Link Round-Up: Rethinking Schools, Winter 2007-2008

Been doing more reading than writing lately; it's hard to get the hang of this blogging thing. Guess I just have to keep on keeping on---like working out, or learning a language or instrument---do it enough, and it becomes second nature. Still, there's only 24 hours in a day, and I am a single parent, so making bigtime (especially link-heavy) tour-de-force posts (my personal favorite!) isn't really an option most of the time. The solution? More posts on what I've been reading.

See, I'm a big supporter of "alternative" media, which to me means media oriented towards social justice. I subscribe to several magazines I'd either seldom, or never, be able to find on the newsstand in my city. I even subscribed to the now-defunct LiP magazine, and wish like hell more people had heard of it---and maybe it wouldn't have folded. So, during periods of not-having-enough-time-to-blog, I'm going to start providing links, reviews, and plugs for some good writing out there that maybe folks haven't seen yet.

I highly recommend Rethinking Schools as a resource for anyone interested in education. It's designed by and for teachers, but I started subscribing to it when my daughter started school (Early Start---preschool). I wouldn't have known it existed had I not found a link to it on someone's blog---a teacher who blogged under the name "folkbum" (I don't think he blogs anymore)*. It's dedicated to activism, social justice, bringing grassroots efforts and equity into the classroom and school boards, and publishes books that focus on how to bring lessons and critiques on globalism, immigration, Christopher Columbus, racism, sexism, etc. into the classroom. Like I said before, I subscribe to a lot of magazines; this is one I always read from cover-to-cover.

This month's issue has "Stereotypes, Silence, and Speaking Out: Asian-American Students in Education on the cover. Benji Chang and Wayne Au, Asian-American educators themselves, co-wrote "You're Asian, How Could You Fail Math?" that helps dispel the 'model minority' myth, as well as the idea of Asia as a uniform culture. They dove headfirst into how classism plays into the 'model minority' (dissecting classism is a constant theme in articles in Rethinking Schools, yet one more reason I love this magazine). They offer suggestions for challenging the model-minority myth, anti-Asian racism, and inserting Asian and Asian-American history into the curriculum. What didn't make the online version of the article was their list of recommended resources:

• The Asian American Curriculum Project, a resource for K-12 Asian American books and materials


• Chen, E. and Omatsu, G., Teaching About Asian Pacific Amercians: Effective Activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Communities, a collection of hands-on lesson plans available from Teaching For Change


• Gage, S. and McNair, D., Colonialism in Asia: A Critical Look! (also available from Teaching For Change)


• Ho, F, Legacy to Liberation, which outlines Asian-American involvement in radical and politically left movements in the United States, such as feminist groups, the League of Revolutionary Struggle, and the Black Panther Party. (Frankly, Fred Ho deserves a helluva lot more mention than this. He is widely known in jazz circles for his work with/as the founding member of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble, and if you're wondering why his name sounds familiar, perhaps you've heard The Underground Railroad to My Heart. He also authored Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, which helpfully comes with a CD so you can hear what he's talking about in the book. More cancer was discovered in his colon, so say a prayer, light a candle, send some best wishes---the world will lose much if he makes an early exit. Read more about him here. Fred Ho is definitely my Exhibit A for exploding the myth that Asian men aren't sexy.)


• Kochiyama, Y., Passing It On: A Memoir, autobiography of Yuri Kochiyama. (also from Teaching For Change)


• Louie, S. and Omatsu, G., Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment, about Asian American civil rights, Yellow Power, and ethnic studies movements in the 60s and 70s


• Wei, D. and Kamel, R, Resistance in Paradise: Rethinking 100 Years of U.S. Involvement in the Caribbean and the Pacific, a collection of lesson plans and teaching ideas specifically addressing U.S. colonialism in the Philippines, Samoa, Hawai'i and elsewhere. Published by the American Friends Service Committee, it is also available through (you guessed it) Teaching For Change


• Zia, H., Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, a collection of essays about Asian American issues past and present from the indomitable Helen Zia

One more thing---it wasn't developed further in the article, but was mentioned that Pilipino American students "have some of the highest dropout and suicide rates." Huh? Yes, it's true.

The other feature article is by Carol Tateshi, Taking a Chance with Words, subtitled "Why are the Asian American kids silent in class?" that presents culturally sensitive tactics for helping Asian American students contribute to classroom dialogue.

A satirical article, "Wish You Were Here" takes on Education Week's ranking of Nebraska as the 51st state in education. ('nuff said, no?)

Barbara Miner continues to hammer away at the privatization of schools in her article, Public Studies Puncture the Privatization Bubble. Ms. Miner has been socking it to the voucher movement for years; it's well worth searching the archives for her past work when in need of ammunition.

There's an informative article on Vicki Phillips, the new education director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an influential organization with $3.4 billion, which is more than the discretionary funds in the U.S. Department of Education's 2008 budget. Look for a heavy-handed management style that eschews input from teachers and parents on curriculum or textbook choices.

