Author: kathie

My beautiful girl met me at the door so she could hand me her book bag.

I had the canvas bag containing her pajamas and toothbrush for the sleepover.

She didn’t need a kiss.The other mother encouraged her to give ME a goodnight kiss.

She’s self sufficient at a sleepover down the block.

She no longer needs me at nighttime.

My big girl.

Sigh.

We don’t have to worry about getting that call in the middle of the night and having to call car service so we can go and collect our little one who isn’t going to make it through the night without mommy.

I wanted to get past that.

But, now that it’s gone…

I miss it.

I miss my little girl.

I am following with interest the story of the Wisconsin governor who wants to do away with the public employees unions right to collective bargaining, because unions are too expensive, despite the fact that the unions are willing to concede to all of his demands; agreeing to increased contributions to pension plans and healthcare premiums.  If there were collective bargaining, the governor would have won all his demands.  This isn’t about saving money.  This is about dignity and respect for labor.

In a Huffington Post essay, D.C. lawyer Lanny Davis quoted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said, in 1937:

“The right to bargain collectively is at the bottom of social justice for the worker, as well as the sensible conduct of business affairs.  The denial or observance of this right means the difference between despotism and democracy.”

I can’t help but think that Cathie Black has been brought in to destroy the public school system.

The system is not great, but some people learn to work within it.  Good principals are thoughtful and frugal and prudently roll over part of their annual school budgets to offset midyear DOE budget cuts that have come to be expected.  All they want to do is offer a consistent program to the children in their schools.  If there is an after school program this year there is a plan to continue the program next year.  If a favorite teacher goes on maternity leave, there is money in the budget to hire a substitute teacher so that the favorite teacher can come back to the school community where she is known and loved instead of being forced to start over in a similar position at a different school.

Now the DOE wants the principals to give back half of the money in these rainy day accounts.  There is not good way of looking at this.  It says Bloomberg and Black do not trust the principals to take good care of their own schools.  It says Bloomberg and Black don’t want any principals to have the power to maintain their school environment when faced with random draconian budget cuts.  Bloomberg and Black are intentionally setting up principals to “fail” so that the real estate they occupy, the public school buildings, can be handed over to for profit charter schools.  The reason being if we can privatize education it won’t be a community issue if so many of our children can’t read, it will be the private problem of some corporation.  The problem will still be there but it won’t be our problem, it will be their problem.  Problem delegated = problem solved.  Not my problem

That’s why  school Chancellor Cathie Black wasn’t showing much sympathy for principals outraged over plans to raid their rainy-day funds.

“It isn’t punishment of anybody,” Black told reporters yesterday, a day after officials announced that principals of the city’s public schools who put away money to prepare for next year’s budget cuts will lose 50 cents of every dollar they saved.

“There’s a lot of hard decisions that are going to have to be made, so it seems to me to be prudent to say we’re not taking 100% of it away.

All told, principals socked away $80.5 million.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2011/02/18/2011-02-18_schools_chancellor_cathie_black_dismisses_principals_concerns_over_budget_cuts.html#ixzz1G1DHXaaA

From BASIC BLACK, The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life):

“Be persistent.”

“persistence pays–whether you’re hoping to land a job interview, a new account, or anything else.  So pick up the phone and call your potential employer to ask where they are in the hiring process, and whether there’s anything you can do to help move it along.  You don’t want to hound them, but it’s definitely helpful to show initiative…”

Be that as it may, public education is a different world.  It may even be a different planet.

February 12th, 2011

Dear 5th Grade Students–

You have successfully completed your interview at _________________ Middle School!

Our school ranks candidates based on your performance in each part of your interview–the Math Game, the Group Interview, and the Exit Ticket.  Like all screened Middle Schools, our rankings are submitted to the Office of Student Enrollment on, or before, Monday, March 7th, 2011.  The Department of Education then takes all screened Middle School rankings and places students accordingly –this does NOT mean that we get every student that we rank as other schools may rank you high as well.  This also means that you may not get  your first choice.

According to the Department of Education website (http:schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/Middle/Calendar/default.htm), you and your parents should be finding out about your placement in May 2011 and appeals will happen in June 2011.  Please continually check the Department of Education for updates and the specifics on these dates.  The school really can take no action on placement decisions until decisions are actually made — this means that from now until May school’s have to wait (with you!) to see what happens as the wheels of the Enrollment machine spin!

