EDITORIALS

The Storm Cloud Descends

Evanston Township High School is being forced to restructure under the No Child Left Behind Act. For the fifth consecutive year, students in certain subgroups have failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP), triggering a successively stringent set of sanctions against the school.

This year, seven subgroups did not make AYP: Hispanic, black and low-income students in both reading and math (six subgroups) and disabled students failed to make AYP in math. AYP for this year was that 55 percent of students in all subgroups meet state standards, measured in Illinois by the Prairie State Achievement Exam. Next year the requirement increases to 62 percent meeting standards on the PSAE. Overall, ETHS achievement levels are more than keeping pace with the state levels of achievement. Passing rates on the PSAE increased from 61 percent to 66 percent, as compared to the state, where the level dropped 1 percent, from 54 to 53 percent. Nonetheless, the State Board of Education demands a restructuring plan for the high school to be presented early next year.

The threat has been looming for years, and now we in the community must face the fact that our high school, once considered the best in the nation, has not sufficiently educated many black, Hispanic, low-income and special needs students. This is not news to the Board and administrators of District 202, and although some may have hoped that ETHS could do things in its own way and in its own time, the law will not permit that.

The news is heartbreaking to those who love this community and who believe strongly in the need for and value of public education. For some, this is a victory for accountability, we have long known that many of our young people are not achieving even close to their potential. Others may see the sanction as too harsh for our high school, which has implemented many programs over the years in an attempt to improve minority student achievement.

ETHS is one of the first suburban schools to be so sanctioned, and again the Evanston community will take up an education issue with national implications.

The State has required that the high school choose one of the following options in its restructuring plan: to reopen the school as a public charter school; to replace all or most of the school staff - including possibly the highest-level administrator - who are relevant to the school’s inability to make adequate yearly progress under the NCLB; to enter into a management agreement with a private school-management company; or to implement any other restructuring of the school’s governance that generates fundamental reform.

Dismal as the news and the prospects seem, it is very encouraging to see that ETHS is not flinching. To their credit, administrators, teachers and the District 202 Board have addressed the issue straight on. Programs designed last spring have already been implemented for this school year. The comprehensive Systems of Supports is designed to catch at-risk students even before the academic day begins. Teachers, and even peer tutors, are volunteering to help before school.

The health of our public schools is perhaps the greatest measure of the strength and viability of a community. We as a community have a responsibility to educate all our children to make sure they have opportunities in life and are prepared to make the most of them. 

Scatterings

By Charles Wilkinson

- The last 99 seasons of Cub baseball can be summed up in three words:           
Hype, Hope and Nope.

- Maybe next year TBS will do a better job of marketing the  postseason series. Their too few commercials were akin to water torture.

- After all these years, I think I know why we are at war with Iraq instead of Al Qaida; There ain’t no oil in them thar hills of Afghanistan.

- Speaking of Iraq, I thought the Petraeus/Betray Us ad in the NYT was sophomoric. I am saddened still at the considered silences of the candidates in its aftermath.

- Speaking of candidates, either I am waiting for the cream to rise to the top in a bottle of skim milk or for some kind of spin event to offset the homogenized rhetoric on both sides. At any rate, I am still waiting to find out who will get my vote in little over a year from now. I guess that’s good.

- What’s wrong with Notre Dame football?  They’re paying for the sins of the Church and this is their season in hell.

- The movie version of the recent mob trial in Chicago should provide some great roles for the unemployed and aging Sopranos.

- If racism were a virus there might be hope at least for a cure.

- Gas prices seem like a thermostat for somebody’s greed.

- "Carbon footprint" is just like "leveling the playing field."  Hear it once and suddenly the phrase is everywhere.

- Central Street is feeling more and more like an Evanston "Old Town." Long may it thrive.

- God made chocolate for those who need a safe addiction; for those who need a safer one, God made licorice.

- A grandchild is the fountain of youth for grandparents - until the kid discovers running and gets too heavy to lift.

- If Carlos Zambrano was from New Orleans, would he be called "The Big CZ?"

- Rex (as in Hex or Wrecks or Ex) Grossman has everything except height, big hands, peripheral vision and scramble power.

