Bits and Pieces Again

I have been busy. Extremely busy. Partly having to do with a former student of mind who is now in middle school, alternately flunking out and getting kicked out. When I have more energy, I'll write about him. When I'm not so worried about him, maybe.

In the meantime, here are some interesting educational articles.

Schools in California may just completely run out of money and end early this year. Nice to see we're valuing education.

Mae Jemison talks about why science is important for everyone.

Almost a disaster.

Skyline High School's neighbors seem to be justified in complaining ab out the noise from the school's PA system. On the other hand, they're not allowing the school to use its track and field lights for football or track practice, making the athletes practice in the dark. One hurdler broke his leg because of this.

I found this photo in a box - it shows a couple of things quite well. One is the lack of diversity in the town I grew up in in the early 80s. The other was the fantastic lack of fashion sense in terms of haircuts and clothing. (I'm the cute one with the very red collar in the front row)

Comments

Anonymous said…

Yes, you are the cute one in the red collar. And L is the cute one in the white collar and you both have extremely stylish Dorothy Hamill (Olympic gymnast) haircuts!

10:14 AM

A Loss

(I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why) Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me. He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me. We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.

A New Prison, Part Two

Second very long part of the prison visit report. After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk. First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea

Bronwyn Harris, Author

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