April salon to reflect journal's theme

The 12th Annual Educational Law and Social Justice Forum this year will present an evening salon of music, art, poetry and conversation on the topic Art, Social Imagination, and Democratic Education, the theme of our current issue of the journal. Authors whose work is published in the issue will join the audience at the salon. We hope that both the salon and the journal will engage the community in a conversation around the public purposes of our schools and the role of the arts in promoting both a meaningful education and a vital democratic society. It will be both experiential with live music and art and interactive. The audience is invited to join the conversation with the authors and share their own works of art as well as their own justice poems about resistance and empowerment, about finding one's own spirit in freedom and community and about the nature and development of social imagination for democratic living.

The Woodring 12th Annual Educational Law and Social Justice ForumPresents
An Evening Salon with Music, Art, Poetry and ConversationOn the Topic:
Art, Social Imagination and Democratic Education


Wednesday, April 28, 2010
5:30pm Reception
6-8pm Salon
Solarium in Old Main – 5th Floor
Western Washington University

Sponsored by the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity and the Journal of Educational ControversyWoodring College of Education
Western Washington University


Program:

5:30-6:00
Reception with music and refreshments
Welcoming interlude

Bellacorda String Quartet
Selections from Mozart Quartet in C Major “The Dissonant”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:00 Musical Introduction to Salon

Quartet No. 1 in d minor (Mvts III & IV) Randall Thompson (1889-1984)
Vivace ma non troppo
Allegro appasionata

Bellacorda Quartet:

Christine Wilkinson, Violin
Rosalie Romano, Violin
Michael Neville. Viola
Noel Evans, Violoncello

Art Slide Show and Discussion of Children’s Drawings – Susan Donnelly, Whatcom Day Academy

Conversation on Social Imagination, Art and Education with Authors and Facilitators and the Audience:

• Facilitators: Lorraine Kasprisin, Editor, Journal of Educational Controversy and Kristen French, Director of the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity

• Authors: Daniel Larner, Susan Donnelly, Rosalie Romano, Anne Blanchard, Matt Miller

• Video clip of Maxine Greene will be shown. This issue of the journal was dedicated to Maxine Greene.

Audience will be invited to bring and share their own justice poems as well as works of art.

Free and open to the public.

Philosophy for Adolescents : the Teachers College Philosophy Outreach Program

Author David Hansen, whose article, A Response to a New Book about Maxine Greene’s Philosophy, appears in our current issue of journal, writes to tell us about a new project between the Philosophy and Education Program at Teachers College and the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University that is engaging young adolescents in the wonderful world of philosophy. David points out that most high school students throughout Latin America and Europe study philosophy . One wonders why such an important discipline is largely missing in U.S. schools. David describes the project below:

Philosophy Outreach Program
Teachers College and Columbia University
New York City

By David Hansen

The Philosophy Outreach Program is an after-school project designed to engage middle and high school students in philosophical discourse. A collaboration between the Philosophy and Education Program at Teachers College and the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, the Program currently involves eight high schools in New York City. Its faculty sponsors are Professors David Hansen and Megan Laverty at TC, and Professors Philip Kitcher and Achille Varzi at Columbia. The Outreach Program’s teachers visit the schools in pairs, one student each from TC and Columbia, in order to engage middle and high school students in philosophical inquiry. Tim Ignaffo and Guillermo Marini, who are Philosophy and Education Ph.D. students and co-founders of the program, say that the collaboration between TC and Columbia has proved to be an exceptional opportunity for benefiting school communities.

In justifying the program, Guillermo points out that most high school students throughout Latin America and Europe study philosophy. These experiences have inspired many international students in TC’s Program of Philosophy and Education to pursue the field as a career. He wonders if this opportunity “happened to American students, what might it lead them to?”

