It is December 14. This day used to be remembered as the day a man walked on the moon in 1972. Also on this day in 1911, Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole. Now, December 14th is known as the day of the most vicious and heinous crime in the…
Dear Dr. Ferebee, I write this not as a former employee, but as an educator who has been following you since you arrived in Indianapolis in 2013. I followed you because I saw a black man leading a major school district in the city that I grew up in and attended school. I grew up…
Indianapolis Superintendent Lewis Ferebee will be packing up and moving to Washington D.C. where he was just named the next leader of D.C. public schools last Monday by the mayor. Ferebee’s departure left a vacancy that the Indianapolis Public Schools commissioner board has decided to temporarily fill with Aleesia Johnson. Aleesia Johnson is infinitely qualified…
Stacy Matthews is a second-grade teacher. She has been teaching now for fifteen years. The day to day of being a teacher is something that is also part of her home life. She is a mother of three school-age children. She gets for school at least 20 minutes before her children wake up. She returns…
I was never really the super Greek type. You will rarely find me in pictures with Alpha Phi Alpha gear. You will rarely see me taking photographs throwing up the Alpha sign unless it is a group Greek picture, and usually, I am dragged into the picture. Alpha Phi Alpha for me has a deeper…
Title IX is a federal civil rights law designed to end discrimination and exclusion based on sex. The law is broad. It is most often referenced in sports but lately, the law has been under scrutiny because of its guidance around sexual harassment and assault. In 2010, the Obama administration issued further guidance explaining the…
I have always aspired to make my parents proud. I worked hard in school growing up. When I got older, I wanted to get a good job and take care of myself. I wanted to accomplish great things. I wanted to share my accomplishments with my parents so they would be proud of me. The…
Back in April, it was revealed that Dr. Lewis Ferebee, Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, was a finalist to lead the second largest school district in the United States in California. I remember reading comment after comment online about how Dr. Ferebee was running away. Other people suggested he damaged IPS and was leaving the…
This fall, I dropped my twins off at two separate colleges. Like most parents, I had a multitude of emotions. On the top of the list was, “Are they ready for college-level coursework?” I would soon find out. They both have gone through their share of adjustments to college life. Like most college freshman, they…
When I was a student, teachers told me I had to work hard to go to college in order to get a white-collar job. The rationale was that robots were going to take all the other jobs. At the time this sounded like science fiction. Mostly because I, being a middle schooler, immediately imagined humanoid…