While the situations are obviously different, I am again struck by how different the responses are between the state of NY and the DPI of NC. Governor Patterson marched in yesterday's Pride parade and had this comment about the litigation threats of ADF.
Earlier this month, on behalf of several state Republican elected officials, a conservative Christian policy group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., sued Mr. Paterson in State Supreme Court in the Bronx to block the governor’s order.
Before he marched in the parade on Sunday, Mr. Paterson defended his order and insisted that a lawsuit challenging it would fail.
“It is the law and it is the right thing to do. I stand by it,” he said. “If someone would like to go to court and waste their money and prove me wrong, they can do that. And I welcome that.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/nyregion/30paterson.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
Again, I am stuck on why NC's DPI would attempt to appease ADF instead of stand up for Governor's School, their faculty, their students, and their alumni.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Independent Article
I'm happy to say the Independent, the alternative newspaper in the Triangle, is working on a story about DPI's attempts to appease the ADF, as well as why calling out homophobia would get you fired. (these are two very interesting questions, although i also wonder why the desires of the ADF trump the desires of student's parents as to what movies they can see, so I hope they'll take that on too.)
I was interviewed by Matt Saldana; he also contacted the faculty members who were fired and then offered their jobs back. I'm not sure if they'll be free to talk to him. Apparently, part of the agreement of getting their job back had to be that they not talk about their firing with students. DPI just becomes a more and more fervent defender of the old First Amendment rights as every day passes.
I also got to do a photo shoot with Derek Anderson at the Indy; he's a great photographer and it was a lot of fun. I have no idea how the whole thing will turn out or what angle they'll take or how seriously they'll take it, but it seems like a start. I still believe DPI has to answer as to why they would allow the ADF to determine an NC public school's curriculum. Perhaps this article can open the door to that discussion.
I was interviewed by Matt Saldana; he also contacted the faculty members who were fired and then offered their jobs back. I'm not sure if they'll be free to talk to him. Apparently, part of the agreement of getting their job back had to be that they not talk about their firing with students. DPI just becomes a more and more fervent defender of the old First Amendment rights as every day passes.
I also got to do a photo shoot with Derek Anderson at the Indy; he's a great photographer and it was a lot of fun. I have no idea how the whole thing will turn out or what angle they'll take or how seriously they'll take it, but it seems like a start. I still believe DPI has to answer as to why they would allow the ADF to determine an NC public school's curriculum. Perhaps this article can open the door to that discussion.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
DPI Letter
Someone asked me the other day what the 3 sentences were in my letter I got from DPI, firing me. I'll transcribe them below.
Dear Ms. Olson:
Thank you for your service this past summer with the Governor's School East program. In reviewing your position, the Exceptional Children Division has decided to move in a different direction and open this position to other applicants. We hope you consider your time with Governor's School valuable and wish you good fortune in your future endeavors.
Then it is signed by Mary Watson. You would think they would at least have had the good manners to address me as Dr. Olson, seeing as it is official correspondence.
Dear Ms. Olson:
Thank you for your service this past summer with the Governor's School East program. In reviewing your position, the Exceptional Children Division has decided to move in a different direction and open this position to other applicants. We hope you consider your time with Governor's School valuable and wish you good fortune in your future endeavors.
Then it is signed by Mary Watson. You would think they would at least have had the good manners to address me as Dr. Olson, seeing as it is official correspondence.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Civil Rights Movement
I am just returning from the Mississippi Delta where i have spent a week with the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute meeting participants in the Civil Rights struggle, visiting landmarks of the movement, and hearing lectures about Freedom Summer and the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike.
We ended the week at the National Civil Rights Movement Museum; it's a great museum and no matter how much you know going in, a little or a lot, you will absolutely learn something. In one spot, they show clips of students learning how to do sit-ins and people responding to the sit-ins. One woman explains how her civil rights are being violated if she has to be in a store or restaraunt that serves blacks.
This clip is in the loop to illustrate how absurd the defense of hatred can sound; we are supposed to see it as dated and hateful and illogical. However, this is the exact argument the ADF often fields- if you make us act as if homosexuals are humans with human and civil rights, then you are violating their rights to practice their religions.
