Healthcare and Education Policy in America.....Yuck!

This week was pretty amazing. I got to show off the city to a couple of friends from school and home, saw a great Indie rock show in the Village, visited an African Methodist Church alllll the way out in Jamaica, Queens, saw the Mets at Shea Stadium, watched the New York Philharmonic at Central Park, saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, and had a really amazing week of teaching classes at Fortune Society. My co-workers, the other teachers in the education department, have been passing along some really nice things that my students have said about me and my teaching, which is great not only because it lets me know I'm doing something right (sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing), but also because it means they must be getting something out of this too, which I know not all teachers experience at Fortune. It's really sad that I only have four more classes.

Two really influential incidents this week that I want to talk about. I'll start this week's post by saying "Kudos" to the CUSP program for organizing (and paying for) a group viewing of Michael Moore's new documentary "Sicko". While the CUSP program really takes a holistic approach at social justice by covering many different topics, the atrocities of the United States health care system went--for one reason or another--essentially overlooked I thought. Maybe it's because of how long it's been around and how embedded it is in the history of our capitalist society, maybe it's just because there are too many issues around to cover them all. Whatever the reason we didn't touch on it much, but the program took advantage of the release of this film happening during CUSP 2007 and should be applauded for it.

"Sicko" struck a cord with me particularly because of my personal experiences with the incredulous structure of America's healthcare system. For four months between turning 19 years old (dropping me from my child health insurance policy) and entering my sophomore year of college (when I could enroll in student health insurance), I was without any health insurance at all. I've lived a very healthy 21 years so far thankfully, but I still spent that summer always weary that anything could happen to me and I would instantly be in big, big trouble. Going outside to play basketball or going swimming at the beach became much more nerveracking than it should have been. And that was for 4 months! I can't imagine living my whole life without health insurance as some of the people in the movie had. More importantly though, I can also relate directly to the rest of the people who do have health insurance, but are turned down by the system. My mother, father, and sister have all endured serious health issues in the past several years. Because of my family's health insurance status (either without or with bare-minimum policies), each has gone through similarly heart-renching and dangerous experiences as those portrayed in "Sicko". For these reasons, I was incredibly excited for the release of the film so more people could be made aware of the magnitude of the problem, but also soooo frustrated while watching it after reading the papers everyday and reading about how univeral healthcare gets repeatedly shot down. I can understand how a lot of things don't get done in American politics, but I just can't understand how the health of citizens doesn't get acknowledged as a serious problem. Even in a capitalist context, doesn't less disease and longer life expectancy contribute to the economy? Maybe I'm missing something. Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy, just wanted to acknowledge the importance of the issue and say that I really appreciate the effort made by CUSP.

The other issue I wanted to address was education. Today at work, I read two pieces of writing from students in my classes that seems to be a common theme among many of the young men and women at Fortune Society. One student told of a teacher in eighth grade that smacked him with a paddle, made him put a dunce cap on, and verbally humiliated him in front of other students and administrators for an incident in class that another student admitted to. The other story was from a student that described how more than one of his teachers would repeatedly tell students "I get paid here whether you learn anything or not." Now, I understand that each of these stories could be embellished a bit. I also understand that the day-to-day life of a teacher in some of the urban school systems must be incredibly difficult. But even conceding these two facts, I'm incredibly disturbed by this recurring theme. These two have not been the only ones to talk to me about impossible learning environments or teachers that were discriminating against them, or worse, giving up on them.

Looking at the issue of education sheds light on just how complex the concept of social justice is. The students and schools that are "underperforming" are usually in areas combating poverty and unemployment. So do you seek to improve the conditions by focusing on the education, hoping that if young people in these neighborhoods can get a good education that they'll stay and improve the neighborhoods themselves, have children, and continue the cycle? Or do you focus on community development, hoping to improve the neighborhoods first to create a better environment for children to grow up in and learn in? And of course there's the question of what "improve" means and how you attain that--programs like Teach for America? gentrification? ridding of "No Child Left Behind"? The policy aspect is beyond me right now, so I'm hoping to continue learning about the different options and ideas out there as I go on with my own education. But overall, I feel as if like healthcare, education is largely overlooked in the grand scheme of things right now in American social justice action.

