Teaching Children to Love to Learn

I grew up in a community that is now known as one of the poorest counties in Mississippi. When I return home for family visits, poverty is on every corner. Buildings that were once housed prosperous family businesses are now boarded up or burned down. Most residents work out of town or are unemployed. Whenever I ask my mother, a lifelong educator, about the stark contrast from the town that was part of my childhood, she replies in a sad voice, “Education, education, education. We stopped teaching children to read for the love of reading. We stopped teaching children to dream big dreams. This is what you get.” To my mother, education and economics are inseparable. She often told me, “Without an education, options are few. An educated community is crucial to its survival. Part of that survival is teaching children to learn to enjoy learning”. One of my mother’s core beliefs is to teach children to love to learn and they will become big dreamers. Big dreamers invest in their communities.

My mother taught me to love to read. My reading led me to becoming a dreamer. Dreaming taught me to face life without fear or hesitation. Reading was also my escape from country life. I grew up in household with very little extras but I had an abundance of everything. I was surrounded by educators, professionals, and kinfolks who showed me how things were done by allowing me to see them in their career settings. I also saw them with books in their hands at every turn.

I read books before I started school. My earliest memory of reading was to my grandfather. He would sit in his Lazy Boy chair rocking back and forth while I read to him from my small chair. Because he was hard of hearing, I read at the top of my voice. He had the patient of Job as I read one story after another. Reading to my grandfather was a routine I continued to end of his life. As an adult, my return visits to my grandparents always included stacks of magazines and newspaper from other cities. I would eagerly share with him who I met and where I have been while I read to him articles from places he never got to visit. He would smile and grin and give commentary on the politics and economics of municipalities as if he lived in each one.

When my grandfather became ill, I returned to Mississippi until he passed. Every evening, I read stories to him. Every evening. Often, I wondered if he heard me but I read to him anyway as I did as a child. Loudly. Bible passages, novels, news stories, even some of my favorite childhood books was read to him until he took his last breath.

My love of reading to my grandfather has transitioned to reading to school age children in area schools. I realized that my interactions with the many children I see during the holidays as Ms. Santa must go beyond giving them toys with a temporary shelf life. Catherine Ramsey, a lifelong educator and fellow book club member, taught me by her actions at Christmas. As a gift to her, she only wanted book club members to give books to young girls. She wanted to plant seeds of loving to read while they were young. Catherine Ramsey has never met my family but their philosophies about life and education are exactly the same.

Private, public, charter schools, and daycares have all called me to visit their schools to read. I have donned my famous Ms. Santa suit for the Girl Scouts. I have been the Queen of Hearts for Valentine Day and I have dressed as a Leprechaun to cheer on test scores in March for Buena Vista Enhanced Option School. I have been Spiderwoman at Grace Eaton and a Reading Princess at Hull-Jackson Montessori. Name a holiday or occasion and I have a costume to help incorporate into a story. My visits may seem outlandish to the casual observer but many educators encourage me to come often. My visits also bring community into the classroom and introduce children to professionals who not only work but serve. I have managed to recruit other entrepreneurs to join me. Why should I have all the fun?

My visits with the school children are not limited to the classroom. Escorting several classes, community groups, and families to the Frist Center helps incorporate the arts into story telling that is meant to encourage loving to learn. The visits to the Frist Center at the beginning of the school year have helped several students along with their families to become museum regulars. I have been told by parents and teachers alike that they have seen improvements in test scores and attention spans. The students come to the Frist Center to create their masterpieces inspired by their favorite books they have read at school.

No matter where a child attends school, all villagers must be active participants in helping create environments where loving to learn is at the forefront. We must all look for ways to make learning engaging and exciting to equip the next generation to help keep our communities vibrant and economically strong. Loving to learn produces big dreamers. And big dreamers invest in their villages and communities.

The Pros and Cons of Charter Schools

Most large family gatherings have the normal family disagreements. But if you ever want to ruin a “good argument” during the holidays, just mention charter schools around the educators in my family. At the dinner table sit female educators who are teachers, principals, and college professors who will send the turkey and dressing running for cover at the very mention of charter schools. The topic of charter schools is hotly disputed between my mother and my aunts who believe “the devil is in the details”. Asking these fervently experienced Titans of education to explain why they love or loath the idea of charter schools minus the passion has left me, occasionally, looking for the turkey and dressing’s hiding place.

