Oakland should have a new superintendent. We should offer her a competitive contract and hold her accountable to that. Her contract is up for vote at the board meeting. I was disappointed to hear that the usual suspects were coming to protest the superintendent’s new contract. Please don’t, please stay home. Are we going to…
Month: June 2017
Why I Re-joined the NAACP; Confessions from a Prodigal Son
Black folks are still catching hell. At district schools, charters, private schools, in the Flatlands and the Hills, we are catching hell. It may be a different hell, “the sunken place” where we see our children’s ambitions die a slow death by a thousand sleights, checking their identity at the schoolhouse door or fighting against…
Jordan 4s: A Trip to a Better Me
By Ashley Mendez Back to El Salvador I made my way to the hammock that had all of the colors of the rainbow on it. I laid down on it and saw the branches of the coconut trees dancing back and forth from the breeze that moved west. The cows were mooing and the birds…
Fixing the Least Professional Profession-How Charters Can Be a Solution for Teachers and Unions
Teaching is becoming harder and harder, and more miserable as a vocation, particularly in cash strapped schools and districts, where commands from the top aren’t met with resources and support to the bottom. Teachers are increasingly asked to do more with less, and it’s not working. It’s time we take seriously teacher empowerment, question many…
Life, Death, Trauma, and Rebirth-My “Nook” in Life
By Mya Medley My relationship with death started with Nook Nook, my family’s beloved goldfish, when I was five years old, but that was only the start. Since 2016 I have been experiencing trauma. My overprotective brother Kionta Murphy was killed in August of 2016. My world had been taken away from me and I…