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[CCBC-Net] SOCIAL IN-JUSTICE
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From: Lbhcove at aol.com <Lbhcove>
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:50:44 EST
Having been in the field of education, trained as a teacher, for close to fifty years, I have never witnessed education at its lowest in schools across the country I visit, including schools in Florida where I have lived for the past three years.
Programs such as Whole Language have disappeared completely relegating fine literature to its lowest degree...reading to satisfy nonsensical test scoring. Book budgets? Forget it. A local school librarian told me she has a budget for new books of $75.00 for the YEAR. This should buy four of five books to satisfy the needs of children from grades one through six!!! "We're lucky if we can purchase the Caldecott, Newbery and one or two non-fiction titles," she remarked. Incredible. One wonders what the budget is for sports equipment, published tests, or inane computer reading programs!
Major publishers are telling authors they will ONLY publish books for retail...to forget the school/library market. A top editor told me this weekend at NCTE: "If it doesn't go to Barnes and Noble or Borders' chains forget about it. Get to parents. Go for boobs and farts and you'll make a mint!"
I see few voices in the literary or education communties other than Marc Aronson taking on issues of race, education and social issues that are plaguing our nation's schools and entire societal structures.
When are we all going to wake up, shake up, pull together to curtail the insanity existing in OUR United States. OURS...not a group of men and a handful of women who purportedly are running, or rather ruining, our nation?
We are becoming a nation of SOCIAL IN-JUSTICE FOR ALL!
LBH
_www.leebennetthopkinsbooks.com_ (http://www.leebennetthopkinsbooks.com/)
Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums
(Abrams, 2007)
In a message dated 11/21/2007 7:02:23 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, Bookmarch at aol.com writes:
Friends:
The topic before us is social justice and books for younger people. I learned something this week that shocked me so terribly I felt I had to use this oppportunity to tell all of you. Bill Gates gave a speech to Black Engineers in which he stated -- using his vaunted care with numbers -- that if you track the kids who enter ninth grade nationally, just 50% of the black students will graduate high school. HIgh School!
I could not believe my eyes. One half of the incoming generation of African-Americans is consigned to poverty, ill-health, declining opportunities for the rest of their lives while they are in our hands, under our watch. That is not merely a tragedy, it is a national crisis. I cannot see how we as responsible adults can stand ourselves if we do not turn heaven and earth to
fixing this. As you all know, young people now need a professional degree, not merely college, to have a secure future. And for one half of our African-American students, they will not even pass the lowest of the lowest hurdles. That must not be!
For those of you who would like do dig deeper,
_http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf_
(http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf) is one useful place to start. And yes there are debates on the numbers, which this PBS report helps you to understand,
_http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june06/dropout_06-27.html_
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june06/dropout_06-27.html) . But Gates was smart, he phrased the issue in terms of tracking 9th graders, which avoids some of the dueling stats.
What Is To Be Done? I don't know the answer to that. But, as we did in the 60s, we first must raise consciousness. So I begin here. I think every newspaper in this country should have a meter, a clock, of graduation rates, so we see it every day. And until that 50% is 90%, none of us can rest.
Marc Aronson
WWW.Marcaronson.com
**************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest
products.
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
**************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest products.
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)
Received on Wed 21 Nov 2007 09:50:44 AM CST
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:50:44 EST
Having been in the field of education, trained as a teacher, for close to fifty years, I have never witnessed education at its lowest in schools across the country I visit, including schools in Florida where I have lived for the past three years.
Programs such as Whole Language have disappeared completely relegating fine literature to its lowest degree...reading to satisfy nonsensical test scoring. Book budgets? Forget it. A local school librarian told me she has a budget for new books of $75.00 for the YEAR. This should buy four of five books to satisfy the needs of children from grades one through six!!! "We're lucky if we can purchase the Caldecott, Newbery and one or two non-fiction titles," she remarked. Incredible. One wonders what the budget is for sports equipment, published tests, or inane computer reading programs!
Major publishers are telling authors they will ONLY publish books for retail...to forget the school/library market. A top editor told me this weekend at NCTE: "If it doesn't go to Barnes and Noble or Borders' chains forget about it. Get to parents. Go for boobs and farts and you'll make a mint!"
I see few voices in the literary or education communties other than Marc Aronson taking on issues of race, education and social issues that are plaguing our nation's schools and entire societal structures.
When are we all going to wake up, shake up, pull together to curtail the insanity existing in OUR United States. OURS...not a group of men and a handful of women who purportedly are running, or rather ruining, our nation?
We are becoming a nation of SOCIAL IN-JUSTICE FOR ALL!
LBH
_www.leebennetthopkinsbooks.com_ (http://www.leebennetthopkinsbooks.com/)
Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums
(Abrams, 2007)
In a message dated 11/21/2007 7:02:23 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, Bookmarch at aol.com writes:
Friends:
The topic before us is social justice and books for younger people. I learned something this week that shocked me so terribly I felt I had to use this oppportunity to tell all of you. Bill Gates gave a speech to Black Engineers in which he stated -- using his vaunted care with numbers -- that if you track the kids who enter ninth grade nationally, just 50% of the black students will graduate high school. HIgh School!
I could not believe my eyes. One half of the incoming generation of African-Americans is consigned to poverty, ill-health, declining opportunities for the rest of their lives while they are in our hands, under our watch. That is not merely a tragedy, it is a national crisis. I cannot see how we as responsible adults can stand ourselves if we do not turn heaven and earth to
fixing this. As you all know, young people now need a professional degree, not merely college, to have a secure future. And for one half of our African-American students, they will not even pass the lowest of the lowest hurdles. That must not be!
For those of you who would like do dig deeper,
_http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf_
(http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf) is one useful place to start. And yes there are debates on the numbers, which this PBS report helps you to understand,
_http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june06/dropout_06-27.html_
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june06/dropout_06-27.html) . But Gates was smart, he phrased the issue in terms of tracking 9th graders, which avoids some of the dueling stats.
What Is To Be Done? I don't know the answer to that. But, as we did in the 60s, we first must raise consciousness. So I begin here. I think every newspaper in this country should have a meter, a clock, of graduation rates, so we see it every day. And until that 50% is 90%, none of us can rest.
Marc Aronson
WWW.Marcaronson.com
**************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest
products.
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
**************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest products.
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)
Received on Wed 21 Nov 2007 09:50:44 AM CST
