Silence Is Assent: Je Suis Charlie #charliehebdo

Je Suis Charlie. I Am Charlie Hebdo.

A collage of Charlie Hebdo covers. Taken from Berlin's BZ paper.

I'm posting this following the good idea of Dov Bear, who wrote: 

I am urging ALL of you to do this too. Put the collage of Charlie Hebdo covers (taken from Berlin's BZ paper) on your blogs, your Facebook pages and tell your local papers you want them to take a stand and run this, too. Tell the terrorists that they don't control the public discourse or the free exchange of ideas.  Tell them they aren't going to win this. We get to think. We get to talk, We get to laugh. And they can't stop us.

Silence is assent.
The pen is mightier than the sword. I hope.




Consider subscribing to Ann Arbor Schools Musings by Email!

Five Things You'll Want to Know--In No Particular Order

1. Jenna Bacolor, Director of Ann Arbor Public Schools Rec & Ed, asked me to post this: 

The Ann Arbor Public Schools and the City of Ann Arbor have a joint Recreation Advisory Commission. The RAC meets four times a year, and they have a few (four!) openings right now--these are all for City of Ann Arbor residents. (For some openings, you can live in the school district and not in the city.) They are looking for dependable, interested people who can bring some expertise to the advisory commission.

This is your opportunity to win friends and influence people! (Or, influence policy, maybe.)

Here is the Frequently Asked Questions page. If you are interested, please contact Jenna Bacolor at bacolor@aaps.k12.mi.us and ask for an application.

2. You may have read that two teachers and an assistant principal lost their jobs because they didn't renew their teaching certifications. People are asking how I feel about it. 

a. I feel bad that they lost their jobs because they couldn't keep up with their paperwork.

b. I have mixed feelings about certification in general (based on my experiences with it--which I probably should write about sometime--I think it's mostly a way for universities and the state to make some extra money), but that is not the point. The point is, it's the law. The teachers in question had been warned multiple times that they needed to renew their certifications.

c. Yes, it does cost money--and time--to renew certifications. 99.9% of teachers who stay in teaching make sure to do that, but the general public should know that teachers have to spend their own money--often thousands of dollars on additional coursework--to keep up their certifications. See my qualms about certification in b, above. But still, the point is, it's the law. I hope they can get their certifications back.

3. Saline schools moved homecoming to accommodate Yom Kippur. 

That's progress, but next year, I hope that they check the calendar in advance of scheduling events like homecoming! Actually, I urge Saline Schools to adopt the same type of holiday policy that the Ann Arbor schools have. As Saline becomes more diverse (which it is), this becomes even more important.

4. In one of Amy Biolchini's last articles for the Ann Arbor News, she posted some predicted school count numbers for enrollment. 

She focused only on the school districts, not the charters.  Ann Arbor gained a lot of students--including many who live in the district already. Some of the other districts lost. I feel a little squeamish about schools of choice when I think of us "poaching" other districts students, although the realist in me feels that this is what we have to do to survive. On the other hand, I am hoping that we mostly gain back students from charters. You can't tell from this article whether that is what is happening. But I did get hopeful since even a few days into school, one of our local charters (Fortis Academy) was still showing up on my facebook feed with "we have a few more spots available." And I think they used to have a waiting list. Hope springs eternal!

5. What does Ferguson, Missouri have to do with our public schools?

Steve Norton does a nice job here explaining the connection. I'll leave you with this excerpt, but suggest you read the whole thing (bonus! it's short!):

We have a powerful remedy to the fear born of isolation and separation: community-governed public schools, which can serve to knit together communities and serve as their investment in the future. But the schools in Ferguson have been a victim of the same forces at work across the country, which insist that private control is better than community governance; that segregation is acceptable as long as it is voluntary; that it's ok to demand that our money not be spent to help someone else's child. Cheaper is always better, we are told; schools are just for job training. And poverty is simply an excuse. But this simply is not true. Public schools help shape the citizens of the future. Public schools can help heal the wounds we still carry, or they can deepen them. Public schools can bring us together or drive us apart.

Consider subscribing to Ann Arbor Schools Musings by Email!

BREAKING: Education Achievement Authority Looks for Teachers to Teach in a "Christian Setting"

The Education Achievement Authority (EAA), the controversial publicly-funded school system that has taken over 15 "failing" schools that were formerly Detroit Public Schools, is advertising for lead preschool teachers for three schools (Bethune, Law, and Brenda Scott) who will be "responsible for implementing a developmentally appropriate early childhood education curriculum in a Christian setting."

According to a letter sent to the EAA by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, a teacher called the ACLU last week to alert them to this job posting.

Excerpt from the EAA preschool teacher job posting. Found online at http://michigan.gov/documents/eaa/Preschool_Teachers_441799_7.pdf on 2/25/2014.

What's more, because the EAA is the vehicle for the state-run State School Reform/Redesign District, the job posting is actually hosted on the State of Michigan's web site, michigan.gov. [Find other documents from the EAA at michigan.gov/eaa.]

In the letter to Chancellor John Covington, the head of the EAA, from Legal Director Michael J. Steinberg, the ACLU notes that:

There is no principle more fundamental to American public education than the requirement that schools be welcoming of all students and teachers regardless of religious or racial background. Our Constitution wisely requires schools to remain neutral in matters of religion. . . 

I hope that you will respond to this letter by explaining that the use of the "Christian setting" language was somehow a mistake and that you will change the job description right away. Even if it was a mistake, however, we are distressed by how many EAA administrators and staff must have read the job announcement without thinking it was wrong or demanding that it be changed. Moreover, we wonder how many excellent teachers who are Muslim, Jewish or not religious read the job description and decided not to apply because they believed they were not wanted. Indeed, how many top notch teachers who are Christian decided not to apply because they thought it was improper to teach public school students in a religious environment?

Read the entire letter, including Exhibit A (a .pdf of the job description) here.

Consider subscribing to Ann Arbor Schools Musings by Email!

State 1, Local 0: The MEAP and Three Star Holidays

A few days ago I was contacted by someone from the Arab American Parent Support Group, who was concerned that the MEAP was scheduled to be given on one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar, Eid. Eid is a three-star holiday in the Ann Arbor Public Schools religious calendar, and I was contacted because I recently wrote this blog post about three-star holidays.

