Last August 17, EIA reported on a workshop for teachers and school officials in Pinellas County, Florida, which offered tips for dealing with African-American male students. The tips included such statements as "Blacks tend to be expressive and emotional. As they become excited they become louder. This does not mean they are becoming aggressive." One of the questions I raised: "Are these insights or stereotypes?" The question came to mind again as I read about the teach-in controversy in Oakland. 

    To bring you up-to-date: The Oakland school district approved a voluntary teach-in (to be held this Thursday) sponsored by members of the Oakland Education Association concerning what role race plays in capital punishment. The centerpiece of the lesson will the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted in 1982 of murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia. The case has become a cause célèbre for the American left-wing, who believe Mumia to be innocent.

    The organizers claimed the lessons will be balanced, then acknowledged there are no pro-capital punishment materials in the lesson plans. Mumia appears prominently in the materials, but neither his crime nor Officer Faulkner's name is mentioned. The teach-in is also in jeopardy due to the murder yesterday of Oakland Police Officer James Williams by an unidentified gunman. "I think it would be really insensitive to proceed with this considering the shooting of one of our local police," said School Board President Noel Gallo.

    "Our students are predominantly African American, and I think we have a responsibility to prepare them for things they will encounter in the world," said Bob Mandel, a teacher who is one of the prime movers behind the teach-in.

    Putting Mumia and capital punishment aside, what are we to make of Mandel's statement? What are the consequences of teaching black children they need to know more about prison than white children? And what racial message does that send to white children? On one coast a teacher receives death threats for reading from a children's book called "Nappy Hair," and on the other coast some teachers want to teach African-American children they have a one in four chance to go to prison. Which is more harmful?

    "Students don't need to know about prison. They need to know how to read and write," said Shannon Reeves, president of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP, adding that Mandel is "a misguided liberal." Perhaps school officials will compromise with a teach-in about Officer Williams — his life, his devotion to duty, and his example to students of all races. 

    I'm not holding my breath.

    Oakland not only has a problem with capital punishment, but with corporal punishment. Activist Jordan Riak is petitioning the city council to make Oakland a "no spanking zone." Couple these events with the election of Jerry Brown as mayor, and Berkeley is beginning to look staid in comparison. 

    One of the symbols of the capital punishment debate is the candlelight vigil. Teachers in western Washington State have co-opted the symbol for a worthier cause — higher salaries. Last night, organizers from the Washington Education Association's Riverside UniServ Council placed people with candles along the overpasses on Interstate 5 to call attention to their tragic national ranking of 19th on the teacher salary scale.

    Public Agenda released its latest survey, but don't expect NEA, AFT or the American Association of School Administrators to be lauding its findings. In general, the survey shows a huge opinion gap between employers and parents on the one hand, and teachers on the other (college professors mostly split the difference). Healthy majorities of parents and employers endorsed reconstitution of failing schools and tying financial incentives to student improvement. Teachers oppose these measures by vast majorities. Only 33% of employers think local public schools are doing a good job, compared to 76% of parents and 92% of teachers.  But, according to the report, "Parents readily admit having limited knowledge on specific questions of academic quality and how their children and schools are performing compared with others." One more interesting point: Asked if principals should be held accountable for improving their schools, 33% of teachers agreed. When the word "teachers" replaced "principals" in the question, support among teachers dropped to 22%. 

    The Massachusetts Teachers Association has brought out the long knives for State Rep. Hal Lane (D- Holden), a former high school principal and House chair of the legislature's Joint Committee on Education. Lane introduced a bill that would make teachers eligible for tenure after five years (instead of the current three), allow dismissals after two unsatisfactory annual evaluations, and remove a number of topics from the purview of collective bargaining. MTA appointed a special task force to plan a "grassroots campaign to stop the attacks on teachers and public education and to promote MTA's legislation to help improve student achievement and enhance teacher quality." High on MTA's list: "competitive salaries to attract and retain highly qualified teachers." 

    Always bubbling underneath, resentment about class-size reduction has begun to appear on the surface among California's intermediate grade teachers who have classes of 30 students or more. There is virtually no chance the program will be expanded to include them, and their compensation and prep time remains the same as their less burdened colleagues. The Saddleback Valley Educators Association wants to negotiate a $500 stipend for teachers with class enrollments over 33. But salary differentials of any kind still hit a raw nerve among some union officials. "I think that pits one teacher against another," said Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

    Hats off to reporter Mike Bowler for his "Nine myths about education" in last Wednesday's Baltimore Sun. Among the myths: Poor urban districts spend less per-pupil than suburban districts, and schools are making steady progress 
in hiring black teachers. "Like it or not," wrote Bowler, "the teaching force in America is dominated by middle-age, white females." Sounds vaguely familiar...

    The New Jersey Supreme Court began to hear arguments in State Senator John Lynch's defamation suit against the New Jersey Education Association. Lynch, a Democrat, was Senate president in 1991 when he introduced a bill which would have capped salary hikes for teachers. That fall, NJEA ran a newspaper ad calling Lynch "The Boss of Bosses," claiming he controlled three mob-owned companies that were illegally dumping toxic waste. Lynch won re-election, but sued NJEA anyway. Union officials calling politicians mobsters? There's a switch.

    Quote of the Week: "About one-half of 1 percent of California teachers have met the challenge." — California Gov. Gray Davis, informing the public that 130 of 264,000 state teachers are nationally certified. Daniel Weintraub of the Orange County Register pointed out that the governor was off by a factor of ten. The numbers cited are one-twentieth of 1 percent.