It's Spirit Week at our school. This means watching as teachers run around desperately trying to impose a sense of pride where there is none. There is Twin Day, and Back in the Day Day, Mismatched Day (a day I truly can't comprehend) and Pajama Day (my personal favorite as I can meet the dressing requirement with little effort). For the students, it becomes an excuse to not wear their school-issued uniforms and promote gang colors and thug fashion. It's a week where enforcing no hats and colors is nearly impossible and I pretty much let anything go rather than argue. The successful part happens on Friday when the kids participate in a basketball game and the cheerleaders show off their skills--the only problem with it this year was that it fell on the same day as the start of our winter holiday so many staff members, myself included, had no desire to stick around and cheer. Apparently, this date was chosen so that photos could be taken to meet the yearbook deadline. These pictures are needed because the President of the Parents was "offended" by the previous yearbook as it did not prominently feature her child. According to this parent, the yearbook was "racist" because it only offered pictures of students in clubs or on the water and did not feature kids in the classroom. Had I been at the meeting where this opinion was voiced, I would have left the room. The woman who has worked on the yearbook for the past two years has given up most of her life to try and create memories single-handedly in a school where chaos and uncertainty reign. I've heard that this woman dispenses the word "racist" like Pez but I'd never imagined she'd taken it quite this far. Why she is encouraged to remain on the Parenting Committee is a feat that could only happen in Bushwick. We have no parent involvement or we have parent involvement from parents whose limited education and values require careful footing on very shaky ground. I try to stay away from those monthly meetings as they reek of foul play.

But on Valentine's Day for the third year in a row, I organized a contest and had a reading. This year, the reading went really well. It was in the library and the poet shared the stage with the students. The students really enjoyed reading their poems, the hot chocolate simmered in my hot pot and the marshmallows made it have that wintery kid-like touch. Some students really let their spoken word skills out and the student pride factor was genuine. Sure, I offered extra credit to the kids who showed up and there were one or two kids who were there just for that, but most of them got roped in once they sat down and had some cupcakes. A few kids even read the sonnets that they had written for my English class and that made me swell with pride. The best part was that a few teachers got up and read poems, adding to the mix, and raising the level of sophistication somewhat. There were kids from all four years and several from multiple schools as well which really made it something special. I felt proud of the kids and the staff who showed up to be a part of it. I was grateful that it wasn't a total flop and that in fact lots of kids attended and asked for more.