Depth

Cities have remarkable depth. This weekend, the most recent example of that, which came after an errand gone awry. I decided to check out a part of the city I had never really explored before - the western coast of the Upper West Side, the Greenway along the Hudson. What I found was a series of beautiful scenes, with the foggy sunlight (I know, an odd juxtaposition) hitting the river, and bouncing off, as I looked on. 

This song made the most sense at the time.

National Schools of Character

CEP's National Schools of Character program, commonly referred to as our "flagship" program, is designed to help schools improve in many ways through comprehensive character education.  We evaluate schools on how well they implement our 11 Principles of Effective Character Education, and those who do so in an exemplary way are recognized as National Schools of Character (NSOC).  (For more detail about the program, you can check out CEP's website for more information.)

On Thursday, I was lucky enough to go on a site-visit to Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, a school in Alexandria, VA that's applying to be a 2012 NSOC.  I hadn't been in an elementary school for years before visiting Lyles-Crouch, but it was still clear to me that it's a great school.  This school, which had been the city's school for black children during segregation, has come so far and is now a high-performing school that parents, teachers, and students (of all races) love.  It was great to see, in person, the impact that CEP is having on schools like Lyles-Crouch throughout the country.  While I know I don't want to stay in the education sector forever, I do feel like I'm a part of something great.     

Breaking the Cycle of Violence Forum

On Wednesday, Princeton AlumniCorps joined the Princeton Club of Philadelphia for a forum on Philadelphia’s criminal justice system.

Keynote speaker Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams spoke about the changes he has made since taking office two years ago and his vision for an effective District Attorney’s office. One of his goals has been to implement community-wide partnerships to address the challenges facing Philadelphia. In addition, at the core of his strategy on crime prevention is the belief that it is the certainty, and not the severity of punishment, that deters crime and reduces recidivism. With this in mind, he has implemented several community-based diversion programs targeted towards low-risk and non-violent offenders. This allows his office to commit its resources and efforts on pursuing the most violent criminals.

The panel component of the evening provided an opportunity for leaders in the criminal justice community to discuss the cycle of violence in Philadelphia and its impact. Touching on topics like poverty, failing schools, and broken communities, the panel addressed the efforts of the criminal justice community to change the trajectory of Philadelphia’s most disadvantaged citizens. Deputy District Attorney Laurie Malone, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Chief of Staff for Mayor Nutter Everett Gillison, Assistant Chief of Appeals Larry Goode, and Executive Director of Center City Crime Victim Services Sherry Hunter all shared their experiences working in a system that is struggling to deal with high crime rates and limited resources.

The overall takeaway from the evening was that in many places, Philadelphia’s communities are broken and in order to tackle the many public safety challenges they face, its citizens need to become more accountable to each other.

Spring is here!

Granted, the gloriously sunny, barely humid weather gracing Philadelphia is probably a sign of our imminent environmental doom, but the unseasonably warm weather does mean that certain greens, like chard, are back in action in my kitchen! After what seemed like years of root vegetables and apples, I am beyond excited for the onset of spring and, eventually, summer produce. In the meantime, however, I made this chickpea, chard, and tamarind stew the other day, which is deliciously spring-y with its citrus and tangy tamarind notes. This recipe comes from my new bible, Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty, an amazing vegetarian cookbook whose recipes have yet to bore me. Tamarind may be a little difficult to find- I had to buy it at my neighborhood specialty store (thank goodness for West Philly's abundance of them)- but it's worth the effort. Happy spring, everyone!

4 tbsp seedless tamarind

400g swiss chard (stems and leaves), cut into 1cm slices

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 tsp whole caraway seeds1

½ tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle

1 tsp tomato paste

400g tinned plum tomatoes, chopped up, juice and all

350ml water

1½ tbsp caster sugar

400g cooked chickpeas

1½ tsp whole coriander seeds, toasted and ground to a powder

Salt and black pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

1 big handful coriander leaves

Whisk the tamarind with a little bit of warm water until it dissolves into a paste. Set aside. Bring a medium pot of salted water to the boil, blanch the chard for two minutes and drain.

Put the onion, caraway and olive oil in a large, heavy-based pan and sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add the tomatoes, water, sugar, chickpeas, ground coriander and chard, and season. Strain the tamarind water through a small sieve straight into the pot. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, by which time it should be the consistency of thick soup. Adjust by adding water or by cooking uncovered to allow the liquid to evaporate. Taste, and adjust seasoning. Add the lemon juice to the stew and stir. Finish with lots of coriander.

