Reading For Treasure: We Still Need to Talk – and Read – About Race

 Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

We need to keep race foremost on our minds as we confront the variety of issues facing us right now. While COVID, the economy, education, voting rights, and many other issues are critical; race is intertwined with all of them. So let’s keep reading, talking, and taking action. Here are a few articles to help you do that.  

The Bitter Southerner published a powerful piece that directly addresses tourists at southern plantations who don’t want to hear the history of slavery. “Dear Disgruntled White Plantation Visitors” by author, culinary historian, and historical interpreter, Michael Twitty tears down the stereotypes and asks readers (and visitors) to directly face the horrible truth about the past.   

The New York Times opinion piece,  “I Don’t Need ‘Love’ Texts from My White Friends”  asks white people to do far more than just send emails and texts, hold memorials, and reflect. Instead, writer Chad Sanders provides three specific actions that have more positive impact. 

LifeHacker describes the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s online portal that, “contains tools, online exercises, video instructions, articles, and more than 100 multimedia resources tailored for educators and parents…”  in the quick article, “Get Help Talking About Race With This Tool From The Smithsonian.” It links directly to parts of this resource that might be useful for opening a conversation with your family, colleagues, or neighbors.

Leonard Pitts, Jr. writes in the Chicago Tribune  that “The Right To Bear Arms Does Not Extend to Black People.” He explains that the second amendment was really intended to make sure that the south could put down slave rebellions and goes on to question the NRA’s silence at the deaths of John Crawford III and Tamir Rice. 

Beyond articles, NewsOne provides a list of “5 Books Addressing Race That Every Teen Should Read” that includes titles like Angel of Greenwood, A Song Below Water, and Dragon Hoops. All of the books were written in either 2020 or 2021. 

Finally, three articles dealing with Critical Race Theory. The first is from Blavity, “Everybody’s Talking About It: What is Critical Race Theory?” In it, writer David E. Kirkland lays out the tenets of Critical Race Theory. Professor Ibram X. Kendi, writing in The Atlantic argues that “There Is No Debate Over Critical Race Theory.” Instead, using specific evidence, he makes the case that the critics of CRT, “are arguing against themselves.” Finally, and sadly, Colorlines reports that, “ Critical Race Theory Battles are Driving Black Educators Out of Their Jobs.” Not a shock there, but another part of this very disturbing issue. 

I am currently reading, The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. 

Will We Still Zoom?

Slowly, things are opening up. I got a haircut, ate inside a restaurant, and shopped at Costco! Life is in person again (somewhat), and, slowly, it is feeling more normal. 

Yet the digital adaptations we made during this pandemic had advantages, too. The commute was fantastic. I loved being able to attend events wearing whatever I wanted. And those events were not restricted by geography.  

What parts of the digital quarantine will we keep? How will our immersion in Zoom and other video chat systems change now that it is safe to come together inside again (provided we are vaccinated)? 

We may see that many, if not most, events are hybrid. Some will merely stream so those who are not in the room can witness them. Others may go further and create ways that allow distant participants to be actively engaged. 

However, telepresence is not always an adequate substitute for physical presence; often, if you were on a screen and some of the other attendees are in person, you can become a second-class participant. Getting a word in is difficult when everyone is on Zoom. When some are sitting in a room and some are on Zoom, it is even harder for the Zoomers to cut into the conversation. While some meetings can be replaced this way, sometimes, traveling to be in person is going to be necessary. 

One of the most wonderful parts of Zoom culture was that participation was not hindered by geography or disability. I participate in a book club that now has members from all over the country. In addition, we have members who have physical difficulties that make attending in-person too challenging. Zoom lets everyone be together without the travails of travel. 

I attended a few virtual conventions. While I missed the social aspects, I thought the panels were great! Some of my pet peeves about panels vanish when they are on Zoom. My biggest pet peeve is that sometimes audience members think they are part of the panel. They speak up without being acknowledged by the moderator, comment freely, and often dominate discussion. Not on Zoom, they don’t! Audience members only get to participate when the moderator allows. I loved that. 