I have no doubt that homophobia is a dead-end game. In many ways, it already seems simple minded and out dated and I wonder when we will see clips of people expressing ADF like ideas. This makes it all the more confusing that anyone, especially members of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, would give this hatred any power, allow it to shape curriculum decisions in any way.
The most important things I learned in this workshop were how many things, how many infrastructures have to be in place for any movement to find success. The Civil Rights Movement only succeeded because it started long before 1954 and because there were lots of failures before.
I was also struck by how many people it took for the movement to succeed and many of these people weren't big names or became famous. They were people who, time and time again, identified hatred when they saw it, stood up to intimidation, and continued to speak what they knew was true. Fannie Lou Hamer is a famous example of this- a sharecropper with a 4th grade education, she became a powerful member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party who called Hubert Humphrey out on what his ambition would cost Mississippi citizens and who spoke so powerfully she terrified Lyndon Johnson.
The most powerful person I met this week (out of many who I have so much respect for) was L.C. Dorsey. Read more about her here http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/dorsey_lc/index.html.
People need to know about the Civil Rights Struggle because it continues, but also because we currently need models of people and organizations who stood up for their rights and were willing to pay the cost to free not only themselves, but their oppressors of their hatreds.
We ended the week at the National Civil Rights Movement Museum; it's a great museum and no matter how much you know going in, a little or a lot, you will absolutely learn something. In one spot, they show clips of students learning how to do sit-ins and people responding to the sit-ins. One woman explains how her civil rights are being violated if she has to be in a store or restaraunt that serves blacks.
This clip is in the loop to illustrate how absurd the defense of hatred can sound; we are supposed to see it as dated and hateful and illogical. However, this is the exact argument the ADF often fields- if you make us act as if homosexuals are humans with human and civil rights, then you are violating their rights to practice their religions.
I have no doubt that homophobia is a dead-end game. In many ways, it already seems simple minded and out dated and I wonder when we will see clips of people expressing ADF like ideas. This makes it all the more confusing that anyone, especially members of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, would give this hatred any power, allow it to shape curriculum decisions in any way.
The most important things I learned in this workshop were how many things, how many infrastructures have to be in place for any movement to find success. The Civil Rights Movement only succeeded because it started long before 1954 and because there were lots of failures before.
I was also struck by how many people it took for the movement to succeed and many of these people weren't big names or became famous. They were people who, time and time again, identified hatred when they saw it, stood up to intimidation, and continued to speak what they knew was true. Fannie Lou Hamer is a famous example of this- a sharecropper with a 4th grade education, she became a powerful member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party who called Hubert Humphrey out on what his ambition would cost Mississippi citizens and who spoke so powerfully she terrified Lyndon Johnson.
The most powerful person I met this week (out of many who I have so much respect for) was L.C. Dorsey. Read more about her here http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/dorsey_lc/index.html.
People need to know about the Civil Rights Struggle because it continues, but also because we currently need models of people and organizations who stood up for their rights and were willing to pay the cost to free not only themselves, but their oppressors of their hatreds.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
ADF Tactics
The ADF is very focused right now on stopping California from allowing same-sex couples equal marriage rights. Interestingly, we can see familiar tactics in how they address that. From the Friday June 13th paper with a link to the whole article.
"In a statement, County Clerk Ann K. Barnett announced that her office would not solemnize any wedding vows after Friday, a move that she said reflected administrative and budgetary concerns, but that gay rights activists think reflects Ms. Barnett’s distaste for same-sex marriage. The decision does not affect the ability of any couple in the county to obtain a marriage license. . . .
Ms. Barnett did not return calls seeking comment. On Monday, The Bakersfield Californian published e-mail messages between her office and a conservative legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund in Arizona, which had unsuccessfully argued against same-sex marriage in front of the State Supreme Court."
So in this case, the ADF has found someone on the inside of the issue and has guided/directed/supported their homophobic actions. But again, we are left with the question of why an evangelical Christian group based in Arizona should be denying California citizens the rights of their state?