It's all coming to an end soon so I guess I should start making overall observations. I've gained too much important insight this summer to be able to comment on it all, but one thing I'm really glad I recognized is how much privledge I have. I've always understood that as an healthy, educated white male I'm given opportunities that others aren't. But I think it took an experience like CUSP and like working at Fortune Society to adequetly reflect on what that really means. It reaches out to so many aspects of my life that I guess I never thought of. I used to be one of those people that tried to say we should ignore differences in race and gender and education and sexual orientation and ability, as if pretending they weren't there was how equality would be attained. I now realize that it's just too idealistic and ignorant to pretend like that. You don't have to exploit these differences, you don't have to apologize for them, but you do need to recognize them.

One more week left, gonna try and get the most out of it :)

I'm A Teacher!

6 weeks down, 2 to go. Fun things this past week included a trip to Dinosaur BBQ (my favorite restuarant ever!), and attending several museums (of the City, Brooklyn, and the LES Tenement, all fantastic). I'm also really pleased that even though I'm working nearly full-time and doing lots of fun activities, I've gotten the chance to read a TON so far, including two books from Fortune Society. Life on the Outside is a compelling narrative about the struggles of a NYC woman who was incarcerated under the Rockefeller Drug Laws, about the tough time she had in prison and the even more difficult task of re-entering society. Great story, easy reading, I recommend it. Also read You Got Nothing Coming, a memoir of a former business executive and what he had to do to survive in prison. Both really funny at times (he often makes comparisons between the business world and the prison world) and really terrifying at times. Another easy read, sounds very real too.

So the Education department at Fortune has decided to give me not one, but two classes to teach solo. I'm teaching two Language Arts Classes for the last three weeks: one is a pre-GED class for students planning on taking the exam fairly soon; the other is basically an adult literacy class for clients at a very basic reading and writing level. It's incredibly interesting to go back and forth between these two groups, both for an understanding of why certain people are able to attain certain levels of education, and because personally, it essential allows me two completely different teaching experiences at once.

After the first week, I can already tell that these three weeks are going to be a really enriching experience. I'm given almost complete freedom on what to teach and how to teach it. From researching GED tests and other resources Fortune has, and from sitting in on classes the first few weeks of my internship, I got a pretty decent idea of what material needs to be covered. But as for what I actually teach day-to-day and how I go about running class, it's been left completely up to me. I develop my own curriculum, decide on the topics to cover each day, develop activities for each class, and find appropriate readings for the clients.

At first, I was really nervous about the actual teaching part each day. But it turns out that the planning process is much more difficult. For example, to get ready for my advanced level class I had to:

• choose a grammar topic to go over
• brush up on the grammar rules myself
• produce a handout for the grammar rules and decide how to go over it in class
• find a semi-fun activity to do after the grammar lesson (since this is pretty boring)
• figure out a way to tie that into the reading for the 2nd half of class
• find an interesting reading that's also appropriate to the reading level of the class and includes examples of my grammar rule
• read the reading a few times to decide what I want them to get out of it
• produce a handout for the vocabulary for the reading
• produce another handout for the reading to make sure they understand it fully

Then after all this, I try to estimate if this will cover 2 hours of class time, if my class will actually want to participate in the lesson I have planned, and even try to think of where I'll be trying to go with this for the next class. It's pretty crazy. I only teach 10a-12p everyday, so at first I thought my afternoons were going to be kind of boring (or relaxing). But the planning takes up almost all of my afternoon each day. I guess this is what a real teacher goes through!

The atmosphere at 23rd St. is great. At 19th St. (where the Alternative to Incarceration programs are), the atmosphere was more restricting to the clients, more of a me (the facilitators and councilors) vs. you (the clients) vibe all around. In Education, the teachers and clients seem to have a really good rapport for the most part, both in class and out. After class, I often see clients eating lunch with a teacher or just talking with one of them about something completely out of context of Fortune Society. I think it's because the department relaxes on some of the rules from 19th st. and the clients appreciate that. The teachers also go out of their way to make sure the clients know that they actually care about them a lot.

One of the things they're trying to grapple with both in Education and at 19th St. is how structured Fortune's programs should be. Neither the 19th St. ATI groups nor the education classes have a set, structured, repeated curriculum. Not sure why this is--because teachers/facilitators come and go? because clients come and go? because of how different certain groups of Fortune clients can be? It seems like a little more structure would help for the most part, as far as taking some pressure off of teachers/tutors/facilitators having to figure out what to teach, how long to teach it for, the progression of topics to cover, resources to use, etc. Everybody figures their own group out almost on a day-to-day basis like I'm doing. This is something that Elizabeth, the ATI group director, asked my opinion on a lot. It's also something that's come up in Education a few times, so I'm trying to decide where I stand on that these last few weeks.

Bus Tour with Ken Reardon was very enjoyable, got to learn a lot about Harlem and see some great sites. Looking forward to Harlem Children's Zone tomorrow so off to bed!