I also loved the commentary that went on in the chat during panels and events. I was used to sitting with my friends and whispering or texting each other occasionally. With Zoom, there is another layer of conversation that does not intrude on the primary event but can interact with it. I loved hearing, “Someone in the chat said…” or “An example of this was provided in the chat…” The audio/video was complemented by the text in the chat. It was a good outlet for that person who might be tempted to become the intrusive self-appointed panelist. 

Certainly, schools and colleges were changed by Zoom. While some may have liked learning online, getting back to “normal” school has been a primary goal. But might classes be streamed, especially large lecture-based classes in universities?  Since we can have remote and asynchronous learning days, does this mean school never needs to be canceled for snow or weather again? Could homebound students be connected to school resources through the computer?   

The fact that events could be recorded was also a benefit and one that we certainly could retain. Recently, I watched an interview from the Art Institute of Chicago that was streamed live during a time when I was unavailable. Since I was watching a recording, I couldn’t ask questions, but I am not sure I would have anyway. If not for the recording, I would have missed the event, but now I got to see it when it worked for my schedule. 

Accessing doctors and other medical resources by video was just starting to be offered before the pandemic. Now it has become a standard option for receiving services. For the same reason I noted above, telemedicine may not replace in-person examinations or consultations, but it certainly could help those who are too far away or for whom getting to the doctor is extremely challenging. And no one is sitting in a waiting room with sick people!  

I haven’t even begun to discuss how Zoom and its kin have facilitated the ability to work distantly for some. Zoom meetings, conferences, and calls are not perfect equivalents of the old normal, and they have both advantages and issues, but the option of working from home will be on the table far more than we ever imagined before the pandemic. 

Video engagement will now be an option for more and more of the activities that we used to assume had to be done in person. However, including disabled or distant participants, creating hybrid meeting structures, and navigating in-person events with both live and distant participants is going to take creativity and flexibility. 

We are not going back to the old normal. Our new routine will reflect the changes and innovations of the pandemic.  

Red Lights Oppress My Freedom: I am Declaring Independence!

Why do people – or should I say, sheeple - stop at red lights? Who gives anyone the right to tell me how to drive my car? It is my car, it does not belong to the state! Why should I be forced to give up my freedom just to make way for some idiot? Why should others be able to go while I am made to wait? That’s not fair!  

Stop signs and speed limits are against the constitution! Freedom and liberty for all doesn’t mean stopping and slowing down! Don’t tread on my right to go wherever I want however I want whenever I want. That is my right as an American! That is what makes America great! I don’t stop for anything! 

The government wants total control. Not only do they make me stop, they want me to give them my money in taxes. They are thieves and this is anti-freedom robbery! No one can tell me that I have to give MY money! I choose what I do with my money and if I decide I don’t want the government to have it, then it is my right as an American to say, no! No, taxation without represent – without anything!  

Why should I pay for electricity or water or wifi? Those things are natural resources which means they belong to everyone! Nature is mine because it is in America and I am an American! No one charges me for the air, but just wait! I shouldn’t have written that because that will give the regressive idiots in charge an idea for another way to try and put the squeeze on me! Cable is too damn expensive anyway! It should be free to everyone! 

I am sick and tired of people who think they are so high and mighty trying to tell me what I can or cannot do! It is my birthright as an American to have no limits, no rules, no restrictions at all! The army should come in and get rid of those morons who think that we should give everyone everything! They want healthcare, preschool, whatever they ask for! No way! Everyone should get what they deserve and I deserve freedom! 

It’s like what has been happening with voting. It is too easy to vote! People should not just be given ballots, they have to earn them! Only real Americans are worthy of voting and those who don’t agree with me shouldn’t be able to vote ever! That would take care of these liberal socialist government giveaways. 

I got this letter telling me I had to go to the courthouse for jury duty! Jury duty? Who asked you? I don’t have time for that! There are plenty of people who have nothing to do, let them take care of jury duty! You can’t make me! 

And they aren’t going to get my guns! Not a chance. I can have as many guns as I want and no one gets a say in that. The second amendment means that I can shoot anything I want. I can have automatics and shotguns and, hell, I might even get a tank! Try to stop my tank, red light! 

