I was in journalism school passing through the big editing room and paused to watch the rocket launch on multiple television screens.  Against the beautiful blue sky  the smooth white trail of smoke from the rocket suddenly split into a sickeningly jagged Y.

There are posts on various online local parents list-servs about tonight’s rally to protest the closing of Middle School 571, Upper Bergen School AND/OR to protest the co-location of a Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School in the same building as P.S. 9.

On the Fort Green Kids List, Stephanie posts:

Rally 5:00 pm

Public Hearing 6:00 pm

PS 9 is located at 80 Underhill Ave.

“Come out and support one of our best public schools against the Department of Education’s arbitrary decisions that make no sense. They want to put a third school in the same building as PS 9  severely restricting access to the library, gym, schoolyard and cafeteria.  The DOE wants to cap Pre-K at 54 students which is an absurdly low number for the area’s baby boom.”

In the process of putting together this simple “passing the info along” post, I found out that the Parents Association Board of another PS 9, in Manhattan on 84th street, has also recently drafted a resolution in opposition to the co-location of a charter school this one named:  Success Academy.

FYI:  Public schools must accept and educate all comers.  Charter schools are allowed to limit the size and composition of their student body through application processes including lotteries.

Are we meant to select AND/OR hope for winning lottery tickets to get our children into schools on the open market based on some sort of pseudo-preppy logo, allure or street appeal in a manner similar to the way in which we decide which among the multitude of delis and coffee shops to frequent?

While sitting in a diner in Chelsea today, I overheard a couple at the next table who seemed to be in their 60′s.  They were talking about current and former careers including high school guidance counselor.  One of them said he got into the field because of his preference for one-to-one contact with students and was critical of all of the accountability required by the current system, which turns teachers into robots. He said the kids have multiple choice tests and have never been asked to think.  When the city got millions of dollars for education from the state it was used to evaluate the evaluations.

She remembered when they were in school and there were three kinds of high school diplomas, general, commercial and academic.  He said now everybody’s going to get a regents diploma.  But, we need people to be plumbers.  The kids have been sold a bill of goods.  They are told “You can do better.”  At the same time PhD’s can’t get jobs.

He has a point.  Tracking fell out of favor because gifted and intelligent students of color were told they weren’t college material.  People like me had no options but going to college and found out later that one of my favorite jobs ever was a deckhand with the engine room checks and safety drills and the diesel fuel scent anticipating getting under way.

In the 1980′s the media was all abuzz with admiration for the wonderful Japanese school system, but I worked as a clown in Japan, and I happen to know  that most of the stage managers, and sound and light board operators I met there, had dropped out of high school as soon as they realized they did not want to become salarymen in suits which was the only occupation such an education was good for.

At this point we have no idea which middle school our daughter will attend next fall.  There are some with science themes which we prefer.  I have a daughter who self-identifies as a geek and who says she wants to be an engineer or a physicist and go to MIT.  I don’t know if she really wants to do that or if she even knows what it means.  Perhaps she just says it because it makes adults smile.  But, wether or not that is what her future holds it damn well better still be an option when she comes out of middle school at the end of eighth grade.

Not that it was a life goal of mine, but by the end of eighth grade, I knew that the possibility of becoming a medical doctor was already off the table.

There are schools which encourage children towards academic excellence (which is not the same as test scores) through exploration and discovery.  But they are few and far between.  There are other school which focus on the metrics of test prep, standardization and scores.  This is not what I want for my child.

In the looking for the correct spelling I googled “metrics” which, via Cathie Black, I understand is a business term.  I came across this quote:

“Businesses that succeed and make money constantly assess themselves and improve in all dimensions of their business; metrics are the cornerstone of their assessment, the foundation for any business improvement.” –CFO Magazine via the Business Process Reengineering website.

This is the language of CEO Mayor Michael Bloomberg and CEO Schools Chancellor Cathie Black.

On the same page I also found this.

Developing effective metrics may appear easy at first glance, but many have fallen into common traps that you can avoid. Examples of common pitfalls are:

1. Developing metrics for which you cannot collect accurate or complete data.

2. Developing metrics that measure the right thing, but cause people to act in a way contrary to the best interest of the business to simply “make their numbers.”

