Category: Newark

Creating a Leader: Learning from Ms. Wilhelmina Holder

Creating a Leader: Learning from Ms. Wilhelmina Holder

Published May 25, 2022 by Leah Z Owens

Prologue: Yesterday, a mass murder occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, resulting in twenty-one people dead, 19 children and 2 adults. They were shot dead by an 18-year-old high school student who was from the community. Eleven days ago, another mass shooting occurred with 10 killed; this was in Buffalo, New York at a supermarket and the shooter, another 18-year-old, targeted Black folx. We, humanity, are suffering from great losses. We are in pain. And this is the context in which I write this post.

On Friday, May 20, 2022, a community celebrated the life of one Ms. Wilhelmina Holder–mother, activist, advocate, educator, friend. I knew of Ms. Holder before I knew her. A teacher-friend explained how he met her at his school, West Side, and that she told him about Abbott Leadership Institute (ALI). ALI held Saturday classes at Rutgers-Newark for parents and community members to teach them about policy, organizing, and advocacy in the space of education. Ms. Holder was an honor roll student of ALI, holding a close friendship with the director, Junius Williams.

I was a second- or third-year teacher (2006/2007) when I attended my first ALI class and remember being struck by the information presented about a pro-privatization school reform plan called Renaissance 2010 in Chicago. But even more striking was the power of the everyday Black folx sitting in that room. Newarkers. Smart and learning more. Leaders. This wasn’t the picture of inner city parents painted by Savage Inequalities, a book I had read in undergrad. In fact, it isn’t the story told by most of the literature about urban education reform. If not carefully curated, the syllabi of courses for prospective teachers can easily lead them to believe that they are the only hope for their students. ALI was framed by a critical pedagogical approach; it put the gross reality of Newark public schools in the context of power, leadership, and transformation. And it provided space for Ms. Holder, and others like her, to build on the strengths they brought to the table.

It did not take much time for me to come to admire and love Ms. Holder. As my elder, I knew she had earned the right to say anything she wanted, but her outspokenness I saw coming from a different place. I wanted to come from that place too–at the intersection of love, passion, commitment, knowledge, and experience. So, in February 2021, I answered a call put out by Kaleena Berryman–longtime assistant to Junius Williams turned ALI director upon his retirement–to get as many people as possible to nominate Ms. Holder for the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award–and she won!

I‘d like to share what I submitted:

Q: How has the Nominee “made a difference” in the lives of others, or in the community? Why is this work important?
A: Ms. Holder has assisted countless students and their families navigate the educational system so that they can discover success. She is one of the most civically-engaged people in the city of Newark, serving on numerous boards and councils as both a member and a leader of them. Her input and decision-making is always grounded in the real experiences of young people and families. Ms. Holder has also led the High School Academic Support Program which provides direct assistance, care, and love to high school students in their process of applying to college. Her expertise in this area is incomparable. Ms. Holder’s work is so important because it speaks to what we can accomplish as a community when we believe in each other and our young people especially.
Q: What are the Nominee’s major accomplishments?
A: Through Ms. Holder’s work in the High School Academic Support Program, she has helped graduating seniors secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships. The Program also hosts on-the-spot college admissions nights, assisting hundreds of students to matriculate into college.
Q: Please respond to this in your own words. “This person should receive the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award because…”
A: Ms. Holder should receive the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award because she gives of herself with no expectation of anything in return. Ms. Holder is a true definition of selflessness. We love her here in Newark and believe she deserves to be recognized by the world!

Ms. Holder’s obituary and news articles written about her passing (see here and here) outline well who she was and the life she lived. Extra touching are two memorializing pieces written by Kaleena. In the tribute printed on the homegoing program, Kaleena writes about Ms. Holder’s creation: “He was surely creating someone to do [H]is work, for over five decades, in schools and for children that would need His power and presence” and that “She needed to be able to mold others, just by being.” Both tributes speak to the dispositions (i.e., ways of being) forged in fire of a leader committed to education justice. Here, I highlight, from Kaleena’s poem “A tribute to Wilhelmina, OUR HOLDER,” some of those critical dispositions–those values, beliefs, and habits of mind that oriented Ms. Holder toward the just response to injustice.

