(NAME-MCE) Name-mce Digest, Vol 702, Issue 1
Sharkey, Jan
sharkeyj at evergreen.edu
Sat Jan 5 15:04:18 EST 2008
Please post our current job announcement:
Employment Opportunity:
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, Washington
www.evergreen.edu/facultyhiring
Mathematics Teacher Education Faculty- 08
The Evergreen State College is seeking applicants for a position in math
teacher education to join the initial group of faculty for our new
Master in Education program. This Master in Education program is
designed to enhance practicing teachers' abilities to teach K-12
mathematics and support English Language Learners in all learning
environments. We are seeking applicants with academic preparation in
mathematics teacher education, who have experience working with
in-service teachers, and sufficient collaborative and leadership
qualities to begin a new program. Candidates must have K-12 mathematics
teaching experience and be prepared to support teachers with master's
level research projects. The successful candidate will collaborate with
a team of other faculty members in the College's new Master in Education
program due to begin in Summer of 2008.
Evergreen is a public, interdisciplinary liberal arts college within
this academic context Evergreen's approach to teacher education is
founded on social justice and democratic principles of education.
Building on a socio-constructivist philosophy of learning, M.Ed.
candidates will engage in reflective practice by closely examining
student learning to inform instruction. They will need to learn
sufficient qualitative and quantitative research methods to be able to
critically read original research and conduct Action Research. Depending
on the candidates, their research project may be in their k-12
classroom, as instructional coaches, as mentors working with teachers in
other relevant contexts and venues.
Faculty members have a significant amount of direct contact with
students and enjoy a high degree of freedom to determine the pace,
emphasis, classroom strategies and modes of assessments in the programs
that they teach. The Master in Education program is informed by state
competencies for endorsement. Faculty hired to this position will also
be expected to support the Master in Teaching program, a graduate
certification program, as the Master in Education program will not
demand full-time work. Candidates who have background and interests
beyond teacher education and have prior experience teaching with faculty
from other disciplines are particularly encouraged to apply. We
encourage applicants who have had experience teaching and/or working
with students from underrepresented populations.
The complete job announcement and application process is available at
www.evergreen.edu/facultyhiring
Thank you,
Jan Sharkey
Faculty Hiring Coordinator
The Evergreen State College
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW
Olympia, WA 98505
(360) 867-6861
fax: (360) 867-6794
email: sharkeyj at evergreen.edu
website: www.evergreen.edu/facultyhiring
-----Original Message-----
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Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 6:24 AM
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Subject: Name-mce Digest, Vol 702, Issue 1
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Bias in Canada (ZS Worotynec)
2. International Journal of Multicultural Education-Publication
Announcement (Heewon Chang)
3. Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement
(Anselmo Villanueva)
4. 119 UA students reclassified as out-of-state (Anselmo Villanueva)
5. Re: Citation maker (Michel Coconis)
6. source for students & scholars (Bill Howe)
7. Re: Anti-bullying program aims to teach students empathy
(amybazan at aol.com)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 19:38:55 -0500 (EST)
From: ZS Worotynec <zsw at vex.net>
Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Bias in Canada
To: NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural Education Email
Discussion Group <name-mce at nameorg.org>
Message-ID: <20080101191959.V41769 at vex.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
Adrienne Clarkson was Canada's 2nd female Governor General. First was
Jean Sauve. Currently, Canada's GG is Michaelle Jean, who is Haitian
born.
And, yes, while Canada entrenched multiculturalism in official policy in
1971 and then in legislation in 1988, we do still have a long long way
to go.
http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/multi/policy/act_e.cfm
As an early childhood person, I am particularly aghast at Canada's
treatment of immigrant children - we have a shameful history of this
too.
>From 1826 to 1939, Canada participated in several "child emigration"
schemes which brought 1000s of children (mostly British) to serve the
needs of Canada - at that time, as farm labourers, domestic servants. As
Bill said "a cheap pool of labour". Many of these childen were very
badly treated and experienced sexual, physical, emotional abuse.
Today, Canada's immigrant children are "welcomed" if their parents can
muster up enough "points" to make it into the country. Once here, many
immigrant children are labeled as learning delayed and etc. because they
do not speak English or French (our official languages)and we are found
wanting in terms of supporting their parents too. There is a LOT of work
to be done in anti-bias, anti-racism and in supporting immigrants and
their families.