You may recall that the guidelines state that:

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS GUIDELINES  I. Holiday observances of major significance to a religious group are indicated on the calendar by three stars (***). The following apply:School district employees may not schedule any of the following during these (three star) holidays.   1. Major exams   2. Reviews for major exams   3. Standardized tests...

And clearly the MEAP is a standardized test. So why was it being given on Eid?

A member of the AAPSG did some poking around, asking the state if the test had to be given on Eid or if a change could be made. She got an email back from the state saying that a deviation could be possible for Eid. But when the Ann Arbor schools administrative staff asked, they got a different answer from the state: No. So they told AAPSG that the answer was no. AAPSG did not like that answer, especially since they thought the answer from the state had already been yes.

At the behest of the person who contacted me, I contacted the school board and administration, and they did a little bit more poking around, and went back to the state Department of Education, and confirmed that the answer was, in fact: No.

However, the district did not formally request a "deviation" and I was a bit confused about that. The MEAP administrator at the state level offered to talk to me about it, and I took her up on it, learning a bit about the MEAP in the process.

1. MEAP testing is given in a time window, with certain dates for certain tests. Then there are make-up days.

2. A "deviation" would only be given by the state if a school is actually closed. (For instance, for Eid I think the Dearborn schools are closed.) But then again, if a school is closed, there are no staff to give a test or kids to take it, so that's rather circular logic there. (In fact, it's not even clear to me why, if a school is closed, you need to request a deviation.)

So basically, Ann Arbor was told that since they weren't closing any schools, they couldn't get a deviation, even though it contradicts their local policy about giving standardized tests on three-star holidays. Thus I say, State 1, Local 0.

(Side note: the schools I grew up in were, and are, closed for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, even though only about 5% of the kids were, and are, Jewish.)

3. I asked the state administrator why the tests have to be given on certain days, especially given that there are makeup days. Why couldn't the district just substitute a makeup day for a specific test day? The answer: Security.  I said, "but you have makeup days," and was basically told that they have to make accommodations for kids who miss school (because they are high stakes tests), but it would be a "nightmare" in terms of security if, for example, different schools gave the math test on different days. (Think: cheating.)

This is where we see what is meant by "high stakes" testing. If the MEAP wasn't "high stakes," nobody would worry about the implications of swapping days. And unfortunately, the district doesn't have any control over this. And the stakes are high for the district because if fewer than 95% of the kids in any school take the test, then the school won't make adequate yearly progress. And penalties ensue. To the district.

As far as the district goes, this is what I learned:

1. The district did respond to the initial request of the AAPSG, which is good. I think the communication channels still need a little bit of working out, because it appears that the district staff didn't adequately explain the situation (which is how I got pulled into this). Over the past few years I have found several times that even when the district staff are doing the right thing, the communication back to families from central administration is very weak and leaves people confused and upset.  But, I'm hopeful that this is about to change, because...

2. I was very pleasantly surprised by the communication from the top AAPS staff. It was a HUGE improvement over the past administration's practices. I actually got an email from the superintendent (and a couple of board members too--thank you board)! Fingers crossed for more great communication back to parents.

And to the district staff I say: Thank you very much for trying to follow the religious calendar guidelines. Even though you weren't able to do so this time, I truly appreciate the effort.

Read more about the state MEAP policies, if you want...and remember, next year there will probably be a different assessment...and probably even more assessments (go to the same place as the MEAP link in this paragraph, and look at the Smarter Balanced information). Ugh. High stakes testing. There is lots to organize around in the coming year.

The Three Star Holiday: Ann Arbor Guidelines

"The three star holiday," someone wrote me. "Is that really a thing?"

Why yes, yes it is. At least in Ann Arbor.

In Ann Arbor, many years ago (and when I say "many years ago" what I really mean is, "before I had kids in the schools"--I don't really know when this was devised)--the school district came up with the idea of identifying religious holidays (even some obscure ones--or they might be obscure to you--as one, two, or three star holidays). The three star holidays are a combination of most important/most popularly observed for various religions.

Overall, I think the policy is well-written and designed. Where the district has fallen short (or rather some teachers/principals/coaches have fallen short) is in not following the policy.

Which is why, if you have children in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and especially if you are a member of a minority religion/culture (Muslim, Jewish, Hindi, Greek Orthodox, etc.) I highly recommend that you read the policy. Knowledge is power! Then if there is a problem, you know how to complain advocate. . .

Read the policy here, but below I'm going to paste in the policy for three-star holidays in particular.

Real Life Experience

The Jewish calendar is a combined lunar/solar calendar, which means that there are leap months every two-three years that reset the calendar (so that a fall holiday stays as a fall holiday and doesn't move into a different season). And so Jews are often saying that "the holidays" are early or late. In the fall there are a series of important Jewish holidays--essentially, a month full of holy days.

In Jewish parlance, this year the holidays are "early." In fact, they are very early. They are so early that for the first time since Thanksgiving has existed, the first day of Chanukah is on Thanksgiving! (Yes, by the time Christmas comes we Jews will be done with all that candle lighting, gift-giving and potato-pancake-eating.)

Anyway, I've set this to post on Wednesday, the eve of the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah), and the start of the "High Holy Days" season. For the next two days we'll be celebrating the new year with family, friends, and services. My son will not be in school, even though we will only be on the third and fourth day of the school year. When the three-star holiday policy works, it works very well. When it isn't followed, I can say from personal experience that it is extremely stressful.* (*=Story below the 3-star policy.)

Here is an excerpt from the policy:

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS GUIDELINESI. Holiday observances of major significance to a religious group are indicated on the calendar by three stars (***). The following apply:
School district employees may not schedule any of the following during these (three star) holidays.
   1. Major exams   2. Reviews for major exams   3. Standardized tests   4. Tryouts; for example, teams, plays   5. One-time or major events (proms, graduation ceremonies, homecoming, elections, test simulations, etc.)   6. School district employees shall schedule interscholastic athletic games in a manner that minimizes conflict with holidays designated as three star. Scheduling of an athletic event on a three star holiday must be reviewed by the Superintendent or designee. Board members will be notified well in advance when there is a conflict.   7. Interscholastic athletic practices are allowed
School district employees may arrange for students to participate in one-time or major events on three star holidays if the scheduling of these events is not controlled by our employees. Scheduling of such events must be approved by the building principal and the Superintendent or designee.
Teachers should be sensitive to the scheduling of quizzes longer than ten minutes on holidays designated by three stars (***).
Students will probably be with their families or at a place of worship in observance of these holidays. They will not be in school and/or not have time available to do the required homework. Absence to observe these holidays should be excused, and make-up privileges should be the same as the make-up privileges offered to a student who has an excused absence due to illness.

