Integration in schools

This (paraphrased) is what I overheard at Luca's gym meet today from a mother of one of his peers, "LASA's changing their admission criteria to allow for a certain percentage of kids from each school to get in.  Most of the kids from (blank) school where my kiddo goes, go to Kealing Magnet and then to LASA.  So my kid who could qualify won't get in, for a kid at another school who is less qualified to get in.  Don't know if that's a good idea because you have kids like mine, that have lots of opportunities and experiences with kids that don't.  I just feel sorry for the teachers, I hope they have tutors and lots of support for those teachers.  It's just not fair for them.  And I know lots of passionate parents who are against this new admission change."

As optimistic and altruistic I am about wanting and hoping that our kids will grow up differently than how I grew up and how generations before me grew up with prejudices and judgment that people are 'better' or 'worse' than others based on experiences, money, color of skin, or what side of town one lives in, then perhaps I'm a bit nieve.  

I really want to continue to be optimistic and altruistic, but realistic.  I have heard from people who have experienced it from previous generations about how REAL this classism and racism is in our city and in our district, but I've also experienced from people that are the supposed 'offenders' that that is not the intention.  But sometimes what I see is that what is going on in the "successful" schools "should" be replicated in the "failing" schools.  Is that the answer?  

Well, and I understand the pushback from minority students not wanting to attend LASA or Kealing, and due to comments like this one made from a mother whom I'm sure with a conversation that would push her thinking, she might see a different perspective. But when one is in a community where this kind of thinking is commonplace, how can change occur or how can any 'minority' family want their child around this type of thinking?  We experienced this first hand.  Noah had the choice to go to Kealing Magnet, Fulmore Magnet, and his home school Lamar middle school.

When I processed with Noah what middle school to attend, we discussed our values and how this would play out in his decision.  Right after shadowing at Kealing magnet, it was VERY apparent to him the racial segregation in the school.  He did not like this.  But he had friends going there.  He thought Lamar & Fulmore were diverse.  Lots of kids of all races and cultures and what seemed to be various socioeconomics.  The only concern with Lamar was from me that the dual language program was not firmly committed and embraced by the leadership there.  There were classist remarks made by the principal.  What we talked about, is how dual language ensures diversity of having kids in his class that comes from a background similar to mine.  He would be around kids whose parents only speak Spanish, and that in itself brings racial and socioeconomic diversity and a respect for others different from him and a connection to his heritage culture, something I did not have access to when I was growing up.

I am so proud of his decision and how he came to making this decision.  I am so proud of the friends he has as well.  He has a diverse group of friends, socioeconomically & culturally.  44 refugees have been enrolled at Fulmore this past year, and Noah was chosen to be an ambassador to show around 4 boys.  1 boy from Myanmar, 1 from Venezuela, 1 from Iraq, and 1 from I hope that these experiences in this critical adolescent moment of his life help shape an open mind and to see people for the content of their character and not the color of their skin or the brand of their clothes.

Holistic Learning

Having just left my evening volunteer time at the District Advisory Committee (DAC), I received a response to my question about having someone from the district outline the Equity Plan.  We also had someone come and share with us her segregation study too.  

What I'd like to now understand is about 'equity of curriculum and academic achievement'.  I would like to see what holistic teaching strategies are being taught across the district.  It hurts me when I see programs/curriculum being deemed to be successful in schools of high poverty that are based on drills/regurgitating information, rather than those that teach best practices and for our children to be problem-solvers.  This wouldn't fly in a higher income populated school.

Short-term success and increase in test scores can be gleaned from these types of programs (like one I'm still learning about which I heard teaches words in isolation--which was showcased in the presentation today as a 'success-factor' in the mentioned low-income Title 1 school); but TRUE long-term success for our kids cannot. 

Literacy Squared, for example, would be a program of best practices in that it teaches words in context vs. just drilling words in isolation.  We need to be careful as a district to allow for these programs to take over in extreme ways and be the 'silver bullet' of what can help our Title 1 schools be 'successful'.

Beyond Academics: What-a-holistic-approach-to-learning-could-look-like

My story of growing up.

I am a child of immigrant parents.  They moved here not understanding the culture or the language. I guess you could say they had assumptions and I was brought up in this country on those assumptions, with the language and cultural experience of their country--Uruguay, South America.  In general, there are nuances, but essentially the cultural upbringing from parents who grew up poor in a country where the opportunity to better oneself was not readily available or easily available to them due to their position in society and due to lack of opportunity or motivation for ambitions.  My families culture, speaking stereotypically and generally has a less ambitious culture, with a focus more on having necessities met and being surrounded by family.

