Moving the CCSF Diego Rivera Mural

For the second time in two weeks, Ryan Kost's article "The art of moving a mural" appeared--this time in the Bay Area of the SF Chronicle Yesterday,  Sunday, January 10.  

It's always good for a CCSF's treasure, Rivera's mural of Pan-American Unity, to get press--and I like to read about the lingering hope that CCSF's Performing Arts Education Center will become a reality and provide a permanent home for the mural. So I was happy to see this article repeated. 

Knowing Will Maynez, who's both charismatic and a team player, I'm sure he mentioned Julia Bergman in the interview leading up to this article, but it's written up as if Will were alone in this venture.

The caption under his photo says "Historian William Maynez spearheaded City College's efforts to restore and maintain the mural."  His contributions have been major, but I think the reporter should also have mentioned Julia Bergman, who's been his partner in this, and the Diego Rivera Mural Steering Committee.

I also hope he mentioned the student docent program, which I think deserves much more press and much more support. Even The Guardsman, the student newspaper at CCSF, neglects the docents when it does write-ups on the mural.

Of course, a lot of things about this article are misleading. The caption under a picture of the Cultural Heritage Imaginng directors Carla Schroer and Marlin Lum photographing "the mural, which is being moved across tshe street at City College of San Francisco." I wish that were fact!

Will is quoted as saying, "What I'm trying to do is move it across the street." The reporter writes that Will said this "as though- the building he wants to move it to--a new performing arts center...hadn't been put on hold..." According to the article structural engineers and conservators have all come to examine the mural "at Maynez's request" and "they've assured him a move is possible."

Finally there's a we: "But we don't want any more intervention than is necessary."

Then it's back to a single champion: "He's become its 'self-appointed, self-anointed' historian." Surely he said, "along with Julia Bergman."

"He has been piecing together the mural's history and the stories within ever since. He's managed to track down a few of the subjects in the piece,..."

"This is my watch. I'm trying to do as best I can by the mural."

I wish he would put the student docents on his watch! I hope someone IS doing that!

http://www.sfchronicle.com/art/article/Push-to-move-a-Rivera-mural-but-first-a-6728370.php

2015 Techie and Me Contact on the Enrollment Campaign Trail

Yesterday I went back to the CBO (community-based organization) New Door Ventures:  Ally/Switch Program, which was listed as being  at 3075 21st (between So. Van Ness and Shotwell) because when I'd gone the day before, it was closed.  The hours posted online did not correspond with the hours painted on the wall!

When I rang the doorbell, a techie-looking tenant (very good looking and very young) opened the door and said that New Door Ventures had moved down the street to 20th. 

"So this is your place now?"  I asked him.

  He said, yes, and I asked whether he would be interested in a class at City College--taking or teaching one.  

He said, "I'm pretty well set."   

 "Are you one of the geniuses that is totally changing the face of San Francisco?" I asked, and he said, "I guess.  I'm in software." 

I told him, "I don't blame you personally.  I can't remember whom I do blame, but I don't think it's you." 

He thanked me, and I moved on.  Then I remembered we're supposed to blame the "leaders" who gave the Invaders from Silicon Valley a tax incentive to take over.

  I forgot to add, "I don't blame you unless you're one of those who won't let the kids play at Dolores Park when you want to play there." 

     New Door Ventures is now  at 3221 20th St, San Francisco, CA 94110 and is open from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm on weekdays.  Phone:(415) 920-9200

It's near Harrison.  (Cafe Gratitude used to be on the corner of 20th and Harrison, where The American is now--and right across the street from Water and Flour, a good Italian restaurant.) I think Central Kitchen at 3000th 20th Street  was the place I passed by and asked directions, which looks like another good place to eat--at least the techies think so.

Jill Tucker and Kristina Rizga on Making the grade" at Mission High and in General

Jill Tucker deserves a big thank  you, as does Kristina Rizga, for making a statement on the unreliability of test scores in judging schools.   (Making the grade," Jill tucker's review of Kristina Rizga's Mission High, Sunday Datebook, August 2-8, 2015)

Before my retirement last year, I taught and trained teachers on four continents and was at first surprised to see teachers cheating, prompting students during the administration of tests.  Then I realized that they were being judged not by their performance but by their students' test scores.  I was so glad that we didn't do that here.

In her review of Kristina Rizga's Mission High, Jill Tucker states correctly that test scores are more about demographics than teachers or quality of instruction.  She tells parents they should visit schools to evaluate the instruction rather than depending on test scores, no one ever believes her.

I believe her, and I'm glad that Kristina Rizga did what Tucker advises--right at Mission High and not for a day but for four years!!

I also believe that Mission High, like Reign of Error and Teacher Wars, is a book everyone who cares about education should read.

Slow Down--They Live Here

On my way to a baby shower in the Tenderloin for a former student, I noticed more of the banners proclaiming, "Slow down!  We live here."  Now I see them in Arabic, Tagalog, Spanish, and Vietnamese.  (I have them here in the first three language, but I failed to get the one in Vietnamese even though the mother-to-be, a former student, is from--and in--Vietnamese community.)

