The Autumn Breeze

Why, hello there! Time seems to have slipped out from beneath me and I look over my shoulder and it’s October 5th. No, wait. 6th. Good grief. Around here the breeze has turned in from the north bringing the slight chill of autumn that we’ve all been waiting for. I’ve thrown open the windows to circulate the recycled air from the summer out of our house and have invited the outside to come in. A welcomed cleansing. But wouldn’t you know it that the time of year when I like to start roasting vegetables and bake hearty breads that my oven would break? I know, I know. Does autumn really come when ovens are broken? It surely does. I’m actually not in a rush to buy a new one. We’re in a stage of life where I’m not working and money is very tight so we’re trying to fix things where it’s possible instead of tossing and buying. Rejecting capitalism and materialism by force rather than by romantic idealism. Living the dream. Ah, but anyways. I’m adapting. The stove top still works, so instead of biscuits from the oven with our vegetable and barley soup last night I hand rolled a few parsley dumplings and plopped them into the pot. What a delicious treat they were. Our bellies were full and the breeze was wonderfully cool.

Last night after supper, after Ruby was tucked into her crib and the boys were showered, the four of us settled into mine and Jason’s bed with a few books while we laid around telling stories and tickling feet. Wouldn’t you know that Myles read to us The Giving Tree in its entirety, without whining or complaining, but with a legitimate desire to read and finish it. I teared up, not from the old stump giving its dearest friend the only thing left that it had to offer, but from listening to my son read. What a long journey this has been for us all. This moment has come at a sweet time for our family. As you know from my last post over a week ago, I went around the house in a fit of being fed up and unplugged all of the electronics. I’m a bit confused because the boys actually haven’t asked to watch TV or play Minecraft but only a couple of times. I’m wondering if it was actually us who pushed all of the technology on them for one reason or another. What a revelation that has been. If I hadn’t have unplugged the TVs, I wonder if we all would have spent the evening together in bed talking and reading together. A memory that wouldn’t have existed. Honestly, the children have been better behaved over all. They’re not as grouchy. They play independently without any prompting from me or Jason. And we’re spending such better time together. Playing legos, building toothpick and marshmallow structures, reading books, playing games, sitting and talking. And Myles isn’t struggling with homework and reading these days. I’m well aware that correlation doesn’t imply causation. But if the shoe fits and the sun rises…

So, here we are. Broke and happy. Content with a broken oven and reading children. As embarrassed as I often get about our finances and the choices that we’ve made to get us here (graduate school for both of us, heaps of student loan debt, poor financial planning, and me not working) I don’t count it as a failure. Something about the shifting breeze has settled a contentment in our small house. Sediments of rest and peace have dusted the earth. Financial security and upward mobility have lost its grasp and drifted away. I’d also say that my desires to be thin again, trendy, and less grey have gone with it as well. Contentment. What a sweet gift. I hope you all are feeling the change of season wherever you are and that it pushes in a peace past your understanding, as well. Until next time.

Our Journey Through Technology: Or, Getting Rid of Screen Time

There are a thousand thousand reasons to love this life, everyone of them sufficient.

― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Most everyone in southeastern Virginia is watching for the leaves to begin browning around their edges and preparing to fall into our yards as we start settling into new autumn routines and daylight rhythms. This is one of the things I love most about Virginia. We have such beautiful changes of seasons. I have grown to really appreciate the turn and the tilt of the earth as we move from summer’s extreme heat to winter’s blistering cold year after year. Our home life has turned away from the traveling, leisure, and late evenings of summer and is now more focused on new house projects, routines, and instruction. The beginnings of turning inward and spending more time in our minds reading, practicing, learning, and creating always start in the fall, continuing through the deep winter when we’re all tucked tight inside, hibernating. After the busyness of spring and summer, this time of year is always welcomed. This is actually the first time that we’ve put our older boys into any after school activities. They started both cub scouts and piano lessons this year. I’ve always been wary of over scheduling my children and structuring play out of their lives, but this feels slow paced and reasonable for our family. It also makes them seem older to me, which is a welcomed gift.

