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Wanting to Learn

It is very difficult with an overwhelmed system of public education for teachers to nurture the needs of children who have experienced a sordid life. Most times these youth who need just one person to “really” care come from homes and neighborhoods filled with crime, drugs, gangs, and ridden with violence.

As I have discussed on this blog before I began my career as a teacher at Osborne School at Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. I quickly learned that what is essential in order to become an effective teacher for alternative youth is a professional relationship built with trust, care, and genuineness at its core. In a trusting student-teacher relationship there is a strong possibility that real academic learning and increased student achievement will occur.

Confronting Racism in Education

Historically, civil rights issues have been a struggle. Yet solvable they are. My epiphany after last week’s unexpected tsunami of racist comments on SJI in response to my post was, sadly, that we have not come as far as I thought we had as an enlightened community. However, the bright rays of hope that we can still succeed in the goal of eliminating the achievement gap were built into the altruistic beliefs spoken by the students who are engaged in their quest to become teachers for the children in San Jose.

Rosen Accuses Carr of Favoritism

Jeff Rosen, a deputy District Attorney running against his boss, Santa Clara County DA Dolores Carr, said yesterday that she played favorites to help a major campaign supporter.

The case began when Ali Yahya Valdovinos, a Stanford University student, was charged with felony grand theft. Valdovinos is represented by James McManis, a major contributor to Carr’s campaign. Reports claim that McManis called Carr, who intervened personally, and Valdovinos later pleaded no-contest to petty theft instead.

The Economics of Education

Before I get to the point of this column let me congratulate, Elinor Ostrom, who yesterday became the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ms. Ostrom, a political scientist at Indiana University, was honored along with Oliver Williamson, an economist at UC Berkeley. This gets me to the topic of this week’s post. The economy and education are inextricably linked.

Team Chavez, Revealed

A privacy-invading anonymous website known for personal attacks on journalists and political adversaries of local labor-backed politicians has been tied to the inner circle of former vice mayor and newly-appointed South Bay Labor Council chief executive Cindy Chavez.

According to electronic evidence inspected by San Jose Inside, an administrator of the site, “San Jose Revealed,” is Manhattan-based former SBLC political director Philip Bump. The labor council made payments to Bump until earlier this year, according to two sources.

Will BART Make it to San Jose?

Although it is struggling with a four-year $250 million deficit, BART may yet reach San Jose. The California Transportation Commission will be voting today whether to extend the service. To date, some $400 million has already been allocated to the project, which would add 16.1 miles of track to the line. Today’s vote is for another $40 million, the first installment of an expected $240 million. The total cost is expected to hover around $6.1 billion, much of which will come from federal funding. Santa Clara County voters narrowly approved a 1/8-cent sales tax to help pay for the extension in November.

Fraternity Life & Death

Junior Johnson’s Sigma Chi brothers are mourning his apparent suicide, while his mother says they killed him

On the afternoon of Nov. 22, 2008, 20-year-old Gregory Marcel Johnson Jr. was discovered dead in the basement of the Sigma Chi fraternity house in downtown San Jose. He was found hanging from a ceiling water pipe, a noose fashioned from 14-gauge heavy-duty electrical cord wrapped around his neck twice.

Can Charter Schools Save Us?

Our K-12 public school system continues to wallow in mediocrity at a time when many nations are continuing to create a vastly more educated workforce, especially in mathematics and science. As a citizen of this great nation, I am more than a little scared about what this eventually means for us as we desperately attempt to recover as an economic superpower in this information-based economy.

The Newest Member of the Dream Team

Roll call for the emerging Presidential cabinet of the United States of America: National security team…check. Green energy & environmental team…check. Economic team…check. The United States of America now has the star quarterback in President-elect Obama, VP-elect Joseph Biden as the back-up quarterback, pro bowl quality offensive and defensive teams, yet only today will we meet the person who will be nominated for the hugely strategic position integrally related to our national security and global economic survival…the Secretary of Education.

County Supervisors Quarantined After Invasive Mussels Attack

Officials Act Swiftly To Prevent Spread Into Brains

Just hours after water officials banned boats in county reservoirs to protect the water supply from an invasive shellfish, Kim Roberts, the Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System, ordered the supervisors quarantined after an aggressive mollusk was found attached to several of their heads.

When the Light Rail Derailed, the VTA was MIA

Anybody who rides Silicon Valley public transportation knows the eclectic experience of traveling via the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).  From tardy buses to drunken fights, graffiti to sleeping transients, and unidentifiable stains to vomit, you never know what you’re going to get when you step aboard one of the VTA’s fine vehicles. However, what I didn’t expect on my ride home the night of March 21 was a train wreck.

Remembering Leonard McKay

It has been a year since our good friend, fellow columnist and in-house San Jose historian Leonard McKay passed away suddenly. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t think of him and his preservation work for our community. I certainly miss the almost-daily chats I had with him the last couple of years of his life. I don’t think I ever learned so much from one person in such a short period of time. I would like to take this opportunity to remember my friend Leonard and his efforts to preserve our history—buildings, artifacts, documents and stories—for future generations of San Jose citizens. I am reprinting one of his last columns below as a tribute.

NIH Sets Up Stem Cell Harvesting Operation at San Jose Landfill

Research Agency Says Medical Waste Valuable

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced its plans to build a $1 billion state-of-the-art research facility in San Jose after the city’s Guadalupe landfill was identified as the nation’s tenth largest repository for untreated medical waste.

Christmas in San Jose

By Leonard McKay

Editor’s Note: As a tribute to our recently departed friend, we are repeating the piece he wrote for this site last Christmas.

Did you ever wonder how Christmas was celebrated in the past in San Jose? When our first foreign settlers, the Spaniards, were here, the birth of Christ was celebrated by going to mass at the Mission Santa Clara, the closest church. The male citizens rode their horses for the three mile trip. The women and young children went on the rough ride to the mission on a wooden wheeled, no-springs caretta. After the Americans arrived, most of the celebrations moved to the family home or local churches.

A Neighborhood Leader’s Open Letter to Manny Diaz

Last Friday evening, I received a copy of a letter from the Diaz campaign. It was written by Manny Diaz to Sam Liccardo, and it made mention of a letter which was sent to Mr. Diaz by neighborhood leaders throughout District 3. In our letter to Mr. Diaz, we had raised concerns regarding his continuing activity as a lobbyist. Instead of responding to our group, Diaz sent a letter to Sam Liccardo. I have now responded directly to Mr. Diaz with my concerns, and also told him why I have chosen to support Sam Liccardo in the District 3 race.

How Andrew P. Hill Saved the Redwoods

Have you ever been to Big Basin Park and stood under a giant redwood, the tallest living trees on earth, and wondered how and why they are still here? This is the story of the man who saved them: artist and photographer Andrew Putnam Hill.

Hill came to California in 1867 at the age of 14, just before the continental railway was built. His father, Elijah, had made the journey just before Andrew was born, but before he reached the golden land, Elijah and a companion were attacked by Indians. Elijah survived the fight, but he died a week later of exposure and exhaustion.