I didn’t sit in school for ten years to be told that I had fewer rights than someone who came here yesterday! So many special interest groups get special treatments. They kiss up to politicians and get fancy stuff. That is what is wrong with America today. Everyone is equal! Everyone has the same chances. If you made mistakes, suck it up and deal with that. If you don’t have the guts to grab what you can, then you don’t deserve it. That’s how all these rich guys got rich in the first place; they grabbed what they could and ran! We need more people like that. 

So take my advice, forget those red lights, throw away those tax bills, and do what you want. America is the home of the free and the land of the brave enough to take what is theirs. I don’t owe anything to anyone. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. So there! Happy July Fourth! Give me fireworks!

Twenty Five Years In Our Home

I had to convince my wife that this was the house for us. She liked modern architecture with open floor plans and this house was a typical colonial. But, it had the right number of bedrooms, the space we needed to expand our little family, and was at the very top of our price range, and had all of our school first choices! It was very well kept and would make a wonderful home for us.

I remember our final walk-through before closing; we met the seller and his son, an English teacher at Lane Tech High School in Chicago (He later became my colleague and friend when we hired him to teach at his alma mater). The seller showed us where everything was and how they worked. He was gracious and helpful. We were overwhelmed and a little frightened. We had struggled to sell our old home. We had to move in the summer because since we were educators, moving during the school year was unthinkable. 

Oh, yeah. The local high school was in the backyard. This house backed up to our school, the one at which we worked. We weren’t just moving closer to work, we were practically moving in. We understood what work from home meant twenty-five years ago. 

We both spent way too many hours at school. My average day was eleven or twelve hours and my wife could compete with that many times during the year. So a shorter commune would be a good thing, even if it was just turning a seven-minute drive into a five-minute walk.    

We were already used to teaching and working in the same community. We tried to be graceful at the grocery store when parents wanted to do business. “We’re off duty,” we’d demur. “I can’t remember the specifics, call me at school,” I’d reply. Our students were startled when they saw us around town. High school students still don’t really believe that their teachers have lives outside of the classroom. Well, this new house would practically be living in a file cabinet drawer, just bigger. 

A lot bigger. Our new house was much larger than the little one we had moved into after we got married. We loved our first house, but if we were going to have another child, we needed more space. When one of my former students found out where we were moving, he said to me, “Oh, Mr. Hirsch, you’re not the North Trail type.” 

He couldn’t explain to me what the North Trail type was and, as we got to know our neighbors, we couldn’t either. We already met several sets of neighbors because we taught their children. Yet, our neighbors immediately across the street never came out or said hello or acknowledged us ever – not even when they moved. Others were very warm and came over and introduced themselves. 

Within a few months, there were several other new families nearby and our two-year-old made new friends as we all walked to school together: she went to the school daycare and preschool! We shared the great commute. 

After a year or two, I started a neighborhood newsletter. This was when a newsletter meant photocopies, envelopes, and hand distribution. At almost the same time, a neighbor initiated a renaissance of the homeowners association and we combined our efforts. While there had been a homeowners association, it had gone fallow. Now there was only a person paying landscapers to keep the common areas from looking too shabby from a checking account that was rapidly being depleted. 

So I took on the role of secretary in those pre-email days and we recruited a few others to help us. Most of those folks are still working together, but that is going to change soon. We had little kids, all of whom are in college or out of college. 

Now, we are empty nesters. The two of us live by ourselves in this house. When we retired, the most common question was, “When are you going to move?” We are not. This house still works wonderfully for us. When the kids came home during the pandemic, we were so grateful for the space. I transformed my daughter’s room into a combination office and entertainment room. My daughter calls it my man cave and I call it my ready room. 

While I could see why someone might downsize, I am optimistic that this house will work for us for another decade or so. For all the changes we have experienced as a family, this house still fits us, twenty-five years later.

Reading For Treasure: Hey, Educators! Read This!

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

While I was teaching, my colleagues and I would send articles to each other about things related to parts of our personal and professional lives. When I retired, I continued to find these reading gems (call them treasures), but I didn’t want to be that voice from beyond that keeps assigning busy working folks more things to read! That is one of the reasons I started posting Reading for Treasure. 

