Good From Evil, Look For It

Not always easy to do. We all have to look for that rainbow that comes after the storm or the fact  that it is always darkest before the dawn.  But, how do you do that when you see nothing but hatred and anger behind it...and the heartbreak left behind in the wake?  Amazingly, I have seen that!  

Since starting at the high school I am currently teaching at, I have been some amazing people - some characters and some simply amazing. The most recent part of that "amazing" came to us in the fall through Serve 2 Unite, funded by Arts @ Large.  Both AMAZING organizations. I'll let you read the back stories of both, but it is found in the temple shooting nearly two years ago. 

I was sitting there, quietly working on my kids' headphones for the coming school year in my bedroom, listening to the kids giggle in the living room...when I got the phone call from my FFW next door - from work.  "Where's J? Is he at the temple?!" I literally looked at my phone.  Why was she asking?  She knew it was a shift day, where do you think he is?  Why would he be at a temple?   I had no clue what she was talking about.  I was watching Oddities and clearly oblivious. "Oh, my god, you don't know."

And my heart dropped.  The tone in her voice.  I hit the news explosion that was upon us and couldn't breathe for a moment.  I studied the rigs, looking for Med 7.  This was the day I learned the difference between those red boxes - MFD has the zig zag gold on the side.  I remember seeing the images...burning them in my mind.  There is one of Pardeep's brother, Armadeep that haunted me.

It is as clear as day.  Even in the dark of this sleepless night. 

As I said earlier, you have to look for that first ray of sunlight that comes out of that darkness.  Luckily, I didn't have to look it found me.  Through Serve 2 Unite.  

Love and acceptance out tragedy, heartache and hatred.

Six lives were lost.  Pardeep's father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin was among the casualties. Countless others, rocked to their very core.  Anger and bitterness would have made total sense for the families involved.  NO ONE would have faulted them,. Instead, they turned that heartache into a chance to mend broken hearts and bring an end to senseless violence and hatred.  Through the amazing initiative of a grieving family and a repentant skin head.

Pardeep and Arno.  They are the most amazing odd couple you have ever seen.   I have to admit, I spent much of the first meeting with them trying to figure things out...who fit where, how this ACTUALLY came to fruition...and don't remember much of the actual discussion in our little social studies department. When Arno came to speak to the Sociology class, I brought my World History kids in as well.  His message was worth sacrificing a day of content.  Watching my kids, who didn't quite trust me at that point, listen to this big, raspy voiced man share is tale of hate mongering, with these kids who are all too familiar with it, was AMAZING.  Instant defensiveness.  One of my big guys refused to sit on the same side of this monstrous room.  Another actually commented to me, "You really want me to listen to this sh!t?".  They could not wrap their heads around it.  Experience has taught them that leopards don't change their spots.  And here was this perceived monster who had a swastika tattooed to his middle finger...and I was asking them to listen to him.

Fast forward to this past Friday.  When my kids, 75 kids from so many different paths of life, converged on one of our southside neighborhoods to do Community Mapping, not only with S2U, but also with UWM's Urban Initiatives & Research, to determine through analysis of data, what we can do to make a difference in that neighborhood.  Watching these same kids who did not think Arno was worth  giving up my elaborate notes for...was AMAZING!  The smiles that Pardeep brought to my kids.  And my FF working with a group that was so diligently trying to update their Neighborhood Safety map, made me smile. 

It was an amazing transformation.  In so many ways.  From that skeptical group of kids in October...from that group of kids that was SO uncomfortable THAT morning, because I separated them from their friends and asked some of them to lead...to this group this community of amazing kids, working together SO amazingly! It made my heart happy.  

Good from evil.  I didn't have to look for it.  It found me.

Photo credit: Serve 2 Unite

Photo credit: Serve 2 Unite

Why would I post the serious pictures?

It was an amazing day.  Seeing me kids leave their comfort zones within their peer group and into unknown groupings - begging me to change them - and move out into the community to reach out a seek to make it better.  This would not have happened this way had it not been for the tears falling to water such a beautiful, life filled group.  

Please know, I am not saying that I am glad that it happened.  It woke me up in the middle of the night, hence this post.  I am, however, grateful, that hate did not turn into hate.  Instead, into spreading a message of love and tolerance.  And, I am indeed blessed to have been a witness to it.

