free like driftwood’s Neighborhood

This reminds me of the "We are the Fighting Irish" ads they play during ND football games.  Danielle Hall, Notre Dame and MTC alum, is featured in this recruitment/information video about the Mississippi Teacher Corps:

No, it doesn’t have to. No matter how constrained a teacher is, I’ve determined that school does not have to be a creativity killer. To apply some ancient, wise words (2 Corinthians 4:8-9): “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; … struck down, but not destroyed.” In other words, NCLB and the obsessive, accountability-driven administrative directives it begets cannot single-handedly kill creativity in the classroom. Sure, state tests “stigmatize failure,” as Ken Robinson states. Teachers, though, do not have to stigmatize failure.

Take a measure as simple as rewarding students for non-academic feats, for instance. Awarding Student of the Month to the most spirit-lifting comedian in the classroom validates him as much as a good grade. Teacher-initiated rewards address and negate Robinson’s contention that school only the intellectual successes at school are the winners. He contends that “the whole purpose of public education …is to produce university professors. … We shouldn’t hold them up as the highest form of achievement…they live in their heads.” Nay! The purpose of school is to make something productive out of young peoples minds and hours. Sure, there are ugly class wars circling around how those minds and hours are spent. But ideally, school is for producing more productive (emotionally, spiritually, vocationally --- not merely intellectually) members of society. School is where students have training wheels for how to function as adults. It’s a mini-society. I think Robinson would be a huge fan to Rousseau’s anti-social, child-centered vision of education. Unfortunately, as pastoral and sweet as this vision is, it falls short of what humans were created for: to serve and better each other.

No, schools do not “squander” the innate creativity in children wholesale, as Robinson overconfidently asserts. Schools are the environment in which time is set aside for creativity to be required. Without the structure of school, creativity wilts. Robinson is right to point out the paradoxical nature of creativity, such as that we do not mature into creativity, but rather we outgrow it, but he misses this important paradox about it: creativity needs structure just like fire needs oxygen. Without the push and the constraint to fuel creativity, or the probing questions of the teacher, or the small encouraging remarks along the way to the final creative product, a child’s creativity will be stifled. Also, in a school functioning properly, in which reading aloud and extolling reading should be a daily activity, the imagination will find no lack.

As to Robinson’s allusion to Picasso’s quote that we grow out of creativity, neither do I fully agree with this. Older children (teens) can use colors, tweak words, arrange sounds, plan projects and papers and speak more eloquently and purposefully than their younger counterparts. Who has the authority to say that creativity with more direction and eruditeness is somehow weaker than the innocent creativity that streams from a little mind? Classifying creativity in an hierarchy (eerily akin to what NCLB test standards do—classify schools and student achievement) and judging creativity as “the production of something both original and useful” (paraphrase) is rather utilitarian itself. Robinson defines creativity to uptightly, I’m afraid. 

The blog article, "High Expectations? Not so fast," from (http://garyrubinstein.teachfor.us/2009/08/30/high-expectations-not-so-fast/) argues that while its good for first year teachers to have high expectations, one must be realistic as well.  Specifically, the article argues that overly high standards can actually hurt students because they will constantly fail.  As a second year teacher, I agree with the post completely.  Yes, it is important to have high standards (and the article does not disagree with this), but if I have a classroom of students who are supposedly ready to be in Algebra II and they cannot graph a straight line, it will do no good to teach them the quadratic formula.  

Have real expectations, but don't expect to be a miracle worker.  A student who cannot read should not attempt to dive into Proust, it will just humiliate and discourage them.  Start with Green Eggs and Ham and work your way up.  However, when you do teach Green Eggs and Ham, ensure you have high expectations of the students work based of the book.

Is Mississippi a third world nation?

The Blog post, "Is Part of the United States in the Third World," (http://mapscroll.blogspot.com/2009/05/human-development-index-by-state.html) attempts to rank US states in line with the world nations in regards to their human development index (HDI) reading.  In the blog, a list is presented with rankings of nations by their HDI mixed in with nations.  Mississippi is listed at 76th, below Russia and Ecuador.  At first glance, this seems terrible, an American state, down below the home of Siberia and a South American non-powerhouse.  However, the blog is somewhat meaningless, and this is noted in the first paragraph of the post: "The US HDI is not at all comparable to the world HDI.."  What this says is that you cannot directly compare the US state HDI to other nations HDI.  This make the list irrelevant.  