Yet, I’ve been finding wonderful things I want to send my friends who are still in the classroom. Some of them are for a broad educational audience and some are extremely narrow. I have lost track of the number of times a week (or a day) that I think to myself, “Oh! I know what I would do with that in the classroom!” So here are a few pieces of summer reading about education for anyone interested! 

KQED Mindshift shared an article reprinted from Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education that expresses one of my core teaching tenets: every student should feel that they are the teacher’s secret favorite. Teachers, please read this. New and pre-service teachers, you must read this!  “How Unconditional Positive Regard Can Help Students Feel Cared For”

KQED Mindshift also republished an NPR article titled,  “Colorado Becomes 1st State To Ban Legacy College Admissions.” When we discuss affirmative action, can we also discuss legacy admissions, elite sports, and other ways that the college admission game is not based on students’ merit and is rigged in favor of affluent mostly white students? One of the pandemic side effects has been this kind of shaking up of college admissions! 

Speaking of ways that affluent, usually white, students get advantages in education, can we talk about private education? The Atlantic’s cover makes the statement, “Private Schools are Indefensible.” This highly detailed and very powerful piece argues that private schools not only give students a leg up, but they also have a detrimental effect on everyone! The actual title of the article is “Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene.” 

This past year was not easy for teachers, students, parents, or anyone connected to schools (or anyone in general). So the argument that many classrooms were only just getting by before schools closed feels harsh. However, the pandemic pushed these teetering teachers over the edge. Jennifer Gonzales, writing in Cult of Pedagogy, asks teachers not to hit the “easy button.” “No More Easy Button: A Suggested Approach to Post-Pandemic Teaching” makes highly specific recommendations about what school should look like next year. I would argue that Ms. Gonzales’ suggestions are just what school should look like – always. 

I love Math With Bad Drawings. If you haven’t looked at that blog, please do. It is magnificent. In this satiric entry, “Kafka Explains Math Education,” Ben Orlin is specifically talking about math education but his points apply to many (if not all) subject areas. He even uses real Kafka quotes!   

American Lit teachers, look at this! A new book takes a magical new look at The Great Gatsby. It focuses on Jordan Baker, who in this telling is a Vietnamese adoptee who was raised by a wealthy white woman. She is also queer! Read the review from Tor.com:  “A Greater Gatsby: The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo”

I am currently reading Think Again by Adam Grant

Graduation Was Different This Year

The graduation venue was not the beautiful concert hall in the park this year. It was scheduled to be on the athletic field, but the cold and rain forced it into the gym. And while the musicians were recorded and the graduates masked, many of the traditions were maintained, translated, or acknowledged. 

Graduation was different this year. 

People were missing, not only because the venue was smaller and each student was only permitted two tickets, but because some of the graduates, for a variety of reasons, could not attend. Some family members could not attend, and some family members were present only in memory. It had been a year when the flag was always at half-mast. Many faculty members were not present. They usually greet the graduates in their academic robes. The CDC said that an indoor group gathering like this is safe if vaccinated and unvaccinated people are masked, but even so, not everyone was willing or able to participate. Still, the ceremony was streamed live, so people could watch from afar. 

I greeted my former students and colleagues as the kids lined up for the processional. It was good to see students and staff after a year of pandemic winter. Even if it didn’t feel like spring outside, smiles shined through the masks. 

I don’t think students have ever hugged me like they did at graduation this year. No one asked if I was vaccinated (I am). The physical contact was initially surprising and then oddly comforting. My students haven’t seen me not only due to the pandemic but because I retired after their sophomore year. I had stayed in touch and visited before school closed. I promised them that I would attend their graduation and celebrate with them. However, the pandemic changed what we were celebrating. This was more than a culmination of high school. This was more than the traditional commencement. 

Graduation was different this year. 

Seeing people on screens, video chats, social media, email, and text is not a replacement for sharing the air, space, and time together. Some of my students were surprised to see me. I emailed them a congratulatory note a week prior. Our relationship had survived the distance. 

Sometimes, when I am talking to my family on the phone or chatting over a video call, I feel unsatisfied. I want more than I can get from the voice and image. Yet, talking and even seeing my child on the screen isn’t enough. What a needy parent I must be. Last year’s graduation, and my son’s college graduation, were entirely on the screen and that had to be enough. They were still unsatisfying. 