- Hummers, Escalades, Navigators, Explorers and the like are today’s dinosaurs awaiting extinction.  A Berwyn "Spindle" or car-kebob in downtown Evanston could make a great green statement and provide an exclamation point for the Fountain Square project.

God in One's Pocket

By Peggy Tarr

A plus in checking definitions of words is discovering other meanings. Per usual, I’m going to share some of the definitions I found for words relevant to this writing.

god - God (with a capital G), the one Supreme Being; the creator and ruler of the universe; used to express disappointment, disbelief, weariness: God, do we have to listen to this nonsense?

pocket - a bag or pouch used especially for carrying small articles; to take possession of as one’s own, often dishonestly; in one’s pocket, in one’s possession; under one’s influence.

jackleg - unscrupulous or without the accepted standards of one’s profession.

clergy - ordained persons in a religion. (ministers, priests, pastors)

Zora Neale Hurston (African-American writer, 1891-1960) in her book "Their Eyes Were Watching God" presents a jackleg minister who stretches out in the shade of a log on a very hot day and tells the Lord to put him on the other side of the log if indeed he has not been called to preach. 

Of course, he is not lifted to the other side of the log, and so Sir Jackleg concludes/preaches that he has been called. God is in his pocket, a small place to be, and since God is obscured, Sir Jackleg is deified.

A minister, here in the Midwest, proclaimed not too long ago that he would not have been able to bilk auto insurance companies through false accident reports if God had not permitted him to do so. Obviously, to listen to him, God was in his pocket, or ... did he pocket God?

Newspapers, television and radio regularly inform us of clergy that sexually abuse young people and women - vulnerable populations. But let’s not forget about other kinds of abuse perpetrated on another vulnerable population - the elderly.

The elderly are frequently bilked out of money, homes and other possessions by clergy, family and organizations. 

This is criminal. Intimidating and threatening the elderly are dastardly acts committed by bullies, with and without God in their pockets.  Whether the abuse is perpetrated by laypersons or clergy, people who witness this need to speak up. 

Keeping quiet about (elder) abuse only allows it to worsen.  It has been brought to my attention recently that Evanston is not without its share of elder/senior abuse.

Call the police department (in Evanston, 847-866-5000) so that agencies can address (elder) abuse.  Having God in one’s pocket does no one any good. 

Letters to the Editor

District 65 Board Resignation Undermines Intent
Editor:

I am very disappointed by Sharon Sheehan’s resignation from the District 65 School Board.  

I can fully understand her frustration with the recent actions of the Board, and I respect her courage to stand up publicly and defend her position. But then she should have sat down and continued to fight for the principles, challenges and changes she based her campaign on - and which convinced me to vote for her.         

I feel like my vote has now been thrown away and any hope of opposing voices being heard on the Board fades even further into irrelevance.

Her action has now given the Board majority free reign to appoint someone who fully supports their point of view, strengthens their majority position and leaves little, if any, room for meaningful dissension on the many important issues facing District 65.

Having high moral principals is to be respected and applauded, but that respect is earned by sticking around to see the commitment through.
--Lois Roewade

Reader Takes Issue With Story On Supportive Housing
Editor:

Your Oct. 3 article titled "From Institutions to Supportive Housing: An Uncertain Future for People Living with Mental Illness" captured the many challenges those living with mental illnesses must confront on an everyday basis, especially related to access to supportive housing programs. 

At the same time, I was struck by the somewhat negative references to the viability of a shift to supportive housing; specifically a comment by Ron Nunziato, vice president of S.I.R. Management, which operates Albany Care and Greenwood Care. 

He questioned how cost-effective a shift to more supportive housing would be, citing the potential for more frequent hospitalizations, co-morbidity issues, and whether an individual is able to maintain a healthy diet and take their medication.  "No one is looking at these ramifications," he noted. 

There is no reality to these assertions; the essence of supportive housing is support --support for behaviors and services that promote recovery -- like healthy diets and medication tracking.  Supportive housing is both fantastically successful and cost-effective.  National research into supportive housing, which has been an active field of inquiry since the early 1980s, and Housing Options’ own statistics demonstrate these facts.

