Americans Who Tell the Truth portraits feature many women who are both well known to us and also, not as familiar. The stories are all significant and important. At a local community college, a group is featuring truth teller’s portraits in poster form and having students create a “Living Timeline” representing the chronological , sequential role of these women in the context of the times they live(d) in then and now.This is an excellent way to help students put the life’s work of a woman in relationship to all else going on around her. There is great power in that for some students as they are better able to make sense of a life when they understand it.Here are the portraits being used in this timeline. Feel free to create your own using a theme or other manner of putting the portrait in a context. In the weeks to come we’ll post themed groups of portraits from the women in the series for you to consider with your students.They are shown here as follows: Emma Tenayuca      Lily Yeh     Marian Wright Edelman      Winona LaDuke  Betty BurkesFannie Lou Hamer   Teri Blanton  Eva Paterson  Frances Perkins    Shirley Chisholm   Zora Neale Hurston    Sojourner Truth

Lucille Clifton, a treasure of American poetry reads her poem “Wednesday” about citizenship in our country as it exists today. She is quoted here about how she sees her poetry as connected to our history:“One thing poetry teaches us, if anything, is that everything is connected,” Clifton said. “There is so much history that we have not validated.”Because Americans Who Tell the Truth is a project that reflects upon and reminds us of the citizens here who pushed toward the ideals of our country, I thought this a good poem to consider now. Who and what is an “American?”What do your students believe about that?http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124113507&ft=1&f=1032 Wednesdayby Lucille CliftonThis is not the time, I think, to note the terrorist inside who threw the brick into the mosque.This is not the time to note the ones who cursed God’s other name; the ones who threatened they would fill the streets’ with Arab children’s blood.This is not the time, I think ,to ask who is allowed to be American.AmericaAll of us gathered under one flag praying together safelyWarmed by the single love of the many-tongued God.

As we approach Women’s History month, news of a court date regarding truth teller Rachel Corrie’sdeath was shared today on Common Dreams. One of the bravest young women of our time, her story is one that all students should hear and study.http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/26-3 On March 10, in the Israeli city of Haifa, American peace activist Rachel Corrie will get her day in court. Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, are bringing suit against the Israeli defence ministry for Rachel’s killing by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in March 2003.Four key American and British witnesses who were present at the scene - members of the International Solidarity Movement - will be allowed into Israel to testify, despite having been barred previously by the Israeli authorities from entering the country. This reversal by the Israeli authorities is apparently due to U.S. government pressure, theGuardian reports. (Three cheers for any U.S. officials who contributed to this pressure. What else could you make the Israeli government do?)A Palestinian doctor from Gaza who treated Corrie after she was injured has not been given permission by the Israeli authorities to leave Gaza to attend. (This would seem to be important testimony concerning the nature of Rachel’s injuries - did U.S. officials exert pressure for his appearance?)This case isn’t just about accountability for Rachel’s death. It’s a test case for the power of the rule of law in Israel, when the rule of law comes into conflict with the policies of military occupation.When the rule of law in Israel comes into conflict with the policies of occupation, the rule of law often loses. But it does not always lose, particularly when the rule of law gets a boost from vigorous protest and political agitation. This month, Reuters reported, Israel began rerouting part of its “West Bank barrier” near the village of Bilin - the site of many Palestinian, Israeli, and international protests - in response to a petition filed in 2007 by Palestinians whose land was confiscated for the project. This was only a partial victory, because it only affected a minority of the confiscated land. But it shows that the rule of law in Israel is not totally impotent against the occupation, particularly when the rule of law is aided by protest and agitation.It’s also a test case for the power of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation. It’s a commonplace among some poorly informed commenters - Edith Garwood of Amnesty International cites Bono, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and President Obama as recent examples - that Palestinians should “find their Martin Luther King.” But this commentary is foolish and retrograde, as Rahm Emanuel might say. A necessary condition for the ascendance of a King or Gandhi -type movement in Palestine is that if Palestinian nonviolence activists are killed by the Israeli occupation, the government of Israel pays a significant price for that killing. If the Israeli government can kill an American peace activist and pay little price, what chance do the Palestinian Kings and Gandhis have?It’s instructive to do a press search on the recent developments in the Rachel Corrie case. Searching on Yahoo News, I found Israeli and Palestinian press, Jewish and Arab press, British and Australian press. But outside of the Seattle Weekly - Rachel is from Olympia, and Brian Baird is her Representative - I found no general US press. Isn’t it remarkable that we Americans have to read the British press to find out about developments in the case of our compatriot? Isn’t this state of affairs something that Bono, Nicholas Kristof and President Obama ought to reflect on, especially given the fact that they have significant ability to do something about it?The persistence of Rachel’s case as a thorn in the side of the Israeli occupation authorities recalls the 1960s Costa-Gavras docudrama “Z,” about the political fallout from the assassination by the U.S. - supported Greek government of the Greek parliamentarian and peace movement leader Gregoris Lambrakis. There is a powerful scene in the movie in which one of Lambrakis’ associates visits Lambrakis’ widow to deliver the news that four high-ranking military police officers have been indicted in the killing. On the way to meet her Lambrakis’ associate passes a group of Greek students painting the letter “Z” on the sidewalk, meaning “he (Lambrakis) lives.” Marveling at the students’ determined activism in the face of mounting repression, Lambrakis’ associate says, “It’s almost as if he were alive.”They murdered her, and yet she dogs them. It’s almost as if she were alive.

