With the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth, today feels like good day to write one of my final posts on the pioneer class of Melrose Leadership Academy. I posted a story on my photo blog that accompany's my 90th photo gallery from 9 years involved with the school.
I wanted to use the 100 theme and include something about Mandela's life. If I had planned a little better, the final gallery would have been my 100th, instead of the 90th and it would have included 100 photos. (I actually had more than 100 galleries if I include all the hidden galleries too.)
When I started writing about the Melrose Leadership Academy pioneer class, I was hopeful that Melrose Leadership Academy would become a beacon for the larger world. I hoped that academics, journalists and philanthropists would flock to our school. I hoped that if we became successful at "bending the arc of the world towards justice," we could not be ignored.
I was wrong. In the beginning, the media covered the school. Katy Murphy attended the first graduation. Spanish language media seemed interested in the beginning also, but it seemed that we faced more challenges as we became successful. Charter schools did not like us. Our own district did not like us. We were ignored by the larger academic community, and we were ignored by our smaller one. It seemed that our success was a threat. (or, nobody cared at all.) It was as if nobody really wanted to see a successful multicultural, multiracial, bilingual public school.The larger discussion of school segregation has continued without us. Instead of contributing, I have been a spectator with a camera.
I had hoped to include something in this post or the main photography post about Martin Niemoller's "First They Came For The..." poem. Since Donald Trump became President, this quote has become fashionable, but I have problems with the quote. Many protestors seem to think that the time to speak up for the "FILL IN THE BLANK" is when the authoritarians come for them. That is too little and too late. Many of the liberal white people have been unwilling to spend time with some of the people who are being scapegoated recently.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is one of my favorite education journalists. Her two-part "The Problem We All Live With" on This American Life details how segregation has become worse in our country. Her parenting story is interesting too. If I remember correctly, she chose to keep her kids in a neighborhood school. Our schools can use more families like hers, but I wonder if we are allowing white parents to escape responsibility again. On the web page to The Problem We All Live With, there's a Norman Rockwell painting of a young Ruby Bridges. Often in our retelling of this myth, we tell of Ruby's strength walking into an all-white school. What of the white parents cowardice? How can we tell new stories so that white parents can be as brave as a young Ruby?
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