I work at a school that’s atypical in a number of ways. It’s a 110 year old, co-ed, private K-12 school (housed in one building) in the heart of Chicago, and our educational philosophy is based on progressive, constructivist, democratic ideals. We are pretty intentional about things like building a safe, productive community in which everyone’s voice is welcomed, in which challenging one another and challenging previously unquestioned ideas and assumptions is encouraged, and where differences are valued as strengths, especially when our differences challenge one another to be more knowledgeable, more thoughtful people. We have a common language and shared ideals with which everyone is familiar and by which everyone strives to abide, including:
Our motto: “Everything to help and nothing to hinder.” – Francis W. Parker (our founder)
“A school should be a model home, a complete community, an embryonic democracy.” – Francis W. Parker
“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” – 1 Corinthians 12:26 (We are not a religious school, but this biblical quotation is a guiding adage that has been part of our expectations for one another for generations.)
There’s a lot of history, and a lot of tradition, at the school. But it’s not all about being serious and stoic. We try to be a place where the whole person is welcome – whether that whole person is a student, a family member, or a faculty or staff member. And that means that we share gifts, abilities, talents (and challenges) that are parts of our ‘real world’ lives with one another, even if those things might not be welcome in other, perhaps more traditional schools. At our school, students and teachers laugh together (and cry together), and teachers share things about their ‘real lives’ that the school culture in other settings might discourage – things like our whole identities, our political beliefs and convictions, what we did over the weekend, and when we are an awesome break dancer. (Which I am not.) And one of the things we love to share with one another is HUMOR!
A relatively new tradition at our school (ranging back to at least 2006) is the annual Mike and Duane Show – a production that essentially boils down to a comedy sketch show presented primarily by faculty and staff, with occasional student involvement. It includes comedy routines, dances, music videos, and always a princess number. It’s a pretty serious undertaking and a beloved piece of our school community.
Last year I shared with you the “Bad” video that was a part of the 2010 Mike and Duane Show. (And it’s totally worth revisiting, or visiting for the first time if you’ve never seen it. How often have YOU watched your Assistant Principal dance Michael Jackson through the halls while being backed by a gang for faculty and staff?!)
This year, I thought I’d share a little more – both present and past. This year’s show was fun. It included lots of singing and dancing, a video/live performance of an original tune, a high school science teacher showing off his aerial acrobatic skills, and a crazy music video mash-up of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Onyx’s “Slam,” and Ok Go’s “End Love.” (The links will show you video of these acts.)
But, to give you an idea of the tone in which the show is presented, here was this year’s introduction (inspired by The Electric Company, of course):
(And in case you want to know, Duane is a counselor in our Middle School, Mike works in our afterschool program for K – 5th graders, and Casey (Hudetz – thus “Chudetz”) teaches in the Middle School computer lab.)
Every year's show features a faculty number which typically recreates some pop culture dance from the previous year – ranging from the Jai Ho to the Sound of Music flash mob in Amsterdam to this year’s Double Dream Hands, of which I was a part. See if you can spot me:
And there is typically at least one performance by faculty and staff who actually live up to the title ‘dancer.’ This year, said talented folks did a remake of Janet Jackson’s "Rhythm Nation."
There are MANY a great Mike and Duane act from years past. Here are a few of my favorites:
2007:
(The prince is played by our assistant principal, the cop is our technology facilitator, and the cab driver is one of our high school science teachers.)
2008:
2010:
For us, part of being a community means making time to laugh together and making time to share our talents – both those of the students and those of faculty and staff. And we like to have fun. Isn't that how school should be?!
Yesterday the Tennessee State Senate passed Republican Senator Stacey Campfield's Senate Bill 49, the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, by a vote of 20-10. (Some are reporting the final vote as 19-11. I’m unsure of the official results. Either way, the bill passed.) The bill has received controversial attention over the past several weeks (months and years) over the appropriate place of government to limit dialogue in classrooms. The bill’s original language (pdf, one page – very short) stated that "No public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality." The bill was then amended such that it could only be adopted after a review by the state board of education of "the current curriculum standards for the teaching of sex education or for the teaching of other subjects in which the discussion of human sexuality may occur incidental to the subject" (pdf, 1 page).
On Friday an amendment (for which I cannot find the official text) was submitted, and then adopted – leading to the passing of the bill – with at least two changes from the original. First, the phrasing "sexual orientation other than heterosexuality" was stricken and replaced by limiting discussions to only "natural human reproduction science." (This change was fine with Campfield who said, "There's more than one way to skin a cat.… I got what I wanted.… Homosexuals don't naturally reproduce.") In addition, the amendment loosened the scope of the bill such that educators could respond to student questions about homosexuality without punishment, but still cannot offer materials or engage curriculum or instruction inclusive of homosexuality.