Another issue is in international adoptions and children who migrate to
Canada for purposes of adoption. See http://www.childinterrupted.ca if
you're interested. My paper examines int'l adoptions within the context
of Canadian policy and legislation (immigration, multiculturalism,
citizenship) and int'l policy and legislation (UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions).
I am also part of the Canadian Coalition for Immigrant Children and
Youth.
We are a national voluntary organiztion working for more and better
services for immigrant (and refugee) children and youth. See
http://immigrantchildren.ca .
ZS
Kitchener, ON
Canada
On Mon, 31 Dec 2007, someone wrote:
> "... Canada...still has a checkered past".
>
> There were Japanese Canadian Internment camps, too.
>
> The article makes reference to Adrienne Clarkson, who I believe was
> Canada's second female Governor General. The current one is of African
descent.
>
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:57:10 -0500
From: "Heewon Chang" <hchang at eastern.edu>
Subject: (NAME-MCE) International Journal of Multicultural
Education-Publication Announcement
To: name-mce at nameorg.org
Message-ID: <web-30568125 at eastern.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format="flowed"
Please send the following publication announcement of the International
Journal of Multicultural Education. Thanks.
****************************
We are delighted to announce that the inaugural issue of IJME
(International Journal of Multicultural Education), a peer-reviewed,
open-access online journal, is published for your use. Committed to
promoting educational equity, cross-cultural understanding, and global
awareness in all levels of education, this journal is made available for
free to scholars and students of multicultural education in the world.
To read the content of the journal, you need to register at the journal
site (www.ijme-journa.org). Please know that IJME succeeds Electronic
Magazine of Multicultural Education that had been published for 8 years
from Eastern University. Its back issues are still available for free
from www.eastern.edu/publications/emme. In addition to reading IJME
content, we'd also like to invite you to be authors and reviewers for
the journal. We're looking forward to serving you as well as working
with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Heewon
Heewon Chang, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Education
Chair, Graduate Education Program
Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Multicultural Education
(http://www.eastern.edu/publications/ijme;
ijme at eastern.edu)
Education Department
Eastern University
1300 Eagle Road
St. Davids, PA 19087
610-341-1597 (phone); 610-341-4393 (fax)
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 06:35:58 -0800
From: "Anselmo Villanueva" <anselmo.villanueva at gmail.com>
Subject: (NAME-MCE) Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement
To: name-mce at nameorg.org
Message-ID:
<88024d6b0801020635p103f3ed8w85f1337a741bce0b at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252
For better format and related stories, surf to:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/02/wallenstein
January 2, 2008
Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement
For every James Meredith, who gained fame for becoming the first black
student at the University of Mississippi, there were many other students
who broke racial barriers without attracting much attention. *Higher
Education and the Civil Rights Movement: White Supremacy, Black
Southerners and College Campuses *
<http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=WALLEF07> (University Press of Florida)
tells the stories of some of those students and also portrays the
broader story of the desegregation of higher education ? which the
essays in the book argue was much more evolutionary than was James
Meredith's experience at Ole Miss. Peter Wallenstein, a professor of
history at Virginia Tech, edited the volume and responded to e-mail
questions about its themes.
*Q: The book talks about how the images many have of desegregation
(James Meredith's admission or George Wallace in the doorway) give a
false impression of how desegregation happened generally. How do those
images differ from the full story?*
*A:* Across the South, desegregation took place on campus after campus,
in program after program, eventually in residence halls and athletic
programs, usually with little fanfare or public notice. Yet the iconic
moments in the desegregation of southern higher education in the 1950s
and 1960s, those widely recognized, are four episodes that took place in
Alabama (1956 and 1963), Georgia (1961), or Mississippi (1962). Each was
characterized by violence and visibility ? a public show of mighty
resistance to the enrollment of the first one or two black students.
Those episodes, those snapshots in time, have proved enduring. They
garnered headlines at the time, and some 50 years later they continue to
attract attention from historians and the wider public alike. Largely
unnoticed at the time, and largely unnoticed since, are the dozens of
moments at other schools, where the first black enrollment took place in
grudging silence, as did various other breakthroughs on the way to full
inclusion in the institutional life of the place. Every school had its
own time line, its own pioneers. Each has its own stories.
