Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
– Charles Dickens, born today in 1812
If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it’s pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting.
– Laura Ingalls Wilder, born today in 1867
I don’t believe in fear of divine vengeance, and I do believe in justice and equality.
– Sinclair Lewis, born today in 1885
From “New focus on DC public-charter collaboration” (02/02/2012) in the DC Schools Insider:
DCPS maintains a system of neighborhood schools with seats guaranteed to anyone within prescribed boundaries. The [Public Charter School Board] oversees schools open to all comers citywide. Decisions about openings, closings, program offerings and facilities have, more often than not, been made in isolation. Last week’s IFF report on school capacity is the latest sign that the silos are about to come down. [...]
Welcome to February, Greater Washington! Here are some great destinations for the weekend …
Arlingtonians Meeting Emergency Needs (N 16th Street and Sycamore Street off Roosevelt Street, Falls Church)
Join a 3-month training program to prepare for the Parkway Classic Ten Miler and 5K on April 22, 2012 — new and experienced runners are all welcome! This Saturday at 9:00 AM marks the first of the training runs. Learn more on the AMEN page.
L’Arche Greater Washington, DC (Call (202) 232-4539 for event location)
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So you’ve explored Catalogue’s online home (very glad that you found us!) and would like to see the 3D, paper version? We’ve made it simple to request a print catalogue.
Just head to the Request page and fill in your mailing information. Keep in mind that our new Catalogue comes out each November.
Or if you would rather print out your own Catalogue, either in full or part, you can download the PDF version right here. The file is on the big side, but downloads pretty quickly.
You also can download the “text only” version of the write-ups of this year’s Catalogue charities.
Why request a paper Catalogue? Along with great photos of our nonprofits and the enjoyment of browsing, a print Catalogue is easy to share and pass around the office, house, or block.
How Many Students Really Graduate From High School? (WAMU): “Now, for the first time, the federal government is requiring states to follow a standardized method. As a result, DC’s public school graduation rate could drop by about 20 percent under the new calculation, according to the office of the state superintendent [...] The new method, called the adjusted graduation cohort rate, requires states to follow every individual child from the ninth grade on until he or she walks across the stage to receive that diploma. It takes into account students who change schools and get held back.” A new State Longitudinal Education Database will track each DCPS student from kindergarten through 12th grade through a special identification number. Could a more accurate picture of graduation rates be a critical step towards improving them?
Last week, we linked to this Chronicle of Philanthropy piece, which reported that the nonprofit sector “added jobs at an average annual rate of more than 2 percent from 2000 to 2010, while for-profit jobs were cut by 0.6 percent each year on average.” Drawn from a study by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, these findings invite the question: if nonprofit organizations are indeed the third largest private employer in the country, should more job training programs prepare employees to work at them? More broadly, why do nature and arts and human services nonprofits not play a larger role in the national employment discussion?
In “Putting Americans to Work,” published on the Huffington Post yesterday, Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser tackles a similar topic:
But at a time when unemployment is the key political issue and when virtually everyone in politics is struggling to find ways to reduce the ranks of the unemployed, why doesn’t some smart politician realize that the arts are one way to help solve this problem?
Who better to train young people to think creatively, to exercise their own unique ways of thinking than we in the arts? The success of arts organizations and artists depends on the ability of people to be creative and make something new.
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From “Why Children’s Theater Matters” by Danielle Wood of Education.com:
Want to boost literacy? Teach your child to imagine the unimaginable? Cultivate curiosity? Get thee to the theater, and bring your kids.
The children’s theater movement is led by Europe, but the US is not far behind. And we’re not just talking about the bustling theater town of New York. The third largest children’s theater in the world is tucked away in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Other mid-sized cities from Dallas, to Tempe, to Nashville, are also cooking up kids? fare in full-time children venues. [...]
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Good morning! DC-area nonprofit events coming up …
The Snowy Day at Adventure Theatre (Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo)
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first American picture book to feature an African-American child as the main character. The simple tale of a boy waking up to discover that snow has fallen is brought to life in the magical world premiere. All performance are sold out … so Adventure has added more!
Nash Run Trash Cleanup at Anacostia Watershed Society (intersection of Anacostia Avenue NE and Douglas Street NE)
On Saturday from noon to 3:00 PM, take a stand against pollution that clogs our waterways, poisons our wildlife and distracts from the natural beauty of the Anacostia. More info right here. (The event at Bladensburg Waterfront Park is already full!)
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Maryland’s ‘achievement gap’ highlighted by new advocacy group (Washington Post): “Maryland has the second largest disparity in the country between low-income students and their wealthier classmates on the 8th grade math test the fourth largest socio-economic disparity in the country on the corresponding 8th grade English test,” MarylandCAN reports in their “State of Maryland Public Education.” Says MarylandCAN executive director Curtis Valentine, “We have a lot to be proud of in Maryland when it comes to educating our kids … but we struggle to serve all Maryland students.”
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State of the Union 2012 from President Barack Obama:
Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.
We can do this. I know we can, because we’ve done it before. At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home from combat, they built the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known. My grandfather, a veteran of Patton’s Army, got the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. My grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line, was part of a workforce that turned out the best products on Earth.
The two of them shared the optimism of a Nation that had triumphed over a depression and fascism. They understood they were part of something larger; that they were contributing to a story of success that every American had a chance to share — the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.