(no subject)
Jan. 18th, 2003 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kuangningLifted intact from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mopalia.
MLK Day
There was an assembly at our school. Assemblies and pep rallies at a minority school are not what you've ever seen at a middle class white school. The energy is incredible, and the performances amaze. We have rapping and break-dancing at all the pep rallies. There's always a soprano who sings the national anthem, with varying degrees of success, but never in a "straight" version - the versions all sound like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and a gospel revival. And when they make the high note - or come close - the audience, cheers, whistles, stomps and generally carries on. Speeches are frequently punctuated by yells from the audience - "You go, girl", "yeah, Jameka!" "tell it!" and variations on what would be "Amen!" if they were in church. The dancing is an odd mix of African and Pacific Islander rhythms, and it would be considered obscene in a white school. The last visiting performers did bumps and grinds - male and female - that would have been at home on a Vegas runway.
The MLK assembly began with the Pacific Islander Men's Chorus - well, ok, they're all high school students - doing the Star Spangled Banner. They sang sweetly, beautifully - the best version we've had all year. I watched these kids in their dreadlocks, assorted braided hairstyles, ultra-baggy pants falling off their hips, flashy shirts - some with the distinctive large, round builds that go with Pacific Islander ancestry - and I reflected on the fact that they were singing an anthem for a country that has segregated them into the city school with the smallest resources. They performed in a beautiful new performing arts center that was built too small to hold the entire student body, and that has not been given the funding to hire a drama teacher or a music teacher. There are no programs, except a part time teacher in each of these fields who has one class. There is no musical instrument instruction, no band, no orchestra. One after school dance troup -African dance- that is more like cheerleading. I teach a class next quarter for which there are no books. There is no money for supplies. I don't feel we can even do field trips in walking distance because we do not have money to pay substitutes while I am leading the trips. I am going to try to teach botany, so they can learn to look at what's around them in this beautiful area where we live. Last term, I taught Earth Science. None of the students had ever been to Mount St. Helen's - most were not quite sure where it was.
The African Drumming class - also an after school group, all male - performed with the African dance troupe, all female. Students read biographies of important black people. The student council president read a poem of her own writing about discrimination. And finally, a very poised young woman gave a brief exhortation on the word nigger. She pointed out that it was an American word invented to demean and shame the black people. The kids use it all the time. And she said, if you think you're using it as a term of affection, ask yourself why you are using a word invented to insult us, destroy our spirits, shame us. The audience cheered.
We had a budget deficit in the district due to the incompetence of several administrators. The one most responsible was paid off and resigned after getting what was a 6 figure settlement.The district is $34 million in debt. Last year, the district spent millions to create a new high school modeled on the high school I used to teach at - a huge arts program - to attract the middle class parents away from the private schools. Just after the deficit came to light,the district proudly announced that it had recouped a million dollars . They did it by taking back money that certain schools had set aside for a multi-year improvement program. Out of over 100 schools, they took almost a quarter of a million dollars of this savings from our school.
I watched these hopeful, beautiful young men singing their allegience to the land of the free and the home of the brave. I watched the young women dance to celebrate freedom. I heard the drums calling us to remember the spirit of Martin Luther King.
I wept.
mopalia.MLK Day
There was an assembly at our school. Assemblies and pep rallies at a minority school are not what you've ever seen at a middle class white school. The energy is incredible, and the performances amaze. We have rapping and break-dancing at all the pep rallies. There's always a soprano who sings the national anthem, with varying degrees of success, but never in a "straight" version - the versions all sound like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and a gospel revival. And when they make the high note - or come close - the audience, cheers, whistles, stomps and generally carries on. Speeches are frequently punctuated by yells from the audience - "You go, girl", "yeah, Jameka!" "tell it!" and variations on what would be "Amen!" if they were in church. The dancing is an odd mix of African and Pacific Islander rhythms, and it would be considered obscene in a white school. The last visiting performers did bumps and grinds - male and female - that would have been at home on a Vegas runway.
The MLK assembly began with the Pacific Islander Men's Chorus - well, ok, they're all high school students - doing the Star Spangled Banner. They sang sweetly, beautifully - the best version we've had all year. I watched these kids in their dreadlocks, assorted braided hairstyles, ultra-baggy pants falling off their hips, flashy shirts - some with the distinctive large, round builds that go with Pacific Islander ancestry - and I reflected on the fact that they were singing an anthem for a country that has segregated them into the city school with the smallest resources. They performed in a beautiful new performing arts center that was built too small to hold the entire student body, and that has not been given the funding to hire a drama teacher or a music teacher. There are no programs, except a part time teacher in each of these fields who has one class. There is no musical instrument instruction, no band, no orchestra. One after school dance troup -African dance- that is more like cheerleading. I teach a class next quarter for which there are no books. There is no money for supplies. I don't feel we can even do field trips in walking distance because we do not have money to pay substitutes while I am leading the trips. I am going to try to teach botany, so they can learn to look at what's around them in this beautiful area where we live. Last term, I taught Earth Science. None of the students had ever been to Mount St. Helen's - most were not quite sure where it was.
The African Drumming class - also an after school group, all male - performed with the African dance troupe, all female. Students read biographies of important black people. The student council president read a poem of her own writing about discrimination. And finally, a very poised young woman gave a brief exhortation on the word nigger. She pointed out that it was an American word invented to demean and shame the black people. The kids use it all the time. And she said, if you think you're using it as a term of affection, ask yourself why you are using a word invented to insult us, destroy our spirits, shame us. The audience cheered.
We had a budget deficit in the district due to the incompetence of several administrators. The one most responsible was paid off and resigned after getting what was a 6 figure settlement.The district is $34 million in debt. Last year, the district spent millions to create a new high school modeled on the high school I used to teach at - a huge arts program - to attract the middle class parents away from the private schools. Just after the deficit came to light,the district proudly announced that it had recouped a million dollars . They did it by taking back money that certain schools had set aside for a multi-year improvement program. Out of over 100 schools, they took almost a quarter of a million dollars of this savings from our school.
I watched these hopeful, beautiful young men singing their allegience to the land of the free and the home of the brave. I watched the young women dance to celebrate freedom. I heard the drums calling us to remember the spirit of Martin Luther King.
I wept.
