Back in April I wrote about the School Board meeting when the Board voted to close Lake Otis, Fire Lake, and Campbell Stem schools.
Tuesday afternoon, Lake Otis Elementary, where I've been volunteering in a third grade class for the last three years, held a wake. They called it a tribute.
Lots of folks showed up - alumni, former LO teachers, parents, current students, and folks from the neighborhood.
More people were inside.
And the hallways were lined with boxes teachers and staff have already packed to go to Tudor and Rogers Park schools that seem to be taking most of the Lake Otis students next fall.
There was plenty of pizza.
Sweets
And there was a little bit of healthy food.
Below is Steve Waldron who went to Lake Otis when it opened in 1955!
The musicians had moved into the cafeteria and a lot of the kids were dancing to the music.
There were a couple of tables with old yearbooks
Ah, Steve. You know I've been following this from ADN and other places for some time now. Lake Otis Elementary was the feeder school for my neighbourhood and I attended from kindergarten (1960) through first-half of 5th grade (1965) when many of us moved to a new Rogers Park Elementary. Looking back, a remarkable fact is I attended with Black kids at Lake Otis. It wasn't until years later I found out about the subdivision where you live was created by-and-for black folk.
ReplyDeleteA number of those kids sat in classes with me through our education at Wendler Jr High and East High schools. It was what was accepted for me; that, and Alaska Native students at East. It became normal for me, but we didn't do the work of knowing history told by those who felt the lash of slavery or fact of racism.
It was what it was, and it gave friendships that chance to happen -- and they did.
So, knowing this, I came to live in Northern Ireland, a small country that is divided by religion (Catholic vs. Presbyterian Protestant, largely). And here, knowing well our history of Protestant favour, there are fewer than 2% of children in public education who attend 'INTEGRATED' schools (both Catholic + Protestant enrolment). This is STILL the way it is.
And here, we are STILL divided by this one characteristic in so many ways. It still fuels much of the political tensions today, the so many ways in which kids learn their history and see their neighbours differently.
Folk in the US just can't believe this. As if THIS can matter and create divisions.
I can report with absolute certainty, it can and it does. But still people won't integrate the schools because people can't & won't agree a common history.