3. Developing so many metrics that you create excessive overhead and red tape.

4. Developing metrics that are complex and difficult to explain to others.

IMHO the NYCDOE had stepped into each and every one of these traps in the effort to measure what the children are learning.  (But that’s a whole ‘nother post.)  Any parent will tell you, what we intend to teach our children is not the same thing as what they learn.

As it happens, over the holidays my husband taught my daughter to play blackjack with poker chips and she took to it like a fish to water, which I believe is a direct result of my child’s familiarity with the the crap-shoot middle school choice process and the lottery system used to place children in charter schools.

Here is the text of a speech Cathie Black gave to the parents and students of the $50,000.00 per year Connecticut boarding school that her own two children attended followed by the text of the speech she gave at her Brooklyn debut before an audience of public school parents, teachers and students at the Panel for Educational Policy packed into the auditorium at Brooklyn Tech High School last Wednesday.

Taking Life On

Prize Day Address, June 6, 2010
Cathleen P. Black

I want to talk to you about “taking life on.” Meeting its challenges. Enjoying its pleasures. Fighting its injustices. Facing disappointments. Getting right back up. Standing up for what you believe in. Finding your passions. You are the generation who will truly be global citizens. By having friends from many cities, countries, and continents, you have learned that similarity of thought and action outweighs many differences. Intelligence, pluck, and determination know no borders. Everything you need to be armed with, everything you will need is contained in the Kent motto—Temperantia, Fiducia, Constantia. For those of you who forgot your Latin in the last weeks of fun and goodbyes… that’s “Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, and Self-Reliance.” That sums up exactly what you will need in the world… and what the world needs from you.

Simplicity helps you focus on what’s really important.
Purpose makes it meaningful.
Self-reliance makes it happen.
Those principles—focus, purpose, and selfreliance— you will need in college. You’ll need them in whatever career you choose. You’ll need them in family life down the road. What you think you want today will undoubtedly change. And that’s fine, too, and just part of growing up and growing wiser and knowing yourself.

I went to a small women’s liberal arts college; Alison has chosen the University of Colorado—25,000 students! Think she wants a completely different college experience than I had? You bet! On our college visit, I can still remember Allie getting out of the car in Boulder, surveying the campus and the mountains in the distance and saying, “This is exactly what I am looking for!” The good news… she got in! But no matter whether big or small, an hour from home, or a coast away—college is an exhilarating and expanding experience. And yes, often scary, too. As you think about your major, this too could change. I was an English major, liked writing and  reading, and entered into publishing a long time ago. My publishing career has been more interesting than I could ever imagine, full of challenges, talented people, creative endeavors, and a lot of satisfaction.

Yet at the end of the day, it is my family—loving husband, Tom Harvey, and two great kids, Duffy and Alison—that are my greatest satisfaction. You will figure out what your purpose is. It will not lie in the expectations of parents, teachers, friends, though they have a profound influence on you. You will claim your own purpose and come to define your dreams for yourself. Or in the words of Oprah Winfrey, “Live your best life.”

Your self-reliance has taken root and grown here. That sense of confidence and independence will make you feel at home in the world of college. But there will be many distractions—and a lot fewer rules, so be careful! I hope you will also take advantage of any opportunity to study or travel abroad. I spent my junior year in Rome. It was amazing—enriching, life changing, and a whole lot of fun—expanding my horizons and giving me new goals and dreams. I didn’t realize it then, but I was preparing “to take life on.”

I was always motivated, but I became more selfreliant. Others can teach and guide and mentor you, but just doing—and doing more than is expected— and doing it well, is about self-motivation. Here at Kent you have learned much about motivation and also leadership, through sports—whether on the water, on the fields, on horseback, on the courts—on stage, in the labs, in the studio, in community activities, in clubs. There have been victories and losses, all helping you to learn that life gives and—takes back. And it’s not all about winning. It’s about learning and leading. I want you to think about what it takes to be a leader—for this next phase of your life. One can lead in big and small ways. Standing and taking responsibility is a first step.

