Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 1032

Sun Moon Child

Never tire of this; music by Imani Uzuri, video treatment by Pierre Bennu.

Trailer: Diary of a Single Mom | A Robert Townsend Film

From Image Entertainment :
In the center of a storm is Ocean (Monica Calhoun), a 27-year old highly-motivated mother who manages a neighborhood apartment building and all of the problems that come along with it. Managing the building is a dream come true for Ocean. Not only has she secured a job with a title, but also managed to escape her family's problems and the closet-sized bedroom she and her two children used to share in her mother's house. Now, Ocean is juggling a new job, a new home furnished with only cardboard boxes, a niece who hates everything, her own two children and the needs of all the other tenants. DIARY OF A SINGLE MOM illuminates the challenges and triumphs of three women struggling to create lives that not only sustain them and their families, but also inspire others toward more action and compassion in their own lives.

Serena Williams and the Politics of Hate(rs)

SerenaWilliams and the Politics of Hate(rs) byDavid J. Leonard | NewBlackMan
Followinga first-round victory in the Brisbane International tournament, Serena Williamsexpressed her sentiments about tennis, sport, and her labor of unlove.   "I mean, I don't love tennis today, but I'm here, andI can't live without it … so I'm still here and I don't want to go anywhere anytime soon," she explained. "It's not that I've fallen out of love; I'veactually never liked sports, and I never understood how I became an athlete. Idon't like working out; I don't like anything that has to do with workingphysically."  Williams comments,not surprisingly, elicited widespread commentary, most of which used herconfession as a source of criticism and demonization.

In "Woeis Serena: Tennis star says she doesn't love tennis," Chris Chase criticizesWilliams as narcissistic and otherwise incapable of being self-reflective andself-critical.  While acknowledgingher candor, he uses that candor as a source of condemnation:


From one view,her candor could be seen as refreshing. Here's a top athlete discussing thedelicate balance of passion and obligation and fear of the unknown. She'srevealing herself to the press, something she rarely has in the past. Then youstep back and realize Serena has the least self-awareness of any great athleteof the past decade. Two years later, she can't bring herself toacknowledge that she was wrong to threaten a lineswoman at the U.S. Open.She'll likely never admit her actions in last year's U.S. Open final crossedthe line. Unless she gained some insight in the past four months, these quotesare selfish nonsense.


Chase, unwilling to limit the criticisms to the quote, rehashes andrecycles those previous incidences that in his mind provide context forunderstanding Serena's dislike of tennis. In other words, just as she violated the rules of tennis, just as shehas been unable to apologize for her past missed deeds, and just as she hasn'tbeen able to acknowledge her own faults, these comments are construed asevidence of her deficiencies as a person and athlete.  Chase goes on to argue:
 Nobody is surprised Serena doesn'tlike tennis. Like Andre Agassi before her, she seemsto only love the winning  and iswilling to put up with what it takes to get there. The grind doesn't interesther much. These aren't new insights into her soul. The underlying tone isn'tthat Serena is a reluctant sports hero, it's that she's able to be so muchbetter than the rest of the tour without caring about the game like they do.Her "I don't love tennis" quote isn't a revelation, it's aself-congratulatory declaration. It's as if she's saying, "Just imaginewhat I could do if I cared."
Pete Bodo, with "More instructively and disturbingly are the commentsthat are found alongside many of the articles.  Here are a few examples