As Governor Haslam has lifted the ban on the number of charter schools statewide, we will see more charter schools forming. The reasons for allowing more charter schools are as numerous as the stars above but it is important to review some of the pros and cons of charter schools. *

Pro: Charter schools provide families with public school choice options. Parents will have the ability to choose the school best suited for their child.
Con: Charter schools, due to their small size and limited numbers, will provide only some families with public school choice options, thereby raising issues of fairness and equity.

Pro: Charter schools can act as laboratories of reform, identifying successful practices that could be replicated by traditional district public schools. Also, by waiving regulations in a limited number of schools, the most prohibitive policies can be identified and eliminated for all schools.
Con: Successful reform models such as New American Schools and Core Knowledge have already been identified. Why not attempt these reforms in existing schools? If rules and regulations are so burdensome, they should be waived for all public schools.

Pro: Through school choice, competition within the public school system is created, pressuring school districts to reassess their educational practices.
Con: Charter schools have an unfair advantage when competing against district public schools since they tend to be smaller and free from regulations. Charter schools have access to federal funds and other revenue sources.

Pro: Charters will lead to overall systemic reform through the pressure and competition of the choice mechanism.
Con: Charters are too limited in scope to adequately pressure the entire public school system.

Pro: Charter schools, unlike traditional public schools are held accountable. If charters do not perform, they are not renewed.
Con: Charters are not accountable as they are freed from rules and regulations intended to ensure quality in public education.

The pros and cons listed above should be studied and weighed very seriously. What works in one community may not work in another. What I have founded more fascinating than debating the pros and cons of charter schools is what is often overlooked; the role state legislators play with the expansion of charter schools. The majority of charter school arguments take place in legislative sessions (not at family dinner tables) since the programs that enable choice in public education are legislative enactments. Who you vote for (or don’t) determines what educational programs are received in your community. Too often, the communities that need the most educational options have residents who are least likely to vote.

One can have the best ideas and plans on how to educate your communities but how public dollars are allocated is determined by an elected official not the school and the families that make up that school. In order to help change the crisis in education, families must become more informed of educational choices and involved in school district issues. Parents must also be engaged politically by voting for individuals that have their family’s best interest at stake.

A child’s education, whether charter or public, is dependent on the family foundation, the skills of the teachers he or she encounters daily, the leadership of the principals, the effectiveness of the school district, community engagement and who write the laws in state legislatures. In order to have more positive outcomes surrounding the education of children, parents must do their homework on issues and make sure they are investing in their child’s future by voting in every election.

In 2012, the survival of public education will be determined by who is elected to the highest office in the land. But locals must give as much priority to state and county elections. They are equally important especially when it comes to education.

*Data compiled from NCSL Issues and Research.

Food Service Workers by The Numbers at MNPS

After months of listening to many female food services workers share in whispered tones their agony of working in an environment that has been described as being hostile to anyone with “thinking skills”; I finally realized the depth of those conversations when an email from a male supervisor hit the internet in December. It was not that I did not believe anyone but often times the stories shared would remind me of overhearing my grandmother and mother talk about work life in a rural community.

It was hard to digest that derogatory statements, intimidating attitudes, and a demeaning workplace atmosphere were alive and well in Nashville (a city I love dearly) and being openly discussed in the community that seem to look the other way. I would often ask, “If everyone knows about the plight of the food service workers, then why are we whispering about it?” My question was often met with blank stares but on one occasion an older woman said to me, “Child, the more things change, the more they remain the same”.

As many changes are being made to help improve the educational infrastructure at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), maintaining good support personnel is an essential part of the foundation of a good school system. Food service workers are support personnel. They are not the principals leading the schools or the teachers in the classrooms who teach a child his or her ABCs but they are part of the village that influences and prepares students for a brighter future.