A quick google search paints a more rosy picture for Mississippi.  Ecuador, with a normalized (ppp) GDP per capita of under $8k, is much poorer than Mississippi with a GDP (non normalized) of just under $27k, over three times greater than Ecuador's, and that non adjusted.  It seems silly to state that Mississippi is a third world nation.  Anyone who has been to a poor area of a third world country can easily attest to the abject poverty which makes Mississippi look good.  Kids go hungry in Mississippi and attend shoddy schools.  In third world nations, kids worry about starvation and school is a pipe dream.  By claiming that Mississippi is at the same level as a third world nation unfairly cheapens the term and shows the authors naivety of what a third world country truly is.  

1.     Defining the community:

Jackson does contain several major industries in its city limits. Mainly machinery products as well as metal products; the surrounding areas produces many types of agriculture.

            Jackson does have four companies that are publicly traded on the market.

These are Trustmark which is provides $8.1 billion in financial services.

Parkway Properties which is a major real-estate company, “Parkway owns or has an interest in 65 office properties located in 11 states with an aggregate of approximately 13.4 million square feet of leasable space as of August 3, 2009”.

Cal-Maine Foods-Largest producer of fresh shell eggs in the country.

East Group Properties- Has real-estate interests throughout the south and over 27.7 million square feet of property in their portfolio.

Jackson is also home to the Mississippi World Trade Center. Obviously the purpose of which is to foster international trade. It is unclear to how successful this venture has been to this point.

2.     Geography:

Jackson is located between Hinds and Madison counties. This allows Jackson

large access to their agricultural products as well as moderate business district.

Jackson is also bordered by the Pearl River, which provides goods transportation as well as the Ross Barnett Reservoir.

3.     Demographics:

Jackson has  a population of roughly 173,000 and 530,000 if you include the surrounding metropolitan area.

The racial makeup of the city is predominantly black (70.6%) and white (28%). Interestingly enough Jackson Public Schools in 97% black and 3% white, as most white kids are going to private or county schools.

25% of households had a single mother as the head. With 23.5% of the population living below the poverty line.  

76.1% of kids are living on free or reduced lunch.

In 2009 Jackson’s homicide rate ranked 4^th in the country and 2^nd in the country in terms of burglaries.

Population 25 years or older with a:

High school or higher: 79.1%

Bachelor's degree or higher: 27.1%

Graduate or professional degree: 10.2%

Unemployed: 8.9%

4.

5.     Physical Infrastructure:

Is controlled by the Public Works department downtown. They have separate departments for facility management, solid waste, infrastructure management, engineering, water/sewer, and vehicle maintenance. The city claims to have extensive capacities for infrastructure development and waste management, but many city roads are full of potholes and the city seems to have little care for repair.

6.     Cultural and Recreational Resources:

FAST FACTS:

The city does contain an extensive amount of recreational facilities. Unfortunately, the only quality ones are reserved for private use or big time sports events. Quality parks and recreational facilities actually open to the public are few and far in between. Many of these areas are so crime infested that children or people looking to relax would hesitate to venture inside.

7.     Power structure: How do things get done, individuals, board leaders, linkages. ..

Jackson mayor Harvey Johnson is likely the most powerful individual in the city. He has been credited with reviving downtown Jackson including Farish street and surrounding areas. Strangely this area still appears to be in need of repair and contains a plethora of abandoned buildings.

            This is likely why Johnson was easily ousted by former mayor Frank Melton in the 2005 election. Melton ran on a campaign to clean up the crime problem in the city in 90 days and received 63% of the vote.

            Johnsons does seem to have a reasonable amount of power over the city council. He is able to appoint people to run certain government departments and the city council must vote to approve them. The only mayoral nominee to be voted down by the council occurred during Frank Melton’s term. The leaders subsequently appointed heads of these departments, have a large amount of power and money in running their different areas (Fire, police, public works….etc).

            The council does have the power to control the payroll of these different leaders and chose to do so in the case of Melton’s appointments.

            In general when the council and mayor remain at odds, there is little the council can do to combat the mayor’s power.

8.     Heads of government agencies are appointed by the mayor then must be approved by the city council. They are independently run, but can have their finances checked by the city council.

9.     Community barriers

     Jackson is chock-full of community barriers. The first might be the huge amount of crime, homelessness, poor leadership, and poor schools. Obviously these are all factors, which are caused by the main problem of poverty.

            Downtown Jackson is the most rundown place I have ever seen in the U.S. Starting with the white flight after integration, downtown has grown progressively worse. This remains a large barrier today as not only white families, but now middle class black families are leaving Jackson. This is a huge problem as downtown teems with homelessness and crime no one wants to bring businesses into the city necessary to turn the problems around.

10. Values

I would say the main values in the community are religion, race, and sports. A large amount of our students value school as a means to play sports or hopefully to gain an education and get a good job. I would not say that education is as important as the first three values.