ScarCity: It shows what an idiot she really is. Because if it weren't forsport, she'd be sitting on her increasingly fat bum, watching the shoppingchannel, buying cheap junk, because she became too fat to leave the house!....(and I have no doubt her expensive "Tastes" are as bad as anyoneelse's poor tastes).........She's vile !  DanielaCG : No amount of shopping ortrying to act feminine could change the fact that she looks like a beast!
etweinberg : How ungrateful can one person be? I would do anything tohave that kind of natural talent in a professional sport. Are we supposed tofeel sorry for her? "Awww, Serena....you don't like your job that you getpaid millions of dollars to do. Poor, poor girl....."  Consideringthe way the economy is right now, with all the social unrest because ofit.....pretty bad timing, I'd say.
Chris.Klarner: She playsbecause she's built like a man and can over power the other woman playing.She's a fat piece of trash and proved it with her comment.
Mslewis: The fact that Serena does not like tennis has notbeen much of a secret for a very long time. She has been out of shape andlistless for years now and the only reason she wins matches is because she'sbigger and hits harder than most of the women.  When she is ahead shelooks   totally bored and goesthrough the motions, but when her opponent shows some spark and beats upon her, Serena just gives in.  (See: U.S. Open 2011 final)
I believeSerena hangs around because her "acting" career hasn't worked out norhas her "designing" career, so what else will keep her in thespotlight . . . tennis.  Either that or she has run out of money becauseshe and Venus support her large family of hangers on and she needs to continueto play for the money she gets from exhibitions, endorsements, etc.
Her fathersaid years ago that he hoped Serena and Venus would retire before they turned30.  Guess that hasn't worked out the way he thought. Whatever!  Cry me a river.
What is striking about the comments and several of the commentaries aswell, is the demonization of Serena Williams.  Focusing on her body (reinforced by the many pictures thatsexualize Williams), her attitude, and her shortcomings as a player, the responsespathologize Williams.  "TheWilliams sisters have been criticized for lacking 'commitment' by refusing toconform to the Spartan training regime of professional tennis, restrictingtheir playing schedules, having too many 'off-court interests' in acting,music, product endorsements, fashion and interior design, and their Jehovah'sWitness religion" (McKay and Johnson). Her comments here are merely positioned as evidence for the longstandingcriticism.
The subtext is even more instructive with so much focus on herbody.  For many, Williams is awasted talent, as someone whose laziness, lack of work ethnic, limited dedication,and absent focus has precluded her from reaching her greatness.  The ample discussion about her body asevidence of her lack of commitment illustrates the profound ways that thesecomments are used to authenticate the narrative of Serena Williams as failure.  This is nothing new as tenniscommentators and fans alike have long criticized her as fat, out-of-shape, andotherwise lack commitment to be great. "The Williams sisters alsohave been subjected to the carping critical gaze that both structures and is akey discursive theme of 'pornographic eroticism'," writes James McKay and HelenJohnson.  Similarly, Delia Douglas argues, a "particularversion of blackness" is advanced within the representations of the Williamssisters.  We see the "essentialistlogic of racial difference, which has long sought to mark the black body asinherently different from other bodies.  Characterizations of their styleof play rely on 'a very ancient grammar' of black physicality to explain theirathletic success"
What also guides these comments is the ways in whichWilliams has been celebrated as evidence of the American Dream - because oftennis she was able to secure tremendous wealth and success, otherwiseunavailable to her.  The anger andcondemnation embodies this belief that without sports Serena Williams would beworking at McDonalds or some other minimum wage job.  Guided by narratives of race and class, Williams is thusreimagined as ungrateful, as disrespectful to what the game "has givenher."  In many respects, thisexplains the very different reaction to the similar comments from AndreAgassi.  Agassi, as white male, isseen to have had many options in life to secure the American Dream, whereasWilliams is render incapable of success outside the realm of sport promptingthis sort of demonization.   
McKay and Johnson offer important analysis in thisregard, noting how the long history of demonization is very much connected to anarrative of the American Dream
They have been constructed within a 'ghetto-to-glory' narrative: ajournalist referred to their ascent as a 'fairy tale, that astonishingnarrative of the ''ghetto Cinderellas'' ' (Adams, 2005), one described Venus asa former 'teenage curio from a Los Angeles ghetto' (Muscat, 2007), and anotherstated that, 'Only in America would Venus have risen from her cradle of crackdealers and grunge courts to contest the women's singles final at Wimbledon'(Mott, 2000). Patton (2001, p. 122) refers to these sorts of narratives as 'anAfricanized version of the Horatio Alger story in which athletics provides aroute out of the ghetto'.
The reactionary discourse and the outrage that hassurrounded Serena's recent comments is a testament to the ways in which theWilliams sisters have been imagined "an Africanized version ofthe Horatio Alger story in which athletics provides a route out of theghetto'."  Her purported refusal toaccept and be grateful for the fantasy narrative is the source of outrage.  Her refusal to substantiate thenarrative of sport as great equalizer compels the demonization.   
Clearly the outrage directed at Serena Williamsreflects a systemic erasure of the labor of athletes.  Whether in reference to collegiate or professional athletes,dominant narratives ubiquitously erase the labor and the conditions of laborunder which athletes work.  Byimagining sport as game, fun, and hobby, the hard work, the dedication, the sacrifice,the pain, and exploitation are all rendered invisible.  "Thetruth is, sports is labor, most of it invisible. (Even the visible labor --weightlifting, workouts, wearisome travel -- is mostly invisible to thepublic.)," writes SteveRushin.  "When a guy is sittingon a stool, staring into space in a state of semi-dress, he is almost alwaysworking. This is the kind of work done by a starting pitcher on game day, whennobody goes near him, or by a writer jackknifed over his keyboard, nibbling histhumbnail to a nubbin."  The deniedwork of athletes is exacerbated by race and gender given the ways in whichwhite supremacy and patriarchy leaves the work of black women invisible.
Theinvisibility and erasure is quite evident with both the shock and outrage overSerena Williams' recent confession. Whereas others see tennis as sport, game, activity, hobby, Serena makesclear that tennis is labor; it is handwork; it is injury; in many regards it isan assault on her subjectivity. Tennis, a job, ain't nothing but work.  In reminding people that tennis is ajob, a tough one that she doesn't like and has never liked, Williams powerfullychallenges those who see her identity as determined by her profession. 
***
David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of CriticalCulture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. Hehas written on sport, video games, film, and social movements, appearing inboth popular and academic mediums. His work explores the political economy ofpopular culture, examining the interplay between racism, state violence, andpopular representations through contextual, textual, and subtextualanalysis.  Leonard's latest book After Artest: Race and the Assault on Blackness will bepublished by SUNY Press in May of 2012.