To have an unstable support personnel system undermines any short term goals or long term strategies to creating a healthier school system that will produce higher test scores and drastically improve graduation rates. When an email gives you a small glimpse of much bigger issues, MNPS leadership should hit the pause button and begin to dig deeper. When we are flying at 30,000 feet, one can easily mistake a dirt mound above ground to be hills that can be easily flatten by a bulldozer. In Tennessee, those hills can actually be entrances to deep dark caves.

As we learned in fifth grade, cave formations date back thousands of years. Many are veiled in darkness with acidic standing water while carbon monoxide permeates the air. Caves have tunnels that lead to other tunnels that lead nowhere. A school system should not be seen as a cave with endless nowhere leading tunnels by parents or the community who should be loyal supporters. Nor should educators and support personnel who work in the system see it as dark depressing cave-like atmosphere filled with administrators with toxic behavior.

As MNPS continue to look at various ways to improve the all-encompassing educational experience for all students attending public schools, parents and the community at large must take the time to become more educated on all matters surrounding MNPS. To continue to drag out employee disputes on issues like being able to file a grievance, to appeal a disciplinary action, or who will answer the phone on Mondays, takes time away from ginormous test scores concerns that makes one wonder if the students are learning from stone tablets. While at the same time, many of the buildings are beginning to look like caves forming right in front of you.

It came as no surprise that some believed that the media attention to the now infamous caveman email was an overreaction by hyper sensitive female employees to a harmless joke. In actuality, it was a delayed reaction for many food service workers who have watched MNPS for several years use intimidation and fear as the primary form of communication to over 700 women who make up the food service department.

Women are often known as society’s first teachers in life. The women in the MNPS food service department are mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, primary caretakers, neighbors, church members, Girl Scout leaders, football team moms, and lifelong cheerleaders of the family. They come from various socioeconomic backgrounds and throughout the district. The women in the food service department touch the lives of thousands of young people every day: at home, at the schools they work in, and in the neighborhoods and communities where they live. They can be influential in helping MNPS transition from a school system in crisis to a district with well-rounded students who score higher on tests and graduate from high school.

MNPS Mission and Vision

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will provide every student with the foundation of knowledge, skills and character necessary to excel in higher education, work and life.

We embrace and value a diverse student population and community. Different perspectives and backgrounds form the cornerstone of our strong public education system.

With so many deep caverns to climb out of, it is vital that MNPS build partnerships at every level in the school system, with families, and in the community. No one should be overlooked or devalued when looking for solutions to prepare our young people for "higher education, work, and life". It is going to take an entire village to help turn things around. MNPS may not have realized it yet but the “lunchroom ladies” are part of that village and are valuable in the community. Let us treat them with dignity in their work environments. Ultimately, the students being educated are the benefactors of improved employee relations at MNPS and the community will reaps the rewards for years to come.

When Cavemen Learn to Use The Computer...They Usually Send Sexist Emails

I have written several posts about emails that can leave stains on a city, an institution, an organization and a person’s character. An email sent without regards to the consequences usually reveals much about the ignorance of the sender. Emails with contents immersed in racism or sexism can be the most damaging to a sender’s reputation.

Past emails bursting with racism sent by individuals in the Nashville area have all made national headlines. Where one form of “ism” exists, there are others, simmering in the same pot of shame. Recently, a Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) male supervisor sent an email to female subordinates that has gone viral. In the food service department, the female to male ratio is 9 to 1. An email with a cartoon depicting a caveman telling another caveman that he has decided to teach the woman to talk and asking “what harm can it do?” is not funny. Period. With the caption above the cartoon titled, “The Original Sin”, one wonders will folks ever learn.

I contacted several MNPS food service staff members at area schools to ask them about their work environment which the email made me question right away. No one wanted to go on record for fear of losing their jobs but all agreed that email that I read was a glimpse behind the drawn shades of a school system that has become synonymous with devaluing its support staff like the janitors and bus drivers.

Hopefully, this post will encourage Dr. Register, director of Metro Schools, to round up all the cavemen at MNPS and teach them what actual harm an “ism” email can cause when the send button is hit without regards to consequences.