Equality

We are not born to hate – #unlearn hatred

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“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
– Henri Bergson

It’s 2017 – we must, as a society, #unlearn hate, racism, evil, bullying, hurtful speech and cruelty! As we prepare for a new school year, where we in education get an annual “do over” – it’s nice to reflect on the need for us to help create conditions for a better, safer, pro-social world! In this blog post, I’m printing a poem from Robin Davis:

I Have Hidden Super Powers

I don't wear a cape around
My neck, breaking the speed of sound
Or capture bad guys in a web
My powers have never fled
From my heart that's where they stay
Secretly until the day
I see injustice come along
Others are treated so wrong
My super powers become stronger
When I can't take it any longer
Hearing stories of bullying
My special skills kick right in
Set loose, no holding them back
My love alert goes on attack
Not stopping for anything
It won't ease up until I bring
All this hatred to a low
I give one huge final blow
Across the land until there is
No more hate or prejudice
Until then, I'm on alert
Making sure there is no hurt
I will be here till the end
All my powers I will send
Into the hearts of those so weak
Mild mannered, shy and meek
That get pushed around each day
I'll make sure it goes away
This promise will be kept for sure
Any kind of hatred I abhor

Copyright © robin davis | Year Posted 2014

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – #engage109

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“Live without pretending, love without depending, listen without defending and speak without offending.”
– Unknown

On Monday, January 16, 2017, our students have a “day off” – and in honor of this holiday honoring the great late American hero, we encourage service and reflection about the heroism and great work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

messages and methods and beliefs and life’s work are especially relevant in today’s reality of conflict around the world.

(shared last year in honor of Dr. King’s Birthday):From Wikipedia:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.)[1] is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King’s birthday, January 15. The holiday is images (3)similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

King was the chief spokesman for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

Give Where You Live –Deerfield: Participate in Day of Service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

From a note we sent to our community today:

“Dear District 109 Community Members,

While schools are closed in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day tomorrow, we have an opportunity to come together as a community in a day of service right here in Deerfield for Give Where You Live – Deerfield. On Monday, January 16, from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, round up your friends and come to Village Hall to participate in a variety of service projects available, appropriate for all ages, to benefit our area homeless. Volunteers are needed to collect and sort items, assemble gift bags, write letters and cards, along with other activities.

You also can bring items to donate, including socks, travel size hygiene products (soap, shampoo, conditioner, tissue, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.), water bottles, gift cards, and healthy snacks.

Deerfield Village Hall is located at 850 Waukegan Road.”

Click here for more information.

Excerpts from a blog post I wrote in the past:

A recommendation I have is for everyone to share the messages, teachings, precepts and principles espoused by King with their children and with their communities.

While we in the USA have come a long way since 1963 – we still have a long way to go until Dr. King’s dreams are fully realized. An educated youth and an educated populace with morals and values centered in respect, honor, and dignity can set the world free from racism and prejudice!

The transcript of the “I Have a Dream Speech”:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the histimages (5)ory of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from download (1)a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for whites only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends — so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi — from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring — when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children — black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics — will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/27/transcript-martin-luther-king-jr-have-dream-speech/

From the President of the USA – Honoring the victims of attack in Paris

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“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
– Anatole France

Presidential Proclamation — Honoring the Victims of the Attack in Paris, France

HONORING THE VICTIMS OF THE ATTACK IN PARIS, FRANCE

– – – – – – –

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

The American people stand with the people of France. Friday’s terror attacks were not just an attack on Paris; they were an attack on all humanity and the universal values we share, including the bonds of liberté, égalité, and fraternité. These values will endure far beyond any terrorists or their hateful vision. The United States and our allies do not give in to fear, nor will we be divided, nor will anyone change our way of life. We will do whatever it takes, working with nations and peoples around the world, to bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice, and to go after terrorists who threaten ourdownload people.

As a mark odownload (1)f respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on November 13, 2015, in Paris, France, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset,

November 19, 2015. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.

