Poverty Rocks Hard

The ratta tat tat of guns in the night...a fight...a fight to the death...in search of illusive respect. The conviction of the streets supersedes all cognition...all rationality...all  logic...it’s dog eat dog, tit for tat, disrespect me I’ll disrespect you right back. No space or place for politeness…kindness portrays weakness… that’s just the way it is. What’s there to do but live hard in the face of endless denial; laugh hard during the constant struggle; party hard to revitalize and make dry bones come to life.

Poverty rocks hard!

The music blasts…feet dance fast…hearts beat as blood rushes through the veins transporting surreal images of feigned happiness…another puff…that’s the stuff to die for…another puff…calms nerves...another puff supports muscles that inadvertently crave in evolving waves of dependency...another puff to the point of no return to any pretense of normalcy.

Poverty rocks hard!

The high is fleeting looking down into the neck of an empty bottle, ranting...raving...fixating on who took the last of the elixir...the fixer. Rage smothered by day to day survival spies out a rival...a beef erupts spewing volcanic emotions and repressed anger into the atmosphere mushrooming into a toxic waste laced with venom... a gun is fired...that eradicates all semblance of euphony and implodes into a rubble of broken dreams as a stream of blood oozes from the collapsed corpse.

Poverty rocks hard!

Sirens wail in the night. Violence devours innocence...sorrow then masticates the essence of life regurgitating hopelessness. Shame becomes ingrained into the psyche…anger lashes out slapping kindness into a condition of degeneration… masochism becomes entrapped in isolation …love and fury become enmeshed in confusion crippling empathy impeding the expansion and the maturation of the human spirit.

Poverty rocks hard!

Whizzing Bullets

Five people were murdered in Newark over the Memorial Day weekend! The sound of bullets whizzing by, sirens screaming, and red lights flashing in the night all herald in summer 2011 with an ominous message to the inhabitants of Newark. I live in Newark, and have for the last thirty-eight years. I have survived by calling out to the angels of God to walk with me through turbulent times. The rustling of angel wings allows me to surrender fear and replace it with power…the power of words and action.
Newark has been good to me because this is where I learned to live with God and allowed Him to guide and direct my path and direct it He did around whizzing bullets, over blood splashed in the stairwells of my high rise, and poverty. He directed me right back to school… first Essex County College, then Rutgers Newark. As a writer, a poet, and a pianist my artistic soul has absorbed all the nuances and shades of poverty. I had the dubious pleasure of living below the poverty line for a period of time and then once I became a teacher I was able to “pull myself up by the bootstraps” and began to enjoy such luxuries as traveling, buying a home and a new car, and now that I’m retired I manage to stay one check ahead of foreclosure, repossession of transportation, and a steady diet of beans and rice. The American dream can be quite slippery.
The summer blues begins…pow, pow, pow! The dominant seventh flies high above the flat five, weaving in and out creating blue tones that interpret the moans and groans of heartache and tears falling freely onto mounds of soil surrounding new graves that will permanently bury hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The curtain of death has fallen and summer 2011 looms on the horizon.

Washing Brains

I read an article in the paper about a lady starving her children literally to death…one of them died before authorities took charge. The paper said she was brainwashed by some strange religious leader and part of his cult.
Brain washed? Hmmm…that’s a strange term that means what? Is it that someone cuts your head open, takes your brain out, bleaches it, and then washes it in a detergent of choice. After which it’s placed back in the head to soak in a different type soil. Brain washed like I said is a strange term. How does a seemingly devoted mother go from one extreme to the other? From lovingly feeding you children and taking care of them to starving them to the point that their bones become brittle and break in their bodies.
What type of person is susceptible to this strange event? Could it be said that many people today are brainwashed by a money mad culture that bails out Wall Street who has been ripping off people forever by selling the “pie in the sky dream” to the common man who can barely eek out a living. Ten banks control 77% of the wealth…this screams for a redistribution of capital where more money could be vested in youth that are traveling on the school to prison line.
People shout “no redistribution of wealth” and don’t have a clue as to what it means. A brain wash job has been done on the American public who think that it’s alright that 3% of the population control 90% of the wealth and that the wealthy shouldn’t be taxed at a higher rate. Talk about brainwash…wow!