New Experiences in New York

More than half-way done now, can't believe it! Summer's flying by (get it? Fortune's logo to the left? No?). It's been an amazing experience thus far and although I'm missing the greenery of Ithaca a bit, I'm also realizing how much I'm going to value my time spent here in New York this summer. So my blog for this week is a summary of new things I've had the opportunity to do in New York City during CUSP 2007.

• Help an ex-offender get into college: I spent some time this week researching programs in the city that make it easier for ex-offenders to enroll in college and trade school courses. One of the clients at 19th St. expressed a strong desire to continue his education (he even talks about it in front of other clients, which is impressive since it's not exactly the "cool" thing to do there). The Education director at Fortune pointed me toward the College Initiative, a really cool program that's been doing this kind of thing for 5 years now in NYC. Check out the article. They're going to actually open a small office in the 23rd St. building at Fortune Society soon. I talked to someone today who is going to go out of his way to meet with our client to get him into classes as soon as they can. It's great to hear about motivated individuals like this young man.
• Witness a parade devoted to underwater creatures: Heard so much about how much Coney Island was declining and how visibly unappealing it was--but me and a few other CUSPers had a blast visiting the day of the Mermaid Parade. Tons of people were there for the parade which was a lot of fun, and with a walk on the beach, a ride on the Cyclone and one of Nathan's famous hot dogs, it was an excellent excursion from the stuffy Upper East Side. It will be interesting to see what happens with the controversial development plan though.
• Attend a workshop for NYC adult education and GED prep math teachers: Really interesting lesson-planning workshop looking at finding fun math-related activities for older students. The workshops allow math teachers from all over the city to collaborate on different ways to get their students excited about math. I got to design a quilt pattern and meet several really impressive educators. This was right before I got to....
• Experience a NYC blackout: Power went out in the Bronx and Upper East Side for an hour or so right in the middle of the workshop. Didn't seem like a big deal to me, but everyone immediately started mildly freaking-out. I did too when I realized I had no idea how to get back to the Bronx without the trains running. Kind of incredible how much a city of 8 million people relies on electricity.
• Work as a receptionist: I spent an hour late last week working at Fortune's 19th St. reception desk. My supervisor there, Liz, suggested it would be a very interesting perspective of the agency's happenings. I was skeptical (not very exciting sounding), but it actually was a great experience. Talked with the current receptionist, a very old 19 year-old former Fortune client now working part-time at the desk, who was more than happy to share his story of how he got involved in drugs and crime as a youth until Fortune helped turn him around. He also asked me all about college and CUSP, explained how he wanted to continue his education past HS, and his plans to marry his girlfriend soon. He did all of this while accomplishing about 5 other tasks simultaneously--buzzing people in, answering the constantly ringing phone, shaking hands with friends as they came in and out, eating a sandwich, etc. Very impressive. Seeing how many people were coming in and out, the number of calls received, the culture between clients, and other subtleties of the day-to-day operations of Fortune was, as described to me, very enlightening.
• Watch the Yankees win: My fourth Bronx Bombers game, finally a victory while I was there! Fun outing with the CUSP group to Yankee Stadium to see Roger Clemens win his 350th game vs. the Minnesota "home of Best Buy" Twins (comment courtesy of rowdy drunken NY fans behind us, which were amusing).
• Attend a drug and alcohol treatment group: In this, clients talked about some things I've seen happen to people I know (the "gateway" affect of marijuana and alcohol, leading to more dangerous drug-use like cocaine and Ecstasy), but mostly conversed about drug-use and effects that are beyond what I've personally witnessed. One of my favorite students from education talked about how incredibly addicted he was to cocaine and heroine and how it completely ruined his relationship with his family. He's such a great guy, it was really startling to hear about how different he must have been while addicted to drugs. Also hearing about how blatantly easily available all of these substances were in the clients' neighborhoods was pretty scary. How much harder must it be to "just say no" when drugs are around you all of the time growing up?
• Other random new things: Watch opera in Central Park, converse with a fruit vendor about his life, frequent bars after 1pm (the curfew in otherwise "Gorges" Ithaca), come out of the faux closet to a group of peers, and finish a New York Times crossword puzzle...in New York.

On Monday, I start teaching my very own classes for the last three weeks at 23rd St. again. I get to develop the entire curriculum for those 3 weeks. I'm kind of nervous, but really excited for another new opportunity. Until then, happy Thursday :)

19th St., here I come

So I spent the last week at Fortune Society's 19th St. facility because the Education department is taking a 2-week break to get ready for some new students. 19th St. is where the Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) programs are run, as well as substance abuse assistance, counseling, and family services. Well wow, what a week! Not really sure how to describe it all without rambling, but I'll give it a shot.