1. Committing to a vision is a primary disposition to hold in the struggle for education justice. We’re instructed, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV). Kaleena writes that Ms. Holder had an “unrelenting vision” (2) and “Decades of focus on freedom” (12). No one can articulate what we want for our children better than ourselves. Ms. Holder “held the flame / Of the highest expectations / The school system in her system / Our children, in her lap” (5-8).

2. Speaking truth to power can, and must, occur from all positionalities–parents, teachers, students, community members. And even though we may envision ourselves in one lane, it is when we see ourselves as everyone, when we know the “I” is in “You,” that we can voice our concerns from a collective space. In the poem, Ms. Holder is described as “our Superintendent of Showdowns / Our Principal of Passion / Our Teacher of TELL THE TRUTH / Never ever holding back / Or holding her tongue” (29-33).

3. Sharing the power means dismissing the theory that power is a zero-sum game. Again, seeing the “I” in “You”–when “I” have power, “You” have power. Kaleena writes that “They held the titles, but Wilhelmina held the power” (23) because even when they thought their title entitled them to more power, Ms. Holder was quick to remind. Ms. Holder believed in intergenerational organizing; for those younger coming along with her, “she held us high / Held us close / In the highest regard / She encouraged us / And made us fearless / Through her example” (40-45).

4. Embracing an ethic of care defies the White supremacist logic that has programmed us to look out only for self. Instead of this oppressive logic, Ms. Holder “Fed us / From the flavor in her voice / And the chicken in her bag / And the presence of her integrity” (46-49), and she lovingly held “Tens of schools in the palm of her hands” (13). Care is a precursor to community.

In her shift to a conclusionary call-to-action, Kaleena writes:

“What we must do
Is hold on too
Hold on to her memory
Her love
Her work
Her smile
Each other
Her children and grandchildren
Hold strong to her spirit and all that she left undone

Hold on to her legacy
Her memory
Her mission
All of which can be summed up as
HER LOVE” (54-67)

Yes, Ms. Holder, we’ll “hold on too”.

What Democracy? NBOE President Calls Public Participation “Bullshit”

Published January 28, 2021 by Leah Z Owens

Bullshit. Begin and end quote.

That’s what Newark Board of Education President Josephine Garcia called public participation at tonight’s meeting.

Newark Board of Education Meeting, 1/28/21

Yup, that’s my FB profile pic in the bottom right corner. So why did I record it? It’s just a petty comment right? Heat of the moment. We’ve all done it.

No. That sentiment expresses how the board, under her leadership, views the democratic process. For them, deliberation has no place in our public education system. This is further demonstrated by another act from tonight’s meeting–the swearing in of a political appointee to the vacancy left by the untimely passing of Board Member Tave Padilla.

The law states that a school board gets to fill a vacancy of this kind by majority vote of the remaining members. In no other place is a specific, required process outlined. This board, under Garcia’s leadership, allowed nearly the full 65 days allotted to make an appointment go by before having a discussion (in Executive Session no less) as a board about what to do. Then, with the business and regular meetings occurring two days apart from each other, made NO mention at Tuesday’s business meeting of their decision to appoint someone. They approved Thursday’s (tonight’s) agenda at the Tuesday meeting and then amended it as soon as tonight’s meeting opened. They amended the agenda to add the appointment vote.

So, if the law allows them to do this (but does it?), they’re not in the wrong, right? Wrong. This board had a choice. They always had a choice as to how to go about filling the vacancy. One such choice would have been to take applications from all those interested, deliberate over the applications, and then appoint someone. Another choice would have been to appoint a candidate from the last school board election, first asking the highest vote getter.

I guess this isn’t what they mean by school choice. I guess it’s all just bullshit.

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Lessons from the Students: Critical Pedagogy in Action

Published March 7, 2015 by Leah Z Owens

“If students are not able to transform their lived experiences into knowledge as a process to unveil new knowledge, they will never be able to participate rigorously in a dialogue as a process of learning and knowing” -Paulo Freire @sueg4600

What does social justice pedagogy look like? Somewhat rhetorical. Completely sincere. A teacher-in-training asked this question while we were engaged in a conversation about what it means to be a teacher in the current sociopolitical context. Although I’ve studied the concept, sadly, I had no solid example to share from my own teaching career, as I’ve never taught in an environment conducive to this philosophy of education.

