Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 1978)
Page 2 Portland Observer Thursday. June 15,<978 M y D a u g h te r's T eachers W e see the world Pickett and Carry: A Love Combination by Herb L. Cawtborne through Black eyes School Board error? Confusion reigned in the board room Monday night and out of the chaos stepped Forrest Rieke, the new school board member The Board had an opportunity to select a man who would bring a new constituency to the Board Bill Scott, the bright young former assistant to Neil Gold schmidt. had promised an in-depth look at the budget and the budgeting process and a genuine effort to seek out the concerns and ideas of citizens. Scott would have added another dimension to the Board and aided in the struggle for credibility. But something went wrong, Jonathan Newman lost his cool and Scott lost the appointment. Scott had always been favored to win but there were political realities to deal with. Gladys McCoy had a political ax to grind, opposing Scott because his group endorsed her opponent in the County Commission race. Phyllis Weiner owed Rieke her vote because of friendship and his assistance in her past political campaign. Beverly York favored Rieke but could switch to Scott. For Scott were Wally Priestley, who stuck with him through the vote; Jonathan Newman, who supported and lobbied for him; and Frank McNamara. The first vote went as expected, a 3-3 tie. This was followed with some good natured bantering and giggling about who would change their vote. Mrs. York, perhaps not wanting to switch too soon after all this chatter, stuck with Rieke through the second vote. But McNamara, voting iast, made the surprising move of switching to the third candidate. Goroon Ranta. Though unexplained, some old political hands in the audience felt this was an effort by Mc Namara to loosen up the vote and allow Mrs. York to switch gracefully the next time around. However. Jonathan Newman, the self-proclaimed leader of the Scott forces, in apparent confusion, switched to Rieke Although McNamara switched back to Scott, it was all over Rieke had been elect ed with a 4-2 vote. If it weren't such a tragedy this comedy of errors would be humorous. The omnipotent school board, tangled its own feet, wound up caught in its own web Now loaders on dock There are signs that a new era in Black leadership is developing in Portland. An example Is the Urban League's recent reply to a school district request for participation in public hearings on the scheduled tax base election, (see page 1) Having received a questionnaire from the district, the Urban League ob jected to the form and the timing of the request. "The Urban League Board of Directors not only finds the nature of the questionnaire to be somewhat con descending. but we also think this is attributed to a temperance that is too tight to allow for full and open discussion.”«- Referring to the success of the Community Coalition for School Integration in involving the community, the Urban League advised that “if the school district wants the counsel of the community, a process of patient involvement of citizens is a good place to begin.” Only a few years ago the Urban League could have been expected to do whatever the school district asked This response indicates not only a growing awareness of its rightful role - one of questioning as well as supporting - but the stength to stand up to those who once could depend on its submission. The NAACP is still dormant in Portland, although It Is currently planning tor the National Convention which will be held the first week In July. A large num ber of people who are not ordinarily closely identified with the NAACP are working on convention commit tees The hope for further growth and development of the NAACP branch - and its involvement in the many serious issues that confront the Black com munity - is that many of the younger, professional people will become involved In the Branch and provide the energy and enthusiasm it needs It would be unfortunate if the NAACP were to bring its national convention to Portland, then leave, and there be nothing changed. Portland needs a viable, involved civil rights organization. It will be interesting to see whether the NAACP, which should fill that role, will be revived or whether the Urban League, traditionally a more con servative "social work” agency, will become the dominant civil rights organization In Portland. Much will depend on the NAACP’s response after the conven tion is gone and on the new Executive Director soon to be selected by the Urban League Board. Victory is W on y? . > Learning anything worthwhile is dif ficult. Some people fin d it painful. Everyone finds it tiring. Few things will diminish the difficulty, the pain, and the fatigue like the kindness o f a good teacher. gaining her certification and assuming full responsibilities, wants her children to make no mistake about her feelings. " A teacher has to show love and care. There’s no reason not to put your arms around a chilo and hug him. And a lit Gilbert Highet. tle praise goes a long way - like a nap The A rt o f Teaching py face on a math paper, or a sticker, or a star. 1; doesn't take a whole lot to In spite of all the criticism, teaching make a child feel good and proud.” must be one of the most rewarding ef It may not take a “ whole lot” to forts a person can make. The society make children feel proud, but the ef pays teachers very little, which reflects forts of Mrs. Pickett and Mrs. Curry our willingness to hock the future for are exceptional - they go far beyond the pleasure of living well today. Com the minimum requirements of modern plaints are heard daily: “ Teachers are teaching. ineffective. They cry and moan and do Mrs. Curry, for example, had every nothing.'