a shameless plug
I tell students: brevity is good. Learning how to say what you want in a concise but clear manner is good. I should take my own advice sometimes, but hey. Whatever.
This is a comment more than a question, though I do have a question I'd like to ask, too. (Okay if you don't want to read all of this, I'm asking for donations for a student group).
Last week my school experienced a mass shooting. I believe it has been described as the largest such event in the School District of Philadelphia--ever. I don't want to say that my school experienced this. A mass shooting? No, that can't be what happened, it wasn't on school grounds, no one blasted through the front doors or through classrooms. Alas.
Thankfully, no one was killed, but can we be thankful that "only" eight students were hit? Were any of them mine? No, but yes. You have to be a teacher to understand that. That's not my question, however, just part of my comment.
Most teachers in Philadelphia leave before they hit the five year mark. I beat the odds. I don't want to teach forever. Still, damn it all if the hardest year hasn't also been one of the best of my professional life.
I'm still not done my comment, you see, after last week's attempted smear of my colleague as antisemitic, the doxing of a minor of color, I want to take up space like the people who generate harassment campaigns take up space.
My heart has been shattered by the shooting and the aftermath. I am so angry that I spend much of my life in the classroom, and outside of it, addressing hate and intolerance.
While my colleagues slowly get back to normal, teaching the structure of cells, Hamlet, or trigonometry, my next curricular topic is the 2nd Amendment. Coupled with teaching the "checks and balances" between Congress and the president while the latter made secretive arms deals with Israel, moments of this year have been, in a word, maddening.
I've shared the following elsewhere in more or less the same way. Too long, don't read: I am once again asking for donations because my students deserve something beautiful.They need to know that the world is ugly, yes, but it is full of kindness and selfless acts, too.
Bright-eyed students asked me to sponsor the Muslim Student Association this year. I'm not Muslim, I'm not even religious, but it was an honor to be recognized as a trusted adult in a country that is saturated with Islamophobia.
I originally started a fundraising page to gather money for prayer rugs. You see, my school (3400+ students) has a sizable Muslim population. Each Friday students can pray (jummah) in the auditorium. It's about 100 students each week who do this. Now in the holy month of Ramadan, that number rises significantly and prayers are daily.
Thanks to cash donations, the original goal of $700 has been met. Now that the cost of the prayer rugs is fully covered, we've shifted the focus of the fundraiser to supplies for a communal iftar.
So far, we have over $100 in funds. It would mean a lot to students, and to me, and to the community, to see the number rise. Our goal is humble-- only $200 for things like streamers and paper cups and plastic tablecloths-- and we're halfway there.
If all of the people on my subscriber list donated $5, we'd hit the goal with money left over.
At last, here is my question: Will you donate? Please consider supporting these wonderful students and their commitment to their faith and to their school community.