A Message to Our CommunityMay 2003

“It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” – the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968

This quote from Dr. King comes from one of his great speeches, “Remaining Awake Through the Great Revolution,” and, when applied to education it is just as relevant today as it was 35 years ago.

It’s all right to tell our students we want them to be high achievers, but it’s cruel to say to a student whose school is falling apart, whose school doesn’t have enough books, and who’s in a class with a large teacher-to-student ratio because teachers are being fired, that the student ought be graduating high school with flying colors.

Still, we must continue to find ways to give students and teachers educational “boots.” One way is through partnerships. Some of the most successful programs at the Alameda County Office of Education are comprehensive collaborations that draw on the expertise of our local community.

In the last few months, we have seen one of ACOE’s most ambitious art collaborations succeed. Art is Education attracted thousands of people in our communities who witnessed the vital role that visual and performing arts play in our schools. Given the opportunity to combine their creative and critical thinking skills, students produced amazing paintings, puppets, live theater and dance. You can look forward to another Art is Education event next spring.

Another way is to give students the opportunity to witness and participate in democratic processes that bring their textbooks alive. Hundreds of students are expected to rally in Sacramento on May 8. I came out in support of the education rally because organizers have assembled an excellent set of lesson plans for teachers to use before, during and after the event. The rally is a grand lesson in civics. We have seen the success of similar field trips. We welcome parents and other community members to work with teachers to keep our students safe while at the State Capitol.

We are also showing our students how to effect change in other ways. Hundreds of our students participated in ACOE’s civic engagement initiative Project 540°. More than 20 schools had students create civic action plans designed to confront problems on and off their campuses. Students tackled a wide range of issues ranging from fixing school restrooms to helping homeless people and families in Iraq. I’ll be there to celebrate these students on May 8 at an evening ceremony at Chabot Community College.

I would like to extend an invitation to the public to tour some of the Alameda County Office of Education’s school sites to see our collaborations in action. The tours are held every Thursday. Please sign up ahead of time at our main office in Hayward. A van will take people around to a selection of our 13 sites where we oversee programs.

Among those programs is Write to Read at Juvenile Hall. This month, our author lecture series features writers whose life experiences will help us build a culture of literacy at Juvenile Hall. Our three guests are: Jimmy Santiago Baca, a writer who spent most of his first 25 years incarcerated and taught himself to read while in solitary confinement; Nikki Giovanni, a world-renowned poet, commentator and educator, who has written more than two dozen books; and Art Rodriguez, an award-winning non-fiction writer who grew up in a gang in east San Jose.

Programs such as Project 540° and Write to Read are excellent examples of how different community alliances can work successfully to help our students. In order to recognize these and other collaborations, our redesigned Web site, (set to go live on May 13th), will highlight an Alameda County school each month. Our inaugural program is the Roosevelt Village Center at Roosevelt Middle School in Oakland.

And as the end of the school year draws near, I’d like to give a special thanks to the teachers, staff and administrative professionals of Alameda County who are essential in to our schools. Thank you for constantly searching for creative ways to provide all our students with the educational boots they need to succeed.

Sheila Jordan is the County Superintendent of Schools. She may be reached at 670-4144 or by e-mail at acoesuperintendent@acoe.org.