A Bit of a Rant - Sorry...

I'm not sure why but I was really bothered by this "culturally responsive teachers" article. It seemed to have a lot of unproven assertions and some odd conclusions. To wit (and all quotes are paraphrased in an attempt to make them shorter; it might be noted that no such attempt was undertaken by the authors of this article):
1. "Schools purport to offer possibilities for advancement, but maintain structures that limit the possibility of it." Where is the proof or example of that? Does it imply that kids of a certain background shouldn't bother with school because it's actually undermining them? I once heard a black conservative on NPR (wish I could remember his name) say that a negative outcome of the 60's affirmation of civil rights and Black Power was that the rejection of the power structure (The Man, if you will) sadly included the education system. That, he claimed, should have been excluded and embraced as they way OUT OF a subjugating structure. A very provocative claim. This article seems to echo that negative notion that education discriminates just as the larger society does. This, in my opinion, is a dangerous message. It excuses kids rather than giving them incentive.
2. "Schools privilege some students based on race, class, gender, etc." Isn't this backwards? I mean - Okay, I get that you're saying wealthy white males are achieving better, so something must be wrong. (And why used such veiled language?) But this isn't school privileging them, this is them actually accomplishing the tasks of school more efficiently because of the head start life has given them. Personally, I KNOW I was hugely privileged being born a white, male and middle class American. I would have to be an idiot not to know I got lucky on that one. I also, at the age of 15, lost my mother to cancer. Not so lucky there. You deal with what life throws at you.
3. "Affirming teachers treat the necessity for facility with mainstream ways as serving an instrumental purpose for their students rather than reflecting the greater value of those ways." What?? If they serve an"instrumental purpose" do they not then have a great value? There is a "mainstream" way to do things - and there needs to be.
4. Oh, and one last thing - While the Marva Collins story was interesting it has no application for a teacher who is not already a part of the cultural group being addressed. As a white male, how long do I last at my school after I implement my "jive talking" unit and discuss it as a viable means of communication? On the other hand I do (during Huck Finn) do lessons on Black English Variant and the misunderstandings that led people to believe that Oakland, California teachers were actually going to teach something called Ebonics instead of teaching English. Never even remotely true, by the way -but why let the facts get in the way of a good racist joke?

Snake Pit?

As I try to write my CAP, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about how difficult it will be to effect change where I work. In fact, I'm spending a decent amount of it actually talking about how intractable the staff is and how hard it will be to change that, before any other change can occur. I once heard an administrator say that for any innovation, there will be 25% on board, and 25% who will flatly be against anything that represents change. That leaves the other 50% and those are the ones you work with. That seemed like a very reasonable statement, but as I apply it to my own department, those numbers no longer square. I think I want to be a supervisor, and of course it would be comfortable to stay at my current school (where that job will open up next year) but I have grave reservations about this group. A weird part of it is that they are all rooting for me to get it (none of them is even pursuing the certification) and I know this is because they think things will be status quo, and that they will maintain some control because they will have "their guy" as boss. I wonder if I'm stepping into a snake pit. Anyone have experience with a former colleague becoming supervisor - good or bad? Or examples of places where it looked like change would never happen but it did?