According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, "Companion legislation in the state House of Representatives has not advanced out of committee, and supporters of the bill do not intend to bring it up again until 2012."
As a practicing teacher of Kindergarten students, my concerns and fears about this bill are stacking up. Limiting the possibility for discussion and dialogue on any subject typically has dangerous results. Even hypothesizing the consequences of this bill, the following are a few of my concerns. If I were teaching in Tennessee (which I am not):
The bill would prohibit my inclusion of curriculum and dialogue that acknowledges the lived experiences of my current students who have gay parents or other gay family members or friends.
The bill would prohibit my colleagues who work with older elementary and middle school students from including dialogue or curricular material that acknowledges and supports students who may be gay or questioning or who have gay family members or friends.
The bill would limit our inclusion of curriculum in which sexual orientation or identity is relevant to understanding. For example, a discussion of race, ethnicity, and power is relevant to understanding slave narratives or narratives by native peoples (both of which are currently part of our third grade curriculum, by the way). This bill prohibits a similar discussion of sexuality and power as it relates to understanding historical and cultural events, social structures and consequences, literature, poetry, other creative works, and so on.
The bill severely limits and/or prohibits teachers and counselors from sharing gay-positive materials with gay and questioning students (who do exist in middle school, and sometimes even late elementary school).
The bill severely limits and/or prohibits both offensive and defensive efforts to address bullying around issues of sexuality or perceived sexuality.
In addition, the bill seems reliant on at least two faulty assumptions. First, the bill suggests that sexuality is a non-issue before ninth grade. As anyone who knows anything about human development can confirm, sexuality has a place in the lives of all people at all points in their life, both personally and contextually. This looks very different at different ages, but has a presence nonetheless. For example, my students are four and five. Generally, they are not dealing with issues of their own sexuality, but the sexuality of their parents, older siblings, extended family members, family friends, and so on, plays an important role in shaping the cultural and social contexts in which they live. I have a responsibility to help my students understand the world they see around them – a world in which diversity has an active presence (as relates to sexual orientation and a billion other identity markers). Sexuality has consequences for our social structures and the lives of my students. As such, sexuality is a relevant issue prior to ninth grade and being able to address it in age-appropriate ways is vital for supporting healthy students, families, and communities.
Second, the bill seems to suggest the idea that NOT talking about homosexuality means it doesn't exist or will disappear. Sorry to say, that’s not true. Campfield says his bill is morally and ethically neutral, but banning the discussion of one thing while allowing continued discussion of another is not neutrality. It is blatant bias. And, looking through the examples of history, intentionally creating silence around an issue won’t silence those fighting the injustice of hatred.
And in times of blatant hatred, sometimes a little tongue-in-cheek comedy is a helpful way to take action. Thus, props to George Takei. I’m on board. "It's OK to be Takei!"
Plus, as an ironic side note, yesterday (before I knew about SB49 passing) I read And Tango Makes Three with my students. It’s a children’s book that’s been banned all over the place because it “promotes the gay agenda.” It’s a true story about two male penguins in NYC's Central Park Zoo who adopt an egg in need of care and raise the resulting chick, Tango. We read the book because it integrated perfectly into our current curriculum. We’ve been talking for months about families – what a family is, who’s in a family, and really working to acknowledge the idea that no two families are the same, that all family compositions and identities are ‘real’ families, and that we can find similarities between ourselves and others, just as we can find differences. In addition, this week we were talking about zoos – as we focused on the letter Z, continued investigations about animals, and visited the zoo one block from our school. AND, we’ve been preparing the children for their eventual transition to the next grade level. We’ve been visiting the classrooms they may be in next year and the students in those rooms have been studying bird life cycles, so have been hatching chicken, duck, and quail eggs. My kids loved hanging with the baby birds. As such, And Tango Makes Three touches on all these curricular topics – families, zoos, animals, baby birds. How could I possibly have found a better curricular match?! “Gay themes” be damned. And what did the kids want to talk about when we finished the book? How cute penguins are and how parenting penguins prepare and then care for their baby chicks. Very controversial stuff.
For other (blatantly anti-SB49) videos, you can check out Jon Stewart and the folks at FCKH8.
Last weekend I spent my Saturday night at a fundraising event hosted by the school where I teach. The purpose of the evening was to raise money for our scholarship fund. 17% of our student population (1 in 6 students) receives financial aid to attend our school and the average award is $17,000. The goal of the evening was to raise ½ million dollars for our scholarship fund through a combination of ticket sales, raffle tickets, silent auction, live auction, and outright donation. I was able to attend the event because the parents of one of my students offered to buy my ticket. Events like this are a huge mixed bag for me. I often find it incredibly uncomfortable being around so much affluence (mostly because of the casual way the upper class are able to talk about and spend large amounts of money in a way so intensively different from my own experiences), and yet these events can also feel inspirational to me when I see others’ willingness to so generously share what they have. (Yes, there are often intense politics involved with such charity/generosity, but I also have to be thankful for what can be done with that money rather than focus too intensely on the other aspects that are much harder for me to deal with.)
