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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1983)
t ir s UJ F r a n c is S c h a s n -i e s s p s p s r P o c a Jobs, Peace, Freedom report 'The Hawk' stays tops School tips for parents Page 3 Page 8 Page 7 PORTLAND OBSERVER U *P S 959-680-855 Volume XIII, Number 46 August 31, 1963 25C Per Copy C Cnr Pttbiahtng Co. lite I t t i U.S. Black astronaut finally orbits Earth L l. Colonel Ouion S. **O uy" Bluford became the first Black launched into »pace by the United State» when Challenger blasted o ff early Tuesday morning. The flight is the eighth in the shuttle program. Bluford, one o f four Blacks in the astronaut program, is a pilot with combat experience in Vietnam and a doctorate in space engineering. Bluford grew up in Philadelphia. He earned a degree in aerospace en gineering from Penn State in 1964 and joined the A ir Force through R .O .T .C . He served in Vietnam as a F -4C co-pilot. He flew ,33 combat missions, 65 over Vietnam . He earned a Master of Science at the A ir Force Institute o f Technology in 1974 and a P h .D . in aerospace tech nology in 1978. He competed with 9,000 appli cants, becoming one o f 35 chosen for the astronaut program. er and the other is earning his PhD. in English. Bluford has primary responsibil ity for the launch o f a communica tions satellite for India. He will also assist in an experiment on separating live pancreas cells. Challenger is expected to remain in space for five days. Bluford's mother was a teacher and his father a mechanical engineer. H e has two brothers: the oldest is a PhD. computer program- Bluford will not be the first Black man in space. A rnuldo Tam ayo Mendez, a Cuban, flew a Soviet Salute mission in 1980. PCC receives 'Small Business Incubator' project funding EARNING THAT LUNCH MONEY: Making tha most of tha last faw days befors school starts are Sarray Brannon. •: Lorall Roblnaon. »: and Kandel Foxx. 11. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Whitaker Middle School now Portland's finest facility The staff o f W hitaker M iddle School is looking forw ard to wel coming its students to their all-new school next Friday, September 8th. The new school w ill be open to the community, parents and students on August 7th, 7:00-9:00 p.m. School will begin on August 8th, two days tater than other schools in the Portland District. The W hitaker staff invites the public to attend the Open House and to be come a part o f the school communi ty- W hitaker, now housed in the Adams High School building on Northeast 42nd. w ill bring students from the Colum bia and the W h it aker sections of the old Colum bia- W hitaker M iddle School and 6th, 7th and 8th graders from Boise Elementary School under the same roof. The school, with an expected 850 to 950 students, w ill be Port land's largest middle school. Principal W illiam W arren ex plained that the school will be new to everyone. Last year 6th graders attended Colum bia and 7th and 8th graders attended W hitaker, both old, crowded buildings where 95 percent o f the students arrived by bus. Now they will be in Portland’s finest school building with spacious halls, courtyards and plenty o f room to move around. The new school is in a neighborhood, so most students can walk to school. Boise students have attended a pre-kinder garten through 8th grade school and will be in a middle school setting for the first time. Boise community students, who are attending W hitaker while the Boise and Eliot buildings are being renovated, will be an integral part o f the student body, W arren said. They sviU be assigned to classes with the W hitaker students. Buses origi nating at Boise will pick up students from other attendance areas so they Will be integrated when they arrive at the school. “ They w ill not be called Boise buses; they will Just be buses.” W arren said, and "students will not be Boise Students.” Because it «rill take from i r i to two years to prepare the Eliot build ing for Tubm an M iddle School, this year's 7th and 8th graders will graduate from W hitaker. The 6th graders «rill have the option to transfer to Tubm an for the 8th grade year. W hitaker «rill have several unique qualities. Sixth graders w ill be housed sepsuately on the lower level. These students w ill attend “ self-contained classrooms.” That is, each student will have his own classroom and teacher. They w ill be assigned to reading and math groups according to achievement level, so «rill have different teachers for these subjects. Students will have five class periods for core sub jects and will attend physical educa tion on alternate days. During the last period, students will spend one quarter in each o f four subjects — shop, music, art and homemaking. Seventh and eighth grade students «rill have a "re g ro o m " teacher who «rill be responsible for the student for the two years. The staff is orga nized into teams and each student «rill have a team o f five teachers — math, reading, language arts, science and health, and social science — for the two years. These students have P .E . on alternating days and can take elective classes, including foreign language, during their last period. The purpose o f this structure, W arren said, is to give continuity and to allow the transition from the structured elementary school to the individualized high school to come gradually. M any 6th graders are not ready for the usual middle school system o f changing rooms and teachers every period. This system «rill provide 7th and 8th graders with a small group o f adults with which to identify. W hile putting 900-plus middle school students in a building de signed for a free-wheeling open campus high school (there are at least 92 outside doors) causes concern to some parents, W