The Philosophy Outreach Program believes that adolescents are in a wonderful place to begin studying philosophy, as the decisions many of them make at that age about life, self, work and college are closely related to universal questions addressed by philosophy. Tim Ignaffo, who is currently the coordinator of the Outreach Program, suggests that young people ask themselves difficult questions about life’s meaning and purpose. Providing students arguments and the vocabulary to discuss these questions can be very empowering. He also notes that at a certain point in these discussions a realization dawns that “the questions that are popping up in my head have been engaged by every generation.” Students’ testimonials about their enjoyment of philosophy have increased participation in the Program at every school. The Outreach Program’s teachers have also been invited to be guest lecturers in some of the high school classrooms, speaking, for example, to science and English classes.

The Program is supported by recurring grants from The Squire Foundation, as well as from the Teaching Center at Columbia and the Arts and Humanities Department at TC. The Squire Foundation’s long-term goal is for U.S. schools to follow the European and Latin American example, making philosophy part of the core curriculum in all high schools. Though Guillermo and Tim appreciate that this goal is “extremely ambitious,” they note the recent adoption of philosophy as a required course in Ontario, Canada. To further their aims, the students in the Outreach Program are organizing a conference for this coming October, 2010, on teaching philosophy in schools.

Reflections from a Freedom Writer Teacher

The next issue of our journal will be on the theme of "Art, Social Imagination and Democratic Education" and will appear soon. We have interpreted art in that issue very generically to include visual art, music, performing art, and theatre as well as literature and poetry. Kirsten Jensen, an English teacher at the Nooksack Valley High School here in Washington state, has joined a very interesting movement started by Erin Gruwell called the Freedom Writers. Some of you may be aware of Gruwell's foundation and her earlier book, The Freedom Writers Diary. A graduate from our own MIT program here at the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University, Kirsten wrote of her experience teaching reading and writing workshops in Gruwell's latest book, Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers." In the Bellingham Herald recently, she described her goals, "Often (teachers) try to control what students do, and I think it's hard to step away from that...The whole Freedom Writers experience ... has been one of the most impactful professional development activities for me." Kirsten joined other freedom writer teachers along with some of her own students at Village Books, our town's independent bookstore, to share her experiences with teachers and others in our community recently. In her post below, Kirsten describes her use of "memoir" writing as a way of helping her students find their own voice. We thank Kirsten for sharing with our readers another innovative way to create a democratic classroom.



The Power of Memoir Writing, Relevant Literature and Diversity Education in a Fight for Educational Equity; A Freedom Writer Teacher’s Experience


by Kirsten Jensen
Teacher, Nooksack Valley High School


Every year a new stream of students enters through our classroom doors, each with his or her own story that either supports their educational success, or makes it all the more difficult for them to make it a priority in their lives. Over time, some of these students have experienced moment after moment of disappointment and failure and are beginning to give up on the possibility of achieving a passing grade or even graduating from high school. I have these students in each of my classes in a Washington State rural, low-income school.

I remember the first time I began teaching Memoir writing. One day I asked students to leave their composition books for me to read. That night as I flipped through the pages of each notebook, I found myself shocked and saddened by the obstacles many of them faced. That same week a fellow teacher left the book The Freedom Writers Diary in my box in the teacher’s lounge. That night I read through entries written by Erin Gruwell’s 150 students from Long Beach, California. Students who were dealing with homelessness, drug addicted parents, avoiding deportation, teenage pregnancy, and abuse at home, I couldn’t help to see some similarities between these students and my own. I contacted the Foundation to find they were starting a teacher-training program to train 150 teachers in the methods that helped Gruwell’s students achieve educational success. The vision of the Freedom Writers Foundation is to publicly and systematically promote an educational philosophy that honors diversity and gives all students the opportunity to reach their full potential. The Foundation empowers students and teachers through curriculum, outreach and scholarships to help break the cycle of inequity that still continues in our educational systems. This was the reason I entered the teaching profession.

As I got off the plane in Long Beach I was greeted by teachers from around the country and Canada, all with a similar visions and passions for teaching. We learned ways to engage students in meaningful and relevant curriculum, teach students to write, read and listen to each others stories and experiences, teach Holocaust education and diversity awareness, and most of all, form relationships that allow all voices to be heard in a safe classroom community.