We enjoyed meeting you and your parents or guardians and wish you luck!

My Kid’s school produced “Macbeth” with a cast of 8, 9, and 10 year olds.

I thought it was fantastic and I was thoroughly entertained.  (Please don’t tell the kids that I find deadly serious children hysterical!)

The hour-long version of Macbeth, “a play about making tough choices”.

As one of the two narrators explained for us: “Macbeth is not a bad man.  His choice was a bad one.  He listened to those around him and not to what was right and good.”

One wrong step led to another and when Macbeth had a chance to stop the fighting he didn’t.

Lady Macbeth also made bad choices.

They were left with the consequences of their choices.

Thus it was a tragedy.

Oh it was priceless!

The eight squealing witches chanting “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble…” in their sing song helium voices.

Lady Macbeth’s “Out, out damn spot!” speech was delivered earnestly by a 10-year-old girl in a style reminiscent of the early work of Winona Ryder.

On the other hand, the 5th-grader playing MacDuff and Little League baseball star playing Malcom  shouted and cradled their faces in their hands to show despair were unable to hide the self-consciousness telegraphed through their posture.

51  kids were in the cast

37 kids were in the crew

There were productions values!  Follow spots and body mikes!  A song composed and recorded just for this play.  The set designed and constructed by students from the Parsons School of Design!

The drama teacher said she counted more than 170 people, students, teachers, parents and other volunteers came together to produce this hour-long production.

Collaboration at this level was 4-years in the making.  The after school drama program has produced increasingly elaborate productions.  There was a play written by the children performed in hand dyed t-shirts.  The next year revisited the same theme with a more elaborate story and the addition of painted paper sets.  Last year they performed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from which; “Nay faith! Let me not play a woman! I have a beard coming in!” spoken by one of the shorter 4th-grade-boys was the take away quote of the evening.

And this year, Macbeth!.

It was an accomplishment!

It was an educational experience!

It was community event!

It was fun!

It’s why we make art!

Unfortunately, this play is exactly the kind of individual-affirming, community-building event considered a waste of time and money –never to be experienced by the poor underperforming students who attend the growing number of new small strict test-centered standard driven schools.

My Kid has a middle school interview first thing in the morning.

My Kid is still working on her essay.

My Kid needs to go to bed.

The Ada Lovelace t-shirt and microscope necklace are all laid out.

It’s a math and science school she’s interviewing for.

I got to go out this evening for a little night of clown at a Zora Space, a fairly new coffee house/wine bar/art space on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn.

I went to see the results of Deborah Kaufmann’s class,  A Culminating performance for a Pochinko-inspired clown.

It was fun to see some clown peeps and talk about something other that the middle school search.

On the way to the train we saw a bunch of people carrying hula hoops outside of the Brooklyn Lyceum.  We knew there must be somebody we knew in the group, and there was.

We will interview as many students as we have the capacity to (of the students whose parent/guardian ranked us as #1 or #2 on the middle school application).  If you do not rank us #1 or #2, we will not invite your student to interview, and we may not even receive your name from the Office of Student Enrollment.  We will send you a letter notifying you of your student’s interview date, and we will include a teacher recommendation form as well.  Please make sure your current school has your up-to-date address so you receive this vital communication. The interview will be a group interview– your student in a group with a couple others working on a brief project or reading.  We are looking for students who work well with others, are engaged in the material, and are creative thinkers.  When you come for the interview, make sure you bring the completed teacher recommendation from your current school as well as a report card. We welcome students working on all levels.  After we rank the students we have interviewed, we send that ranked list back to the city’s Office of Student Enrollment where they attempt to match our choices with families’ choices, making mutual matches.  Then, that office will send you a letter.

There is a story in the Daily News today about a Brooklyn boy with mild autism who has been functioning in mainstream classrooms for years.  But, now he’s in 5th grade at the Achievement First East New York Charter School, which means he won a Waiting for Superman lottery and got into a “good school”, a data driven, results oriented corporate entity full of young enthusiastic teachers with no experience to draw on when confronted with the task of teaching a perfectly fine child (with supportive involved parents) who just can’t sit still and obey commands like a show dog.

He got detention for “not tracking the teacher with his eyes”!