Tag: LAUSD

Back to the Present… and Beyond! :)

On By humanwritesblogIn About, InterpretingLeave a comment

wolf moonMany eventful moons have passed since my last blog entry. Like many other dedicated adult educators, I ended up holding the unlucky (to not say shitty) end of the LAUSD budget-cuts stick. It’s said, however, that when one door is slammed shut in your face, another one opens. I essentially believe this, but I might just make a couple slight modifications. I think those new doors are out there to be opened, but we’ve gotta find them. And sometimes we have an overloaded keyring. And you know it’s usually the last key we try that finally does the trick. Or sometimes there’s a trick to opening that door that a friend can teach us. Alas, not to beat the metaphorical dead horse back to life… you get the idea.

While I’ve been able to continue teaching in a substitute capacity off and on, at this point I’ve begun in earnest my transition into the world of Spanish/English interpreting. It’s been exhilirating and challenging and all I hoped it could be. And best of all, I’ve found that while I may not be in a formal classroom setting any longer, the adult learning and teaching continues, and I LOVE IT!

The great up-and-coming singer-songwriter Joe Pug (one of my favorite artists doin’ his thang today) sings in a song he covers by Harvey Thomas Young called Deep Dark Wells that “As long as you’re not finished, you can start all over again.” Beautiful words to live by. And, hellz-to-tha-no, I ain’t finished yet! We jus’ gettin’ started up in here! 🙂 Stay up, y’all! 🙂

Who are the masters of Orwellian doublespeak behind “Parent Revolution”?

On By humanwritesblogIn Adult EdLeave a comment

The following is my response to the LA Times OP-ED piece from 5/18/12:

A quick glimpse at the board of directors of Parent Revolution is quite revealing. They’re almost universally business people (that alone should make them education experts, right?), a lawyer that specializes in the defense of white-collar criminals (!!?) and some parent community activists (who perhaps do have the best intentions, but are nonetheless caught up with a real motley crew). Not a single actual classroom educator in the mix. Isn’t that telling? And who are their big funders? Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Rockefeller and others who are licking their chops at the notion of transitioning the free HUMAN RIGHT to public education for all to their dreams of education for profit. And they have the gall to decry CTA’s pool of money, which actually comes from the grassroots. I may have my differences with the union, but I will unflaggingly uphold its right to exist and to fight on behalf of students and teachers for a HUMAN RIGHT to FREE public education. Shame on the Times for publishing this thinly-veiled attempt at union busting. Next Tuesday, May 22 at 1pm we’re calling for everyone to help encircle the LAUSD headquarters with a “chain of letters” while the school board meets to decide the fates of Adult Ed, Early Childhood Ed and other essential programs, which they’re threatening to “zero out”. Visit saveadulted.org for more info, and get involved now, before it’s too late!

The LAUSD has more than enough $$$… what’s lacking is R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

On By humanwritesblogIn Adult EdLeave a comment

Here’s my comment on an article from the Contra Costa Times, dated 5/16/12:

LAUSD has more than enough money to fund Adult Ed… many times over. Simply re-routing a portion of their expenditures on “Other operating expenses” (a whopping $793 million) would cover it. Not to mention the fact that they’re sitting on the largest school construction bond fund in the history of humankind, at $19+ billion (I guess improving what you’ve already got isn’t as profitable as acquiring more land and building a new school every month). So it’s not a question of “Can they?” but a matter of “Do they want to?” Clearly they have shown that they don’t. And while it is in part due to the fact that our students are not children–therefore not deserving of a HUMAN RIGHT to education, in their minds–it also must be said that xenophobia and anti-immigrant bigotry are prominently in the mix, whether spoken or not. After all, immigrants comprise the largest portion of this 27% of LAUSD’s total student population. Under Obama, deportations have skyrocketed to new highs, and Guantanamo-style concentration camps have already been erected in Arizona. Nationwide, fascistic new anti-immigrant laws are on the rise, not unlike the one that was defeated several years back when millions marched to assert that immigrants are HUMAN BEINGS too. If we unite to fight to beat back these attacks, and raise our sights and struggle for this Human Right, we CAN WIN! Stay tuned to saveadulted.org, and get involved today.