I’ve been watching my oldest son, Myles, a lot recently. He’s 7 and in second grade, quickly growing out of the innocence of young childhood and into an older child, rounding the corner into adolescence. Sometimes it’s tough watching him lose his innocence and navigate the world. This age is a particularly awkward as he gains more social awareness, constructs his peers and the world into hierarchies, and is yet still so clumsy and emotionally fragile. I can only imagine that it will become more and more difficult as he continues to grow up and we navigate through my and Jason’s parenting. We all have lots of learning to do, and still more failures and successes to accumulate over the years.

The most recent topic that we are navigating through is our children’s use of digital technology. As they all get older their love for and immersion in so much technology is always a struggle for me. It’s something that we try to monitor and keep boundaries around, but often it almost feels like an impossible battle. And what are we fighting? At times it seems so benign and harmless. They love to play Minecraft and watch YouTube. It’s what they enjoy. And yet, so quickly it becomes all that they want or know how to do. I find that they even become more agitated and bored the more that they are connected to their games and television. When it’s turned off they pace around the house, become agitated at each other, and oh, do they whine. It’s as if they forget how to play and use their imaginations. They need something to stimulate their brains and flash across their eyes in order for them to function and participate in the world. And obviously, this concerns me. There’s a slew of research out that argues against so much digital technology for our kids. But there’s also a slew of research that supports it. Some would even probably argue that our world is becoming increasingly more digital so we should all rethink and restructure how and what we consider to be normal social interaction and play. Though, I do become wary when my children, and myself, need constant stimulus to function and interact with people.

Since the summer’s heat has finally lost its grip around here, I’ve been pushing the boys outside every day. And wouldn’t you know, they have no idea what to do. Jason and I set up their micromachine trucks and soldiers outside in the dirt and rocks and showed them how to play, attempting to spark their imaginations. While it takes a few minutes, they finally latched on and began to play. But as soon as another kid comes outside, the same fight ensues trying to keep them outside. They all want to immediately go in and play on a tablet or watch YouTube. Then it’s a hoard of boys pestering you to go to someone else’s house and play the xBox.

Well, over the weekend I had enough. I went through our house and unplugged every television. I put away their Leap Pads. I took out the Wii. I banned Minecraft and all access to the laptop. For the sake of my sanity and the health of my kids. Do you know what happened? The world continued to spin into autumn and my boys played outside. They spent hours building Legos. They drew on construction paper. They played on the swing with their sister. When a kid came over that wanted to take them to their house to play video games I said NO. I put my foot down. Yes, they whined a little bit. Yes, it was harder parenting. But they got over it.

Somewhere along the way this no-shame, no-guilt, parenting culture has turned into a game of survival that often overlooks what’s best for our kids and families. Sure, I feed my kids frozen chicken nuggets and turn on the television when life gets out of control and hard, but it easily and increasingly morphs into our daily lives and routines. And then out of nowhere I have a brood of digital addicts who don’t want to leave the house. And for what? So that my life is easier? Parenting is easier when your kids are staring at a screen. But that doesn’t mean it’s what is best. At least not all of the time. That’s not to shame parents who do it! We’ve all been there. But we can encourage each other to press into parenting when it’s difficult. We can set rules, limits and boundaries that teach our children how to use their imaginations and interact with others in the physical world. That is, I guess, if you value the physical world. The world that has natural rhythms and cycles and is moving our family into fall. And we’re not going to miss it.

Real Talk: Cultivating Kindness

Surely by now we all are friends. At least the distant digital kind that give a listening ear and kindness when we need it. Right now I need a real talk moment. Parenting has been quite a struggle for me recently. I find myself so easily agitated at my children, even the littlest one, barking orders at them, wishing the day away until it’s time for bed. It’s such a shame because I see how it affects their tempers and attitudes. How they’re treated is often reflected in how they treat others. These days it’s mostly with annoyance and anger. Sigh.

