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