Competence and confidence are two more components. The other is knowing that a leader needs followers. They define and decide who the leader is. On the subject of leading others… here’s a short fable Alison recently wrote for Mrs. Stout’s “microfiction” class.

The Goose with the Gray Feather
“The flock began their journey south for the winter. The goose with the gray feather saw another goose leading the flock and knew he could fly faster. “Leaving his place in the V-formation, he flapped strongly until he passed the leading goose. But soon the goose with the gray feather got tired and began to slow down. He glanced behind him but saw no flock… “… For one cannot lead a flock one is not united with.”

That’s a lot of wisdom from an 18-year-old. As you leave today to start a new chapter, I really want you to understand that you are a whole person with every opportunity to maximize life in college and life beyond college classes. Maybe you’ve been known here as an athlete or a brainiac… or both at the same time… or a screw-up or an introvert. Well, whatever you’ve been labeled, you can choose a new persona! You also leave this campus knowing how important it is to take care of others. Compassion has been instilled in you. So be great—in mind and spirit and body. And be kind. There’s no one right path to greatness. The world needs everyone’s gifts, be it politics, sports, rocket science, biotechnology, entertainment, medicine, education, philanthropy, volunteerism. There are many ways to be helpful and caring, and to make your own dreams come true as you take life on.

On the practical side, you’ve already learned more about time management than many people know when they first go to college! You have not had your parents to review homework or get you out of bed in the morning. You know how to get your work done in the time you have to do it. You know what it is like to not just have a roommate, but to learn how to compromise in small ways and small spaces. You also know how to be away from home, some of you from very far distances. That’s a great advantage in those first few months. You understand and embrace diversity. It’s the world you live in. The inclusive student body has given you an appreciation of different types of people with different backgrounds and stories. You also graduate fluent in the language of technology that everyone now speaks around the globe. The importance of this can be summed up by Alison, who recently informed me while she was busy texting with her flying thumbs that, “E-mail is for old people.” Well, I just got an iPad! So there!

But she has a point. The world flies into and out of your palms. It moves way faster than it moved for us, as parents. The world of knowledge and information is yours with one click to Facebook or YouTube or a swipe on an iPhone. Your fluency in technology prepares you to connect, compete, and collaborate globally like never before. It is another way that you can both make a difference in the world and help realize your own big dreams.

Your time at Kent has supplied you with a great experience to help others—whether it be a roommate in need or just a friend who needs a shoulder to cry on. It’s called empathy. At Kent, you have seen helpfulness and experienced the forming of deep friendships that should stay with you for years and years. I have heard many adults say that to this day their circle of boarding school friends are still their best friends. That’s what Science Department Chair and Master of the Guild Jesse Klingebield presented the Stone Bowl for the best Guild paper to Ruxin Michelle Zhao. Kathy Nadire and her daughter, Nora. comes from growing and experiencing so many situations together. One more thing before you leave “to take life on…” As proud graduates, remember in the days and all the years ahead to have fun. And to give back. Work and life brim with opportunities for joy. And for those of you from less fortunate circumstances or complicated family situations, here’s a direct message from the famed basketball star, Magic Johnson.

Just last week I heard him give a talk to 4,000 high school students in Detroit. He told them how he grew up in the projects with six brothers and three sisters and not much food on the table. But it was his mother who said over and over, “It is not where you are from—but who you are.” Kent has taught you a lot about who you are. That should stay with you always. It’s about knowing who you are and being the best that you can be. And always know that happiness has more to do with success than success has to do with happiness.

So go take life on… and don’t forget to say thank you to your own parents and your Kent family. We are all very proud. You should be too!
The best of luck!
Congratulations, Class of 2010!

Difficult Times Ahead

Prepared Speech at Panel for Educational Policy, Brooklyn Tech, January 19, 2011

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Good evening to members of the panel, elected representatives and to everyone assembled here tonight.  By being here, you’re displaying a real commitment to public school education and I appreciate you for coming to make your voices heard.  Thank you to the members of the Panel for the Educational Policy.  This panel has played a vital role in the major policy changes that have dramatically improved student outcomes in our city.  I look forward to working closely with you on the important issues that we are all facing during very difficult times ahead.  We must continue to keep the children of New York City at the forefront of our decisions and be thoughtful, but bold.

