Our visit to the Phoenix Academy

Yesterday, Feb. 2, we did a presentation at the Phoenix Academy in South Austin, where we'd been invited by school staff. I introduced Bobby and Sara, who spoke respectively about military realities not usually mentioned by recruiters, and Americorps as a nonmilitary option.

The Phoenix Academy is a residential school within AISD that assists students who have had issues with substance abuse. We were told that some students come to the school voluntarily and some are referred. We were given a tour of the academy by two students and learned that residents' schedules are regulated carefully. They attend classes from 8 - 2 and follow AISD curriculum. They start their days very early (5 am for the girls!), participate in a variety of group therapy meetings, and have work assignments on the campus.

For Bobby and Sara's talk, the students gathered in their study hall room, boys on one side and girls on the other. They listened and asked very good questions. Bobby mentioned that often soldiers wind up trading meds, sometimes selling them to one another on a kind of black market, which leads to some taking dangerous amounts or combinations of meds just to ease pain. Self-medication with everything from alcohol to prohibited drugs is common in the military -- a real risk for young people who already have had trouble with substance abuse.

One student asked Bobby, who was injured in Iraq as a Marine, if he had gotten anything good from his military experience. Bobby thought a minute and said that he'd learned through it that war is not an acceptable way to resolve conflict. He also said he learned that people around the world want the same things: they want to be loved, to have jobs, to take care of their families, to hang out with their friends. He said that anything good he learned from the military was not taught to him on purpose.

One student asked Bobby about his tattoos. Bobby explained that he'd gotten the HUMAN tattoo on his right forearm because that's what the military tried to take away from him, and now he was reclaiming it.

Sara engaged the students in her talk about her two experiences in Americorps programs: a summer program in Arkansas on a Heifer Project demonstration farm, and her current position working at the local immigrant shelter, Casa Marianella. Sara speaks Spanish and is able to use that skill, as well as to earn a living stipend (about $400 every two weeks) and an educational award of about $4,700 for a year of service (about $1,700 for the summer).

None of the students had heard of Americorps, so it was a good eye-opener for them. Sara's enthusiasm for the program was evident, and students had quite a few questions about it. In addition to the educational award, Sara stressed that employers and college admissions folks tend to look positively on Americorps experience, so it's good for the resume as well as being good for the community.

Thanks to Bobby and Sara, and to the friendly staff and students at the Phoenix Academy for inviting us!

photo of Bobby at the MLK Day March, January 18, 2010
photo courtesy of Alice Embree's flickr site

New! Texas Green Jobs Guidebook

An article in Monday's (Feb. 1, 2010) Austin American-Statesman announced a new guide just produced by the Environmental Defense Fund that lists green jobs and job training possibilities across Texas. The Texas Green Jobs Guidebook is available as a pdf online at www.edf.org/txgreenjobs Printed copies are available free for guidance counselors.

According to the Statesman article, "The guidebook identifies a variety of jobs related to energy efficiency that people with a high school diploma or an equivalency certificate can pursue. The jobs, such as blowing insulation or installing solar panels, pay $20 to $30 an hour."

MLK Day 2010

On Monday, we had a table at the MLK Day celebration at Huston-Tillotson University following the march from UT and the Capitol. It was a great day! The march drew thousands -- one of the largest turn-outs I've seen over the years. Weather was good, and I think that the Haiti disaster may have drawn people, also, to express the solidarity and humanity that King stood for.

I marched with CodePink colleagues with our banner from UT to the Capitol and then scooted over to H-T to set up our NOY table before the marchers arrived.

Thanks to Tura, Bobby and Craig for being there at the table (photo above -- taken toward the end of the time we were there, when most of the crowd had migrated to the music stage). Lots of people stopped at the table, from young children to teenagers to older adults. The peace wheel was popular. There was one group of quite young children who came by twice because, as their accompanying adult told us, "of all the booths, this was their favorite." Those kids knew the most about the peacemakers on the wheel -- even about Gandhi and the salt march. I learned that they attend Primavera Montessori School, which stresses peace history. That's good news!
I always hope that the peace wheel and the info sheet on historical and current peacemakers encourages some further enquiry by the kids into what peacemaking actually entails and how many ways there are to do it. Lack of teaching about this is always pretty apparent. One young person, when the wheel stopped at MLK, said, "Um, he was the first Black man in America?" This is on MLK Day, no less! Another teenager, when asked what MLK did, couldn't come up with anything, even after suggestions like, "What kinds of methods did the Civil Rights movement use?" and "How about what Rosa Parks did..."