Yet one must not exaggerate the differences between the most resistant
states or institutions and the least. Each of the 17 segregated states,
even if without public violence, acted only in the aftermath of
litigation ?
usually in their own states, but in some instances in response to
developments elsewhere, whether these were Supreme Court decisions about
higher education in 1938 or in 1948?1950 or the decisions in *Brown v.
Board of Education* in 1954 or 1955. Delaware, Maryland, and other
Border South states did not offer violent resistance, but they conceded
change, step by step, only as appeared required by court decisions.
Long after a black student began classes in one program, segregation ?
deliberate exclusion ? often persisted in other programs on the same
campus.
We reprint a document from Missouri in 1950 in which university
officials calculate which black applicants they have to admit under
court order, and which ones they can continue to exclude. Even in
schools ? Arkansas in 1948, for example ? that acted without a specific
court order, acceptance of a black applicant into the law school or
medical school did not bring an end to the traditional policy of
excluding black undergraduates.
*Q: Why was desegregation more controversial and difficult in some
states than others?*
*A:* Desegregation was most strongly resisted at flagship state schools
in the Deep South states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and
Louisiana. Deep South states had the highest proportions of black
citizens, and their white neighbors most feared the great loss of power
and privilege that desegregation would bring. Whites in those states
typically voted against the national Democratic Party in the
presidential campaign of 1948, when they voted for Dixiecrat candidate
Strom Thurmond, or in 1964, when they voted for Republican candidate
Barry Goldwater rather than for Lyndon B.
Johnson. And yet there were variations on the theme. In South Carolina,
state leaders in 1963 did everything in their power, and that was a lot,
to avoid their state's becoming seen as "another Mississippi."
*Q: The collection includes an essay about the desegregation of big-time
athletics in the South. How significant do you see athletics being in
race relations in Southern higher education?*
*A:* Athletic teams and contests reveal much of what seemed to be at
stake in promoting or resisting the process of desegregation on
campuses. Pioneer black students in the 1950s were permitted to
participate on the wrestling team at Delaware or play intercollegiate
tennis matches at North Carolina State, but these examples were unusual.
Far more often, the first cohorts of black undergraduates were barred
from representing their school in such public fashion. Nowhere was
resistance greater than on flagship campuses in the Deep South ? the
Universities of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi ? in varsity football
programs. There, white supremacy and black exclusion endured well past
the enrollment of the pioneer black students. Much had to change ?
indeed, much had changed ? by the time African Americans played varsity
football for Southeastern Conference schools.
*Q: You dedicate the book to black students ? naming a number of them ?
who were unable to earn degrees from Southern universities. Why did you
focus on those students?*
*A:* The dedication names various black Southerners who mounted serious
efforts ? but who failed absolutely, sometimes at egregious personal
cost ?
to end the absolute segregation of public universities in the South. As
one
example: "Pauli Murray, not of the University of North Carolina." I
wanted ?
all the contributors to the volume wanted ? to salute agents of change
who did not themselves gain entrance but who led the way for those who
followed.
These men and women will not be known well or at all to most of our
readers.
But each of them demonstrated great resistance to segregation, and each
elicited great resistance to any change on the racial front in higher
education. Together they personify the varied stories we have told of
the power of white supremacy in the Jim Crow era. They embodied the
troubled process of bringing down the barriers that long maintained
categorical black exclusion in historically white institutions of
southern higher education.
*Q: What lessons does this history have for race relations in higher
education today?*
*A:* Our book relates the lengthy process of desegregation on college
campuses to the long civil rights movement, from the 1930s into the
1970s.
We observe that desegregation was not complete as of 1970, nor, as we
see it, is full inclusion necessarily accomplished even now. If we
understand desegregation as a drawn-out process, often grudgingly
conceded, unevenly implemented, we have a potentially useful way to
understand patterns we see in the early years of the 21st century.
In institutions of higher education, much as in K?12 schools, white
resistance typically postponed any black enrollment, limited it when it
came, and, especially in the early years but not just then, narrowly
channeled the changes that did come. Decades after the first enrollment
of black students, historically white "public" institutions of higher
education largely continue to display disproportionate white enrollment.
Moreover, even though students of Asian ancestry could often fully
participate in campus life at "all-white" institutions during the Jim
Crow years, the historical experiences of African American and other
nonwhite students are often conflated.