* child in groups of five come to her In spite of it all, teaching must be home for a slumber party. “ 1 enjoy rewarding. What else can it be for having them.” she says, " It goes back those who do it well? Viewing my to the way 1 feel about the children I daughter's kindergarten teachers this teach. Also, a lot of children think year at Irvington School, there is no their teacher’s home is at school. It's other conclusion to draw. They seem good for them to see your life away tireless, eternally patient, able to trans from school.” form the gittery existence o f a five A week ago the kindergarten year old into a sparkling vision of the classroom was turned into a future. restaurant, with clever placemats My daughter has been guided this decorated by colorful drawings and last year by Naomi Pickett and bright tablecloths. Mrs. Curry and Katherine Curry. Mrs. Pickett is the Mrs. Pickett had arranged a buffet classroom teacher; Mrs. Curry the breakfast for the parents o f the classroom aide. They are a team, with children in their class. The sign in the a deep sense o f the atmosphere which back of the room said, “ Thank you for helps learning. the joy o f teaching your child this "W e want them to learn and feel year.” The chance for the children was happy,” says Mrs. Pickett. “ It ’s best magnificent - they all dressed up, when a child feels good about coming greeted their parents with unusual ex to school.” citement, proudly guided them into Mrs. Curry adds: “ You can be firm, their classroom, helped them get eggs, but you don’t have to be a big bad ham and hash browns, then sat down w olf.” for conversation and laughter. What a They understand the meaning of way to end a good year! kindness in teaching. “ W’e are firm Naomi Pickett and Katherine Curry but kind,” stresses Mrs. Pickett. “ We are a team. They are like the halves of want them to do well but wc don’t a perfect wedding ring which fit drive them so hard that we have to together to make a flawless circle. 1 am holler or get made. For example, we only one of many who acknowledge have quiet time. They know when this smooth combination. For in quite time comes and they react. stance, as concern developed over the W e’ve taught them to react, but we possibility that Mrs. Curry might be never hit or scream.” moved to another classroom, a group The kindness they transmit give a of worried parents wrote the principal, sense o f family. From what I have Frank Haight, saying, “ Although our seen, this sense of family energizes the children will no longer be working with children. They feel at home. And they these two fine teachers, we do urge you are eager to learn. This is no accident, to consider what impact your action as Mrs. Curry points out, “ I feel I am might have on children coming next their mother away from home. I am year. Since many feel that the initial responsible for them, and I wouldn't years are more crucial than others, we do this kind of work if 1 didn't feel that wanted you to know how pleased we way.” have been with the combination of Mrs. Pickett, who has spent several Mrs. Curry and Mrs. Pickett.” years as a classroom assistant before These two Fine teachers are the 69TH ANNUAL July 1st Place C omasunits Service O NPA 1973 P ortland O b server Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company. 2201 North Killingsworth. Portland. Oregon 97217 Mailing address: P.O. Box 3137. Portland. Oregon 97208 Telephone 283 2486 1st Place Best Ad Results ONPA 1973 Subscriptions $7.30 per year in the Tn-County area. $8.00 pei year outside Portland. 5th Place Best Editorial N N PA 1973 Secaad Clasa Postage Paid at Portland. Oregon The Portland Observer'» official position isexpressed only in its Publisher s column (We See The World Through Black Eyes). Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual w riter or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer ALFRED L. HENDERSON E d iter/PvMiafcer 2nd Place Best Editarial 3rd Place NataoaaJ Advertising Re treoeatalive A n aigam ated Publishers lac N ew Y ork Oregon Newspaper Publishers ! Association J $7.50 Honorable Meatiaa Herrick Editarial Award N N A 1973 » ¿ » A M U . Associano», - Eaisidad IM> in Tri — C o u n ty A re a $ 8 .0 0 Othe’ N a m e ------------------------------------------- ____ ----- _____________ A d d r e s s _____________________________________________ C i t y _______________________________ O b s e rv e r Box 3 1 3 7 97208 Our children are the soul foundation o f a new world. Our children are the fresh dreams o f a new future. Our children are the continued progress o f a struggle that is 400 years oid. Our children are the great wings upon which the dark race glides into a new relationship with tomorrow. Our children. We must protect our children. Affirmative action necessary To the Editor: M emorial C oliseum Our Children J-dtui to the ZdiiM NAACP CONVENTION ultimate proof of the validity in the argument for more Black teachers in the Portland Public Schools. They are concerned, they work hard and they work well. They are innovative. As strong Black women, kind but firm, loving but demanding respect, they transmit a very important message to my child. In an atmosphere o f stinging criticism aimed at public teachers. Mrs. C urry stands unbothered in the warmth of a sound philosophy: “ My appreciation comes from the students; how they feel toward me and how I feel toward them. If they progress toward the goals we set early in the year, I feel good. That’s my appreciation.” Mrs. Pickett, on the other hand, acknowledges that the criticism is often discouraging, but she doesn't dwell on it. "W e are pleased when we see the change in children," she says. “ They begin to respect others, respect their teachers, and learn to respect the property of others — this is our reward. You see a child progress; they begin to listen and work hard to do what is ex pected of them. This makes me feel its all worthwhile." My appreciation for the