Almost Distracted by the Siren Call of 4 Wonen Hammering the Trails in Full Cyclocross kits - Thanksgiving Count is Big This Year is 83

Regular readers, well, if there were regular posts there might be regular readers, of this blog know that every that every Thanksgiving, I run my traditional route through the Park. Along the way, not sure when I started this, I count the number of homeless folk spread out along the way.  This is a very imprecise measure of how well we are doing as a society; how we treat those less fortunate than us. 

At a time when many families are sucking down more consumables than humanly possible as if it were a contest to see who falls into a food coma in front of the [enormous screen television displaying any old] football game first, the number is indicative of how good or bad things might be on the streets.  Think about it this way, if we could some how gather together all the leftovers, how many folks would we be able to feed and how long?  Is there another way forward to fix the homeless situation? Who was it that said, "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result..."

What's different this year is that I totally didn't see a single Hells Angel along Haight Street. They have typically gathered (dozens of Harley Davidsons packed into a row in front of the same cafe)  for many years, seemingly celebrating the holiday by going for a ride on a beautiful day.  This is too bad, as I had resolved to stop this year and ask one of them what the tradition was. I was secretly hoping that they would explain that they did the ride every year to raise money to build homes for homeless vets. Alas, no luck.  There weren't any Hells Angels to ask a blessed thing.

What I did find, after spotting four homeless along the panhandle was a large number of people out exercising - running, riding, rollerskating.  As soon as I entered into the wood, there were zero homeless in a typical place that I usually notice a few folks tucked under the brush in sleeping bags.

Along the narrow trail to the knoll, I spot a lead rider in full flashy cycling kit coming out of a tributary and onto my trail. She said, "Runner up." When I got a better glimpse, turns out there were three riders tucked behind her all on Cyclocross bikes.  All four tricked out in full sponsored kits of some kind or another.  I stood aside and waved them through, "Cyclocross Rules, ATMO!"  They said thank you; I'm sure appreciative of not having some runner disrupt their rhythm by clogging up the single track.

At that point, I had reached a count of 6 homeless, and four female cyclocross riders. I thought, maybe this is the year that the system cracked the problem and found a solution to eliminate almost all the homeless.  "Wouldn't it be great to report that I had seen more Cross riders and cyclists than homeless?"

No such luck.  The first real clump of homeless were sleeping on Hippie Hill, near the tennis courts, then along the hill North of the Sharon Building.  The numbers started ratcheting up.  Then I hit Haight Street, and that seems to be where the vast majority of the homeless were coagulating this year.

This year, in front of Haight Street Music, there was a clump of folks singing a son, complete with guitars and laughter, and dogs.   The last cluster of homeless were gathered under an oak tree at the edge of Beuna Vista - about 13 or 14 folks.  At least one of them was cleaning up the camp.

In the end, I spotted 83 homeless people.  The distracting siren call of Cross riders a faint memory.

Blog on

After the Fracture (a supposed song I wrote a long time ago)

I'd like to sing this song
But you're not here with me
Don't know what to do
But it might be destiny

How do I get you closer
To play with me?
It don't sound so good
With out you in proximity

Chorus:

I'm not living without you
I'm not breathing without you
I'm not loving without you

Doesn't feel so good
Hugging my pillow
And its really cold
Never feels all that good
Without you in the neighborhood

How could we be so wrong
Together its a mystery
Now and forever
We are history

Chorus

And this song will end
A lousy facsimile
Of what we had once
Or is it a faded memory

Really, I don't need you
Anymore
Picking myself up
And walking through that door

Chorus

Experience: An Anthology - Original Works by Aaron Anderson copyrighted June 1992

I'm pretty sure that if there was such a thing as blogging back in 1992, I would have put these poems on line some where. Found these going back through an old box this afternoon. Best for sharing by making them electronic.

Bear in mind, I was a lot younger then (we all were, of course). But this should get you a sense of what I was writing back then.

I'm pretty sure that if there was such a thing as blogging back in 1992, I would have put these poems on line some where. Found these going back through an old box this afternoon. Best for sharing by making them electronic.

Bear in mind, I was a lot younger then. But this should get you a sense of what I was thinking back then.

Experience

An Anthology

Original works by Aaron Anderson

Distinct Class

An Errant class
Distinction and promise
Of the American Dream
Shove you and me and me you
Vice versa against the glass
Struggling 'til our own demise
Dividing us along the very seam
A chasm we'd all like to cross

Moving on Up

Drive that Mercedes
And I my Escort
Vacation in exotic destinations
And I budget the local resort
And a Motel 6
May not a Radisson or Regency be
Extol your pleasure
As best you may
For I and my Escort will
Shortly be by your way.

Wake up Call

And you say you disagree
You don't know where to stand
That you can never identify
and why even try
But this cause you can't ignore
We're comin' in your back door
Not a safe place to hide
From the fire that burns inside
Understand this oppressor, We
Never, never, never give up the fight
Four cops Went Free and Los Angeles Went Up in Smoke

Written for Deb Foster

In making Solace
Or peace of mind
Tranquil streams
And placid time
The heart is true
Only if you
Stand your ground
And draw the line 

Oppression

Pestilence or sorrow
Weighing heavy on your brow?
The pain of oppression
Cleaving fractures in your opinion?
There is a solution
Clouded in pollution,
Not abated, waiting for a clear day
Or activism and restimulation
Of individual dedication
To rectification of vilification
Making what's wrong right
Never give up...never give up the fight. 

Tempus Fugit

And Time Marches to a Cadence
All its Own
Leaving us Spinning
Wondering Where it Went
Stop and Think.
Our Past is What Makes Us
Last year, we lost over 100,000 Iraqi and 150 U.S. Lives.