Since joining the Department of Education, I have visited many schools and have been inspired by conversations with students, teachers, principals and parents about the great work that goes on in our schools every single day.  At these school visits I’m seeing what makes an effective school leader and how a strong school culture can contribute to learning.  And if we want to build on the historic progress already made with this administration we need to put the strongest teachers we can in every classroom and the best principals that we can in every school.  We need to support these dedicated leaders so that they can provide each and every child with the best possible education.

As chancellor I’m dedicated to the mission that our students must have a rigorous core curriculum that truly prepares them not only for college and careers but for the opportunities of the 21st Century.  I will focus on building a comprehensive evaluation system that will support and develop our teachers so that every child has a teacher who is constantly challenging him or herself to get better every day.  I will continue to find ways of empowering our principals so they can run innovative exciting schools that are helping students thrive while also holding them accountable for results.  As chancellor I will constantly be asking myself this question: are we providing the best most comprehensive supports that we can in our schools.  That’s what drives me day in and day out.

The school visits have also reminded me of the real challenges that we have ahead.  If we are going to prepare our kids to succeed in this increasingly competitive world we need to continue to raise standards and expectations.

Last year the state set a higher bar for passing English and math exams and we applaud them for it.  Now we will have to redouble our efforts to help our kids meet that higher bar.  That’s why just yesterday it was announced by our mayor that extra resources, a total of ten million dollars for schools where students are struggling on the state test.  We know that we need to help those who need it most.

And I’m hopeful that we’ll find a way to get schools extra state school support.

Lastly, I want to briefly mention some of the educational priorities that Our Mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, laid out this morning in his State of the City address.

First, as we face enormous budget challenges and the harsh possibility of teacher layoffs there is no way that we can afford to loose our brightest teachers.  We need to change the last-in-first-out policy so we are keeping our best teachers above all regardless of how long they have been in the system.  We also must have a -come to a compromise on the ART pool, some one thousand teachers who receive full salaries and benefits without having positions in classrooms.  Finally a large part of our future deficit problem is a pension problem.  The mayor laid out a strong vision of reforming our city’s pension system and I urge all of you to watch or read his full speech on nyc.gov.

These priorities will help up build on the enormous progress we have already made for the children in our New York City schools.  First and foremost we must think of our children first.

Thank you for coming tonight.

For the students at Kent School: horses, tennis and study abroad.  For the students of the New York City public schools: more standardized tests with extra test prep.

Cathie Black’s daughter Allison put it best:

One cannot lead a flock one is not united with.

Cathie Black was booed at a public meeting at Brooklyn Tech last night.

Seriously?

Are you kidding me?

I didn’t see it myself, although I wish I had.

I was attending the PTA meeting at my own child’s school, where I mostly kept my mouth shut.  But, then I went to the wine bar with some of the alpha parents and ended up volunteering for both the 5th grade movie night fundraiser and the family dance fundraiser.  Whoops!  Oh well.

Anyhooo…

Because of all that, I missed my chance to watch Cathie Black make her Brooklyn stage debut at the regularly scheduled PEP meeting.

The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) consists of 13 appointed members and the Chancellor.  Each borough president appoints one member and the mayor appoints the remaining eight.  The Chancellor serves as an ex-officio non-voting member.

The meeting took place in the auditorium of Brooklyn Tech, one of the top 3 selective high schools in New York City, to which admission is granted only to those lucky thousands who manage to score highly on the SHSAT.

A pause for some googling: according to Wikipedia;

The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) is an examination administered to eighth and ninth grade students residing in New York City and used to determine admission to all but one of the city’s Specialized High Schools. The test is given in the autumn for admission the following school year. After the results of the test in October and November 2008, 6,106 students from New York City were accepted, out of 29,000 students, who applied.^[1] Students have until the end of February to make their decisions.