*Probably the area in which I have seen the most problems is athletics. Take, for example, the year that my son was playing Pioneer baseball, and a game was scheduled for the night of the first seder of Passover. (Jewish holidays start the evening before the day.) The game was not some outside competition. The game was not some league championship. The game was scheduled between Pioneer and Huron--clearly within the district's control, and violating point #6 above. My son (the only Jewish kid on the team) did not want me to rock the boat. He said, "I will just miss it, don't say anything." Apparently, at the last minute, a parent on the Huron team complained. As a result, the freshman game was cancelled--but not the JV/Varsity games. [This was before Skyline existed, and there was a freshman team.]

By far, the most common complaints I have heard about are athletic in nature. Coaches and Athletic Directors--put those religious holidays on your calendar and schedule around them! The second most common complaint? Science labs being scheduled, and then teachers being resistant to letting kids make them up. Reminder: the absence is to be treated in the same way as if a student was out for an illness.

Last year, the NWEA MAP test was given on Yom Kippur. Pat Green tried to argue that it wasn't a standardized test. (See #3 above.) Yes, it is a standardized test. Even if you think it isn't a standardized test, it certainly takes more than 10 minutes to give ! (See the additional guidance above.) My son ended up being pulled out of another class to take this completely unnecessary standardized test. Had I known about that in advance, I would have made a big stink. I didn't know about it in advance, so I couldn't. (This year, Yom Kippur is on a Saturday, but I hope Jeanice Swift will be more sensitive to holiday issues.)

** Another confusing piece of the holiday has to do with which holidays are two-star and three-star. There are Jewish holidays that get counted as "two star" even though according to Jewish law they should be treated exactly the same as some of the "three star" holidays. The reason, per the policy? "A balance between the formal religious standard and the actual contemporary observance of the holiday has been the intended aim of these recommendations." In reality, many fewer people observe these "two-star" holidays to the full extent of (Jewish) law. However, if you are one of those people, know that the two-star policy should protect your student: "Make-up privileges should be the same as those offered for an absence due to illness."

And although my examples of this have all been about Jewish observance, note that the guidelines are the same for the three-star Eid Al-Adha (this year, mid-October) and the three-star Epiphany (the first week in January, right when school starts back up). For those of you who are from other religions, think of these holidays as just as important as Christmas is in the main Christian calendar.

And in my opinion, if you (as a parent) feel that a holiday is important for you, then you should definitely keep your child out of school and let the school know why. The schools are trying to accommodate us, and when we let them know that we are observing a holiday, we give them a reason to continue to try to do so.

And with that, I will wish you a 

Happy and Healthy (Jewish) New Year and a 

Happy and Healthy New School Year! 

Around the County

Superintendent Searches and Related Information

Ann Arbor is in the middle of a superintendent search. I've written about it here. You can take a survey about what you would like to see in a superintendent You might find some of the "desired character traits" can be read in two ways. There is also an opportunity for comments. Take the survey here.

Dexter has been employing an interim Superintendent and it looks like they have identified a preferred candidate for the permanent position--Dr. Chris Timmis, currently Superintendent in the Adrian Public Schools. The school board president's letter, posted on the school web site, starts out like this:

Superintendent Search UpdateThe Board of Education would like to share current information about the superintendent search process. If you have any questions, feel free to ask a member of the School Board, or you may ask one of the building principals or union leaders who will contact us to get an answer.

Later, he writes:

Dr. Timmis embodies most of the characteristics the district and community identified as important for our next superintendent. He is a visionary leader who has shown the ability to solve existing problems and to be an innovative leader by thinking outside the box for meaningful improvements. As superintendent of Adrian Public Schools for the last five years, Dr. Timmis took his district from a low-performing, financially distressed district to one that has become a model in the state for rising student performance. Although the issues in Dexter are different from what Adrian Public Schools has faced, we see in him the ability to help Dexter move from good to great, and expand the opportunities for success of all our students.

Read the full (and detailed) letter provided on the Dexter Schools web site.

There will be a public interview. According to the letter,

The Board will interview Dr. Timmis at a public meeting on June 4th at 7:00 PM at Creekside Intermediate School Media Center. If the Board decides to continue the process, a site visit to Adrian Schools will take place the week of June 10th to talk with Adrian Schools staff, Board members, and the community. Following the site visit, a date will be set for the Board to vote on whether to hire Dr. Timmis as our superintendent.

I'm glad they are. . . doing a site visit. . . and having a public interview. And I didn't find Chris Timmis' name coming up on any searches related to Broad Foundation information.

Ypsilanti Community Schools

Dedrick Martin--current Ypsilanti Public Schools superintendent, who was to continue as an assistant superintendent in the new district because the district was going to have to pay him anyway, has taken a job in St. Johns, Michigan. So now they are going to hire a Chief Financial Officer instead of an assistant superintendent. What do you think of that?

Schools of Choice

Saline is opening a limited Schools of Choice, with at least 50 kindergarten spots, at least 10 first grade spots, and at least 15 high school spots. There are some other spots available as well, depending on enrollment over the summer. Find out more here.

Lots of other schools have schools of choice as well, including Lincoln, Milan, Whitmore Lake, the new Ypsilanti Community Schools, Manchester. I think Chelsea has schools of choice this year (but I could only find last year's form); Dexter has opened to a very limited schools of choice (I think five students) and Ann Arbor had schools of choice but the "window" for applications has closed.

Additional Information

Chelsea Update, found at chelseaupdate.com, is a local news source, and at the top of the page there is a "Schools" tab if you are looking for Chelsea Schools information.

Dexter Patch is also a source of information about Dexter schools.

Good Reads

Why Minnesota's Governor Vetoed Teach for America Funding

This has absolutely nothing to do with schools, but it is about valuing our histories. This is a fascinating article about how historic treasures were saved in Timbuktu when northern Mali was taken over by radical Islamists.