Social justice pedagogy is almost synonymous with another philosophy of education called critical pedagogy. Here, I will use the latter term as social justice pedagogy tends to refer to teaching and learning that occurs in the “traditional” classroom. Critical pedagogy has the educational goal of developing critical consciousness within the student. We will know this has been achieved when the student takes purposeful action to lessen and eventually eliminate power differentials that exist in society. The process that results in this goal has the student examine and critique differences across race, class, and gender among other aspects of social life.

The closest I’ve come to employing critical pedagogy is when I was a teacher at Barringer. This was at the time when the school was first failing to make adequate yearly progress under NCLB, and those who we have come to know as education deformers–the Koch brothers, Michelle Rhee, Bill and Melinda Gates, to name a few–were relatively low key. This was pre-“data war rooms,” as they were called, when high school teachers in Newark had a fair amount of control over what was being taught in their classrooms–for good and for bad–as long as it could be demonstrated how it aligned to HSPA testing, which wasn’t a difficult task. Almost anything you taught would be helpful for HSPA because it was such a low level test. During this point in my teaching career, I wasn’t even aware of critical pedagogy. None of the sessions in those six weeks of training I received from Teach for America concentrated on these methods of instruction. I had some awesome colleagues in the English Department at Barringer who I credit with ushering me along a path leading to a true consciousness of what it means to be an educator and what that means beyond the classroom. They invited me to collaborate with them on ideas that would actually engage students and put them at the center of learning.

Youth Media Symposium

YMS_College Center Ribbon_031115 Even so, I never got to witness youth being taught through critical pedagogy until I became aware of YMS–which stands for Youth Media Symposium and is an integral program of the Abbott Leadership Institute. The high school and middle school students involved in YMS create documentaries and public service announcements on the topic of public education in Newark, NJ. They learn from videography and media professionals how to produce, direct, shoot, edit, and present media projects that have all ended up having a significant impact on the public discourse about public education. I have been interviewed for two such productions–one on high school dropouts and a more recent one on the traditional public school versus charter school debate.

What makes YMS an example of critical pedagogy is the program’s goal, through the use of media, to raise public awareness regarding the inequities that exist in urban public education systems. Along with learning media techniques, the students are immersed in history through interactive lessons that provide them with social, political, and economic context. They debate the possibilities and limitations of public policy choices and then integrate their collectively constructed knowledge into their media projects. Over the years, YMS has refined its curriculum and does nothing but grow stronger.

Yet another demonstration of this strength is the ribbon cutting of their first College Success Center! This will be the first of ten to open across the City of Newark. The Centers are a major component of YMS’s Our Schools, Our Vision campaign. The ceremony will be held at Bradley Hall, Room 148 on the campus of Rutgers-Newark on Wednesday, March 11th at 4pm. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to ALICollegeSuccess@gmail.com.

NSU’s Occupation

The Newark Student Union (NSU) provides another example of critical pedagogy in action. In partnership with New Jersey Communities United (NJCU), the nonprofit I now work for as a community organizer, eight members of NSU returned from a long weekend in February with the mission to occupy the state-appointed superintendent’s office in protest of the controversial OneNewark plan.. This reorganization plan has closed a significant amount of schools around the district and wreaked havoc for parents trying to enroll their children in their neighborhood schools. The students’ primary demand was the resignation of the superintendent.

Over the course of 72 hours, the students livestreamed their activities in the office which ranged from an initial message stating their purpose for the occupation to a presentation on the PARCC to answering questions tweeted to them. I took that opportunity to ask them what lessons they were learning by being active participants in their own lives. This is what they had to say:

Aracelis: “In being in NSU, I’ve learned a lot about community and I’ve learned a lot about the different intelligence levels people have. People are intelligent in very different ways and can participate and add to the movement in so many different ways. We need people who are good with technology. We need artists. We need writers. We need intelligent speakers. It’s not just one type of intelligent person and it’s not just one type of thing that a person needs to do. They need to be well rounded. Another thing with standardized testing is it doesn’t accommodate that. And that’s why we have this movement–the student movement.”