"Polar Bears On Mission Street" describes how Rachel Cloues' 4th and 5th grade students developed an awareness/fundraising project on global warming for their contribution to Cesar Chavez Day, after reading about the plight of polar bears in Time for Kids. Of note is that this teacher guided her students through their spontaneous idea, and how they learned that being bilingual was to their advantage, as they could educate people who spoke either Spanish or English on global warming (and distributed informational pamphlets in both languages). She also provided a list of resources:

• Global Warming Alert! by Richard Cheel


• Teaching About Climate Change: Cool Schools Tackle Global Warming, edited by Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn


• Time For Kids Magazine (search: global warming)


• Environmental Protection Agency


• "What Is Global Warming? (available in English, Spanish and Chinese)

Linda Christensen's article, "Beyond Anthologies" critiques the use of prepackaged curriculums and compares their use to factory farming. Insisting that "real teaching requires complexity," creativity, and a certain spontaneity, she emphasized the use of stories for the transmission of knowledge, culture and soul. And who gets to choose what stories are told is crucial. Education can't be trusted to the producers of prepackaged, fast-food curriculums, heavy on filler and low on weight. Christensen quotes sources as varied as Wangari Maathai, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Toni Morrison's The Color Purple, Pablo Neruda, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Phillip Gywnne's Deadly, Unna, Melba Patillo Beals' memoir Warriors Don't Cry, narratives from Ellen Levine's Freedom's Children (first-person stories by young activists in the Civil Rights Movement), Edward S. Herman's article, The Banality of Evil, and a really detailed account of how she taught her students about the effects of dams on the Columbia River by using Craig Lesley's novels Winterkill and River Song, literature from local Native American authors Elizabeth Woody and Ed Edmo, along with transcripts from the trial of David Sohappy,a Yakima spiritual leader who defended his ancestral right to fish according to the 1855 treaty with Indian nations, a classroom visit from David Sohappy's attorney, and field trips to Horsethief Lake to see the pictographs and Dalles Dam to see the Army Corps of Engineers propaganda (providing a wonderful opportunity to look for examples of the passive voice)----and damn! I (almost) wanted to go back to high school! Meanwhile, she used excerpts from Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma throughout, to drive home the comparison between factory farming and the factory farming of young minds.

"Acting In and On the World" describes the classroom use of Theatre of the Oppressed as a way to both educate about, confront, and brainstorm solutions to oppression. This method was created by Brazilian educator Augusto Boal, a friend of Paulo Freire. In this article, Katie Kissinger elaborated how she taught this method to students at the Freedom Camp (offered by the Oregon Diversity Network during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday) using the real-life sexism experienced by one of the participating students (her principal told the girls' basketball team that they would have to use the smaller court, and that they would have to practice without lights as the school couldn't afford the electricity for both the girls' and boys' teams).

Raising Money, Raising Consciousness explores alternative fund-raising methods that don't rely on child labor, lead paint and/or environmental destruction. Resources can be found here.

There's an excellent review of No Parole Today, a poetry collection by Dine author Linda Tohe entitled Indian Culture vs. Dick and Jane. And another one on The Promise of Progressivism: Angelo Patri & Urban Education. Angelo Patri was an Italian immigrant who brought his peasant past with him when he became an educator; he emphasized storytelling in his pedagogy, encouraged parent participation, used culturally-specific materials in the classroom, stressed a well-rounded education including art, athletics, dancing, festivals, music, nature study and folktales. A multicultural educator before his time, he became the first Italian-American principal in the United States. The same methods he proved were successful in the classroom and community over 100 years ago are desperately fought against by conservatives and assimilationists now. Go figure. My favorite Angelo Patri quote? "Nobody is so miserable as he who longs to be somebody other than the person he is."

Here's an inspiring article on how a community stood up against a school board that disciplined teachers who had the temerity to support students who protested the war by walking out of school to peacefully demonstrate. Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington has 71 percent of the student body eligible for free or reduced-price lunch; as such, it's a prime target for military recruiters.

Which brings up another point---even the ads in this magazine are great. Where else would I find out about free books for alternatives to the military for high school students in the midwest? Yes, the American Friends Service Committee has free downloads available for Youth Alternatives to the Military, and have concentrated efforts in midwestern states as the economic prospects tend to be bleaker here (but guides for California, Maryland, Massachusetts and North Carolina are also available). And it's not like I'm going to see The MultiCultural Review on the newsstands around here anytime soon. There are very few ads in Rethinking Schools, but the ones here are ones you may enjoy (how many times is that the case for a magazine?!).

So there you have it. Happy reading! (oh, and this took forever! what was I thinking? heh. Guess I just can't get away from link-heavy posts. Hey, that's the breaks!)

*UPDATE: Hold up! Folkbum is still blogging! Found a link on Prometheus 6. Sorry 'bout that! (and he still has a link to Rethinking Schools, plus a lot of other good links on education. Now that I know he's blogging again, I'm putting him back on the blogroll.)