What’s the most difficult is that my two boys are absolute turds. I say that in the most loving, motherly way, but holy shit, they are so loud and fight so much. And you know, Jason and I try to teach them kindness and gentleness, but out come the punches and cries that someone took something that they were looking for and will neeeeever give it baaaaack, despite all of our modest attempts at guiding them to loving others. That’s about when I drop my head and wait desperately for 8pm reading, toothbrush, pj, and bed time. Okay, honestly, they could go to bed in jeans and cavities at that point. Just please, for the love of god, close the door and fall asleep. And there you have it. A vicious cycle of anger begetting anger, and more anger, and a heaping tablespoon of annoyance. No wonder my kids are just so lovely to be around.

I think that it was, oh, everyday this week that the boys were squabbling when I pulled them aside to talk to them about kindness, about honoring others with our words and our actions, loving others, treating them how they would like to be treated. They both darted their eyes around the room, squirming to get away from their nagging mom, and told each other sorry, now give me back boy toy, you thief! 

You know, cultivating kindness really is difficult. Everything in our flesh rejects it. It is a discipline to think of others and not yourself. To forgive when you have been wronged. To love when others hate. Selfishness and pride rule our bodies and minds. Well, at least in our family. And that’s really what I have been struggling with. My own selfishness and time. I want to do what I want, when I want it. So, naturally, that causes conflict between me and my toddler when she’s hungry right when I want to, oh, go to the bathroom or check my email. It also causes conflict when I don’t want to read or play games with my son after he’s been asking for an hour. And I get annoyed. Then he hits his brother. Like I said, it’s a vicious cycle.

But you know, I could go off and read a list on how other families have worked to cultivate kindness – writing encouraging letters to each other, baking each other cookies, shooting rainbows from their… I’ll stop – but those lists always leave me feeling like a pretty big failure. My kids don’t donate their allowance money to starving kids in Haiti. Hell, I can’t even get them to loan me $5 for a coffee at Target. They have Minecraft paraphernalia to buy! But what we can do is cultivate forgiveness. When they do wrong they can confess, ask forgiveness, and be forgiven. Maybe that will cultivate more kindness in the long term. To know that you’re forgiven and loved would motivate anyone to be kind to others. Even me.

Bed Sheets and Black Holes

 

This morning at 6:30, Myles crawled into my bed and snuggled next to me. Jason was already downstairs drinking coffee and answering email, leaving me alone in our dawn soaked room with the fan whirring and cooling the air. Bundled under the comforter Myles asked, “Where are black holes?” We started the day in bed together slowly uncovering the universe. He used his hands to demonstrate the earth’s orbit around the sun and how days end and nights begin. His little imagination and curiosity eager to wrap around the workings of time and space.

A July Summer

Those July evenings, the hot sun dangled on the edge
of a never ending day and simmered wet mud made
by squirt guns, a dank funk gripping the humid air,
attracting flies. Boney shirtless seven year olds, sticky
from sweat and sugar, stalked each other around blooming
bushes, took aim through fence posts, and fired streams of warm
plastic steeped water onto their unsuspecting prey. At times
they’d laugh at being caught, while at others they’d scream
at the injustice of being shot in the back by a friend, water
stabbing skin. Dusk spread mosquitos thick at days end,
feasting on high fructose little boy, forming itchy bulbs
for later. Red eyed and thirsty, they bounded in, their wet,
grass covered and itchy feet stretched prints across the kitchen floor
and into the living room where they left shadows of their wet butts and
bottle caps on the couch. Tucked inside herself, the agitated vestige
of a mother closed her eyes and traced the outline of childhood
from memory until, through laughter, she sat down beside them.

Growing a School Garden

Happy Saturday, friends! I’ve been keeping myself busy these last few days with school garden business! It’s been such a great time for me out in the community talking to our city leaders and school principals making plans for outdoor classrooms and food gardens. What I’ve found most exciting is that people are very receptive to these types of initiatives if someone is eager, ready, and willing to take the lead and do the heavy lifting. All of which I’m like, BRING IT.