James Braxton Peterson Discusses New Hampshire Primary on Al Jazeera English

James Braxton Peterson is Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University and the author of the forthcoming Major Figures: Critical Essays on Hip Hop Music (Mississippi University Press). Follow him at @DrJamesPeterson.

New Video: Omar Offendum | Straight Street

Straight Street | Feat. Meryem Saci
Producer | Oddisee
Director | Jean-Laurent Ratel

Commemorating one of the most ancient urban spaces in the world ... The Street Called Straight: (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Called_S...)
________________________

Chorus:
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight

Verse 1:

i took a stroll down the straight called str8
met a medicine man about 1/3 of the way
predecessor to the pusherman
with somethin to say
about an apple a day
keepin the sickness away
i valued his advice at face
at first
till he enlightened me to how precise nature worked
givin us citrus fruits in winter time for vitamin c
just met each other but im already invited for tea
(sub7an allah)
as fate would have it
he & i turned out to be related
a small world's even smaller when you're arab - aint it?
made it a point to soak in all his information
bout regenerative meditations
& preventitive medication
like a modern Ibn Sina
with a pretty calm demeanor
& a remedy for everything
that plagued the arab nations
yet when asked of how to cope with our impossible fate
he just said follow the middle path
to a Street Called Straight

Chorus:

it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
that's where we cease all hate
& pray to 3ish peace all day

Verse 2:

i took a stroll down the street called str8
met a spiritual teacher about 2/3 of the way
predecessor to the preacherman
with somethin to say
about a prayer a day
keepin the satan's at bey
he spoke of angels on our shoulders
and the angles of our solar
systematic self-destruction
metaphysical corruption
with a danger to our polar
ice caps
till it's out of our control
& in the hands of our beholder
we philosophized for over
20 minutes like that
taught me lessons
any questions he would
give em right back
said the answers were within us
& i didnt like that
but i realized later why he did it like that
i had so much more to learn
clock was ticking - couldnt stall
committed his words to my memory
his wisdom was enthrallin
yet when askin him what was the most important to recall
he just said follow the middle path
Straight Street & that is all

Chorus:

it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
that's where we cease all hate
& pray to 3ish peace all day

Verse 3:

i took a stroll down the street called str8
met a carpenter hard at work at the end of the way
predecessor to the architect with somethin to say
about not doin tomorrow
what should be finished today
he manipulated wood & metal till it followed function
building all through Via Recta
& Cardo Maximus junction
somethin told me he was wise beyond his years
i had a feelin
from the way that he'd exposed the beams
& ornamented ceilings
with an ambidextrous half
nonchalantly jest & laugh
sayin that my western education
made it hard to grasp
his connection to the past
deep-rooted in his craft
but was more than willing to share with me
the tools he knew i lacked
and for that i would be grateful
learnin how to build the monumental for the playful
& the humble for the faithful
yet when asked of how we'd stack against our impossible odds
he just said follow the middle path
Straight Street to the Gods

Chorus:

it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
it's just what we call fate
llivin on a Street Called Straight
that's where we cease all hate
& pray to 3ish peace all day
________________________