My father changed his stereotypical world when he moves my mother and two sisters to the United States.

The story of my family changes dramatically now for our further generations of Santamaria's being brought up now in the United States.

My parents had assumptions about the culture here based on superficial experiences.  Experiences that were real, but superficial because the understanding was minimal.  For example, my sisters were not allowed to do much outside of being in the home, due to assumptions of what youth in the US could do, but also somewhat built on an understanding of trouble that my parent's youth provided in their time.  At least there, it could've been understood more and there might be a better level of control or trust of the people around them or their surroundings, but here, there was unfamiliarity.

They did not know the neighbors due to language barriers.  They did not know the capabilities of folks due to just fear and unfamiliarity.  Our upbringing was somewhat controlled mostly by fear.  We were sheltered and not allowed typical social youth experiences--sports teams, dances, school family functions, etc.  My sisters and I were sheltered, controlled, kept safe from others.  Encouraged to do well in school and come home immediately.  Eat dinner around the table every night, only give our phone number to 2 friends, allowed to only go to those 2 friends houses to play...parents worked hard to take us out to do normal things.  We'd go to the nearby tennis courts to play tennis together, to the park to play, swim, but it continued well into our teenage years where normal freedoms provided to our school mates were not provided to us.

My story was different from my sisters only because my family started going through more turmoil as we started the process of moving to Austin, TX because the eldest was going to college.  Yes, we all moved to Austin so Claudia could attend St. Edward's.  But I still felt the awkward cultural constraints.  The move was a turning point for my parents marriage to publicly start falling apart.  It had its issues since I was 8 yrs old where I saw it's first ugly head rear (the first time I saw my mother drunk and crying).   But unbeknownst to me until later as an adult, I was able to connect the dots.  My parents hid a lot from us... but officially my sophomore year in high school, I distinctly remember college requiring too much freedom for my older sisters who could not follow the outdated rules my father set forth for fear of letting go of his 'little girls'.  This allowed my latter high school years to be more 'normalized' culturally and I received more freedoms than my sisters did.

Again, not aware of all the turmoil, my mother was left alone to fend for herself with a selfish 15 year old child that was in a complete 'me' phase.  Cleaning houses full-time didn't quite make ends meet all the time.

So, long story short, we were a typical immigrant family, probably with a hyper-strict and sensitive father, brought up in a household using one language and culture, living in a society with another set of cultural norms and rules and language.  There was little connection between the two worlds my sisters and I lived growing up.  And little acknowledgment of one to the other which didn't really allow for much discussion or reflection for what we were living through.

As I got older and got into the world, I realized there were more people like me out there.  I realized there were more families that lived even more sheltered lives and almost lived in their own culture along with other families secluded from your typical anglo/English speaking American culture.

This is my story of myself growing up.

My story of where I am now is very different---fueled by my 'growing up' story.

Equity in Education

Equity in opportunity in education is how I see equity in education being defined.  Opportunities aren't afforded to everyone equally.  Opportunities that are markers along the path of what this society deems as success.  Socioeconomics can very much be the demarcation of opportunities.

In knowing this, how can a teacher or a school be responsible for prior knowledge or having the support needed for that success to be afforded?  What they can recognize are the funds of knowledge that a family does have and can bring if allotted the opportunity by the school to participate.  If a school would look at their families as rich in experiences, stories, and abilities, rather than poor, we might be able to make headway.

If schools would look at children and expect HIGH standards and provide the rigor, than maybe less excuses would be made.  If schools would put their best principals and best teachers in the "poorest" schools for two or three years would we see a shift in how community is built?  Would we see more parent involvement, higher standards, more rigor?

We KNOW integrated, diverse schools are most successful, yet our schools can sometimes get isolated into high poverty...but what factors in these schools are not providing the same results on science fair projects or extra-curricular than a more economically affluent school?  What is the puzzle piece missing??  Folks would say, it's the family involvement factor...than why aren't more families part of the equation in making these schools successful?

School Choice

When we moved to Mueller it was first and foremost to be near my family.  I also thought about how my niece and nephew would also join in on the same school experience since my sister has the same age kids as I do.