My husband has been permanently temporarily assigned to the TEMS house - another creation in response to the tragedy of the that fatal day in August 2012.  If, God forbid, we were to see an event of that level, I won't have to wonder if he is there.  He will be there, presuming his formal assignment comes to be.  Instead of watching to see if there, I will be finding something productive to do, hoping for that phone call when all is said and done.  

I will be looking for that break of dawn to get me through the worry that will accompany such events.  We have to look for that ray of sunshine...it helps lead us to tomorrow, no matter how dark the night has been.  My kids are my ray of sunshine.  Be sure to find yours.

Peace and love.

Better

There are two things from teaching at the Catholic High School I was at for the last three years.  Some of the people, sure.  But people come and go from your life all the time.  And, we were so far removed living two counties away, that I never really bonded with the staff there.  The two MAIN things that I miss, the technology.  I admit it. I LOVED having the technology.   As a teacher, I have just as much.  Actually more.  There are more copiers/printers.  I have a desktop AND a laptop.  But, the student technology is not the same.  I miss teaching in a 1:1 classroom.  I miss being paperless.  I miss being able to switch to a new activity at the blink of an eye because someone brought up a GREAT idea.  I miss the creativity that the digital media encourages.  I miss that.

But, even more, I miss the service aspect.  

So, I am the guinea pig for the service requirements here.  We're working with UW-M, Serve2Unite, and various other neighborhood associations to be determined next week.  Yesterday was the first introduction to the project with my kids.  We did a learning circle to discuss  the project and some basic expectations. The discussion focused on what makes life better.  More specifically, what makes our community better.  I, being sheltered in my sweet little neighborhood, said that level sidewalks would make my neighborhood better.  Better for the kids learning to skate and ride bikes.  Better for the joggers who are getting their miles in.  Better.  Right?

Then you listen to the kids.

Less crack houses.

Less boarded up houses.

Less violence.

Less gun violence.

More things for teens to do.

More grass.

And then I felt horrible.  Forgetting that they may live in the same city that do, but they certainly do not live in the same world as me.  

So, I am hoping that this will make somethings better.  The neighborhood the kids choose for the project.  The focus the choose for the community mapping.  The changes they decide to implement.  I am hoping it makes them better people, better adults as they leave me.  I am hoping that it makes the community better, better for the families that live there.  I am hoping that it makes our city better, more invested in the individual neighborhoods that are too often written off because they are in the hood.  

I am hoping it makes me better.

It is a shift day.  I am in my classroom on a Saturday morning.  Blogging, grading, copying, planning.  All to make this school better.

We all need to chip and make this whole world a better place.  

What are you going to do today to make things better?

Being a Servant

We talk about it on a regular basis in our school, in my classroom, at home.  We talk about service requirements - is it really service if it is required.  If we don't require it and only HIGHLY encourage it, how do we motivate our teens (who can be sloths at times) to serve willingly in order to experience the joy that comes with it.



We talk about it at home when the kids whine that it is not their job.  Or when they want to get paid for chores. (We don't pay for chores - it is just part of being family.)  Or when we are putting stuff together for toy drives or food drives.  Or my super double secret current service project that I can't talk about it.  The kids see it in action and I hope to God that it becomes part of their being as their enter into their own space and time.

My Social Justice Classes are working on BIG service projects - Dress a Girl Around the World, Sandy relief, Shantytowns, etc.  And ENJOYING IT!

Service means helping others because you can.

My FF had a long night - a fire that kept him out for most of it and just as they neared quarters at 4:15am, they got called back out for a messy call that took at ton to handle.

I got a call at 6:20 on my way in to see if the FF could sub at our Lower Campus, they were really short staffed and he wasn't answering his phone.  I woke him up and he wandered out of the dorm, probably with his eyes closed.  And said he would.



My FF had a long night.  He still is willing to help.  He had a lunch date with his mom and was okay rescheduling it.  It is his birthday.  And he is still going in.  How many people take off to celebrate their birthday?  He is working a 32 hour shift on his birthday - in service.  The people in his area really need his services.  The kids he will be teaching LOVE having him there.  He will be back in the school on Monday - another 32 hour shift to help out Miss America's mom and take over her 4th grade classroom so she can help Laura out.  He is a servant.  Always willing and humble.  And that is why he is  a wonderful role model for my boys.  He is a great guy.

Now, if only I could train him to put  away his laundry... 

The weekend is upon us.  Enjoy the time with your kids as you prepare for Christmas.  Love them and be sure your FF knows how much you appreciate them. 

Okay, I admit it, I suck at it!

My post yesterday.  All big and bad.  Such a tough girl, I said NO to doing lunch duty.  Oooooooo! That was easily done easier to do, because it was for an adult.  Kids and k9s.  I can't say no.  Now, for the record, that does not mean that I take the kids to the Golden Arches every time they ask or buy them whatever their heart desires.  BUT, when kids hearts are truly in the right place, there is nothing I can do.  I can't say no.  I just can't.

Due to standardized testing, we had all of our classes in the afternoon yesterday.  I proposed doing a service project to really put what we are learning about social justice into action.  I thought, okay, a project for both classes to do together.  Awesome.  Yeah, how about 2 projects from each class for a total of 4 social justice projects.

Yeah, I know.  My FF rolled his eyes, too.  But hear me out and tell me if you could tell these kids no.  Remember, these are seniors.  And in my experience, they tend to be the most self-focused class in high school.  

So my first period class came up with about 20  ideas.  Some were amazing and some were pretty lame, to be honest.  They whittled it down to two.  Doing a Shanty Town for Habitat in our courtyard and making dresses for Dress a Girl Around the World.  Both AMAZING ideas.  Think of the impact!  They couldn't decide.  SO, we decided to do both.  They had true intentions of simply doing good.  Originally they were looking for ideas involving field trips that would get them out of school and yet they chose two events that will require them to give up their oh so precious time.


My next class, same idea.  They started out looking for ways to get out of class and settled on two really good ideas.  One - Stuffing our little 20 passenger school bus with Thanksgiving dinner items and delivering them to a larger Stuff the Bus event in Milwaukee.  Their second idea, not so much based in social justice, but noble none the less was to partner with Children's Hospital to see how we can help them out.  That was in still in the works.  AND both classes wanted to help with the other's projects.  Now, I just added a TON of work to my load and it is all self-inflicted.  Please feel free to remind me that it was indeed my choice.  I am a mom, I am well versed at saying NO, but willingly chose not to.

The Least Among Us

All of our kids (at school) do service.  We try ingrain it their brains so that it simply becomes part of who they are. You find it with seniors working with the preschoolers.  Our Middle School kids visit one of the area nursing homes.  The older elementary classes buddy up with the primary grades.  We do food drives and coat drives and toiletries drives and supply drives and toy drives.  Our lower campus has won the PB and J Challenge for the last few years. Our middle schoolers are required to completed 5 hours of experience per term and our 9-11 graders are required to complete 3 experiences per term.  There are opportunities offered and verification sheets and reflection papers.  It works for some kids and for others it still just a hoop to jump through.  But, none-the-less, the seed has been planted even if it does not blossom for years to come. 

Our seniors are not required to jump through that hoop.  Instead, the entire week before graduation it is Senior Service Week.  They build house for Habitat, help the nuns at the Motherhouse (seeing as they founded our school it is so very important that we give back), we work in homeless shelters and women's shelters, food banks and soup kitchens.  We have a small crew currently in Nicaragua working to build a school. It is a powerful week for most of the kids.


Today, I get to leave my underclassmen for the day and spend one more day with my seniors before they are gone.  One more day to spend with these kids before they leave.  One more day to help them discover/remember that they are only part of something much big than themselves.

I wish more schools, even the public schools, had a service requirement for graduation.  There are so many people in need and it is so rewarding to help, just because.

As a family this summer, I would like to challenge you to do one service project this summer, no matter how big or how small.  Through your Church, of your own design, it makes absolutely no difference. And preface it with your kids about important it is for communities to work together.  For neighborhoods to unite and help each other out.  Be it a river clean-up or a book drive, with the idea to simply help someone out.


Matthew 25:40, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."