Poverty, Scholarship, College, and High School Project musings

I have a cousin in Virginia, now in her sixties, who is a kindergarten teacher.  About 15 years ago, she and her husband wanted to up their charitable contributions for tax reasons, and they decided to set up a scholarship fund for her former students.  When they were seniors in high school, the former students could apply for the scholarship (which was about 5K), and she picked one lucky winner.

I always thought that was a nice way to stay in touch with a few students.  As we’ve talked in class, I’ve wondered if it would be a way to motivate any students?  How about if the fund were created in 5^th grade, and anyone who applied for a scholarship was guaranteed to get one?  If you were in 5^th grade and you knew there was a bit of money set aside for you in a fund somewhere, growing with interest, would you be more determined to get to college?  Could a teacher or school or organization raise enough money each year to keep a fund like that going?  Will the nature of college change so that such scholarships don’t make sense?  Has anyone ever tried something like this on a larger scale than my cousin’s?

As I wondered about this, I liked the idea, but thought it would be a lot of work to figure out if it made sense and was feasible.  But then I thought it would be a pretty cool project for a high school class to work on, and perhaps the class itself could be eligible for the 1^st round of scholarships.  Of course their research would be the first step, and there would be a ton of legal stuff in the next.  And that got me to thinking about how cool it would be if the local fro-yo shop could have a high school class design their advertising campaign, and so forth.  These seem like cool projects, but are they ethical or are they violations of child labor laws or school  policy?  Could local businesses somehow pay the class or school?  How would you take the first step?

Where I'm From

I am from stacks of papers,

from stoneware vases with celadon glaze,

from computers humming and beckoning

with knowledge of everything.

I am from neglected rose bushes that prosper,

and wildflowers that don’t,

From a lilac bush that gladdens me every spring,

With its sweet fresh smell after winter.

I am from squeaky dog toys,

left in the yard on rainy nights,

by the big serious dog,

and from autumn leaves dragged in,

by the little monkey dog.

I am from Lily, as she is from me,

and from Brian,

and from Phyl and Aunt Ruth,

and a surburb of NYC.

I am from Okey, bedokey, Gemini smokey,

and pizza, lasagna,

and marzipan

and look:

Isn’t that Dan Boone?

No?  Well, there you go…

I am from these moments,

in a house in the tree tops

amid singing birds and gray clouds,

but still

I’m not.

Get unwrinkled

           When my daughter was in kindergarten, I was anxious for her to get to know other girls at her school, so I recruited and ran a Daisy scout troop.  I remember that each meeting was to have a discussion about a topic related to character, but I no longer remember where my materials came from.  At any rate, one week we were to talk about being kind, and from my prep work I had the example of a piece of paper.  If you crumble it up (hurt someone’s feelings), it can be smoothed out again (apologize), but it can never again be unwrinkled (hurt lasts forever).  I used the example in the meeting, but have never forgotten it because it bothered me.  Sure, you shouldn’t hurt someone’s feelings.  But if your feelings have been hurt, you don’t have to stay hurt forever.  Go ahead and get unwrinkled.

                In talk about bullies or mean or dominant kids, and their “victims,” I think we tend to get caught up in dealing with the bully.  But it’s equally important to make sure the “victim” knows they are not a victim for life, and that they are not defined by the victimhood. 

Poverty

Based on last week’s readings on poverty, I resolve, promise, and swear as a teacher never to ask kids and families to bring things in from home.  As a parent, I’ve been guilty of soliciting parents for contributions for teacher gifts and for class party funds.  I’ve run around town for my daughter, buying pieces for costumes and special art supplies for projects, and snacks, and goodies for 3^rd grade market day.  My daughter went to a middle class elementary school, but even there the percent of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch hovers between 10 and 20.  After the readings, I regret thinking that $5 here or $10 there was affordable for everyone.

                Her costliest year was probably 3^rd grade where the entire grade had market day once a month.  (I used this earlier in 427 as my example of engaging teaching.)  The kids were to bring something in from home to sell for plastic class money.  The things kids brought in were mostly handcrafted, but still costly.  There were root beer floats, and beaded earrings, cupcakes and dog biscuits.  I still love the idea, but wonder if it could be modified so that the goods were made in school from supplies in the classroom.

                There was also a biography unit, where the kids were to come in dressed as the figure whose biography they read.  My daughter was Annie Oakley, and I bought her a skirt for the day.  Again, I think this is a fun activity, but perhaps the class could have a trunk of old-fashioned clothes from which to borrow.

                And there’s snacks and birthday treats and field trips and school supplies and school sweatshirts and yearbooks and lattes for the teacher.  Nearly every week there is a cost that separates those who can pay from those who can’t.  Each year her school published the names of the families who had joined the PTSA, which was ostensibly to thank those who joined, but also shamed those who didn’t. 

                Some of these things I am tempted to pay for myself.  But teachers can’t pay for everything out of their own pocket.  I wonder about using crowdsourcing sites to help fund some projects, but don’t really know how well that would work. Perhaps PTSAs can collect money contributions blindly, and then distribute it to the classrooms?  There are parents who can afford to contribute, and won’t rest until they do, but I’d argue that money contributions in schools should be close to anonymous, and neither give privileges or status to certain kids, nor take them away from others.