I can only say that I wonder what Howard Zinn might have responded. And that now, it’s our time to take up that response,too.

 What do your students feel about not being asked to learn their entire history?North Carolina Education Officials Come Up With New US History Curriculum Options.North Carolina’s News & Observer (2/17, Bonner) reports that North Carolina “education officials yielded to critics of a proposal that would have limited the required high school US history course to events of the last 132 years.” On Tuesday, the state Department of Public Instruction’s chief academic officer, Rebecca Garland, “told legislators” that “the agency used…feedback from 7,000 emails on the proposed social studies curriculum to come up with two new options.” Garland added that the options “will be ready in April.”

Kathleen Jackson, a teacher in Marin County , CA, posts the following process she shared with Robert Shetterly and her students, using the poem , “The Peace of Wild Things” by truth teller, Wendell Berry. 

When Rob Shetterly visited our school in the fall of 2009, he not only talked about social issues, art and writing; he recited poetry. One of his recitations was ‘The Peace of Wild Things’ by Wendell Berry, which many students love. With Rob’s encouragement, I had my 7^th and 8^th grade students read this poem several times aloud in class, then close-read the poem. We discussed it, and they then wrote two to three paragraphs on what it means to them to be free. From there I had them write a poem following Berry’s format. Every student shared his or her final draft with the rest of the class, which led to provocative discussions around the concept of being free.

 

Following are excerpts from students’ reflections about being free, their actual poems, and quotes about the process.

 

I find freedom in nature. In nature there are absolutely no requirements; a person can simply live. I personally feel the most free when I am running over wide expanses of grass or sand, my legs effortlessly moving faster that they ever have during the mile run feeling like I could never stop. Everything in nature is free, like the trees reaching toward the sun or the hawks circling from above; and, for a moment, so am I. No one sees me but the animals and they don’t care. I can do almost anything I want in nature; I am free to move, think and speak. In nature I am happy, but most of all I am free.                                                                                 M.H.

 

I am not free when I am at school. I feel trapped, controlled, and without options. I am under a strict monarchy. I am not truly free until I see the beauty of the snow in front of me. It is then that my eyes light up, my heart starts beating faster, and I am anxious to to and play in it. Snow lets me release myself and forget about everything else in the world. I have only snow. No cars, no fires, no fears. Just snow.                                     M.C.                          