From 'SyrianamericanA' | Album Released 04 July 2010

Digital Download & Lyrics Available @ http://offendum.bandcamp.com/

CD Available @ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/OmarOffendumcredits For more information on Omar Offendum, visit:

http://www.offendum.com
http://twitter.com/offendum
http://tumblr.com/offendum
http://offendum.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/offendum
http://facebook.com/offendum

Copyright © Cosher Ink, LLC

Political Strategist Donna Brazile to Speak at Duke University's MLK Program

Political Strategist Donna Brazile to Speak at Duke University by Camile Jackson | Duke Office of News & Communication
The annual event is free and open to the Durham community
Durham, NC - Veteran political strategist and commentator Donna Brazile will give the keynote address for Duke University's Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration on Sunday, Jan. 15, in Duke Chapel.
The 3 p.m. speech is part of a program that includes music and dancing in the chapel celebrating King's life. It is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage.
Brazile is the vice chair of voter registration and participation for the Democratic National Committee. She is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a columnist for United Media, Ms. Magazine and O Magazine, and an on-air contributor to CNN, NPR and ABC, where she regularly appears on "This Week." She is also author of the best-selling memoir, "Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics."
Brazile has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 to 2000, when she served as campaign manager for former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. She is the first African-American woman to manage a presidential campaign.
A native of New Orleans, she has served on the board of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, working for a full post-Katrina recovery for the city. Her other passion involves voting rights and encouraging young people to vote and run for public office. She is the founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates, a consulting, grassroots advocacy and training firm based in Washington, D.C.
Brazile has been named to numerous top lists, including the Washingtonian Magazine's 100 most powerful women, O Magazine's top 20 remarkable visionaries and Essence Magazine's top 50 women in America. The Congressional Black Caucus bestowed her with its highest award for political achievement.
The theme for this year's MLK commemoration is "Act to Honor."
Learn more about this year's commemoration, including an updated listing of events, at mlk.duke.edu.[image error]