Tanaisa: “In my opinion, I think I learned more being an active participant in protesting and stuff than–well, not more but I learned a lot protesting, as I do in class, because I get to see real world implications about what exactly democracy is and how real world class struggle fits into what we’re dealing with.”

Jose: “Really quickly, what I’ve learned in this past year being a part of this amazing movement is how much I matter to my community, to my city, and to the world. You know, because usually we’re told that we’re small, that we don’t matter. But, being out in the street, being out there and empowering other people has really given me the power to continue on. And it’s shown me how to love my people a lot more.”

Most people only notice NSU when they are taking action. They don’t get to see the democratic processes utilized during the organization’s membership and planning meetings. They’re not present at the organizing and “Know Your Rights” trainings the students receive. I’m one of the few who gets to peek in on or partner up with them, so I witness their critical consciousness being developed. With guidance from organizers at NJCU, the students are learning how to transform power differentials and create the communities in which they want to live. This is best told in their own words which I transcribed above.

Looking to an Alternative

If nothing else, both YMS and NSU are clear examples that the children in Newark–and I would argue any other place where they are being written off and labeled as failures–are intelligent, capable, productive citizens. They can meet and surpass any expectation made of them. Why so many students in urban districts continue to drop out of school or graduate without basic literacy skills is not a mystery. The social, political, and economic conditions in which they live play a central role in these dire outcomes. The lack of exposure to different ideas and perspectives also holds our children back from progressing down a path to critical consciousness. We see what critical pedagogy can do. It’s time we explicitly bring it into our schools.

More Student Action:

New Mexico students join others in nation who oppose new test intended to assess performance (Monday, March 2, 2015)

http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/03/02/new-mexico-students-walk-out-over-new-tests-contested-in-us

Students in Albuquerque, NM protest against PARCC for a second day [VIDEO] (Tuesday, March 3, 2015)

http://krqe.com/2015/03/03/protests-continue-against-parcc-test/

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What’s Up with Newark?: Unfiltered Discussion

Published January 4, 2014 by Leah Z Owens

Facing the near-Antarctic temperatures, I walked over to Bethany Baptist Church this morning to attend the What’s Up with Newark? roundtable discussions. I am a member of the host committee for Young People Organizing for Change, a coalition of young professionals who are targeting a particular population to get more involved in their communities, and the group that organized this morning’s event. In Newark, there tend to be islands of political activity. Any young person trying to eat usually is attached to one camp or another, and their talents and ideas can get overlooked. But this morning, that wasn’t the case. We were speaking loud and clear about what we see as the most pertinent issues. Unfiltered. No sugarcoat.

Articulate. Intelligent. Moving. These are the words that first come to mind when I reflect on the conversations of which I was a part. My area of expertise is what has come to be known as urban education, so I was super-ready to contribute to the “The Miseducation of Education” conversation. I ended up doing more listening than speaking (though if you know me, that’s not unusual for me); however, this time it was because I was drafted to take notes. There were a few other educators at the table, but most were speaking from different roles. Listening to my peers, they were hitting all of the major points of contention in education debates today—the role of charter schools in public education systems, culturally relevant teacher preparation, the importance of engaging parents in their children’s education, and more.

A blog will always be a personal platform, so I get my chance to speak regardless! On a serious note though, an observation I made through the education discussion is that, when discussing the dysfunctional public education system and proposing solutions, we tend to have a narrow point of view as to what these solutions could possibly be. For example, I am not convinced that we need to continue to follow this combination factory-agrarian model of education that still exists. Factory in the sense that students are shuffled along from one grade to the next solely based on age and agrarian in that most public school students have two months off in the summer. I know we haven’t strayed from the plantation system figuratively, but I don’t literally see any kids picking cotton in Newark. Internships during the last year or two of high school and over the summers would be real career-readiness, and we’ll expand our notion of what comprises institutionalized education at the same time.

