5-year-old prodigy speaks seven languages, plays six instruments

An Honor Student

Think of him
as your son.
If you dream it for him,
he will know that it is possible.
That is the hope
that keeps hope
alive.

The Official NJ 2011 Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending

Click the title and as you read,
consider the question.
"How are the children?".

African American Mother's Association: Induction Ceremony

The first order of business for this newly formed association
will be to induct new members.

Mother and Son at the Beach

I hereby induct into the African American Mother's Association

All white women with black children

Especially black sons.

To all helicopter Moms

You are hereby embraced into a culture of people who realize that their sons

like the great bald Eagle are an endangered species that warrants protection.

It worries you that the world

Will not see them as they see you, but as their father's folk and that they will not be safe.

Your children see you, love you and are very lucky to have you hover.

A word of advice, make larger circles.

It may NOT be runaway trains that you see.

Welcome to our world. We are one. We are called the village.
Welcome to the Mother's Association that produced men like, Benjamin Banneker,
Frederick Douglass, Meager Eavers, Adam Clayton Powell, Alex Haley, Alvin Ailey,
Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, John A. Williams, Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barak Obama to name a few..

Know that you are the greatest hero in the lives of your children.
We embrace you
As you renew your pledge to love, educate and protect your kids.
We open our hearts to you.
You are now officially a Black Mother..

This meeting is now adjourned.

What does a student do in Teaneck to join an AP or Honors Class?

Soldier @Monument

Answer: Register, get a parent signature, and start going to class.

Watch the videos made by the students of the EAGLE Program. Listen to what they have to say about Dwight Morrow High School and education in general. It is clear that they have a firmer grasp on the "TRUE" Englewood problem than the adults. Listen. They know it. They speak on it. "THEY SEE YOU!" Again, I ask you, 'how are the children?". We are here for the children.

Men and women only slightly older than the students in the Eagle Program are putting their lives on the line everyday so we can sit down at home and wallow in indifference instead of standing up against what we know in our hearts to be wrong. How are the Children?

Let us not compare ourselves to a town that is fighting to stay afloat themselves.

They are trying desperately NOT to become "LIKE" Englewood. The thing that made them different is not test scores. Students are at Liberty to make some very hard choices about the course of study. They have their town behind them.

I read an article the other day that was filled with suggestions and fear that America was becoming a "Third World Country". Well, as quiet as it is kept, America has always been a third world country. Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus did not find white Anglo Saxons on these lands when they arrived. We are here and we are staying, now see us!

"How Are The Children!"

Sometimes you just have to run things up the flagpole. The following is a conversation generated on FACEBOOK in response to the article above.

Alice Twombly
Lucy, there's something also about teacher approval for AP classes.

Lucy Walker

Even that is more liberal than here. I remember once Jim and I had an argument because I wanted to know why a particular young man was in AP. I was concerned that he was clearly NOT what I thought was AP material. Jim laughed and said, "he has a right to fail. We shouldn't stop him from trying." Jim and I had our disagreements, but he was right. The young man did not fail. He got a C. I learned something very valuable that year about students and choice.

Alice Twombly
It's a bit different today, but the end result is the same. Kids get recommended to AP by their teachers, and the guidance counselor also weighs in on the situation-- but Jim's old standard, I think, still prevails. Incidentally, I want to show you a senior project on the Teaneck Schools that a senior at Dwight Englewood just completed on "The Achievement Gap." Let's get together.