false alarm

sat through another counselor (talent search) talking about all black scholarship this or that today. she comes at least once per week to take 5-10 minutes out of my classes to talk to the seniors about scholarship opportunities. the vast majority of them are offered to african-americans only. anywhere from 5-10 students in each class i teach happens to be white. i almost hate to do this, but put yourself in their shoes for a minute. they are just as, if not more, poor and marginalized than any of the blacks in our classrooms, have just as few opportunities and are just as disadvantaged ... some perhaps more so ... does nobody black see this as direct and blatant racial discrimination? it is the responsibility of the majority, black or white, to be sensitive to such discrimination. ignorance is not an excuse. why can't tougaloo, etc offer their scholarships to anyone who applies, with essays more like "explain how being a minority has affected your life" rather than "tell me what being black means to you". anyone can answer the former, not the latter.

also today our school's fire alarm went off three times throughout the day. the first time it went off, my students looked at me and i quickly got them up, in a line and heading down the hall towards the nearest exit. after about half were out of my room, the alarm stopped, so we turned around and went back. not a single classroom besides mine even attempted to evacuate. only 2-3 other teachers even looked into the hall to see what was happening. most just ignored it. that's what i did for the second two that afternoon. not once was any announcement made or email sent explaining or directing how to react. let alone apologizing for disrupting our classes ... yet we get chastised if an administrator happens to walk by our room a minute before the bell rings and our students aren't engaged in "valuable instructional time". am i the only one getting mixed signals? i think any educator or social scientest can explain the importance of consistency in education/training ... or fireman (or anyone with common sense) would emphasize the importance of fire safety recognition in children.

this happens at least once per month. which explains why most teachers and students ignore them completely (as difficult as that may be as they bellow through the rooms and halls like angry air horns).

stop. drop. keep rolling.