Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

Below is the first guest post of my friend Wendy Brown. Wendy teaches the 9th grade at a Brooklyn high school–her classes are ethnically and economically diverse. However, the vast majority of her students fall into the economic category society would describe as “working poor.”

In New York–as well as nationwide–the Sean Bell case is major news. The 3 police officers that shot Sean Bell–a 23 year old, unarmed African American man– to death a few hours before his wedding day were acquitted a few weeks back. In response, community activists–including Al Sharpton–  staged sit ins to block the major entries and exits to Manhattan. Coverage of these events have been impossible to dodge in NYC. It has been the lead story on the TV news and on the front page of every paper. Wendy wrote this a few weeks back. I apologize in the delay in posting it.

There are some serious pieces of news occurring in New York City. I am very pleased that Wendy likes to write about them. : )

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It’s 815am in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and I’m on the steps of a public school where I teach English to twenty ninth grade students. At the moment, I’m looking at a bunch of long faces, the bulk of which are due to the fact that the students are no longer in possession of their iPods, cell phones and Side-kicks. (All of these were confiscated to prevent any “unforeseen circumstances” on our trip to South Street.) My concern is how to tell these kids that their trip to the Bodies Exhibit has been canceled. I settle on a question: “Have any of you heard of Sean Bell?” My inquiry is met with a flurry of eye-rolling and tongue-clicking. “Miss - the only people in the five boroughs who don’t know are deaf mutes without televisions.”

I kick myself for underestimating my students’ abilities to keep up with current events and relay the information exactly as it was told to me: the New York Board of Education has canceled all trips in and out of Manhattan due to the planned protests in response to the verdict in the Sean Bell case. The students’ negative body language persists, hands fly up in the air, and the fidgeting and questioning begins. I realize, as I attempt to herd the twenty hormonal and disappointed teenagers back through the halls of the bustling school building and up four flights of stairs, that I have an easier time protecting a group of tourists cycling through the streets of Manhattan than getting my kids back to the one place they hoped to escape today - our classroom. I begin to panic only when I reach the door to 401 and my eyes fall on twenty students without school supplies who’ll be expected to easily and painlessly convert from field trip-mode to copying notes from a blackboard. I am momentarily relieved by the fact that my kids seem to have taken the news well. (The redistributing of electronic devices works wonders for improving attitudes.) Quickly, my students become engaged in conversation about the protests and I find myself faced with what educators call, “the teachable moment,” when something unexpected arises in a classroom discussion and becomes material for an impromptu lesson. Leaving much of the political and moral aspects of the Bell event aside, I focus on the impact of living in a time and place where people unite to fight for what they believe to be right and true. That New Yorkers - of various backgrounds, creeds, ethnicities and social classes - can come together in an act of civil disobedience is truly a remarkable achievement. Two words - civil disobedience - strike a cord with one of my favorite, though rarely participatory students: “Miss - isn’t that what Dr. King use to say?” And, we’re off !!!

Over the next half-hour, I watch a group of Brooklyn teens relive the history of their city and marvel at the chance to connect the events of their own lives with those of New Yorkers who have come before them - the names and faces that they know only through text books and movies. Their responses and their enthusiasm reveal their awareness that their city isn’t just rich in history, but that is an epi-center for history in the making. As the conversation continues, the respect they hold for one another, as classmates, extends beyond the walls of the classroom. The students appreciate the courage of their neighbors and all New Yorkers standing at the entrances to the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queensborough Bridges drawing attention to a case that stands as a model for so many others like it. I can’t help but notice that my students, who have been put-down, labeled, and abandoned by teachers and parents alike (if not physically, then emotionally), are in the midst of teaching me an important lesson in city living: We are all New Yorkers, in this together, seeking the kindness and compassion that will carry us through and allow us to appreciate the immense opportunities we have established for ourselves and one another. Apparently the teachable moment isn’t exclusive to educators standing in front of a blackboard, it’s merely the opportunity to share our experiences and impart knowledge from one human being to another.

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