In the calendar year 2006, 7.5 percent of Housing Options residents were psychiatrically hospitalized, comparable to the national average of 7 percent; medication compliance among our residents was 96 percent.  Furthermore, almost one-third of our residents held outside employment and another large group volunteered or took college classes. 

With the support of Housing Options staff, our residents consistently have been able to maintain their health at a level comparable to individuals in institutional care and have achieved so much more in their professional and personal lives.

Related to supportive housing, other studies indicate decreases of more than 50 percent in emergency room visits and hospital inpatient days, a decrease in the use of emergency detoxification services by more than 80 percent, and an increase in access to preventive health-care services.

As you noted in the Sept. 19, 2007, edition of the RoundTable, the transition from institutionalized care to the Housing Options’ supportive housing program, for those who are ready, can be described as a "miracle."

While critics of the supportive housing model may not believe in the ability of individuals recovering from mental illnesses to succeed in independent living situations, Housing Options’ daily successes are a testament to the ability of those we serve to overcome their unique challenges.  By not including a more complete voice representing the results of supportive housing, understanding of this productive method of therapy is undermined.

We agree with the strategy of Dr. Lorrie Rickman-Jones, director of the state’s Division of Mental Health; "My direction in housing policy is to expand supportive housing." 

We look forward to providing representatives from the RoundTable with a tour of some of the homes of our residents, as well as discussions with those we serve.
--Melba Graffius Swoyer
Director of Development and Communications, Housing Options

Change the Guidelines
Editor:

Your article of Oct. 3 reports that the 202 Board is upset about levels of minority participation in honors classes, and there is a simple solution.

The high school recommends class levels for each incoming student. The current guidelines result in a low percentage of minorities being placed in honors classes. Those guidelines are not set in stone and they are not working well for the school, where minority participation in honors classes is low, resulting in a feeling that classes are segregated by race. Change the guidelines.

Instead of venting their "ire" after the fact, the Board should instruct the administration to change their placement guidelines so that minority participation in honors classes would match that of white students.

It is not reasonable to expect parents to take the initiative, because most parents don’t feel they should override the school’s placement recommendations. Black and Hispanic children take regular classes because that’s what the high school tells them they should take. Most parents would be thrilled to see their children placed in honors classes.

Place them in honors. They’ll take honors. There would have to be more honors classes to accommodate the increase in students, but that would be matched by a decrease in "regular" classes. There is no set limit to how many kids can take honors classes. 

It’s the Board’s job to set policy. If it were the policy of the school to have more black and Hispanic students in honors classes, the administration would find a way to implement that policy. Tell the counselors to place more black and Hispanic students in honors classes, and that’s where they’ll be.

  Don’t wait until next year. Do it for next semester. If it’s important to the Board, it can get done.
 --Boris Furman

Council Blindsides  Residents Yet Again
Editor:

Blind-siding seems to be what some on our City Council do best.  When the topic of 1890 Maple was last discussed at a City Council meeting, it became clear that there were enough votes to defeat the project.  Seeing this, Alderman Rainey moved that it be tabled until early November when the consultants would be prepared to deliver their final recommendations.  Suddenly the issue is addressed in September (so much for hearing from the consultants) after talks that excluded even some aldermen, not to mention the neighbors and the larger community.  Refusing to include those who were "inflexible" is just code for "let's not listen to the other side of the issue." What a democratic way to operate! You should be ashamed of yourselves.

To fall for the developer’s dangling the carrot of Trader Joe's is foolhardy.  There is no commitment.  Do they really think that Trader Joe's will find this location tenable?  It is far less desirable than any of the other locations that Trader Joe's considered (and rejected) in Evanston.

Those of us who live near the site know that the two King buildings will turn their ugly backs on downtown Evanston (of which they are not a part), will cause traffic tie-ups that will be a terrible burden on all of us (including prospective residents of the new structures), and will negatively impact their neighbors to the north by violating the City's own transitional zoning.

Is anyone in City Hall or in Mr. King's office reading economic reports or forecasts regarding housing and lending?  Where are all those buyers and renters coming from?  There are already more than 500 condos for sale in Evanston, not including any of the new buildings going up.  And does anyone believe the target market of empty-nesters and students are going to pay the high rent the developer wants?