The "slow down" directive is in reference to traffic, I think, but it could be used to pertain to closing services too:  Slow down and reflect before closing a service to the community.
I'm thinking of the very sudden closure of City College's Civic Center at 750 Eddy, close to the people in the Tenderloin, who weren't told until the first day of the semester, January 12, that they could no longer attend classes there and were sent off to other parts of the city.

  I'm glad that on August 17, the students in the Tenderloin will have classes at 1170 Market, much closer to home.

But I do think it would be good to speed up community services and slow down before cutting them off for those who live there.

CCSF Enrollment Material to Clement

I continue to take CCSF Enrollment Campaign material--this week Encore Learning--to the Y and put it in the stacks with the magazines.  But I also found a place (finally) at Green Apple, where I put the CCSF WHY flyer along with the Women's Studies one.  

 I also found a place at the very popular Genki on Clement, where young clients were very accommodating and helpful (getting up and holding the poster while I put masking tape around it).  One person told me she's a student at CCSF, and a guy told me his aunt worked at the Phelan campus.

 The people at Toy Boat told me they could put up the CCSF poster in the corner but only after the customers were gone, so I just left it.  I also took material to the Richmond District Public Library, where there are cubicles for flyers from the community.

The 3CPE Central City Coalition for Public Education & The Civic Center for the Tenderloin

Yesterday I went to the gathering sponsored by the Central City Coalition for Public Education, which was at Sergeant John Macaulay Park on the corner of Larkin and Powell.

Among the people I saw there was Kate Robinson, the Program Director of Safe Passage, whose advice I asked about where to take the material I had in my bag.  She was interested in the Trauma Prevention & Recovery certificate program and said that maybe there was a way that could be linked with the Safe Passage program.



http://hoodline.com/2015/03/safe-passage-guides-kids-through-the-tenderloin

http://www.ccsf.edu/en/educational-programs/school-and-departments/school-of-behavioral-and-social-sciences/InterdisciplinaryStudies/TraumaCertificate.html

I had made a list of the flyers I was taking around, and she was amazed at how many offerings there are at CCSF.  (My list, of course, didn't have them all!)

  As for the rest of the material, she suggested the safe haven place across the street--a community housing partnership--as well as similar places at 211 Jones and 201 Turk, so after talking to a few people and hearing the speeches, I took more material around.  At 835 O'Farrell I was able to put things up myself (and the nice person-in-charge, who was leaving the 3CPE gathering when I was, also gave me a tour of the building, where the north side looks out at the park. But at 201 Turk, I was told to just leave the flyers so they could put them up when there was room, and at 111 Jones I was told that the social worker had to approve everything before it went up.

CCSF's Civic Center Campus at 1170 Market: Getting the Word Out about the New Location

Yesterday I delivered a lot of flyers and brochures to the West Portal Library, where I also removed the ones from summer that were still there.

I'd made a list of all the material, but it was only yesterday that I noticed the wrong address for the Civic Center, no longer at 750 Eddy,  was still on three of the brochures.  (I didn't leave them.)

I sent out a message about this to the ESL Department early this morning, relating the incident with the Asian woman who hadn't gotten the message that the school had a new site at 1170 Market Street.

At  the Sunday Streets in the Tenderloin, an Asian woman passing by our CCSF Enrollment table said, "School closed!" and pointed towards Eddy.  When we told her that 750 was closed but another school was open, she said, "Too far!"  So we understood that she was thinking of the Chinatown/Northbeach campus.  We told her about the new site at 1170 Market,  showed her how to get there and gave her a Civic Center flyer. 

She served as a reminder that we need to be sure that everyone knows about the 1170 Market Street site for the Fall semester.

I noticed that three of the flyers I was about to take around needed to be updated: 

The red, white, and pink  "CCSF Find Your Community" pamphlet (Metro Academy, Puente, Project Survive,  Yo, Accelerated Math Gateway, Bridge to Bioscience)   still has 750 Eddy on the back.   

The green, white and black "Build Your Future" brochure has 750 Eddy on the back.

The 2013 (still being given out because so much of it applies to 2015) has 750 Eddy given as the address on the inside of the back cover.

Then I called the number given on the "CCSF Find Your Community" brochure, which has 750 Eddy for its address.  The recorded message identified the number (415 561-1878)  as that of the Counseling Department, and I was asked to leave my name and telephone number, but I didn't hear anything about the new Civic Center address at 1170 Market Street.

I wrote to Carl Jew, head of Counseling for the Civic Center Campus and John Adams, to ask whether the new address could be added to the recorded message.  I also asked who was in charge of printing new brochures. 

 I called two other numbers--the one for the Career & Technical Education Program Guide from 2013 (used in 2015) and "Build Your Future/Study English, both of which gave 750 Eddy as the address.  

It's not difficult to cross through the 750 Eddy address and write in 1170 Market, but people need to know that the wrong address is on the brochures so they can make the change before taking around the material.