Stress

The stimulus warrants
Responses internal
Beyond control, but containable
A toxic waste
Of mind and soul
Realities and legalities
Restrain your goals
Choice, free, do!
Reactions are entirely you

(by)Anonymous

A man of quality
is not threatened by
a woman seeking equality

Veterans Day

Standing here along the road
To 'Nam or Saudi it's off I go

Crush my innocence before its time
How to recapture the youth that was mine
Of all things hard to relate
It's the blood of a buddy's
Fate spilling before my face
So it's home for this old Joe
And it's alone I go.

Written for Rey Guerrero

'Tis not that Life is
Swift for some
and not others, but
Enriched by the people
Engaged

Autumn's Charm

Leaves Falling
Tapestry Forming
Frost Crisping
Breath Misting

The Cycle

Aspirations of water and time
Mixed in discovery and exploration
Define life's mysteries
And to what end
Only to redefine
Life's mysteries

As a parcel of sustenance
And a seeming lack of substance
Time and tide wait for no one
 

Lest We Forget

Lest we forget
The horror of violence
The cycle of hatred
Anger focused on others
And slighted persons of many colors

Lest we forget
The antiquated system
Dictates violent solutions
To age old problems
And institutionalized subjugation

Lest we forget
We join in the system
Every day another is born
We grow weary of oppressing
And yet complain of reverse discrimination

Lest we forget
The wars waged
The black men beaten
The money spent for law enforcement
And wonder what happened to education

Lest we forget
The decline of the family
The embracement of mediocrity
Or the decline of employment
And blame the media and lack of moral majority

Lest we forget
The cash donate for political campaigns
The credibility of our stars and politicians
Or the crisis of a promise broken
And concern grows for the children and their indoctrination

Lest we forget
These are our lives
That we chose to live
In silence and complicity
And at the very least we forget.

Written for Jenn Guttler

It it's in song
Or in the soul
One follow the other
Reaching beyond bounds
And walls planted
Or broken down
Singularly challenged
Soul and song
Coupled indefeatable

Written for Emily Lino

As the flower
Begun as a gift
Becomes your own
Blooms and goes
Think how brief
Plant a seed
Love and Nurture
And the flower
Often Blooms

Written for Enrique Diaz

Sway in the breeze
Bend in the torrent
Steadfast in the daylight
Notice the tree
Rooted in a forest
A sea of individuality
For not the woods
But the branches
Make the mountains majestic

Written for Lisa Root

Ah, the wings of education
Filled by the winds of knowledge
Causing a soul to grow
Toward higher goals
Fly, and fly far
And may the winds
Carry you beyond
Your wildest dreams

Experience

And in the end
as do all good things
toward new beginnings
and re-invention of dreams
ensure memories are shelved
As this chapter closes
with well worn seams

This Thanksgiving it was 48 & a Couple Dozen Hells Angels

This morning's Thanksgiving run started a beautiful morning. Near 8 AM and the sunny temps just a smidge above 50 degrees.  The route; the usual. The mission: to informally assess the state of the homeless situation & see if there are any improvements by running about Golden Gate park and counting. Turns out, not so much.  This is a non-scientific assessment, but from my view it seems like the solutions to the homeless situation appear to be as static as the population. Can we expect to get a different result by doing the same things over and over again?

As it seems it has happened post "Care-not-cash," it seemed like the bulk of the Park was devoid of homeless folks. They tend to gravitate to the periphery, into the neighborhoods as well, and the lesser parks (like Buena Vista).   The first three folks I spied were camped out near the old firehouse on Oak, tucked into an approach to some one's garage. Looked like they had just gotten up as they were packing up their stuff, perhaps to move on.

The largest clump of homeless folks were, as in years past, at the intersection of Haight and Stanyan.  I'm sure I missed a few, as I tried to spy as many as I could, but there had to be about a dozen folks congregated just east of the frog pond.  I'm not sure what draws folks to that location, but it might be that there's a McDonalds across the street - of course, I'm assuming they are not shopping at the Whole Foods - also across the street on the north side of Haight. 

There is always a random assortment of folks wandering up and down Haight street. This year, I was serenaded by a homeless woman, who was singing just near the "Listen to this Wall" corner.  She was putting some energy into it.  Seemed happy.  I yelled "Sing it sister," as I ran by.  Not sure she took that the right way.

Round about Masonic, along Haight was the usual gaggle of about two dozen Hells Angels.  I'm guessing as I lost count trying to navigate and run through the throng of tattooed, tough looking, leather wearing men.

Anyway, that's the news that's fit to post:  The official count - 48 Homeless & about 2 dozen Hells Angels.  Improvements? You be the judge.

Duration of a Course is the Wrong Question When You Want To Measure The ROI of any given Pedagogy

Most of the time, the character limits on social media are a boon to creativity, but occasionally a post spurs a longer thought.  This is my response to this post on shortening the duration of course offerings. 

Pedagogically, I'm a fan of a traditional semester which allows ample time for complex ideas to steep in the brain. There's room for making mistakes & recovery in a safe environment and invention along the pathways to learning.  Even so, that doesn't mean we need to rigidly adhere to a formulaic structure for what can be construed as high quality teaching. Unfortunately - or fortunately - the debate as to what constitutes high quality teaching is old and unresolved even among professionals in the field. 

Really, delivery mode (or duration) isn't altogether important, whereas understanding how to prove maximized ROI (outcomes of learning) in any format is the trick.  I'm not sure counting numbers on any given MOOC via digital anaylitics applied in the back end - or even measurement of numbers of people who pass any given quiz or test in swift fashion - is going to suffice as proof whatever delivery mode works. 

The irksome portion of this conversations rests in the connection between teaching and learning.  That is, teaching can be fantastically optimized and superior, above all reproach, but learning hinges completely on the learner doing the learning.  Simply put, you could be the greatest teacher since Euclid drawing diagrams in the sand, but if a learner/student is disinclined to learn, your ROI can still be zero.

As one wise man once said - not sure whom - "Education in advance of need, is folly," which may ultimately be the downfall of modern prerequisites, unless of course, it is the learner who understands the need to master whatever subject to achieve her or his own aims.  Perhaps we should reset the whole conversation in terms of the separation between "wants" and "needs" and roll from there.

