Give to CPS What is CPS's

9-29-11

I’m thinking about installing a Ritalin salt lick in the classroom. I really could have used one today. I was in charge of administering a three hour ACT-like test to more than twenty special education freshman by myself. Our school, like most schools around the country, has been bullied into proving through testing that they are worth the money. The manner in which we test kids is so contrary to what brain research tells us about how people best learn. Even regular education kids need to move, talk, chew and hydrate to grease their brains. So why we make them sit silent and still without protein filled snacks and water for three hours is beyond me. After the test I wished I could have stopped in the teacher’s lunchroom for a quick tongue flick of a Valium salt lick.

And while I’m imagining pharmaceutical installations, why not add birth control pill dispensers in the hallway? I was hit hard with disappointment today when I saw one of our seniors is pregnant, a girl I thought was so level headed and really going places. And she’s only one of about twenty or so students, including freshman, who are pregnant, or will be this year at our school. It usually starts in the fall with a rash of hickeys on the necks of boys. Then in early spring, bellies start popping out and girls start dropping out. If they and we the people are lucky, they have family support and can return to school to finish.

Which brings me to the next drug of choice. This one hasn’t been invented yet but I’m going to name it Mellowtonazamom. It’s a drug to help parents wise up. We could all use it without worry of side effects, overdosing or long term dependency. I would have passed it on to the parent I met in a family meeting yesterday. This student and I haven’t been getting on too well. She’s been insulting and uncooperative. When I expressed this to her mother, she laid into her daughter, asking why she couldn’t be more like her brother who gets all A’s and goes to a good school. My student broke down in tears while her mother continued to explain that she couldn’t send her daughter to her son’s school because she was afraid her daughter would ruin things for him there. I feel for my student’s mom who wants me to know that she’s a good mother who doesn’t stand for insulting behaviors from her children, and who has a smart son who knows how to act. I can see her own insults coming from a place of insecurity and low self-esteem, leaving the same hard hitting imprint on her daughter. Knowing this, I feel differently about my student now. Today in class, our connection felt easier, softer, more real. Just that little twist of understanding stimulated my body’s own Mellowtonazamom.

I know the band aid of pharmaceuticals can’t fix what’s broken. I can’t change the way the entire country sets our kids up for low performance. I can’t stick my two cents in and release the suction from young boys’ necks or keep young girls safe and in school. I can’t tell parents how to be parents. But I can work at being steady for the unsteady, encouraging for the temporarily hopeless, and unconditionally loving for those struggling to feel good about themselves.

And now a protein and calcium packed meal will feed the feeder.

Spicy Tofu with Kale (a good source of Mellowtonazamom)

1/2 a small to medium sweet onion sliced thinly and cut into half rings

1 large clove of garlic chopped or sliced thinly

¾ of a cake of tofu cubed bite size

6-8 white mushrooms sliced

1 smallish zucchini quartered and sliced

6-8 branches of kale

1 t. cumin

2 t. chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add tofu and spices and stir. Add mushrooms and zucchini. Stir and cover. You may need to add a little water to prevent sticking, but the mushrooms produce a bit of juice too. Chop kale and add when mushrooms and zucchini are tender. Fold in and cover for a minute or so. Stir, remove from heat and serve.

This dish gets to the heart of things by supporting your bones, blood and brains so you’ll never need those pharmaceuticals. You’ll probably want to lick the plate clean when no one’s looking.