Similarly, why was the ADF allowed to overturn the rights of NC parents? These parents had already given their permission for their children to see the films in the Human Sexuality Film series? Why would DPI allow ADF's homophobia to overrule the rights of parents? Was this a decision made by Tom Winton? Mary Watson? June Atkinson? And why are they not being called to task for denying GS parents their rights?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/us/13marriage.html?scp=1&sq=gay+marriage+alliance+defense+fund&st=nyt
"In a statement, County Clerk Ann K. Barnett announced that her office would not solemnize any wedding vows after Friday, a move that she said reflected administrative and budgetary concerns, but that gay rights activists think reflects Ms. Barnett’s distaste for same-sex marriage. The decision does not affect the ability of any couple in the county to obtain a marriage license. . . .
Ms. Barnett did not return calls seeking comment. On Monday, The Bakersfield Californian published e-mail messages between her office and a conservative legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund in Arizona, which had unsuccessfully argued against same-sex marriage in front of the State Supreme Court."
So in this case, the ADF has found someone on the inside of the issue and has guided/directed/supported their homophobic actions. But again, we are left with the question of why an evangelical Christian group based in Arizona should be denying California citizens the rights of their state?
Similarly, why was the ADF allowed to overturn the rights of NC parents? These parents had already given their permission for their children to see the films in the Human Sexuality Film series? Why would DPI allow ADF's homophobia to overrule the rights of parents? Was this a decision made by Tom Winton? Mary Watson? June Atkinson? And why are they not being called to task for denying GS parents their rights?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/us/13marriage.html?scp=1&sq=gay+marriage+alliance+defense+fund&st=nyt
Thursday, June 12, 2008
No Child Left Behind and Free Speech
Today in the New York Times there were side by side articles about the First Amendment and free speech issues and the worth and continuation of No Child Left Behind
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12hate.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/washington/12spellings.html?ref=us
Their side by sideness got me to thinking about them together and their relevancy to ADF's attack on GS and why the administration of Governor's School is acceding to the demands of the ADF.
The Alliance Defense Fund often uses First Amendment and religious freedom arguments in their litigation. Part of their argument is that is you don't allow them to say vile things about homosexuals you are violating their First Amendment rights. (They may have a point about this. like it or not, in this country hate speech is covered under the First Amendment up to the point where that speech may reasonable cause acts of violence.)
Another stance they often take though is simply talking about homosexuality in any way that doesn't directly reflect their religous standpoint on it violates their freedom of religious expression. This makes no sense, particularly in combination with their above argument.
So why doesn't Governor's School and DPI simply allow ADF to file litigation then and take them on in court? This is where NCLB becomes important. DPI fears that if GS became more well known, had attention called to it, that it wouldn't be able to get funding through the NC legisature. (That may be true but i doubt it- this is where you call in the long arm of the alumni and put them to work.) One reason they think they would not be publically supported is because we don't create any numbers.
GS has no grades, no rankings, no tests. We produce no numbers beyond numbers of people that attend. We don't track the alumni to see how "successful" they are. And of course, this is what most faculty and students like about GS. A successful summer looks different for every single student. One student may have a successful summer by making friends, another by mastering ideas behind game theory, another by writing and directing a theatre performance, another by experiencing what a life of the mind looks like. Every single student has to define their own version of success and work towards that. As a program, we simply provide the tools, space, support, and safety for that work to take place. Most of thos successes are not reproducible in number, only is narrative and often not until years later.
And that's what I fear is getting lost, why GS will no longer truly work by these and other GS values. It seems unlikely (although not impossible) that there will be a movement towards the production/business model of education in which GS has to prove it's worth each summer by documenting how students are "better" at the end of the 6 weeks than at the beginning. But if you treat an entire academic discipline as if it has no value, if you don't illustrate to students how to vigorously think about and interrogate what makes up themselves and their world, if you present to students that one class of people is worth less than another, then GS isn't GS.
It becomes an actively dangerous place for queer studnts, queer friendly students, or students who wish to think about what it is to be a person with a sex, a gender, or desire. You present to students the idea that there are some things that should not be talked about or thought about. "Question everything. Accept nothing" (a popular GS motto) morphs into "Question the things that won't attract the attention of bullys. Accept the things that will help you hide from yourself and from others in the world." (That will not fit as well on a t-shirt either.) You model for them that there are topics that are so hard that they can never be talked about or disagreed about with a level of respect and reponsibility by people.