73 as far as the eye can see: Annual Thanksgiving run and homelessness count

This morning was a brilliant day for running.  Just a smidge above 50 degrees. Sun shining, and what seemed like an endless stream of other runners out putting on the miles earning the calories they will ingest later in the day.

As always, I did the same route I have done just about every Thanksgiving I've trod for I can't remember how many years when I started this annual tradition.  I was hoping for the best.  Perhaps this would be the Thanksgiving where there would be a count of zero.  For the first mile, this was my result. I was optimistic.  As I moved from the panhandle into the main segment of our park, my hopes were dashed.  Lo and behold, the first three folks were located near the basketball hoops adjacent to the public restrooms, and then I saw two more ambling toward the other three.

When I first started doing this count, there used to be larger numbers of people located inside the main part of Golden Gate Park. Now, it seems the bulk of the homeless hang out around the outskirts or the nearby business districts.  Today was no different.  The City has done a fine job discouraging people from camping in the usual locations in the park.  And to prove that point, I only saw one other person inside the main park.  I did find evidence of others out there, but true to the count, I only count visible heads, not tents, shopping carts full of a person's worldly possessions, bed rolls, etc..

It wasn't until I got to the edge of the Park underneath the bridge toward the intersection of Stanyan & Haight Streets that I saw a bolus of folks flocked together across the street from the McDonalds.  The number ran up real fast from there.  At least two dozen people were congregated in this area, and the remainder of people were easy to count as they tended to gravitate to the sunny north side of Haight Street, basking in the warmth, splayed out with their belongings, never mind the sit lie law recently enacted.

And so, all told, with the one person spotted inside of Buena Vista Park, I counted roughly 73 homeless people on my run this morning.  This is a conservative estimate. I'm sure there were more out there, but with the 30-40 minutes I was out on my run this morning, those are the one's I spotted.

As to if this is an improvement over years past, I get the sense the answer is no.  It seems like there were a lot more folks out there this morning.  The shift out of the park to the periphery seems to have been cemented, but alas on this day of Thanksgiving, while many over stuff themselves on football and turkey, I'm reminded once again that there are those less fortunate. That there is work to do.

And, no matter the political vagaries of our fair city, where three bedroom homes are nearly never vacated, and two bedroom homes go for upwards of over a million dollars, and yet there are foreclosed vacant properties, I'm left still wondering why the collective we cannot solve this particular problem.  Perhaps we need an open sourced hackathon to corner the source of the problem, identify the barriers to fixing them, and begin removing them and solving it for the sake of the betterment of the whole. After all, isn't our it a measure of the quality of our society measurable by the way we treat those foundering at our lowest rungs?

As we stuff ourselves silly, and give thanks for the gifts we do have, I suggest we turn our thoughts away from what divides us, and make a resolution to come together and figure this out.  After all, we put more than man on the moon and more than one rover on Mars.  Solving the homeless problem can't be nearly as complicated to fix, no?  If we move together, and stop spending unfathomable millions of dollars on political campaigns and instead use those valuable resources toward more positive ends,  perhaps the next time I write this report, things will have improved.

Until next year...

Press Release: Parents Urge Californians to Protect Public Education And Vote "Yes on Prop 30 & Yes on Prop 38!"

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Press Release:

Parents Urge Californians to Protect Public Education And Vote "Yes on Prop 30 & Yes on Prop 38!"

Educate Our State, a parent-led grassroots education advocacy group, mobilizes its 45,000 supporters in order to protect education funding on the November ballot. The group is endorsing both Prop 30 and Prop 38.

San Francisco, CA, September 12, 2012: On behalf of the more than six million California public school children, Educate Our State is organizing parents and supporters to vote for education this fall and restore K-12 funds to the state budget.  Educate Our State is urging a Yes for Education! vote on November’s two education ballot initiatives: the Governor’s Proposition 30 and the Advancement Project/PTA’s Proposition 38.  In order to prevent a split vote, and to ensure that one of these measures - which will restore education funding - will pass, Educate Our State is asking Californians to vote Yes on 30 and Yes on 38.  To get out the vote, Educate Our State’s 45,000 supporters are organizing voter pledge drives and voter registration drives in time for the November election.  

“It is ludicrous that these campaigns are being considered a competition.  There is no question that what is best for kids - preschoolers to college students - is for both initiatives to pass!” said Crystal Brown, co-founder and Board President of Educate Our State. “Without the funding provided by these initiatives, schools will face cuts of nearly 20,000 teachers, a shorter school year, larger class sizes and elimination of all or nearly all enrichment programs.” California already lags behind all but a few states with respect to funding (lower than 43rd), standardized test scores (math 43rd and reading 46th; NAEP 4th Grade 2009), and staff to student ratios (50th, NCES Common Core of Data, 2007-2008). For a synopsis of these propositions produced by Educate Our State, please click here.

“Educate Our State parent leaders, from one end of California to the other, will be mobilizing voters to ensure they are prepared and committed to voting for education this November,” said Annie Bauccio, co-founder of Educate Our State, and campaign coordinator. Educate Our State, along with many other organizations, demanded the legislature protect education in this year’s budget.  Instead they passed a budget that leaves the security of education funding dependent upon the results of this election.  “We can no longer allow political bickering to stand in the way of what is best for California’s future.  Parents are going to do everything in their power to ensure the vote comes out in support of education this year,” said Teri Levy, co-founder and Los Angeles leader.

For more information about the campaign, “Yes for Education!”, as well as pledge events scheduled in specific areas, please visit www.educateourstate.org. Educate Our State can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/educateourstate and can be followed on Twitter at #yes4ed or #educateourstate.