The results of the SHSAT are ordered from the highest score to the lowest score. The list is processed in order by score, with each student being placed in their most-preferred school that still has open seats, and continuing until there are no remaining open seats at any school.^[5]

The student’s absolute score does not matter as long as it is higher than the cutoff score, which is found by the results of all the students who took that score that year. For example, if there are 500 seats available at Stuyvesant the top 500 students who put Stuyvesant as their first choice scores will be admitted. The lowest score admitted is the cut off score.

The SHSAT tests for logical thinking and high ability in both English and mathematics. Both sections consist of multiple-choice questions. There is a time limit of 3 hours for both sections, with no break in between. The exam is only offered once a year, and can be taken in both the eighth and ninth grades if the student wishes.

And I’m back!

So Schools Chancellor Cathie Black was booed at Brooklyn Tech Wednesday night during her first appearance at a public meeting (not optional, part of the job description) held by the Panel on Educational Policy (PEP).

So, I’m watching the video of the event –and to be fair the video camera that took the footage available on youtube doesn’t have as good a seat as did the one turned on during last week’s meeting in Sheldon Silvers office– but one gets the sense.

Cathie Black looks small and scared.

She’s in Brooklyn after all.  It’s one of the Boroughs where they keep the Black people.

I must admit that I too was a little uneasy when I first came to Brooklyn, coming as we did from the Northwest corner of the United States where most of the population practically glows in the dark.  But, after about the tenth or twentieth introduction to neighbors of color who were way cooler than I could ever hope to be –that first week after we moved here…  Race is an issue that comes up.  Often it is more about class.  Lets just say the topic of fair and even distribution of DOE resources came up at the meeting.

Brooklyn is it’s own thing–Like Texas!  (As in don’t mess with!)

So anyway, in the video I watched today, Cathie Black looks pretty nervous in that cavernous space in Brooklyn Tech (a building My Kid first experienced as a 7-year-old second grader attending her first Brooklyn Borough-wide (FLL) First Lego League Robotics Tournament.  Just sayin’)

Last night in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Cathie Black spoke carefully ploughing through to the end of her prepared text looking down at her words and pausing when she turned the page.  The speech as written was vague and pointless failing to express any vision at all.  It was filled with phrases such as:

“a comprehensive evaluation system”

“constantly challenging him or herself to get better every day”

“helping students thrive while also holding them accountable for results”

Cathie Black flubbed her words several times including before and during this sentence.

“If we are going to prepare our kids to succeed in this increasingly competitive world, we need to raise standards and expectations.”

Cathie Black gave a speech that would have failed to make it to the final round at a high school speech meet.

I would not be such a harsh critic of the poor public performance of Ms. Black if it didn’t seem as though –for no apparent reason– she has been handed the responsibility of running one of the largest and most complicated school systems in the United States; while at the same time –also for no apparent reason– my 10-year-old is expected to submit herself to an absurd series of tests and auditions and interviews just to take her seat in an 6th grade classroom.

In case you are unaware of the NYCDOE boilerplate language aimed at the parents of current 5th graders, here it is:

Information for Families

The purpose of this Middle School Directory is to help you learn about the middle school choice process and to identify those middle schools that you feel would be the best fit for your child. This publication contains detailed descriptions of each middle school that you and your child can include in your list of choices as part of the process – the schools that have a page in this Directory will be listed on the application. You will also find a list of middle schools that conduct a school-based application process for which your child may be eligible – these schools will not be listed on the application. If you are interested in learning more about these schools (for example: what percentage of the eighth grade graduates from this particular middle school school were accepted into one of the selective high schools?) and the individual, school-based process by which students are accepted, please contact the school directly for more information.