With our own City Council selling our town to anyone who comes along, we can only hope that the developer himself will see the folly of his plan before it's too late.  There are plenty of Evanston residents who do not welcome him.

Thank you, Aldermen Moran, Wynne, and Hansen, for your work in trying to bring reason and clear-thinking to this issue.  I look forward to the next election, when Evanston can choose other like-minded individuals to join you.

Maureen Posner

Ideal Campaign Speech
Editor:

Would it not be refreshing to have a candidate for federal or state office make the following speech, to wit:

"Elect me, and I will raise taxes, for you get what you pay for, or, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., noted: 'Taxes are the price of civilization.’ Yes, it is true that nothing in life is certain except "death and taxes," but taxes are preferable to death to make public life livable.

"Yes, I could lose an election by this unpopular point of view, but that would be a win-win situation.  I could sleep well at night knowing I have done the right thing.  There are worse things than losing an election.  I will not lose my home or pension.  You won’t have to have a tax day for me or a benefit concert as some down-on-his-luck folk singer.

"Then too, I will be able to spend more time with my family and/or grandchildren which all losing candidates console themselves with on election night concession speeches.

"If my post-political life has any meaning, then I will take education courses to teach in an inner-city school.  I will not seek a sinecure teaching graduate students at Yale, Georgetown, the Kennedy School at Harvard.

"I will not be a lobbyist for those who wish to access my former colleagues and exploit my 'old boy network’ in Springfield or Washington, D.C.  If I win honorariums from advocacy groups, the money will be put in an escrow account with U.S. bonds to help finance my children’s future education.

"I believe my oath to the Constitution is to promote the 'general welfare’ and not just the welfare of generals in what has become a warfare state.

"May God bless America, but only if America is worthy of that grace through deeds and not creeds.  Or as the labor agitator Mother Jones said: 'Win or lose, that is what I pledge to you.’"
-- Gerald R. Adler, "bleeding heart" liberal

The Politicization of the English Classroom
Editor:

Arriving at school this year I would learn as quickly as sixth-period lunch from a literate friend of mine that all juniors, myself included, will be reading the "Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas."

Such news led to a surprisingly enthusiastic debate among the people I was with over whether biographies had a place in English class. Among us we all had some pent up opinion to call upon about just that issue. Of course I would realize this could be accounted for by how last year it was the largely despised and unread semi-autobiography "The Joy Luck Club" that I and all sophomores were required to read. 

I wondered then and now with great dismay if it could be that the politicization of English classes at Evanston Township High School - which I saw as the basis of our discussion - had concerned and sparked such enthusiastic debate among only its students.

Along with "The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas" I am reminded of the long list of the other biographies and semi-biographies written by authors that belong to minority groups that  I’ve read and will read this year: Richard Wright’s "Blackboy", James McBride’s "The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother", "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango street", and Sue Monk Kidd’s "The Secret Life of Bees"(which oddly seems just like "Joy Luck Club").

This list of books seems to belong more to a syllabus for "multiculturalism 101" than to the "English honors" classes I attend.

To comprehend how English class becomes politicized simply is to understand, in my view, the shift in instruction Harold Bloom identifies in "the Western cannon" from "reading a poem as a poem" to "reading a poem as a social document." Usually teachers adhered to this method, as they still do at ETHS, with fiction such as "1984", "Fahrenheit 451", or "The Crucible."

With biographies it appears evident to me that ETHS finds it much easier to teach the ideology they think best for us, in this case multiculturalism by now simply reading a social document as a poem, or at least more accurately to pretend they are. With biography, teachers obtain a shortcut to do something much easier than actually teaching English, which is to recount history without the scrutiny history teachers receive for attaching their own opinions as truths.

I reckon ETHS feels deeply pleased with itself and perhaps more importantly with their image for making every junior read the "Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas" - for how could that be a bad thing? Neither do I think reading the "Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas" is anything other than a good thing or object in any way to children learning about slavery and the wrongs of prejudice.

But ETHS in this sincere attempt seems to be either ignoring of or oblivious to the fact that the students who enter ETHS  have for the previous nine years of their education in District 65 - an admittedly Afro-centric school district - annually read and been taught about the lives of great African-Americans and about the plight of slaves and other discriminated peoples.