Educate our State is a grassroots, parent-led, statewide campaign uniting the voices of Californians in support of high-quality, K-12 public education and to demand real, systemic change. We believe parents, together with community leaders, can organize, mobilize and put pressure on all stakeholders to work together and agree on fundamental changes that put our children’s achievement and success first. For more information visit: www.educateourstate.org.

Press Contacts: Crystal Brown (San Francisco) 

                         (415) 279-3920  crystal@educateourstate.org

                         Teri Levy (Los Angeles)

                         (323) 445-6641  teri@educateourstate.org

                          Annie Bauccio (San Francisco)  
                         (415) 806-1085  annie@educateourstate.org

                       

Join Educate our State for Camp Educate: A summer day camp for adults who care about the future of our great state

I haven't written in a while, but I though that I would appeal to you because our public education system is on the verge of collapse and we all have a vested stake in the future of our Great State.  Think of it this way. With a budget that hinges on the likelihood that voters will approve one of two tax increases this November, how do you suppose we are able fund public education across California in a robust way that ensures our children are well educated, ready for jobs or college, and will be able to lead productive happy lives when they exit school at whatever point they choose? 

The existing budget for public schools across our State hangs by a unraveling thread. The presidential election in November is important, not only for what hangs in the balance for whom will be elected leader of our great nation, but we the people of California have a choice to make.  And hanging in the balance of that choice are California's children - who get no vote - and we, the adults will be making a selection for them.  We will all go to the polls in November and cast our votes, and I urge you to pledge to vote in ways that support public education. 

Regardless the predicted outcome, you do not have to rest with simply showing up to vote.  You can take action today, and that action can work to multiply the power of the movement toward a better California; one where the voters look out for the future generations as opposed to their own, limited self interest.  Join Educate our State.  Like us on facebook.  Sign up for the Cause.

And, if you feel like you would be willing to go the extra mile - come meet us in person and learn how to become an active agent for change.  While, the current budget in Sacramento and across large portions of the State is hostile to public education, toward public school children, and endangering the very talent pools that will be the future employees of the great companies that comprise California's fiscal backbone, we do not have to sit idly or complacently by.  

I am a Board member for Educate our State and I encourage you to consider joining us in two weeks for Camp Educate (18 Aug 2012). Like minded people from around the region are gathering to discuss the issues, connect in person, and work together to develop strategies for working toward positive aims shooting to rebuilding support for and actively take part in the fight to improve schools and the educational experience for all California's children.  I would be happy to discuss this effort in person at any time. Give me a call or let me know a good number, date and time to call you to discuss and I will do my best to fill you in on the details and answer any questions you have.

Better yet, skip all these steps and sign up for Camp Educate. Think of this as Summer Day Camp for adults who care about the future of our Great State.  

The steps you take over this one day event and the next few months are critical.  Don't fall into the usual disempowering trap of thinking that your voice won't make a difference.  In fact, by acting now, with us, you may well be able to change the future for the better .  As Margaret Mead is famous for saying, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  I hope you make the choice to become a part of our State wide movement.  California's Children need you.

I look forward to speaking with you about these issues, Camp Educate, or whatever else you would like to talk about at any time.

School Vouchers Are A Trojan Horse

A friend sent around an article suggesting that Mitt Romney is trying to ride in on a white horse as the knight anointed to save our public schools and reverse the fiscal malaise facing them.  I got off on a rant, and here's my response to the article.

Any time some one suggests we hand every one a coupon or voucher so that they can "spend" their education dollars wherever they want, this essentially is code for keeping the rich rich and the poor poor.  Just ask yourself, if you are a single parent, working two jobs just to cover the rent, and you have two kids that you need to send to school, will any voucher that you receive give you enough capital to send your kid to the "best" school? Nope.   What's the likelihood that any kind of voucher program is slashed until it's ground down to zero? Perhaps an exploration of what is happening to food stamp vouchers is instructive as well.

The reason why the wealthy love this voucher idea is that it gives them their tax money back, and they throw as much of their "hard earned" cash at the private school of their choice, and basically screw all the kids who come from poor families and cannot afford the tuition at Exeter or Choate Rosemary Hall or other some such school.  Basically, the voucher "liberates" allocated tax dollars and removes legally prescribed funds from all schools and puts it at schools who don't need the funding in the first place.  After all, the wealthy will use their funds, extracted from the public trust, and put is where they believe they will get the higher ROI; which is where they are already putting their money anyway. 

Here's a good example.  How much does it cost to send a child to French American these days?  If all those parents sucked their tax money out of the SFUSD, and then put those funds somewhere, would they be inclined to select a public school or stick with French American? Of course, they would run with the vouchers to French American thankful that they got the extra capital they didn't need in the first place to prop up their school?  Who wins? The kid already going to French American, who by default can already afford it. Who loses? The public school system kids as those funds diverted to whatever private school would no longer be used to support our beloved SFUSD schools, as those who can will "spend it" elsewhere.

This is why I always say, there's a dramatic difference between an equal opportunity for an education and an equal opportunity for an EQUAL education....but I digress.

The GOP folks are only in it for themselves, and their plans lay that plain.  One day, I would love to find a fiscally responsible person who is also socially minded and vice versa in the same person...No wait, that's Obama.

It's Time for the People To Lead & Tell Our Elected Legislators to "Stop Clowning Around" with public school funding

In advance of tonight's School Site Council (SSC) and tomorrow's PTA meetings where many of us will be discussing the grim fiscal situation facing our wonderful school, we stand together lucky in that we are able to raise funds to support the values and programs we have grown to enjoy over the years.  Unfortunately, even as schools in the SFUSD are suffering, across the State we have a serious, potentially lethal fiscal problem to solve.

I encourage you to view this short video created by the folks at Educate our State. It's hard hitting and to the point.  It also issues a call to action.  Parents especially have been disengaged from the broader State-wide public school budget conversation.  We can no longer wait for our elected "leaders" to take the necessary steps to secure proper and adequate funding for all public schools across all grade levels (and public higher education as well).  It's time for us to stand up and lead our elected "leaders" because their politically generated circus has only resulted in harmful budget moves the effects of which you are most certainly fully aware (just how many furlough days are acceptable?).

