[Name redacted] gets to go to college!Let me tell you about this beautiful, smart, brave young woman. She arrived here when she was three. Her parents have been staying here by shenanigans with tourist visas. She graduated from high school on time -- and could have done it early -- with decent grades, while at the same time she has been ( Read more... )

Walnut Avenue Women's Center just lost twenty-five percent of its funding. Among other cuts we could not afford to make, we cut my classroom clean out. My partner was able to be folded into another classroom where an assistant teacher is leaving. I was not able to be folded in. When I come back from Prague, there will be no job waiting for me ( Read more... )

This was what I was originally going to write about last night.  It's kind of related to what I did post about, in an indirect way which I will not discuss ( Read more... )

"Retention" is the word we use when we talk about keeping people in a program (school, and Even Start, in this case). It's hard.  You have to be there every time the person gets cold feet: every time the person gets overwhelmed: every time the person gets hit with a crisis: and every time the person just gets tired ( Read more... )

I'm hearing a fair amount of folk medicine these days as the teenagers tell me what their mothers and aunts and grandmothers are telling them to do for their babies. The good news is most of it's right, or at least benign. I love being able to say "Manzanilla is harmless and makes you feel cozy," for example (manzanilla is chamomile), or "yes, ( Read more... )