work of these two dedicated teachers stems from an understanding of the impor tance o f young people to the im provement of our race and of our world. Katherine Curry told me, ” 1 am never too busy to help a child. I am here to help them." The poem that follows is my way of saying why I think that attitude and the work which results arc so very vital: Given the nation's history of racism and sexism and the critical role played by the law as their vehicle, affirmative action should be merely a question of simple justice. But of course too many people have forgotten or choose not to remember that racial minorities have been the victims o f centuries o f a unique Amerikan barbarism - from slavery right down through modern jim crow. The Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native Amerikan all bear the ugly scars o f the group hatred that has been visit ed upon them. M y great grandfather told me of a Black man who had his hand mutilated for learning to read, and during my own grandmother’s day to teach a Black person to read was a criminal act. The latter fact is but one illustration o f the many ways in which the law has been the device by which the generalized racism in the society has been made particular and converted into policies and standards of social control. It was through the law that slavery was institutionalized. It was through the law of the slave codes that Black people’s lives were governed in oppressive detail before the Civil War, and it was through the law of the Black Codes that the same result was achieved after the Civil War. It was through the law that a monolith of Amerikan apartheid was erected, receiving judicial approval in Plessy and standing with no major cracks in its facade until the Supreme Court decision in Brown. It is the law which continues to this day as an instrument o f state power keeping the non- caucasian on the bottom in a vertical caucasoid/non-caucasoid relationship. The legal and social order has vic timized racial minorities as a group. Though, of course, there are obvious and important differences, women too have been victimized as a group. There can be no fair-minded objection to providing group redress. The only in telligent societal response to these historic wrongs and group injuries is affirmative action to redress their results. Blindness to the racist and sexist past will only perpetuate that racism and that sexism. M r. Vern Cook, I believe, beyond any judicial Fiat, affirmative action is a simple moral and political imperative with its justification deeply rooted in history. For a Black Leader to endorse anyone who was against affirmative action, would be worse than a crime, it would be a sin against the Holy Ghost. In the State o f Oregon, minority workers are today kept out of many better paying occupations not overtly because of race but because they “ lack qualifications." However, this "lack of qualifications" is the end result o f a cycle of racial discrimination stretching back through the decades. Because their parents were discrim inated against - denied good jobs and hous ing in neighborhoods with adequate schools -- the present generation of Black workers largely lack the education and skills that would qualify them for the better paying jobs. Which means many of them will be forced to live in slums and send their kids to poor schools -- and the cycle will repeat itself. I f one builds a wall o f legal segregation and discrimination around a group of people so that they do not have access to decent jobs, education and housing, then this group of people will have no social mobility, it will not be able to upgrade its education and skills. After a few generations the legal wall is no longer necessary to keep the group isolated and subordinated All that is necessary is for all economic decisions to be based on formal qualifications and skills and the group will be automatically excluded. In deed, institutional racism can co-exist with the rhetoric of formal equality. Black workers are today free to apply for any job -- that's what is meant by equal opportunity - but if they lack qualifications due to the cumulative ef fects o f generations of past discrimina tion they will be excluded from the bet ter paying jobs and occupations. M r. Vern Cook, this is why affirmative ac tion or preferential treatment is ab solutely necessary in order to create the basis for actually achieving some degree of equality. In my travels around the country, I have noticed. The racists have tried to label affirmative action as “ reverse racism.” This is simply a crude at tempt to portray the victims of racism as the perpetrators of racism. Racism is a historically evolved structure of inequality aimed at stigmatizing, ex cluding and depriving certain groups. Essentially racism is a social mechanism for fostering and maintaining a reser voir of subordinated labor within the framework o f capitalism. Racism enables employers to fill jobs that caucasoid workers seek to avoid and to fill these jobs with a work force whose wages can be kept at the lowest levels because this work force has no other options. (CO RE) believe, special admission and affirmative action are certainly- worth defending, but the effectiveness and value of these reforms depends on the existence of a powerful movement for social change. The struggle against racism is the key to the struggle for a new social order in the United States, and now it is especially urgent to re energize the struggle against racism and to place this struggle in the context of building toward a new social order in which labor is not a commodity to be exploited but is the essence of human growth and creativity. Respectfully, Dr. Jamil Cherovee Field Director For (CORE) <Editor's N ot*: Thu u a response lo Senator Cook's explanation o f his views on affirm ative action in the 6/3/73 Observer )