That’s all to say that we have a long road ahead of us. I’m currently creating a website for the organization that I’m in the process of forming called The Norfolk School Garden Collective. This organization will work to build and maintain gardens and outdoor classrooms at the public schools in our city. Right now, however, I’m just focusing on helping one school, Granby Elementary, to build a school wide food garden, habitat gardens, an outdoor classroom, and picnic area. But it takes money, materials, resources, volunteers, and a community of people dedicated to its success. And I’m just a meager gardner with a big vision. Building this idea from scratch and some timber feels pretty out of my league, but that’s half of the fun. Watching something grow from something small.

Do you all mind if I leave you with the school garden’s GoFundMe page? This weekend I am getting 10 bags of top soil and nectar plants to help the school become recognized by the Monarch WayStation Project. The teachers and the students are committed to helping grow a butterfly and bee habitat on their property and I’d like to help them make that a reality. Please consider donating to their garden to buy the materials that they need to make that a reality! Here is the link to the Granby Elementary School GoFundMe Page! I’ll be sharing pictures of the butterfly garden’s progress with you all! Thank you for putting up with my shameless fundraising attempt and for considering to donate. I appreciate this little community that reads my blog. You all are awesome.

Norfolk Public School Board Race: I am Supporting Carter Smith

It is no secret that Norfolk Public Schools have a bad reputation. When my spouse and I bought our first home in Colonial Place in 2012, it was the first concern on our list: where in the world would we send our children to school? To be fair, most of the schools’ reputation comes from hearsay; from parents and residents who haven’t stepped foot in one of Norfolk’s schools in decades, if ever. But, rumors are powerful.  They are keeping parents from sending their children to Norfolk’s schools and they hurt our city’s economy by deterring new residents from moving here. Our schools need to attract people to our great city, not deter and scare them away. My husband and I heard rumors that ranged from there being gangs at Granby Elementary, to fears of not receiving a good enough of an education, or getting a good teacher, or being in a classroom that’s far too big.  Our imaginations ran wild and we pictured our little children going off to a mini prison and joining a chain gang. Like I said before, rumors are powerful.

After a few bouts of problems at a private pre-k with my oldest son here in Norfolk, we decided that we would at least make an appointment and visit Granby before he started kindergarten. The then Vice Principal, Kathryn M. Verhappen, who is now the school’s principal, spent an entire hour with just me and my spouse giving us a tour of the school. We walked down the cheerful hallways lined with construction paper art and the imaginations of children. She explained their newly earned, and hard fought, accreditation. She explained their demographics, their programs, their PTA, their staffing, their classroom size, their curriculum, and dispelled every rumor that the parents in our neighborhood ever told us. And we were shocked.

We immediately applied for our youngest to attend their pre-k program and enrolled our oldest into their kindergarten. We have been happier there than we ever could have imagined. Our now first grade son is struggling with reading and writing, but to be clear, it has less to do with the school and more to do with the out of control testing culture that has permeated from No Child Left Behind, which is leaving my child behind. But my children are happy at Granby. They love their teachers. They love their friends. They love riding the bus. They aren’t in a gang. They haven’t been beaten up.

However, I very much realize that this is not the case at every school in Norfolk. I realize that there is a huge discrepancy between the funds, resources and attention that various schools in our city receive. I realize that violence is a very real problem and danger at a number of our schools. That is where we must pay attention from where these rumors are coming. I attended the Lafayette-Winona civic league meeting last night to hear the candidates who are running for city council, school board, and mayor. The questions that dominated the meeting were questions of violence and crime in our city and in our schools. It is a very real problem that affects us and our children and what keeps our city from attracting families needed to boost our economy and attend our schools.