Standing at the Creation of Public Schools in the United States

This week it's the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. In the Jewish tradition, we are all supposed to see ourselves as if we were in the Sinai desert, when the Torah (Five Books of Moses) was given to the Jewish people. That is because the Torah is foundational to Jewish understanding of Jews as a people. When Jews "see" themselves as if they were "present" at Sinai, it's as if a connecting strand stretches back thousands of years. It's not literally true, but it's a powerful image.

I know, you're thinking--but what does that have to do with education in Michigan?

In a recent conversation with Steve Norton of Michigan Parents for Schools, he said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that "some of the anti-public school people try to make it seem as if public schools were an idea hatched by hippies in the 1960s. Some of them believe that public schools are a recent innovation. And nothing could be further from the truth." No, he argues (still paraphrasing here), "public schools are foundational to our understanding of ourselves as a nation. Public schools helped create our nation, and our national identity."

I think that in order to argue for public schools, it's important to understand that public schools have a long, deep history in our country.

So here is a short quiz, and then some pictures of some historic public schools in Washtenaw County, and then the quiz answers. (No peeking until you've tried!) [Update: Quiz closed, but you can find the questions and answers here.]

Sharon District #1 School from 1890 is located just outside Manchester on Pleasant Lake Road. Photo: Ruth Kraut

 I couldn't find out too much about this school, but if you know some of its history you could put it in the comments. The Manchester Area Historical Society records for schools are at the Bentley Library, and District No. 1 was in existence from 1839-1952, according to the catalog. Take a look at the catalog here.

Blaess School in Saline is now located on the campus of the old Saline High School. Photo: Ruth Kraut

About Blaess School:

In 1836, a year before Michigan became a state, Lodi Township (north of Saline, MI) was platted. The present Weber-Blaess one-room school was built in 1867 in Section 17, on Ellsworth Road in Lodi Township. A simple wood structure was built on the same stone foundation as its predecessor, a log school that had burned a year earlier.

Read more here.

Quiz Answers:

1. The first public school in the country was Boston Latin, founded in 1635.

2. In 1827, Massachusetts passed a law making schools free to all children. (And yes, Michigan wasn't even a state then! Just testing you...). And even earlier, pre-Revolution, Massachusetts had the Old Deluder Satan Law which required schools to be established in towns with more than fifty families. By the way, Massachusetts is still a leader in public education in our country, funding public schools at something like twice the amount of funding that Michigan schools get.

3. In the 19th century, most states passed laws forbidding using public funds for parochial schools. (This largely started out because the mostly Protestant U.S. saw a lot of new immigrants who were Catholic moving in. Still--the issue of keeping public funding for public schools has a long, long history.) There is lots of interesting history around the education of African-Americans, Asians (particularly the education of the children of Chinese immigrants in California), and Native Americans (who were forbidden to be taught in their native languages).

4. The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case was overturned by the Brown v. the Board of Ed. decision. However, you should read up on these other cases! Engel v. Vitale is about prayer in public schools; Tinker v. Des Moines features Ann Arbor's own Paul Tinkerhess and is a free speech case; and Hendrick Hudson Board of Ed. v. Rowley is an early special education case.

So, in sum--if we think of ourselves as being present at the founding of our nation, then we were surely present at the founding of our public schools. They are foundational to our national heritage. Stand beside them. And guide them. Protect them. And defend them.

Despair. Hope. Chanukah.

It has been a rough week in the political arena. The push for privatization of public education. . . the ramming through of the freedom to freeload (a.k.a. right to work) legislation. . . and some other bills that have gotten less attention around reproductive rights (see the ACLU of Michigan letter), foster care/adoption, and the removal of benefits for people caring for disabled relatives (see the Michigan League for Human Services blog), well. . . it's a bit much.

Last night was the first night of Chanukah. And you might know that we Jews light a menorah that has eight candles or oil lamps (well, nine, actually--one is a "helper" candle), each one representing one of the nights.  As with most Jewish rituals, there are rabbinic arguments that have defined the rituals. In the case of the Chanukah lights, two famous rabbis disagreed. Shammai said that you should start on night #1 by lighting all of the lights, and each night subtract a light. Hillel  said that you should start on night #1 with one light, and each night add a light.

If you have ever heard of Hillel and Shammai, then you probably already know that they had many arguments. These are recorded in the compendium of Jewish law and stories called the Talmud. Nearly all of the time, Hillel won. (Shammai only won twice.) Hillel won in the case of the Chanukah lights--we start with one light and add one each day. And his reasoning makes sense to me, too--that we should always strive to increase light in the world.

If you were to read some of the other Hillel/Shammai discussions, what would probably strike you is that Hillel was very much a creative problem-solver; and ultimately, his decisions carried the day.

This week, I'm trying not to despair. I'm trying to be hopeful. I'm trying to believe that in the long run, the people who believe in the value of public education and in the value of democracy will win. Just like Hillel.

If you need inspiration, I've got Peter Paul and Mary's "Light One Candle" at the end for inspiration. (The version I found on youtube is rather sappy. I'm just warning you :). As they say, "Light one candle for the strength that we need, to never become our own foe. . . Light one candle for all we believe in, that anger not tear us apart. . . don't let the lights go out!"

If you support workers' rights, you're being asked to wear red on Monday.

If you are able to attend the rallies in Lansing on Tuesday about the workers' rights, reproductive rights, and the legislative process, I've received several facebook event invitations. You can drive directly to Lansing or you can get on the bus with other like-minded people. 

Leave from the Ann Arbor Education Association offices at 7:30 in the morning (get there at 7:15).
https://www.facebook.com/events/298623080257089/

Start at 8 a.m. at Lansing Center and march to the Capitol to be there at 9:30 a.m..
https://www.facebook.com/events/121775524650254/

Join Planned Parenthood Advocates at the Capitol at 9:30 a.m.
https://www.facebook.com/events/412328062173786


Oh, and one more thing. If you would like to strategize with Ann Arbor school board member Andy Thomas, he's got an open "coffee hour," also on Tuesday, December 11th, from 7-8 p.m. at Sweetwaters Cafe, 123 W. Washington St. in Ann Arbor.

