I’m not sure who painted this, but it is my favorite rendition of Ida B. Wells. Someone was smart enough to bring our Ida B. Wells posters and this painting here to John O’Connell High School, to decorate our hallways.
Here in week 3, we are still getting used to things. Two schools in one building must never be easy. We know it is all for a good reason, to be able to return to our newly renovated school building in a year, made safe and more useable. So with this move, each school wants to create a sense of community, and at the same time not lose each school’s unique character. And how is it turning out? So far the default has to serve the most amount of students consistently. Ours being a smaller amount of students, means we must defer to the larger flow. Ida B. Wells students seem to be developing a stronger sense of separation, isolation, segregation. Little things, like hearing the other school’s announcements (and what they have access to), to our problems with heat, broken shades, confusion in separate lunch times – these are all becoming bigger things.
We have been talking about characteristics and skills in our classes, as we build resumes. The most amazing characteristic I’ve seen in our students? Is that even with the frustrations in all this change, they have a resilience in them. Those that are coming to our classes still smile and/or say hello and are keeping our mutual respect. You have to look for these silver linings, focus harder on those, while you repair what is not right. That being said, the words on this painting were Ida B. Wells’ over a century ago. And they are still true today. There is still so much to fix. ~posted 1 1/2 hours into lockdown
