Friday, April 25, 2008 | I loved the piece and YouTube video about Crawford High School girls from Somalia, Sudan and Burma learning to love playing basketball—and choosing it over handcrafts!
I also liked the piece about Webster Elementary where little kids are taught to have confidence articulating their thoughts, sharing ideas with a partner and being respectful of their classmates’ points of view.
Perhaps at times we are so concerned with trying to honor cultural differences in students and walking a mile in their moccasins that we forget our mutual destination. A wonderful teacher and head of the San Diego Education Association once told me he believed kids and their families needed to learn “the culture of school” for the best academic outcomes. It sounds like that’s what’s happening at Webster.