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News, schools, and views from a uniquely Lowell perspective

Kozol comes to Lowell

As a student at UML, in a Sociology class, Chancellor Marty Meehan read a book called Death at an Early Age, by Jonathan Kozol.  It changed the way he thought about education and equality.  Today, Meehan introduced Jonathan Kozol to a packed room at the Leary library.  Present were faculty, students, teachers, members of the school department, and interested community members. Current Lowell Superintendent Karla Baehr was in the audience along with future superintendent Chris Augusta Scott. Dana Mohler-Faria, president of Bridgewater State College and special advisor for education to Governor Patrick, sat on the panel of respondents and told the crowd he feels a ”sense of urgency” about our children and that education is the governor’s number one priority.

Kozol is a brave and compassionate man who has spent his career saying uncomfortable things about poverty, race and class.  Today’s lecture was entitled “Public Education Under Siege:  The Challenges for Educators in our Nation’s Separate and Unequal Schools.”  He sees the challenges that face urban teachers stemming from too little resources and too much testing, testing that is relentless because of the sword of AYP that hangs over the heads of principals and districts.  He is outraged that a poverty-stricken district, whose children may never have had the advantage of 2 or 3 years of quality pre-school (the norm in wealthy and even middle-class families), will be punished and have their funding decreased when these children fail a test in the third grade.  Studies have shown that early childhood education is the greatest predictor we have of student success, and many of the neediest children never get it or don’t get enough.  (This is a sore point with us in Lowell, since pre-school transportation was cut in 2003 and never restored.) Thus, the pressure is on idealistic, impassioned young teachers to become “drill sargents for the state,” and the pressure is on urban districts to squeeze out creativity, enrichment, even recess, to avoid the harsh penalties of the No Child Left Behind Act. As he points out, no one is opposed to useful, diagnostic testing that can give valuable and timely feedback to educators about a child’s needs and strengths. His thoughts on NCLB:  “It can’t be fixed; it needs to be rejected.”

But Kozol isn’t all gloom and doom. He complimented Lowell on being in certain ways “a wonderful exception, partly because of demographics and partly because of leadership.”   He deeply reveres the profession of teaching and the mystical chemistry that can occur between teacher and child that can result in a magical learning environment (something that is totally absent from the rigid formulations of NCLB).  He visited a Boston first-grade classroom over a school year in the course of writing his latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher, and his descriptions of his visits were vivid, delightful and heartwarming. For more information about this impassioned crusador for children, his writings, and his causes, you can visit Education Action! 

posted in Books, Education | 4 Comments

Partnership with purpose and results

There are several activities this week to celebrate Marty Meehan’s inauguration as UML chancellor, many which interest me. For instance, yesterday I attended a breakfast on Achieving Excellence Through Partnerships.  Most would agree that partnerships are important for Lowell’s continued progress, especially during these fiscally challenging times, and it was interesting to learn more about connections between the university, businesses, and the communities of both Lowell and Lawrence. As someone committed to expanding more partnerships with our public schools, I know how difficult it can be. That’s why when I learned about the simple, yet effective tobacco-prevention initiative with Lowell fifth graders, it resonated.  Under the Greater Lowell Health Alliance, a partnership developed that included UML, Saints Memorial, Lowell General, the Community Health Center, and the Lowell Public Schools. As with most good partners, they had a specific goal and target group: educating youngsters about the dangers of smoking cigarettes.

Public school staff, using curriculum developed before state funding for tobacco prevention was depleted, trained healthcare volunteers (many of whom are nurses) on the curriculum and how to present the material in an engaging, informative way to fifth-grade students across the district. By the end of this school year, the program, which is already underway,  will educate 46 fifth-grade classes on the health risks associated with smoking cigarettes, peer pressure, and other aspects of tobacco prevention. The sad reality is that our public schools do not have the resources to do comprehensive health education k-12 around nutrition; fitness; drugs, alcohol and substance abuse; as well as other areas that would benefit our students. The fact that this partnership is helping to fill the gap provides some comfort.

posted in City Life, Education, Local Groups | 0 Comments

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