaching.
I invite you to join me below the cheese-doodle as I describe my new position at Catonsville High School in Baltimore County Maryland.
Some quick background for those readers who do not know me. I retired from teaching in June of 2012, at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt MD, where I had taught for 13 of the previous 14 years. I thought I might write and/or consult and do other things to earn what money I might need. Shortly before the following Thanksgiving I got a call from my first principal who asked if I would fill in at a high needs middle school in DC (94% free and reduced lunch), I began the Monday before Thanksgiving, it was the hardest and most challenging work I had ever done, but I had to leave when my wife was diagnosed with cancer and for a period I became her fulltime care-giver.
I decided to return to teaching, both because we had lost a lot of my wife's income, but also because I realized I was ready to stay in the classroom. An old acquaintance offered to create a position suited to my talents at North County High School in Glen Burnie Md. After the position was officially offered but before I accepted it, he decided to take another position. Despite knowing he was living, the position so suited me I stayed at North County. I loved the students, and am still in contact with a good number, but during the course of the year the STEM program for which I was hired was being changed in ways I did not think I could supportYet again a Saturday morning teaching reflection:
Yet again a Saturday morning teaching reflection
Students began classes on Wednesday, so I am getting back into the rhythm that has been so much of a part of my life for the past two decades or so. And is my wont I take some time on a Saturday morning before returning to the tasks associated with being a high school social studies teacher to reflect upon my teaching life. There have always been at least a few people here who are interested in
2 by rss@dailykos.com ... / 2h
AUG 26
Eugene Robinson reflects on Michael Brown & related
To be young, male and black in America means not being allowed to make mistakes. Forgetting this, as we’ve seen so many times, can be fatal. So begins When youthful mistakes turn deadly, a powerful column in the Washington Post that went on line last evening. Michael Brown made at least one mistake - walking in the middle of the road. That he controlled. But of course that is not a capital offe
3 by rss@dailykos.com ... / 4d
AUG 25
America is Not for Black People
is the title of this post Consider this: Part of the reason we're seeing so many black men killed is that police officers are now best understood less as members of communities, dedicated to keeping peace within them, than as domestic soldiers. The drug war has long functioned as a full-employment act for arms dealers looking to sell every town and village in the country on the need for military-g
by rss@dailykos.com ... / 4d
If you are concerned about poverty
I strongly suggest you read this blog post by my professional colleague Mike Rose of UCLA written in tribute to his co-author and colleague Mike Katz, who just passed away. Some of you may remember Public Education Under Siege, my review of the book of that title produced by the two Mikes, which I posted last December. There is a new paperback edition of that book out. From Mike Rose's blog let m
by rss@dailykos.com ... / 4d