A great big thank you to Patti for hosting our last book club, and to Rhonda for inviting Pedro Noguera to come discuss his book The Trouble With Black Boys with us. Rhonda, Patti, Julia, Cherith, Betsy, Jake, Katherine, Jim, Sonia, Jason, Ling, Marcel, Jenna, Leslie and I had the privilege of speaking to Pedro about his book and the implications for us as a school community. Every time I hear Pedro speak, I am struck not just by his powerful ideas but also by his way with words. For that reason, instead of trying to summarize what he said, I thought I'd share with you some quotes.
"We have to find a way not to get paralyzed by race."
"The collective wisdom of the group is where you're going to get your answers.... You need to tell specific stories -- 'we've never taught ___(name of kid)___ before'.... you can't look for answers in a book."
"Learn from each other -- but even after you learn, you have to figure out how you're going to deal with it yourself."
It's important to have "a conversation without blame but with accountablity and responsibility."
"If you had a Salk museum, would kids treat it with dignity and respect?"
"The kids may not have all the answers, but they have a lot of the answers."
"We're all implicated in the ways these patterns of failure seem so predictable."
"When education is powerful it enables people to do things they didn't think they could do.... How do you create an environment that challenges stereotypes?"
"School is about regulating behavior. People who don't fit in get ostracized. We need to create an environment where kids can be different."
"Fairness is not about treating everyone the same."
"To be a kid and not have an adult that's got your back -- that's a lonely kid."
"When you go to schools and ask, 'Who are you accountable to?', affluent schools say 'the parents' and poorer schools say 'the superintendent'."
Also: Pedro mentioned that he had been on the Leonard Lopate show the day before our book club meeting -- if you want to hear that episode, you can find it here: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/06/10
In terms of our next meeting: we will go on summer hiatus until the end of August, and we will continue the tradition (o.k., it's only a year old, but it's still a tradition!) of reading a Y.A. book over the summer. Betsy suggested we read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. This is part of a trilogy, so if you really get into it you can read all three books before we meet! There are probably some copies of this book floating around school -- check with Humanities teachers. Or, you can find the book online. We'll meet right before the beginning of the school year -- probably Wednesday, August 27th somewhere near school. More details will follow later in the summer.
Thank you to everyone who attended a book club meeting this year, and I hope to spend more time reading alongside all of you in the coming year! In the meantime, have a wonderful, restful summer (with your copy of the Libba Bray book, of course!).
Pauline
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