Moving to Mueller was also about providing my kids a more racially and socio economic diverse learning experience for them.  Maplewood Elementary our home school was prime for that, and very different from the neighborhood school from which we came.

The only piece missing was the Spanish piece.  I am dedicated to provide that to him at home, but I know my insecurities and my lack of expansive vocabulary.  So, the newly created Magellan International school being opened by a fellow tech entrepreneur me and my husband knew was VERY ATTRACTIVE!  We went to the open-house, that 'spoke our language' in terms of it provided a presentation that was very polished, in a format that was what we'd see in college or in work.  To this day, the only thing I can see that it was missing, was this sense of humility and community.  It was about what 'we can provide your child'...instead of this feeling that we are doing this together.

I can't really put my finger on it and that is the best explanation of why it didn't make sense for us...plus the fact that Brian and I both come from traditional public school families.  Tio Bob and Grandma Gail were both public school teachers, as were Tio Ben & Tia Claudia.   And to some degree they are still in this space and I was once in this space too.

That humility and diversity piece of equity---education for ALL---it is a basic human right that we share.  Education is a process that is shared and so public school is what made most sense for us.

We were lucky that nearby Ridgetop Elementary would pilot the Dual Language program in Spanish...so our choice was made.  :)

New to Austin: Reflection 1988

I moved to Austin the summer after my 8th grade year.  My eldest sister, the first to attend college was accepted into St. Edward's University and that became where we'd all now go as a family.  We were halfway here anyway back in the 1980's, when the distribution of music in cassette form was what my father saw as what kept his fellow construction and labor workers connected to their families and culture back home.  My father spent his weekends driving into Austin from Houston to set-up shop at the local 'pulga' to cater to these working class folks where they'd spend their hard earned money on the few joys they had--music from their home country was one.

The timing worked out and my mother's stable income cleaning houses with the flea market weekend money and odd jobs during the week, saved enough to have a storefront in Austin, while my sister started college.  But for me, being a teen in full 'teen-dom' leaving my friends was a hard sell.  My father drove around and learned about a new school being built 20 minutes west across town.  That would be my new start in Austin.

I don't even know what the school was that I would've gone to in the apartment complex where we lived, but it wasn't even in the discussion or even questioned at home.  Our apartment complex was full of college students and young people, not families, so I guess I didn't even question or understand it at the time,

Loss of Self

Sometimes I wonder if those moments that I've been having a lot of lately are sometimes 'good' rather than 'bad'. Why should I label them? Perhaps because in this life right now I need to be able to judge things and go with the feeling based on the judgment. Wouldn't life be interesting if I didn't have to judge and could just go with whatever without judgment?

What I'm cryptically writing about is just losing my sense of self.  Defined as the way a person thinks about and views his/her traits, beliefs, and purpose within the world, mine has been down to a foundational to serve two little baby boys.  :)  Now with beautiful boy #2, Mr. Luca, I've realized that my time outside of holding, feeding, and schlepping him around to get #1, Mr. Noah, I only have time for the essentials (if that). Bathroom, showering (if I'm lucky) eating, preparing what tastes like food, some sleep, and maybe washing my face and brushing my teeth if I'm not passed out before making it to the bathroom. All of these things are sometimes squeezed between feeding and holding #2 or picking up or tending to #1. So, I admit, I wear the same jeans probably 2-3 days in a row and then squeeze in a load of laundry where they get thrown on again. I have 2 pairs that fit currently, but hopefully once the baby weight goes away I can fit into what was once my wardrobe which is very much out of date, so by the time I can squeeze into that clothes again, I'll have to look into purging and starting over (we're talking 90's).

SO, back to loss of self. So, through all this ruckus I realize that I've had little time to really tend to my SELF. I look in the mirror occasionally (when I brush my teeth) and think, "WOW." Not in the most enthusiastic way either. I'm starting to look more like that picture of my father with the monobrow that my friends used to laugh at that was up on my family wall in our old house. Is this good or bad? Is it sometimes nice to not be so self-centered all the time? I wonder about all my 'friends' who spend hours fixing their hair or 'self'.

So, although this is not based on Buddha or deep sense of Carl Rogers psychology, but honestly, just this letting go of what was once my whole sense and now to serve others in a way that loses my sense of self...at least at times.  I will get back to these 5 things listed in this article below, but for now #4, having self-compassion is what I need to listen to the most.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosa-medinafassett/stepping-into-true-happiness-sense-of-self_b_5602928.html