The Choosing, Looping, and Making of Teachers

My friend's daughter co-writes a blog about Jewish texts. (You can find it here.) In a recent post, Maya writes:

Our learning for this week was focused around the teaching from Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers, a collection of ethics and advice]: “aseh lecha rav, u’kneh lecha chaver, v’hevey dan et kol ha’adam l’chaf zchut. Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend, and judge every person with the scales tipped in his favor.”

When we learned this text over the summer, one of its aspects that I particularly liked was the use of the verb aseh (make) rather than kneh (acquire) in reference to finding teachers. A teacher, implies the text, is not discovered but cultivated. More so, anyone can be made into a teacher, as it is a process of relationship building rather than a swift act of obtaining. Avot d’Rabbi Natan [A commentary on Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers] reads this text a bit more literally. “Melamed she’ya’aseh lo rav kavua. This teaches us that a person should have a fixed teacher.” From this teacher, a student should learn [many different Jewish texts] Torah, Mishna, midrash, halachah, and aggadah. In this way, if a teacher forgets a detail when teaching Torah, for example, this detail will still ultimately be imparted to the student when the teacher teaches Mishna.

I know very few people who have a rav kavua, a fixed teacher. In my personal experience, I have not only had different teachers for Tanach, Mishnah, and the rest of my Jewish learning, but I also have a whole other set of teachers from whom I have learned English literature, calculus, physics, and history. . . . In speaking about students like me, Avot d’Rabbi Natan asserts that “nimtza adam ha’hu…b’lo tov u’vracha. A man like this will be found…to have neither goodness nor blessing.” Great…

I thought this was very thought-provoking because, in fact, in our public schools not only do we generally take the approach that it's best to have subject-specific teachers, but also, we don't even generally tell students who will be teaching their classes. I've always imagined this was because schools were afraid to share that information because people would "vote with their feet." One of the very popular aspects of Community High School in Ann Arbor is that students generally do know who will be teaching a class you might choose to take. Yet in college, many students are persuaded to take a class in a subject they didn't think they would be interested in [be it political science, philosophy, or physics] because of the caliber of the professor.

At the elementary school level, if you (and here I am referring, generally, to parents) have any choice at all, you are generally asked to "describe the characteristics you want" rather than the teacher you want. And even if you do have some control over who you get as a teacher, you will probably not have that teacher for year after year.

One exception would be the Rudolph Steiner schools, where the idea is that you "loop" with the teacher, so the teacher moves up the grades with the student. Even in the Steiner schools, though, I don't think you get to "choose" your teachers.

As an aside, when I student taught, I taught in a middle school classroom where the students looped for seventh and eighth grade. At the beginning of the year, I was astonished by how quickly the eighth grade students--who knew the teacher from the year before--settled into a comfortable routine.

Obviously there are some down sides to looping as well--if you have a weak teacher, or a teacher who is weak in one area, that could lead to problems down the road.

There are a few aspects of the text Maya discusses that I found interesting:
1. The idea that you can, and should, choose your teacher.
2. The idea that the teacher can, and should, teach multiple subjects. [Later on in the post, Maya points out that this would allow teachers to make connections between subjects.]
3. And last, but not least, the idea that you can, and should, "make" your teacher, and not just "acquire" your teacher. That, of course, implies that the teacher is also learning from the student.

So--that is food for thought. Have you had experiences where you got to choose your teacher? Where you stuck with a teacher for several years? Where you "made" your teacher? How did it work out for you?

News Hits

Milan schools are thinking about whether they should drop the Big Reds name and the Native American logos associated with it. I guess another alternative would be to keep the name (which arose from their red uniforms!) and change the logos (which arose from the name Big Reds).

I just found out that the Washtenaw County parks have more than one accessible playground. At Independence Lake park there is an accessible playground and fishing pier. Rolling Hills has a new accessible playground. Rolling Hills also has a new braille description of a walk in Sassafras Woods, available for a loan.

Ann Arbor school's technology millage campaign is kicking off this week. Read more about it in this annarbor.com article. Or if you prefer, look at the Ann Arbor Citizens Millage Campaign website.

The Michigan Islamic Academy is suing Pittsfield Township over its denial of the Academy's rezoning request for property on which they had planned to build a school, based on religious discrimination. The Council on American Islamic Relations has joined the lawsuit, and the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a formal investigation as well.

Last, but not least! The groups collecting signatures to put the emergency financial manager law on the ballot have collected enough signatures to bring them to Lansing to be validated. They have collected over 218,000 signatures and need the state to certify 161,000 of them as legitimate in order to get the voter referendum on the November ballot.

Save the Golden Frog! A View of the Ann Arbor Open Multicultural Fair

Sure, there's lots of hard-hitting news to be written, but I thought I'd start off, post-winter break, with a look back at the last week before winter break, and a peek at my favorite school event of the year. My favorite school event of the year is Ann Arbor Open's Multicultural Fair.
What do I like about this event?
To begin with, it is the culmination of several weeks of project-based learning for each and every class in the school.
Second, it begins with a gigantic potluck that enhances the sense of community.
Third, it is a fundraiser for the library. Families are asked to bring a potluck dish and a $10 donation, but nobody is turned away.  A lot of people come, and the event raises a couple thousand dollars for the Ann Arbor Open library every year.
And last--but not least--I really appreciate the timing of the event. Since the Multicultural Fair takes place the week before break, the entire focus of the school that last week is on the Multicultural Fair exhibits. That's right. The focus is not on Christmas. As a Jewish parent, I find this to be a huge relief--even when the fair itself takes place on one of the nights of Chanukah. (After all, there are eight nights of Chanukah.) I've been in other schools just before Christmas and the Christmas fever is a little bit overwhelming.
So this year I took some pictures (with a cell phone). They are not going to win any awards, but they will give you some of the flavor.

Some of the first and second graders were studying Malawi, and they built a village.

All of the seventh and eighth graders worked together on a spectacular exhibit around Africa.
During the event, the students took turns drumming. I did take pictures of them drumming, but since I didn't ask permission to use their photos, the only one I'm posting is where everybody is blurry:). On the far left is Papa Tito, who is an African drummer by training and who came in and worked with the students.

Here you can see the baobab tree that some students built.