            At many schools sports will take the cake over any scholastic event and often cut into classroom time. Many teachers are also coaches and spend hours after school everyday and are forced to neglect their teaching duties.

11. Uniqueness

The most surprising part of the community I have witnessed so far is the huge population of immigrants. Most people would expect Jackson to be majority multi-generation Americans, but there is a sizeable population of African immigrants.

            At Murrah I have met a large amount of these kids especially coaching soccer. I have had players from Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda and others.

            The most public proof of this large group of immigrants I have found is the election of Chokwe Lumumba to city council. I found this excerpt from his website campaigning for city council “The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) is taking a bold step to advance the cause of New Afrikan Self-determination. Building off the experiences of developing the Freedom Party in Selma, Alabama and the Reconstruction Party in New Orleans, Louisiana, MXGM co-founder, Chokwe Lumumba, is running for City Council in Jackson, Mississippi. The aim of this run is to implement a program of progressive social and economic change that will not only improve the lives of New Afrikan people in Jackson, but also empower Black and other oppressed people throughout the Kush District (the Mississippi Black Belt) and the Deep South by advancing a new social and economic agenda and strengthening their self-organization.”

12. Schools, colleges, universities.

Jackson does have a number of good universities and colleges in many different areas of study.

            One unfortunate quality of JPS is its lack of diversity (97% black, 3% white), even though the city as a whole is more diverse (30% white, 70 % black). Most white kids go to private, or county schools.

Colleges and universities

Belhaven College (1883)

Hinds Community College's campuses in Jackson are the Nursing/Allied Health Center (1970) and the Academic/Technical Center

Jackson State University (1877)

Millsaps College (1890)

Mississippi College School of Law (1930)

Reformed Theological Seminary (1966)

Tougaloo College (1869)

University of Mississippi Medical Center (1955), health sciences campus of the University of Mississippi

Wesley Biblical Seminary (1974)

[edit]

Public high schools

▪                Bailey Magnet High School

▪                Callaway High School

▪                Career Development Center

▪                Forest Hill High School

▪                Jim Hill High School

▪                Lanier High School

▪                Murrah High School

▪                Provine High School

▪                Wingfield High School

Private high schools

▪                Christ Missionary & Industrial (CM&I) College High School

▪                Hillcrest Christian School

▪                Jackson Academy

▪                The Veritas School

Private Schools

▪                Magnolia Speech School [1]

St. Andrew's Episcopal Lower School - South Campus

References

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/strong_mayor_weak_council_042209/

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/jackson_one_of_20_strongest_performing_markets_092109 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Johnson,_Jr.

http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/hood-news/36815-chokwe-lumumba-jackson-ms-city-council.html 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_Mississippi#Political_structures

Governor Haley Barbour is not an engaging speaker, but he is a Good Ole Boy. Is education really over 60% of the state budget? Education will still be $20 million more then last year because of stimulus funds. Guess we should not have taken them. I did not know the policy about the Governor being required to cut 5% from each area before they cut over 5%.

Barbour says schools get over $8,000 per student. Is this true, or is it highly skewed by richer areas of the state whose students receive substantially more.

Governor Barbour says that money for corrections facilities has gone up 10% in the last 5 years while money for education has gone up 35%. This is great, but is it not obvious that if we spent the money used for correctional facilities on our children instead we would not need the money for corrections down the road.

The argument that stimulus money hurts the economy down the road bewilders me. Maybe it is only short term help, but is it not help? Does it not give you more time to plan better down the road, and for the recession to hopefully recede? To me it seems like blatant partisan politics attacking Obama and democrats.

As someone once said Governor Barbour would rather “cut taxes then have sex”. Taxes will not be raised to help out those most hurt by the recession.  

            To be quite honest the hazing at Millburn High does not seem to intense compared to what we have seen recently in Jackson. Jackson State recently suspended 27 band members suspected of hitting incoming freshman with beer bottles and 2x4 and committing other acts of violence JSU hazing.

            That being said I am sure that different forms of hazing, bullying, and the general stresses of being a new kid at a large school can be very damaging to a student’s psyche. In every class I have a substantial amount of students who are very withdrawn usually as a result of being intimidated or made fun of to a point where they no longer desire to speak up. These students are sometimes the most rewarding to reach, but it is often difficult in larger classes or when they are so stuck in their shell.

            I remember being hazed as a 9^th grader on the high school soccer team and taking it pretty lightly. Fortunately, I was one of the ones who did not get it the worst. First of all I had made the team and was accepted by my peers and the older kids. I knew I would experience a little hazing, but it was more exciting than something I feared.