At the close of the book, we speak of "unfinished business" ? unfinished
business in reconstructing Americans' historical understanding of the
past, as well as unfinished business in eradicating the exclusionary
past of separate-and-unequal higher education. We tell of how various
schools have commemorated what they once resisted. Even today, on campus
after campus, questions of proprietary claims ? and comfort levels ?
persist. Whose campus is it, really?
? Scott Jaschik <scott.jaschik at insidehighered.com>
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 06:43:50 -0800
From: "Anselmo Villanueva" <anselmo.villanueva at gmail.com>
Subject: (NAME-MCE) 119 UA students reclassified as out-of-state
To: name-mce at nameorg.org
Message-ID:
<88024d6b0801020643s4245863evb95cbb433ebd4051 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252
As a result of a new state measure barring students without
documentation to legally stay in the United States from receiving
in-state tuition rates, the University of Arizona has reclassified 119
students as out-of-state students, The Tucson Citizen reported.
University officials expect that many of those students do have legal
status, but haven't provided documentation.
For those that don't have legal status ? at least six so far ? private
donors plan to pay the extra tuition now required.
Complete article below.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0101az-prop-on.html
119 UA students reclassified as out-of-state
Renee Schafer Horton
Tucson Citizen
Jan. 1, 2008 07:44 AM
TUCSON - Since July 3, the University of Arizona has been able to
corroborate the legal status of 758 of the 877 students it previously
reported as "not verified" under the strictures of Proposition 300.
Passed by voters in November 2006, Proposition 300 requires illegal
immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition and bans them from receiving
state tuition assistance.
The state's universities and community colleges were required to file
Proposition 300 compliance reports with the Joint Legislative Budget
Committee by June 30 and again Monday.
In June, UA reported that 877 students had not proved their legal status
to the university. Those students were notified that further
documentation was needed and 758 students provided it.
The remaining 119 students have been moved from in-state to out-of-state
status, according to the report UA filed Monday, which was provided to
the Citizen by the Arizona Board of Regents.
Out-of-state tuition is $16,058, compared to $4,824 for in-state
students.
Of those 119 students, six came forward to UA officials and said they
would not be able to provide documentation proving legal residency.
Rather than have them drop out of school, private donors, including the
UA Foundation, agreed to pay their tuition, said Paul R. Kohn, vice
provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions. A spokesman
for the foundation could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
Kohn was out of his office and unable to access the list of students but
said it is unlikely the remaining 113 are in the country illegally and
also unlikely that they have paid the out-of-state bill.
More probable, he said, they are graduate students receiving graduate
tuition assistance that covers out-of-state tuition, or children of UA
employees who qualify for reduced tuition and thus didn't feel pressured
to provide documentation that would allow them to qualify for in-state
tuition.
UA spent about $159,000 implementing Prop. 300 while the increase in
tuition for the six students was about $70,000, Kohn said.
Pima Community College also filed a report on Monday, said spokesman
David Irwin, but he was unable to provide details because of the
holiday.
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 09:12:50 -0800 (PST)
From: Michel Coconis <michel4justice at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Citation maker
To: NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural Education Email
Discussion Group <name-mce at nameorg.org>
Message-ID: <221388.44484.qm at web30803.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Happy New Year, NAME-ists or NAME-ers or NAME members!
When I go to this address I only get a listing of being "parked" but no
link - except to Go Daddy and other pet-related products. Is this a
legitimate program? I like the idea of titles and authors too. Thanks
for the suggestions and for these links.
Thanks.
Michel Coconis
--- Nicholas Meier <nsmeier at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> Wordcat.org
>
>
> > From: Bill Howe <bill at billhowe.org>
> > Reply-To: NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural
> > Education Email Discussion Group <name-mce at nameorg.org>
> > Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:18:47 -0500
> > To: ***NAME-MCE <Name-mce at nameorg.org>
> > Subject: (NAME-MCE) Citation maker
> >
> >
> >
> > This is too cool. I wish I had it when I was in school.
> > If you have the ISBN of a number of a book, it will give you a
> > citation in several different formats. Here is the link.
> > http://ottobib.com/
> >
> > Does anyone know of a tool that will do this with just the title of
> > the book and authors?