School Characteristics

Middle schools come in a wide variety of sizes and grade configurations such as:

o Small, themed schools

o Large schools organized into small learning communities

o Large comprehensive middle schools

Priority for Admission

␣ Students residing in New York City who have met promotional standards from elementary school admissions are assured entrance into a New York City public middle school (somewhere in this city of eight million people)

␣ Each student receives priority to attend a middle school (some middle school somewhere, anywhere) in the district in which he or she is zoned to attend middle school or in the district in which he or she attends a New York City public elementary school

Choices

We expect all of our schools to be academically challenging and nurturing learning communities that cultivate the diverse interests and skills of middle school students. (They aren’t.) Take the time to gather as much information (from gossip and blogs) as possible as you read through the school pages:

␣ Consider a school’s theme, emphasis, special programs, partnerships, sports, enrichment opportunities and services  (some themes are in name only, some special programs are not available to all students, enrichment opportunities and services come and go with grant monies and budget cuts)

␣ Consider a school’s location:

o Investigate travel options and make sure you feel comfortable with the commute your child will be taking each day  (Is the school anywhere near a subway stop, do you have a car?)

o Review the train and bus routes available to your child (6th graders are 11-years-old, some are only ten for the first months of the school year,  In 2008, a New York mom and journalist, Lenore Skenazy caused a media sensation when she let her 9-year-old ride New York City’s subway by himself and wrote an essay about it stirring up controversy resulting in a Today show appearance and a book deal.  Suffice it to say, not every parent is comfortable with every home to school commute.

o Remember that the Department of Education offers transportation to students based on specific criteria that are described at www.nyc.gov/schools/offices/transportation or by calling the Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) at 718-392-8855.

(The official policy of the DOE  states that middle school students are expected to take public transportation to school:  Any student who is eligible for full fare transportation may be issued a full fare student MetroCard if that student requests a card or if yellow bus transportation is not available for that student. MetroCards are typically used by students in grade 7 and above (none of whom can receive yellow busing) and by students for whom yellow bus service is not available because, for example, the school does not have bus service, or there are not enough students for a route, or because the student lives beyond five miles. Student MetroCards are issued by the school transportation office.)

Oh, and if you have any more questions.  You’re on your own –with nothing to go on but playground gossip and the stories told by those who have gone before.

Unless…

Perhaps, Ms. Black, is there something else you would like to share with the rest of us?

A teachable moment is an unplanned opportunity that arises when a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students.

Well, this is a teachable moment for Cathie Black.

There was a bit of a backlash when Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced his appointment of media executive Cathie Black as New York City Schools Chancellor.   But she’s a pro and got to work right away visiting pre-selected public schools and learning that the term “lower school” is not used in public schools.

Back in December, Cathie Black said to parents, via her interview with WABC Education Reporter, Art McFarland,:

“I’m a reach out person…  It’s like, give me a chance, I want to listen to them. I want to make this, make the experience for their children the best that it can possibly be.  So it has to be a dialogue.  I mean they shouldn’t shut me out just because they’ve never met me.  I mean that’s absurd.”

So when she met with a group of concerned parents in New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s downtown Manhattan office, there was an expectation of dialogue.  But, it was Cathie Black herself who shut the others out with her off-color joke.

I watched the video more than once.   It’s not just what she said.  It’s how she said it.

Not only did she show incredibly poor taste by suggesting that the issue of overcrowded schools would be helped with a little birth control, she interrupted a thoughtful soft-spoken parent speaking from prepared notes in order to do it.

Eric Greenleaf, PS 234 parent and Professor of Marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business was in the middle of saying:

“There is a major overcrowding crisis.  There will be shortages, huge shortages of classroom space.  In 2013 it’s going to be abut 430 seats.  By 2014 it’s going to be abut 700 seats.  By 2015 it’s going to be about a thousand seats.  These are kids that are already born.  This isn’t a projection of what might happen…

At which point Cathie Black jumped in with her comment:

“Could we just have some birth control for a while.  It could really help us all out.”

Professor Greenleaf continued:

“This is about an urgent, urgent need for interim space, otherwise hundreds and hundreds of kids who are already born and live downtown won’t be able to go to schools downtown.”

At which point Cathie Black again interrupted him to say:

“Well thank you.  What I can just say in conclusion –and I don’t want to start the whole conversation again– is that I could pretty much have this conversation all over the city,” effectively dismissing the concerns of everyone in the room.  AND THEN SHE MADE THE SOPHIE’S CHOICE REMARK!

This is not just about her words and her jokes.  It’s about the demonstration of her willingness to listen with no intention of hearing what concerned parents have to say.  That is the most offensive thing of all.

Cathie Black interrupted him.

