Tag: Chicago
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Educating All God’s Children
My review of Nicole Baker Fulgham’s book, Educating All God’s Children, has been posted at the Englewood Review of Books. You’ll see that I really liked this book and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in education in America. There will be forty-nine fewer public schools in Chicago when fall rolls around in a few…
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Violence 5: The Other-Group
In reviewing these unscripted meditations on violence (1, 2, 3, and 4) I notice one theme especially: violence pervades and implicates us all. It is notable not for being exceptional but normal. So normal that we ignore all but the most grievous examples, examples that exist away from us except when they are done to us. We are…
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The View From Here
On Sunday our church spent the morning cleaning, organizing, and gardening at the elementary school up the block from where we meet for worship. I’m regularly grateful for the gift of this community.
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Violence 4: Children Are (Not) Resilient
As it often does, the most recent neighborhood education meeting I attend each month featured a representative from Chicago Public Schools. This man spoke for about twenty minutes and took a number of questions from the participants. It was a normal presentation aside from the subject matter: helping students cope with the upcoming school closings.…
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Violence 2: Suburbia
For a number of years Maggie and I lived in Chicago’s suburbs. On our evening walk from the parsonage we would pass beautiful old homes and newer McMansions that gobbled up most of their available lots. In contrast to our current city neighborhood those walks were notable for how few people we saw; life was…
David W. Swanson 