During the evening, Gabriel Anaya, a graduating senior, shared a video he had made for the event. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Gabriel in a limited way this school year. His high school science course “Global Local Connections” (GLC) has spent some time working collaboratively with my kindergarten students. (We did a whole bunch of planting together and last week harvested arugula from our school’s hoop houses and made arugula butter and pizza.) Gabriel seems a genuinely kind-natured guy, somewhat soft spoken (at least with me and my students), but pretty aware of who he is. During one the days the GLC students were in my room, Gabriel asked if he could shoot some video of what was going on. During the scholarship event, I saw the faces of my students and the faces of many other students in our school community reflected back to me and to a room of several hundred other adults. And I cried.
When the video ended, Gabriel, who was on stage, was given a standing ovation. It brought him to tears as well. He talked about the power of education to realize your own potential, and he spoke about how his experiences as a high school student have made him believe that he has something of value to offer the world.
I talked to Gabriel this week when he was again visiting my classroom. My partner teacher and I asked if he’d be willing to share a copy of his video with us, so that we, in turn, could pass it on to our classroom’s entire parent body. He generously agreed. His video is below.
I teach because I believe in the power of education to change lives and make them better. Education is about connection and passion and compassion. And Gabriel helped me remember that sometimes we get it right. As the end of the school year approaches, I’m sending love and peace out into the universe on his behalf and on behalf of all the others working to realize their potential in the world.
Check it. This is the French dance crew La Preuve Par 4 at the 2010 Juste Debout, an international street dance festival in France. It's sick!
Giving credit where credit is due:
The men and women behind the masks are Marion Motin (Quality Street and Swagger crews), Julie Moreau (Swagger crew), Nicolas Medea (R.A.F. crew), and Marvin Gofin (R.A.F. crew). Gofin choreographed and the music was composed and remixed by soFly.
Interested in checkin' coverage of other urban dance events worldwide? YAKfilms has got you covered.
Did you know that most of the medical research that informs what we know about health, well-being, disease, and medicine has been the result of research studies conducted primarily on men? (All those shifting girly hormones make it easier to 'control for variables' when doing research with male subjects.) While there is much to be learned from these studies, by not including women there are large gaps in medical knowledge as it pertains directly to women and girls and our health. (And I mean our health in general, not just our reproductive health. Research is showing more and more that sex has an impact on all areas of health, not just reproduction.)
"A number of important differences exist between men’s and women’s experiences of health and illness. Some diseases occur more commonly among women, while others disproportionately affect men. Further, men and women frequently experience different symptoms of the same underlying problem or illness (e.g., heart disease), and they often respond differently to the same medications or therapies."
But -- happy day! -- there are researchers across the country (and probably around the world) who are working to expand what we know about women and women's health. And their goal is that someday all people will have access to healthcare and health-related information that recognizes that our identities, including our sex, play an important role in our overall health.
The Registry is a database that gathers longitudinal data from women in Illinois about their health and well-being. I've taken part in the Registry for the last three or four years, and it's really simple. Once a year, I hop online and take 30 minutes or so to complete a confidential health survey. (They send me email reminders, so it's not like I have to mark my calendar a year out to be sure I get it done.) The survey asks questions about my demographics info, health conditions, symptoms, diseases, family history of disease, environmental exposures, and stress.
My (de-identified) data is then pooled with that of thousands of other women to track trends in women's health in Illinois over time and to help identify health needs and priorities for our larger community. In addition, the database serves as baseline data for health researchers. AND, it can be used to identify women who match eligibility requirements for current research studies and clinical trials. (If you match a study, you are invited -- but in no way pressured -- to participate.)
And the Institute sends you emails and/or mailings about once a month with info and research related to health issues as they pertain to women. (You can, of course, opt out of these mailings if you choose.)
Every year when I update my info I think, "Dang, this is such a good idea!" So, now I'm encouraging you (women 18 or older living in Illinois) to join. It's easy and is a simple way to contribute to the health and well-being of all women.
To participate or to get more information about the Illinois Women's Health Registry, go HERE.
i don't know what i am anymore, and i think that's just fine. i've returned to academia, taking the good with the bad. if you ask me what i do, on the bad days i'll say i'm a "slave to an instituationalized oppressive system." on the good, i'll say i'm a "student who is an adventurer in the art of learning" (P. Freire).