Cathie Black cut him off.

How lucky for Cathie Black that she made these offhand remarks about birth control and Sophie’s choices during a meeting with affluent professional parents in the Manhattan office of New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.  These are the parents who feel entitled to be heard when they take time out of their own work days, to present the findings of their task force on overcrowding, to the new schools chancellor.  They were able to laugh it off.  Whoops.  She must have been nervous in her new job.  These things happen. Ha Ha Ha.  Polite society and all that.

Nothing was said about Cathie Black’s blatant display of disrespect.

I can’t imagine what would have happened if she said something that offensive to parents of students at a failing school about to be closed or at a school about to become severely over-crowded due to the closing of a nearby failing school.

When a reporter asked Black about the controversy surrounding her remarks, at a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg leapt to her defense:

“Let me just take that for her.” he said gallantly.  The Billionaire mayor then made excuses for her saying it takes time, after a career spent in the private sector to get used to the public sector where; “People tend to take things out of context and maybe, I think, a little bit too seriously.”

Yeah, well…

Let’s keep our eyes and ears open for another teachable moment on disrespecting.  Shall we?

I appeared again at the New York Downtown Clown Revue as the cleaning woman (Maintenance Staff) character I have been working on for the past several months.

I got twice as many compliments on my work after the show as I did last month.  In answer to one, I responded “It’s coming along.” to which the fellow clown responded, “No, you’ve got it.”  which is really cool.

Perhaps it came together tonight because today was the first time that producer and MC, Christopher Lueck, and I actually took the time to talk through the show beforehand.  Perhaps it came together because the character finally has a name, “Aquarium”.

I could make a whole post about how I came up with that name and how Terrarium was a close second and how part of me is ready to open up the whole discussion with myself again and do more research, going on babynamer.com and looking for other long nouns with potentially pretty connotation and a Q-sound and an -elle or an -ette or an -ie sound at the end.  But, the name I have chosen will stick for now.

I had reservations about playing this character on Martin Luther King Day, because even though the character is definitely not African-American, some people have make the leap.  I winced when another clown referred to me (as yet unnamed) as Shaliqua, last month.  I like to think of her as one of the many unnamed children of  Brandine and Cletus on The Simpson’s.

Living in Brooklyn, as I do, I am so very aware of how pale I am.  But,  I did buy the wiglet in Fulton Mall.  It is the exact same brown as my own hair.  But, it does have that hair-so-processed-that-it-looks-like-unrolled-cassette-tapes look.  Still,  I am self-conscious and careful.  Unlike some clown’s I know, who go out of their way to provoke and push buttons.  That’s not my style.  I want to be nice.

The clown does not speak.  I am not Black.  Unless a person were to infer from the apparent occupation that…   Uh oh.  I wouldn’t go there…

Where I’m from nearly everyone is White, which means that if White people don’t do that job then nobody does that job.

If somebody is doing that job then it must be done.  If it must be done, it must be important.  If it is important then it has dignity.

Which brings me to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. whose life we celebrate today.

When I’m at home, I listen to NPR, and today there was a segment on Dr. King’s involvement in the labor movement–a topic chosen by WNYC producers for its timeliness due to the whole Mayor Bloomberg not having enough sanitation workers on hand to clear the snow because of recent layoffs and demotions.  Surprise, surprise the ad hoc contractors that he had counted on being available in case of emergency were otherwise engaged on the day after Christmas.

So anyway, I have this character who I imagine belongs to a union and as such is paid a living wage and has health insurance for herself and her children, and a sense of dignity.  The indignity lies in having to be at the NYC Downtown Clown Revue venue as presented by the shameless huckster Christopher Lueck and the rest of the college educated 30-somethings who make up acts instead of going out and getting real jobs.

Therein lies the comedy.

Before the show tonight, I was talking to a friend about the role I play, and she said, “I wonder how people with jobs like that can ever be happy.”

“It’s the hair and makeup.”  I replied.

I had my reservations –was called out for ranting about her by friends–even–.  And yet, my fears–at least according to the New York Post– are completely founded!!!

WTF?!