            The kids who had it really bad where the ones who got cut from the team, did not have many friends in school, and were generally seen as outsiders. Because worse then being hazed by a team member, they were constantly ostracized by peers and older students alike. Creating a culture where this is unacceptable and all students are viewed as equal and important is one of the most important parts of our education system. This is a difficult point to reach and is only possible with good classroom management, a positive school culture, engaging extra-curricular activities for every kid, and probably eliminating all forms of hazing at school.

I was very excited to find this post. I’ve been meaning to read Khon’s “Homework Myth” ever since my 6^th grade teacher, with whom I am still in touch and who now teaches high school math, mentioned it to me. She agrees with his thesis.

I, on the other hand, can’t help but believe that homework is helpful for the college-bound. Without the gradual build-up of homework, how will a student know how to handle the outside-of-class investment that is expected at that level? I guess the question that remains is, is homework worth it for the non-college-bound?

Using the rationale that kids hate homework and put it off as long as possible is not reason to believe that homework is unbeneficial. Many things that are popularly hated, such as exercise and financial prudence, are good for us. As for the argument that homework does not develop a work ethic, I disagree. With time to do whatever they please, my students will not be kindling their innate curiosity by reading a book of choice. They will be watching TV. For the argument that rigorous amounts of homework in middle school is not correlated with higher high school achievement, I suppose the counter argument would be, has any research shown that not doing or not assigning homework raises achievement? I think there is some spurious intervening variable that is making the research appear to suggest that homework is impotent as yielding great educational gains, when really home/neighborhood environment or family dysfunction/stress may be accountable for educational outcomes, not the assigning of homework.

Regarding Christine Hendricks’ letter to parents explaining her school’s experiment with no homework for a semester, I think this innovation would work well so long as there is reason to believe that families will support their children with the five responsibilities she bulleted in the letter. It would be more accurate for Hendricks to say, “we are implementing a ‘new’ homework this year: intense parental involvement.” This is not a truly no-homework policy! There are still things for the kids to do at home; parents are the new facilitators. In areas without this assurance of reinforcement from home, schools ought to lengthen the school day, so that all of that gets done in caretakers’ hands before reporting home at 6 p.m.

One thing I’ve thought about is whether homework is worth assigning when half of students do not do it, and it becomes a nuisance to teachers who cannot let more than half their kids fail due to excessive zeros produced by MIA homework. I’ve decided that it is worth assigning, as it will pull the borderline students who will do their homework up to proficient level on the state test. In other words, assigning homework is likely to help improve those kids who will do it; and if the teacher makes homework worth only a marginal amount, then for those who don’t do it, no excessive harm is done. So long as the teacher completes the independent practice during class time, and homework serves only as a reinforcement of skills learned, then homework is appropriate and will only strengthen the stronger students. They are not psychologically bothered by homework; in essence, homework is a “NR” for them (science shorthand for No Reaction). 

For honors kids, however, those who are definitely college-bound, the teacher’s assigning of and close monitoring of/feedback on homework is very important. These students especially cannot afford anything that will set them behind other students at their level who attend competitive private schools or suburban schools where the majority of the student body is vigilant about homework. I do not foresee these types of schools of privilege backing down off homework any time soon, and so for cricital needs schools to do so would be a mistake, giving the others yet another upper-hand in being prepared to succeed in college.

I think the real concern here is what is assigned for homework. If it is busy work, or over students' heads, or not sufficiently explained, or students do not have resources (parental, material, technological, or time) to do it, then yes, homework is terribly ineffective and even harmful. If a teacher gives homework as a good doctor proscribes the right antidote, however, homework remains a worthwhile component of schooling.

I really enjoyed the product of this assignment -- even if the process wasn't enjoyable. Isn't that the way research is? View a pdf of the document here.

In short, I found Payne's book to be interesting; however, she failed to provide me with really any new knowledge. I've heard most of what she said before, and now that I'm up to my eyeballs in poverty stricken students, Payne's book proved to be a nice refresher.

Things that stuck out:
-generational poverty: this sums up most of my students. They are the products of generations of poverty, something that is now not only accepted but the societal norm for students from the FHS area. I find generational poverty to be the most disheartening type of poverty, as only those who want to escape it will. Most of my students will pass this cycle of poverty on to future generations; most will probably be on welfare for most of their lives, as they can get federal government checks for doing absolutely nothing. Many of my kids know that they can live off the federal government if they are poor- something that is tantalizing to my laziest students.
-behaviors of poor kids: I see this crap (yup, I believe it's crap) in my classroom on a daily basis, as I would assume the rest of my MTC classmates do as well. I did appreciate the fact that she offered suggestions on how to address the classroom behavior issues that arise from poverty.