Category Archives: Education

Maya Soetoro-Ng: The Chalkboard Champion with Presidential Connections

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44904e0fd624864aad26934feeb7f86a[1]Maya Soetoro-Ng is a former high school history teacher, current university professor, and expert in comparative international education. She also happens to be the half-sister of President Barack Obama. Born in 1970 in Jakarta, Indonesia, she is the daughter of Anne Durham, Barack Obama’s mother, and Anne’s second husband, Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro. An accomplished educator in her own right, Maya’s work as a promoter of international relations would be amazing even if she did not enjoy her presidential connections.

Early in her career, Maya taught history at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls and at the Education Laboratory School, both located in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has also taught courses as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii, College of Education, and between 1996 and 2000, she developed and taught curriculum at The Learning Project, an alternative public middle school located in New York City. She has also served as an Education Specialist at the East-West Center, an organization that promotes understanding between the United States, Asia, and the nations of the Pacific.

Maya published a children’s book entitled Ladder to the Moon in 2011 and is currently working on a book about peaceful conflict resolution aimed at high school students. She also oversaw the 2009 publication of her mother’s dissertation, entitled Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, penning the foreword to the book and presenting it at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

Oklahoma’s Chalkboard Heroes Protect Students From Devastating Tornado

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ap_children_alive_tornado_crop_nt_130520_wg[1][1]Once again our nation is reminded of the heroism of our teachers, who go above and beyond the call of duty to care for, protect, and comfort their students in crisis situations. Such was the case yesterday, in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, when a devastating tornado tore through this Mid-Western neighborhood. Two elementary schools, Briarwood Elementary and Plaza Towers Elementary, lay directly in the tornado’s path of destruction. Thankfully, all the students at Briarwood have been accounted for, and already there are eyewitness accounts from the rescued children describing what extraordinary measures their teachers took to ensure their safety and well-being. Every one of those educators is a chalkboard hero. This photo shows a teacher from from Briarwood evacuating a student. At Plaza Towers Elementary, there is still grave concern for 75 teachers and their students, most of them third graders, who are still missing. I know we will keep all of them in our thoughts, and hope with all our might for the best of outcomes.

Turn-of-the-Century Farm Schools Educated Orphan, Homeless Boys

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8c03482r[1][2]While conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I learned a great deal about various types of schools that I had never heard about in my thirty-odd years as a teacher. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, farm schools, normal schools, specialist schools. Where were all these terms when I went through student teaching? One type of school I learned about that I found particularly intriguing is the farm school.
A farm school was a boarding school which primarily served young boys. Typically these schools were established by missions or charitable organizations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The farm school provided housing, food, and medical care, usually to orphans or homeless boys who were over fourteen years of age. In addition, the school offered training in agricultural skills and fundamental lieracy skills in such subjects as reading, writing, and mathematics. The purpose of the farm school was to care for orphans and homeless youth, while simultaneously giving these youngsters the opportunity to learn a marketable skill which would enable them to find employment on farms in the Midwest or the South.

Chalkboard Champions Added to Nine More Public Libraries

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chalkboard2[1]I’m pretty excited to announce that my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, has been added to the catalogues of nine more public libraries in the Southern California area. These libraries are located in Cathedral City, Eastvale, Idyllwild, Palm Desert, Perris, San Jacinto, Temecula, Valle Vista, and Woodcrest.
How wonderful is it to know that the general public is interested in reading stories about remarkable teachers! I love to tell stories about extraordinary teachers, and in today’s world where so much negativity hits the news, this knowledge should give all of us who are professional educators a lift!

The "Soup School": Food for Thought

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ARussian-JewishBoy-JustLandedAtEllisIsland-250[1][1]While in the process of conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I learned about many types of schools that I had never heard about in the thirty-odd years I have been a professional educator. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, freedom schools, farm schools, normal schools. Where were all these terms when I went through student teaching? I was particularly intrigued by the concept of the “soup school.” What was that all about, I wondered?
I learned that a “soup school” was an institution established during periods of pronounced immigration to our country. Their purpose was to provide assistance to immigrant children as they struggled to assimilate within a new, dominant culture. Often times these schools were founded by charitable organizations or missionary societies. It makes sense that these schools were located primarily near areas of immigrant entry, New York City, for example. The main curriculum in these facilities was instruction in the English language, basic literacy skills, and American culture. Apparently, the school got its name from the fact that at noontime a bowl of soup was served to the students, a free meal which would have been most welcome to the poorest of immigrants. In contemplating this practice, I’m wondering if our nation’s free lunch program would be considered a modern version of the “soup school”?
You can read more about soup schools in Chalkboard Champions, available on amazon.