National School Reform Faculty

Power Issues/Equity/Students
Date: May 7, 2003
Listserv: Coaches

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 6:59 AM
Good Morning,
I hope by now you have all had a chance to read Camilla Greene 's article, A Sense of Power, in Connections. The issues raised about a fundamental misalignment between our espoused equitable philosophies and common practices in our schools really hit home for me.

I found myself wondering about our credibility with students when we talk the talk of mutual empowerment as we "hire more security guards" to control them. I also began to question the alternatives in the large, urban public schools where I do much of my work.

Today I'll be initiating one of the "alternatives" and I'm more than a little bit nervous. I'm facilitating groups for high school young women today. Groups where we can share text, have conversations and hopefully begin to write down the rage that so many of them have been venting in violent ways.

I'm using "Eleven" by Sondra Cisneros as our first text. I'm using "Hopes & Fears" from Nancy Mohr, Alan Dichter, Joe & Beth Mc Donald's book to frame norms... I'm trying to leave the rest pretty open so that the young women can co-design it with me. I want them to own the group. ( Plus we only have 45 minutes.)

I will bring some resources/books for them to choose from...The Freedom Writer's Diary, Couldn't Keep it to Myself, No Disrespect, Growing Up Poor and of course the range of group facilitation tools that we all share.

If any of you have particular texts or activities/protocols that you've used to address issues of equity, rage, powerlessness, or violence with students, please share them. In Wally Lamb's new book of writings by the women of York Correctional Institute, Couldn't Keep it to Myself, the women write of exchanging powerlessness for a sense of self-awareness...I'm hoping these groups will open up that possibility for the students, and for us, the adults who hope to travel with them.
Debbie, PA

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 12:27 PM
Self Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson is amazing. It is at times a difficult read but that is half the fun....taking it paragraph by paragraph was something I did two years ago and just today a young man who is about to graduate told me "that was the best discussion I had here".

Emerson is a dead white guy, but he did protest and challenge slavery and the Mexican War. Lisa:)
Lisa, AZ

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 4:25 PM
Along the same line, I have used Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," and John Lennon's "Imagine." Thoreau's and Emerson's message are similar; Thoreau's resounds with my students because he actually went to jail (as did Dr. King) for his beliefs. Granted, the circumstances of the jailing were different and the conditions, different; but both made enemies by going to jail and both made friends. Students enjoy debating just how far they would go for something in which they believe and who they would alienate in the process. "Imagine" is great for discussing the possibilities...can could such a world exist? Why/why not? Who gives up what? Gains what?
Best wishes,
Laura, WA