I have to say that the Africa exhibit made me realize how terrible my African geography is. I do have a basic grasp of the larger countries, and I did know a lot about a few of the countries. But had I heard of Sao Tome and Principe? No, I had not. Did I know that the Second Congo War has been the deadliest war since World War II? It sounded familiar, but I couldn't tell you the reasons for the conflict. Yes, I did learn some things from the students' exhibits.


 The third and fourth graders studying Panama decided to do something about the demise of the golden frogs of Panama. There were students sitting at a table collecting donations. I took a picture of the sign.

I made a donation and I got one of these really cute bookmarks in return. Do you notice the pink tongue? And I love how that is a "corner" bookmark.

Time and Time Again

Lately my son has been getting a lot of bar and bat mitzvah invitations. A bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah (bar mitzvah for a boy, bat mitzvah for a girl) is a Jewish ritual rite of passage marking the transition from being a Jewish kid to a Jewish adult (ritually speaking). (My son has not had his bar mitzvah yet.)

As you might or might not know, generally when kids have a bar or bat mitzvah they get presents. And then they have to write thank you notes. When I had my bat mitzvah, the thank you notes seemed endless.

Which led me to the following recent conversation.

Me: "Joe got his thank you notes out really quickly! His bar mitzvah was just last week!"
Son: "Well, it takes less time if you do it quickly."
Me: "It doesn't take less time. Whether you do it quickly or slowly, it takes the same amount of time."
Son: "No, if you get them done in a week instead of two weeks, it takes less time."
Me: "But if every thank you note takes 5 minutes, and you have to write 20 notes, it takes 100 minutes altogether, whether you write 2 a day for 10 days, or do all 20 in 1 day!"

[We'll leave aside the fact that you might achieve efficiencies if you do a lot of them at once. Because you also might get writer's cramp.]

The math on this--which my son did understand--goes like this:
5 minutes/note x 20 notes = 100 minutes
2 notes/day x 10 days = 20 notes/day x 1 day
And yet, my son insisted: "No, it takes less time, because it's a shorter amount of time."
And here, my son is referring to the difference between 10 days, and 1 day. In other words, he was thinking of time as a spatial entity, and I was thinking of time as a quantity. [Mathematicians might have different words for that, by the way.]

I know, you're thinking, "That's a cute story, Ruth, but what does that have to do with schools?"

When I was in elementary, middle, and high school, we had to go to school a minimum of 180 days/year. So school was scheduled for 183 days/year, in order to account for snow days and other unforeseen events.

But now, school is scheduled with a minimum number of minutes as a requirement. A few years ago, when the legislature increased the number of minutes that students had to go to school, most districts just distributed those minutes over the school days, rather than add days to the school year. Typically, just a few minutes a day really added up.  All of which led to the following exchange that I thought was very funny with an elementary school teacher.

That year, we were chronically late to school with our oldest son, and the teacher commented on it.
Me: "I guess I had the time school starts wrong. What time is the bell?"
Teacher: "Well, the first bell is at 8:08."
Me: "OK, what time is the second bell?"
Teacher: "It used to be at 8:14, but now we don't have a second bell any more."

Does it make a difference, minutes or days? Is time a quantity or a spatial entity? You be the judge.

Update 12/13/11: Honestly, I did not know when I wrote this that annarbor.com had just published an article on the idea of using a balanced calendar at Scarlett and Mitchell. Nothing has been decided yet, and you can read the article here. As I've written about before, I myself am not interested in a balanced calendar for my kids. I know that other people are. I think the balanced calendar would be fine if people can opt in or out of it. So if Scarlett/Mitchell becomes a K-8 magnet with a balanced calendar, I'm sure some people will want it. Others won't, and they should be able to go elsewhere.

UPDATED: School Prayer: Did she really say that?**

I just noticed this Ann Arbor Journal article, ANN ARBOR: School board candidates meet with cabinet staff, ask questions at forum, that came out on August 24th, 2011, while I was away. Many thanks to the Ann Arbor Journal for covering this meeting.

It starts out,

School board candidates Patrick Leonard, Lawrence Murphy, Albert Howard and Ahmar Iqbal met the Ann Arbor Public Schools cabinet staff and asked questions Aug. 23.

The "cabinet staff" refers to the top paid professionals in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. The idea was to help the school board candidates get oriented.

One of the candidate's questions were summarized:

[Albert] Howard had some religious questions to ask of the board, as well. Howard asked David Cosma if "the AAPS (would) be willing to add the Bible as a historical book to their teaching curriculum," to which Cosma stated that Michigan law allowed the Bible to be taught as a historical document, but the decision to teach the Bible was not his decision.

I think the article is referring to David Comsa, who is the district's legal counsel. There actually are English classes in the district that teach small bits of the Bible as literature.  I'm not sure if there are also history classes using it.

Here's the doozy, though--are you ready for it?

Howard also asked [Patricia] Green if she supported prayer in school, to which she replied she didn't have a position and would uphold what the board decided. (Emphasis added.)

Really? Patricia Green--the new AAPS superintendent--has been an educator for many, many years. She's been a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, a principal, and a teacher. She has a PhD in Educational Philosophy, and she doesn't have a position on school prayer?

Here are the descriptive words* that I've come up with to describe the possible reasons for her response.
1. This is a load of malarkey. In other words, she's selling the school board candidates--and us--a load of b.s.
2. She's being disingenuous. In other words, she is not telling the truth.
3. She's obfuscating. In other words, she's hiding her true feelings behind a veil of impartiality.
4. She's being obsequious. In other words, she wants the new school board candidates to feel that they can do whatever they want.

If any of these are true, my confidence in her is diminished. In other words, I feel less confident.

On the other hand--what if it is true that she doesn't have a position on school prayer? That is even scarier to me. Anyone who has had leadership positions in multiple school districts should be expected to have a position on school prayer.
___________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: Liz Margolis, the AAPS Communications Director, sent me the following email after I had already published this post: 

The report was inaccurate. When Mr. Howard asked Dr. Green how she felt about prayer in school it came right after he asked David Comsa the same questions. Dr. Green followed up David Comsa's response that she didn't have a position because she would follow the law. It was not meant as a way to ditch the subject at all but rather a way to address a question which she believes the law dictates.

The Ann Arbor Journal has not yet posted a correction, but if they do, I will share it. 