> >
> > --
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This is a mailing of the National Association for Multicultural
> Education -
> (NAME) Listserv list - www.nameorg.org. The materials included reflect
> diverse perspectives of NAME Listserv participants and do not
> necessarily reflect a position of the National Association for
> Multicultural Education. If you would like to subscribe (or
> unsubscribe)to this listserv go to
> http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org. You can
> read all past postings in the archives at
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>
>
>
> Name-mce mailing list
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>
>
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 12:34:59 -0500
From: "Bill Howe" <bill at billhowe.org>
Subject: (NAME-MCE) source for students & scholars
To: ***NAME-MCE <Name-mce at nameorg.org>
Message-ID:
<d7c555be0801020934g6340e242j6b77e24edf332a9a at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Thanks to Ava Biffer (great multicultural library media specialist) and
Nicholas Meier for their input. Here are three sources that those of you
writing papers or books might find helpful. I also list them on my web
along wih some other fun & useful websites at
http://billhowe.org/funwebsites.htm
*Student & Scholars*
-
*OttoBib <http://ottobib.com/>*- Make a bibliography. It's free,
easy
and OttoMatic.
-
Worldcat <http://www.worldcat.org/> - Search for an item in libraries
near you. Gives citations
-
*Citation Style for Research Papers
-<http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm>
*shows various publication styles
--
Bill Howe
Travel to China - June 1-14, 2008 - Teachers & Health Care Professionals
- http://www.billhowe.org/China2008.htm
Web - http://www.billhowe.org
Blog - Travel - http://billhowe.org/BillBlog/ Blog - Multicultural
Education - http://billhowe.org/MCE/
.....................................
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:05:38 -0500
From: amybazan at aol.com
Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Anti-bullying program aims to teach students
empathy
To: name-mce at nameorg.org
Message-ID: <8CA1B91FA5E5542-1BC0-450 at webmail-mf16.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Thank you so much for sharing this.? We are having a big problem with
bullying in my daughter's middle school.? This article alone helps to
know that it is not just our community going through this.? It is
appreciated!
Amy Bazan, Albuquerque, New Mexico
-----Original Message-----
From: Anselmo Villanueva <anselmo.villanueva at gmail.com>
To: name-mce at nameorg.org
Sent: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:08 pm
Subject: (NAME-MCE) Anti-bullying program aims to teach students empathy
Canadian program uses empathy to tackle bullying
A 4-month-old baby is helping Seattle fourth- and fifth-graders learn
empathy and other so-called emotional literacy skills. The Roots of
Empathy program, which originated in Canada and is now employed in
several countries and launching in the U.S. this year in the Seattle
area, invites local parents to bring their newborns into classrooms to
help school children learn bonding and empathy. The program was shown to
have reduced aggressive behaviors such as bullying in 88% of children
tracked in a 2001 University of British Columbia study. Seattle
Post-Intelligencer<http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/jqxMlnasvMgvaTCibvduNANw
?format=standard>
Complete story below. For better format, pictures, and related stories,
go
to:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/345311_empathy29.html?source=mypi
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Anti-bullying program aims to teach students empathy
By JESSICA BLANCHARD <jessicablanchard at seattlepi.com> Post Intelligence
Newspaper, Seattle WA
At 4 months old, Matthew Moretsky can't yet crawl, roll over or speak
coherently -- but he's already attracted a fan club.
On his most recent visit to Kim Rothschild's classroom at Dearborn Park
Elementary, Matthew lies at one end of a vibrant green rug, surrounded
by a circle of adoring fourth- and fifth-graders.
"Who's the most important person in the room?" school counselor Kate
Tillotson asks.
"Matthew!" they chorus.
It's been three weeks since Matthew's last visit to the southeast
Seattle school, and the students are eager to see how he's grown. They
gasp as he rests on a foam roll in the center of the room and lifts his
head up. They coo over his tiny feet, and giggle when he constantly puts
his hands in his mouth.
The visits are part of a pilot program in a handful of Seattle-area
elementary schools this year that aims to enhance students' "emotional
literacy" skills.
The program, Roots of Empathy, revolves around the idea that if children
can learn to identify and understand how other people feel, and better
communicate their own feelings, they'll be less aggressive and less
likely to bully other students.
In each classroom, students are introduced to a local newborn and the
parents, who visit the class nine times during the year. During each
session, a certified Roots of Empathy instructor urges the students to
monitor the baby's development, watch how it responds to different
situations and try to interpret what it's feeling.
