Expose the students to, (maybe form a club?), and then discuss , “The Pact” or “We Beat the Street” and “The Bond” by The Three Doctors.

These are three men who grew up in Newark, NJ under the stereotypical and difficult, poor, urban family situations (one had significant trouble w/the law). They met and became friends in high school and then made a pact with each other that they would all go to medical school. And they did.

Lacking sufficient mentoring and role models, they decided that they would provide that type of support to each other. Two became doctors and one became a dentist. They all have returned to serve Newark by providing care to the community, and have been mentoring and sharing their story with kids ever since.

Please look at their web site at http://www.threedoctorsfoundation.org/. They deliver a much more useful message to kids than any criminal Rap artist possibly could.

Some philanthropist reading this comment should buy 20,000 copies of their books and donate them to OUSD’s kids. In fact, OUSD should splurge and bring The Three Doctors here as featured guests for some special big event.

I saw them at the Oakland Museum lecture hall a couple of years ago while they were on a book tour for “The Bond.” Most of the kids in attendance that night were from a local charter school. OUSD missed providing their kids with a great opportunity that time.

Dump people like TI. These guys are the real thing.

cranky: we did a really awesome lesson on it, too and i was so impressed with the thoughts my kids had. one of the most interesting points that was made was that many of them have had really similar experiences to TI- poor, many encounters with the law, currently on some sort of probation or even house arrest, and others- but that because they aren’t rich, they wouldn’t be chosen to speak to a group of their peers. another student added to this that having TI come is not the same as someone that has had trouble and gotten out of it because of how much trouble he’s still in.

their final observation was that bill gates would not be effective with them because they would know that he came from something so different from them that his advice wouldn’t seem applicable. so it is true that they need someone who reflects their experience, but they also said that someone with NO criminal history who came up from oakland would be more valuable than TI.

thanks for making this discussion possible, katy, even though it got really sidetracked for a bit <3

i know a smiley face won’t make me look too smart, but want people see my cute and happy side. i notice cranky also employing a ‘smiley face’ in her post and am starting to feel left behind. sharing your smiley face posting technique with me would be a wonderful demonstration of professional courtesy.

Hodge, for example, ducks the issue of how the invitation supports the idea that wealth, notoriety and celebrity are good indicators that you have something meaningful to say. Was that considered?

My students debated this topic on Thursday. Class was about evenly split: The more ghetto self-identified kids defended the invitation by saying that alienated kids like them won’t easily buy advice from anybody who didn’t go through what they do — although one pointed to Michael Eric Dyson as somebody who had it hard and came up without thugging, while another mentioned Common as being a rapper with more gravitas, so to speak.

That led into an interesting class discussion on the theory of “dominant cultural perspective,” as well as kids talking about who is “really black” or “really ghetto” and who gets to decide that.

So, while I wouldn’t have invited T.I., I did vicariously get a good teaching opportunity out of it, so thank you Cole!

Are you people out of your freaking minds?

If they wanted to be really honest about it, they could have started the assembly by saying, “for the next couple of days, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure you fall further behind your peers.”

Jose asked a reasonable question that I think deserves an answer. Does OUSD allow convicted felons to volunteer at all of its schools? Will O.J. be at Hillcrest anytime soon?

nextset: there not much more to do than sigh. your pre-judgments are just so off-base and you are so convinced that your assumptions are right that i feel it is not possible to convince you of how wrong you are about me. if you knew more about writing on the internet you’d know that this is hardly “my own style.” in professional settings- email, papers, memos, notes, lesson plans… whatever- i use the conventions. in a blog, not so much. and that is not unique. so… continue to insist that something so miniscule means something so much more (putting extra on it, as my kids say!), and i’ll continue to crank out students with high GPAs, increased test scores (only high school with double-digit percentage improvement in the district last year), and successful, self-assured young adults.

ms. hh: we’ll be preparing entries for the alice walker contest. i have some brilliant writers this year!

What Cole does the morning after TI visiting, is what I think needs to be checked. Did anyone encourage students to write or speak on what the experience was like? What were the contradictions in this human being that they saw or felt?

Did anyone ask them was TI their role model? My 15 y/o has a different perspective. I should get her to blog

Please know that “OUSD” was concerned about the contradictions but folks took a risk. And unfortunately he did pull way too much energy away from the local artist.

They will keep the flow going next month.

Looking for healthy caring adults all the time to show up…Maybe Nexset will venture out and see a classroom
Lot has changed since 1981 – hey I graduated in 1981 fo’sure times have changed!

On another topic…Alice Walker does a poetry contest every year with OUSD students – she is a great model.
Need to get more buy in from teachers!!! ope all of you that care about education will check out the students!

In service…looking forward

I suspect you will think I’m a pill for mentioning it, but that’s a risk I’ll take.