Do me a favor. Watch this video. Take the steps to contact our legislators - or if you are from more remote districts originally, call your former representatives - and tell them to "Stop Clowning Around," and get serious about fully funding public education.  Remember, there's a serious difference between an equal opportunity for an equal education, and an equal opportunity for an EQUAL education.

Our kids can't wait, and their future children depend on us to act now.  They don't get a vote. But we do, and we can stand for what's right.  Join us and push out this message far and wide.

Share the link with your most conservative relatives.  Ask them to help as high quality education for all isn't a political concern. Securing proper and adequate funding is not only what's right for the future of our great state, but the first step in rectifying & turning around the extremely harmful trends/sentiment/political actions that are effectively destroying our once great public schools. 

Thank you

If you are not a member already, It's time to joing the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

I've been a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition for a great long time. They handle a great many of the very cool improvements across the city related to making the city safer for all manner of cyclists, and are on a mission to make it safe for every one ages 8 to 80 to ride a bike across the whole city. If you are not a member, please join up. I know you won't regret it.

Take the Sting Out of Education Funding Cuts - Make it go viral request email template

This is the text of the email I just drafted & sent off to the entire parent population at our school. You should feel free to borrow any and all of it to push out to your people as well. The aim is to make the video go viral.

Please do comment below when you use the material. Then come back to let us know how the email worked.

Dear All,


Most of you are gravely familiar with the dismal situation facing our public schools caused by a serious decline in funding over the last several years: hence the reason for the - insert annual fundraiser here - (Thanks to all the volunteers we had a record breaking year). After I termed out as your PTA president, I was recruited to serve on the Board for Educate our State. I'm grateful for all of this organization's efforts to boost the awareness that this budget as designed, indeed, is set to do school systems across the whole state irreparable harm.


To further the awareness campaign, Educate our State leaders have crafted a new video which I encourage you to share with all your friends, family, state legislators, and Governor Brown if you are comfortable doing so. We are trying to use social media outlets to make the video go viral. Please spread the video as far and wide as possible.


Beyond sharing the video, we would love every parent at - insert your school here- to take the time to stress to our representatives that the budget is broken and needs fixing by sending a letter, writing an email and generally demanding that our elected officials do their Constitutionally mandated duties by fully funding education to make our schools competitive to ensure there is a bright instead of dim future for the Great State of California. If you hit the link, it only takes about two minutes to do so.


Think of it this way: How likely is it that we should expect our school's Principal - insert your principal's name here and budget over-site body here- in particular to budget for next year on the extremely slim possibility that a November Ballot Measure that proposes to increase taxes will pass? The sad state of the situation is that the existing budget is broken, and the tax measure only would serve to keep it flat; if it passes at all. In my view, riding on a flat tire is not only foolish, but will make matters worse. I say fix it! And, I hope you will join me in amplifying the parent voice in this battle for a) our children, b) the children that come after them, and c) for the very well being of our whole State.

This Budget Blows: But We Can Do Something About it

Having served a couple of years a while back as the McKinley Elementary PTA president was a rewarding and eye opening experience. While the fund raising skills of the McKinley community remain strong and lever forward every year toward new heights, unfortunately, the budget malady affecting our wonderful school metastasizes across the SFUSD and our State in what seems to me to be a clear message from the good people of California: public schools don't matter & are no longer worth funding. 

If you look at the Governor's proposed budget, Mr. Brown is effectively holding a shotgun to the heads of our children in the form of a tax increasing ballot measure. If Mr. Brown's measure doesn't pass in November, the trigger means even more drastic cuts to the already threadbare budget from which they are asking our Principal and School Site Council to eek out whatever quality they can.  To get a feel for why this is a problem, just ask yourself one short question: How likely is it that in this politically charged climate that the people of California will vote to increases their taxes in November?

Although our State used to be at the top of the rankings, by many measures about a rough thirty years ago, we are now at or near the bottom and lowering the bar for what would be considered a dismal and declining set of priorities that put us on a pace to beat Mississipi and other low ranking States to even lower rankings (and sinking) in a number of areas.  This is not a partisan issue.  This is an issue that, should we demand it, could be solved in very short order by making some very difficult budgetary decisions that restore the necessary funding that, lo so many years ago, brought us to the top of the educational heap to put us back in the spotlight as a role model for how a State can educate its children.  It's a matter of making our priorities known and demanding better from our government "leaders."

While the rest of the country is distracted by endless debates about what's wrong with government, we the people of the Great State of California, the good city of San Francisco, and humble members of a wonderful McKinley school community must stand up and lead those who claim to lead our government before they blow it for our children and the children that come thereafter. On Thursday morning, 15 March, before school starts, many of us will brave whatever weather comes our way, and blow bubbles on the corner of 14th and Castro (starting at 7:30 AM), as a symbol of our grave and serious dissatisfaction of the fiscal calamity facing our school.  With no irony and complete intent, this action is taking place on a day when many of our great teachers may be issued pink slips, effectively firing them for yet another year in a row, and in solidarity with schools across the State, we are standing up for children, for public education, and for what used to be a shining example for the world of what was right with public schooling and shouting as loudly as possible in the hopes that some legislative Horton hear's our voices, loudly, clearly, and with irrevocable courage, comes to the aid our our children and the other fiscally foundering schools across this state and rectifies the intractable mess that our current budgetary malaise is. 

Our message is simple - "this budget blows!" We demand better. The Future of California depends on it.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

Come join us, Thursday morning, on the corner of 14th and Castro, at 7:30 AM before the opening bell. This may well be twenty minutes that change the tide and the invert the damage done.  

Regards, and I hope to see you all on Thursday Morning.