It is in the school board race where this issue is the most contentious.  Carter Smith is running against the city council appointed incumbent, Dr. Noelle Gabriel, and questions of safety and administrative transparency mark their opposition. Smith heavily advocates that the school board and administrators need to provide more support to teachers and principals when it comes to discipline and enforcing policy in the schools. He believes that it is the safety of our schools that prevents parents from sending their children to the schools to which they are zoned, which includes Dr. Gabriel who sends her children to Larchmont instead of their zoned Willard. And he is advocating for more transparency and accountability of our administrators who far too often do not support our teachers’ efforts to discipline students and provide adequate professional development.

As a parent who sends her children to Norfolk Public Schools, I am supporting Carter Smith for school board. There are far too many questions that are left unanswered by Dr. Gabrielle in terms of budget and accountability, and from my experience hearing her speak, she seems to be quite a bit out of touch with the concerns of Norfolk parents and residents. A parent questioned her proclaimed success of the Academy of Discovery at Lakewood, the newly renovated school that houses grades 3-8 and fosters a project based pedagogy for its students. It’s innovative. It’s meeting the spectrum of educational needs of its students. And it overwhelmingly points to the disparity of access that far too many students in our district face. When pressed about questions of dividing the haves and have-nots in Lafayette-Winona, with the crumbling Willard Elementary school a stones throw away from Lakewood, Dr. Gabrielle had no concrete and adequate answers, all while seeing the disparity and choosing to not send her children to Willard instead of advocating for it. She actually shifted blame to the previous superintendent and other board members while simultaneously touting  her leadership skills. The answer is clear that her place on the school board has come to an end and she is no longer an effective leader and voice on our school board.

Carter Smith is offering provocative answers to problems with our school system, problems that Dr. Gabrielle last night said are overreaching scare tactics, to keep our schools safe, attract parents and their children to our schools system, demand accountability and transparency from our administrators and advocate for the children and the schools who are often left out from the resources and attention that they rightly deserve. I’m voting for Carter Smith on May 3rd and I hope that you will join me.

 

An Activist’s Spirit

 

Did you know that my husband and I used to run a produce stand and sell vegetables in our city? Vegetables that we grew ourselves right in our backyard? Right here in Norfolk, VA. It was such a great time. It got to be busy and time consuming, but we really loved it. Sometimes I really miss it. Last year we decided to not sell our produce anymore because 1.) I just had a baby, and 2.) we decided to focus all of our time, energy and money on getting me into a doctoral program. Well, we all know how that went.

I still own that business. It’s called Barnett Family Farms.  Sometimes I think about selling vegetables again but we didn’t have enough time between finding out about all of my rejections and growing a big garden again. So, having a produce stand isn’t really an option  for me this year. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what to do with my time. With my life. I’m in a very strange place of having really nothing to plan for or to look forward to. I have usually always had something on the horizon to guide me and to look towards. But not now. And it’s a bit, oh, I don’t know, lonely? No. That’s not what it feels like. Perhaps lost? Well, no, not that either. I guess I just feel sad. I gave up so much and spent so much time and now I’m just sad to not have what I so looked forward to.

Ah, but don’t you worry, because I know that you are. If there’s anything that you should know about me is that there will always be something else. My mind is always working around and around, thinking, analyzing, questioning, dreaming. A conclusion that I drew over the weekend is that I am an activist at heart. A lot of my nature is to fight for the causes that I love and am passionate about and academia doesn’t leave much time for activist work. So, perhaps this could be an opportunity for me to put my activist muscle to good use. Education, food sovereignty, anti-racism, politics, literature, women. All important things to me. They’re always at the forefront of my mind. But what to do with them…

For now I’m considering asking my sons’ elementary school if we can start a garden there. Something small. Something that can be integrated into a few of the classes. Of course I have ideas for something big, HUGE, like a non-profit that works to put gardens and volunteers at every school in Norfolk and getting high schoolers summer jobs tending and selling their produce. (Hi! Idealistic activist here!) But, for now, maybe I’ll just help a few first graders grow some tomatoes.

 

Systems of Race and Education

Yesterday I wrote an article about the current Norfolk school board election and a local online newspaper picked it up and published it on their site!  You can check out the article on AltDaily here. 

