Blessed be...

Forest bathing?

The last two Sundays I was in a tent in a state park in Ohio. I spend one full week a year camping solo. The break allows me to take some time to reflect and contemplate while worrying about the basic

necessities...food, water, warmth, shelter and health. It clears my mind of many of the senseless worries and concerns that haunt me during the year. It is a restart in a way and a recommitment to my mission!

Someone sent me an article from the NYT two years ago with this quote in it:  "“Forest bathing,” or immersing yourself in nature, is being embraced by doctors and others as a way to combat stress and improve health."  Who knew?

We can do hard things

https://www.partnershipnyc.org/we-can-do-hard-things/  This is a well written article by our academic  leader in Cleveland, Christian Dallavis.  He is a strong writer and paints a picture of what changing school culture looks like!

Life Changing voucher program...opinion piece from Cleveland.com

I read this piece https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2020/10/a-truly-life-changing-voucher-program-is-within-reach-for-cuyahoga-metropolitan-housing-authority-leila-atassi.html two weeks ago.  It has been haunting me ever since.  Certainly, if I lived in CMHA housing and I had an opportunity to leave with my family to a better place, I would do it in a second.

What haunts me is what this policy could actually mean.  It could mean that this city has given up on certain neighborhoods and basically is relocating people rather than helping the neighborhood.  In line with "We can do hard things" drastically improving grade schools in a neighborhood might be seen as the first step in assisting the people in that neighborhood!  The local businesses in many cases are closed or on their last legs.  How can we help them?  The infrastructure of water (lead), gas (leaks), electricity (poles in disrepair), internet (markedly slower), phone (old lines) and the list goes on, has lacked significant investment for several decades.  The abandonment of neighborhoods in Cleveland was begun many years ago.  My belief is that it all starts to fall apart when the schools can't deliver learning in a loving community.  People begin to move out to seek better schools.  Population diminishes and things begin to suffer.  This can seen powerfully depicted in the documentary, Waiting for Superman.  This documentary is 10 years old.  It refers to our rankings internationally in two areas:  math and science.  In 2010 the United States ranked 25th in Math and 21st in Science.  In 2018, the US ranks 18th in Science and 37th in Math!!  We need to face the brutal facts as a country and as a city where our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores have not moved significantly over the last 18 years.  The average in Cleveland for Math and Reading is well below proficient and has remained that way for 18 years!  The scores for students of color are even more dismal.  I hope city leaders will begin to work to improve learning for all children.  Recently I was talking to someone who told me of a theory he has:  the solution should have something to do with the problem!

So on one hand, this idea of a housing voucher, is one solution for sure and may be needed as neighborhoods begin to receive what they need.  But my belief is build a strong community of learning and love, known as a school and bring people back to neighborhoods.  This is not an easy thing to do, but, again, we can do hard things!!!