At the Sunflower County Freedom Project in Sunflower, MS. Seen on TCU Civil Rights Bus Tour, 1/2013.
Welcome to the latest edition of my personal blog, the first version for which I have used WordPress. This, at least for the next two years, will be the hub of my thoughts, reflections and charges as I embark on a two-year voyage with Teach For America in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
In contrast with previous blogs I have written, this one will have an economy of words and ideas, a parsimony of reasoning and a facility of insight in order to deliver the most essential principles of the task and great responsibility of teaching. As such, I approach this work candidly and with full knowledge of the immense amount of learning I will have to take on in the years ahead. Your support, comments, critiques and questions are encouraged: this is not a stage or a system but an associative, corporate undertaking.
I know President Obama used the crossroads metaphor in today’s speech about American use of force in the War on Terror, but I will venture to use it again to describe our domestic social environment. Public education in the United States faces crisis, and unfortunately its simplest cures remain unavailable: in general, the wealthy will continue to abandon public schooling, inner city schools and the teaching profession more broadly. Absent structural changes, there is yet an entire realm of policies and approaches which can transform public education for the 21st century, and for the principles of equality, justice and reconciliation which it richly deserves. I am a public school kid myself, and want the best public schools for all.
My aim here is to spark discussion as I broach these conversations as well as put my hand to the plow and sow seeds in teaching. Teach For America’s Institute Pre-Work offers lessons in progressive, just teaching strategies, but there is immeasurably more to learn. I pull up my moorings tomorrow and begin a five-day circuitous journey to Atlanta.
I will also make an effort to include pictures, news stories and other media to be more integrative with what’s happening in the sensory world and the Internet as it relates to these issues. The links below were a good starting point for me in seeing different angles of contemporary Atlanta:
- The Atlanta Way: A documentary on a new wave of gentrification
- If Streets Could Talk: Interviews re youth gangs in Atlanta
- The Atlanta Beltline: Video about some neat urban greening
- How Southern Are We?: Atlanta’s self-admitted contradictions
Thanks for your participation, and join me on Teachtree Street!