What I found most interesting about the responses on their Facebook page to the article was the knee jerk reactions against the deep problems that our city, specifically our school system, has with race. Several people voiced their disbelief about the disparity of racialized AP and honors classes and zoning practices. That shouldn’t necessarily surprise me.  When it comes to race, something that I am deeply passionate about, study and research, I find that people become defensive when racialized problems are pointed out mainly because they then become implicated in the system of oppression. And that includes me. When white students are systematically encouraged and pushed towards college prep courses more than black, hispanic or native students, then we are all implicated. And this isn’t something that I have just noticed happening at one particular school, nor is it localized to Norfolk. It is a practice that has been occurring for years across our country and is a cog in the great big wheel of systematic racism in America. (You can find an excellent article here that exposes some of these covert practices and attempts to find solutions.)

What is most important in understanding systematic racism is that it is not localized to any one person’s actions or speech. We must look at it as a large system or a machine that has many complex moving parts. In this machine is me and you, our children, our neighbors, our friends, our teachers, our schools, etc, etc. Most of these people are very smart and enlightened and kind and claim to hate oppression and racism. So, this complex system does not look like a mean old teacher pointing her finger at a black kid and telling her that she isn’t allowed into the honors class and gently escorting all of the white children in. It’s much more subtle and quiet than that. And that’s what makes it all the more sinister. This system starts well before kindergarten. It probably starts in the womb, generations before the child is even born. Black, hispanic and native children systematically have less access to the same resources that white children do. Even the poorest of our white children are more likely to have better access to specific resources than minority students. So, from the start, the wheels and cogs of racism have been turning. By the time these children are in high school, they have experienced years, decades, of biases and oppression that all add up. They’re more likely to have poor grades and behavioral problems and are typically viewed as having less potential, talent and ability to perform on school work or creative projects.

When a teacher or administrator is looking at the grades and performance of the children in their classes and school, they aren’t just looking at one individual child. They are looking at the product of a system that has worked to oppress and suppress  some, while assisting and lifting up others. And because of that, they must realize their place in that system and consider very carefully how they are making decisions on who they encourage and mentor. They must realize their own biases that are also products of this system. They must not become defensive when the system is pointed out, but instead look it square in the eye and reject it. We all have these biases engrained into our  subconscious. It’s how the system works. Black teachers, white teachers, native teachers, hispanic teachers, they all have been exposed to and are instilled with these subtle biases of race and ability and it informs the daily decisions that they make with our children.

In order to fix this problem, well, it’s much more difficult than offering honors classes to all students, which is what our school board proposed to do in 2009. That just sets many, many students up for failure. The work to fix systematic racism requires us to look it in the face for what it is, how it informs our biases, prejudices, and decisions and tell it NO. It’s pointing it out whenever we see it, as subtle as it may be. And it’s often us, meaning white people, giving up our own privileges and voices for those who are not being heard and who are being held down. It isn’t as simple as pulling up your own bootstraps. That has worked for a few, but it isn’t enough to work for the many. The system is far too strong and pervasive and protected by people who refuse to acknowledge it.

 

Testing, Homework and Racism in Norfolk Public Schools

With all of the furor and stupidity surrounding the presidential election, I’d like to draw your attention back home here to Norfolk, Virginia. The wisteria and azaleas are blooming, one last cold snap from winter has grasped our air, and we are only weeks away from a very important municipal election on May 3rd. On the ballot will be a new mayoral contest, as the incumbent of 22 years is not seeking re-election, and for the first time in decades we will be electing members to our school board. The school board race is where I’d like for us to sit and have a discussion.

