Uptown Notes

To me, the situation of urban education is much like the common cold, as technology advances, we find more and more options that tend to abate sickness, cover the symptoms, but still there is no cure. The biggest confusion that I see emerging around urban education is the highlight of a few successful schools in a city and mistaking that as the probable, that is what will likely happen, in the city as the whole.

Dear Old Morehouse,

I’ve been trying to avoid writing this for some time now. As an alumnus of the institution, it’s hard for me to see you in such condition. Many of my fellow alumni complained of your disrepair and your besmirched image when they heard about students being beaten for their sexuality, shooters graduating, and cross-dressing, but I have got bigger concerns. While all these things mattered to me, they did not disturb me because of what was being done to the image of our institution, they disturbed me because they demonstrated that Dear Old Morehouse was terribly unequipped to deal with the realities and lives that Black men in America live now. In fact, it is the Old Morehouse that is more dangerous to me than any student with a gun, sagged pants, or high heels would ever be to me. Let me explain.

There are real dangers to Obama’s education speech for Sept 8th, but they’re not what the Right are talking about.

This Monday July 13th I will be speaking at the NAACP Centennial Convention on Educational Advocacy.

Last weekend, at the Malcolm X Grassroots Unity Brunch one of the topics covered was violence against LGBTQ people of color. I think it was Kenyon Farrow who mentioned the suicides of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover and Jaheem Herrera who are both Black boys who recently committed suicide because of peer bullying and hatred. Jewel Woods, of the Renaissance Male Project, writes a clear indictment of the ways that our schools allow torture and why boys of color are particularly at risk. What can we do to prevent torture in our schools and ensure a safe and whole development for all our children.

Here are some interesting links on education research or education related things.

I was so moved by the trailer to Social Contracts by Laura Rahman that I had to post it and write a post. An insightful clip of documentary dealing with issues of sexual violence in the Black community.

On Feb 25th, City College of New York will host an important panel on No Child Left Behind and Urban Schools. R. L’Heureux Lewis will moderate with panelists Christopher Edmin, Winthrop Holder, and Marcus Winters. 5-7pm in Shepard Hall Rm 250.

Protest actions: Today a rally against the NY Post for their incendiary “political” cartoon. Student take back NYU and stream occupation live.

This past week, renowned Psychologist Richard Nisbett published an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled, “Education Is All in the Mind.” While I’ve come to respect Nisbett for his research and advocacy against polemics such as The Bell Curve, his recent piece misses the mark. The central issue is that Nisbett privileges psychological factors over other factors and leaves the reader to think what it takes to repair schools essentially are “mind games.”