Joanne Jacobs

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | What do poor, minority kids need
least? How about a public high school that will teach them to resist
mainstream culture, feel sorry for themselves and write ransom notes
to the president?

Oakland's new School for Social Justice and Community Development is
like a throwback to the '60s. And not the part with good music.

The Contra Costa Times' story opens with a class taught by rapper
Boots Riley, author of Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO.

In culture and resistance class, the assignment is to compose a rap
about an important issue in the city of Oakland, a proposal to add 100
police to the city's force.

"I can't rap," says Antoine Henderson, surveying the lyrics on his
paper: "Why they want to bring more police in the town / Just for them
to attack the black and brown."

Actually, black and brown Oaklanders could use more police protection
from street criminals: Twenty people were murdered within a mile of
the school in 2002; Oakland's murder toll skyrocketed to 113. But the
proposal to add police came from Mayor Jerry Brown; his opponent in
the mayoral race, Wilson Riles, Jr., is the school's principal. (Just
to complicate matters, Riles' dad was state superintendent during
Brown's tenure as governor.)

School leaders say the protest theme will engage students because it
will be "relevant" to their lives. I remember "relevance." It doesn't
work.

On a recent school day, Sarah Fuchs' English and social studies class
talked about patriarchy and sexism, and discussed an essay assignment
on how colonialism affected Africa.

It was part of a lesson plan covering "systems of oppression"
including capitalism and white supremacy. Another section of the plan
called for discussing "tools for liberation."

Biology teacher Omar Hunter taught his class about the periodic table,
then gave them an assignment: Write a ransom letter to President Bush.
Students were to pretend they were holding an element for ransom,
listing its physical and chemical properties and why it is crucial,
along with their demands, he said.

How is this relevant? Because the teacher thinks they're all gangstas?
Real relevance would involve teaching students how they can use their
knowledge of elements in the periodic table in the world that they
might have a chance of entering if they get a decent education.

Gut Rumbles thinks teaching children to read would serve them better
than teaching them to protest a world that has no use for sub-literate
whiners.

Once again, I refer you to the schools run by the Islamofascist
mullahs. The philosophy is the same: Get 'em young, fill their heads
full of garbage, and send them out to take flying lessons.

The Oakland school board, which created Social Justice as a
semi-independent public school within the district, refused to charter
Jerry Brown's proposed Oakland Military Institute affiliated with the
California National Guard. Social Justice's principal, Riles, led the
opposition, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Riles complained
"this school, if not promotes, at least legitimizes violence." The
state board of education chartered the military school for grades
7-12; it opened in August, 2001.

Anti-war, Anti-indoctrination

You don't have to like war with Iraq to hate the San Francisco school
board's proposed anti-war teach-in, which passed a committee on Dec.
17 and will go to a full board vote in January. Even doves think the
idea crosses the line from education to indoctrination.

Parents Advocating School Accountability which I know for its fierce
opposition to Frisco's Edison charter school, quotes Margaret Brodkin:

Parents and students have a right to go to a public school that does
not impose a one-sided political point of view. It's a civil rights
issue.

School Board President Jill Wynns, another dove, tried unsuccessfully
to modify the resolution, which lists only anti-war groups as
participants in a day of public education.

The San Francisco Chronicle also editorialized against propagandizing
students.

I predict the war will be over before the "day of public education"
can be approved, scheduled, organized and implemented. And that the
anti-war teach-in will happen anyhow. Why should irrelevance stop
them?

Miss Count

A scoring mistake made Ashley Bryant the beauty queen of Beach High
School in Savannah, Ga. Now the real "Miss Beach High" has taken the
crown, and Ashley's parents are threatening to sue.

On competition night, the nine judges met to tally their scores but
somehow mixed up Bryant's score and that of Courtney Middleton, whom
school officials say is the true winner.

Beach High's principal, Roy Davenport, soon heard rumblings there was
a problem with the pageant, and called the head of the math department
in for a recount.

Middleton had the most votes of the 12 finalists; Bryant hadn't even
made runner-up.

Bryant's family has contacted an attorney and is considering legal
action to get the crown and trophy back.

"Why should I have to give back something that I earned?" Bryant told
the Savannah Morning News.

I see an easy compromise: Give Bryant the title of Miss Count, Miss
Take or possibly Miss Definition of "Earned."

Interacting in Print With Parents

New York City's 12-page jargon-filled report card will be simplified,
so parents can understand it.

In one example, (Chancellor Joel) Klein said, the old report card
measured whether students "interact with print daily for a variety of
purposes."

"Maybe that has meaning to people," he said, "but to me, I had this
feeling like I was reading a newspaper and getting it on my fingers.
That's the only interaction with print that I have on a daily basis."

The old card used letter grades to measure overall "interest and
effort" in each subject. Confusingly, though, A (for "area of
concern") was the lowest grade and C ("consistently demonstrates") was
the highest.

The new report card is down to four pages.