If I had the attention of the two candidates who are running for school board in superward 6, Dr. Noel Gabriel and Carter Smith, there are quite a few things that I would like to hear them address that extend beyond their current talking points:

1. Testing: Last year, the late Virginia Senator, John Miller, passed a bill, SB 336, through the general assembly to begin reducing the number of SOL tests required from 29 to 17. However, this does not address the preparation testing culture that has pervaded K-5. My 7 year old first grader does not take an SOL for 2 more years, however, he is regularly tested on content in the same format as the SOL in order to prepare him for the structure of the future test. The teacher is not allowed to prompt him if she sees him struggling to find the answer. Even though he performs well at home and on his homework, he receives failing grades on all of his tests because he is being held to the testing standards of 9 year olds. This is unacceptable. It has already given him high testing and performance anxiety. I want to know how our school board candidates will encourage less testing in the classroom for assessment and preparation testing that is developmentally inappropriate for younger students.
2. Homework: There is significant research that suggests that homework in grades K-5 does not have any significant correlation with academic achievement. And if there is slight a correlation, that anything past 10 minutes per grade level actually does more harm than good. My first grader regularly spends 30+ minutes a night working on homework plus an added 20 minutes of required reading. With extreme testing practices and an onslaught of homework, first graders are expected to perform at grade levels and ages much more advanced than is developmentally appropriate and creates high anxiety and stress levels. Not only that, they’re spending hours and hours a day doing school work when they need to be playing.  Which brings me to #3.
3. Recess: No teacher should have the right to take away recess as a punishment. Unstructured play is not just a way to combat obesity and improve wellness. It is an important learning tool and process for children. It isn’t something that can be tested and standardized but it is vitally important for how children learn and retain information about the world. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that “well-supervised recess offers cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits” and that it is “unique from, and a complement to, physical education—not a substitute for it. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons.” I would like to know how each candidate will revoke the right, city wide, for any teacher to take away recess as a form of punishment and require 20-40 minutes of active, unstructured play for K-5th grade.
4. Nutrition: This year Granby Elementary School received a very generous grant that provides free breakfast and lunch to every student. That’s simply remarkable! Children are being fed and no one is going hungry. But a close look at these meals reveals how extremely sugary, fatty and unbalanced they are. A frozen fruit slushy, which is made from a fruit juice concentrate and high in sugar, is considered a fruit serving. French fries are considered a vegetable serving. Corndogs on a stick and chocolate milk are a standard breakfast. And this is simply unacceptable. We need to collectively raise our standards for the food that is provided in our schools. All sugary milk needs to be removed. High salty, fatty, and sugary processed food needs to be limited and instead fresh and locally sourced food needs to be offered. An excellent way to encourage healthy eating, and teach SOL standards, is by growing a school garden (which we personally have experienced doing at PB Young Elementary School very successfully!). I would like to know how our school board will prioritize and budget nutritional standards and encourage school gardens.
5. Zoning: There is a very sinister (and I believe racist) zoning practice in Norfolk Public Schools that encourages specific schools to flourish and others to decline. I would like to hear the school board candidates address the zoning practices that proliferates the belief that Norfolk Schools are dangerous and inadequate and pushes parents to enroll their students outside of their zoning districts, as candidate Noel Gabriel has done with her children, or to enroll in private schools. There are extremely high numbers of parents who send their children out of district or to private schools with the belief that Norfolk’s schools are too dangerous and unqualified to teach their children. I would like to hear the decisions and guidelines that direct the zoning lines to be drawn. How will you encourage parents to send their children to the schools for which they are zoned? There also needs to be a discussion about the practice of enrolling middle and high school students in honors and AP classes along racial lines. If you walk into Maury High School today, you will see a distinct racial line between those who are in AP classes and those who are not. I would like to hear the candidates discuss the criteria for who is encouraged to take these classes and who are not, and address why there is such a wide racial disparity among these courses.

These are my top 5 issues that I believe need to be addressed by our school board candidates. I unfortunately had to miss the Colonial Place civic league meeting last night that hosted the candidates (my pesky college students needed me to teach them about anti-racism and sexism in literature), though I do plan to attend any future forums hosted by other civic leagues.

I would like to encourage my readers to leave any of your comments, suggestions, agreements, and disagreements in the comments. This is a space for dialogue and conversation and your stories. And, please, share this post on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else that you think would get it into the hands of the candidates. This is an important conversation that needs to be fostered and encouraged.