In the Twilight of Time

The sun hovers at the horizon announcing it’s supremacy by lighting the sky with its brilliance splashing multiple shades of orange across the vastness of space before descending down into the twilight of time. There was a time in this country when black people were slaves. There was a time in this country when black bodies hung from trees called “strange fruit” by renowned singer Billie Holiday. There was a time in this country when black people could not vote. There a time in this country when it was against the law for black people to be taught to read. There was a time in this country when many schools were segregated.
Blood has been shed over time in the name of justice and a little over 50 years ago much blood was shed during the non violent demonstrations of the Civil Rights Movement which were seeking to win the right to vote for many black people, seeking to desegregate schools, seeking to eat where you wanted to eat, seeking to be treated equally in the job market, seeking to sit in a seat of your choice on public transportation, simply seeking to feel like a respected human being. Time has passed yet in some ways conditions remain the same. Conditions created by impoverished circumstances passed through time and flourishing in the now.
Many young people living at poverty level are hoodwinked by the glamour of sports and flashy sneakers that can make you jump right into the NBA; and then of course there’s the music industry where you can rap your way into a garden filled with money trees. Many young minds are blinded by the "benjamins" and unable to envision where a good education might take them. Indifference now is the name of the education game.

Me and Poverty

Me and Poverty

I live in Newark, NJ. I worked for the Newark Public School system for over thirty years, first as a sub then as a teacher for 23 years. I retired 2010. After retiring I graduated from the International Institute for Restorative Practices and received a Master’s of Science Degree in Restorative Practices. I currently volunteer at my old school working with parents sharing what I have learned. I’m very concerned about the fate of many of the inner city students especially the males. Current statistics state that 1 out of 9 black males ages 20-34 are currently in jail. There is a phenomenon called the “school to prison line” and the current structure of the public school system factors many students right into this handy societal niche. Innovative thinking is what is needed to turn the tide of self destruction that plagues so many young people.

Poverty is no joke. It breeds the sub culture of no return…the bling bling of false illusions and smoking guns that negate life and glamorize death promoting emotions run amuck in search of a nonexistent respect. Young minds numbed by the incessant chatters of the media about war, terrorism on the rise, mass murders within our shores attempt to escape the inexplicable now and bum rush into a feigned adulthood based on misconceptions.

I was a middle class brat raised in the Bay Area, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco…lived in all three of these cities. I had no understanding of what poverty really was. My great grandfather was a teacher during the Reconstruction Era and eventually. He became a professor at Prairie View College. His children received their college degrees, his children’s children, and then my generation as well.

 Relocated to the East Coast when I was 19 and ended up I meeting poverty in my late twenties. My husband and I were burned out in Harlem and relocated to Newark. His grandmother got us an apartment in the infamous high rise projects of Newark. The high rise projects no longer exist in Newark but the mark they left on me is permanently imbedded in my psyche. So off to Newark we moved with our baby son onto Mercer Street perpendicular to Howard Street made famous by Newark writer Nathan Heard. I became intimate with the blues…the Mercer Street blues.

                                                                (To be continued…)

Money Doesn't Care

Dr. King was a giant of a man and not afraid to take a stand against injustice. In 1968 the year Dr. King was assassinated he was planning a Poor People’s March to Washington D.C. to stage a “tent-in” and planned to camp out for as long as it took to bring attention to the fact that there needed to be a redistribution of wealth in America. This country is not broke. The problem is that 3% of the population controls 90% of the wealth in this nation.
It’s amazing how the wool has been pulled over the American Public’s eyes and we tend to operate in la la land with poor people always looking for the pie in the sky, and the so called middle class thinking that they are all that plus a bag of chips because they have a mortgage, a car payment, kids in private school, and a job they could lose in the twinkling of an eye or even one good illness that disables them. Then their insurance company starts hemming and hawing about coverage. The median income of American households is about $50,000 per year. This figure is mighty close to the poverty line which is at about $23,000 for a family of four. Where oh where has all the money gone? Oh I know into 3% of the populations pockets.
Please somebody tell me why the wealthy should not be taxed. Money is not concerned about public schools because money is an inanimate object controlled by people. So in reality to rich people it really doesn’t matter because somebody has to be at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Restorative Practices: A Social Discipline for the New Millennium