It's only Matthew's third visit to Dearborn Park, but the children have
already become attached. They watch him intently, share observations
with each other and speculate about what he's thinking or feeling.
"They've developed their own bond with him," said Matthew's father,
Michael Moretsky. "It's a fantastic program for everyone involved,
including Matthew. ... I think he really enjoys this."
Learning to care
Former kindergarten teacher Mary Gordon founded Roots of Empathy in
Toronto in 1996 in hopes of finding a way to break the cycle of domestic
violence, poverty and bullying she had observed in some of her students.
"The common denominator in all this suffering meted out on children ...
was the perpetrator did not have empathy for what they were doing," she
said.
"Empathy is something you only get by experience or by having someone
model it for you."
She developed a curriculum that emphasizes caring, respect, social
responsibility, diversity and infant safety, and is adapted for students
in kindergarten through eighth grade. Each session focuses on a theme,
such as caring and planning for the baby, and includes plenty of time
for students to observe the bond between baby and parent.
The program was registered as a charity in 2000 and is now used
throughout Canada and several other countries. It's been credited with
reducing bullying, improving children's critical-thinking skills and
helping instill empathy in children who may never have experienced it in
their lives.
A 2001 University of British Columbia study found that 88 percent of
children who had completed the Roots of Empathy program showed a
decrease in aggressive behaviors such as bullying. "When empathy goes
up, bullying goes down," Gordon said.
The program is making its U.S. debut in the Seattle area this year. In
addition to Dearborn Park, the curriculum is being tested at Sacajawea
Elementary, John Stanford International School and West Seattle
Elementary in Seattle; Emerald Park Elementary in Kent; and the private
Westside School in southwest Seattle.
Seattle Public Schools officials plan to expand the program to 30
classrooms in 2009, paid for by donations from local philanthropists.
Questions and giggles
Throughout the 45-minute session at Dearborn Park, the children study
Matthew's movements and look for visual clues, trying to determine his
moods and his personality.
At one point, his father offers Matthew a bottle and the baby isn't
interested.
"Is he kind of mad right now?" one boy asks tentatively. "Because he
seemed to be trying to spit out the bottle."
Michael Moretsky says no, Matthew's just more interested in what's going
on in the room around him -- but if the baby's upset, he definitely lets
his dad know.
The kids continue to pepper Moretsky with questions: "Is he crawling
yet?"
"Can he see farther now?" "Why don't you use formula?" "What do you do
when he gets fussy?" "How many times do you change his diaper each day?"
Matthew, who apparently has a great sense of timing, chooses that moment
to loudly fill his diaper. The kids erupt in giggles.
During the ensuing diaper change, Moretsky passes a new diaper around
the circle for students to feel and fields more rapid-fire questions.
The children want to know why he chose disposables vs. cloth ones, how
much diapers cost and how he can tell whether Matthew is comfortable in
his diaper.
No question is taboo, and parents who volunteer for the program have to
be prepared to be very open about their lives, their emotions and the
costs of raising a child.
Moretsky said he's been impressed by both the quality and quantity of
students' questions.
"Sometimes it's hard to believe they're fourth- and fifth-graders," he
said.
"They've asked questions I've never thought of myself."
'Massive' covert bullying
Bullying in schools has been a problem for decades, despite attempts to
thwart it.
Seattle Public Schools has an anti-harassment policy that bans bullying,
encourages staff members to intervene when they see it happening and
allows students to make anonymous complaints.
Still, in a spring 2006 survey, about one-third of Seattle elementary
students and more than one in five middle school students reported that
they had been bullied in the past year.
With the rise of text messaging and social networking Web sites, there
are new venues for bullies to attack. "It's insidious," Gordon said.
"The overt bullying, any adult can control. But the covert bullying is
massive."
When students are able to put themselves in the victim's shoes and
understand how it might feel, though, they're more likely to police
their peers and intercede to stop bullying behavior when they see it,
she said.
Tillotson, the school counselor, said she's already noticed changes in
some of her students.
"The kids who are most attuned and asking questions are often the ones
who had been in trouble or suspended," she said.
During a recent session, a boy who had been in trouble at school
tenderly held Matthew, looked at him directly and talked to him softly.
Tillotson gestured around her office. "There's nothing in this room that
can have the same effect."
P-I reporter Jessica Blanchard can be reached at 206-448-8322 or
jessicablanchard at seattlepi.com.
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