And in the end that's not GS. It's CNN and talk shows and most other public schools and a growing number of universities. It's what the students swim in each and every day. Why would they have to go to Raleigh or Winston-Salem to spend 6 weeks being exposed to that? They already know that. It's what bashes them over the head, every single day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12hate.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/washington/12spellings.html?ref=us
Their side by sideness got me to thinking about them together and their relevancy to ADF's attack on GS and why the administration of Governor's School is acceding to the demands of the ADF.
The Alliance Defense Fund often uses First Amendment and religious freedom arguments in their litigation. Part of their argument is that is you don't allow them to say vile things about homosexuals you are violating their First Amendment rights. (They may have a point about this. like it or not, in this country hate speech is covered under the First Amendment up to the point where that speech may reasonable cause acts of violence.)
Another stance they often take though is simply talking about homosexuality in any way that doesn't directly reflect their religous standpoint on it violates their freedom of religious expression. This makes no sense, particularly in combination with their above argument.
So why doesn't Governor's School and DPI simply allow ADF to file litigation then and take them on in court? This is where NCLB becomes important. DPI fears that if GS became more well known, had attention called to it, that it wouldn't be able to get funding through the NC legisature. (That may be true but i doubt it- this is where you call in the long arm of the alumni and put them to work.) One reason they think they would not be publically supported is because we don't create any numbers.
GS has no grades, no rankings, no tests. We produce no numbers beyond numbers of people that attend. We don't track the alumni to see how "successful" they are. And of course, this is what most faculty and students like about GS. A successful summer looks different for every single student. One student may have a successful summer by making friends, another by mastering ideas behind game theory, another by writing and directing a theatre performance, another by experiencing what a life of the mind looks like. Every single student has to define their own version of success and work towards that. As a program, we simply provide the tools, space, support, and safety for that work to take place. Most of thos successes are not reproducible in number, only is narrative and often not until years later.
And that's what I fear is getting lost, why GS will no longer truly work by these and other GS values. It seems unlikely (although not impossible) that there will be a movement towards the production/business model of education in which GS has to prove it's worth each summer by documenting how students are "better" at the end of the 6 weeks than at the beginning. But if you treat an entire academic discipline as if it has no value, if you don't illustrate to students how to vigorously think about and interrogate what makes up themselves and their world, if you present to students that one class of people is worth less than another, then GS isn't GS.
It becomes an actively dangerous place for queer studnts, queer friendly students, or students who wish to think about what it is to be a person with a sex, a gender, or desire. You present to students the idea that there are some things that should not be talked about or thought about. "Question everything. Accept nothing" (a popular GS motto) morphs into "Question the things that won't attract the attention of bullys. Accept the things that will help you hide from yourself and from others in the world." (That will not fit as well on a t-shirt either.) You model for them that there are topics that are so hard that they can never be talked about or disagreed about with a level of respect and reponsibility by people.
And in the end that's not GS. It's CNN and talk shows and most other public schools and a growing number of universities. It's what the students swim in each and every day. Why would they have to go to Raleigh or Winston-Salem to spend 6 weeks being exposed to that? They already know that. It's what bashes them over the head, every single day.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Another GSE Alum Response
Here is a response from a GSE student from 2000, before my time, on his blog.
http://www.trevorhoppe.com/blog/archives/2008/06/north_carolina_1.html
It amazes me that the adminstration of GS can't figure out how to co-ordinate, encourage, and use the brilliant students that have come through Governor's School doors. Talking to alumni and hearing there many thoughtful responses across the spectrum of responses makes me very proud of them.
http://www.trevorhoppe.com/blog/archives/2008/06/north_carolina_1.html
It amazes me that the adminstration of GS can't figure out how to co-ordinate, encourage, and use the brilliant students that have come through Governor's School doors. Talking to alumni and hearing there many thoughtful responses across the spectrum of responses makes me very proud of them.
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