Graduation was different this year. 

The power of our presence, the thirst for each other’s company, the relief, and the release of the suppressed burden of worry, solitude, and powerlessness was almost physically expelled. Every year, I am always keenly aware that, at graduation and during the last weeks of school, I may never see these students again. That is the nature of being a teacher. These relationships are on a limited lease. 

Graduation was different this year. 

Graduations in the past felt promised. Only students who misbehave are denied graduation and only for the grossest of offenses. Gathering this year was an act of acrobatic contortions and then, thanks to weather and circumstance, a marathon of adaptations. Yet, there we were, surrounded by each other. 

I am not a fan of whooping and cheering after a student’s name is read. I worry that, when a mortarboard is thrown in the air, it will hit someone. I have been an outspoken proponent of a dignified and orderly graduation. 

Graduation was different this year. 

We all cheered! Hats flew! Every speaker was on the verge of tears and made no attempt to hide it. It was like exhaling after a long time underwater, reassurance from the doctor, the reunion at the airport; there is a future, we will be alright, and people I have been holding in my heart are here in front of me. 

I hope that the graduation of the class of 2021 is unique. I hope we never experience another like it. It was exhausting and exhilarating, and I am eager to go back to the regularly scheduled dignified ceremony. 

Graduation was different this year. 

We needed it more. I hope we don’t have that need again. I hope this year’s graduation can sustain us and remind us of the power of our presence, the coming together of community, and the essential nature of a gathered community. 

I am so grateful to the school staff members who made graduation happen despite roadblocks, potholes, breakdowns, and storms. Once again, the school is the heart of our community; it nurtured our children and helped heal even this old retired teacher’s heavy heart. 

Reading for Treasure: Eat Less Meat

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

I have been a vegetarian for almost twenty-five years. There are many reasons to eat less meat: health, environment, economics, ethics. Here are some articles that may help you understand the issues about reducing how much meat, chicken, pork, or fish you consume and how that choice might benefit all of us. 

From Inverse: “U.S. Meat Eaters Should Consider This Study Before Their Next Grocery Run” “Research shows nutrition is a major component of reducing our risks of chronic disease and premature death. Sulfur amino acids are naturally more prevalent in meat than vegetables, so switching to plant-based protein sources like whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds, and eating recommended daily intakes of sulfur amino acids, could make it less likely that you will develop heart disease or diabetes in future.”

From Lifehacker: “How to Become a Vegetarian (or Eat Less Meat)”  “You don’t need me to tell you that industrial meat production is an enormous contributor to global warming (and climate denialism) or that meat processing corporations are almost cartoonishly evil in their exploitation of an underpaid, often undocumented workforce. The facts are out there for the whole world to see, which is probably why more people are choosing to eat less meat.”

From CNN: “One of the world's top restaurants is ditching meat. Here's what could go wrong” “It might seem like the perfect time to get people on board with an all-vegan menu. Plant-based proteins are as popular as ever. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat (BYND), which sell alternatives to meat designed to look, taste, and cook like the real thing, have expanded massively in grocery stores and struck major deals with big food companies and restaurant chains. Last month, the food site Epicurious said it would stop publishing beef recipes, noting that production of the meat emits harmful greenhouse gases.”

From Inverse: “A Controversial Diet Change Could Reduce Air Pollution and Save Lives” “New research implicates air pollution caused by agriculture production in the premature deaths of 17,900 Americans. This air pollution is linked to both ammonia and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). These findings were published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.There are solutions that could curb air pollution deaths significantly, the study team says. These include eating a more plant-based diet.”

From The Atlantic: “The Economic Case for Worldwide Vegetarianism” “In a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Marco Springmann and his colleagues at the University of Oxford conservatively estimate that if people continue to follow current trends of meat consumption, rather than shifting to a more balanced or plant-based diet, it could cost the U.S. between $197 billion and $289 billion each year—and the global economy up to $1.6 trillion—by 2050.”

I am currently reading Artificial Condition by Martha Wells.