When I returned to my students, I witnessed some that seemed to have become "failure-acceptors" experience moments of success and begin to see that with motivation and work they could feel a sense of accomplishment. By getting the right book in the right student’s hand at the right time, a student was able to actually read a book for the first time, read more books, and perhaps become a life long reader. By getting students to develop some sense of empathy through diversity awareness teachings, the safety in my classroom increased and more students felt comfortable and willing to share their personal writing and experiences with others.

Every student has the potential to contribute something positive to our community and world. By finding ways to reach students that often fall through the cracks and help them experience success, more students will graduate high school with the skills they need to become contributing citizens to our world. These citizens may one day have their own children that they will be able to support and help to experience this same success. Education has the power to help affect the social inequities that exist in this country. Helping all students find voice and relevancy in their education may be the first step.

The Freedom Writers Foundation is still accepting teachers into its training program in Long Beach. For more information visit http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/

From Poetry to Praxis—Even in Public Schools

A POST FROM AUTHOR, MAXINE GREENE, Teachers College, Columbia University

From Poetry to Praxis -- Even in Public Schools

That amazing Tuesday night not too long ago showed us a variety of human responses—all triumphant, but diverse and different. We were not seeing a mere crowd (massive as it was) but looking at-or looking with—and feeling our hearts go out to individuals. The young, shouting and waving their arms, resembled a rock concert audience, caught up in rhythms, in communal delight. The older people—John Lewis, Ophra Winfrey, Jesse Jackson, the hundreds whose names we could not know—were caught up in their memories. They were memories of marches, dogs, police clubs, fire hoses, beatings, moments of civil disobedience and the sound of "I have a dream." The poetry of the moment, the sense of possibility, even in a Birmingham jail. Dr. King said that he might not be with them when they reached the top of the mountain with its view of freedom beyond the gathering clouds and the deaths and suffering. There was the death of Dr. King, and the song that kept sounding; "Deep in our hearts we are not afraid; we shall overcome some day."

How little has been taught in most schoolrooms. How seldom has the very word "overcome" been heard? Teachers and their students may know the words, but the throbbing meanings are too often lost. Few have been freed to feel the histories embedded in those words or to consider what they have been called upon to do.

Too few have been awakened enough to think about playing a part in the "community in the making" Dewey called "democracy." I refuse to attribute this neglect to any sort of determinism, although I am aware of the corporate interests, the "buy out" deceptions, the stiffening "power elite." There are a range of contingencies, many of them dehumanizing. There are cultures of silence, "savage inequalities." President-elect Obama spoke eloquently of change and left its direction and particulars for us to define. "Yes, we can---" This is surely a responsibility of educators, those committed to enabling the young, through dialogue, through shared action, to choose themselves as persons, as members, as people with a sense of agency with a sense of new beginnings. "Becoming different," as Dewey said, "becoming human," Freire said, urging learners to name their worlds, to engage in reflective praxis—to transform, to change.

Editor: Many of you will remember our journal's very first prologue, "From Jagged Landscapes to Possibilities," that marked the inaugural issue of our journal in 2006. The article was written by Maxine Greene, who was the inspiration for this journal. We are pleased to announce to our readers that our upcoming winter 2009 issue will be dedicated to Maxine's life and work. The theme for the issue is: "Art, Social Imagination and Democratic Education."

From our first editorial:

"As my mentor and teacher at Columbia University, Maxine taught me to confront the complexities and contradictions of life with all our human capacities. Not only reason and rational inquiry but imagination, poetry, humane impulses, empathy, and the courage to choose and act in a context of uncertainty were all important in keeping our ideals and humanity alive. As the authors for this journal tackle individual controversies and dilemmas in future issues, Maxine gives us a larger framework within which to see the meaning of our work and writings. How do we live a life in a world of uncertainty, ambiguity and contradictions? What life are we preparing the young to live? How do we help the young to live a life of agency in a world of uncertainty? How do we help them to confront the inevitable controversies that life in a pluralistic, democratic society will present without falling into despair, apathy, or nihilism, or alternatively, clinging to a comfortable but illusionary certainty? Perhaps, in some small way, our journal will provide a forum for examining the complexities of teaching, learning, and becoming in the modern world."
Lorraine Kasprisin