The ATI programs are for individuals that were looking at a sentence of more than 1 year in prison. With some help from court advocates and things, most got their sentence changed to 6-18 months at Fortune's ATI programs. Couple of things stand out right away from seeing all the clients in these programs: 1) probably 95% are males, 2) there's maybe 2 or 3 white people in all of ATI, 3) most of the clients are really young, probably 16-22, although there are some older guys who are late 20s, some even 30 or 40.

At first it was kinda weird because the woman, Elizabeth Loebman, who's acting as my supervisor for these 2 weeks originally had said she had no desire to have an intern at this point. So when I was sent to her, I felt kinda bad. But she's great. Once she realized that she didn't have to babysit me, that I just wanted to sit in on groups and learn by observing and talking to people and stuff, she actually seeks me out to get my input on a lot of things. We usually spend the last 30 min of my day just sitting in her office running ideas off of one another on how groups are run and how the structure might be improved. It's great because I'm getting to hear all of the powerful stories and see how successful the ATI groups are by sitting in on them, but I'm also getting a taste of what the Director's job is like by working with Elizabeth. As someone who's interested in staying in non-profit administration possibly, this has been a really valuable experience.

The other head counselors are really amazing as well. These are all people that at one time or another, did some significant jail time. They embody what ATI programs and what agencies like Fortune Society can accomplish. After making plenty of bad life decisions and dealing with the consequences, each of them worked hard to deal with the issues they needed to in order to get their life back on track. Fortune's ATI groups like Anger Management, Road to Recovery, Building Blocks, Parenting, Real Talk, Criminal Justice, Nueva Vida, all address different factors that contribute to the ongoing cycle of poverty, drugs, and prison in the clients' lives. Each of the head facilitators went through these programs and now they're leading them. I love how Fortune hires ex-clients. I think that these people are more efficient at leading groups than any social worker or psychologist might be. They're really real with the clients because they've been through a lot of the same stuff. There's no B.S., just getting right to the point and right at the issues.

On a quick note, I'm really proud of my fellow CUSPers for last Friday's trip to the Fortune Academy (picture above). After the first few Fridays were mildly disappointing (not the actual activity but the group's interaction with facilitators), this past week was great! People seemed to be really engaged and interested in learning about the criminal justice system and the prison system. We got an amazing tour from Barry Campbell of Fortune Society (who's a really cool guy), and the CUSPers had some great questions for Barry and Kate Rubin from Bronx Defenders. Hopefully this is how the rest of the Fridays will go, because last week was what the program is all about.

I'm having a great time in NYC. Can't believe it's already the half-way point! My job is amazing, I'm learning a whole lot, and me and the other CUSPers have gotten to really experience all the city has to offer, too. Museums, Central Park, opera, movies, nightlife, food; baseball and Broadway this upcoming week--it's been a blast. :)

First Three Weeks at Fortune

Yup, so I haven't been keeping up much with this thing for a few reasons: 1) no computer right now, 2) so much to do! But here's a shot at Blog #2, now 3 weeks into the program. (P.S. That's not me in the picture, but another teacher at Fortune. The picture is off of their website since I don't have a camera either.)

The Fortune Society is amazing. I really like working there a lot. The staff there is so dedicated to what they're doing, they really get into it all. And the clients have some amazing stories to tell--both inspiring and heart-wrenching. While there are a few clients that are there only because they have to be, it appears that the majority of the clients I've met are really focused on improving their lives, getting back on the right track, learning and growing.

They threw me right in at Fortune's Education department. Within 45 minutes on the first day I was teaching a Language Arts class by myself. Like most non-profits, Fortune's staff is overworked. Everyone wears a lot of hats. So a few times a week, one of the teachers will have something else important to take care of and I've been filling in. I've taught some intermediate reading and writing classes, helped in a few math and computer lab classes, and even have taught a few basic, introductory reading and writing classes. These are the most eye-opening classes in the Education department, as there are several students that are 30, 40+, or that ascended pretty far in high school at one point, but did so without ever really learning how to read and write well at all, highlighting the shortcomings of inner-city public schools, as well as the difficulties presented to the poor and immigrant population in the education system here.

