Blog Archive » 2007 » February

Having spent my elementary and secondary school years under the watchful gazes of the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia Catholic schools, it wasn't until I was 22 years old and in law school that I ever dared to set foot inside a public school. What an introduction! In my second year at Georgetown Law I became a Street Law teacher at Coolidge Senior High School here in D.C. The experience was, at once, delightful and deeply frustrating, energizing and vexing — some conditions in the school were so troubling, but the desire of the students to learn was so great. I was galvanized, and education in various forms became my life's interest, a deeply satisfying focus for my legal training.

In my third year in law school, seeking to extend my learning about the D.C. Public Schools and educational issues here, I became a legislative intern in the then-new D.C. Council, and I had the extraordinary opportunity and privilege of working with one of the great civil rights icons of D.C., Julius Hobson, Sr. Mr. Hobson's track record in a broad range of civil rights issues was great, but his legacy is known to generations of D.C. residents particularly through the case that bears his name, Hobson v. Hansen, the D.C. version of Brown v. Board of Education. I urge readers to click on the links and learn more about this case. In short, Julius Hobson sued the D.C. Public Schools (Hansen was the superintendent at that time) to force an end to student tracking, which he claimed was racially discriminatory, and to seek equality of funding for all public schools in D.C. since the then-prevalent funding pattern was neighborhood-dependent, which also led to extreme racial and economic disparities among schools.

Hobson won the case, with a famous opinion by Judge Skelley Wright, but the conditions in the D.C. Schools did not improve. Home Rule for D.C. came in 1974, and Hobson was elected to the first D.C. Council, where he chaired the Education Committee. Given his deep unhappiness with the lack of progress in improving the D.C. Schools, particularly the conditions for Black students, Mr. Hobson set about creating an Educational Accountability plan for the city.

Councilmember Hobson assigned me to the task of researching and drafting the Educational Accountability Act of 1977. Little did I know, at the outset, how incendiary this topic would be! The bill I drafted, at Mr. Hobson's direction, would have given the D.C. Council some oversight of the outcomes of student learning in the D.C. Schools.

The minute the legislation hit the street, the D.C. Board of Education girded for war. The Board of Education is independent! How dare the D.C. Council try this power grab! The heat was so intense that my clinical supervisors (my internship was part of the Georgetown Law clinic known as Community Legal Assistance) called me in to demand what I had gotten myself into — this clinic was another arm of the same group of law school clinics that also ran Street Law in the D.C. Schools, and there was some concern that my work on this legislation was causing the School Board to question whether Georgetown should be able to run the Street Law clinic in the schools. A Georgetown dean (the late John Kramer, my hero!) intervened to rescue me from this vat of hot water, proclaiming the legislation I had crafted was pretty good. I was a mere law student hoping to graduate in a few months, and here I was with the dean, my professors, the School Board and D.C. Council all embroiled over something I had drafted for Councilmember Hobson. Yikes! Such was my introduction to power, politics and education in the District of Columbia.

You can read some accounts of the controversy in these articles from the Washington Post archives:

Hobson_Accountability.pdf

DCPS_Accountability.pdf

Shortly after the public hearings on the bill, and most unfortunately, Mr. Hobson died, in March 1977. The legislation died with him. I managed to graduate, and, not so ironically, went on to have my first "real" job as the Program Director for the Street Law Clinic at Georgetown. I spent five years working closely with students and teachers in the D.C. Schools, as well as our law students who taught the law courses.

30 years later, this whole story has come back to me as I've read about Mayor Fenty's proposal to take over the D.C. Schools and the reaction to his proposals. It's a "power grab" claim community activists, who distrust a plan that would remove publicly elected school board members from direct oversight. Public concern about destabilizing the already-precarious circumstances for the current leadership has emerged quite clearly.

Washington Post Columnist Colbert I. King has written thoughtfully on this topic. When I read "What Never Seems to Change for D.C. Schools" I thought of my old mentor Julius Hobson and his passion about education in D.C. and his profoundly just anger about the protracted racism that prevented the schools from being truly places of equal opportunity for Black and White children. I agree with Colbert King: little has changed in the 30 years since I first encountered these issues. So long as this city struggles over power and control in education, the children of the city who already suffer great disadvantages imposed by poverty, racism and violence will not have the educational opportunities they must have to succeed.

A Hobson's Choice is a dilemma in which no choice is acceptable. Giving up some power is considered unacceptable in some quarters, but allowing children to continue to suffer in abysmal educational conditions is worse, immoral and unjust to them and their children. Julius Hobson may not have had the perfect solution, but he raised the bar on the debate to focus on learning outcomes, not just control. In all of this controversy over who controls the public schools, let's not miss the fundamental point: what students learn and whether that learning will be the platform for their success in college, work and life beyond is all that matters. Any debate that focuses on the power of the adults instead of the results for the children is a waste of precious time for the kids who can't keep waiting to learn.