Being free is being able to be myself without having anyone judge me for being me. I was created to be the way the way I am, and I need to stay that way, no matter what people say or think.                                     L.B.

 

 

Although freedom is something that we are born with in this country, I know that the only way I can be completely free is to find it within myself.         M.G.

 

I experience freedom when I am by the bay near my house. I don’t have to think about my problems, and nothing feels that important. I just sit on the rocks and watch the waves crash down. I smell the fennel bushes, and I am peaceful. No one can tell me what to do here; there are no rules or restrictions. This is where I am free.                                             M.L.N.

 

Freedom is a state of mind. We are able to be creative, unique, and different when we are free. Freedom occurs when we are able to be ourselves, when we don’t hold back and let loose with no fear of criticism or doubt. There is nothing more powerful.                                             H.M.

 

I swim. The water frees me in a way I can’t describe. The cool feeling against my skin allows my soul to relax, open up, lose the day’s unwanted tension and grief. It helps me realize that I am capable of more than I know, that I have so much more to offer others and myself than I am aware of. It gives me power, a power that comes only with freedom. Only in moments like these, where I am in a certain kind of bliss, can I feel free, feel like I am myself, where I find myself beyond the separation between what I can and cannot do.                                                                                           M.J.

 

POEMS

 

 

Comforting Privacy by Megan G

 

When life gets hard and there is a homework overload

I cannot be around anyone in my life

I walk up the stairs and calmly shut my door

And take in the space of the room.

No one there, just me, my music, my dresses, and my books

The privacy comforts me; it makes me free

I prance to the closet where my arty dresses lie

One catches my eye, the one that will float me around the room

The one that will sway me from side to side

As the delicate music plays.

My body is free to do what it wants

My body takes over my brain and drifts me to

The bookshelf. I bury my nose into a book.

And I am nowhere

 

Peace of Mind

Hanna M

 

In the outside world

My mind is hard at work

But when all is done

I set myself free

Because freedom is

A state of mind

Where there are no restrictions

And no fear

Of criticism,

Judgment,

Or fear of fear itself

Because freedom is one girl

In her world

And that cannot be taken

Away

 

Familiar Faces by Katherine S

 

When I feel I’m alone

And I’m lost and trapped in the darkness

I think of my family’s smiles, reflecting like mirrors through my brain

The light bells of my sister’s laugh echo and ring

Taking walks on the beach with my dad,

The silence so easy that no one feels

The need to say a word.

I think of the familiar sound of my mom opening the garage door

And entering with a tired smile

I fall into a peaceful state

Where I can be myself

Once again I think of my family’s faces

And I finally find my way out of the darkness

I am free

 

The Forest Glade

Nick Ogden

 

When timeless space drifts across the glade

I feel free

When breezes blow away my troubles

And expel the storm of thoughts from my mind

I feel free

When the sun beats down on me

And warms my heart

I feel free

When I can’t believe what I see

And beauty is all that lies before me

I feel free

 

 

Meant to Be

Lily B

 

I am not perfect

I do not care

I am the way I want to be

And when great sadness grows in me

I remember that I am free

Free from pain

Free from war

Free from hunger

And free from fear

I go outside and hear the wind

Sing its forlorn song

As the trees bend to listen

I know I am free when I see the world

As it was meant to be

 

The Moment of Serenity by Nick Watkins

 

Caged in a box with work and stress building up

Paralyzed thinking while emotions

Break loose like a dog released from its empty cage

As the hot flames start to melt down,

I come into the moment of serenity

Deep breaths blown into the air

When at that time the emotions of a fly struggling in a spider’s trap

Give way to the feelings of a bird coasting over the white, sugary snow

The pain and anxiety are flushed away

 

Freedom is Nowhere by Nick F

 

Freedom is a rare taste to me

I have small glimpses every once in awhile

Weekends and nights

Temporary reprieves

But then back to reality

School and discipline

Forced to think certain thoughts

Work, problems, and thoughts all day

Then I’m in the desert with

No civilization for miles around

Freedom at last

 