arren is not worried. " T h e key to discipline is creating a human atmosphere to children will want to be here,” he M o tt o f the discipline prob lems at W hitaker last year occurred in the first few minutes after stu dents arrived and were attributed to the fact that the halls and rooms were overcrowded, he said. Halls w ill be monitored; use o f outside doors will be restricted; staff will be alert to outside problems. W hitaker «rill have a "dosed campus” policy where students are not allowed to leave school unleu accompanied by a parent. T w o o f Colum bia-W hitaker's succeuful programs will continue after the move. Project O R O W was begun in 1966 to offer students an opportunity to learn about horticul ture, business and small engines. "Students can relate math and reading to what they are doing in d a u : they use math, they keep logs, they learn how to fill out orders for supplies or small engine parts," W arren said. W OLL (W hitaker Outdoor Living Lab) consists o f classroom study and field trips in such diverse subjects as Canadian government, oceanography, and w ildlife. Field trips include a week-long visit to Canada and shorter visits to the Oregon coast and M alheur W ildlife Refuge. The acreage, lakes and greenhouses used for these pro grams will remain available to the school. Portland Comm unity College has received its first major grant for capital construction on the small business incubator which will be built at the college's Cascade Campus in north Portland. The grant, in the amount of $150,000, is from the M J . Murdock Charitable Trust o f Vancouver. Washington. "T h is is the first m ajor outside funding we've received for the project,” says PCC president Dr. John H. Anthony. " W e ’re especially appreciative of the M urdock Trust for making funds available for such an innovative project, and for their commitment to the needs o f the north-northeast Portland area." The incubator is designed to create new jobs in the inner north- northeast Portland area by fostering development o f small businesses in volved in light manufacturing and support industries. The project is administered by the Cascade Business Center C orpora tion (C B C C ). a non-profit corpora tion comprised o f members from private and public sectors including P C C , the Portland Development Commission, the Northeast Busi ness Boosters, the Northeast Neigh- borhood Coalition, and the H u m boldt Neighborhood Association. PC C has donated land to the project and is actively seeking addi tional funding for capital construc tion, according to Anthony. A p proximate coat o f the three-phase 56,000 square foot building w ill be $2.3 million. Completion o f the first phase is targeted for January, 1984. The new building at Cascade will house classroom and laboratory facilities for high tech vocational programs, and will be used both by PCC and the fledgling small busi ness which will be housed in the building. Controversial book A matter of fact? by Lam ia Duke G R A S S R O O T S N E W S . N . W. — The promotion in Portland last week o f a seemingly innocent book on the history and achievements of Blacks in America has developed into a controversy over the historical accuracy o f the book. The book, "Black History and Achievements in Am erica,” is being promoted by its author, Karlton Stuart, as a "compendium overview o f the struggle and triumph o f Black Am ericans." However, during his presentation last Sunday at Van couver Avenut First Baptist Church, Stuart was asked by members o f the audience to explain the numerous incorrect names, incorrect defini tions and mistakes in dates and loca tions which were discovered in the book. W ithout judging the book by its cover. Grassroots News went from Phoenix, to Philadelphia, and back to Portland, to find out what really occurred with "B lack History and Achievements in A m erica.” Stuart, an attorney by trade, said he spent three years traveling around the country researching his book. The promotional strategy used by Stuart was to get the 23 teams in the National Basketball Association to buy the book and give one-third to the regional O .I.C . and two-thirds to the school dis tricts. The Phoenix Suns were the first team contacted by Stuart. General Manager Jerry Colangelo stated. " A fte r looking at the book and reading it, we felt the whole concept was good. And it lead to an endorse ment. I was not aware of any histor ical errors. We all feel that we know a little bit about history, but when you read a book about a specific history you just take it for granted that the facts are correct. W e as sumed that they were. This was the kind o f community activity the Suns would be involved in. "W h e n I analyzed the purpose of the book and the reasons why the Suns got involved, I would still stand by our decision." It is on the basis o f this type of reasoning that the Portland T ra il blazers endorsed the book W ally Scales, Director o f Promotions, said the book received endorsements from the Board of Governors o f the N B A . " W e do not feel the errors in the book outweighed the benefits from a book o f this so rt." Scales also said he believed the errors were typographical. Rev. John G arlington, President of the Albina Ministerial Alliance, pointed out to Stuart that there were too many mistakes in the book to blame it on typographical errors. "T h e errors in here are above and beyond the call o f duty. W ith re gards to names, you cited D r. John Hope and his name is Dr. John Hope F ra n k lin ." Joyce Harris. Manager of the Talking Drum Bookstore and a con sultant in Black History for the Portland School District, said she found more than the 24 mistakes Stuart conceded to when the mis takes were publicly brought out. She (Please turn to page 12 col. 3 /
