Institute

So I realize that I have been mostly non-existent for the past five weeks... But let me explain why.

To be apart of Teach for America, you obviously have to learn to become a teacher. While I already AM a teacher, I still have to go through the process. So throw together 560 people, a college dorm room, a school of 8 classrooms, 1am deadlines, and you have "Institute".

When I went through my interview to be in TFA I asked my interviewer how education majors typically found Institute already haven taught and learned about teacher, he replied - less stressed. This is indeed how I have found Phoenix to be. I am certainly not stressed out to be in a classroom of 6 year olds, nor do I spend 4 hours writing lesson plans until 2am.

However. Let's tackle this from a different perspective. It has been 2 1/2 years since I have lived the "college lifestyle" in dorms, and even then I lived with two lovely ladies in our own little world focused solely on my life as a cross-country runner. Throw in dorm food, lots of "ice-breakers", a city full of heat and strip malls, no organic or local ANYTHING, no car, and you have a very unhappy Katy.

Well. Not UNhappy. But certainly NOT happy.

I have been creating ways to keep myself sane - like going to Vegas to visit to Claire/Billy and bribbing certain best friends to come visit for the 4th, but I would just like to put it out there that I am still homeless, still jobless, and STILL cannot wait to get back to New Orleans.

PHX

Phoenix. Is. Hot.

I'm pretty sure the devil lives here.

For more reasons than one.

EducateNOW

Our speaker today for TFA is a vital part of the education system in New Orleans - Leslie Jacobs.

Some facts that hit me today:

• 84% of public school children in New Orleans live below the poverty line
• The national average is 15%
• 57% of public school children in NoLa are being educated at charter schools (the highest in the nation) -- with growth estimated to be at 75% by 2014
• Pre-Katrina there were 65,000 students attending New Orleans Public Schools
• The 2008-09 school year brought 36,000
• None of the special education programs in the entire state of Louisiana are providing their students with what the national and state government consider to be even basically academically acceptable.
• Louisiana has the highest incarnation rate in the industrialized world.
• And the most convicted youth.

It's not that my students CAN or WILL learn. They HAVE to.

On Tuesday, Krista Rae and I decided to take our photographic skills out to the lower ninth ward to see for ourselves the damage that fours years of no help does to a Katrina destroyed community. Although we were unsure of how to get there and discouraged by a cop, we showed up with open eyes and even more open hearts. Not much talking occurred as we drove around the ghost neighborhoods. We talked to some residents, some rebuilders, and some children as we made our way around a part of the city the rest of the world has forgotten. These photographs can't begin to tell you what the lower ninth looks like. There were entire fields empty of houses that once used to look like the French Quarter. I can't even begin to emotionally tell you what the experience was like.

As I spend more time in NoLa, I can't read about this city fast enough, especially about the culture, the state of the schools, and the impact/facts of Katrina. During the storm, parts of NoLa took on 12 feet of water. 54 levees broke in the surrounding gulf region, two of which caused the most flooding, in the lower ninth ward. Although most of New Orleans evacuated during the storm, alot of the residents of the lower ninth and eleventh ward didn't have the means to evacuate their city. As you drive through New Orleans now the aftermath of Katrina is visible everywhere. Not only do you see the destruction of the houses and businesses and people's livelihood, but the inequities that have plagued New Orleans since time began in seems, are more evident than ever. The Lakeview neighborhood, which we also drove through yesterday, was hit as hard as the lower ninth ward. However - the community - being middle/upper class and white has rebuilt their world - both with their own means and with governmental support. As I walk around New Orleans and the surrounding community I hear people talking about Katrina and everything that came with it time and time again. The scars this storm exposed cannot seem to heal.

The Lower Ninth

Relics of Katrina. The top number is the date, the bottom is the number of bodies found, the left is the National Guard troop, and the right is any extra information. Found on every house.
Flood Street. Irony or reality?
A letter from a NOPS student.
Stairs to an empty house.
All they have left.

Just because you recieved this diploma does NOT ensure you got a degree.

Katy ate a brat.

And she liked it.