Elizabeth Pomeroy (Photos – ColoradoBlvd.net, pusd.us)
I remember the Watts Riots of 1965 (I was teaching high school in San Mateo but was in Pasadena that summer visiting family) and the Rodney King verdicts of 1992, that shocking and unfair acquittal of police officers. (I was working in Los Angeles at the W. M. Keck Foundation. Our office closed early that day and we were sent home, as grief and rage boiled up instantly downtown.)
By Elizabeth Pomeroy
These are almost 30 year intervals with today’s shattering protests, and there have been others in between.
Why is this still happening, this harsh racial injustice? How is today’s unrest different from those earlier times? What have we learned? What can break this vicious cycle of hostility and division, putting us on a higher plane to address our issues with mutual respect?
For this, I am convinced that we must look to the young. If they can grow up comfortable with diversity and aware of thoughtful conflict resolution, our society can continue its arduous struggle towards justice. Education is the milieu of the young. It’s where they spend their hours and gather so many lasting values. What a responsibility! But education must be their strong foundation, especially public education, which opens its doors to all, of any background, including our newest Americans.
Education has always promoted good citizenship and the golden rule. But we need innovations, new lightbulbs that are relevant to the age-old problems and today’s painful realities. Here are three programs of the Pasadena Unified School District now preparing students to change the world for the better.
The Leader in Me: several PUSD schools use this framework for K-5 graders, fostering the seven habits of successful leaders. Lessons, and the entire school day, focus on such skills as creating a culture of trust, helping everyone be successful, and listening well (seek first to understand, then to be understood.) How we need these approaches in our public officials today.
Reading Like a Historian: developed by the Stanford History Education Group for high schools, this curriculum looks at central historical questions through primary documents. These are direct writings from the periods and figures of history. Students at John Muir High School evaluate multiple perspectives, drawing conclusions from documentary evidence. It’s an excellent approach to assess the cycle of violence questioned above, best understood through its tangled history. Present actions are further steps in this history.
Law and Public Service Academy: this is one of the District’s career academies at Pasadena High School. LPS integrates the fields of law, law enforcement, social justice, career and technical education, preparing for legal, government and public service careers. At its heart is Teen Court, a program of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, held on the PHS campus. . Students serve as jurors in trials of juvenile offenders, before a volunteer judge of the Court. They learn principles of diversion, prevention, and restorative justice for their peers.
In times of the pandemic, these programs may have to assume new forms. But we will find ways to sustain their benefits for our students.
Equity is a core Board-adopted principle of PUSD. It’s represented in our graduate profile and in many policies and practices. The recent protests and awakening show us that we are called to deepen this work as educators.
I am reading now the new biography of Governor Jerry Brown. One of his guiding ideas is: “Live in the inquiry.” We must continue to make schools places of inquiry, leading to thoughtful actions. 16,000 PUSD students, from toddlers to young adults, are in our hands now. All of us who love them must look to them and give them our best support. This is where a renewed vision of social justice can take wings.
Elizabeth Pomeroy is the District 5 representative on the Pasadena Unified School District.
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