Let us know how that goes. I'm curious to know the outcome.
What a weekend. So, the updates you asked for (and some you didn't).
Apparently my email caused a bit more attention than I expected. I was supposed to meet only with the Race Relations teacher and the head of English. Instead, I was greeted in the office at 3:35 by the new Principal (Hispanic male). He led me to the conference room where the Race Relations teacher (black female) was seated, along with the head of the English curriculum (white female, married to a police officer), and the assistant Principal (black female). It was awkward and the tension was evident. The principal opened - a kind and humorous man who thanked me for coming in.
To net it all out, the meeting went really well. I was there for about 40 minutes. It went exactly as I thought it would, without me getting a lot of details I wanted, but leaving relatively comfortable that things would be delivered appropriately.
They shared the syllabus which was, as I predicted, very light - more like an outline of the two units they'd be going through. Ms. Race Relations explained (with a diagram to show me her position) that she believes too much of what we hear is either one extreme or another and that her course will be looking at racial issues from this perspective - there are polar extremes, then there is the truth that always lies somewhere in the middle. For example, her diagram showed one end:
One pole: An oppressive system exists that creates barriers for some people; failure = what other people did TO you/barriers they put in place; Success = luck, being born into success.
Opposite pole: Failure = lack of effort; success = hard work; personal responsibility; an individual's success is directly correlated with the amount of effort they put in and nothing else.
She'll be discussing each and every issue from the perspective that the truth lies, almost always, in the middle.
From the course syllabus, it states - "The ultimate goal of Who Do We Think We Are [the course name] is to expose students to multiple perspectives and allow the to reflect and think critically about where they stand."
I'm fine with that as long as they stick to that and shared as such. One thing I like about the course is the frameworks they are allowing them to communicate in. When a subject comes up, like Alton Sterling did on Friday, a student is not permitted to make direct statements like "That's racist." Instead, they are being taught essentially to speak like mature adults and use phrases like "I respect your opinion. Mine is different and I believe..." Learning to speak that way will serve them well in a diverse work or university environment in the future.
We spoke at length. I shared my views. They theirs' and it was overall a good conversation. I disagreed with a point or two, but nothing that left me alarmed. We discussed welfare, Malcolm X, the news and media bias, and my personal views on addressing race relations at a grass roots level. It ended with a big thank you from the Principal especially, who thanked me for being there - that too few parents show interest and they welcome it - and he welcomed me to come sit in on any class if I chose to.
Then immediately after, I went and picked up our young friend "T" - the 13 year old African American who we've been mentoring for about 3 years. Talked with his aunt, who's his legal guardian and 7 months pregnant for a while in their home, then we left. Took him and my youngest son to my oldest son's HS football game.
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Saturday rolls around, another busy day. Took my youngest son to his 2nd basketball tryout in one direction, and my wife took "T" 30 minutes in the other direction to his youth football game. After my son's tryout, we jetted up to the game. T plays for the youth football team I used to coach for. It was fantastic seeing all of the coaches and players (many of whom are the same). Ended up being a horrific night however.
First, one of their star players got hit late out of bounds and had his shoulder separated. Ambulance on the field-type-of-deal.
Then T, who was having a very good game, fielded a kick. He muffed it, picked it up but in so doing was in an awkward position, got hit and went down, very awkwardly. He was down on the field with his coaches. He got to the sideline and I came over. They thought "he tweaked his ankle." I saw his face and knew something was really wrong. He was in excruciating pain, and swelling above the ankle. He wasn't in "I have a sprain" pain. So a good friend of mine picks him up and starts carrying him to the lot. He goes about 100M around the track then I carried him 50, before switching back off and I sprinted to my truck. I drove down onto the HS field, got him in, and drove like a bat out of hell to the ER. Got there about 8:20.
Called his Aunt, who in turn called his mom (who does not have custody of him) and they joined us there. T broke both bones in his lower leg above the ankle and might also have a fracture below the knee too. The kid was in such writhing pain that a nurse and I had to put on radiation aprons and sit and hold his leg in place just to get two poor x-ray shots. But they were clear enough to know it was bad. We were in the ER for 4 hours.
We left, my wife and I taking T home with us because his mom can't care for him and his Aunt is so pregnant and doesn't have a house conducive to care. We get fast food (blech) because it was 12:30AM. We get home and make our family room into a makeshift hospital room for him, and finally, about 2:30AM the drugs kicked in and he was able to sleep. I think I made it to bed by 4. Fast forward to this morning/today and he's still in utter agony. Trying to get him to the bathroom this morning, you'd have thought I was slowly cutting his limbs off with a pocket knife the way he screamed. It's been awful for him. The cast he has on is makeshift and the kid is allergic to motrin, so he can only go on the Tylenol regimen and aceto-related drugs, nothing ibuprofen related, which isn't enough (no blend of Tylenol/motrin drugs).
We'll get him to the ortho tomorrow. Not sure if he'll need surgery or not, but at a minimum he needs to get into a solid, plaster cast of some sort to stabilize it.
Happy first day of NFL football!