Aaron

Press Release: Camp Educate, November 11-13, 2011 Produced by Educate our State

Press Release

Fed Up parents “camp out” for better schools

San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA – September 21, 2011–  Outraged with a system that is failing their kids, parents are “camping out” and training themselves to better advocate for California public schools.
Now that their kids have headed back to school, the grassroots, parent-led group, Educate our State, plans to send their parents to camp. "Camp Educate" is a two day training session to help ordinary parent leaders become extraordinary parent advocates for our state's public school system. 

"We're tired of waiting for politicians and education reformers to solve our schools problems," says Crystal Brown, co-founder of Educate Our State. "The time has come for parents to unite from one end of the state to the other and demand high-quality public education for all of our children."

Already plagued by some of the lowest education funding levels and student achievement levels in the country, California faces additional massive funding cuts this spring unless the state’s economy turns around in the next two months.  The two-year-old non-profit plans its first inaugural “Camp Educate” in Los Angeles, November 11- 13 to show parents how to build a grassroots movement to demand high quality education for every child in California.

Training sessions will include such topics as: using social media tools to build and grow the movement, developing organizing skills and techniques to engage parents and community members, and creating local networks of like-minded parents looking for change.

Educate Our State has partnered with the New Organizing Institute (NOI), a dynamic training and education organization whose mission is to inspire democracy in action through engagement organizing. NOI-trained Educate Our State leaders and other parent advocates will facilitate Camp Educate’s training and information sessions.

“No matter what your politics are, public education is the civil rights issue of our era,” says event co- organizer Teri Levy, adding that participants should sign up before October 1st. “Come to Camp Educate if you want to make a difference for every child in California.”

www.educateourstate.org
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Educational Myths & Assorted Rambling Solutions

One of my pet peeves is the continued propagation of myths about education and the enterprise that provides educational opportunities that misguide us toward solutions that, while well meaning, are based on false assumptions. The danger here is that truth is a slave to perception; not vice versa.

Even more precarious is designing solutions for problems defined by these perceptions. Most of all, when people from outside the industry start suggesting they have the answer that will solve all educational problems & ills with panacea-laced language, and they base those solutions on false assumptions, they risk harming the entire enterprise, in no short order.  When all is said and done, we should be wary of those who claim to be experts and suggest unequivocally that their solutions is the right pill to swallow, after all, it's not the known unknowns, but the unknown unknowns that come back to bite.

Thus, the point of this post is to aggregate the myths as they occur, to cast aside the illusion that any one person can remedy the situation that it took a whole society to create. In the end, the fix for modern public education from pre-K to graduate school will require full society engagement, not the lone superman who will come to solve the ills only to succumb to whatever Kryptonite sours the solution.

• Myth 1 - You need a college diploma to be successful. Sure, the research says in general, using the law of averages (and a few correlation coefficients), that if you only hold a high school diploma your earning potential is substantially lower than those holding college diplomas of many stripes, but there are numerous examples of extremely successful individuals who are absent degrees, and doing quite well (even if you cast aside Zuckerberg, Gates, and Jobs ).  What we really need is a much more inclusive, embracing & holistic definition of "success" that moves beyond the simple measures of fame and fortune/net worth as iconic and indicative of what matters in our society as proof of a successful life lived.  In fact, we may even need to take it a step further - that the only real, legitimate measure of success would involve and equation that is absent the fame and fortune variables.

• Myth 2 - All schools today [can] produce functional citizens educated to a minimum base line.  As the tag line for this blog indicated, there is a serious difference between an equal opportunity for an education and an equal opportunity for an equal education.  The key words to this phrase are "opportunity" & "equal."  Expecting an education is very different than earning an education, and an education doesn't necessarily require a school-based experience, although it's customary to assume the existing industrial model is the right treatment for all people.  The opportunities for quality educational experiences vary greatly, with typically disadvantaged populations egregiously and continuously receiving the extremely short end of the resource stick.  While all students may have an opportunity to earn an education, it may not be an equal opportunity; which the race to the top clearly highlights by the criteria by which they allocate resources.
  
  The critical assumption here is that if you introduce a child to school, then that simple exposure will result at the far end with an educated, fully functional adult as if there was nothing going on between input to output. This is simply not the case. The throughputs matter, and the student is a vital ingredient to success in the production of a quality education.  In other words, what is done pedagogically to a students is subservient to what that student does her or himself.  For this reason, I always advise new professionals in the field to avoid positions that ascribe any kind of responsibility for ensuring student learning in the job description because it leaves out a critical component of the learning paradigm, the student.  Invariably, the bottom line responsibility for quality education rests with the student rather than the teacher, and many times over happens despite the teaching.  In fact, many recall cases where our schools and their functionaries do harm to the students, and the students learn despite (in spite of) these disadvantages.
  
  Beyond reinventing the means by which we finance traditional education operations such that they are sustainable, supporting high quality operations across the board (to ensure an equal opportunity for an equal education), and not subject to the whims of political favor and the wild swings in our economy, what we need is an expanded definition of what constitutes "school," what qualifies as high quality pedagogy, and full involvement in the whole of society in the occupation of "teaching."

• Myth 3 - A diploma earned will convert to a job obtained.  The common assumption is that there are some diplomas that provide professional educations that should lead to certain occupations - say, the JD is to lawyers as the MD is to physicians.  However, all diplomas yield no promise of related employment (e.g. the number of MBAs who are not working in business administration, or MFAs working in coffee houses).  Over the course of the last few decades, many have been led down the primrose path with the assumption that any brand of education will lead to certain and diploma related employment.  Prospective students should be wary of false promises of jobs at the far end of degree receipt.  In fact, prospective students should be skeptical, and ask specifically about what the curriculum will or should provide, not what might come after the program is concluded.  What we need is a redirection for what qualifies and serves as a measure of successful completion of a degree program from what happens after the "education" is "obtained" (as in job landed) toward what happens to the student during the program (the transformation of the individual as measured at the beginning by setting a baseline, and measured against their progress at the far end).  Because all students learn differently, any new (or old) measure of successful learning must be customized and tailored to a person, and should be balanced around what the "educators" expect to occur during whatever curriculum (hopefully balanced around clearly defined learning outcomes) they believe to be valuable at whatever school they build.

