Yeeeeeeeeee......hawwwwwwwwwwww

"Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah, zip-ah-dee-ay.  My oh my, what a wonderful day…”

I’m sure you’re finishing the rest of that song in your head with “plenty of sunshiiiiine headin’ my way”.  It is a Disney song, winner of the 1948 Academy Award for Best Song, well loved, and well-remembered, from one of the great Disney movies you have never seen.  And never will.

Song of the South was Disney’s first-ever live-action film, combining the animated stories of B’rer Rabbit with the live-action geniality of James Baskett as Uncle Remus, a role that gave him a special distinction Academy Award in 1948, as his performance didn’t qualify him for any of the standard Academy Awards at the time.  Beloved in its day, it was re-released in 1956, 1972, 1973, 1980 (for the 100^th anniversary of the original publication of the Uncle Remus stories), and 1986 for the film’s 40^th anniversary.

I have seen snippets of it – I remember seeing them in elementary school as we prepared to perform “Zip-Ah-Dee-Doo-Dah” for our concert, complete with little felt bluebirds we pinned to our shoulders.  And I have watched clips on YouTube recently.  It is brilliant storytelling.

But it has never been released in its entirely for home video.  And it never will be.

The reason it will never be released is that the frame story of Uncle Remus – Academy Award aside – is so blatantly racist in its presentation that it is unacceptable in modern society.  Baskett’s portrayal is straight-up minstrel show with the “Aw, shucks” and “well, us colored folk” and continuing on.

Is it a brilliant piece of film history?  Absolutely.  Disney himself so artfully blended animation and live action, a feat considered impossible for the time.  He created the characters of Uncle Remus, B’rer Rabbit, B’rer Fox, and B’rer Bear that more than hold their own against the other Disney films of the time, instantly recognizable as Disney classics.

And yet.  The racist and stereotypical framing means that this work of art must be exiled into memory.  Roger Ebert suggested it be studied in film school, but advocated for it to not be shown in public otherwise.  Celebrate the art to filmmakers to observe, but for the general public, it is no longer acceptable.

In this context, we must place our beloved Dukes of Hazzard.  Them good ol’ boys.  Never meanin’ no harm.

And yet…

We must look at the car named the “General Lee” with the stars and bars atop of it.  We must look at the monochromaticness of the cast, save Sheriff Little of Chickasaw County (who was definitely identified as ‘other’ due to his competency as a law enforcement officer and the Duke’s fear of him as a result).  The ‘Dixie’ call of the horn as the 1969 Dodge Charger improbably leapt over creeks and valleys (destroying 150 of them in the process).  These are icons of the “south” that were chosen to represent a time and place, but that time and place no longer exists for us in 2015.

Yes, it was brilliant storytelling.  Yes, the narrator breaking in with his classic, “Now, I don’t know ‘bout y’all…” is an astounding technique that should be studied by future generations of sitcom writers.  Yes, Daisy Duke changed fashion with her shorts.

But the simple fact is that societal acceptance has moved on, and the show has to go.  We have lost cultural artifacts before, and it is not the result of “political correctness”, but the idea that we have moved on as an American society regarding the portrayal of images and themes.  We have lost great art before, and we will lose more further down the road.  (The Cosby Show, another staple of my childhood, is probably next on the list for a host of different reasons.)

Despite the clamorings of the actors, I’m sure the Duke boys would understand.  As characters, they lived very much on borrowed time, understanding that one slip from probation put them back in jail.  Time marches on.  They will be missed, and perhaps studies in the future by scholars as a window into the peculiarity of the 80s sitcom. 

But please stop defending the show as though it is the first work of art lost because we have become a more enlightened society.  Art is imperfect that way.  And some of it cannot survive the test of time due to what made it art in the first place.  

Thoughts on Gov. Cuomo's education "reform"

I am not looking forward to a return to school on Monday.  This is not the usual "wow, I've been on vacation and have to get used to my school schedule again" kind of not looking forward.  It is going back to an environment rocked by Gov. Cuomo's education "reforms" that are designed to completely destroy the urban public school system that I have worked in for 10 of the past 12 years.

The plan is for greater "accountability" for teachers, so he has developed an evaluation system that is based 50% on state test scores, 35% on "outside evaluation", and the remaining 15% is local measures.  There are four scores:  "Highly Effective", "Effective", "Developing", and "Ineffective".

There are some serious negatives attached to those deemed "Ineffective": Teachers who receive "Ineffective" two years in a row start termination proceedings, and a third year of "ineffective" means you are fired.

Tenure has been extended from three years to four, and if you receive anything less than "Effective" more than one year out of those four, you will be denied tenure.

This hits home especially for teachers in urban schools, where test scores have always been low, even before the new Common Core standard tests.  Study after study has shown a direct link between poverty and test scores, and Rochester has the 5th highest per capita child poverty rate in the country.  Ergo, our test scores suck.