Cathie Black, in a meeting at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office, jokingly made a clever response to parental concerns about public school overcrowding (mind you, these were the concerns of articulate college-educated white professional public school parents!).  Her response was:

“Could we just have some birth control for a while.  It really would help us all out.”

Great.  Thanks.  Yeah.  We’ll take you up on that…

But what about the kids that are already born???!

She gives Catholics from Chicago–from which I am descended–a bad name!

After that gaffe, she listened some more and then concluded:

“Well thank you.  What I can just say is, in conclusion –and I don’t want to start the whole conversation again–is that I could pretty much have this conversation all over the city.  You may not think that the Upper East Side has its issues, and the Upper West Side has it’s issues or somebody else has–…

“They all have their issues.  What they care about us that their child have a great education.  They may want this kind of a school or that kind of a school.  So it is–and I don’t mean this in any flip way–It is many Sophie’s choices; With a, you know, with a board on the wall and saying:

“Da-da, Da-da, Da-da, Da-da.

However, what I would suggest, and I , and I, I…uhm…listened to you Eric; and I have not seen this act–which not to say that it has not been somewhat on my desk–But, that we will listen about the planning part of it.  And, perhaps, we haven’t done as good a job.  I can’t answer that.  You know the right and wrong and it’s clear that your needs are great and we will try to deal with them as well as we responsibly can.  But, just know that everybody, just like you, feels passionately about what they also want, and so, well, try to do the best we can–the best we can.”

My reaction:

We are so f#*^%d!

This is what I heard Cathie Black say:

1) “Upper West Side–Upper East Side–this meeting is taking place in Lower-Manhattan–I don’t even remember the names of the other boroughs.”

2) “People want to have a say in what kind of school their child attends.  But we just can’t make that happen.”

3) “Some schools are good.  Some schools are bad.  La, la, la, la, la, la, la.”

4) “I have heard you.  It doesn’t affect me.”

5) “You get what you get and you don’t get upset!”

I thought I knew what I was doing.  But, apparently I don’t.

This morning was My Kid’s first soccer game of the winter season.  She got her uniform and everything.  We missed the first game last week because of the FLL tournament.

I thought everything was fine…

Until I started talking to the other soccer moms on the sidelines during the game.

All of a sudden I started second guessing the schools that I had put down on My Kid’s DOE form AND the order in which I had listed them!

One of the other mothers said that if we listed the Brooklyn Gifted and Talented School as our number one and number two choices, (which I was led to believe was the way to go given what the  guidance counselor at My Kid’s school had said), if My Kid passed the test and was accepted into that school, that is where she would have to go, even if she didn’t want to.

The Brooklyn Gifted and Talented school was the first school I saw.  Of course I signed up for everything.  I didn’t know what else was out there and the other parents were all saying; “There is nothing else out there!”

Apparently, two years ago, when the older siblings (with the Alpha Parents) of My Kid’s classmates applied to middle schools, the way it worked was this:

If you put down the Gifted and Talented school as your first choice which of course you may or may not get into you would also be assigned to another Brooklyn Middle School (Because, after all,  what are the chances of getting into the gifted and talented school).

However–apparently–the new rule is:

If you get into the Gifted and Talented school, YOU HAVE TO GO to the gifted and talented school.

You don’t get assigned to any other school–such as one that is less than an hour-long commute from your home…

So now, The Husband and My Kid believe that My Kid should NOT TAKE THE TEST to get into the Gifted and Talented School IN CASE SHE GETS IN because SHE MIGHT GET IN and she’d really rather go the school that is only 15 minutes away.

And after all she is only ten-years-old.

I am conflicted.

The Husband says that I should not be.  We should not let My Kid take the test.

We really don’t have anything to go on besides the playground gossip because the NYCDOE official boilerplate language does not in any way, shape or form, give us the information that we so desperately need.

Somehow, the friends whose marriage came to an end as part of the fallout of the New York City elementary school admissions process, come to mind on this morning.

All I could do was try to see to it that My Kid got a good night’s sleep.

All I could do was to offer protein snacks and water to My Kid.

All I could do was sit and wait while My Kid was interviewed.

All I can do is breathe.