So much has happened since the last ILS post. We’re in a new year, a new semester, and a new presidential term. The ILS Welcome Back Gathering on January 4th was lovely — such great food (naturally) and good spirits among all.

Witness to History

ALC Director Jaye Jones attended President Obama’s inauguration! So exciting! Here is a “Jaye’s-eye view” of the proceedings in Washington.

Jaye’s attendance there adds yet another layer to the ALC’s “We, the People” work, which all of us will experience tomorrow at the ILS Inquiry meeting. Here are President Obama’s references to “we, the people” from his 2013 inaugural address, courtesy of The Atlantic:

• For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.
• We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.
• We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.
• We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.
• We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

Here’s the Atlantic’s brief, terrific piece analyzing the rhetoric of the address. Worth reading.

All in all, it was a great day for our country and, with the President’s speech and Richard Blanco’s poem, a great day for language.

Upcoming ILS Conferences and Special Events

New York City Writing Project Administrators Breakfast: Friday, February 22
New York City Writing Project Annual Conference: Saturday, April 27
New York City Mathematics Project Annual Conference: Saturday, May 4

A Sad Month

Most of you know by now that Steve Shreefter, Azi’s husband, passed away on Thursday, January 17. We collected funds from ILS folks to contribute to some platters of food that we sent to their home on Monday. If you are interested in making a charity donation in Steve’s name, the family suggests either of these two worthy organizations: The Vermont Workers Center or Rethinking Schools. A memorial will be held at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University some time in April. I will send information when I have it. Here is the NY Times notice about Steve.

I regret to inform everyone that we have heard about another family tragedy affecting members of our community. Kendra Sibley and Sasha Wilson lost their 22-month-old daughter, Magnolia, when she died without warning overnight in her crib on January 26. Kendra has been involved in the leadership of the Writing Project’s Elementary Leadership Program and with Elaine’s Elementary Teachers Network. Sasha is the principal of Bronx Community Charter School, where ETN provides some support, and is the son of longtime Writing Project member Nancy Wilson. Contributions in Magnolia’s name can be made to the NY Public Library; funds will be used to buy children’s books for libraries in the Bronx. If you wish to make a contribution, follow this link.

I know that you all join me in expressing deep sympathies to both families during this extremely difficult time.