From the Digital Crate: Bobby Womack—The Last Soul Man

From the Digital Crate: Bobby Womack—The Last Soul Man by MarkAnthony Neal | NewBlackMan
Mention the phrase "Soul Man," and a litany of names areconjured such as Otis Redding, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Al Green, IsaacHayes, Marvin Gaye, Jackie Wilson, Teddy Pendergrass and of course SamCooke.  Even newbies like AnthonyHamilton and Jaheim are likely to make the cut, particularly for those for wholike their contemporary Soul, down home and gritty.  For far too many, Bobby Womack is unfortunately anafterthought.
Atthe height of Soul Music's popularity in the 1960s and early 1970s, the maleSoul singer's status rivaled that of his "race man" peer. The Soul Man icons ofthat era congealed grand narratives of tragedy—shot dead in a motel; shot deadby your father; shot dead in a game of Russian Roulette; killed in an airplanecrash; scorched by a pot of boiling grits—wedded to even more complicatedpersonal demons—physical abuse of wives and girlfriends; sexual assault ofyounger female artists; sex with underage girls. 
Thesedynamics reflected the binary tensions of the foundational myth of the Soul Mantradition; namely that this was the price that these men were damned to pay foroffering their Godly gifts of song for sale in the marketplace of the flesh.  Thus in an era when Martin Luther King,Jr. and others made the claim that African-Americans were the moral compass ofAmerican society, the Soul Man becomes the shifting locus for a noblestruggle—decidedly secular—against good and evil.
ThoughRay Charles is thought to be the most important creative force in thedevelopment of Soul Music, it was Sam Cooke who was the template for the SoulMan. Possessing good looks and a virile masculinity Cooke had emerged from hisapprenticeships as lead vocalist of the gospel groups the Highway QCs and TheSoul Stirrers, very much as Gospel music's first  sex symbol.  Andit was this particular appeal that helped solidify the foundational myth of theSoul Man; While Cooke clearly sang of the lord—often in that flutteringfeathery riff that became his signature—he clearly desired the flesh asevidenced by the philandering that purportedly instigated (in part) his murderin 1964. That Cooke was murdered as he was transitioning from his status as apopular balladeer into a more formal role as a race man—his posthumouslyreleased "A Change is Gonna Come" is seen as a core text among Civil Rights eraanthems—only heightens the gravitas associated with his role as a SoulMan.  
Cooke'sdeath, along with a decade of bad romantic relationships and near fatalaccidents before, was affirmation to many of the "true believers" that he wasbeing disciplined for the sin of not only breaking ranks with the Gospel world,but literally opening up the floodgates for many others—most  famously Aretha Franklin—to do so.  One of those who came on through, wasBobby Womack.  Recording  as the Valentino's in the early 1960s,Womack and his brothers were tutored by Cooke about the professional aspects ofthe recording industry.  Womack'sown musical sensibilities were greatly influenced by Cooke, as the latterbecame a father figure.  
Womack'sinstincts in the aftermath of Cooke's death, was to offer counsel and comfortto Cooke's widow Barbara, but three months after Cooke's death and just asWomack  turned 21-years of age, hewent a step further, marrying Cooke's still grieving wife.  "They didn't let his body get cold in the ground" was how thePittsburgh Courier quoted familymembers in response to Womack and Barbara Cooke's marriage, as Cooke's youngcharge and his widow were easily cast as deviants in opposition to the fallen SoulMan.
Itwas in the context of this drama that Womack began a solo career of somedistinction, initially establishing himself as a solid session musician (heplayed guitar on Aretha Franklin's classic IHave Never Loved a Man) and an in demand songwriter, whose credits includetunes recorded by Wilson Pickett, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, GeorgeBenson ("Breezin'") and the aforementioned Franklin. 
Afterreleasing a string of singles, beginning with "I Found a True Love" in 1965 forthe legendary Chess label, Womack released his first solo album in 1968 with Fly Me to the Moon on the Minitlabel.  It would still be a fewyears before Womack would hit his artistic stride, recording a sequence ofstellar recordings for the United Artist label in the early 1970s that includedsignature tracks such as "I Can Understand It," "That's the Way I Feel AboutCha," "Woman's Gotta Have It," "Across 110th Street" (from the movie soundtrack of the samename) and "Lookin' for a Love," a song which Womack originally recorded withhis brothers in 1962.
ThoughWomack's music was well regarded by black audiences and received the support ofblack radio, he never made the crossover inroads that his friend and mentor SamCooke did.  On his nearly 10-minuteversion of The Carpenters' "(They Long to Be) Close to You," recorded on his1971 album Communication, Womackgives some insight into his commercial struggles.  In the song's opening monologue, Womack recounts a recordexecutive who walked into one of his recording sessions and admonished Womackfor not being "commercial enough." According to Womack, "I don't care what it is, if I can get into it,it's commercial enough to me." Indeed that was Womack's mantra, as the Discoera hit in the mid-1970s and a generation of Soul Singers were tossed to theside by record labels, save the few who adapted, like Johnnie Taylor, whoscored the biggest hit of his career with "Disco Lady."
Womackkept recording and made a bit of a comeback in the early 1980s recording forthe independent label Beverly Glen. On his first album for the label ThePoet, Womack recorded what is perhaps his most recognizable tune, "If YouThink You're Lonely Now," a song that was rumored to be one of the late RichardPryor's favorites. It was during the midst of this resurgence that Womackfinally responded musically to the drama that initially unfolded in the monthsafter his mentor's demise.  "
IWish You Wouldn't Trust Me So," rather casually tells the story of a man whohas fallen in love with his best friend's wife.  By the time the song was released in the summer of 1985,most listeners were not privy to the singer's relationship with Cooke's widow,who Womack had divorced a decade earlier.  To complicate matters, Womack's brother Cecil married LindaCooke, the daughter of Sam and Barbara Cooke.  During the time that Bobby Womack recorded "I Wish IWouldn't Trust You So Much," Curtis and Linda Womack were popular songwritersand artist in their own right recording as "Womack & Womack"; the duo, for example, penned Teddy Pendergrass'shit "Love T.K.O."
ArguablyWomack's last great hit, "I Wish You Wouldn't Trust So Much" captures all ofthe dramatic tension that that made Womack's music so compelling in the firstplace, but it was also a reminder of the kinds of secrets that likely keptWomack from being fully embraced by the listening public.
***
MarkAnthony Neal is the author of five books including the forthcoming Looking for Leroy: (Il)Legible BlackMasculinities (New York University Press) and Professor of African &African-American Studies at Duke University. He is founder and managing editorof NewBlackMan and host of theweekly webcast Left of Black . Follow him onTwitter @NewBlackMan.
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The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal

The State of Things with Frank Stasio | WUNC-91.5Monday, January 9, 2012
Meet Orin Starn
Orin Starn's first experience with a culture different from that of his parents came when his father, a historian of the Italian Renaissance, moved the family to Florence. Orin went to public elementary school there, learning about Catholicism, cigarettes and girls. Orin did everything he could to avoid getting a university education, including dropping out of two different colleges in the 1970s before wandering onto a Native-American reservation 
and working as a janitor and cook. 
His natural inquisitiveness about other people, their communities, rituals and customs, sent him back to school and into anthropology because it was the path of least resistance. As he learned about anthropology, his love for the science grew, and eventually he decided he wanted to be a part of a generation of anthropologists combining intensive study with engagement and action. He has since turned his anthropologist's eye on political unrest in the Andes and Native-American issues in the United States. His newest book is called The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal (Duke University Press/2012) He reads tonight at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, but first he joins host Frank Stasio to talk about sports, the cultures of sports and the new age of anthropology.
Listen HERE [image error]

Left of Black S2:E15 | The State of Black Studies

Left of Black S2:E15 The State of Black Studies
w/Professor Eddie Glaude and Professor Mignon Moore January 9, 2012
Left of Blackhost and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined via Skype©by Later Neal is joined, alsovia Skype©, by Sociologist Mignon Moore , author of the new book Invisible Families: GayIdentities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women (University of CaliforniaPress).  Moore is associateprofessor of Sociology at UCLA.
***

Left of Black is a weekly Webcasthosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John HopeFranklin Center at DukeUniversity.
***
Episodesof Left of Black are also available for download @ iTunes U [image error]

Where is the Love? Thoughts on Teachers, Teaching and Assessment

Where is the Love?Thoughts on Teachers, Teaching and Assessment byMark Naison | special to NewBlackMan
Ihave been teaching for 45 years. My first students, in the Columbia UpwardBound Program, included a 15 year old who was destined for greatness and a 15 yearold who wouldn't say a word to me or his peers. Being able to connect to bothof them, using very different methods, hooked me for life on the challenge of building the confidence and trust required to make  learningpossible among a diverse group of people.
Itis precisely the importance of building trust which is absent from the dominantdiscourse about education today.  Achieving mastery of a fixed body ofmaterial is prioritized; opening minds, healing hearts, and building confidenceare widely neglected as "soft" attributes not amenable to measurement andevaluation.
CheGuevara once said " The true revolutionary is guided by feelings of greatlove." I would say the same about teaching; "The true teacher is guided byfeelings of great love."
Howdo you measure love? How do you assess it?
Governmentsare now spending billions of dollars on complex mathematical formulas to rateteacher effectiveness.  Every single measure they have created circumventsthe attributes that make teachers love their jobs and which influence studentsthe most.
Agreat teacher gets inside a student's head, becomes part of the student'sconscience, becomes a moral compass that may offer guidance ten, twenty yearsafter the student was in their class.  Things the teacher said during alecture, wrote in the margin of a research paper, whispered to the student in aprivate meeting,  may come up in the most unexpected times and places.Books, films and songs the teacher recommended may be ones passed on tofriends, co-workers and children.
Iam saying this from experience as well as inference.   I had teacherswho inspired me to do things I never dreamed were possible.   Theydid this not only modeling a passion for learning in their lectures and the waythey comported themselves, but by  letting me know that despite my roughedges and uneven writing stills,, there was nothing I couldn't achieve as ascholar if I dared to give myself wholly to the subject I was investigating andkept trying to hone and refine my  prose style.
Thoseteachers—and I will name them because they are all worth honoring: Edward Said,Paul Noyes, Walter Metzger, James Shenton—provided me with a model of theteacher and scholar I wanted to be. They are with me every time I walk into aclassroom.
Howdo you measure that?
Iknow so many great teachers and they are all filled with love for theirstudents and love for their jobs.  Every single reform measure introducedin the last ten years is crushing and demoralizing them
Someday,we will realize that if we really want to instill a passion for learning inyoung people, we have to honor and support our best teachers and encourage ourmost talented and idealistic young people to be teachers for life.
Andthat means we have to leave room for intangibles like love and trust in how wejudge what goes on in schools and understand that the results of great teachingare experienced over a life time, not by tests you administer three orfour times a year.
***
Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies andHistory at Fordham University and Director of Fordham's Urban Studies Program.He is the author of two books, Communistsin Harlem During the Depression and WhiteBoy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP).Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oralhistories Before the Fires: An OralHistory of African American Life From the 1930's to the 1960's.[image error]