I hope the teachers also believe it of their students (& convey it)! This brings back high school memories. (Oh, I've been enjoying C&V so much, thank you! Our new dog pricked up her ears and looked excited when I read aloud the bit where the present-past-connect suddenly happens...I guess she's a real English gal by heart:)
Thank you, Lulu! I think your dog is more enamored of your voice than my book, but as a Springer she's definitely English. I've read Camelot & Vine to Boz many times while editing and proofreading, and he usually he snores through it or gets up and goes to his bowl.
Yup, too shiny. They must have polished the floor in honor of your visit, P. Did they install new toilet seats as well, like we have to do when the Royals visit?
Good eye, Nancy. I took this picture about four years ago, on a tour of Eliot School in Altadena.
Ms M, this hallway may be devoid of color, but the school is vibrant. They have a Room 13 arts program (amazing independence for the kids), plenty of places to work in the open and rooms where decorating the walls is encouraged.
I'm all for encouragement but I am wary of these kind of motivational posters, implying, as they do, that all you need is to believe, which is an guilt-inducing lie that covers all the systems of injustice and the unfair playing fields that so many people confront daily.
Yay, Margaret, I agree. "This American Life" had a story about a school on Chicago's south side, where every kid is basically born into a gang. How many of them are going to get out without a mentor, at the very least? I do think attitude helps but things are just plain harder for some people.
Many, many of the students at Eliot are in Fostercare of some form or the other. Some are in good settings and some are are truly challenged, if not bad, settings. Not sure what the current situation is, but it used to be that there were no additional counselors for them, even though there was additional paperwork. I hear good things about the current principal.
If he's the same man I met when I toured the school in 2009, I thought he was smart, caring and sincere. He went to Eliot himself, graduated and did well. Then he came back with a realistic plan to share that with the kids who need him.
19 comments:
Has anyone else noticed there's a great bit "LIE" in the middle of "BELIEVE"?
No, I always read it a "B[e] Eli & Eve," but I could never get anybody to tell me who Eli was. Dude in the Bible was called Adam. It's weird.
What if I believe you won't?
I keep reading "Vulcan" instead of "you can". Low tech mind meld.
I'm thinking "shiny" no way will the lockers look like that at the end of the year!
I hope the teachers also believe it of their students (& convey it)! This brings back high school memories. (Oh, I've been enjoying C&V so much, thank you! Our new dog pricked up her ears and looked excited when I read aloud the bit where the present-past-connect suddenly happens...I guess she's a real English gal by heart:)
Thank you, Lulu! I think your dog is more enamored of your voice than my book, but as a Springer she's definitely English. I've read Camelot & Vine to Boz many times while editing and proofreading, and he usually he snores through it or gets up and goes to his bowl.
No, you start.
The dreaded first day back....
Didn't even notice the sign with the Believe rhetoric!!!
Yup, too shiny. They must have polished the floor in honor of your visit, P. Did they install new toilet seats as well, like we have to do when the Royals visit?
I doubt that, Bellis, but now that you mention it I didn't check.
Eliot?
It looks sooo "institutional". It needs COLOR, something alive. That would add to the "believing" and the "achieving".
Good eye, Nancy. I took this picture about four years ago, on a tour of Eliot School in Altadena.
Ms M, this hallway may be devoid of color, but the school is vibrant. They have a Room 13 arts program (amazing independence for the kids), plenty of places to work in the open and rooms where decorating the walls is encouraged.
I'm all for encouragement but I am wary of these kind of motivational posters, implying, as they do, that all you need is to believe, which is an guilt-inducing lie that covers all the systems of injustice and the unfair playing fields that so many people confront daily.
Yay, Margaret, I agree. "This American Life" had a story about a school on Chicago's south side, where every kid is basically born into a gang. How many of them are going to get out without a mentor, at the very least?
I do think attitude helps but things are just plain harder for some people.
agree M and P
Many, many of the students at Eliot are in Fostercare of some form or the other. Some are in good settings and some are are truly challenged, if not bad, settings. Not sure what the current situation is, but it used to be that there were no additional counselors for them, even though there was additional paperwork. I hear good things about the current principal.
If he's the same man I met when I toured the school in 2009, I thought he was smart, caring and sincere. He went to Eliot himself, graduated and did well. Then he came back with a realistic plan to share that with the kids who need him.
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