Creativity in groups

I came by this story, which made me think of Sir Ken's advocacy for group work to promote creativity.  The reporters at Planet Money decided that the were going to create and sell a T-shirt from scratch, just as an exercise in how you would do it.  They started out by buying some bales of cotton, and then looking for someone to spin them into thread and t-shirts, only to get advice that you want to work backwards from the end product, rather than forward from the cotton.

So going from back to front, they went to work as a group on deciding what the T-shirt should look like.  At first, they thought it should say "Planet Money" in a fancy font.  But they got more creative, and decided to reference the "animal spirits" term from Keynesian economics (new to me), and next came ideas like the ghost of a bear etc.  They ended up with a squirrel with a martini.  And with that they went to kickstarter to raise funds.  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/planetmoney/planet-money-t-shirt

So they obviously aren't schoolkids and the scope of the project seems larger than you could do in any school, but it seems like a kick, and a pretty fun way to learn your way around the  business world.

The podcast:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/04/30/180079862/episode-455-the-planet-money-t-shirt-is-finally-almost-here

Yeehaw!  Added a translate gadget up top!

Brittney Griner

There was a fantastic essay about coming out by Brittney Griner, my daughter's favorite basketball player, in today's New York Times.  She talks about telling her mom in 9th grade, but also about how hard middle school was.  Her piece was generous and hopeful and matter-of-fact.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/sports/basketball/brittney-griner-proudly-part-of-a-mission-to-help-others-live-in-truth.html?ref=sports&_r=0

Creative teaching with best intentions vs Risk Management

        Last week’s 405 class about legal issues happened in the midst of my family’s school and risk management story.  It’s not a dramatic story, and everything has worked out fine, but it’s certainly an example of how a teacher can be trying to do something interesting and creative with the best of intentions but run into risk management problems.

My daughter is 12, in 6^th grade, and goes to a small public choice school.  This spring, one of her teachers has been doing a careers unit.  Each student spent several weeks  of class time researching the career they wanted to go into – finding out about training, and job conditions and salary etc , and it was all to culminate in a day spent jobshadowing someone  in that field.

                My daughter wants to be a pastry chef.  Families were encouraged to make use of friends in the career of interest, but the teacher also sent an email to all the parents in the school soliciting contacts in the various careers.  Our family does not know anyone who is a pastry chef, or a baker, or even in the food business. 

                But one day my daughter came home with a piece of paper with the name of a couple who runs a bakery, an email address, and instructions to “show some initiative” and contact them to set up a jobshadowing time.  I was a bit hesitant about her using her own email address to contact them, but since my husband and I  still monitor that account, we had her go ahead.  The couple never answered the email, and my daughter followed up, but still with no reply.  Then,  even though it went against the instruction of my daughter showing initiative, my husband stopped by the bakery to inquire.  The woman at the bakery wasn’t very enthusiastic, but it was arranged that my daughter would go in one morning at 4am to shadow the two bakers, who were men. 

                And at this point my husband and I began to get a bit uncomfortable with the whole arrangement.  No information had come home for parents about exactly what the jobshadowing expectation was, but the sense we were getting was that we were expected to drop my daughter off for her to negotiate her own way through the experience.  And we didn’t really like the idea of dropping her off at  4am with 2 people we had never met.  So we emailed the teacher to ask what she knew about the bakery – if they were personal friends, or were part of a vocational training program, or parents from the school.  We were just looking for a bit of reassurance.

                The teacher didn’t know anything about them.  And at that point, she must have realized that she should have shared her plans with a wider audience.  She spoke to the principal, and they together spoke to risk management.  We very quickly got an email from the principal making it clear that the jobshadowing would be at our discretion, and that the official assignment was now just a written report on the career. 

                In the meantime, we had asked around and gotten a friendly report on the bakery, they had finally answered dauaghter’s emails in friendly, businesslike way, and the door seemed open for my husband to stay on site during the jobshadow.  And my daughter was excited to do it. So we planned to go ahead with it.  The night before, we got a call from the teacher, who I suspect had the risk management office on her back, saying that while at the bakery, my daughter was not to touch anything.  She could observe and take pictures, but not go near any equipment or ovens or knives etc.  My daughter has a good head on her shoulders, and we told her of course she could help as much as they asked, unless it was something she was uncomfortable with.

                This morning she and my husband went for the jobshadow.  The bakers were fantastic, and my daughter  had a great time.  She braided the challah loaves.  The bakers were professional but also friendly.  She truly did get a sense of the middle of the night hard work of professional baking.  It was a great educational experience, but also certainly one which had the district risk manager sweating a bit, not to mention my husband and I until we figured out a way to take some uncertainty out of the situation by staying on site.  The experience leaves me wondering if it’s possible to teach a jobshadowing unit  in such a way that risk management would give its approval.  Perhaps with more communication with parents, and with the explicit requirement/expectation stated up front that both a parent and the child would go on the jobshadow.  But always check with the risk manager first!