And they will do so again in high school, as I am now in U.S. history class.

My qualm is that if the ETHS English department believes they have an obligation to combat problems within its student body, they have a much larger and more pressing issue to face in the English classroom than that of racism: They have the tyranny of the visual to fight.

The moral task and, I believe, the absolute obligation at hand for all English classes today is to get kids interested in reading and writing. I don’t see why this shouldn’t be alarmingly clear to anyone who has seen the dismal statistics on the future of reading.

When ETHS has the critical power to choose what books they are going to make high- schoolers read, they should be picking books and teaching them with those statistics in mind. And may they not have to resort to substandard works to find something that will engage the contemporary teenager but to the greatest works of literature.

They have a responsibility now to pick books and teach them to change the mind of the alarming amount of high-schoolers who don’t think blacks, Jews, or any other ethnic group is inferior, but do think reading and writing is simply dull and boring.

 If you’re looking for a book to reinforce the negative impressions mentioned above, you’re right on target in choosing Amy Tan’s "The Joy Luck Club."

And so this is what our concerned and observant English department decides to do of all things, to hand every sophomore at ETHS "The Joy Luck Club," a book about, with all due respect, Asian women reminiscing for 352 pages, that offers the average high-schooler hardly anything to relate to and practically nothing to get excited about.

This is the kind of backwards job our English department is doing.  I think the English department should be at least somewhat interested to find out that I did not know one person in my entire class, whether they liked to read or not, who felt anything more than indifference about reading "The Joy Luck Club."  Neither did I know many who actually read the book more than partially. Though I should say those same people found the movie pleasant for the most part.

To truly understand why choosing books that will engage high-schoolers is so critical beyond the obvious reasons is to understand, as I suspect our English department does not,  the power and instant availability of "sparknotes.com," a free site which gives the majority of my peers who could only bare reading the first couple pages of "The Joy Luck Club" the extremely enticing option of not actually having to read the book and still easily pass the tests and quizzes given for it.

Instead of having an English department that understands and addresses the discouraging state of reading in our time and fulfills its obligation to be the very foot soldiers against such a decline of the written word, we get its misguided guilt in the form of ideology. Perhaps it’s time we leave history lessons in history class and let ETHS students be taught great literature, and not just some of the time.
--Daniel Schwartz, ETHS Junior

October is "Evanston CAN  Recycle Month!"
Open Letter to the Residents of Evanston:

The City of Evanston and Keep Evanston Beautiful (KEB) are calling on all residents and businesses to recycle aluminum beverage cans during the entire month of October to help the City win up to $10,000 to enhance its recycling programs as part of the 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors Cans For Cash Challenge.

The aluminum can is the most valuable container to recycle and is the most recycled consumer product in the United States today.

Still only half the country’s aluminum cans are recycled. More than $1 billion of potential revenue from aluminum can recycling ends up in landfills instead of in  recycling plants each year.

Today it is cheaper, faster and more energy-efficient to recycle aluminum than ever before.

Making new aluminum cans from used cans takes 95 percent less energy than making new cans from ore; 20 recycled cans can be made with the energy needed to produce one can using virgin ore.

The energy saved by recycling one ton of aluminum could fuel a car that gets 35 mpg for 82,250 miles.

Considering that the average American drinks 370 beverages in aluminum cans each year, promoting aluminum recycling makes environmental sense.

And nothing recycles more quickly. It takes only 60 days to turn the empty cans in a recycling bin into new cans on retailers’ shelves.

If enough aluminum beverage cans are recycled, the existing supply of aluminum beverage containers could be virtually self-sustaining.

To participate in the Cans For Cash Challenge, Evanston community members do not need to do anything extraordinary. They should simply be sure to place all aluminum beverage cans in recycling containers during the month of October.

Groot, the City’s recycling hauler, will sort and weigh the aluminum cans.

Those who do not have residential recycling pickup by Groot are requested to make a special effort to take their aluminum beverage cans to the City’s Recycling Center, 2222 Oakton St. on Fridays, noon -7p.m. or on weekends 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
-- Carolyn Collopy, Sustainable Programs Coordinator, City of Evanston