Catholics love the season of Lent. I recently enjoyed Mardi Gras over at Bourbon Street fish market this past Tuesday, you know, Fat Tuesday. We party our ass off Tuesday, then Ash Wednesday we receive our ashes created from last years Palms, and prepare to atone and reflect for the next 40 days, otherwise known as Lent. Lent represents the 40 days before Easter. We are asked to give up something during this time. In addition to the no meat on Friday’s policy, this year I’m giving up my pessimistic views of the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD). Raised to read the bible for understanding what type of person I should be, I began to get reacquainted on how to rid myself of negativity so that I will emerge from Lent more understanding and compassionate and less frustrated. So, I read.
Melissa HebertProverbs 13:24 – He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
This passage is deep. You hate your child if you don’t chastise them…hmmm??? I must have read that line 100 times. Things became clear instantly. I’ve been giving IUSD a hard damn time because of my love for the city which helped raise me.
IUSD gave me my foundation. If any of you have went to an Inglewood school or had your children in one, some of these names may sound familiar: Mrs. Ichinaga, Mrs. Wax, Mrs. Schieldge, Mrs. Strickland, Mr. Rothenberg and Mrs. Howe. Mrs. Ichinaga was a small woman with a huge heart. She was principal during a time when you could go rogue and take your school by the reigns. My teachers understood the difficulties some children faced at home and showed high levels of compassion towards them. Finding solace in our classroom, because it was comfortable and welcoming, created an environment conducive to learning; one where we could escape the nonsense at home and simply be a kid and learn. Friendships flourished for we not only lived in the neighborhood together we went to school together, many of us walking to school together both before and after school.
Inglewood is home, where you still run into former neighbors, classmates and teachers. The reason many seek clarity in the bible is because some overlook a major component of life – faith.
Hebrews 11 – Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (2) This is what the ancients were commended for.
I was lacking faith in IUSD. Here I am assuming that because we don’t know what their plans are to turn things around doesn’t mean our state administrator and current assistant superintendent have not gotten it together. The problem with having faith stems from not being able to immediately see it and being tired of waiting too damn long. We’ve become an instant society. Just add water and go, but solving real life problems aren’t as simple.
Sure we can get frustrated, but why? Let’s show our support by being more positive and helping to volunteer on campus, let’s encourage non-working family members to help with traffic control so the kids don’t have to dodge the cars of frantic parents rushing to work. Let’s make an effort to bring some goodies to the classroom on Teacher Appreciation Day, or on the whim, to impress upon the teacher that “we don’t take you for granted,” while showing the kids how to express love.
As we wait for funding from Measure GG and we begin to see what our administrators have in place, our children may not directly benefit in the short-term, but long-term, most definitely. It’s the next generation that will be bringing up the rear and if we Generation X-ers make it to our promised golden years of 70, these kids will be the ones we encounter at our grocery stores, banking institutions, city halls and emergency services. So looking at the big picture, we have to have faith that the improvements the district plans to make will indeed come to fruition.
I ask the district to consider offering foreign language courses at the middle school level. By teaching kids a foreign language at an early age, they will become more fluent in the language both written and oral, thus increasing their opportunities for higher education and employment. Mrs. Ichinaga was long criticized for requiring her english learning students to learn through english immersion. It will also be a great program to draw kids back to the school district.
Bennett-Kew was the number one school in the district, and test scores remained high across all ethnicities, for at least a decade. Bennett-Kew was also designated as a distinguished school, as are several other schools in the district. The best thing about our district is we benefit from having Tom Torlaksonas as our state administrator.
Back in 1997, many of us remember the little girl, Sherrice, who stopped at the Nevada state line with her family and was sexually assaulted and killed by Jeremy Strohmeyer. His friend, David Cash, witnessed the assault on Sherrice but never reported it to police. He wasn’t required by law to do so.
While Jeremy serves life in prison, David is free to roam the streets. Tom Torlakson, a former State Assemblyman (D-Antioch), authored legislation, the Sherrice Iverson Good Samaritan Law, that would make it a crime to witness the sexual assault of a minor without notifying police. It was signed into effect in 2001. Without the urging of local black leaders it may not have come to pass, but Torlakson stepped up and did something about it. I too have faith that he will make the right decisions concerning the Inglewood Unified School District because he has demonstrated that he listens to the community.
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