I recently read an article by Doyin Oyeniyi titled “Why I’m only reading books by Writers of Color in 2015”, and it made me reflect back to a time in my teaching career when I only used writers of color in my English class in a public middle school in Philadelphia. In the mid 1990’s […]
I am inspired by a blog entry by George Bezanis titled “Losing my virginity to the SRC” in which he addresses the SRC at the recent meeting regarding charter school approvals. I recommend that you read his presentation on his blog – here is a link: http://www.Phillyteachersdesk.blogspot.com I have requested in other blog entries that […]
Helen Gym has announced her candidacy for a city council at large seat this week. I was fortunate to attend her announcement and much of what I write today is from her speech that day. Helen called for the re-energizing of the social contract that has been shredded recently by the casino capitalism of a […]
The march on January 19th drew an energized crowd of thousands to the streets of Philadelphia. The march had three key goals: an end to stop and frisk in Philadelphia, a focus on raising the minimum wage to $15.00, and the demand for fully funded democratically controlled local school systems. Some of the encouraging things […]
I have been reading John Lewis’ memoir “Walking With the Wind” and Taylor Branch’s “At Canaan’s Edge” to refresh my memory about the events surrounding the March from Selma to Montgomery in preparation of seeing the movie “Selma” that has just been released. I have included a picture of the Edmund Pettis Bridge across the […]
I really should have known better and hindsight told me that I would have been correct – never take the word of a native Minnesotan that he knows what he is doing when it comes to shark hunting in the Red Sea. I was stationed in Ethiopia when I was in the service many decades […]
An opinion piece was written recently in the Washington Post by Carol Anderson, and it is titled “Ferguson isn’t about black rage against cops. It’s white rage against progress.” In the piece she states that “White rage recurs in American history. It exploded after the Civil War, erupted again to undermine the Supreme Court’s Brown […]
This month the 26th Annual Special Olympics Fall Festival was held at Villanova University. Carol and I were pleased to attend because three of our relatives were participating or coaching in the event. Our niece, Amy, was part of a bocce team. Jake, our grandnephew (had to look that up so I had the right […]
Carol and I were on the way home from the wildlife clinic on Sunday and we spotted a female dog at the corner of Belmont and Girard. The dog was a large Mastiff type dog that was clearly starving. She was literally tearing apart a plastic bag to find food and had parts of the […]
This is similar to a copier that my sister and brother in law kept in the office of their auto parts store. I mention the copier later in this blog entry. I recently had a conversation with a neighbor and previously with some family members and when I told them that teachers in urban […]
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