So with 50% of your evaluation as "ineffective" due to test scores, the absolute highest evaluation you could receive overall would be "developing".  And if you happened to not impress the "outside evaluator" that day (there's still no word on who those people will be), you will be stuck with "ineffective", no matter how incredible your rest of the year is.

Veteran teachers will barely scrape by, but most of us will be gone in 3-5 years.  It's all a roll of the dice.

More worrisome, though, is the number of new teachers I expect to apply to the Rochester City School District for September if this isn't fixed:

0.  None.

If you need to maintain "Effective" for three out of the four years of your tenure track, why would you even bother applying to a school system that guarantees you will get nothing higher than "Developing" EVER?  You wouldn't.

So we are going to have a staff of veteran teachers terrified of losing their jobs, anyone retiring who is even remotely able to, stressed inner-city students completely burned out on test prep, and absolutely no new blood coming in.  Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse schools will implode within two years.

Though given Cuomo's push toward charter schools, I'm sure that's not a design flaw.

I left education after the first five years because of testing, among other reasons.  I had to proctor a first grade exam, and a very sweet kid who always asked the best questions during library time asked for my help on a tough question.  When I told her I couldn't help her, she gave me a look like a kicked puppy.  I, of all people, couldn't help her?

After calculating that the library had been closed for a full quarter of the year due to testing, I split librarianship for law school.  There were a multitude of other reasons, which I'll get into in another essay, but that was one of the major ones.

However, I came back after two years, mostly because I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else.  But the new regulations are going to make working with students difficult to near impossible with teacher turnover and more slavish devotion to the test than in previous years.

So I'm watching all this with a "heavy heart", as all those legislators claimed they had when they voted for this.  I have hope for the "opt-out" movement that is growing.  I have hope that there is absolutely no way this attack on my profession will pass without pushback.  New York has one of the finest educational systems in the country, and I can't believe that people will stand by and watch Gov. Cuomo break it.

But almost 42 is young enough for me to consider a career change if I must.  I want to fight the good fight, but I am tired.  It will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out.

Going (kinda) full Luddite

So, on Saturday night, the screen on my iPhone went completely blank.  Pressing the button resulted in a grey box, even when I could still hear the "bing" for a text message or the ringing for a phone call.

I logged in to my verizon site to see about an upgrade to the iPhone 5, which they told me I could do as soon as I paid the back balance of my phone bill of Significantly More Money Than Is In My Bank Account Right Now.

I made it several years of my life without a cell phone, and certainly many years without a smartphone.  Looking over my bill, it is awfully expensive.  Do I really need it?

No, I decided.  I have an unused line anyway, so I ordered a flip phone to add to the blank line.  I would suspend my smartphone line, saving myself a decent chunk of change every month.

Then Sunday night....it started working again.  Which is convenient for me, in that I can now make phone calls again, as well as play cards, surf Facebook, emails....

I am sticking by my resolution.  As soon as I get the flip phone in the mail, I'm going to put a hold on my smartphone line and go with the dumb phone.  I don't need the smartphone, and I do need to trim expenses.

Today I left my phone at home as a test run of how I'd manage without internet, since the phone is a distraction to me at school (and for all the wrong reasons).  I have to admit...I went through a bit of withdrawal.

OK, a lot.  It was very difficult to not check in constantly to different things.  Like, really oddly twitchy.

So I'm still at school, but heading home to check in on things.  Like Facebook.  And see if I make it through the week without the smartphone.

A first post for 2015

So I am now solidly in Apartment A, former apartment of Dan and Wendy and all the drama that came with the place.  Some assembly required.

The new guy is moving in upstairs today – he looked kinda shocked when he first got out of the car.  “Oh God – this place!”  He pointed across the street.  “I lived over there two years ago.  These people were out of control over here!!!!”

Beth (Kevin’s girlfriend and now manager of the apartments) opened her eyes wide at me.  I laughed. “Yeah, two years ago was the ‘peak crazy’ around here.  They’re all gone now though.   Mary is quiet.  I’m a librarian.”

He’s moving in from the local boarding house down by the railroad tracks, a very “special” kind of place here in town.  (Last time it was in the local paper, it was for a guy hitting another resident with a vodka bottle while stoned on meth AND getting blown by an underage girl.  Talk about multitasking.)  Needless to say, the new resident (Brian?  Barry?) of Apartment C is more than happy to have a place of his own.

So, just short of five years into what was supposed to be a very temporary move, I’m now downstairs and trying to fix this apartment.  I run into Josh every once in a while – he’s living in a tiny trailer down a back road in town, and I see his van swerving all over the road, or running up the street with his four-ways on as smoke pours out. 

I’ve got some old stories I still need to write, but honestly I’ve been enjoying the relative peace and quiet of late.  Just need to get things in order, write on a more daily basis, and get things moving.