Elevating the Conversation

There's a new podcast in town. Have you listened to Elevate Maryland ? Hosted by local bloggers and community activists Candace Dodson-Reed and Tom Coale, it has already completed four episodes. Yes, you can find it on iTunes.

Each episode focuses around a guest. So far the show has hosted:

Former County Executive Ken Ulman
State Comptroller Peter Franchot
Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary
Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Martirano

The hosts do an excellent job in balancing the right kinds of questions for their guests with the right amount of time to listen and let their guests be themselves. In addition, the "unsung hero" of the show is Ilana Bitner of HoCoMoJo, who handles the recording, editing, and production duties.

The show is taped at Joe's Place Deli. Have you ever eaten there? It's awesome: delicious food, friendly and cozy atmosphere.

If you are trying to get a good sense of the new Superintendent, I highly recommend the latest episode. A teaser: it is possible to complete an entire interview without mentioning testing, test scores, data, "college and career ready", or "world class education".

I've learned something from each episode. It's thoughtful, informative, and fun. And it's off to a good start.

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

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