Until lions have their own historians, the hunter will always be glorified

I had the fortune of attending a very interesting retreat yesterday. It was a day-long session for Boston educators (administrators) to focus on closing the Achievemet Gap. The main attraction was a woman named Dr. Mary Bacon. Her words were powerful, her message clear, and her jokes hilarious. Actually, some of her jokes were a little funnier than the reaction would have you believe because they either cut closer to home for me or just made more sense to me I guess.

"Until you can learn to see the [school] building from their eyes, you are not going to be able to make the changes you're talking about."

But anyways, aside from the fact that I had to wake up at 6:30 in the muthafuqing morning to scoop up a co-worker and drive out to Waltham (the burbs) in the mornig traffic, the event was well worth it. They stuffed our bellies with grub and the only lowlight was the other presenter, whose energy and engaging factor paled in comparisn to Dr. Bacon. Hence, several people fought with all of their might to avoid dozing off. I got tapped only once. But it was plainly obvious that she was boring the shT out of many. But everything else is a blur. I fell asleep so early last night that I don't remember if I even listened to 88.9 at all.

Dr. Bacon's topics covered a wide range of issues urban districts face, including poverty, language, and cultural barriers that either inhibit student success or limit educators' ability to effectively deal with students. It definitely was an eye-opener on many fronts as her from a different perspective forced us to reassess how we rationalize and analyze ordinarily standard and cookie-cutter assessments of student achievement and opportunity. The illest part was when she said comething like why would we charaterize students as 30% non-English-speaking, as opposed to 30% most likely to be bilingual. Yes, that simple and that powerful. Had me thinking for hours, until I passed out of course.

If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society,

Then, and only then, will I drop my defenses and my hostility and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.
-Ralph Ellison

So word, today is a new day to be taken in stride with each passing minute to make the most of it and go for what I know. I'm gonna try and catch sis' game and then get the midget and I all dressed up for a banquet tonight. Hopefully, it will be a good time. But I do think I'll quoting Dr. Bacon for many future posts. Some things are beyond our control and others aren not. It's time for the game face and the focus to come back so bizness can get handled.