BARACK OBAMA

Education for ALL Students – Public Schooling

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Hand-in-glove with our faith in democracy, Americans have long believed that in order to fully participate in their government, citizens need to be educated. Our nation’s unflagging commitment to public education has transformed a nation of (mostly) poor immigrants into the world’s largest economy and greatest superpower. The continuing efforts of today’s educators will ensure that Americans continue to prosper for many years to come. – See more at: http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/american-public-education-an-origin-story/#sthash.11j41lrf.dpuf

April 18, 2013 from American Public Education: An Origin Story

Much is written about public schools, private schools, charter schools, accountability, rankings, ratings, etc. Much is written about the huge success of American education as well as the huge needs of American education. To say we are at a crossroads today is an understatement. Now we face the transformational society expectations, economic shifts, geopolitical confusion, and economic realities that cause us to rethink and reimagine schooling. The reformers of new and the reformers of old share common traits – they want to re-form, or re-shape that which they know into something that looks new but really is the same in a new form.

Like many leaders today, I stand for school transformation – reimagine education – re think education – make it something UNLIKE that which I experienced because my past is not going to become our student’s future! Transforming how students receive learning facilitation – digital transformation – instructional transformation – assessment transformation – complete focus on excellence is what I stand for! I follow educational heroes like John Hattie and Sir Ken Robinson, and of course Horace Mann and John Dewey.

In our district we are undergoing profound changes at a rapid pace. We are engaging the community, we are moving mountains so to speak – we are heralding changes in science, technology, reading, writing, math, world languages, kindergarten, technology – pretty much every area, grade level, subject, topic, facility – pretty much everything – is under review. Over the past two years we have re-imagined science lab spaces through a creative, engaged community process, learning focus, fanatical focus/timeline and with an eye on what students need for future success and what teachers need in terms of learning and teaching support.

At times we face resistance, normal “change management” resistance as well as fundamental design resistance. It’s tough in education to be the expert in re-framing education since pretty much everyone went to school and knows what worked for them. In our community we are fortunate to have a well educated and invested populace. What’s interesting is that many transformations and many innovations are confusing to members of our public because it is education in a new form and it is not part of their worldview, or paradigm, of what schooling is.

In our community we have recently engaged the public in many ways – including but not limited to:
Middle School changes (facilities, exploratory courses, social/emotional programming)
Full Day Kindergarten (format, structure, financing, location)
Progress Reporting (standards based grades, standards based learning)
1:1 Digital Instructional – Transformational Learning Environments (how, why, what, change)
Gifted Programming (philosophy, structure, courses, concepts, future impacts)
Facility Improvements (air quality/conditioning, life safety, science labs, libraries)

While our public does not always agree 100% with all that we do, our open ears and our open hearts and our open minds allow for and support respectful and responsible dialogue and discourse. Leadership is of course doing what is right and not always what is popular – not easy but necessary.

In closing, one new potential transformation in our community that would impact our schools is a proposed residential neighborhood that would increase student enrollment on one side of town. Of course there are many points of view, many questions and concerns, and in 2015 there are many Facebook pages and forums online.

As the superintendent of schools it is my firm, clear and direct message that in our public school system – ALL CHILDREN are welcome! If we have increases in enrollment we will plan – do – study – and act accordingly. Our standards of excellence only grow stronger and our Engage, Inspire, Empower messaging carries forth with current and future students.

Honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Share the messages – Realize the Dream!

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“The supreme task of a leader is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Monday, January 19, 2015 we celebrate the life, legacy, and heroism of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Celebrations in Deerfield, IL

Celebrations in Highland Park, IL

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is a United States national holiday honoring the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The holiday is observed each year on the third Monday in January. King’s actual birthday was Jan. 15, 1929. On Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, most government offices and schools close for the day, but many private businesses remain open.
A campaign to establish a holiday honoring King began soon after he was assassinated in 1968. In 1983, Congress made his birthday a federal holiday, first celebrated on Jan. 20, 1986. Today, the holiday is observed by the federal government and by all the states.

Source: Hornsby, A. JR. (2015). Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. In World Book Student. Retrieved from
http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar346823

A recommendation I have is for everyone to share the messages, teachings, precepts and principles espoused by King with their children and with their communities. In this post I share two video excerpts for that purpose. One readily available from You Tube and another excerpt as part of the digital teaching resources from Discovery Education (a partner with Deerfield Public Schools District 109).

I have a Dream Speech Excerpt – from You Tube

I have a Dream Speech Excerpt – Discovery Education (example of digital teaching via video)

While we in the USA have come a long way since 1963 – we still have a long way to go until Dr. King’s dreams are fully realized. An educated youth and an educated populace with morals and values centered in respect, honor, and dignity can set the world free from racism and prejudice!

The transcript of the “I Have a Dream Speech”:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for whites only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends — so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi — from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring — when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children — black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics — will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/27/transcript-martin-luther-king-jr-have-dream-speech/