Character and Setting

My latest project for the kids in the evening program at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning is a podcast to the editor. We're going around asking each other questions like, "What changes would you most like to make?" "What about the world frustrates you?" "What is going well?" "Do you think it's possible to change other people?"

Now, there is one boy in the evening program who is a mess: always a little ragged, always foul-mouthed and peripatetic. (Although he is unexpectedly respectful of the voice recorder; he always asks if it's recording before launching into offensive lyrics, and if it is on then he paces and waits.) He wandered into our interview session today and instead of allowing him to interrupt us, we decided to interview him.

In response to the question "Do you think it's possible to change other people?" he answered in the affirmative. "How is it possible?" asked his interviewer.

He thought for a long time. Just before the interviewer got frustrated and moved on to something else, he muttered, "The setting."

"What?" he interviewer demanded.

"The setting. Change the setting."

"Setting means place and time," explained the interviewer a touch condescendingly. "You mean place and time?"

"Yeah, man, but, you know..." he trailed off and eyed the floor.

"You mean more than that?" I began. "You mean--?"

"I mean like everything. Their attitude. Their atmosphere. One thing at least. You gotta change the setting."

When the interview was done, he bounced away, grabbing a pool stick as he headed out the door, gone before I could say anything about it. Later I saw him doing pull-ups on the triangular bar holding the library door open. Even later, I stood in the art room and he hopped past the window in the alley outside, grinning widely, waving with one hand, giving the finger with the other, on his way home.

He rarely listens, he is frequently disrespectful, and many staff members worry about him. He's endearing, he's surprising, and he's deep. I really hope he can find a way to change his setting one day.

Random Days

I have found that at NYCCD there are often opportunities to help out with projects that I am not really part of. Last Friday, I volunteered to assist one of the psychologists with a presentation for a program called Incredible Years because her usual assistant couldn’t make it. We trekked over to Staten Island to work with a group of Head Start teachers on promoting emotional competence and school readiness. It was so interesting to hear the stories of many teachers who work in an environment very different from NYCCD. They talked about everything from parents who climbed the jungle gym during conferences to children who demanded too many hugs. Some of my “Random Days” spent outside of my usual projects and environments have been my most memorable and exciting. I hope I’ll remember to sign up for “Random Days” even after my fellowship.

A Shocking Statistic

Anyone who walks into Achievement Prep for a tour (enthusiastically led by yours truly) will be immediately directed to the data and graphs board outside our main office, which shows that Achievement Prep has eliminated the achievement gap between African American children in DC and their white peers in math, and closed most of the gap in reading. 

While only 41% and 42% of DC African Americans scored proficient or advanced on the 2011 DC CAS in Reading and Math, respectively, DC White students scored 88% proficient or advanced in both subjects.  In 2011, Achievement Prep scholars scored 87% and 60% proficient or advanced in Reading and Math respectively.  We still have a lot of work to do, especially in reading, but we've come a long way since we opened our doors in 2008, and we're doing a lot for this historically under served community in Ward 8.

What provoked me to share those surprising numbers above was something I read on the internet earlier today.  I stumbled across an interesting Room for Debate segment from the NY Times which debates the merits of ending the War on Drugs that disproportionately affects young, black males in America, who comprise a large portion of marijuana-related arrests.  Not to mention the fact that according to Michelle Alexander's new book, The New Jim Crow, nearly one-third of black men are likely to spend time in prison during their lifetimes.  The Debate includes several short opinion pieces from a variety of authorities who all have different perspectives on the issue.  Link here:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/12/young-black-and-male-in-america

A lot of things that were said by the authors reflect realities of the community I work in.  One of the writers makes a compelling case for valorizing the father and encouraging two parent family structure.  She noted that 73% of black children in 2009 were born to unwed mothers, something that I frequently see among the mothers of Achievement Prep scholars.

However, I was specifically blown away by a statistic mentioned in Craig DeRoche's piece that stated the following (by low-level law breakers he means people who are arrested on drug charges):

Statistically, trolling for low-level law breakers has distracted the public from demanding justice where it is most needed. For example, Chicago solved only 30 percent of the murders committed in 2011 (down from 80 percent in 1991). Comparing this to a Brookings employment study for 2011, getting away with murder was easier than finding a job for the unemployed in Chicago.

That is INSANE!!  I'd like to hear what my fellow fellow at the North Lawndale Employment Network, Michael Collins '11 has to say about this.