• Myth 4 - All student success can be measured by standardized tests.  I'm not the first to say this, but "there is nothing more inherently unequal than the equal treatment of unequals."  Most of us are unable to remember the days before there was widespread standardized testing across all schools.  The results of the standardized testing experiment should be readily apparent at this time.   Balance that with the current suggestion that schools were better in the days of yore versus today, and we should ask are you satisfied with the result?  If you agree that all students learn differently, why should we subject them to the same test at the same age?  Perhaps more inciting, the very suggestion that tests should be standardized carries with it a subliminal message that we don't trust our highly educated teachers to know and understand their pupils such that they can customize tests based on their intimate knowledge of the children they are teaching.  In the days ahead, where conversations about our near possible ability to customize drugs to a person's own DNA, why can't we customize tests to the individual child? The assumption that tests must be standardized as if we had no ability to do otherwise, is wholly false.  What we need is to push out the multi-billion dollar standardized testing industry to allow for non-standardized teaching and testing so that customized education occurs at levels closest to the students that meets the learning styles of all. Granted, this is an expensive approach, but we should all find the mediocrity that our current system produces unacceptable.  If we saved the money we poured into the testing industry and spent it educating our children, we might get a better quality result.

What Happens When Educational Reform Needs Reform?

I hate the word "reform." It really doesn't go to the heart of what education in America needs - a complete overhaul of the basic architecture as what we have built upon was laid in the mid-nineteenth century.  The 21st century is substantially different.

The reality is that technology is there; education and learning can be completely customizable.  However, the barbaric or if you would like to call it industrial, or militaristic infrastructure for educational operations won't allow full blown customization as it views children as scrap metal to be molded rather than thinking individuals that should be cut lose from the restrictions of our institutionalize infrastructure.  Well, that, and individualized education will be highly expensive.

Even so, it seems crazy to me that we are at the cusp of considering personalized designer drugs bent around a person's DNA, but we can't talk about individualized and customized education woven around a person's learning styles.  One seems less expensive than the other, but which one might save more lives?

Part of the trouble with fixing education is that "educational reform" itself needs reformation. The bigger question is, if we were to build out say, a completely LEED Platinum Certified equivalent of a new architecture for education across the board, what would it look like?  That's not simply reform of what we have. I'm calling for a complete transformation of how we go about education in America.  The time has come before the entire educational operation sags and breaks under the heavy bureaucratic malaise that has gotten us where we are today.  Reform, as a practice, needs reform.

Assignment Processes Which Are Inherently Unfair Prove That We Have Disparity Among Our Schools

I read this guest post over at Rachael Norton's blog, and had to respond. I'm parking my response here as it's awaiting moderation, and I don't know it will be published. Time will tell.

This question goes direct to the very troubling concern that we, even though it has been an ambition for a great long while, have proof and ongoing longitudinal evidence that there is a serious difference between an equal opportunity for an education, and an equal opportunity for an EQUAL education.

I used to say that the good thing about the SFUSD assignment process was that, although it was arbitrary and unfair, at least it was arbitrary and unfair to every one. With this post and comments, I may have been off. Gaming the system is a natural side effect of the whole process - as parents we are notorious for at least trying to look out for our own children and doing what it takes to get them the education they need. But my experience - having received none of my top choices in either of the two iterations of the assignments process, and having had to badger the counselors at the SFUSD with weekly in person visits until about mid-to late August before getting in to our neighborhood school - if it's reflective of the process it takes to get your kid into the closest school, the process is most certainly broken.

I'm not certain that PTA sharing or partnering will work the way this post suggests as I know that many PTAs are just struggling trying to get any kind of involvement out of it's membership and just focusing on your own school's operation is a giant time and money sink as it sits. If I was pushed to partner with another school, I'm not certain I would have the energy for it, nor would I know the community well enough to determine the best way to engage them (just ask leaders of the Second District how hard it is to get system wide participation in any of their events). Parental/Guardian energy is a limited resource, and if you are a single parent, raising two/three kids, where do you find the time to pump into offsetting the poor investments of the SFUSD, particularly if you have to work two jobs just to put food on the table? You are lucky if you have some kind of energy to invest in the PTA functions of your own schools.

What we need is a complete mind-shift of the entire population that looks at schools not as babysitting functional units for our society, but as investment vehicles for our future. This would require an overhaul of how we finance the whole operation, and a doubling and tripling down on the investments, and a individual, customizable approach to improving all the schools in the entire system and spreading out the wealth unequally - yes, I said unequally - as we known that there is nothing more inherently unfair than the equal treatment of unequals. This means that those schools that are already well off and hitting all the performance measure would get the least amount of resources, and the under performing schools would get all the money and energy that would bring them up. Those high performing schools have a culture of parental involvement that would off set the diminished resources, and the would be better spent as investments in the lower performing schools.

Moreover, we have to break the shackles of standardization so that we unleash the creativity so that people can experiment within the schools to bring the curriculum in to the new century. The schools today are operating as if it were still 1982, it seems. And in this new Millennium, our children will demand it. When do we see the promise of charter schools realized as it was the original intent for experimentation to happen in them, and then the best practices replicated in the mainstream operation, no? It seems as if the charter school operations get all the resources for inventiveness, but there is no reciprocity where they sink energy into improving the mainline schools at all.

There are no easy, cheap answers, but Idealistic Mama is right on one point in particular, among many, that the fundamental flaw with the assignment system is that all schools are not equal, and we have a long way to go to make it right. Until every neighborhood school is desirable and parents in the hood fight to attend, we won't see this arbitrary and unfair system shift.

It's Time To Double Down on Public Education

Those of you who have not been paying attention to the really awful budget situation in the Great State of California, may not know that even the best case scenario means a nasty multi-million dollar cut to public education.