If Liz Margolis' account is correct, I feel relief that our new superintendent said something more reasonable. I wasn't there, but if anyone else who was there would like to share their observations of what happened at the meeting, feel free to do that in the comments. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Not only that, but I am pretty sure that the Ann Arbor school board and school leadership has discussed this before. There may even be a position on record. I couldn't find out for sure, because the Ann Arbor schools web site is pretty much impossible to search nowadays.
____________________________________________________________________________

 More Update: Liz Margolis also promises to share past Ann Arbor school board policies and discussions about school prayer--if any exist--and if so, I will post them as well, in a separate post. 

____________________________________________________________________________

I was, however, able to dig up the religious calendar policy (because I already knew it existed), and it infers in this paragraph--which I very much like--that school prayer would not be welcomed:

We are a diverse community reflecting many traditions and perspectives. If each of us is sensitive to both the direct and subtle ways we demonstrate respect and appreciation for these differences, we will each be a positive force in providing a multi-cultural education for our students.

Alternatively, Patricia Green could have turned to one of the other cabinet members, and said, "I don't know if there already is a policy in place--can anyone with a longer history with the district answer this question?" 
Or she could have shared her (real) position.
Or she could have shared the process for the district to come up with a position, if there isn't one.
Or she could have said something like, "There is a very long history of litigation around school prayer issues and the case law on this is fairly well-settled." Perhaps she could have even referred Mr. Howard to some of the cases, such as Engel v. Vitale."
____________________________________________________________________________
Update: Per Liz Margolis she did something like the last choice.
_____________________________________________________________________________
In any case, I can tell you that I am chagrined, crestfallen, dissatisfied, disappointed, disgruntled, and--yes--vexed and confounded by her response. Or not, if the update is correct.

*Hey, high school students and parents of high school students: these could be good ACT/SAT words! Look them up if you don't know them!

**All of this assumes that Dr. Green's response was accurately recorded--which is the assumption that I generally make with our local news reporters. Please see the updates in this post. They do confound this assumption, and, in fact, the whole post.

The Post-Labor Day Start

At the end of September, 2005, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed into law the requirement that Michigan schools start after Labor Day. Essentially, this was done to encourage that last week of tourism. Here are the bill details. I find it interesting that International Baccalaureate schools, and year-round schools, are exempt.

And really, I have nothing against a post-Labor Day start. I always started school after Labor Day growing up. Although--before the legislators took action--I did really enjoy it when my kids' schools started the week before Labor Day, on a Tuesday, with Friday off (that was a previous legislative attempt to encourage tourism)--that gave us a three-day week, and then a four-day week...and if the timing worked out, Rosh Hashana would be the following week and I would really get to ease my way back into the school life. Usually, I feel like a Mack Truck has hit me in early September.

So, as I said, I don't particularly mind that school starts after Labor Day, except that I've noticed that those legislators are all for local control, independent minds, etc...except when they aren't, which seems to be kind of frequent.

Anyway, I have fall plans for this blog, but in the meantime, there is the start of school, and Rosh Hashana this week. Don't expect much. (Although--expect nothing, and maybe you will be happy with what you get!)
It's also the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, at the same time as Rosh Hashana. (I think they overlap. I wonder how many school absences there will be.)
So--a few things:
If you want to see the Ann Arbor Public Schools calendar, including the religious holidays, here is where it is.

And to my Jewish readers, Shana Tova--may you have a happy and sweet New Year.
And to my Muslim readers, Eid Mubarak--may you have a blessed festival.

By the way--if you are wondering about my son's start at college, he says, "College is fun!" (That was before classes started.) After classes started, he thanked his Community High School philosophy/English teacher, Brian Miller, for assigning Credo. Apparently, that was the first thing he was assigned in his Introduction to Ethics class.

Links to Make You Think

An analysis of special education issues in New Jersey. I know, it's not Michigan, but what I found especially interesting is just how variable the percentage of students diagnosed with special eduction needs is, state to state. Why?

From National Public Radio's On Point, a discussion of the ramifications of laying off so many teachers nationwide.

Tonight, while watching the Tigers game on the television, I saw an ad for Cornerstone Schools. I was curious, so I checked it out. Cornerstone Schools is a private school with a Christ-centered mission (their words, not mine) in Detroit. That's all well and good, but they have spun off two charter schools. Read this article, and you--like me--will likely worry about the division between church and state in charter schools. I don't really get it, and I don't really believe there's much separation going on here.

I generally like Kym Worthy, but jail time for missing parent-teacher conferences? Come on! Don't we have enough people in jail as it is? Let's start with offering more opportunities for parent-teacher conferences, okay?

And, as usual, Sharon Parks of the Michigan League for Human Services has a stellar blog post--in part about foster care--focused on the state budget. Is state government unraveling?

December Anxiety

I meant this post as a follow-up to my earlier post, Ramadan Mubarak. I started this around the time of the Jewish New Year, and it seemed appropriate to connect these two posts to the actual Muslim and Jewish calendars.  But the best laid plans...here it is, close to the secular/Roman/U.S. New Year, and I'm just getting back to it.

My first encounter with the experience of Jewish kids in the Ann Arbor Public Schools came before I had kids in the schools, and it was a shock. As a transplant from the northeast, I was used to the idea that even schools with fairly low numbers of Jewish kids still were closed, minimally, for the Jewish high holidays; and there were still 2, 3, or 4 Jewish kids in every class. As a young child, it made intuitive sense to me that school would start in September--of course, because that is when the Jewish holidays were. [In fact, the idea that the "New Year" would be in January made no sense to me at all.]

One day about 15 years ago, shortly before Chanukah, I was visiting a 3d or 4th grade classroom on the north side of Ann Arbor. I was setting up for my presentation in the back of the room, and I watched, fascinated, as the teacher called up "Jane," with her menorah (candelabra) and dreidel (spinning top), to explain the holiday of Chanukah. Although Jane was clearly prepared, she was also shy. The teacher tried to help her a little by asking Jane questions about the holiday, and then asked, "Can anyone else help Jane?" Nobody raised a hand. I was shocked. Was Jane the only Jewish child in the whole class? Coming home that night, I shared the story with my husband, who had grown up Jewish in mid-Michigan. He wasn't shocked at all. In fact, he had probably had that experience. But I--I was plagued by self-doubt. Could I? Should I? send my kids to school in a school system where they would be even more of a minority than I had been in my school? I wasn't sure.

