Photo courtesy of Stockvault

It’s been more than 10 years since I visited the small city of Perry, Iowa, to do a story on how its public schools were adapting to a large influx of Hispanic students. There had been friction in this little railroad town over the new immigrants, but the schools were a refuge for all.

I remember how impressed I was by the dedication of the superintendent, the principals, and the ESL teachers: They were truly committed to giving the newcomers from places like Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala the very best education they could provide.

I wrote a pretty glowing story — and rightly so. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to some of these foreign-born students in a few years, especially those who had come to Iowa as middle or high schoolers with limited English skills. How many of them would graduate and go on to college or decent-paying jobs?   
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Kelly learning how to say "hair" in Lwo, the local language in Gulu.

If you’re looking for a story of hope for the holiday season, I’ve got one for you.

We receive many manuscripts for publication each month — mostly from education professors and school administrators. Articles from school board members are not as plentiful, which is why Philip Kelly’s offering caught my attention when it landed on my desk.

The Boise, Idaho, school board member has an amazing story to tell, and we were happy to publish that story in the December issue of ASBJ. Kelly heard about the plight of the “invisible children” in war-torn Uganda at a school board meeting.

He might have chosen to store that information and go about his life as usual. Instead, he ended up traveling with a handful of other educators to Gulu, Uganda, in the middle of the war zone.

Read A School Leader’s Journey to find out how Kelly connected his experiences in Gulu with his board service in Boise, enhancing the lives of people in both communities.

As Kelly puts it, “I ran for school board to be involved in the school district, not the world. Who knew being on a school board could lead me across the globe?”

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

School officials in Fairfax County, Va., understand well that foreign language instruction is critical if today’s students will be ready to compete in tomorrow’s highly competitive global economy.

But, as is so often the case, lofty education goals run afoul of financial realities.

Years ago, the Fairfax County, Va., school system called for all students to start early to learn a foreign language—in elementary school—so they would graduate with some fluency in a second language.

Yet now officials in this Washington, D.C., suburb are weighing budget cuts that endanger this innovative and logical instructional objective. At risk are language immersion programs existing in a dozen elementary schools as well as plans to add foreign language instruction to dozens more.

It’s not a given that the programs will be cut. “School officials say the early programs are crucial to producing a generation of bilingual students,” reported a recent Washington Post article. “Two or three years of high school French typically is not enough to get students beyond a beginner level.”

Any foreign language instructor will tell you the same thing. The earlier you start teaching a second language—and the longer you teach that language—the more likely you’ll end up with a bilingual student.
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It’s an awkward phrase — “at-promise” — but I sort of like it.

 “At-promise” is how the public schools here in Alexandria, Va., refer to students who previously might have been labeled “at-risk.” I learned about this nomenclature yesterday from The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews, whose Class Struggle blog harkens back to a July 23 newspaper column by Alexandria Superintendent Morton Sherman explaining the district’s rationale.

“We use the term ‘at-promise’ in Alexandria City Public Schools to describe children who have the potential to achieve at a higher rate than they are currently achieving,” Morton wrote in the Alexandria Gazette Packet. “Really all children are at-promise because we, as educators, have made a promise to each and every child that we will work toward higher achievement for all…”

“At-risk” means at risk for failure, and it’s an important designation. It tells adults who work with these children that they have special needs, in the broadest sense, and deserve extra support. Two years ago, I wrote an ASBJ series called “Children at Risk,” which looked at some of the reasons why disadvantaged children are more likely to fail, reasons that include inadequate nutrition and health care, dysfunctional family life, and childhoods spent in violent or drug-prone neighborhoods.  By the time I reached the end of the series, however, I wanted a more positive name for these students. So the last story (so far) uses a kind of hybrid label: “Children at Risk/ Children of Hope.”
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You’ve heard about the “graying” of America. You’ve likely heard of the “browning” of America.

But have you ever considered what America will be like when it is both brown and gray?

We could be in for a rough ride, James Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina, predicted at a conference of NSBA’s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) in Austin, Texas, last week.

“This country . . . every state, every urban school district is in the midst of an unprecedented demographic transformation,” he said. “Buckle your seatbelts.”

Johnson wasn’t saying a growing minority population—or an aging population—is, in and of itself, a bad thing. But both trends, acting in unison, will have an immense impact on the nation.

And, if policymakers aren’t preparing for what’s to come, the nation will be the worse for it.
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NASA Press photo

Walter Cronkite made me nervous.

In January 2004, I was working on ASBJ’s coverage of the 50^th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. One of my goals was to do a series of Q&As that would serve as “bridges” from one story to the next; the “Most Trusted Man in America” was a logical choice to weigh in.