One woman who came by looked at our materials and nodded her head, saying that her husband is a disabled vet and that they've had to fight for his benefits. Another woman who looked at our materials shook her head, no, saying "war is bad, but we need it sometimes." She said she grew up in Biafra. Before the marchers arrived, I talked for a bit with one of the women who was volunteering at the Planned Parenthood table next to ours. She said she was a 5-year Air Force veteran and that she was curious about our message. We talked about it, and she was supportive, although she said her experience in the Air Force was generally positive and that thankfully, she had not experienced sexual abuse herself. She was in the psychiatry field. One teenager who came by with her mom nodded at the "Ten Excellent Reasons to Not Join the Military" book and flier and said that she had dissuaded one of her sisters from joining even though they were from a military family. A group of students from McNeil High School in Round Rock came by and expressed interest in setting up a talk there with us.

The music was loud from the stage, which did make it hard to talk very long with those who came by the table, but it was a festive atmosphere with many community groups and vendors.

Youth poets in the new year

A new year/new decade notice from the Texas Youth Word Collective:

EVENT: They Speak Youth Poetry Slam
DATE & TIME: Saturday, January 23rd, 2010, 4 pm
ADMISSION: $5 cover, free for slam participants, under 5 & teachers
PLACE: The Independent (corner of E. 5th & Brushy St.)
Austin, Texas 78702
CONTACTS: Tova Charles (514) 554-3720, Project Coordinator
Dr. Sheila Siobhan (512) 422-6653, Co-Director
E-Mail: u21slam@yahoo.com
Website: www.txywc.org

Happy New Year!!!!! As a new decade begins, we at the Texas Youth Word Collective, also entering a new era, wish everyone much success and prosperity. One of the great things about a new year is the idea that you can change and make things better: your grades, your health, your life. You can reinvent yourself. With that in mind, if you have never been to our youth poetry slam, They Speak, we extend to you a special invitation to do something new; come check it out, start a trend amongst your friends and family, do something cool. For those of you that have been long-time supporters of TYWC, we welcome you back to show the uninitiated how much fun the youth slam is and how you picked up your own cool points. School teachers are admitted free of charge!

So, we invite all of you (the rookies, the veterans, and the curious) to come help us continue to launch this, our 8th season of the city wide youth poetry slam, the They Speak Youth Poetry Slam See what all the excitement is about and be inspired by the voices and leaders of tomorrow. Those participants between the ages of 13 and 19 will be eligible to compete for a spot on the team we take to Brave New Voices 2010 in the home of the stars, the City of Angels, Los Angeles, California

Please come for a night of stirring, thought-provoking poetry. This project is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Student protest of US military build-up in Guam

check out this youtube video of one of the high school students in Guam who spoke out during a hearing on January 8 in opposition to US plans to move US Marine forces from Okinawa to Guam, and the negative economic, environmental and cultural effects that would have on the people of Guam. See this site for more info.

Grants for solar energy electrician training

In yesterday's issue of the Austin American-Statesman business section, there was an article about Capital Area Workforce Solutions receiving a grant of $4.8 million in conjunction with the Austin Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee for use in solar energy Green Jobs training.

According to the article, "The training is targeted at current and future workers, with skill sets ranging from unskilled labor to highly skilled electricians." ... "The jobs for these workers are directly tied to utility-scale and commercial solar projects..."

If you are interested in applying, please check out the Workforce website here. According to the article, more training details will be available in February 2010. Check it out!

New resource from Rethinking Schools

This message came today from the editors of Rethinking Schools, the best quarterly publication out there on the subject of education (IMO). Check out this new resource!

Dear Rethinking Schools friends,

We're pleased to announce our latest "publication," The Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People's History -- www.zinnedproject.org -- a new website with free downloadable teaching activities.
The Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People's History is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change, supported by an anonymous donor (a former student of historian Howard Zinn's) and the Caipirinha Foundation. The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people's history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives.
The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level. This is the only collection of its kind for educators -- print or online -- in the country. Please visit and bookmark the new Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People's History website and spread the word. Take advantage of the free resources and send us your feedback.

Thanks for your support of Rethinking Schools.
Bill Bigelow
Curriculum Editor
Rethinking Schools