Tuesday, November 22, 2005
ACTION PLAN: Studio StL helps children
[excerpt from Studio StL Plan of Action]
Question: Who Can We Help? What On Earth Can We Do? Why Should We Do This? And Who Are “We?”
So we know that it is grim. We see the kids and we hear their stories about drive-by shootings, nine-year old--
kids who are shot through their front doors while they watch television, or maybe, while they try to do their homework. We see the kids get up at 5:30 and wait for their buses in the dark that take them miles away from their makeshift homes into white suburbs where teachers don’t understand why they wear dirty clothes and can’t stay organized. We see them in their buses on the ride home again to take care of baby brothers and sisters in the dark because grandma is working the late shift. We hear white kids talk about reading at Level Q and doing their “daily oral language,” like it’s some foul-tasting pink stuff they have to take for stomachaches. We hear young teachers – who we know quite well – talk about leaving their teaching jobs because they’ve been told one too many times that their ideas will not work, that they need to stick to standards, and even if they wanted to wait it out for the
kids, they figure they don’t get paid enough to put up with all of the trouble. We hear from teachers who have taught 20 years and who still teach even though their heart isn’t quite “in it” anymore, because at least they get health Insurance, even though the premiums eat any pittance of annual increase (if they get one); they have to hang in because maybe their spouse was a teacher too, and now he’s out of work.
What we don’t hear anymore is talk about Harriet the Spy or how Claudia Kincaid ran away from home and hid out in the restrooms on top of the toilets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And we don’t hear much from kids about three-headed lice-eating moths who crash into evil Planet Zorg and eat three toads with
slithery, repulsive tongues. We don’t hear about teachers who do papier mache projects and send homemade cookies for Christmas in handmade containers with lovely written notes.
We don’t hear this because, really? Who has time for such things?
UNTIL ONE DAY WE HEARD A DIFFERENT VOICE AND A DIFFERENT MESSAGE…
AND NOT ONLY DID THE MESSAGE RESONATE WITH OUR EXPERIENCE MILES AWAY IN A VERY DIFFERENT CITY, IN A VERY DIFFERENT COMMUNITY, IN THE VERY HEART OF THE MIDWEST,
THE MESSAGE MADE US LAUGH AND GAVE US A SEMBLANCE OF HOPE FOR OUR KIDS AND FOR OTHER KIDS WHO SHARED THE SAME POLITICS AND AN EDUCATIONAL WORLD NOT OF THEIR OWN MAKING.
And we felt that once we heard the message and saw first-hand its potential to make a real difference – to make kids understand the power and magic of self-expression, of creativity, of writing and to support teachers who struggle to convey the message – then we too could build the kind of place, and develop the kind of programs that it would take to reach the kids and to support the teachers.
AND WE DECIDED TO DO THAT. AND WE CAN DO THAT.
We go forth confident of our ability and passionate about our mission, but we cannot help but think that our single voice will be stronger when connected and heard as part of a greater whole – a connection from coast-to-coast, north to south – both a Crossroads and a Bridge – so others may hear and feel inspired to do something, to take another look, to offer partnership rather than white horses, to talk to rather than talk at, to invite rather than to dictate, to offer validation and support to a vulnerable spirit, to try to create rather than to destroy…
AND SO WE OFFER THIS PLAN -- AFTER CONSIDERABLE THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH – NOT OUT OF A PLEA FOR CELEBRITY PARTNERSHIP, NOR TO BEG FOR HELP – FINANCIAL OR OTHERWISE – NOR FOR SUPERFICIAL ENTRANCE INTO A CROWD. WE OFFER THIS PLAN BECAUSE IT IS THE BEST WAY WE KNOW HOW TO USE OUR EXPERTISE TO SERVE ST. LOUIS KIDS AND OUR COMMUNITY.
We offer this plan because we know the problems we seek to address are enormous, multifaceted, and largely out of our control. But we also know that as we go forth to do whatever little we might do, we are convinced that our words, our voice, our mission, and our message echoes the one we heard before from this strange and wonderful place called, 826. And we believe that our voices together – connected already by similarity of purpose and passion to serve the needs of our separate communities – voices can only be stronger, and our mutual efforts greater
when we speak together, rather than apart.
