VERBATIM: Achievement (again) and false choice
Just odds and ends to round out your week.
God bless us for making it another week. I’m looking forward to another great movie night with my family. Last week it was The Transformers, which was perfect for what it is - a big, noisy summer action movie that we’ve been lacking for years.
Tonight, it’s The Flash.
But I can’t get shut down the laptop without sending you some odds and ends.
ACHIEVEMENT GOSPELS: A Minnesota-born 14-year-old, Preston Mutanga, created a shot-for-shot recreation of the Spiderverse movie trailer using Legos and his father’s old computer. VERBATIM: “He shared his version of the trailer online. The quality of his self-taught craftsmanship quickly gained attention and reached Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of “The Lego Movie" and two of the writer-producers of “Spider-Verse. After deciding to include a segment in a Lego universe, Christina Steinberg, another of the film’s producers, contacted Mutanga to ask him if he wanted to animate it.” (NYT)
ACHIEVEMENT GOSPELS II: Did you know Yale University offers for-credit courses to imprisoned people? I didn’t. VERBATIM: “The Yale Prison Education Initiative first began offering courses at MacDougall-Walker in 2018, with the University of New Haven joining the effort in 2021. So far, the program has enrolled 70 incarcerated students, including the seven who made up Friday's inaugural graduating class.” (AfroTech)(Stamford Advocate)
ACHIEVEMENT GOSPELS III: I love stories like this about Xavier Jones, who was so determined to walk across the stage for the 8th-grade graduation that he walked 6 miles (and three hours!) to get there. When he arrived, his school leaders were amazed that he made it there. News of Xavier’s trek reached the ears of Latonia Collins Smith, an HBCU president, and she decided to give the little guy an ultimate prize. VERBATIM: “When I heard that story, and to see that young man, who was so bright and just excited and driven, it spoke volumes to me. It spoke resilience, persistence, perseverance,” she said, adding that it showed her that Jones believed “regardless of what the adversity is, I am going to press my way to this promotion ceremony. Smith said that is what sparked her interest in Jones’ future. She offered the young scholar a full ride to the college on the spot. The presidential scholarship is valued at $64,000 and will cover four years of tuition, room and board, books and fees. Now all Jones has to do is graduate from high school.” (Atlanta Black Star)
ACHIEVEMENT GOSPELS IV: These stories of high school students earning college credits and degrees while still in high school will never get old for me. It’s a constant reminder that our expectations don’t match the potential of our youth. VERBATIM: “Meet Keniah Washington, 13, Keyanna Grant, 14, Miracle Butler, 15, Tyreek Nash, 15, and Kaitlyn Archie-McDonald, 15. This bright young African American cohort just graduated from Icon Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida with their high school diploma. All of them have GPAs above 3.5 and all have earned over 50 college credit hours each. The youngest of the group Keniah and Keyanna began taking college courses at just 12 years old. The scholars anticipate obtaining their Associate’s Degree within the next year from Saint Leo University. They will then transfer to another four-year university as juniors to complete their Bachelor’s degree. They are applying to Florida A&M University, Howard University, and Clark Atlanta University to name a few.” (Black News)
THE CITIZEN STEWART SHOW: This week, I got to speak with Tim DeRoche, leader of Available to All, an advocacy group confronting public education’s redlining problem.
Check it out.
FREEDOM FRIDAY: If hip hop were a person, it would be a member of AARP. This is the 50th anniversary of the art form, which prompted a fun conversation on #FreedomFriday with Sharif El-Mekki and guest Gabe Bryant. I may or may not have shared a rhyme written during my school days when I was known as The Vicious Kid Fly.
See the convo:
ED FOR US, BY US: One major focus of my education advocacy is the rebuilding of Black educational capital. As one of America’s historically marginalized people, Black communities need to collect on the educational debt owed them and reclaim control of their means of education.
Which is why I loved this conversation between the UNCF and the National Charter Collaborative about HBCUs and K-12 education/educators.
Please watch:
If you want to go deeper, check out the work I did with UNCF and Naomi Shelton (now leader of the National Charter Collaborative) years to understand what the Black community wants from education.
NOT REALLY CHOICE: It’s fashionable for school choice advocates to sidestep the education censorship laws their preferred governors are passing to blame those laws on the lack of school choice. If parents could send their kids to schools that matched their values instead of being compelled to attend common district schools, they wouldn’t need to fight over curriculum. Enter Markayle Gray, a North Carolina teacher fired after white parents complained that his using the book Dear Martin was “divisive and injected what they regarded as unwelcome political views on systemic racial inequality into their children’s classroom,” according to his lawsuit against the school. The defendant in his case, Charlotte Secondary School, is a charter school with a black principal and a student body that is 80% Black, Hispanic, or biracial. It’s a school of choice comprised mostly of parents with shared values around diversity, but in a state where the GOP has given extraordinary veto power to bigoted white parents with anti-CRT laws, school choice is not the flex POC are told it is. Rodney Cash, an outspoken teacher in another county, put it all in perspective, saying, VERBATIM: “You mean to tell me, a Black man who graduated from an HBCU [historically Black college and university] can’t teach a majority Black student population about issues of racial injustice, from a book written by a Black woman who graduated from an HBCU, during the month designated by our country to recognize and learn about the history of Black Americans, because White families complained?”(NC Newsline)
TRAD SCHOOLS, YOU CAN’T BE THIS STUPID: A Philadelphia school principal denied a graduating student her diploma because she did a soft version of the “Griddy” - a local dance - when her name was called. VERBATIM: “The School District of Philadelphia said in a statement quote: "The District does not condone the withholding of earned diplomas based on family members cheering for their graduates. We apologize to all the families and graduates who were impacted and are further looking into this matter to avoid it happening in the future." (ABC7)
What I saved to read this weekend:
This school reopened quickly but kids still fell behind in reading. This is what they did to recover. (AP)
Georgia schools to remove diversity, equity and inclusion from teaching program standards (The Grio)
Public education won’t ‘fail,’ unless America abandons the idea and the ideal (Roll Call)
For 25 years, this Philly teacher made a difference. Even in retirement, he’s still there for his students. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Have a great weekend!