 

Finding Freedom by Simone Harrison

 

Anxiety and the unknown blind me

Binding me to worries, choices, my future

And forming the prison of my mind

Yet the more I try to escape, the more trapped I become

 

Throw me a book, a lifeline

Imagination, my map

And laughter my wings

These are small reprieves from my cage, but not escape

Nature contradicts the very chemistry of this jail

Warps and bends it until it is no more

Dissolved within the steady magnificence of it

Individuals flourish yet are all connected with the ambience of nature

So am  I filled with the joy and tranquility that the growing plants emanate

Full of peace and contentedness that now is now

And then will be then

Simplicity is just a word

But this simplicity is freedom

 

When Things Don’t go as Planned by Amaia Etcheverry

 

When things don’t go as planned

And I lie awake at night

In fear that tomorrow will be worse than today

I go and look at pictures of them

Happy, warm smiles and joy

I come into the peace of being with friends

Who accept me for who I am and

Who are there through thick and thin.

And I can feel their presence in my heart

For a time I rest with their memory and I am free.

 

The Sky is not the Limit by Narimon Farenghi

 

When I do not have time

To live my life without constant interruptions

In fear of what my obligations will force me to do

I go to the place floating in the air

Where the sky is breached

Full of holes

Where goals were achieved and where wishes came true

I feel the holes in this place

While waiting for my sky not to be the limit

I look up at the beautiful patterns

And I am free.

 

Night Owl by Samantha Jolson

 

In the midst of my hectic life

I find no solace in weekends and breaks

For they cannot change the work that is sure to come

The burden of twenty responsibilities

Takes its toll on me and my sanity

Every night I watch the hills swallow the sun and the stars come out of hiding

One by one they emerge

From the darkened sky

And bound through their stable surroundings

I sit at the window, reading, writing, watching, relating

The night is their time

And their time is mine

The nighttime is mine

I am free

 

Free in Water

Matthew J

 

Restriction and boundaries

locking me inside

my own shortcomings.

They melt away in water

the restrictions dissolving

crumbling. And I am left,

me, with nothing to shield me

from my own perfection, my own power.

My restrictions gone, my shortcomings evaporated

Leaving me

Free

 

 

Reflections following the project:

 

I never really knew when I was actually free, and this poem helped me get it out in the open.                                                                                 C.M.

 

Writing a freedom poem was an eye-opening opportunity for me to reflect and look deeply inside myself. It helped me understand who I am as a person while exploring myself as a poet.                                             S.K.

 

This exercise made me think about what freedom means to me. It wasn’t about what we are promised in the Constitution, although that is very important), it was something more…sometime when I actually feel completely free. Overall, this project made me think more than anything else.                                                                                                   K.D.

 

 

Writing the poem made me think more about what it means exactly to be free. I could argue that one is never free, but that argument could also turn into one is always free, kind of like how is everyone is rich, then no one is. It was interesting to think about when I’m free and then try to capture that moment. This would have been easier, cooler, if there hadn’t been a ‘follow the Wendell Berry format’.                                                                G.L.                                                              

 

Writing prose or a poem about feeling free seems like it didn’t give me the actual feeling but gives instead a description of what freedom is in a way that rings true and leaves my mind wandering searching for freedom.  S.H.

 

It was interesting to read the poem in depth, finding metaphors and hidden messages, and then contemplate freedom.                                      N.F.

 

Before reading the poem, I felt free. But then, when I really thought about it, I thought more about what made me happy…leading into what makes me feel free.                                                                                           A.H.

 

When I first read this poem, I was merely looking at words. I read it again, now visualizing images, and the poem sprang to life. I saw a moonlit lake, glistening and rolling as a gentle breeze blew over it. I saw a rich, lively forest full of animals. I saw a huge drake in the lake. It was very peaceful.                                                                                                                                             N.F.