Find out more - GO TO StudioStL
[excerpt from Studio StL Plan of Action]
Question: Who Can We Help? What On Earth Can We Do? Why Should We Do This? And Who Are “We?”
So we know that it is grim. We see the kids and we hear their stories about drive-by shootings, nine-year old--
kids who are shot through their front doors while they watch television, or maybe, while they try to do their homework. We see the kids get up at 5:30 and wait for their buses in the dark that take them miles away from their makeshift homes into white suburbs where teachers don’t understand why they wear dirty clothes and can’t stay organized. We see them in their buses on the ride home again to take care of baby brothers and sisters in the dark because grandma is working the late shift. We hear white kids talk about reading at Level Q and doing their “daily oral language,” like it’s some foul-tasting pink stuff they have to take for stomachaches. We hear young teachers – who we know quite well – talk about leaving their teaching jobs because they’ve been told one too many times that their ideas will not work, that they need to stick to standards, and even if they wanted to wait it out for the
kids, they figure they don’t get paid enough to put up with all of the trouble. We hear from teachers who have taught 20 years and who still teach even though their heart isn’t quite “in it” anymore, because at least they get health Insurance, even though the premiums eat any pittance of annual increase (if they get one); they have to hang in because maybe their spouse was a teacher too, and now he’s out of work.
What we don’t hear anymore is talk about Harriet the Spy or how Claudia Kincaid ran away from home and hid out in the restrooms on top of the toilets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And we don’t hear much from kids about three-headed lice-eating moths who crash into evil Planet Zorg and eat three toads with
slithery, repulsive tongues. We don’t hear about teachers who do papier mache projects and send homemade cookies for Christmas in handmade containers with lovely written notes.
We don’t hear this because, really? Who has time for such things?
UNTIL ONE DAY WE HEARD A DIFFERENT VOICE AND A DIFFERENT MESSAGE…
AND NOT ONLY DID THE MESSAGE RESONATE WITH OUR EXPERIENCE MILES AWAY IN A VERY DIFFERENT CITY, IN A VERY DIFFERENT COMMUNITY, IN THE VERY HEART OF THE MIDWEST,
THE MESSAGE MADE US LAUGH AND GAVE US A SEMBLANCE OF HOPE FOR OUR KIDS AND FOR OTHER KIDS WHO SHARED THE SAME POLITICS AND AN EDUCATIONAL WORLD NOT OF THEIR OWN MAKING.
And we felt that once we heard the message and saw first-hand its potential to make a real difference – to make kids understand the power and magic of self-expression, of creativity, of writing and to support teachers who struggle to convey the message – then we too could build the kind of place, and develop the kind of programs that it would take to reach the kids and to support the teachers.
AND WE DECIDED TO DO THAT. AND WE CAN DO THAT.
We go forth confident of our ability and passionate about our mission, but we cannot help but think that our single voice will be stronger when connected and heard as part of a greater whole – a connection from coast-to-coast, north to south – both a Crossroads and a Bridge – so others may hear and feel inspired to do something, to take another look, to offer partnership rather than white horses, to talk to rather than talk at, to invite rather than to dictate, to offer validation and support to a vulnerable spirit, to try to create rather than to destroy…
AND SO WE OFFER THIS PLAN -- AFTER CONSIDERABLE THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH – NOT OUT OF A PLEA FOR CELEBRITY PARTNERSHIP, NOR TO BEG FOR HELP – FINANCIAL OR OTHERWISE – NOR FOR SUPERFICIAL ENTRANCE INTO A CROWD. WE OFFER THIS PLAN BECAUSE IT IS THE BEST WAY WE KNOW HOW TO USE OUR EXPERTISE TO SERVE ST. LOUIS KIDS AND OUR COMMUNITY.
We offer this plan because we know the problems we seek to address are enormous, multifaceted, and largely out of our control. But we also know that as we go forth to do whatever little we might do, we are convinced that our words, our voice, our mission, and our message echoes the one we heard before from this strange and wonderful place called, 826. And we believe that our voices together – connected already by similarity of purpose and passion to serve the needs of our separate communities – voices can only be stronger, and our mutual efforts greater
when we speak together, rather than apart.
Find out more - GO TO StudioStL