See Hobson%20v%20Hansen.doc

See also March 2005 Report "Separate and Unequal" from D.C. Parents United

Perhaps we should change the designation of February and March from "History" Months (as in Black History Month and Women's History Month respectively) to "Reality" Months. In that vein we can and should use these occasions to focus on the continuing realities of racism and sexism in contemporary life — and what we still must do to combat the ever-virulent presence of such profound and chronic injustices — rather than simply glossing historic moments and iconic figures.

We can start with the vocabulary of discrimination. "Articulate" is this week's word of shame, thanks to Senator Joseph Biden whose characterization of Senator Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" surely ranks up there as one of the stupidest utterances in modern political life — and, as if we needed this, further proof that a U.S. Senator with presidential ambitions can be pretty darn inarticulate and dim-witted himself.

Writing in today's New York Times on "The Racial Politics of Speaking Well" Lynette Clemetson aptly summarizes the whole dim history of the insidious use of "articulate" by White speakers to describe Black speakers. The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson also had an excellent Op-Ed Column "An Inarticulate Kickoff" on February 2. From my own experience I know that Clemetson and Robinson are right: when White people use the word "articulate" in reference to a Black person, even though intending the word in a complimentary way, it comes across as patronizing at best, racist at worst, revealing some sense of astonishment that the speaker can actually form whole sentences. Prejudice oozes from the sound of the word used in this context.

Frankly, if being "articulate" were a requirement for election, I can think of more than one White politician, including several presidents, who would never have made it past the first grade student council seat.

Vocabulary contributes to racial and gender stereotypes that reinforce discrimination. Strong female leaders are put down by the term "aggressive" while strong male leaders are "decisive." Gay men have "good taste." Single women are suspected of being short on empathy for other people's children. Words reveal a great deal about the speaker's true state of mind. "You people" divides the room, identifies the group as different from the speaker, suggests a vaguely derogatory disposition at the very least.

Perhaps for these "Reality Months" we could compile a dictionary of the code words that linger in the air, polluting social discourse, undermining true community. Then we could resolve to help each other and our leaders to clean up our dialogue in order to work more effectively together to achieve justice for all.

Next: Racism and Failing Schools

See articulate,biden, Obama

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivered the eulogy for Father Drinan at his funeral Mass today. Following is the text released by her office:

"When St. Francis of Assisi was asked what a person had to do to lead a good life, his reply was: 'Preach the Gospel. Sometimes, use words.' Father Robert Drinan preached the Gospel sometimes from the pulpit, sometimes from the House floor, sometimes from his Georgetown University classroom. But he always preached the Gospel through his example.

"Father Drinan lived and legislated according to an expansive view of the Gospel, believing that it had something to teach us about the whole range of public policy - from war and peace, to poverty and justice, to how we treat our children and our parents. It was because of his faith that he was one of our greatest champions for human rights.

"When the Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky was freed after eight years in a Siberian labor camp, it was because of years of advocacy by many. Yet at a reception welcoming him to the United States and the Capitol, Sharansky, surrounded by supporters and admirers, looked to the back so he could find and thank the man who was his major champion - Father Drinan.

"That was Father Drinan - eager to help all in need, slow to accept credit.

"I am particularly honored that earlier this month, Father Drinan celebrated a Mass at my alma mater, Trinity College, before I was sworn in as Speaker. He said that Mass in honor of the children of Darfur and Katrina, praying there that 'the needs of every child are the needs of Jesus Christ himself.'

"He challenged us by saying, 'Imagine what the world would think of the United States if the health and welfare of children everywhere became the top objective of America's foreign policy! It could happen - and it could happen soon - if enough people cared.'

"He continued, 'Let us reexamine our convictions, our commitments, and our courage. Our convictions and our commitments are clear and certain to us. But do we have the courage to carry them out? God has great hopes for what this nation will do in the near future. We are here to ask for the courage to carry out God's hopes and aspirations.'

"As he led us in prayer that day, Father Drinan said, 'We learn things in prayer that we otherwise would never know.' Today we pray for the courage of Father Drinan.

"That may have been Father Drinan's last sermon from the pulpit. But afterwards, he sent me a letter asking that I put his words in the Congressional Record. And I commend his call for 'peaceful revolution' to all of you gathered here today.

"These words join the many courageous words he said on the House floor. They join his powerful words on that day last May when we awarded him the Congressional Distinguished Service Award.

"They also join the words he shared with his students, one of whom shared with me a treasured memory.

"Just before graduation, Father Drinan offered advice to a group of Georgetown Law students. He said, 'As I look out at all of you with your new and expensive law school educations, I would urge you to go forth into society not as mere legal tradesman, but as moral architects. Design, create and build a better and more equitable society and use your skills to help those who are otherwise not being served.'

"Father Drinan: your statement has been entered in the Congressional Record, and your message has been heard."

Full text of Father Drinan's homily at Trinity on January 3