I've also gotten a chance to do some other random things to help out. When I have time, I go up to the Development Office to help with the development of a media archive. I tutor math in a study group a few times a week too, which has been an excellent way to get to know 2 or 3 clients really well since we work one-on-one. One day when my supervisor John was really busy, he came up to me and said that one of the students in the Intermediate Language Arts class where I teach a lot had his court date moved up. They were trying to kick him out of the program and possible send him back to prison because he missed a few days of class. John needed to write a letter to the judge that might influence him, but he had meetings to go to. So I had to write the letter. I thought it was going to be a difficult task considering I was still pretty new, but based on the short amount of time I had spent with the client, I had no trouble explaining the potential he had and how great of a person he was. With a few test scores and tidbits from John, the letter basically wrote itself. Two days later, me and John were walking around and ran into the same client's counselor. He told John that the letter he wrote must have been "damn good", because the client was still around. That felt pretty "damn good".

I was really worried of being seen as an "outsider", or of fitting in at work--because of my race, my lack of experience, my being the "new guy". But after the first couple of days, it's been great. When I'm teaching, my students have felt pretty comfortable asking for help for me and participating in activities I come up with. Now they'll even say hello to me in the hallway before and after classes, some even ask about what college is like or where I grew up, or they'll tell me more about themselves. There's a couple of "tough guys" who kind of skate through the lessons, but most of the clients seem like they really want to learn. Most are striving to prepare for the GED test, some are even looking further to college. It's pretty impressive to me, especially hearing about some of the trials these individuals have gone through. Many have lost friends or family to the streets. Some are HIV positive. Many have young kids of their own to look after. Most are unemployed, and all have done some jail time or have at least been sentenced at some point. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to get down on yourself and give up, but there's some pretty motivated people there, some intelligent and talented individuals that just needed somebody to give a shit about them. Ultimately, I think that's what's most important about a place like Fortune Society: showing people that the state just wants to lock away, that they can be important, contributing members to society.

Next week, I'll be touring Fortune's other main program center, the Alternative to Incarceration programs, as the Education program is taking a 2-week break. So I'll report on that next time.

New York, NY

Well hello there World Wide Web.

My name is Tom Noble and you have apparently decided to read my first attempt at this crazy thing called "blogging". I'm psyched to be a part of the 2007 Cornell Urban Scholars Program (CUSP) this summer, working with the Fortune Society here in New York City for 8 weeks. It's sure to be exciting, challenging, motivating, fun, difficult, exhausting, perplexing, amazing, frustrating, wonderful, and all the other adjectives expected of a non-profit social justice internship with 25 other lovely Cornellians.

Little bit about myself: I'm a rising Senior (ah!) at Cornell University in "gorges" Ithaca, NY studying American...um...Studies. I hail from a small suburb of Syracuse, NY, so the big-city life of NYC is pretty new to me. When I'm not studying--which is often--I'm doing a lot of public service/non-profit/social justice type stuff on and off campus in Ithaca, most likely forever dooming me to a life of high stress, small paychecks, and little credit. Just kidding. I'd actually really love to stay in the non-profit world when I get out of school. That's why I see CUSP as being a terrific opportunity to immerse myself in a nonprofit organization this summer, learning from my experiences as well as from my fellow "CUSPers".

A little about Fortune Society: Fortune Society is "a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the fabric of our communities by promoting successful prisoner re-entry". They have many different programs to offer to those who are incarcerated or fomerly incarcerated including education, health services, housing, career development, counseling, and a drop-in center. Their organization is quite big for a nonprofit--working on a $14-15 million budget--and they also employ many former clients at their various sites. Over 4,000 men and women visit Fortune Society's sites each year. Check out the website for more info (there's a few videos up too of interviews with staff and clients--including one with everyone's favorite, Bill O'Reilly), or just keeping reading the blog this summer, as hopefully I'll be able to give some more insight into the things Fortune Society accomplishes.

After talking with my supervisor, it seems I'll be doing a lot of different things during my time working at Fortune, but I'll mostly be working in the Education Department. There, Fortune helps clients prepare for the GED with reading, writing, math, science, and social studies classes and tutoring. In my first week, I've already had the opportunity to help out in several of these classes and work in a few study groups tutoring some clients. They seem to be especially in need of help tutoring math, and being a former Mathematics major at Cornell (crazy, right?), I feel like I can definitely be of some help there. Also, just being a young person that can spend some time with the clients (many of whom are close to my age), I'm looking forward to being able to share some of my experiences with them, as well as hearing about their lives and everything they've been through. I'm expecting to learn a lot from them, too.

OK, there's my first blog, y'all. I'm behind, so more to come shortly on my first week and a half here in NYC and at Fortune.