When I read Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things,” I thought about his special place, his escape, how he wanders there, almost subconsciously,, how it feels instinctual to him. I thought about where I go as my escape,, and I decided that, whether I acknowledged it or not, I find myself often wandering to the same laces,, most common of which is the dock by the bay.                                    A.D.

 

When I was panicking about how to finish this assignment, I took my laptop to my desk by the window; and I realized that this was when I was free. I sat down and began writing.                                                                                                            S.J.

 

“The Peace of Wild Things” is an interpretive goldmine. In it Wendell Berry wonders what will happen to his children through any problem. These problems, such as financial woes and corruption, are happening today. When all is lost, we must find a quiet place where man is not judged, but only accepted.            A.D.

For the study of perceptions and how we view one another, here is a short but powerful exercise for students that can be done in one class period or even part of a period if need be.Gary Trudeau’s cartoon classic ” Street Calculus” provided excellent basis for conversation.Be sure students have some time after studying it to try it out themselves and even present a visual of their own version of the cartoon.Have students get in pairs and create their own cartoon of each other.Though this can be a light hearted look initially, it represents an important feature of racism, perception and is a perfect activity for African American History month.Imagine the first time white Europeans saw Africans brought here for slavery. What was that street calculus picture and what does it tell you about where we went from there?

If you have the classroom time to devote to only one study this month for African American History month, I’d suggest this one. For our students to understand the false notion of race and how it was created by science to rationalize certain historical practices. The video here describes the series and its purpose.http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0149If you have only time to bust some myths, have students take the Race Literacy Quiz and discuss it. Watch this video and discuss it.Understanding the origins of racism is key to understanding its perpetuation and in the future, the potential to end the erroneous thinking behind those practices.

Well, here we are again in February, headed to March, Women’s History Month. On come the obligatory reports about all the usual and deserving heroes and heroines to be sure. Even my Grade 4/5 students already know the predictability and though they don’t yet roll their eyes, they sense the inevitable conversations. But what if we shake things up this year? What if we begin to look at the reasons we HAVE an African American History Month? Given Howard Zinn’s recent death, it is almost as if he left us ahead of the months for which he provided the stories we needed.What if we study the people in his books this month  in addition to those made more famous by their acts? A recent book about an alternative figure to Rosa Parks study or in addition to her, is the title :“Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” by Phillip Hoose. I strongly recommend this study along side of or if students have studied Rosa Parks, instead of her life story again. To honor the many other folks would matter to students who could begin to see these icons as out of their reach.Another focus for the month could be on the issue of racism itself in a study of its origins and the role of perception in how people form their views of one another. There are two great ways to look at both of these areas that I will share in coming blog posts.In the meantime, pursue other individuals this month and pursue the important question Howard Zinn answered for us: what did the people of this country say and do during the important social justice movements of our times?

Dear Rethinking Schools friends,

As many of you know, Howard Zinn died of a heart attack on Wednesday in California. His passing is an enormous loss for everyone who cares about justice and equality. Historian, professor, lecturer, playwright, and most recently a filmmaker, Howard Zinn was many things. But above all, he was an activist — a socialist, a pacifist, an antiracist, who never strayed from his conviction that humanity was capable of making this a much better world.

Throughout his long life, Howard Zinn had seen enough of the world’s horrors that it would have been understandable had he become a cynic. But if there is one word that should be forever associated with him, it’s hope.

When George Bush launched his endless war on terror after 9/11, Rethinking Schools looked for a quote that could sum up our belief that it was not ridiculous to still be hopeful. We turned to the final paragraphs of Howard Zinn’s autobiography, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train”:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

“What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

“And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Howard Zinn lived a politically engaged life of joy and solidarity. His life was indeed a marvelous victory.

Bill Bigelowfor the Rethinking Schools staff and editors

P.S. Last week, I interviewed Howard Zinn for the Zinn Education Project, posing questions that we had collected from teachers around the country. To listen to the interview, go to

www.zinnedproject.org/news

and click on the “Authors on Air” icon.