My observation actually applies to the other two discussions—“Poverty=Crime” and “The Cycle of a Dollar”—as well. At one point, we were discussing the possible impact of the decriminalization of marijuana. Essentially, the individual drug seller would be displaced by the institution. Again, riveting dialogue—real talk, as they say—and it gets at a deeper discussion of market forces and other economic concepts I only know on a superficial level, but we still remained within the realm of capitalism. Small businesses and keeping our dollars in our communities could be approached from other political-economic perspectives. Maybe there exists a shade of capitalism that could serve our communities’ needs, but we have to acknowledge that it is an inherently unequal system. A strong structure of checks and balances would have to exist; otherwise, any solutions proposed out of capitalism will ultimately perpetuate a class system with some group shouldering an inordinate amount of burden.

At the next event, our mini-conference on February 15^th “Empowering Change Agents,” I look forward to the drafting of an agenda. Carving out a space just for the discussion itself is vital; in organizing, this is when we can build relationships and develop common understandings. But taking action—there’s nothing like taking action. And today was another experience in that continued renewal of my activist spirit.

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A Funeral I’ll Never Forget

Published October 26, 2013 by Leah Z Owens

Walking into a funeral home on Mt. Prospect Avenue was the last way I thought I would be starting my summer of 2008. But there I was, surrounded by colleagues of Barringer High School, remembering the life of Sujeiti Ocasio.

I don’t have one negative memory of Sujeiti. She was funny, upbeat, and ready to find her place in the world. In fact, the last memory I have of her was her coming by my classroom with a friend to ask if I could help her write her resume. Mind you, I was in the middle of teaching a class and I knew it wasn’t her lunch period, but my normally strict, serious teaching persona responded, “Go back there and log in. Then, I’ll come show you how to do it, but you have to be quiet.” She was appreciative, and after I showed her how to find and use a template in Word, she and her friend kept busy for the remainder of the period. I checked in with her a few times, looked it over when she was done, and gave her some paper to print out a few copies.

I found solace in this memory as I sat in the overflow room of the funeral home. Quiet as summer rain, the volume never reached above a solemn hum. Family and friends whispered to others sitting close, or didn’t speak at all. Each time someone new walked in, I would look up, trying my best to smile with my eyes. These were the only muscles in my face that seemed to work. The entire experience was surreal. How could this have happened? Damn, she was a good girl. Sujeiti didn’t deserve to die.

All of this, and more, rushed into my mind as I sat at the table waiting to introduce myself at tonight’s Newark Anti-Violence Coalition Meet and Greet. Almost everyone had a personal story to tell about how gun violence had taken the life of a family member or friend. During open discussion, individuals shared the work they have been doing and offered ideas for further work to be done. This includes ideas for how we can attack the issue of senseless violence at its root. I think member Natasha Allen said it well: “You’ve heard the saying that some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Well, some people are born with a sword in their hand, and they think that’s the only way to go about solving problems.” We cannot allow our children to be exposed to violence, sex, drugs as a norm, then turn around and expect them to act any differently than what they see. Whether one ends up in the role of victim or perpetrator, we must recognize how the prevalence of violence in the media and in our communities is a detriment to the psyche.

Sujeiti was killed within weeks of the day she came by my classroom. Murdered at her own home, at her own graduation party, by another young woman, Nicole Guyette, who should have graduated that night as well. It was a senseless killing over name calling. The kind of name calling I see and hear on a daily basis inside schools. Every instance should be taken seriously. I’ve already seen how it can end.

Each day is an opportunity to start anew. Tomorrow is no different, except that some courageous people who love this city have organized a symbolic event to help us heal our communities and say enough is enough: The Funeral to Bury Violence in Newark. At 11am, five processions will originate from each of the wards, culminating at Lincoln Park at 1pm where the funeral will take place. Tomorrow, I will walk for Sujeiti AND for Nicole because they are both victims of our over-aggressive society. I don’t want any more stories to tell about someone I knew. And I hope you don’t either.

PROCESSION STARTING LOCATIONS

North Ward: La Casa de Don Pedro, 39 Broadway

South Ward: Valley Fair

East Ward: Riverview Terrace

West Ward: Sanford Ave & S. Orange Ave, Sacred Heart Church

Central Ward: CityPlex Theater, Springfield Avenue