When the children of California become caught in a nasty political squeeze play that has shaped the American political landscape over the last decade, you know that politics has sunk to a new low. No more politics as usual. We can't afford the political gamesmanship & our great State's future depends on fully & adequately, and dare I say it, even lavishly funding our public schools.

Let's show our elected officials the honorable way out and let them know that we won't sit quietly by while they mortgage the future of California for personal gain. It's time for the people to lead and the politicians to follow. All our children are all our children and they should bleed no further. Stop the hemorrhaging.

When cuts to education pull the already bottoming out budgets to below sustainable levels, the effect is a gutting of the schools by carving into infrastructure eviscerating the whole operation. In our city, for example, none of the Elementary schools have a vice principal - as if, there was no need for a lieutenant in charge of the many facets that Vice Principals used to stand watch over. Music, language arts, drama, and even science - yes science - have been relegated to enrichment programs as if they were afterthoughts to the required and mandatory curriculum dictated by standardized tests. Don't even get me started about how unbalanced a standardized, fixed, test-driven curriculum is and why it is a fundamentally flawed way to treat all children - as if they were automatons and learn in a uni-dimensional fashion.

Indeed, our State is in a financial pickle. But if you believe the hype that we are broke as a community, you are buying into the propaganda shoveled in heaping piles by those on the right that believe our money is better off in their pockets. Now is not the time to slash and burn California's and for that matter America's schools. Now is the time to invest in the children. Instead of decimating OUR schools, I say double down on public education, shoot we can even use the money raised by tripling down on public education.

Think about it. How much does it cost to incarcerate an individual? While it is not possible to calculate the good value a fantastically educated child can drive, but we most certainly know that uneducated individuals are a fiscal and social drain on every aspect of the very fabric of our society. Wouldn't you rather invest in the children at the front end and hopefully divert as many children into viable careers by educating them in positive ways?

We can't afford to settle on any thing less as a Nation, as if we abandon the investments in all our children, we abandon our own selves as a society. The status quo, and the initiatives driven from the right are not my values, and don't yield the America I believe in. And if you believe in all our children, you would support superior schools from the ground up as a means of investing in our future. In the long run, doubling, even tripling down on public education will save us money, and the ROI will be enormous; almost incalculable - priceless you might add.

Reindeer, 2.5 Doz. Hell's Angels, and a Mitt full of Chinese Badminton Players

Thanksgiving's traditional morning run yesterday was on the chilly side, but bright and sunny. Typically, I've been counting homeless folk on this day as a very informal measure of how we are doing on the home front in comparison to all the other social endeavors such as the multi-billion a day habits we have in Iraq and Afghanistan. This year the count promised to be rather different, but in the end, finished off with a modest number of homeless folk counted.

On the panhandle, I spotted my first two folk, one cozied up next to his shopping cart, reclining on a mess of cushions basking in the sun near the DMV. The other was underneath the DMV building overhang. And, those of you familiar with our park, know that I wasn't even in the park technically at that time. On normal, non-holiday weekends, you can see anywhere from 3 to about a dozen homeless encamped in various locations on the panhandle. Thanksgiving morning I couldn't find any. I thought, perhaps, this year would be the year where there was a noticeable drop in homeless folk out and about.

I got well past the panhandle, following my traditional Thanksgiving set of trails in the customary counter clockwise direction. No homeless folks on the usual benches or under their typical trees, sleeping. The first sign of real life in the park was about a half to full dozen Chinese badminton players hitting birdies about, getting exercise near the chess playing area. Unusual, I thought to my self, but not unheard of. I've seen a similar group in a similar location at a similar time in other parts of the year. Could be a club or bunch of neighbors gathered for the usual morning repast of badminton exercise. Looked like fun.

The next signs of life I saw in the park were about dozen or two of Chinese line dancers in formation across the street from the rhododendron grove. They seemed to be enjoying themselves being led by an older gentleman booming 1980s synth-pop tunes and doing some kind of hustle, but with nary a smile among them. Perhaps that comes with dancing for exercise versus the plastic nature of competitions like Dancing with the Starts.

Looping back toward the Academy of Science, of all things, I noticed a new paddock on the North side of the building. Inside the paddock were harnessed up reindeer - two. Good looking animals, seemingly well cared for. They looked like the same ones they usually have out at the zoo this time of year. No doubt, here for the season or children to get educated about what real reindeer are all about.

Even so, no homelessness baring my first two sighted well before the actual park. As I looped around I made it to the meadow near the Sharon Building just past the tennis courts with two sets of doubles drama unfolding, and there, low and behold, were five homeless folks, and what looked like a flock of aging yuppies (blue jeens and sweatshirts on almost all of them) looking like they were up to the good work of helping the nearly non-existent homeless. I kept running. In years past, I've seen about two dozen homeless in this same location.

As I exited the park, I saw the usual pack of about 5 homeless on the steps to the McDonald's sipping on cheep coffee, munching on various sausage muffins. As I ran down Haight Street, I counted a handful more homeless, meandering about with shopping carts or backpacks, looking disheveled and unshaven. Not a lot of women, in the bunch, mind you.

As I continued to the mid-Height area, I caught my first glimpse of the usual set of Hell's Angles milling about in front of the usual cafe sipping lattes and generally seeming like in a good mood. I counted well past 24 Harley-Davidsons parked wheel to wheel. So, I'm guessing there was something like 30 or so folks with more incoming as you could hear the thunder rolling up Haight once I got past the flock of Angels.

Surprisingly, there were zero homeless to report in the Buena Vista park, although I could see what looked like a tent from the trail I was on. No verifiable persons inside as I usually just go for the obvious. In all, counted 1.5 doz homeless. Down from years past, and substantially less than big burly men driving very expensive motorcycles all with Hell's Angels emblazoned on their backs.

Have a great remainder to your Holiday folks.

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