Restorative Practices is an approach to dealing with social behavior that separates the deed from the doer at the same time giving victims a voice that allows the offenders to understand how their behavior has affected the victims as well as other members of the community. Hopefully the offenders then feel remorseful and are willing to take responsibility for their behavior. The victim(s) and offender(s) then discuss together how the harm can be rectified and after that the offender is welcomed back into the community.
I began my educational journey with the International Institute for Restorative Practices in the summer of 2010. I worked for the Newark Public School system for twenty-five years and it was in February of 2010 that I heard about IIRP. My principal gave all the teachers an article to read on restorative practices at a faculty meeting. I went online to learn more about restorative practices and found the International Institute for Restorative Practices and also discovered that there was a workshop coming up, to be held in Bethlehem. I got permission from my principal to attend the workshop and was completely enthused by what I learned. Those of us at the workshop were told about the graduate program and if we enrolled before April 1rst of last year we would be considered for a scholarship. So I decided to apply not knowing at that time that I would choose to retire in the midst of all the hoopla, negativity where teachers were concerned, and budget cuts threatened to affect medical and retirement benefits.
One of the first articles I read was entitled Double Jeopardy by Cristina Anderson. Anderson in her article talks about the zero tolerance policy in schools and how it is used as a blanket approach to school discipline and the breaking of rules by students. Zero tolerance is suspension or expulsion. It came into being as a result of the 1994 Gun Free Schools Act and was meant to be used for violent crimes. The title of the article points out how students can be punished by the school system and depending on the offense become involved with the criminal justice system as well, hence double jeopardy.
I taught in the Newark Public School system for twenty five years and came to know for a fact that suspension and or expulsion is not necessarily the answer to many behavior infractions. Anderson states in the article:
“With specific regard to at risk youth, however the data appear more concrete. For this population it seems unlikely that school suspension will successfully impact behavior.” (Anderson, p. 1190)
“In addition these suspended youth may have more opportunity to congregate with deviant peers.” (Anderson, p. 1190)
This was substantiated by the behavior of a former student of mine, we’ll call him Outcast. He fits the profile of an at risk youth. He’s in foster care, mother a recovering drug addict but has been diagnosed as HIV positive, and his father incarcerated. In the course of the school year he was suspended for several infractions that were of a violent nature. He led some jumping incidents (three or more offenders fighting one student) after school which led to trips to the emergency room for some of the victims and their parents. Outcast was suspended on each occasion and then returned to school. The last time he was suspended, which was in June, when he came back he let me know what a great time he had on suspension inviting girls over to his house that were also suspended.
If Outcast had been involved in a restorative conference with the first violent incident and had been given the opportunity to hear how his behavior had impacted his victims and their families maybe it would have deterred him from being involved in further incidents of the same nature. Outcast is on his way to being systematically shamed by society and stigmatized by his behavior. He already feels deserted by his biological parents and feels that his foster mother does not care about him. His peers are his family literally. They give meaning to his existence. He rules the boys because he loves to fight. They respect him because most of them are afraid of him. He loves the girls and the girls love him even though at times he displays abusive behavior towards them.
Guy Masters in his thesis entitled Re-integrative shaming in theory and practice. Thinking about feeling in criminology discusses John Braithwaite’s book, Crime Shame and Reintegration. .
Masters says in the opening of the article:
“John Braithwaite’s (1989) theory of re-integrative shaming has seen him described as one of the new stars of criminology…” (Masters, 1997, p. 9)
Reintegrative shaming separates the deed from the doer and allows for expressions of community disapproval which is then followed by gestures of reacceptance back into the larger community. Disintegrative shaming or stigmatization leads to systematic shaming, or individuals that do not feel good about themselves and eventually become repeat offenders. Braithwaite identifies thirteen facts that have consistently been associated with offending or breaking the law. I was especially interested in fact 12 which stated:
“For both men and women, being at the bottom of the class structure, whether measured by socioeconomic status, socioeconomic status of the area in which the person lives, being unemployed, being a member of an oppressed minority (e.g. blacks in the U.S.) increases rates of offending for all types of crime apart from those for which opportunities are systematically less available to the poor (i.e. white collar crime).” (Masters, 1997, p. 14)
Many teachers realize that we are losing students to the streets (subcultures) and feel powerless in the face of this tragedy. I know that suspension does not work yet there is nothing else being offered as an alternative in dealing with chronic misbehavior. The student is either suspended or stays in the classroom where a great amount of disruption of other students learning takes place. The hierarchy in education does not want to hear from teachers. The climate in our country right now has led to bashing or blaming teachers for what ails the American Public School system.
I truly could identify with the article Fair Process in terms of how teachers are now being treated in many school systems. I was in a failing school in Newark and because of this we constantly had visitors from downtown and the state coming into the classroom. Four and five people at a time possibly even more, would cross over the threshold into the classroom observing, looking through papers, whispering to students and then leaving never saying a word to you, nor did you ever get feedback in reference to their thinking. Does anyone care about what teachers think? It states in the article:
“Fair process builds trust and commitment, trust and commitment produce voluntary cooperation, and voluntary cooperation drives performance, leading people to go beyond the call of duty by sharing their knowledge and applying their creativity.” (Kim & Mauborgne, 1997, p. 71)
As we were taking this course many of us wondered why Restorative Practices has not caught on in a major way and been implemented in more school systems across the country. The hierarchy in education is ignoring the fact that there is a direct correlation between behavior in the classroom and test scores. Why not ask teachers what they think the problem is and what could possibly be done? There are many creative and innovative teachers out there who would be willing to share their knowledge in search of a better way. That’s how I was led to IIRP.
In the article Restorative Justice in Everyday Life Ted Wachtel and Paul McCold discuss the development of the Social Discipline Window:
“By contrasting control and support the social discipline window classifies individual, organizational, and other approaches to formal and informal social discipline in a broad range of settings. These settings include parenting children, teaching students, supervising employees, regulating corporations and responding to international conflicts (Brathwaite 2000).” (Wachtel & McCold, 2000, p. 5)
The staff at CSF (Community Service Foundation) an organization that works with troubled youth and has a number of alternative schools in Pennsylvania, developed a shorthand method to distinguish the four approaches to discipline:

Not: nothing is done in response to inappropriate behavior
For: makes excuses for the behavior; does everything for the youth asking little in return
To: responds by doing things to the youth; scolding, handing our punishments
With: works with young people and engages them directly in the process for holding them accountable
If my student Outcast had been exposed both to restorative conferencing and restorative practices being used in the classroom such as the use of the social discipline window and the concept of circles which we talked about and did role plays, perhaps his behavior would have been positively affected. Circles used in the classroom from the beginning of the school year could help establish expectations, both behavioral and academic, as well as help develop respect, access understanding, check on feelings only to name a few of the many benefits. Circles can add a therapeutic touch to the classroom setting which many of our students need. Today’s child, regardless of educational setting ( i.e. alternative., special , regular) needs a supportive atmosphere yet one that demands they be accountable for their misdeeds.
I retired from the Newark Public School system but I am currently on the school planning committee as a community member at my former school. I’m also active in a non profit organization called the House of Love Soup Kitchen, where the larger part of our clientele is homeless men and many of them are substance abusers. We also have other people that live in the community including women and children that attend.
I was very inspired by this course. I am looking forward to being a part of the graduate program at the International Institute for Restorative Practices and to applying what I learn to my own “disconnected” part of the world.