Article I stumbled upon while working on my paper about a BC Law student who wants to trade his degree back for a refund of his tuition.  Part of his reasoning is he feels he can make a better living teaching...you don't hear that every day.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/unemployed-boston-college-law-student-tuition-back/story?id=11937494#.T6b8y-hSSTk

Some Detroit roses find cracks in the concrete

A line from a Tupac song praises the abilities for roses (dispossessed peoples) to find cracks in the concrete (systems of oppression). In that spirit, check out this article on protests this week by Detroit area youth. So, yes, it's pretty bad out there, but the upside is that many people are awakening to the fact that education is a civil right, not just for those who can afford it. Read more here about the systemic dismantling of schools across the nation, most severely in the nation's "urban" (read: Black and Brown and low-income) centers.

WHO NEEDS HARVARD?

An inspiring article that came out the summer after I graduated high school. My best friend was quoted in it after he got into Brown University but decided to go to Wash U instead. I helped him make that decision. Take that, society!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1226150,00.html

How To Make Literacy More Appealing To Boys (and girls)

From Chap. 8 in “Misleading Masculinity” by Thomas Newkirk

-                       -Practical ways for teaching literacy more appealing for children and broadening the literacy spectrum.

1.     Literacy instruction should be more open to popular culture while not abandoning the established literature.

-       “A big room,” one that includes popular culture and classical literature where children can merge the two in their writing.

2.     Allowing cartooning as serious business

-       Children should be allowed to draw cartoons for visual storytelling.

-       Students can develop stories by drawing quick rough sketches of key actions and tapping these to a large board (this is called “telling board” and then developing these into a picture book.

-       This will develop drawing and oral storytelling skills.

3.     Make room for obsession

-       Some degree of obsessiveness in writing is essential for literacy development because when kids repeat themselves, they are making innovations, which may not seem significant to teachers, but it’s important to track down these innovations as teachers to improve their writing.

4.     Teachers must resist those forces that would narrow the range of writing and reading allowed in schools

-       Teachers rely too much on rubrics and writing instruction is tightly timed and lacking in any social interaction.

-       Rubrics predetermine the qualities of successful writing, which don’t include traits that make writing appealing to children. 

Clarendon Heights in 2012

As a Somerville resident, I knew I had passed Clarendon Towers,
the "projects" that are the setting of the book Ain't No Makin' It 

The picture that Ain't No Makin' It paints of the Clarendon Towers is one of destitution.
Surprisingly, while of couse not "posh", the Towers don't look that bad to me,
at least not on a spring day in 2012, 28 years after the book was published.

Neaby are the Clarendon Hill Apartments...

...a pretty standard-looking government-subsidized housing complex.
Again, not luxurious, but not scary either.  I wonder how much has changed in 28 years.

An empty basketball court in the Clarendon Hill Apartment Complex.  Why is nobody playing on this  beautiful spring vacation afternoon?  Basketball was a central social activity for the Brothers, and the Hallway Hangers prided themselves on their close-knit community.  The nature of social interactions has changed in many ways in many parts of society.  Maybe modern-day Clarendon Heights is completely different.  Maybe people are so isolated they don't congregate at all.  

Ain't No Makin' It

Group: Katherine, Kristin, Laura, Giorgio

The Brothers in 2006- Where are they now?

Craig:
Race/Ethnicity: African-Caribbean
Residence: West Coast
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Job: Reportedly fitness instructor. Previous: office work in a department store
Drugs: None
Prison: No
Wife/girlfriend: Reportedly divorced
Children: No
Family: Cut ties with his family in the 1990s when he moved

Classic Literature vs. Standardized Testing

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/taking-emotions-out-of-our-schools.html?ref=education

interesting op-ed in the NY Times...
taking the emotion out of literature class because of standardized tests