Cut to many years later. My kids have never been the only Jewish kids in their classes, although they have sometimes been the most observant (which creates a different set of challenges). Ann Arbor schools are still somewhat segregated by class and race, and just as Muslim kids are not divided evenly among the schools, neither are Jewish kids. In some schools, there are quite a few Jewish kids, and in others, very few.

So--how has our experience, and the experience of the other Jewish families I know--been?

For the most part fine, but there have been a few glaring exceptions. The problem with glaring exceptions, as you know, is that they stick with you for a long, long time.

So--let's start with the fact that the Ann Arbor Public Schools have a religious holidays policy. You can read it here. Essentially, the policy addresses how to handle a religious holidays calendar, which has finally been "meshed" with the other calendars, and which labels holidays as one-star, two-star, and three-star. As you might suspect, Yom Kippur and the last day of Ramadan are labeled as three-star holidays, which means "most important." Good Friday? It's a two-star holiday. But guess which day the schools are closed on? If you guessed Good Friday, and not the last day of Ramadan, you would be right. I should note that the "stars" don't just denote observance importance. They also try to estimate how popular the holiday is as far as observance goes. For instance, the Jewish holidays of Sukkot and Passover are equally important from the point of view of Jewish observance. However, more Jews observe the Passover seder, and so. . . those first days of Passover get three stars, and the first days of Sukkot get two. On one level, that seems reasonable to me, although I think some of the star levels should be revisited. And I will say this: if any of the other school districts in the county have an articulated religious observance policy, I couldn't find it. So kudos to Ann Arbor for even having one.

Issues come up every year, and not just in December.
Just this week, I felt slightly queasy when I saw the Saline Schools twitter about kids working on wreaths.  You might not think of wreaths as Christmas-y, but I do. Poinsettias and trees, too, for that matter.

I felt even queasier when I saw that kids from Erickson Elementary in Ypsilanti were singing carols at a Christmas tree lighting in Ypsilanti. 

Don't get me wrong--I am happy to help my neighbors put ornaments on their trees, I enjoy listening to other people sing carols or Handel's Messiah. But. But. But I don't want that in our public schools. That is where I want separation of church and state.


I approached my first  December in the Ann Arbor schools with a lot of trepidation. I found truth in the phrase, "A best defense is a good offense," and I felt a HUGE amount of relief when I found that Ann Arbor Open (where my oldest was) had come up with a great solution to the "December dilemma." The school's Multicultural Festival--a full-scale extravaganza that involves every classroom studying a culture in depth, AND a community potluck, AND a fundraiser for the school library--was scheduled for the week before the December break. And guess what the net effect was? All of the kids' attention was on the Multicultural Festival, and (almost) none of it on the holidays. I highly recommend this approach (substitute something really engrossing, some project-based learning) as a way to deal with both Christmas and Chanukah. This year, the Ann Arbor Open Multicultural Festival is scheduled for Thursday, December 17th, 2009, 6-8 p.m. (There is a suggested donation that helps support the library, but it is NOT required.) Visitors are welcome to come eat and travel from classroom to classroom with a "passport." The Multicultural Festival? It is my favorite night of the school year.

Coming Soon: So how is that religious holidays policy working for you?

Ramadan Mubarak: A Blessed Ramadan

First--to any Muslim readers--may you have a Ramadan Mubarak, a blessed month of Ramadan.

I started this post a few weeks ago, intending to write about whether or not the Ann Arbor Public Schools are welcoming to Muslims--and what more AAPS could do. And now that seems even more relevant, following the incident at Skyline. I have no doubt that--whether it was the "fault" of the school district or not, whether the fight was ethnically/religiously motivated or not--the perception of the fight in the Muslim and Arab communities will be that it was related to prejudice.

So--did I mention that there are two schools in the county that cater to Muslim and/or Arab families? The Islamic Academy is a parochial school with something in the neighborhood of 100 kids; and Central Academy is a charter school with over 350 kids enrolled. Admittedly, not all of those kids come from Ann Arbor, but I do know that when Central Academy opened, the Ann Arbor schools felt the loss, particularly in a few schools. Parents vote with their feet.

And remember--every pupil lost=thousands of dollars lost to the school.

So--are we welcoming? My guess is that some AAPS schools are, and some schools aren't, but institutionally--I don't think so. (Part two of this post will be whether or not we are welcoming to Jewish students, and it's my perception as a Jewish family that the schools are not too welcoming to minority religions. In general.)

The AAPS has a calendar that designates religious holidays as 1, 2, or 3 star. (3-star are the most "important" holidays.) Guess what happens on 3-star Christian holidays, and sometimes even 2-star Christian holidays? [Yes--school day off.] How about 3-star Muslim or Jewish holidays? [School day on.] It is a lot more complicated. There are lots of holidays. And yes, I know that there are way more Christians than Muslims or Jews in town. But (if you go) school by school, there can be a significant number of kids who are from practicing families. I worked in a school on the southeast side of town where 1/4 of the kids in my classes were out on the last day of Ramadan. But another couple of kids attended school, because their parents felt conflicted about the students missing schoolwork. Any time parents feel that conflict, and have another option, they may choose to go to a different school.

There is also a point to be made regarding perception. Giving one measly day off--say, for Id al-Fitr (Muslim holiday), or for Yom Kippur (Jewish holiday)--makes the district seem more welcoming to parents who are nervous about being a minority in a majority world. Yes, it is agesture--there are still other religious holidays where observant students would have to take off from school. It's a gesture, but I think it is an important action--it is not strictly symbolic. And, it raises awareness that the holiday exists.

And how about those languages? What if the Ann Arbor schools were to offer Arabic? Would that be so hard? I would think it would attract more students.

Last--but not least--where, and how, are we educating kids about prejudice. . . discrimination. . . other cultures and religions. Yes, lots of things are happening--multi-cultural festivals--SEEDS program at the Neutral Zone going into middle schools--but the only time my kids have ever had specific exposure to (some piece of) the Muslim experience was when there was a Muslim in their class. And even then, it tended to be more of the 'chance exposure' and teachable moment than the sustained effort. What, exactly, do our teachers know about Islam? What do we teach the teachers?

Whatever we are doing--it seems like it is not enough. Can we do more?