I listened to this past episode of This American Life yesterday while I pruned and then read an article by Nikole Hannah-Jones today.
I want to share it with some of my own comments, but I'm treading cautiously as it's such a sensitive topic and I'm not trying to inspire lots of hurt and angry comments. I thought her information and examples of how many schools really still are very segregated, and in turn very much limit opportunities for the students in these schools, was just such a clear example of how racism continues everywhere in this country. Yes, white dudes in cowboys boots driving trucks with confederate flags and trump bumper stickers are a caricature of racism (and are just straight up A-holes) but there are also lots of privileged educated people living in blue-states, talking politically-correct, that will always want their kids in what their idea of the "best" school is, regardless of what that leaves for the most disadvantaged, AND those type of people tend to have a lot more power and money to also make it so--to be in the room when the district lines are being drawn, to drive their kids to another school, or move if need be. We don't live in an urban area with poor black and latino families living in public-housing projects, just a few blocks away from million-dollar homes and the upper-class families that live in them. But we do live in a school district that includes very poor families, and very expensive homes, that includes an Ojibwe Indian reservation, farmland, an island, and a town with a lakeview and homes that more and more are owned by somewhat wealthy retirees and "summer people." A school district that has a population that is about 55% Native and 45% white, and a school student population that is 77% Native and has 60% of students taking free or reduced lunch. As I listened to this podcast, it did make me think of the “white flight” out of the Bayfield school when open enrollment became an option to families in our area about 15 years ago. It wasn't an immediate thing that students left the district, but over time many families have chosen to enroll (and drive) their kids fifteen miles away in the Washburn School which has a student and town population that is over 80% white, with 45% taking free or reduced lunch. We live in a small rural community, so I know several of those families personally. For many, I believe it was a tough decision. I was in high school at the time that open enrollment started, allowing families to enroll their children at any school they choose, although out-of-district students would need to provide their own transportation. My mom ran a daycare in our home and I remember many of the daycare parents asking my opinion on the Bayfield School. I have always advocated for Bayfield-- saying my school experience wasn't perfect, I had teachers I loved, and teachers I didn't, I was both challenged and bored, I was bullied and sometimes the bully--I think you will have that at any school. But I also made close friends that lived on the reservation, that lived on the island, that lived a life both similar and very different from my own. We played basketball. We rode the ferry for free. I had my ignorances called out and I learned. I wasn’t teased for my Pamida shoes or using the blue reduced-fee lunch ticket in the years my family’s farm had a poor berry crop. Ojibwe elders came into our classroom maybe once a month and we practiced Ojibwe words by playing animal bingo, ate popped wild rice, were told stories about Nanabozho, beaded keychains. My class went on a field trip to my farm and my dad talked about how bees make honey and he collects it. After college and time in the city, I moved back home and knew people in my community. I’m still learning I'm not trying to judge the families that send their kids to Washburn. Some try Bayfield for awhile and then switch. Every family needs to make the decision for themselves and only the people in that family know what they are dealing with when they make a decision. Unlike the schools Hannah-Jones writes about, the Bayfield School has some great teachers and enough resources to be an exceptional school even with families choosing to enroll their kids in a different district. But I feel very fortunate that I was able to attend what naturally kind of was a "desegregated" school and that I will be able to send my son on a bus to this same school.
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My friend from college sent an email asking for coming out resources for middle schoolers. This was my reply: "Books. When I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen--before I claimed queer, before I had kissed--I found a book list of YA novels with LGBT characters. I liked the books on this list because the stories felt real, no dragons or vampires or serial killers, and the characters had more depth than babysitters and blonde twin sisters. Those coming out stories for me were not just about coming out as gay, but about beginning to name yourself, your identity, your people, your path. I found the list on the internet, a newish thing when I was thirteen, probably a yahoo search for YA novels. I don't think I searched LGBT, wouldn't have known to put those letters together yet, but because the internet was so new and uncluttered, I happened across it. I haven't been able to find this list from my youth again, but when I google "LGBT YA novels" how awesome to see lists upon lists. Even a "10 Best New YA Books That Explore Sexuality for 2015." There were so many YA books written in the last year with LGBT characters that there can be a best ten? Amazing. I think the first identity I claimed was that of "reader." Before I could read the words, my family tells me, I would pack a bag with picture books and carry it into the yard. Sit on a stump and turn the pages. Content. For all of my childhood, my home away from home was the library in town. My name marks the slip of so many library due date slips, often again and again, not because I needed more time to read them, but because I read all that interested me and then returned to my favorites. Roberta, the librarian, would ask me for lists of books I wanted and I took the job seriously. So when I found the LGBT list, I wasn't shy about writing down the titles that were missing from our library's shelves (most, if not all). Roberta, as she had always done, ordered any she could through interloan, and as she had funds available would purchase books from my list to add to the library's collection. My reading now is more sporadic. I need the right book to hold my attention through the distractions of my son, the internet, chores, work. But sometimes he nurses peacefully and I can open a book in my other hand, my thoughts quieting, and then a chapter is finished, my son asleep in my arms. I lay him down in his crib and can return for another chapter, can steal just a little of that precious nap time for myself, this first identity--before queer, before career, before wife, and mother. To be a reader. This morning, the page held my attention even as he wiggled in my arms and poked at my eye, in a place between play and sleep that we all like to stretch out in sometimes, especially on a snowy Saturday morning. His eyes still open, I lay him down in the crib with his wolfie. He didn't sleep, but he didn't complain. I read, sometimes the same sentence a few times, as I listened to him kick at the covers, move around. A little while later I hear him quietly flipping the pages of a favorite board book. I don't know that 'reader' will dominate his identity like it did mine. There is so much else that interests him these days--dogs, tractors, other people's smartphones, pulling his sox off... But I love sharing this moment now of reading alone together.
As I was on the internet making my recommendation list for you, I realized that my library has a really impressive list of YA LGBT books. (Thanks Roberta!) Some I have yet to read, but now want to check out soon: the miseducation of cameron post, down to the bone, keeping you a secret... Some of the titles I recall from that first list are: annie on my mind, deliver us from evie, and the perks of being a wallflower... I wish I could remember more. A couple books I read and liked in more recent years are: the house you pass on the way, and saints of augustine. Also, awkward, and skim, both graphic novels. And I found this list which seems like a good one. What are some of the books you recommend and/or teach with you students? How's that going? What are you reading these days? I just started shotgun lovesongs. No gays in it, but the author and setting are from northern Wisconsin. You know what is hard to find? Books with gay mom characters. Jodi Picoult wrote one that they have at our library (sing you home) but it looks cheesy and I kind of prefer queer books written by queers. Oscar's awake now, so I'm gonna send this before it doesn't get sent at all... xoxox! |
AuthorsMagdalen Dale and Kaite Sweval grew up a layer apart, overlapping and paralleling. Belonging to the shores of Lake Superior and yet not quite belonging. Laughing and dreaming on the bench outside the ferry booth as Mag passed the time and Kaite chose her time. Left to explore as soon as they could. And then as adults returned home, perhaps to their surprise. But glad to have each other... ‘cause we know there is strength in the differences between us and comfort where we overlap. Archives
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