I worked through CBS News and got in touch with Cronkite’s personal assistant, who warned me that the 87-year-old former anchor was almost completely deaf. She also said he was undergoing treatment for a “problem with his legs,” or as he referred to them, the “parts that are just wearing out.”

My mantra was “Speak loudly and try not to stammer.” I decided to start by asking him about growing up in the Houston area (where I grew up as well). We also talked about Nov. 22, 1963, and I had a chance to tell Cronkite briefly that my father had seen John Kennedy in Dallas on that fateful day.

At that point, I was relaxed and his whirlpool was humming, and the interview formally began. Excerpts are below, and you can find the rest (along with interviews I did with Richard Riley, John Hope Franklin, Ted Shaw, and Richard Kluger) in the “Remembering Brown” archive from the April 2004 issue.

What were you was doing at the time:

I was with CBS. I had returned just a few years before from Europe and was working in Washington at that time. Unfortunately, I was not assigned to the Supreme Court case, but we were all working together to get the repercussions and comments and turning whatever we did into a little interpretive piece.

In terms of stories, how important was Brown in 1954, and how did the other newsmen view it?
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When I heard the news, I remember thinking,  ”No, don’t do that. You don’t have to do that. It’s not your fault. Lots of people screwed up, didn’t see it coming. You may not see it now, but you have a lot to live for….”

The story of 41-year-old acting CEO of the mortgage colossus Freddie Mac, who hung himself last month over the collapse of his enterprise, really hit me hard. He had a family, including a young daughter. He had choices, even if he couldn’t seem them through the fog of overwork and depression that had consumed him. “Just walk away from the mortgage business,” I would have told him. “Let it go and do something else.”

About that same time, I received an e-mail from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) about another suicide. This one was of a Massachusetts middle school student who hung himself after being taunted and bullied over his supposed sexual orientation. A similar incident happened with a Georgia boy. The students “didn’t identify as gay,” GLSEN said. But, of course, it makes no difference. No child — gay or straight — should have to endure that kind of abuse.

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My mother finally got her party last night.

Over the years, since the Bush administration came into office, she’s dealt with countless cases of berating and bullying from neighbors and friends, some of which was alcohol-induced, who live in a Tennessee retirement/resort community. Even the president of the local GOP nicknamed her “special ed.” (obviously he hasn’t studied his party’s positions on federal special education funding).

I often thought of these people when I was writing ”The Importance of Civics Education,” which appeared in ASBJ’s January issue. While I was writing (around the time of the election) we got an email from a counselor in Louisiana who reported that some of her African-American students were being bullied by McCain supporters, unfortunate incidents that probably went underreported. I also spoke with the group Teaching Tolerance, part of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which had anticipated some backlash and prepared a kit of classroom exercises to help ease the tensions, available on their website.

“One of the things teachers can do is recognize that this is not just a matter of policies, it’s really about young people and their emotional investment and their identity,” Senior Editor Tim Lockette says. “It’s a time to address issues of identity and get young people to think about, ‘what is my role?’”

Last night, some of the few and proud Obama supporters in my mom’s neighborhood threw an extravagant party to celebrate not only Obama’s symbolism and the inauguration, but also the departure of an administration that appeared to dismiss non-conforming ideals and underhandedly encouraged bullying.      

Nevertheless, it wasn’t just celebrating with like-minded friends that my mom excitedly told me about this morning, it was a 9-year-old boy, Jackson, the son of one of her friends.
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I’m not an avid TV watcher and when I do sit down in front of the tube, it’s rarely for a television movie, let alone a Hallmark Hall of Fame one. Eekk. Those kinds of schmaltzy, sappy, tear-jerker films just aren’t my scene.

Yet last night, I found myself glued (and then increasingly unglued) as I watched Front of the Class, a real life tale of a young teacher with Tourette Syndrome. Despite a rough and misunderstood childhood, where classmates, teachers and even his own father ridiculed and berated him about his neurological disorder, Brad Cohen grows into an optimistic and determined young man, intent on becoming the kind of teacher he never had: kind, supportive, and understanding.

The journey is far from easy. Even though he excelled in college and had the recommendations to boot, Cohen interviewed at 25 different schools in the Atlanta-area, before he was finally offered a job as a second-grade teacher. The scene where Cohen breaks down in his car after a particularly horrible interview is heart-wrenching.

To be honest, there’s a lot of material in the film that will bring on the waterworks. Toward the end of the movie, my eyes were nearly swollen shut (can barely seen the monitor right now) because I’d cried so much and I AM NOT A BIG WUSS; trust me.

Front of the Class is an inspiring film; truly one of the best stories of human triumph that I’ve seen characterized on film in a long, long time. It should be required (I’m not getting paid by the Hallmark people) viewing at all schools, to show teachers and students how to treat people who are different. And to show those who are different that they can succeed in spite, and sometimes because of their differences.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor