Let's Do Something

I’m writing this to encourage white people in my home town of St. Louis to engage in fixing messed up systems fraught with racial bias and systemic inequality. I’m writing to recommend they attend an awesome event that will help change St. Louis systems so that racial equality actually has a chance here.  I’m also writing to challenge any white folks who don’t already see that our society is structured so that more advantage is conferred to light-skinned people than dark-skinned. I challenge these folks to open their eyes and see the truth, then move forward and help do something about it.

First of all, to my white brothers and sisters who don’t see that there’s a problem that’s all that bad. I’ve been avoiding you for awhile. I haven’t wanted to wade into the murky water of trying to convince you of systemic or institutional racism. Or talk about white privilege or white blindness. I didn’t want to have to spend time digging around for facts to support my position. I didn’t want to alienate anyone either. But my conscience has been nagging me to speak up. So I’ll tell you a few things I’ve noticed with my own eyes and some I’ve learned from others’ research.

For me, one of the most striking things about St. Louis is how segregated we are. This summer I got to work on an organic farm, located in Ferguson, about 25 minutes north of my home in Kirkwood. A couple times I commuted via a North-South artery instead of the freeway. Kirkwood is a predominately white suburb, and Ferguson, well, everybody’s heard of it. About halfway to Ferguson, I would drive through a famously diverse municipality, where the pedestrians and drivers were a variety of hues. Then, I’d cross the unofficial redline and I’d be the only white person I saw again until I arrived at the farm. From my house to the farm, the shift from white to black was pretty dramatic. And it wasn’t just skin color that shifted from one part of town to the other. You’d have to be blind not to notice where signs of affluence fell away, and how this correlates with the skin color of the neighborhood. Goodbye well-maintained turn of the century farmhouses and fancy restaurants, hello liquor stores, pawn shops, and payday loans.

A lot of people who come here from other cities talk about how shocking it is, the degree to which blacks and whites are cut off from each other in St. Louis. The implications of de facto segregation (which is what we’ve got here in St. Louis) are so depressing. Segregated housing is like an enzyme in a body that causes a cascade reaction, with one negative effect becoming the cause for another and another. Long commutes by bus to low wage jobs for so many African Americans--that’s a negative effect of segregation. The ability of whites to not pay attention to black people’s reality--that’s another negative effect. So many negative effects compound over time, and we get entire neighborhoods that are poor, entire school districts that are struggling, and prisons that are chock full of black people. And so many people that would prefer not to think about it.

I’ve spent a lot of time volunteering in a lot of different St. Louis schools over the years. Some in Saint Louis City and some in the county. I’ve been in schools where teachers struggle to keep enough paper and pencils in stock for their students, where textbooks are old, and half the kids might go hungry on the weekends. These schools are full of black kids. I’ve been in private schools that have campuses to rival universities and whose students pay more for elementary school than I did for college. These schools are not full of black kids. And in the schools where my kids go, there there are smartboards in every classroom and school-issued iPads in every backpack. These public schools are not full of black kids.

And what about the statistics showing how well we as a community are caring for our black youth? Starting from birth, there’s a sharp divide. Infant mortality--black babies are 3.3 times as likely to die as white babies in the St. Louis area. And when black kids enter the school system in Missouri, they are 7 times as likely to be suspended in elementary school than white kids, and twice as likely than whites to end up dropping out before graduation. And to top that off, the federal Justice Department just released a scathing report about St. Louis Family Court’s disparate treatment of black and white youth who end up in the judicial system. Put all these things together and tell me that black lives really truly matter in this culture. Doesn’t this break your heart? And don’t you see how this situation is hurting all of us in the long run?

It’s time we stopped looking away from the burdens that disproportionately impact our black brothers and sisters. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and fix our society, which was founded on overt racism interwoven with very lofty ideals. I don’t expect us all to have the same ideas on how to fix things, that’s crazy. But I do think it’s a moral imperative and a civic duty to open our eyes to the truth and engage in repairing our society. I know it’s difficult work, both emotionally and practically. It takes time and energy to learn about the systems that shape our culture, and the work to make change can be slow and sometimes painful. But I also know that to walk through the guilt that comes from seeing one’s own culpability in perpetuating unjust systems and come out the other side ready to take action is so good. Won’t you join me?

On November 1, 2015, Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU), an interfaith community organizing group, and two other community organizations will bring 1,000-1500 St. Louisans together with key St. Louis leaders to help give teeth to recommendations in the Ferguson Commission Report. This report was mandated by Governor Nixon after the shooting of Michael Brown forced the governor to confront the St. Louis region’s racist reality. The writing of the report was required, but there is no mandate to actually do anything with the Commission’s 12 months’ of research and subsequent report. That is where we, the citizens, come in. We have to make sure that the research, the documenting of our current reality, wasn’t done in vain. We have to help our political leaders develop the political will to work to bring about racial equality in our city.

I’ve decided to help by plugging in with MCU, and this may be the organization for you as well. I had the privilege of first working with MCU a decade ago, and it is really an incredible organization. Today, I’m reconnected with them, engaged in work to bring us closer to the vision of a community where black lives really do matter, not just on yard signs but especially in our school systems and our judicial systems. I love MCU, and I’m confident that it’s a good use of my time to work on change-making with them. MCU gets things done, and has a tried-and-true method for doing so. This organization sees a problem and researches the heck out of it. They examine the power structures that underlie the problem, build relationships with the folks who have the ability to make changes related to the problem, and then publicly ask these decision makers for very specific actions in front of a very large, racially diverse crowd. Because they’ve laid a ton of groundwork, developed many relationships, and  packed the house, more often than not the leaders decide to do what’s right. It’s awesome, and empowering, and fun to see that ordinary people do have great collective power.

MCU and their partners are busy preparing for a big gathering like the one described above, on Nov. 1. Leaders like Mayor Slay, superintendents of various schools, city and county council folks, police chiefs, and state legislators will be in attendance. MCU will ask these leaders to commit to specific actions that support racial equity in our city, using the priorities laid out in the Ferguson Commission Report. Hopefully these leaders will feel the pressure of more than 1000 St. Louisans of all skin tones asking for change, and say yes to making our city better for the black citizens, which will actually make it better for us all.  Then, after some well-deserved celebrating, we can begin the hard work of holding folks accountable:) So, if you know that there is much work to be done to make St. Louis a great place to live for everyone--maybe you’ve wanted to help but haven’t known how--come to the meeting on November 1st. There is power in numbers and you are making a difference just by showing up. But fair warning, you might just get hooked and want to do more than attend a meeting.

November 1 Public Meeting

Place: Busch Student Center-St. Louis University

          20 North Grand, St. Louis, MO 63103

          Free parking: Laclede parking garage across the street

Time: 3:00-4:30 pm (doors open at 2 pm)

Next Generation Science Standards

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn, and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.

                                -John Dewey

I learned a lot about the Next Generation Science Standards last week, and found a resource that I thought anybody in elementary education (classroom teacher, outdoor educator, professional development facilitator, principal, anybody) would find really beneficial and cool. Paul Anderson, Montana's 2011 Teacher of the Year, a science teacher at Bozeman High School, created a ton of really good science videos for students and teachers. I spent some time checking out his website, bozemanscience.com, and really liked the videos about the Next Generation Science Standards. They're for teachers, under 10 minutes long, and do a great job explaining science in a way that makes teaching it easier. For me, it was a clear, concise refresher on overarching concepts that apply to many specific content areas in science. For teachers with less of a science background, these videos simply explain what we want kids to know and ways to do that at different levels of development.

I learned about these videos at a curriculum planning workshop I got to attend last week.
I felt really fortunate that, although a parent volunteer and not on staff, I was invited to take part in an elementary science curriculum planning session. This particular session built on some visioning that took place in the fall, where teachers painted a picture of what they wanted elementary science to look like in the school district. I learned that the teachers had a vision of student discovery, exploration, and wonder. And that they care about sustainability. But that they wonder about how to realize their vision despite the demands of testing and day-to-day constraints.

The school district's new science facilitator shared his philosophy of science education for the elementary years and how this blends with the Next Generation Science Standards. He talked about the importance of focusing on broad concepts, like teaching kids how to question; the basics of the scientific method; or learning how to recognize patterns, understand cause and effect, and make predictions about systems. He talked about the need to concentrate on these rather than focusing so much on content at this stage. He talked about designing an experience, trusting in children's innate curiosity and purposeful playfullness.

Well, I think this is exciting stuff, to be sure. As one participant remarked during the workshop--almost all educators enter the profession desiring to create learning experiences like the one John Dewey described in the quote at the top. But this can be difficult due to constraints put on teachers, and downright intimidating to some teachers if they don't have a lot of science education themselves. This is where these science videos come in. They turn the 400 page document (nextgenscience.org) containing the entire framework of science standards into easily understood chunks of information. They simplify complex topics, they're engaging, and I think they will quickly increase teachers' comfort level and ability in teaching science. Check them out, and let me know if you think they're as cool as I do!

Stop there, or read on below for some more tidbits about the curriculum meeting I attended.  This meeting gave me hope for both my son who has a few more years in elementary school, and for his teachers who want the freedom to create learning experiences that help kids maintain an attitude of exploration, discovery, and wonder.

Some of the ideas that resonated with me from the workshop:

• Young kids learn while playing, and their play almost always has a purpose. Educators can design science-related experiences that tap into learning through play. Check out the Periodic Table of Play to see different ways play can be classified...

• Currently, we generally begin designing an experience with a consideration of content. (Content is what we want kids to learn, i.e. the parts of a plant or the process of the water cycle.) At the elementary level, content is less important than learning to use scientific practices and learning to understand the broad, cross-cutting concepts which encompass the content students should know when they leave high school. Approaching a learning experience this way makes it more likely students will have a sense of wonder, discovery, and exploration. Basically, the science facilitator's message was this: Get kids comfortable with scientific method and argument and help them understand the cross-cutting concepts. Worry about specific content when kids are of an age where the details will begin to stick. 

• If you want teachers to feel free to design learning experiences that emphasize Practices and Cross-Cutting Concepts, the grading rubric needs to reflect that. We worked on this a bit. Whew. As if I didn't already think teachers jobs were hard...

• There needs to be some sort of coordination among grade-levels so that the kids' learning in science builds on previous years' learning without too much overlap in content or activities. This is the nitty-gritty, and it will be interesting to see what happens when the planning gets to this stage!

Benefits of School Gardening

Denver Urban Gardens, or DUG, compiled some research findings about the benefits of school gardens. This is a great resource for those of us who are school garden advocates. The studies cited were all published between 2002 and 2012, so there is some fairly current stuff in there. If you're not already convinced that school gardens should be widely used in every school, check out the link below.

If you are already an advocate, this paper looks like a great resource to print and share with folks who aren't so sure about the idea of gardening with students. It's short, with bullet points sharing the benefits in the areas of academic achievement, social and emotional health, physical health, and benefits to the school and community at large. For those wanting to know more, it includes a list of the sources cited in the paper. Check it out!

"Benefits of School Gardens" compiled by Denver Urban Gardens

Race and Our Community

So, I live about 20 minutes from Ferguson in a pretty darn white suburb of St. Louis. Since Michael Brown was killed, I can't stop thinking about that whole situation--but even more so just how entrenched this city is in de facto segregation and systemic racism. I've been reluctant to write about it on here, in part because my feelings of sadness and confusion about how to make a difference have impeded any ability I might have to write something cohesive. But also, if I'm honest, because I am nervous about ruffling feathers. I am definitely non-confrontational.

The title of this blog is "Kids, Community, and Food", and I usually write about food or kids growing food. But community is in the title too, and it's it's in there because I believe so strongly in the power of gardening in groups to build healthy communities. And because I believe that we have to have strong, healthy community groups in order to solve the complex social and environmental problems that our children are inheriting. Mike Brown's death highlights just how unhealthy our community here in St. Louis is, and the outrage and sadness that bubbled over in Ferguson has been there a long time because our community is chronically ill with systemic racism.

I still don't know what to say, exactly. But I do know that I don't want things to just calm down and go back the way they were. I want things to change. To be better. I want to live in a city without a redline. I want to live in a city, where when I choose which neighborhood to live in based on the quality of the school district, that school will also be racially diverse. That is not the city I live in today. And I did choose a well-to-do, mostly white school district when we moved back to St. Louis a couple years ago. It's been a long time since I lived in a diverse suburb of St. Louis, studied environmental justice in grad school, and experienced the power of community and school gardening to bridge racial divides.

Today I find myself gardening in groups of mostly white people through my work to integrate sustainability education into the curriculum at Tillman Elementary. Of course, it's great, because community gardening is almost always awesome. While I'm confident we are laying down experiences that will help the kids involved learn to care for the Earth, I don't believe that this will have any impact on dismantling racism unless we make social justice an explicit part of what we teach. There are lots of avenues for this, especially through the lens of environmental justice. I am certain that issues of fair food distribution will come up, because the kids at Tillman are so wonderfully kind-hearted. But will we adults have the courage to take it a step further and examine who is most likely to be "food insecure" in our city? I don't know. I'm hopeful, actually, because my son told us last night that his class wrote cards for kids at Michael Brown's school. That's a step, and one I could learn from.

After several years of living in mostly white neighborhoods, I have noticed a subtle shift toward complacency in my own self. It's just easy not to think about systemic racism, or even my own personal biases, when I live in a neighborhood surrounded by a lot of other folks enjoying white privilege without even having to think about it. I'm not saying we're bad people, I'm just saying we are enjoying the privilege of staying blind to systemic racism if we want to. I don't know how to fix it, I just think we definitely can't fix it if we are afraid to look at it and talk about it. And if we are on the defensive when we do look and talk.

A couple weeks ago, my pastor quoted Cornell West (prominent black thinker/philosopher) addressing a white audience. West had said something like, "If I still have vestiges of white supremacy in me, I'm willing to bet that you do too." For me, this was so comforting. And challenging. Racism is embedded in our culture and communities, so of course it's hiding in us too. It just is. And if we are honest with ourselves and work to change things for the better, then we need not be ashamed. Another thing my pastor said that stuck with me: "Our faith tells us that we are one. If this is true, then we have to see Michael Brown as our child. And we have to see Darren Wilson as our brother." Whoa. Think about that one for a bit.

Well, I already wrote way more than I had planned. I got on here just planning to share three articles that have touched me deeply, or opened my eyes in new ways since everything blew up in Ferguson. Maybe these will have meaning for you too. There are links to them below. Thanks for reading, and thinking, and talking with your friends about how to make our world better for everyone.

Article by Wash U mom (African-American) about her sons
Article by a white mom about her sons
Blog post from a woman in Portland, Or entitled "I am racist, and so are you"

Too Many Zukes?

If you're a gardener or a CSA subscriber, chances are high that you are inundated with zucchini right about now. This summer I've grilled it, hidden it in spaghetti sauce, made zucchini brownies, and frozen gobs of it for use this winter. After all that, I still can't seem to clear my crisper drawers of the stuff!

On the verge of anonymously dumping some on my neighbors' porches, I found a better option: Zucchini Pie. A cheesy, eggy, zukey recipe that calls for 8 cups of zucchini. Yes, 8 cups!!! Besides ridding myself of zucchinis for a couple days, this recipe tastes good too. It made two pies, so I did offload one on a neighbor. That seems so much better for neighbor relations than what I was about to do.

The recipe is from a cookbook called Simply in Season, "commissioned by Mennonite Central Committee to promote the understanding of how the food choices we make affect our lives and the lives of those who produce the food." Published by Herald Press, this cookbook is a great study in how to eat seasonally and reduce food waste. Thank you to my dear friend Rachel Maxwell-Wells for giving me this cookbook! You can find out how to order this book here http://www.heraldpress.com/titles/simplyinseason/.

But here's the recipe for those of you who might want to try before you buy. Enjoy!

Italian Zucchini Pie

Preheat oven to 375.

1/4 c. warm water
1 T. active dry yeast
Mix until yeast dissolves. Set aside.

1/4 c. milk
1 T. olive oil
1 egg, beaten
Combine in a mixing bowl or food processor. Add dissolved yeast and stir.

1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated
1 t. salt
1-2 t. fresh basil, chopped
Blend in.

2 c. bread flour (I added 2 T. vital wheat gluten to regular flour, worth a try with regular flour if you don't have the substitutions.)
Add 1/2 c. at a time to make a smooth but slighly sticky dough. Place in a greased bowl, trne to grease both sides, cover with a damp cloth, and place in a warm place while preparing the zucchini filling.

1/4 c. butter
8 c. zucchini, thinly sliced
1-2 c. chopped onion
Melt butter in a large frypan over medium heat. Add zucchini and onions and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. each fresh basil and oregano (chopped; or 1 t. dried)
1 t. each fresh thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, savory, and marjoram (chopped; or 1/2 t. dried) (Just use what you have, don't worry if you don't have all of these!)
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
Stir in.

5 large eggs, beaten
4 c. shredded mozzarella
 Combine in a separate bowl, then stir in zucchini mixture

Divide dough in half. Place each half on lightly floured surface and roll into a circle 12 inches in diameter. Place each into a lightly greased 10 inch pie dish.

4 t. mustard
1/4 c. parmesan, grated
Spread the pie crusts with mustard. Divide the zuke mixture between the two crusts. Sprinle parmesan cheese on top. Bake 18-20 minutes, until center is set. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. 

The Garden Has Gone to the Dogs!

I love this garden almost as much as I love my canines, so I had to let them meet. This spring everything took OFF and looked great here at Tillman. It's now mid-July and things planted on the "heat island" are starting to struggle.

(Except the chard and the kale--is there anything these vegetables can't do?!)

I expected this impact from putting a bunch of raised beds on top of asphalt. This will be a great problem for the kids to solve next school year. Several years ago I learned about urban gardening in Cleveland, using a foot or two of mulch piled atop pavement, with raised beds on top of that. Easy solution. But rather than decide that for the kids, why not let them see for themselves that the plants struggle in extreme heat? It's a perfect project-based learning opportunity! As it stands now, I am just very thankful to all the volunteers who are helping keep things alive in this tough part of the summer. People have been showing up nearly every day to give the thirsty plants a drink. Now if I could just get to work on the thank you's....

Next to our heat island garden, we have the keyhole bed.

This is my favorite bed in the garden so far. It was built and filled by the Tillman kids--in the rain at Healthy Kids Night--with materials donated by Tillman families. That in itself was magical. But the other cool things are this bed's water holding capability and the compost collector in the center of the bed. The stories we had heard seem to be true: keyhole gardens rock! The flowers are so pretty, but I really want to see food growing in here next. Check out more about keyhole gardens here, they have a neat history!

Eating for Sustainability: Last One for Awhile

I've been trying to muster up motivation to write more about our weekly meals and grocery costs, but I can't seem to and here's why. Tallying receipts has gotten to be a pain in the rear, and I have bigger fish to fry. Seriously, though, it is a pain. And because it's finally spring and because we are wrapping up this first planning/design phase for Tillman's sustainability committee, my time spent on school gardening is on the rise. And that's just way more compelling than putting my trips to the grocery under the microscope. I'm glad I tried the food experiment, and I plan to keep trying to whittle down my grocery spending while increasing my support of sustainable food systems. But I'm very grateful that I don't have to keep ultra-close tabs on my food expenditures. Maybe down the road our family will try to eat for a week on what someone in poverty might be working with. For  now, though, I'm tired of talllying receipts and I want to have some fun thinking (and writing) about school gardening.

But before I go, here are a few things gleaned from the food experiment.

• Switching to more local and organic hasn't increased my weekly grocery bills. Minimizing waste saves as much or more money than buying organic has cost me.
• I like the combined CSA model very much. I base my grocery shopping for the week on what I receive in a CSA allotment. For me, this makes meal planning much easier (not overwhelmed with too much choice) and has made me feel more creative. 
• Using dried beans is super-economical. Lots of choices too--my favorites are chickpeas and black beans. 
• Popcorn. Best snack ever (at least for this food experiment). Cheap and easy. We don't have a microwave, so I learned awhile back how to make it on the stovetop. Piece of cake. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of salty bags of snack food in your grocery cart will really make a dent in your bill. Plus you can make popcorn so many different ways, sweet or salty, you don't have to get bored with it!
• I rely heavily on one piece of  equipment, and I bet a lot of people haven't heard of it.  It's a 3-in-1 rice cooker/crockpot/pressure cooker. We bought it when we moved two years ago into a house with downsized kitchen space. It's an investment but well worth it. I can cook white rice in 6 minutes, and brown rice in under 20 in this thing. Can pressure cook chick peas in about 15 minutes. Love, love, love it.