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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 2015)
March 11, 2015 Page 7 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. O PINION Preserving Our Cultural and Natural Heritage We can take nothing for granted BY D ONNY R. A DAIR On the corner of Northwest Sixth Avenue and Everett Street in downtown Port- land, the historic Golden West Ho- tel stands as a marker to the devel- opment of the African American middle class in Oregon – and the nation. W.D. Allen, an African American businessman, bought the property in 1905, the same year Oregon offi- cially became segregated. The next year, he built a hotel where African Americans could enjoy comfortable rooms, a candy shop, Turkish baths, a gym, and much more. Many trav- elers came to stay, including enter- tainers, businesspeople, and rail- way porters. Some of these porters came from Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood, site of the first African American union: the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Many porters were former slaves. The Pullman porters contributed significantly to the de- velopment of the African American middle class in America, and the The Golden West Hotel in northwest Portland is culturally signifi- cant to African-Americans. Civil Rights Movement. President Obama declared the Pullman area of Chicago a national monument last month, during Black History Month, using his authority under the An- tiquities Act of 1906 – coinciden- tally the same year Allen opened Golden West Hotel. The president has been proac- tive in establishing new national monuments that attempt to right- size the inequalities of the national park system. A 2014 analysis found that only 24 percent of our nation’s national parks and monuments are dedicated to diverse communities, or commemorate minority figures or events. Of the country’s 461 na- tional park units, only 26 are fo- cused on African Americans, 19 on Latinos, eight on women, and two on Asian Americans. The Antiquities Act is a critical tool for preserving our nation’s natural, historic and cultural sites. Sixteen presidents have used their authority under the law – half of them Republican, half of them Demo- crat – to protect everything from the Grand Canyon to the Statue of Lib- erty. Recently, President Obama established Harriet Tubman Under- ground Railroad National Monu- ment in Maryland, Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in California, the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio, and the Honolulu National Monument in Hawaii. The Pullman Porters Na- tional Monument will be the fifth by Obama to recognize America’s mi- norities. I am pleased the president will be designating the Pullman monument to recognize the porters’ contributions to America. I am also pleased the president is supporting our nation’s public lands, working to designate places where Americans from all back- grounds can get aside. As an Afri- can American who loves to go out- doors hunting, fishing, hiking, and photographing our beautiful coun- try, I also support his work to des- ignate new national monuments in Organ Mountains Desert Peaks in New Mexico, San Gabriel Moun- tains outside Los Angeles, and the San Juan Islands in Washington. Public lands are vital to protecting access to the outdoors, and thus to preserving America’s fishing and hunting heritage. While the president’s ability to continue preserving our nation’s cultural and natural heritage seems secure, we can take nothing for granted. Already, in Congress’ first two weeks in office, members intro- duced measures to revoke the president’s authority under the Antiquities Act. These proposals did not pass, thanks in part to votes cast against them by Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. I am grateful Oregon has leaders supporting our president, and defending against the attacks on America’s public lands. I celebrated Black History Month in part by remembering how far we have come, while also remembering how much work there is still to be done, and supporting our leaders to keep the arc of history bending to- ward justice. Donny Adair is a lifelong resi- dent of Portland and a former chair of the Portland Black History Month committee. Grading Students Changed My View of Education A crash course on reality and higher standards J ILL R ICHARDSON I was always one of those kids who got As in school. Give me an assign- ment, I’ll do it. A test? I’ll take it. Lecture to me, and I’ll absorb ev- ery word. Now that I’m back at school 11 years after getting my college de- gree, though, I suddenly find my- self in a very different place. In ad- dition to being a student seeking a PhD in sociology, I’m a teaching assistant with students of my own. My view of education changed the first time I had to grade my students. It was a difficult assignment, and I hadn’t prepared them adequately for it. I naively thought that because the material was easy for me, it would be easy for them, too. I assumed that BY because my students didn’t ask questions, they understood it. That wasn’t the case. Suddenly, I found myself hand- ing out bad grades and thinking, “I earned this grade too. These are our grades, not just theirs.” I had failed to teach ev- ery bit as much — or more — as they had failed to learn. And what good would the grades do? How does punishing students for not learn- ing help them learn? My teaching has evolved since that first mishap. My attitude as a student has changed too. Becoming a teacher affected my studies like becoming a parent helps adults understand their own child- hoods. I suddenly find myself hold- ing my professors to a higher stan- dard than before. Why am I required to learn things I won’t ever use on the job? Why must I take closed-book tests when I’ll never need to do anything in my career without having books, col- leagues, or the Internet as refer- ences? Teaching requires focusing on how students really learn and pro- viding them the opportunity to do so. That might mean not running the class in the way that’s most conve- nient for the teacher, like lecturing. It might also mean covering less material, but covering it well. After all, how many marathon cram sessions did you have before tests? And how well did you remem- ber any of that material afterward? It’d be nice if students could retain endless amounts of informa- tion simply by attending lectures all semester. Actually, it’d be even better if we could just plug a little chip into them and upload the con- tent directly into their brains. But neither is possible. We’ll have to settle for reality and teach students in a way and at a pace that will help them to actually learn. We should also allow stu- dents to demonstrate their mastery of the material in a meaningful way that contributes to their learning and won’t result in cramming and forgetting everything later. This approach, which can require more initial effort from a teacher but with the promise of better results for the students, has a name: student- centered learning. It’s a shame that actually teach- ing your students is such a novel idea that it’s worthy of a special name. It should just be called “teach- ing.” OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. THE LAW OFFICES OF Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com
